[Leica] "Wide" Portraits

["Thomas J. Donovan" <75674.3465@compuserve.com>]

Folks,

Would some of you ( & there are many great photographers
on board ) be willing to share your thoughts on the following
puzzle ( for me ) .

I've been reading John Loengard's "Pictures Under Discuss-
ion" & on page 86, I quote; "It is natural to turn the camera
to the vertical when taking pictures of people, but I rarely do
it.......I decided to make my portraits wide instead of high".

I'm having a tough time visualizing which focal length to use;
& I don't want to "burn" a lot of film to find out  Now, maybe
that's the only answer; find out the hard way. However ;-)!

Have any of you taken great portraits wide; & if so, what focal
lengths have you used? Any extra details, surrounding a great
"wide" portrait would also be appreciated.

As an aside, it seems like HCB did a fair amount of portrait 
work. Were those all taken with that *legendary* 50 mm
lens? It's hard to believe, on some of the HCB photos, that
they were taken with a 50mm lens ;-)! 

Thanks,
Tom D.