Here’s what it looks like to shoot portraits with a 500mm f/4 lens
Jun 13, 2018
Dunja Đuđić
Dunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, concerts, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.
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When you think of a 500mm lens, shooting portraits probably isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. Still, Keydrin Franklin used it for this unordinary purpose. He tested out how Sigma 500mm f/4 performs in portrait photography, and in this video, you can see some examples and hear his impressions.
Keydrin shot with a Sony A9 and a Sigma 500mm f/4 DG OS HSM for Nikon. He used a Sigma MC-11 lens adapter so he can attach the lens to his Sony camera. When it comes to lighting, he used a Godox AD600Pro and a Flashpoint eVOLV 200 with softboxes. Here are a couple of shots:
This lens is generally used for sports and wildlife photography. But as you can see, it does a great job for portraits as well. The level of background separation is unreal and the subject really pops in the images.
On the minus side, with a lens like this, you need to stand pretty far away from the subject. This can be impractical for portraits because it can be difficult to direct the model when you’re far away. Manny Ortiz often mentions this problem, even though the portraits can really look good when taken with telephoto lenses.
Keep in mind that Sigma 500mm f/4 is kinda heavy and it’s expensive, so there’s probably no point in buying it if you’re not shooting wildlife or sports. But if you own it or want to rent it for some wildlife or sports photography, I suggest you also try shooting portraits with it.
[OMG… HE USED A SIGMA 500MM F/4 FOR PORTRAITS WITH THE SONY A9 |Keydrin Franklin]
Dunja Đuđić
Dunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, concerts, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.
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15 responses to “Here’s what it looks like to shoot portraits with a 500mm f/4 lens”
Manny Ortiz got a shout out!
I would shoot that
I don’t like them. There is a limit to background blur and compression before it stops looking good.
OMG,.. it has OMG… in the title so must be amazing. Not really
used a 400mm once to get a portrait. Only way he would act naturally was when he did not know I got his picture. My brother in law: https://www.flickr.com/photos/yannz/2520259619/
I use 400 all the time
Feel better now?
:-) grill time!
LOL. I bet he couldn’t wait to just rub up on her. Damn gwc
Nothing special here. Just another GWC from the Craig Lamere club
He´d do better with a 200 2.0 – makes the contact to the model much easier and the blured background is the same.
Saw it on petapixel over 10k in lens and camera, one question , why?
I heard of photographers using 500mm maybe 1000mm to get good shots – and they get arrested eventually once they connected them with all the missing people and dead bodies
so much butt hurt on here. chill and enjoy his artistic expression. everyone sees through different eyes. what’s good to me, him, her them may be crap to you.
I feel the last photo of the young woman on the tracks is the best out of the batch. Seeing the ground in the shot gives the perspective of the gradual blur into the background, I like this because with such a dramatic blur the ground gives you a perspective point for the subject.