Re: [Leica] "Wide" Portraits

["Roy Zartarian" <royzart@connix.com>]

While I doubt that history will judge me one of the greats, I too am 
finding that some of the casual horizontal (or wide or landscape) 
portraits I've taken are among my favorite images.  The orientation 
lends itself - to my eye - to using the background more, either by 
placing the subject in the environment or by opening the lens to its 
maximum aperture and having the subject clearly and cleanly 
delineated against the out-of-focus area. 

As for focal lengths for the personal efforts, I've gone as wide as  
the 19/2.8 (my hair person in her salon right after I got the lens and 
was trying it out) and as long as the 90/2.8.  Most often, though, 
the 50 Summicron/M body combination is in hand.

Now when money and the traditional head shot is involved, I do 
stick with the longer lenses (90 or 100 with an R body, 150 with 
medium format) and the portrait orientation.

Roy

On 21 Nov 99, at 16:10, Thomas J. Donovan wrote:

> 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. 
> 
> 
> 
>  
>