Why Your Distance from Your Model Makes or Breaks Your Portrait
Saturday 20 September 2025, 17:17 by Elja Trum | 3,279 views | 2 commentsThis article was translated from Dutch with the help of AI. Read the original.
When taking a portrait photo, you often think about aperture and focal length. You may forget the third variable that can make a big difference: the distance between the camera and the subject. In the video below, fashion and beauty photographer Lindsay Adler shows how much influence the distance from your subject has.
If you stand closer to your model, your depth of field becomes smaller. Even at the same aperture. If you take a few steps back, the depth of field increases. This prevents, for example, the eyes from being sharp while the tip of the nose is not when using a small aperture number, or wide aperture, such as f/2.8.
Would you like the background in your portrait to appear more blurred so it attracts less attention? Move your subject further away from the background and/or move a little closer yourself. The background will become more blurred, directing more attention to your model.
In the video, Lindsay explains even more useful insights that make it clear how much distance affects the final result of your portrait photo.
About the author
Elja Trum is the founder of Photofacts and online photography course website Photofacts Academy. He has been writing about photography since 2006. Elja is also the author of (Dutch) books on composition, black-and-white photography, flash photography and portrait photography.
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2 comments
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André Kremer wrote on Tuesday 23 September 2025 at 14:35 | replyWhat does come across in the video, but not in your comment, is the "distortion" of the face when you are close to your subject. What I notice, now that taking photos with mobile phones is getting more attention and becoming more and more accepted, is that some people increasingly see the "distorted" selfie as the normal portrait version, whereas I prefer to use around 90-115 mm for a portrait. But I notice that some models (not the professionals) do not experience that as their "normal" face. Do other photographers recognize this?
Translated from Dutch. -
Vercauteren Freddy wrote on Wednesday 24 September 2025 at 19:19 | replyFully agree with the previous person who responded. “Portrait” shots are taken with the standard lens of the phone and that is usually converted to a 28 mm. Unfortunately, most people who take photos with a phone haven’t got the faintest idea about focal lengths.
Translated from Dutch.
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Elja Trum
Photofacts; everything to do with photography!
Would you like to take better photos and keep up with what is happening in photography? Photofacts publishes articles that teach you something about photography — from a product announcement to a practical shooting tip or a look at a website. Photofacts covers photography every day and is a hobby project of Elja Trum's that got out of hand. The articles are written by a team of volunteer authors. If you would enjoy writing one or more articles for Photofacts, do get in touch.More about PhotofactsPhotofacts is made possible in part by
