Recently I took pictures of someone that was slightly chubby. Close-ups using a 50mm lens went very well, but trying to get some distance in to get a full body shot were not really that satisfactory. Typically they turned out very unflattering because I could not get the necessary angle to hide aspects such as a slight double-chin. I probably would have had to be another half a metre higher than my subject to take a satisfactory shot, and I also don't want my subject to always have to sit down so we can get the angle right. Getting shots with a 24mm wide-angle lens was much easier but at the same time on some shots the proportions looked somewhat warped, so to me it seems like using a 24mm for full body photography is something better reserved for specific shots and not for general photography.
So essentially I want to know what focal length makes most sense. Is it better to go wider, despite the perspective distortions or pick a narrower focal length and step back, though I would not know how to properly get the slightly above eye level angled-down effect in that case.
