School Photos / portraits

[kojow]

Greetings, what kind of lenses do you suggest for taking school pictures. I.e. Waist to head shots of individual students, plus group shots of the whole class. I would also like one that will give good results when printed to a photo printer like the Kodak 8500 or Epson 2200. I asked at another message board and was recommended the following:

Tamron 28-300XR
or
Nikkor 24-85G

Will one of these lenses be sharper than the other for the above mentioned pictures. Will one work better than the other. Do you recommend one that is not included here?

Thanks for your help,

Kojow

[amazingthailand]

Hi,

The 'normal' lens to use for portrait photos is a small telephoto. With 35mm cameras, that translated into a focal length of 105mm or 135mm.

So now you know. Don't forget to take into account the 1.5 multiplier required with the S2. (85mm == ~127mm)

Declan

[Tom V]

Shooting groups of people can require some wide angle lenses, or backing up. The farther you back up, the more flash you need. In today's overcrowed schools, they may set you up in a closet to take pictures, so consider the space you will be in. If you are in a gymnasium, you could get by with even a 200mm, but you will go hoarse yelling comments like: smile! zip your fly! hands behind your backs! you over there, turn the other way! take your hat off! shut up and pay attention! etc.

With a film camera I would make sure I had a 24mm. (or wider)

With a digital camera I would make sure I had a 18mm. (or wider)

Use a lens wider than necessary and you will get fat heads on the outside edges of your shot.

You don't need anything longer than 100mm, cause you can always get closer.

The Tamron lens you mention (28-300) would probably be the least sharp lens you could buy. That said, it still may be sharp enough, depending on the final size of the prints you will be making. That lens sounds like a do-it-all lens - it has almost a 11x zoom ratio! Surely, an engineer had to comprimise something in its design. If you ever plan to make larger prints, or finer photos, I would go for shorter faster zooms, or a bag full of prime lenses (non-zoom).