Absolutely great topic, this is something we all struggle with from time to time. Thank you so much for your insight.

Never seen this covered like this. Great info to know. Thanks!

Thank you for your tip and insight into full frame.

Imperial and Metric! You are a nice exception. Thank you for including conversions!

Thank you SO much this clear my mind🙏💗

Very helpful testing for me. Thank you!

You ended the video with exactly what I was going to comment. I actually turn my living room into a studio when I have sessions scheduled and my go to lens is my 24-70 while always working to keep it closer to the 70mm. From the back drop I have around 12ft to work with and it ends up being just the right amount of room for the style I like to shoot.

Thanks bud this helps me out a lot!

This was vary helpful thanks

Great video John! My wife tells me I have a tendency to overestimate the length of things, so turns out my living room studio is far smaller than I originally thought 🤣🤣

so sorry I didn't know you in April because I would have come to your Denver workshop - hope you'll come back. Or Minneapolis works too. :-)

Thanks for sharing this expert knot. What’s the brand of camera stand you’re using?

I can get way with 4x4 meters but I need to embrace the limitations. Full body only at 35mm-40mm with my back against the wall not ideal ... but is the space I have so no point in complaining. Biggest problem is to keep the kicker at the right angle. As the space is really small I painted it medium grey to reduce reflections the walls before were kind of sand color and I got a weird color cast. Ceiling height makes me crazy too. My ceilings are 2.5m and tall models its always hard to get the light right. Deep octas no way lol. But man thx for this amazing piece of content. No one ever bother to cover the small things that really makes difference.

Thank you!!! This video is so useful. I tested this out as I watched this video. I also tried using a 70mm full fame lens on an APS-C camera at I was able to get a 6' 2" subject fully in frame at about 20 feet. Does this seem correct? It's the equivalent of 105mm yet the distance was only marginally more than your 85mm lens.

Thank you so much!!!

your videos are useful. thank you

My small home studio is my living room. I can have up to a 3m wide backdrop leaning against the wall (or the white wall itself, which is left empty for that reason), but the actual "corridor" of shooting between furniture is just 2,10m, so pretty narrow. Room is only 4m deep, so if i have to leave 1m or so from the background, only 3m are left for the model and me, and the space between us. So for a full figure i usually lean them against the wall or pretty darn close, and use inverse square law to have a big light at a far distance so i don't have harsh shadow on the wall; my only luck is the ceiling being 3,2m, so i can have stoobes up high and out of the way, and shadows will be pushed lower. I can manage a full figure that way with a 70mm. Having 50 and 135 fixed focals with wide aperture, in the studio at f8/f11 i'm using a 24-105 in the range from 65 to 85/90 which mange to get me from full figure to the headshot, depending on zoom level and the kind of desired set.

Thanks!

But good tips! I’m just shooting headshots at the moment, but good to know the distance I need for full body portraits in future

I have a 3.3m wide x 5.6m long x 3m height space, is that enough for a full body shot? Awesome video by the way, thank you for the information you are giving us!!

I guess, ideally, 6x10 metres would be nice. And 4m high, at least. I like getting on a ladder, shooting down with big scrims. Looks like I need to move :-) Renting any large space for the day can be cheap where I am (if found), especially when using long lenses, where the backdrop doesn't need to be as big and complicated (otherwise I use a projector against a white wall). I usually ask the client if they can think of somewhere, with the upside being that they feel a bit more comfortable/in control if they already know the location, or had a part in finding it. Cheers and good luck, John!

Did you do another video with the sitting pics in comparison?

Are the 20' mentioned at the end wall to wall? or is it the distance you need to have between camera and model? Great video as always!

Not shooting with the canon 35mm lens inside?

For a 135mm and 200mm, you need a 1/4 mile (0.4 km) and 1/2 mile (0.8 km) respectively. lol

In what situations would you use a 50 mm? Landscape, outdoor family? I’m just curious. Another photographer that I follow, Nicole Carson Bonilla, uses the 50 m for her 3/4 body shots.

If you did boudoir or full body photography in niche or restrictive environments would the 50 be suitable or would you still think 85 would be best?

When shooting family portraits of 6 people against a 9 ft backdrop, is best to shoot low or eye level. I’m having a hard time keeping full bodies in the frame without having to crop the sides much.

Would be nice to see the sitting portraits . You showed allways the standing portraits

What is your ceiling height? Just curious because I'm in a studio now with just over 12ft celling height. But I am moving to a place with 10 ft. Is that enough?

Thanks, great video. Did you use the wrong images in the second scenario? He was standing again instead of sitting.

This is why I can only do headshots (maybe 3/4) in my living room

what's ypur fav lens for full body shots? 85?

Ooops looks like your sitting portrait section is still showing the stills from the standing portraits

Yes. The picture of the sitting pose of the model are not present in the video

Very helpful video though would have been good to see the sitting down images.

I can’t find you in IG

I wish I could open the window in my front room/home studio! 😅 14x12 🙈 There’s no room for wasting inches… 😂

Wait, what happened to the sitting shots? You showed the same shots both times 🫤

John, you showed the same comparison shots for standing and seated...still, the video was informative.

Nice video, but you used the same images for the standing and sitting examples..

and don't forget to call your Mom!

You failed to place the sitting portraits ahah but the info is there anyway

My home studio is so small I use a 35mm LOL

Did I just see both standing up images twice, instead of the sit down ones the second time? blink blink.

With a 9mm lens you only need a closet. 🤣

Thanks!