Sure.

This is actually similar to choosing the right focal length for a real camera. The funny thing is that in real life, "real photographers" do not want a busy background, so if they are doing a portrait, they have zero interest in getting clouds in there. The portraits that are most admired at, for example, sites like dpreview.com, are those in which the background is completely obliterated.

Be that as it may, let's accept that what you're trying to do is desirable, despite the opinions of portrait photographers.

If you use, say 35 mm, you might find a decent compromise. You can get some more sky in, and of course you'll have to move the camera a little closer to the figure's face, but not so close that perspective of nose versus ears will be completely out of whack.

By the way, wide angle lenses do not "cause" this distortion. It is a simple consequence of being close to a face. It is controlled by where you stand, not the width of the picture. No matter the field of view, facial feature perspective distortion is 100% because of how close your camera is to the face.

As you change to a wider focal length, you are forced to get closer to the face to keep it filling the frame the same amount. Do this too much, and you get a pretty ugly face, both in real life and in a render.

Have a look here to see a terrific demo of this.

http://stepheneastwood.com/tutorials/lensdistortion/strippage.htm

Now this distortion is not nearly so great if you're ok with not filling the frame with the face.

If you're doing a composition where, say, about 3 heads would fit in frame instead of just one, then you will see much less distortion, and you can open the camera up wider, to perhaps 25 mm, without any problem.

If you're not doing a head shot, but full upper body, then you really can go down to 20 mm.

I'll post more, but I have to get ready for my birthday party. I'm turning 50 on Tuesday, but we're celebrating today.

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