Portrait Photography : upgrading my camera body ?

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azer54548

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Hello, I have a Nikon D3200 and a AF-S Nikkor 50mm 1,8G and I do portrait photography and nude photography, mostly of my wife (we do for our pleasure, keeping the nude photography for ourselves and sharing some portrait photography we thinks are good enough for our social media).
We are pretty happy with the photo quality, however I understood that technology evolved significantly since the D3200 release and was wondering if upgrading the body would be useful for photo quality in portrait and nude. One thing we found kinda annoying about the D3200 is that we like to see the pictures in live view so that we have a grasp of what the exact photo taken will look like however we loose the stability and due to low ISO the focus become blurry because it cannot be stabilized by the pressure of the eyes area on the body of the camera. That's mostly what we are concerned about.
Would there be any reasonable (I mean legitimate) upgrade for our type of photography as well as our concerns on the live view ?
Thanks for your help !
T.
 
Good Morning T,

Firstly I'd suggest increasing the ISO, a sharp slightly noisy shot is better than an OOF one, you don't mention what lens you are using but a F1.2 / F1,4 - 35mm / 50mm or 100mm lens would be good for portrait / nude, would give decent bokeh and throw any cluttered BG OOF.

Re the Live View, why not just take the shot and show your wife the result, then you can tweak the pose as required, my overall suggestion would be to upgrade the lens more than the camera.

Another option would be to have the camera on a tripod and attach a screen running live view off the camera, a well known internet site should do these,

Have a look at the portrait section of my website to see what I mean
 
chrism8 said:
Good Morning T,

Firstly I'd suggest increasing the ISO, a sharp slightly noisy shot is better than an OOF one, you don't mention what lens you are using but a F1.2 / F1,4 - 35mm / 50mm or 100mm lens would be good for portrait / nude, would give decent bokeh and throw any cluttered BG OOF.

Re the Live View, why not just take the shot and show your wife the result, then you can tweak the pose as required, my overall suggestion would be to upgrade the lens more than the camera.

Another option would be to have the camera on a tripod and attach a screen running live view off the camera, a well known internet site should do these,

Have a look at the portrait section of my website to see what I mean
Click to expand...
I mentionned in the beggining my lens is a Nikon AF S 50mm 1.8G. Yes I thought about the screen, but we are not always in indoor situation (for the portrait of course hahah).
 
I came to say that any camera is capable of taking a decent portrait, but having read your specific issues, there’s definitely room for newer technology to improve your experience.

The latest mirrorless cameras are:
A better for live view*
B better at eye focus

* I see why you want it, but as a lifelong portrait photographer, I almost never use live view.

So the 2 questions would be:
What’s your budget
Are you stuck to Nikon, or happy to change brands.

And the other thing I’d add is that the biggest improvement you can make to portrait work is generally lighting.
Keeping what you’ve got and spending £500 on lighting will be a significantly greater improvement than a new £2000 camera.
 
Last edited:
Phil V said:
I came to say that any camera is capable of taking a decent portrait, but having read your specific issues, there’s definitely room for newer technology to improve your experience.

The latest mirrorless cameras are:
A better for live view*
B better at eye focus

* I see why you want it, but as a lifelong portrait photographer, I almost never use live view.

So the 2 questions would be:
What’s your budget
Are you stuck to Nikon, or happy to change brands.

And the other thing I’d add is that the biggest improvement you can make to portrait work is generally lighting.
Keeping what you’ve got and spending £500 on lighting will be a significantly greater improvement than a new £2000 camera.
Click to expand...
That's interesting, well I guess lighnting would be the best to improve as sometimes we can have some critial light situation where an adujstable flash or light would help
 
@Phil V is the voice of reason as ever :)

As a Pro Nikon user for 25 years I'd also point out the D3200 is FAR better than my first 2 Pro spec cameras were, so that in itself isn't a big problem

50mm is not the most flattering for portraits, even on a 'crop' sensor, so maybe something a little longer would help like an 85mm

Glass is always more important than the camera though, so given my experience of several DX models and the best glass there was, the jump to FX was eye-opening, but the jump to Mirrorless was mind-blowing!

The Z system (I currently have two Z6ii) is not only better in pretty much every way, but the Z glass too is way better than any DX/FX lenses I've previously owned; so if you have the cash spare that'd be my suggestion to jump to a Z model and with the Z35 f1.8 and Z85 f1.8 you could be set for life

If £3,000+ isn't available, then I'd still suggest a lens change as previously mentioned, but learning & investing in lighting too is a must for portraits, even outdoor ones; and Phil's £500 suggestion will easily get you more than you need. I still use up to 3 flashes and remote trigger I bought for under £200, though I already had a couple of light stands and modifiers
 
Phil V said:
And the other thing I’d add is that the biggest improvement you can make to portrait work is generally lighting.
Keeping what you’ve got and spending £500 on lighting will be a significantly greater improvement than a new £2000 camera.
Click to expand...

This every time.

Get yourself a couple of strobes and modifiers.

You won't believe the difference in the resulting quality of image.

I've shot with 2 200 w/s strobes with a variety of cameras and, as long as the exposure is correct, I can't tell between micro 4/3, crop sensor and full frame on my portraits.
 
chrism8 said:
Good Morning T,

Firstly I'd suggest increasing the ISO, a sharp slightly noisy shot is better than an OOF one, you don't mention what lens you are using but a F1.2 / F1,4 - 35mm / 50mm or 100mm lens would be good for portrait / nude, would give decent bokeh and throw any cluttered BG OOF.

Re the Live View, why not just take the shot and show your wife the result, then you can tweak the pose as required, my overall suggestion would be to upgrade the lens more than the camera.

Another option would be to have the camera on a tripod and attach a screen running live view off the camera, a well known internet site should do these,

Have a look at the portrait section of my website to see what I mean
Click to expand...
Not sure whether it's possible to tether from a D3200. it is quite a basic camera but still quite an advance on Pro spec cameras of older generations. A full-length mirror behind the photographer might help with the posing during shooting.

A D3200 with a 50/1.8 is not a bad start, but as others have said a longer telephoto and maybe larger aperture is the way to go, with a good lighting set up as suggested by Phil. There has been no such thing as a bad camera for a long time now, so the D3200 is the last thing to replace; as people migrate from F to Z in the Nikon system you should find used telephotos for a fraction of the price they were 3-4 years ago.
 
Thanks all of you for your answers ! Well buying a new body like a Z6 II and a lens seems a little out of my budget now, especially since I'm still at the beggining of the photography learning scale if I may say in a humble way. Therefore, I guess it's better for me to create a more advanced experienced of portrait photography with the body I have with some additional light and maybe the 85mm lens 1.8.
For the lens it would be the Nikkor 85mm 1.8 which is at a reasonable price, I could sell my 50mm even at the same time. But for the flash or lights, I really have no clue of what would be good and the price of those things
 
When ever I read someone ask this sort of question, I do a search on Flickr for their camera model and then do a further search for portraits. I think this direct link might work... Link

from looking at that link you'll get a mix of beginner and very competent photographers, and everything in between. But what you'll see is, what's possible with a Nikon 3200 and you might be able to check the meta data on images you like to see the settings, lens and sometimes the photographer might share the lighting setup. There's plenty of decent pictures on there

Camera tech have moved on a lot since the 3200 and you will benefit from a new model - I'm sure if it.. but you might be able to squeeze a lot more out the 3200. I think learning lighting will be key to squeezing more out the camera..
 
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Godox DP600III 1200Ws Twin Softbox Kit | with Remote Trigger

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That's all you need. In fact those strobes are overkill really. 600 w/s are going to be bright.
 
azer54548 said:
Thanks all of you for your answers ! Well buying a new body like a Z6 II and a lens seems a little out of my budget now, especially since I'm still at the beggining of the photography learning scale if I may say in a humble way. Therefore, I guess it's better for me to create a more advanced experienced of portrait photography with the body I have with some additional light and maybe the 85mm lens 1.8.
For the lens it would be the Nikkor 85mm 1.8 which is at a reasonable price, I could sell my 50mm even at the same time. But for the flash or lights, I really have no clue of what would be good and the price of those things
Click to expand...

You'll need a big space for indoor full length stuff with an 85, esp on a crop sensor.

If you're at the beginning of your 'photography learning scale' then invest in practicing & learning, not gear. Lights would make more difference than anything other gear but there's a fairly steep learning curve. You might want to wait until you've got the hang of a few other things first.
 
juggler said:
You'll need a big space for indoor full length stuff with an 85, esp on a crop sensor.

If you're at the beginning of your 'photography learning scale' then invest in practicing & learning, not gear. Lights would make more difference than anything other gear but there's a fairly steep learning curve. You might want to wait until you've got the hang of a few other things first.
Click to expand...
I totally aggree with your statement. That's what I'll do. I guess my question was too premature per say.
 
GreenNinja67 said:
www.lencarta.com

Godox DP600III 1200Ws Twin Softbox Kit | with Remote Trigger

<h1>Godox DP600III 1200Ws Twin Umbrella and Softbox Kit | with Remote Trigger</h1> <p>The <strong>DP600III 1200Ws Softbox and Umbrella Kit</strong> from <strong>Godox</strong> offers a creative, adaptable and suitable kit for a wide variety of photography industries through it's immense power...
www.lencarta.com www.lencarta.com

That's all you need. In fact those strobes are overkill really. 600 w/s are going to be bright.
Click to expand...
This. Way overpowered for your needs, This flash head will be more than adequate https://www.lencarta.com/gb/godox-sk300ii-v-studio-flash-300ws and you may want to ask Lencarta to make you up the same kit but with the substituted heads. High powered heads simply aren't needed with modern digital cameras - and I include your cameras as "modern" because if push comes to shove we can also increase the iso setting - not that you'll need to do so inside a home.
 
Phil V said:
And the other thing I’d add is that the biggest improvement you can make to portrait work is generally lighting.
Keeping what you’ve got and spending £500 on lighting will be a significantly greater improvement than a new £2000 camera.
Click to expand...

A friend of mine is simply stunning, face and body, and has appeared in print multiple times. I have some pictures which she gave me and they where taken on an APS-C Nikon DSLR even older than the OP's.

There may well be technical reasons to buy a newer body and I agree with what you said about mirrorless, I think that eye detect and the speed, consistency, accuracy and framing options mirrorless brings are indeed real game changers. Having said that I do have to agree with what you said about lighting.
 
azer54548 said:
Thanks all of you for your answers ! Well buying a new body like a Z6 II and a lens seems a little out of my budget now, especially since I'm still at the beggining of the photography learning scale if I may say in a humble way. Therefore, I guess it's better for me to create a more advanced experienced of portrait photography with the body I have with some additional light and maybe the 85mm lens 1.8.
For the lens it would be the Nikkor 85mm 1.8 which is at a reasonable price, I could sell my 50mm even at the same time. But for the flash or lights, I really have no clue of what would be good and the price of those things
Click to expand...
The 85mm is a good idea, but not at the expense of the 50mm, as @juggler says, 85 can be a bit long indoors in a domestic setting.

A couple of 200Ws heads on good stands, with a radio trigger, a softbox (as big as you have space for) a brolly and a 5 in 1 reflector can be had for relatively little in photography terms.
 
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