Studio Style Portraits - Crop or FF?

I assume this is a fairly simple thing to answer but only one way to confirm and that is to ask! When shooting portraiture with studio lighting does it really matter if you use a crop camera or FF? Do you gain any specific benefits from one versus the other? My assumption is that since the lighting is controlled, the ISO is generally set low, and the aperture is usually stopped down in order to get everything sharply in focus... that the only thing separating using one over the other would be preference or equivalent glass?

I have yet to step into that world but was curious as to what the general consensus is, what am I missing from this picture so to speak?

The differentiator between APS-C and FF for portraiture is the DOF, which is a deeper zone in focus for a smaller format when using the appropriate FL to the format size and the same aperture.

With medium format, one might shoot at f/8 to capture a 2' x 3' FOV with about 8" DOF zone
whereas in 135 FF one might shoot at f/4 to capture a 2' x 3' FOV with about 8" DOF zone
whereas in APS-C one might shoot at f/2.4 to capture a 2' x 3' FOV with about 8" DOF zone

Another differentiator, which applies for film portraiture, is that the larger format allows the oppotunity to do direct retouching of negatives. But as that was done more often with medium format but very seldom attempted with 135, it would virtually never be attempted for APS-C.

If you are shooting in a studio with a suitable background, such as say a paper roll, that negates the need to use very narrow DoF to blur the background then really there is very little to differentiate the size of the digital sensor used. I would expect that most good photographers would not be able to tell you what format was used when looking at a print up to about 20"×16" in size. It's really only if you are going to be making huge enlargements that you might notice. One thing I can tell you is that you could hand most folks a 60"×40" studio shot portrait of themselves, or a member of their family shot using a 300D and the original EF-s 18-55 with controlled lighting, and they would think it had been shot on the latest all singing all dancing super camera. But then these are the sort of people who think that a mobile phone makes a great camera choice for all occasions.

Alan

werds wrote in post #18000725
I assume this is a fairly simple thing to answer but only one way to confirm and that is to ask! When shooting portraiture with studio lighting does it really matter if you use a crop camera or FF? Do you gain any specific benefits from one versus the other? My assumption is that since the lighting is controlled, the ISO is generally set low, and the aperture is usually stopped down in order to get everything sharply in focus... that the only thing separating using one over the other would be preference or equivalent glass?

I have yet to step into that world but was curious as to what the general consensus is, what am I missing from this picture so to speak?

Heya,

I shoot both FF & APS-C, and do lots of portraiture, both outdoor and indoor. Honestly, shooting at F8 with lighting and in a controlled indoor environment, there's not enough difference between the sensor sizes. Even at higher ISO (to have fast recycle time on your strobes/flashes), you won't see a difference with controlled lighting really. You also won't see a massive difference between most glass either when stopped down for this purpose. You'll see some micro-contrast difference, maybe some very minor sharpness difference, but nothing mind-blowing, when shooting relatively average glass all the way to incredible glass, at F8 and F11, for studio portrait.

Instead, you choose focal length based on a few things, but mainly, working distance, and that working distance influences subject distortion, so you will work through that basically to figure what focal length to use for your intended composition, relative to the working space distances you have as limitations.

The sensor size can change that angle of view with a particular lens enough that you don't want to use it for the composition based on your distance. So this is where having a large sensor can be very useful with longer glass, if you want to minimize distortion by having more distance between you and the subject, while composing freely with more telephoto focal lengths. This is the only point in which I would conceded that in a controlled environment, it would be more prudent to use a full frame sensor if an option. But if you have a very good array of focal lengths for APS-C already, this becomes more of a moot point.

+++++++++++++++

Nothing ground breaking or fancy, but just to give you an example of a really bad old APS-C sensor (13 year old Canon 10D, a $40 camera these days, 6.3MP), with very entry level glass (a 40mm pancake), used with studio lighting. Resolves plenty enough detail for a large print. I could have done this with a full frame and much better glass, and basically had the same portrait. This was a demo to show how lighting is far more critical than the sensor and the glass being used really, for studio portrait. And how it can be done for dirt cheap ($50 strobe, $40 camera, $100 lens, $20 brolly box).

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/Defr​14

werds wrote in post #18000725
When shooting portraiture with studio lighting does it really matter if you use a crop camera or FF? Do you gain any specific benefits from one versus the other?

In a studio you do (or should) have control over:

what the background is,

the camera-to-subject distance,

the camera-to-background distance,

and the subject-to-background distance.

When you are in total control over all of these variables, it really doesn't matter what sensor size you are using, or even what focal length you are using, because you can adjust these factors to best suit the gear.

Good photography is really all about perspective control, and control over the various elements in the frame with respect to their spatial relationships to one another and to the camera. A thorough understanding of precisely how to manipulate these factors will produce far better results than only knowing what gear and settings to use.

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