Lens for clothing photography

[LouieN]

Hello, I do a lot of clothing photography (the clothes are laid flat and the camera is overhead facing the ground about 3.5-4 ft above) and I currently use a Sony A6000 with a sigma 16mm lens. It works pretty good. There is some barrel distortion which I guess is to be expected. 

I am looking to upgrade to a FF (likely Sony AS iii) and I'm exploring lens choice. I'm considering the sigma 24mm-70mm F2.8 DG DN art lens because I'm hoping to buy one lens to not only satisfy my clothing photography needs, but also do portraits, video, ect. ect. Sigma also seems somewhat equivalent to the Sony G series and lot cheaper. 

Would using a prime lens really be beneficial over a zoom one for my clothing photography? I'd like to avoid barrel distortion if possible but I'm also trying to avoid buying a bunch of costly equipment. Open to all ideas and advice. 

[Alejandro]

3 hours ago, LouieN said:

Would using a prime lens really be beneficial over a zoom one for my clothing photography? I'd like to avoid barrel distortion if possible but I'm also trying to avoid buying a bunch of costly equipment. Open to all ideas and advice. 

Haven’t you tried using a program that would correct the barrel distortion of whichever lens you might choose to use or buy? There are many, but from the ones I know, I can recommend DXO Photolab, that automatically corrects optical distortions of most lenses suitable for Sony cameras and with which you can develop your raw files. I have checked with the version of the DxO Photolab I have which is not the newest version, and (just as an example) it does include the profile for the Sigma 24-70mm F/2.8 lens mounted on a Sony AS ii. You might be able to check if the newer version of the program includes the profile for the Sony AS iii as well. I think that buying a program that efficiently corrects optical distortions of lenses would be a cheaper option than buying a lens that would have no distortion at all (which is kind of impossible if thinking of a zoom lens).

Edited June 22, 2021 by Alejandro

[thebeardedgroundsman]

Removing distortion in editing is a compromise because it is effectively stretching or compressing parts of the image.

If you are taking these pictures for commercial reasons, I would go for a prime lens.

50mm is what the eye sees - slightly more (eg 85mm) is what a lot of portrait photographers use to flatter the models shape and features, but you are currently using the equivalent of 24mm.

Also, if you haven't bought it already, remember that the A7s cameras have a much lower resolution than the A7 and A7R series, and are not the cheapest (it is designed for video first and stills secondly)

 Your A6000 has twice the Mp of the A7s - so you might be disappointed with the resolution, particularly if you need to crop or manipulate the image.

Good luck choosing!

 

Edited June 27, 2021 by thebeardedgroundsman

[XKAES]

Another approach would be to increase the distance between you and the subject.  This may not be possible for your particular situation, but if you can, it might solve the problem without any expense.

[Pieter]

Why exactly are you considering to switch to fullframe? Sounds like you're shooting in a controlled environment so in my humble opinion theres not too much to be gained unless you value shallow depth of field: the better ISO-performance of the larger sensor is irrelevant as you can shoot at ISO 100 with controlled lighting.