What lens for an interview? Distances, rooms and faces

For a seated interview on a full frame camera, a 50mm for the main medium close-up and an 85mm for the tighter second angle is the setup most crews land on. A 35mm works when the room is small or you want the space to be part of the story. What decides it is less the lens than the distance: the focal length sets how far back the camera has to stand, and the room decides whether it can.

Where the camera stands, per lens

Distances from the subject for a 16:9 frame on full frame. A medium close-up holds about half a metre of a person, head to mid-chest; a close-up about 30 cm; a medium shot about 85 cm, waist up.

Now add the room. The camera needs space behind it for the operator and a tripod, roughly another metre, and the subject needs space behind them so the background is not a wall pressed against their shoulders. An 85mm medium close-up at 2.1 m plus a metre behind the camera plus two metres behind the subject is a room at least five metres deep. In a four-metre office it is a 35mm, or a 50mm with the chair closer to the wall than you would like.

The field of view calculator works these out for any lens, sensor and ratio, including vertical.

What each lens does to a face

24mm and wider

Close enough to touch. At interview distances a wide lens enlarges whatever is nearest the camera, which on a face is the nose, and stretches anything near the edge of frame. It can work for a wide establishing the room or a deliberately uncomfortable look. It is rarely kind as the main angle.

35mm

The documentary lens. The subject sits in their space rather than in front of it, and the camera is close enough to feel present in the conversation. Keep the face towards the centre of the frame and it holds up. The 35mm, in numbers.

50mm

Close to how a face looks across a table, without flattering or distorting. It is the safest main angle: the background softens a little, the camera stands at a normal conversational distance, and it fits most rooms. The 50mm, in numbers.

85mm

The portrait length. Features flatten slightly in a way most people find flattering, the background falls well out of focus, and the frame feels intimate even though the camera is further back. The usual choice for the tighter second camera. The 85mm, in numbers.

135mm

Strong compression and a background that dissolves. Beautiful when there is room, but the camera ends up several metres away, which puts distance into the conversation, and every small movement of the subject shifts the frame.

Two cameras: the standard pairing

• A camera: 50mm, medium close-up, just beside the interviewer so the eyeline sits close to the lens.
• B camera: 85mm, close-up, 30 to 45 degrees further round. The change in both size and angle is what lets the edit cut between them without a jump.

Two cameras on the same lens at the same size, a few degrees apart, give the editor two versions of one shot. Change the size, the angle, or both.

On a smaller sensor

A crop sensor sees a narrower slice of the same lens, so you need a shorter focal length for the same framing from the same spot. The equivalents to 35, 50 and 85mm on full frame:

Same angle of view, not the same depth of field: at the same aperture the smaller sensor gives a deeper focus, so open up a stop or two if you want the background to fall away the same.

Before you choose

1. Measure the room, or ask for the dimensions on the recce.
2. Decide what the background says, and how much of it you want sharp.
3. Pick the framing first, then the lens that frames it from a distance the room allows.
4. Plan the light around the camera position, not before it.

The interview lighting diagram shows a standard setup to scale, and shot sizes, drawn shows what each framing holds.