Chapter 2. Our Lenses

Our Lenses

You know the old expression: Cameras don't take pictures; people do. Well, here's another one: Cameras don't take pictures; lenses do.

In this chapter, our friend David Sparer—Senior Manager/Technical Marketing, Professional Products Marketing Division, Canon USA—illustrates how using different lenses affects a portrait.

Above are a few of the photographs you'll see in this chapter. They show a bit of Photoshop retouching by David. Otherwise, the studio photographs in this chapter are straight out-of-the-camera shots and were taken in the photo studio at Canon USA's headquarters in Lake Success, New York.

David used a Canon EOS 5D Mark II. All the Canon lenses used for the photographs in this chapter were set at f/13. The ISO was set at 100.

This chapter also includes a few behind-the-scenes shots, so enjoy!

Our Lenses

Love Those Longer Lenses

One of the pictures on this page looks awful; the model's features are all distorted. Some look okay, and some are outstanding. Basically, it all comes down to the lens that was used. The lighting and model remained the same; only the lens and the camera-to-subject distance changed.

Top row lenses (left to right): 24mm f/1.4 L II, 50mm f/1.2 Land, 85mm f/1.2 L II.

Bottom row lenses (left image): 135mm f/2.0 L. Middle and right images: 200mm ...

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