How important is Lens Optical Quality for Portrait work ?
As Photographers we often banter on about how "sharp" a lens is, or the quality of the image the lens produces.
All good & well for most photography, but let me play devils advocate for a moment. Quite often people take portrait shots of people & then purposely soften the image in PhotoShop. If I look at my Noise Reduction plug in, the portrait setting has a -2 setting for sharpness. Famous Portrait Photographer Annabel Williams has stated in one of her articles how she hates sharp portrait shots, as they are unflattering to the subject,
So, if you take this in to account, is it really that important to have an expensive lens that produces super sharp shots for portrait work ? Would we be better spending the money elsewhere ?
What's your thoughts ?
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