Big nose blues

[Mitchkitter]

So basically ive got the drebel, and my friend wants me to take some portrait shots of him.
Frankly, he has a big nose.
How do i angle his face / camera / lighting, to make it look smaller, or maybe draw attention to other parts of his face?

Thanks

[velvetjones]

Use a fish eye lens and focus on his nose as close as you can get...

Kidding....

I would use some sort of zoom 100mm or more. It will help condense his features somewhat. Also maybe just try shooting from an angle that doesn't make his nose stick out, such as straight on.

You could also try out different lighting options, but you may need some sort of studio lighting to fully take advatage of that, and I am not the one to try and explain that.

Hope that helps some......

[maderito]

To be more precise, the perceived size of a nose is inversely proportional to the focal length of the lens used. See this thread for an excellent solution to your problem: http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=35029 .

[robertwgross]

There's noses, and then there's noses.

Some noses are broad, side-to-side. If you shoot them straight on, they look broad, so if you shoot them more from the side, the broadness does not show so much.

Some noses have a "Roman arch" in the top. If you shoot them from the side, they look big and arched. If you shoot them more straight on, the arch doesn't show so much.

Decide which is the worse evil.

Then, as others have stated, get back a little farther and shoot with a longer lens (from whichever angle you decide). That tends to have a flattening effect.

Then there was the portrait photographer's line. His normal portait lens was a 70mm. When he shot an Asian portrait, he used a 60mm. His closest friend was Italian, and he had to get out his 150mm for him.

---Bob Gross---

[droosan]

Yep, a long lens. A lot of fashion/glamour photographers use up to 300mm lenses in order to make those button noses. You'll need a lot of room.

BTW, do you think his nose needs shrinking or does he? It it's him, try the longest lens you've got. If you have a 1.6x camera, a 100mm (a prime will give you more control of DoF) would be a good start. Try more if you've got it.