Best Portrait Lens??

What other lenses do you have ? I guess you don't shoot indoors

bohdank wrote in post #7030640
What other lenses do you have ? I guess you don't shoot indoors

Mainly use the 50L and 135L. Yes, I use the 300L in studio as a classic headshot/beauty lens. You really don't need that much space to get a head & shoulders shot at 300mm.

About 25 feet with a 200mm on a crop body.

bohdank wrote in post #7030796
About 25 feet with a 200mm on a crop body.

It's about 15-16 feet with a 300mm on a FF body. No idea about crop bodies but I'm sure you can work it out from the above.

200mm on a crop is equivalent to 320 on a FF. What are you photographing to be able to get the entire head and the shoulders in the frame at 15 feet ? Really, I'm curious. 20 feet, possible, if real tight or children. I'll have to try 15-16 feet later tonight.

bohdank wrote in post #7030925
200mm on a crop is equivalent to 320 on a FF. What are you photographing to be able to get the entire head and the shoulders in the frame at 15 feet ? Really, I'm curious. 20 feet, possible, if real tight or children. I'll have to try 15-16 feet later tonight.

Photographing beauty models. A head and shoulders shot (i.e. cropping at the very top of the head and including the shoulders above the breasts) needs to capture about eighteen inches. A 300mm lens can do that comfortably at 15 feet. I know for a fact that it doesn't take 20 feet as I don't have 20 feet of space in front of the model's position to work in.

I can only guess that you are perhaps thinking of a mid-shot (from the waist upwards) rather than a head and shoulders shot. For anything wider than a headshot, I usually switch down to the 135L.