Lens for portraits.

[Erlend]

Hi!

I'm going to buy a new lens for portrait photography. Anyone know whats the "best" for this purpose? Prefeably a lens in the L-series.

Thanks!


Best regards,
Erlend M. Olsen

[lomond]

I'm no expert on portait photography but I think it might be important to know what camera you use due to the focal length multiplier.
e.g full frame. 1.3 or 1.6

[lomond]

Also have a look here;
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=58577

[C.S.I.]

85 1.8 or 1.2 .....bring your wallet $$$

[Snapman]

Welcome to the forum Erland :)

Not a straightforward matter, as much depends on your camera, whether you'll be shooting indoors in a studio, outdoors and at what sort of distances etc.

I'm confident you'll get plenty of advice but have you had a look at some of the posts in the lens forum?

[Alan Neilson]

In my mind there is on one lens that is "best" for portraits. As has allready been said, depends on the camea. it also depends more on what type of portaits you are going to be taking and where, outside, inside the amount of space available, where it is a formal portriat or more candid, as a gentral rule of thumb a short telephoto is the best 85mm or maybe 135mm but with a camera that has a crop factor you could even get away with a 50mm as that will be like a 85mm on a 1.6 crop.

This will give you a nice head and shoulders, three quater lenght at a resonable working distance. It will slightly flatten the prespetive and give what is preceived a better portrait.

If you are going to be doing more of a portriate of someone at work then a wider angle could well be better suited as this will show the enviorment that they are in.

Maybe start with a zoom this will give you a choice of focal leghts, and then if you find that you are taking more of one style you can get a prime in that focal lenght if you wish.

[chtgrubbs]

I've always like the longer macro lenses for portraits. They're too sharp really, I always used them with soft focus filters when I shoot film. You'll have to do some softening in post processing or your subject will hate you for exposing every wrinkle and flaw. But they focus very close if you need to shoot very tight on face. If you want a lens that isn't so harsh and revealing you could go with the Canon 135mm Soft focus lens, or a cheap 28-80 zoom which has less resolution and contrast.

[liza]

I use the 85mm f/1.8. It's inexpensive compared to the 85L and is capable of producing wonderful images. I also use the 50mm and, for outdoor portraits, the 70-200L. I'd like to have the 135L, though, as it renders some of the most beautiful bokeh imaginable!