Portrait photography with a macro lens

[Trixter]

This isn't trolling, but just the unfortunate result of what happens when you've got 10 seconds to take some shots with whatever you can grab that is closest to you. One of my cats (yes, sorry, cats here) had a very rare introspective moment and just suddenly stopped moving for a bit, and I thought I should try to take advantage of it. As I grabbed my GX85 I noticed it still had the Olympus 60mm macro lens attached, but decided to give it a try anyway. The results were surprising to me:

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For a total time of 20 seconds to grab - turn on - set to P mode - quickly flick the macro switch to 0.4m_to_infinity - start shooting, I was extremely surprised how well these turned out, especially since they were handheld and there was only indoor lighting.

Commentary welcome, as I still consider myself a novice. Is this a technique with a name, or was I just lucky + stupid?

 

[JensM]

Congrats, you have just experienced that the 60mm macro is a rather potent portraiture lens!

I have a tendency to recommend it on that fact alone, as I seem to be using it more for that than macro. Not that either genre is somewhat I do much.

If anything to recommend, depending on how the camera was set-up there and then, set the focus-point where it needs to be, in this case the eyes, as the DOF on the lens is rather thin wide open. I tend to not doing it myself and habitually ends up with some, potentially good shots, lost due to that. (Nose focus on the last picture shown).

 

[Harvey Melvin Richards]

I used my 60 mm as a portrait lens before I had any other primes (except for the 7.5 mm). Yesterday I also took a quick glamour shot of one of my cats (2 total) with the Oly 60 mm.

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M1025330-1 by Harvey Richards, on Flickr

 

[JensM]

Dang, that head flower pot should get a proper portraiture series by its own...

 

[archaeopteryx]

Is this a technique with a name, or was I just lucky + stupid?

I think it's just using a lens to take pictures? The main differences I know between macros and the short(-ish) telephotos commonly discussed for portraits are

• Usually being f/2.8, macros have 1-2 stop slower maximum apertures and correspondingly greater depth of field. Some folks feel strongly about shallow DoF, both in that it's a must have and that f/2.8 or slower is preferable to get more in focus. We have a whole thread devoted to subjective preferences in bokeh, the main point being preferences of photographers and non-photographers tend to differ.
• Being optimized for higher magnifications, macros not uncommonly are somewhat less sharp at longer focus distances than portrait lenses. Some photographers really value super sharp, others find showing every wrinkle and blemish in someone's face in great detail to be undesirable. In general, it probably doesn't matter a whole lot unless one's pixel peeping or making close inspection of a large print.
• Macros have slower autofocus than most portrait lenses. Some photographers find this really important, others really like using manual focus. There seems more of a demand for fast AF among photographers with commercial portrait workflows and street photographers, though it comes up often with active pets and small children as well.

Personally, I do a lot of macro and little portraiture. So it's not worth having a dedicated portrait lens and I just use the Panasonic-Lecia 45mm f/2.8 macro in the rare portrait cases when I want an aperture faster than that of the Panasonic 12-60 f/3.5-5.6.

 

[Trixter]

Thanks so much for the responses; I appreciate all the explanations and advice.

One of the reasons I posted this is because my interest in M43 is primarily for video, where my scope is more limited/defined (always wide open, always too much light, always go for less contrast to have more options in post, etc). So, from that same session, we got this:

 

[ex machina]

Thanks so much for the responses; I appreciate all the explanations and advice.

One of the reasons I posted this is because my interest in M43 is primarily for video, where my scope is more limited/defined (always wide open, always too much light, always go for less contrast to have more options in post, etc). So, from that same session, we got this:

Purty kitteh, great video vignette.