[lovemypentax]

Good morning, afternoon, or evening (depending on where you are in this great big world). I was wondering if anyone has any suggestions on the best settings to use for senior pictures. I am going to use two lens. 50mm 1.4 fixed wide angle and 24-135 2.8-4.5. Just would like to get anyone's thoughts on this.

[Gooshin]

whats your gig

are you shooting your kid in a poorly lit cafateria hall with shiny yellow floor

or are you doing individual student pictures as a contract?

[Eigengrau]

Hi there, welcome to the forums.

I would get a few shots with your 50 at a nice low aperture - 1.4 or 2.0. The focus can be difficult to pull off with such a narrow depth of field, but if you hit it right on you'll love your shots. You could probably do the whole shoot with this lens alone. Make sure you get some sharp ones - shoot a lot if you must.

Going wider, using your zoom at 24mm, for instance, will give you a more expanded look that eccentuates the background and your subject's features more - this can be good by really capturing the essence of a person, and it can be bad if you make a nose look huge or something. If it's done well, a wide-angle portrait like this can look really dramatic and hip - but like I said, it's possible to overdo the effect.

Long portraits can also be nice if you want to shoot a few at 135, which also lets your subject relax a bit and maybe forget you're there for a second.

Almost forgot - stay away from bright sun! Clouds and shade are your best friends. Keep your subject in solid, even shade and you'll thank yourself later. The best is if you can compose the shot so the background is dark as well - you don't want anything bright back there distracting the eye from your subject.

So, you've got several options - choosing between them is the hard part. Your fast 50 is going to be the ol' reliable of portrait photography, so I would encourage you to start there, but you can get some more unique perspectives by exploring the less conventional focal lengths, so don't be afraid to give that a shot.

[flyer]

50mm 1.4 fixed wide angle

What camera are you using? From your comment, we could be led to believe you are using a medium format camera. If you are using digital with an APS-C sensor, then this is a short telephoto lens. On a 35mm camera, it would be a normal lens, but on a medium format, it would be wide. To be fair, I have never seen a 50mm f:1.4 on a medium format, but it would be nice to know what you are using, just to avoid misleading you.