portrait lenses

I have the 17-85 and I was wanting to know which are some lenses for portrait photography

All lenses are portrait lenses if you are making portraits.

Many people like short telephotos with shallow depth of field for portraits, which on a crop camera equate to 50mm or 85mm, on a FF 85mm or 135mm.

That 17-85 IS EF-S would produce nice portraits anywhere from around 50-85

Effectively with the crop, that is 80-136 on your camera.

Of course Canon makes dedicated primes for such a reason like the 50mm, 85mm, 105mm and 135mm.

The 50 1.8 is considered a great portrait lens. Cheap at $70.
The 85 1.8 is also a great lens but more money. Too long for group shots unless you are a mile or so away. I had it and liked it but it was just too long for me.
If you have a light set the 24-105 is an awesome lens. At f/4 it needs some light but the colors are excellent.
Sigma makes a 70mm 1.8 that got rave reviews in the new issue of Pop Photo. They really loved it.

the 60mm macro is a very sharp lens and on the crop camera makes a very good potrait lens

appreciate the positive feedback, thanks

the 50mm 1.4 could be a good choice!! i love this lens for portrait... in a studio with a crop body its perfect... for outdoors portrait with much space the 85 1.8 would work great too !!