80D owner looking for more portrait bokeh

I'm currently shooting on an 80D and am looking to start doing more street ( downtown ATL) and outdoor portraits at places like parks and city streets.

I currently have a 50 F1.8 USM, 17-40L F4, 18-55 kit lens, and a 28-105 F3.5-5.6.

In an effort to update my dated collection and create more bokeh while saving as much money as possible in an effort to purchase a 6D MKII when released. I'm considering the following options all while trying to stay around the $500-$600 range. Below list is not in a first, second choice order, list is random.

50 F1.8 STM $110 (I like the STM for video, will sell my USM)

35 F2 IS $550

85 EF F1.8 $350

24 EF-S F2.8 STM $130

35 EF-S F2.8 STM Macro IS $350

I like the 50 F1.8 and 85 F1.8 option combo mainly because I think they will work well on full frame, yet work better than what I have now on the 80D, allowing me to achieve what I'm trying to achieve.

At the same time the 50 F1.8 and 35 F2, would be very close to a 50 and 85 on a full frame, which from what I've read are 2 of the most popular focal lengths for portraits. If going this route I can add the 85 length after purchasing a full frame.

Your opinions and suggestions would be appreciated.

Use a longer lens. Indoors is a challenge but outdoors shouldn't be a problem.

Aperture = focal length / f-number. a 50mm lens at f/1 yields the same amount of blur as a 100mm lens at f/2, or a 200mm lens at f/4.

Heya,

I think we will all assume you're looking for more out of focus blur, not just the quality of the blur (ie, bokeh).

To do this, more so than your 50mm F1.8 wide open, you'll need a longer focal length and faster focal ratio. 85mm F1.4 is the next big step to achieve that. 85mm F1.8 is the next step.

You can get a manual 85mm F1.4 for $200 on the market if you shop for a Samyang 85mm F1.4. Easy to focus manually, even with your 80D. On an APS-C, it'll have a very similar look/feel in terms of blur quantity and distance as a 135L would on full frame.

Otherwise, the 100 F2 is going to be another good option, but it will be rather long on APS-C.

Personally I find 50mm on APS-C to be a good full body focal length on APS-C, and 85mm to be the longest I would want to go on APS-C, before it becomes really hard to have enough room.

You could go to a Sigma Lux 50mm F1.4 to get a little more aperture.
And again, look to an 85mm with F1.4 (Sigma) or Samyang/Rok (manual, but still very good).

The beauty of portrait is you really don't have to stress AF; you can do it with manual focus, even at F1.4, fairly easily.

Very best,

if you're ok with MF, Rok 85 f1.4 will give you the most for your money. Otherwise

50 f1.4
85 f1.8
100 f2
135 f2
70-200 f2.8

or continue shooting the 50 f1.8 and just live with it until you go FF. Once you experience FF, your lens preferences may change and you may have to shuffle gear again, unless you do what I do, and simply own every lens possible

Use the 28-105 at 105 & move the subject farther from the background. Or buy the 85 EF F1.8 & move the subject farther from the background.

If planning to move to FF I would eliminate any EF-S lenses right off the top.

Buy the 85 1.8 for sure.

Probably the 35 f/2 also

Chet wrote in post #18374680
Use a longer lens. Indoors is a challenge but outdoors shouldn't be a problem.

Aperture = focal length / f-number. a 50mm lens at f/1 yields the same amount of blur as a 100mm lens at f/2, or a 200mm lens at f/4.

only if framing is the same.

one thing to keep in mind is that it is not just subject/background distance, but camera/subject distance. With street photography and any given lens, if you really want to knock the background OOF, decreasing camera/subject distance is the best or only option ... long lenses might increase subject/camera distance while decreasing subject/background distance.

85 1.8 comes up here regularly for $250

Depth of field is a function of the actual aperture. Not the f/ratio, but the actual entrance pupil size. Wider entrance pupil = less DOF. That's why short FL lenses have more DOF than longer FL lenses at the same f/ratio, because the entrance pupil on the shorter FL lens is smaller (hence the ratio is the same).

If you really want the shallowest DOF, you'll need to go full frame (or even medium format). To get the same framing on a crop body requires a correspondingly shorter focal length, which produces greater DOF as explained above.

Mike

If you are shooting to a specific frame-filling of the subject, you will not achieve more intense blur with FL alone.


At the same framing of the subject, FL does NOT MATTER for DOF at the same shooting aperture...

• 100mm f/4 at 10' has 20/20 vision DOF zone of 0.25'
  
• 200mm f/4 at 20' has 20/20 vision DOF zone of 0.25'
  
• 400mm f/4 at 40' has 20/20 vision DOF zone of 0.25'
  

If you're shooting on the same format camera, have the same aperture, and the same shooting distance, a longer focal length lens will give you a shallower DOF. I know one portrait photographer that likes shooting with focal lengths greater than 400mm, so that backgrounds are narrower with the reduced FOV and having very shallow DOF. One of the reasons wide angle lenses are popular with videographers is that it the DOF is greater, so they don't have to do as much manual focusing.

DOF calculator

If all other factors are the same, a crop camera has a greater DOF, and so would need a lens with shorter focal length (for equivalent framing compared to FF) and wider aperture (for proportional entrance pupil size to format size). If the OP can step further back to allow a longer FL, getting a longer FL lens is the cheapest option. If longer has too narrow a field of view, then get a lens with larger aperture.

davesrose wrote in post #18375212
If you're shooting on the same format camera, have the same aperture, and the same shooting distance, a longer focal length lens will give you a shallower DOF. I know one portrait photographer that likes shooting with focal lengths greater than 400mm, so that backgrounds are narrower with the reduced FOV and having very shallow DOF. One of the reasons wide angle lenses are popular with videographers is that it the DOF is greater, so they don't have to do as much manual focusing.

DOF calculator

If all other factors are the same, a crop camera has a greater DOF, and so would need a lens with shorter focal length (for equivalent framing compared to FF) and wider aperture (for proportional entrance pupil size to format size). If the OP can step further back to allow a longer FL, getting a longer FL lens is the cheapest option. If longer has too narrow a field of view, then get a lens with larger aperture.

This post and my preceding post are not in conflict with each other, but in agreement...

• my statement about 'no effect on DOF' assumes the subject distance is changed so that the subject is the same size in all shots
  
• above statment about 'shallower OF' assumes the camera-to-subect is NOT changed, so that the subject is proportionately larger in the longer tele shots
  

The 85/1.8 would be a no-brainer to get IMO. I've had this lens for a long time. Last week I just got an 80D, and the 85/1.8 works great on it (sample below).

IMAGE LINK: https://photos.smugmug​.com …70607-008-X2.jpg&lb=1&s=A

Thorsten wrote in post #18375446
The 85/1.8 would be a no-brainer to get IMO. I've had this lens for a long time. Last week I just got an 80D, and the 85/1.8 works great on it (sample below).

The 85/1.8 is probably the biggest no-brainer that I don't have!

OP: 85/1.8 will work well for the purposes you stated. With enough of room (both in front and behind your subject) you'll get plenty of OOF blur. Warning: avoid shooting high contrast scenery, as this lens produces noticeable purple fringing in these circumstances (wide open).

I use my Sigma 50m f/1.4 (which is a full frame lens) on my crop body a lot for portraits because it does give great bokeh. Like mentioned is similar to using an 85mm on a full frame. Plus if you get a full frame you can use the lens on it too.