portrait lens for canon eos 40D

[texasturbo]

I am a novice who is looking for the right lens to take up close pictures of my daughter. I just purchased the Canon EOS 40D with a 28-135 lens. Any suggestions on what lens would work best for these up close shots I am wanting to take.

THANKS

 

[Rachelsne]

50 mm 1.8 if your budget is low if its higher then the 50 1.4 or the 80 somthing (I forget but im sure someone will come along and tell you

 

[BoblyBill]

Like Rachelsne said... 50mm 1.8 or 1.4 and the 85mm f/1.8 would be good choices. Sometimes it's fun to have a nice wide angle lens like a 20mm f/2.8 too for some fun distorted shots.

 

[texasturbo]

Is there a better brand to go with...Canon, Sigma

 

[texasturbo]

Canon EF 50mm f1.4 USM Standard & Medium Telephoto Lens for Canon SLR CamerasOther products by Canon | See collection
(153 customer reviews)| More about this product
List Price: $520.00
Price: $329.99


Does look like a good one to go with? All the reviews talk about it being a good lens for low light situations....Why is it also good for portrait....remember I am a novice.

Thanks

 

[Mav]

The large aperture (smaller f/number) also gives you a much smaller depth of field or focus area. So it'll blur out the background very nicely. There's so little depth of field at f/1.4 though that it can actually be very difficult to keep anything in focus at all. They have fully variable apertures though, so no worries.

Before you go buying another lens, just park your 28-135 at different focal lengths and see what you prefer. Everybody mentions the 50mm because it's so cheap, but it's also on the short side for portraits. I prefer the 105 to 135mm range myself, at least for tighter head shots. Also, I don't see why you couldn't use the 28-135 for portraits either. It's a perfectly good lens. Just get an external flash for it (430 or 580) which you can bounce off ceilings or from walls on the side and you can take great portrait photos. I do this all the time with my Nikon 18-135 f/3.5-5.6 lens + an SB-600 flash.

 

[Overkill-F1]

Mav, you do mean 105-135mm on a full frame don't you? (70mm- on a Nikon 1.5 crop, or 65mm- on a Canon 1.6 crop equals 105mm FF)
...Terry
ps. my favorite portrait lens is my 105/2.5 Nikkor on a F2 film camera.