Can an 85 mm on portraits make larger women look even larger??

ROGERWILCO357 wrote in post #16476991
What is the nickname for the 85L i forget?

The keg
The light sucker
The black hole
The overrated

Im on the opposite side. Seems that every time we simply get to a solution like explaining that a longer fl lens will force them away from the subject and that will be one cure for the distortion we get several people acting as if they are handing out some secret, important info by telling us it's not the fl, but it's the distance.

WE KNOW THIS. WE already know that they can just stand further back and still use their wide angle and just crop in and that too will help with the distortion. We are simply giving them a direct path to ending the distortion by using a longer fl. You have to stand further back with a longer fl, uh, which means that IS A PROPER solution to the problem. It's simply a great answer as most people don't like to stand way back with a wide angle and take portraits with a huge amount of extra framing forcing them to crop way in later.

So just because we give them a direct solution of using a longer fl doesn't mean we are claiming that the actual problem is caused by fl, only that to change to a longer fl is one obvious answer that to most would take care of the problem instead of having to frame real loose with a wide angle and crop later.

I can see explaining the cause if someone makes a direct statement that fl is the actual cause, but the vast majority here know the real cause and we are trying to avoid needless explanations and just bypass that and get to an obvious solution that will handle the problem once and for all--use the classic portrait lengths, 85-135 and the problem will be dealt with without having to remember to stand way back with a wide angle and crop way in.

The reason a wider lens MIGHT make a heavy person seem slimmer is illustrated well in the above examples.... With the wider lenses the person's head can appear larger in relation to their body, if the head is slightly closer to the lens and camera or dependng upon where the head is in the image area. Two things that wide lenses do are the reason. One is perspecitve distortions. The other is the tendency for wide lenses to render some (sometimes a lot) anamorphic distortion nearer the edges of the image. You can see these happening in the 50mm, 35mm and especially the 24mm examples above.

A couple more examples....

This horse isn't slim, I can assure you... Yet using a shorter focal length up close, her head appears a lot larger than her body, making her appear quite slim....

I shot head shots with wider lenses (50mm on FF) quite often for this very reason.

amfoto1 wrote in post #16479158
The reason a wider lens MIGHT make a heavy person seem slimmer is illustrated well in the above examples.... With the wider lenses the person's head can appear larger in relation to their body, if the head is slightly closer to the lens and camera or dependng upon where the head is in the image area. Two things that wide lenses do are the reason. One is perspecitve distortions. The other is the tendency for wide lenses to render some (sometimes a lot) anamorphic distortion nearer the edges of the image. You can see these happening in the 50mm, 35mm and especially the 24mm examples above.

A couple more examples....

This horse isn't slim, I can assure you... Yet using a shorter focal length up close, her head appears a lot larger than her body, making her appear quite slim....

And my old cat - back when she was still quite chubby - shot with an ultrawide appears very slim, too...

Actually she was quite a couch-crushing, butterball...

Those are more extreme examples of what can happen - usually more subtly- with portraits of people too. Still, a short telephoto will generally be a better choice, will give the nicest rendering of the person.

It they are really concerned about their weight, maybe using a "slim" filter would help

Another example of this:

Very good examples from Billy and Alan.

Because the shorter focal lengths (those less than a format's normal focal length) let you get much closer to the subject before their head is too big for the frame, the ratio of the two distances - that between their head (close to camera) and their body (further from camera) - is exaggerated.

Clever technique.