Nearest The Lens An Lose: However, although a long focal length lens is mandatory, it need not be expensive. The utmost of critical sharpness in a portrait lens is not necessary, or even desired, since considerable diffusion can be tolerated in portrait negatives. Your lens needn't be in a shutter for strictly studio portraits, either. A lens in barrel is perfectly satisfactory, since you can provide yourself with a simple Packard shutter to use behind the lens. Many portrait men actually prefer the Packard to the more costly between-the-lens shutters.
The first lens designed specifically for photographic purposes was Petzval's 1840 portrait lens. The images formed by this lens showed great loss of definition at the corners of the plate-a fault more theoretical than practical in portraiture, where edges mattered little. For outside work, however, particularly in photographing architecture, a lens with a flat field was desirable; and one free of spherical aberration, which caused straight lines to be imaged as slightly curved, was essential.
A too-close viewpoint gives the features nearest the lens an lose the lens an appearance of unbecoming grossness. In a picture with the subject facing the camera, for instance, the nose and chin are made to look larger than they really are, the eyes smaller than normal, and the ears unnaturally far away from the front of the face. Nothing could be more unflattering than such a caricature which retains the resemblance but destroys the symmetry of the features.
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Photography
