A close portrait with a 50mm lens can be interesting… 50mm is typically not a recommended focal length for a close up portrait, but why? It all has to do with perspective.
Perspective can best be imagined by thinking about the angle light has to travel from your subject to the front of the camera lens. I made the drawing below to help. The top shows a big angle when you are close and the bottom shows less of an angle when you are far away. A camera lens will bend the light so that things get distorted as you move away from the center.
So what you say? Well, this means that faces will look better if you stand farther away and use a higher focal length lens. So a 50mm lens too close to a face will give some distortion.
The picture above shows some of that distortion – especially her hand. So if I was going for a beautiful portrait I would not use a 50mm lens close. However, in this case I like the “fun” aspect of the photo so it is OK!
Photography has rules but a good photographer breaks them!
