From the course: Learning Headshot Photography

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Flattering lenses: Kit, 85mm f/1.8, and distance from subject

Flattering lenses: Kit, 85mm f/1.8, and distance from subject

From the course: Learning Headshot Photography

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Flattering lenses: Kit, 85mm f/1.8, and distance from subject

- The lens you use to make headshots is really important, but you don't have to spend a lot of money to get a good one. There's a couple of things you pay for, when you buy a lens. One of the major things you pay for when you buy a more expensive lens is the aperture. How big and bright is that lens? Like this one here is a 42.5 millimeter lens and it's much bigger and heavier than this 60 millimeter lens that I also love to use for headshots. Both of these are long enough to do a good job, this one just has a very wide aperture of f/1.2. And you can see all this glass in the front, and that's what makes it expensive. You don't necessarily have to get that, because we're shooting under controlled circumstances, you can use inexpensive lenses that came included with your camera body. An f/4 lens, an f/5.6 lens, like a 55 to 200 millimeter lens, is a common lens that comes in a kit for a DSLR, and that's a terrific lens to use, even though it's a very small aperture of f/5.6, we can…

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