Ready to purchase another lens or two for portrait work

[mgplus2]

Ok, I've read about 30 pages of archives and am going cross eyed. I have the Rebel xt and the kit lens. I wanted to spend some time with the camera and lens before purchasing more lenses but I think I'm ready. I do mostly studio-type portraits (head shots, head/shoulder, full length) with two flash units in a relatively small space. I'm usually about 4 ft from by subject. I also so some outdoor portrait work.

From all the reading I've done I'm considering the 50mm f/1.8 and either the Tamron 28-75 f/2.8 or the Canon 28-105 f/3.5-4.5.

Do those sound like good choices? Any recommendations?

Thanks,
M

[basroil]

if you can go further back than 4', ide say go for 50mm 1.4, price of the two zooms, but better quality for portraits. 50mm is good for protraits, but not if you are at 4' with a 1.6 crop, it'll be just the head or head&shoulders (i bet you could probably check to see if the subject needs it with a 50mm ;)). if you can't go far back enough, you'll have to get a wider lens. outdoors, the lens is a beauty (if it's better than the 50mm 1.8 i use :rolleyes:). after i got my 50, i used it as the primary lens for a pretty long time, which goes to show that a prime can be a better purchase than prime+weak zoom. but if you need it, go for tamron, lower f-stop means better bokeh when stopped down to an acceptable sharpness...

[Carzee]

The Tammy if you like zooms, the 50mm if you like low light primes.

[Hermes]

It really depends what crop factor the camera you will be using has. Personally I don't let zooms anywhere near my studio but that's just me.