Low light portrait lens

I shoot with a 50D, and while most of my work is aimed at wildlife and landscape photography, I have a contract to photograph events in a museum that suffers from poor lighting.

In the past, my 24-105 plus flash have done a passable job, but I am never totally satisfied (my client has no issues with the quality of the photos). I think I might be better served by a fast prime lens without having to rely on flash. However, I would like to ask those of you with more experience whether I am on the right track and which lens I should look at. I have narrowed my choice down to the Canon 50mm f/1.4 and the Canon 85 mm f/1.8. That does not mean that my mind is made up and that I would not consider other (better) suggestions.

I will not be able to check back for answers until next weekend, so please do not think I am trolling or not interested in what you have to say.

Thanks for your input.

Julius

JuliusUpNorth wrote in post #14389435
I shoot with a 50D, and while most of my work is aimed at wildlife and landscape photography, I have a contract to photograph events in a museum that suffers from poor lighting.

In the past, my 24-105 plus flash have done a passable job, but I am never totally satisfied (my client has no issues with the quality of the photos). I think I might be better served by a fast prime lens without having to rely on flash. However, I would like to ask those of you with more experience whether I am on the right track and which lens I should look at. I have narrowed my choice down to the Canon 50mm f/1.4 and the Canon 85 mm f/1.8. That does not mean that my mind is made up and that I would not consider other (better) suggestions.

I will not be able to check back for answers until next weekend, so please do not think I am trolling or not interested in what you have to say.

Thanks for your input.

Julius

I always used the 85 1.8 as my portrait lens until getting the 85L. It does a good job....Some do not like the distance you have to be from the subject on a crop camera. I would suggest setting your 24-105 @ 85mm and see if that distance works for you. If it is too much then the 50mm is another good choice.

Others like the 30 – 35mm lens as well because it gives you the ability to do full body shots easier. That is not my preference...but you will also still have your 24-105 for that if necessary. Good luck with your choice.

For portraits, I think the 85 will be a touch long on a crop body. For head and shoulders portraits indoors, I would go with the 50. If you're going to be shooting candids, and/or small groups, you may want to consider one of the Sigma 30mm, or the Canon 35 f/2.

A 75mm F 1.5 Carl Zeiss Jena Biotar is one cracker of a portrait lens!

I bought the 100mm 2.8 IS macro for museum work. I find it gives you room so you're not right on top of what you're shooting and the IS is great for low light work.

Depends on the environment. If you can step back far enough the 85f1.8 is the ideal lens.

The 50/1.8 isnt the best for bokeh, the 50/1.4 is fragile and prone to faliure and isnt that sharp either.

More than most other styles of photography, portriats are usually acceptable with a touch of softness. Try cranking up the ISO and using a touch of noise reduction. You might be surprised.

Well, I am back in town now and just wanted to thank you all for your thoughtful replies and advice. I really appreciate the time you took to reply! Now the search begins…

Julius

TBH, a fast prime with a touch of bounced flash is the way to go imo. Unless you find yourself in a well lit situation, but it doesn't sound like the museum is such a place.

Thanks, twoshadows. You are right, the lighting in this museum is not good, and I might have to go that route. I hope to get there early enough to do a few trial shots and then decide. Either way, I'll get myself a fast prime for that work, since I'll be getting that contract for a few more years…

Julius

anscochrome wrote in post #14389678
A 75mm F 1.5 Carl Zeiss Jena Biotar is one cracker of a portrait lens!

Fore sure
But I am quite happy with Zeiss Contax 85/1.4 - and probably sometimes the Helios 40 85mm/1.5 lenses. When it is portrait with a bit more surrounding, I love the Minolta Rokkor 58/1,2.

ZoneV wrote in post #14425953
Fore sure
But I am quite happy with Zeiss Contax 85/1.4 - and probably sometimes the Helios 40 85mm/1.5 lenses. When it is portrait with a bit more surrounding, I love the Minolta Rokkor 58/1,2.

I only mentioned the Biotar because OP is shooting with a 1.6 crop. "Full Frame" I would go with a Helios 40-2. My fav was the 85mm F 1.5 Summarex, but that LTM lens does not do a DSLR shooter any good All of these lenses have very desirable qualities as portrait lenses because of their wide open deficiencies, which in this case is an advantage

Thanks, guys. If you keep this up, you'll get me even more confused than I am now!!

Julius

For portraits go with the 85 f1.8 and crank up ISO 400 or 800. You'll be fine.

If you go with a larger aperture lens wide open in search of adequate available light, there's a good possibility you'll start to run into depth of field problems.

You might want to consider using lenses you already have (such as the versatile 24-105 zoom) along with direct flash, perhaps fitted with some sort of modifier such as a small softbox or other type of diffuser... Put the flash on a bracket with an off-camera shoe cord. That will help too, reducing redeye and throwing ugly shadows down and behind your subject(s).

Flash has an additional advantage that you can separate people from a crowd, lighting up your subjects while letting other folks and various things in the background go darker in the shadows, thanks to light falloff.

Trying to bounce flash is risky... you need a relatively low ceiling or close wall and it has to be white, plus you waste an awful lot of light bouncing the flash, so should expect the flash to recycle more slowly, eat up batteries faster. For these reasons, most or at least many indoor event photographers use direct flash (with and without modifiers) instead of bounce.

One risk with direct flash is reflective surfaces. Any glass, for example, can bounce strong flash light right back at you, blowing out the image. You might imagine how loud a groan I let out when I went to shoot a wedding and reception in the evening in a large, round room with floor to ceiling windows 360 degrees around! Great views, but a nightmare for a photographer! More than a few shots were ruined by reflections. That was years ago, though, when I was shooting film. Today I wouldn't be too concerned thanks to my DSLRs... I'd just chimp a lot and reshoot anything that didn't work.