Tip of the week: Telephoto lenses can be extremely helpful to create wonderful portraits. When thinking of uses for a telephoto lens, many people think of sports or wildlife photography. Telephoto lenses are also commonly used for portraiture; the narrow angle of view provided by telephotos can help isolate the subject against a small part of the background scene

These photos were taken during a senior session in 2011. I like to use my 70-200 almost exclusively when taking photos of an individual. This focal range allows me the opportunity to work at a comfortable distance from the subject while allowing full body and head/shoulders photos with a twist of the zoom ring. The narrow angle of view provided by the telephoto allows me the opportunity to be more selective with my background by moving the location of the camera. Telephoto lenses also do a great job with subject isolation due to the narrow depth of field. With the telephoto, I can select a small part of the scene to serve as my background and then I can use the narrow DOF to give a painterly feel to the image.

150mm              f/4.5          1/200sec        ISO 50

125mm             f/5.6           1/200sec          ISO 100

195mm           f/3.2           1/160sec       ISO 320

155mm          f/3.5         1/200sec       ISO 50