Most photographers use lenses in the 50mm to 105mm focal range to take portraits of people, and while these kinds of lenses can produce excellent images, there is a lot to be said for long lenses. Long telephotos have several advantages for outdoor portraiture: (1) Backgrounds are completely out of focus and undefined (unless the subject - background distance is very close) and this directs all of our attention to the subject, (2) the shooting position is farther from the person, thus he or she isn’t so uncomfortable with a camera in their face, (3) it’s easier to capture natural expressions, and (4) distracting elements in the environment can be eliminated by framing the subject with a tight composition. I photographed this long-necked woman from Burma using a 100-400mm Canon zoom set to 400mm. My settings were 1/320, f/5.6, 500 ISO and I hand held the camera.
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