Help choosing a portrait lens

Ok so I purchased a 5D Mark II a little while ago, I am really looking into getting in taking portraits but as alot of people have trouble with I too cannot decide on a lens!

I am sure alot of you would be familliar with Lee Jeffires work, i would like to take portraits like this and am asking for reccomendations for a lens? I read in an interview that he uses a 24mm lens but which one?

http://www.flickr.com/​photos/16536699@N07/

He photos are excellent and I hope to be that good once day

If you're looking for a single lens to get started, I would suggest a zoom. If you let us know your budget range, you'll be able to get some suggestions on a good starting point.

Generally speaking I would say 24mm is pretty wide for a portrait lens but those don't look like typical portraits. For portraits on FF, I love my 70-200 f/4L IS personally but if you want the option to go wide, why not go with the 24-70? A lot of people use that focal range for portraits too.

Ok great thanks for your help Well those style portraits I would like to take so would I be best getting the 24mm? Does that look like the lesn that has been used? Thankyou

With a 24 you run a serious risk of perspective distortion is you use it close enough to make the subject a large part of the frame. There is a lot of distortion in those samples. Its a one trick pony sort of image.

what other lenses do you have?
for portraits I use only 2 lenses. my sigma 50 and my 135L and I end up using the 50 for 80% of the time

Lovethelens, on Lee Jeffires work Exif shows he is using the the EF24mm f/1.4L USM and the EF85mm f/1.2L USM, he is always shooting around f/4.0 and f/5.0; his lens are around 1500USD for the 24mm and 1800USD for the 85mm, but since he doesn't shoot wide open and what you want is to get a similar look you can buy a EF 85mm f/1.8 USM for about 400 USD and the canon 24mm 2.8 for about 350 USD they are not L lens but will give you great quality pictures,

Thankyou so much! I have the 85mm f1.8 I think I will purchase a 24mm 2.8 aswell Thankyou

Oh I would like to say That I have the 85mm F1.8 & I also have the new EF 8-15mm Fisheye lens.

Would there be any point in me getting a 24mm lens? I do not really know anything about lenese so this may be a stupid question.

Bottom line is I just want a good portrait lens where I can take close up shots like the ones I have linked to. Thankyou for your help.

lovethelens wrote in post #15157722
Oh I would like to say That I have the 85mm F1.8 & I also have the new EF 8-15mm Fisheye lens.

Would there be any point in me getting a 24mm lens? I do not really know anything about lenese so this may be a stupid question.

Bottom line is I just want a good portrait lens where I can take close up shots like the ones I have linked to. Thankyou for your help.

The closer you get the more pronounced the perspective distortion that you seem to want will be. So try the 15 to see if thats too much. I'm curious though, why do you want to make these unflattering portraits? Do you have a market for them? Or do you just want to copy someone elses work?

I'd say that reproducing that kind of portrait with your 8-15 would put you uncomfortably close to the subject. A 24 or 28 would be a better choice. I used to shoot a 24 on a film camera and really liked the lens a lot.
When I go back and look at exif data on my recent street pics, most of my shots are around 30mm on a crop body.

gonzogolf wrote in post #15158399
The closer you get the more pronounced the perspective distortion that you seem to want will be. So try the 15 to see if thats too much. I'm curious though, why do you want to make these unflattering portraits? Do you have a market for them? Or do you just want to copy someone elses work?

I'm not looking to "copy" I would just like to take some nice shots like this and was wondering what kind of lense I would need for the distance

lovethelens wrote in post #15166666
I'm not looking to "copy" I would just like to take some nice shots like this and was wondering what kind of lense I would need for the distance

Most clients are not going to see these as nice. Dont get me wrong his work is great and has a certain appeal. But if you are hoping to offer this sort of distorted portraiture to a client you might not find them so excited.

Take you camera and lens and replicate, you already have tools, put them to work.

24mm is extremely wide to be using as a portrait lens. If a photographer has successfully made a series of portraits with this lens it because they had a reason for choosing the short lens. It is deffinately not the norm to shoot portraits with a 24mm. Unless you have a specific reason to use a a 24mm lens for a portrait, it would likely look better to shoot with a longer lens.

I would be asking myself "why did this photographer choose such a short portrait lens" and then decide if your shots need a short lens too.