Exploring Photography: Finding the Perfect Portrait Lens

Learn how your lens choice and different shooting techniques can improve the quality of your portraits. Plus, get a review of popular prime and zoom lenses.

Introduction

• Welcome

1. A Primer on Lens Focal Length

• Wide, normal, and telephoto focal lengths
• How sensor size affects focal length
• Focal length, distortion, and compression

2. Using Different Focal Lengths

• Using a wide-angle lens
• Shooting with a normal focal length
• Working with a telephoto lens

3. Changing Your Camera Angle

• Introducing camera angle
• Capturing a full-length portrait with a wide-angle lens
• Creating good portraits with a normal-focal-length lens
• Getting the up-close headshot with a telephoto lens

4. Introducing Depth of Field

• What is depth of field (DOF), and why does it matter?
• The four factors that influence DOF

5. The Importance of Depth of Field

• Shallow Depth of Field in Low Light
• Depth of Field: F-Stop and Aperture Settings
• Depth of Field: Camera Angle and Focal Length
• Depth of Field: Distance from Subject
• Shallow Depth of Field: Remove Distractions
• Shallow Depth of Field: Open Shade

6. Finding the Right Lens

• Lens basics
• What's better: Prime or zoom?
• Great lenses at affordable rates
• What's your favorite lens?

7. Review and Assignments

• Reviewing focal length and camera angle
• Reviewing DOF

Conclusion

• Finding the perfect fit
• Next steps