Portrait Lens - Is there a prefered model?

crowl31 · Jun 9, 2008

I love shooting portraits and I am trying to get better at it but I have cheap glass and want to upgrade but what is the right lens to use?

My instructor told me to look into the 70-200 2.8, but i'm not sold on that as a portrait lens.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Aggressor · Jun 9, 2008

That lens will give you good portraits... If you don't already have the 50mm or 85mm in 1.8 or 1.4 flavors, you should look into those. Those are nice portrait lenses as well.

crowl31 · Jun 9, 2008

I have the 50 1.8, but I wasn't sure if there is something better that wasn't a prime.

Is prime the best lens for portraits, hands down?

Socrates · Jun 9, 2008

crowl31 said:
I love shooting portraits and I am trying to get better at it but I have cheap glass and want to upgrade but what is the right lens to use?

My instructor told me to look into the 70-200 2.8, but i'm not sold on that as a portrait lens.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

With film, I use an 85mm f/1.8. With digital, I use the 85mm outdoors and a 50mm f/1.4 indoors (the f/1.8 is satisfactory and is significantly less expensive).

Socrates · Jun 9, 2008

crowl31 said:
I have the 50 1.8, but I wasn't sure if there is something better that wasn't a prime.

Is prime the best lens for portraits, hands down?

It's better for two reasons. One, it opens wider than a zoom Two, a prime produces better quality images because a zoom is, almost by definition, a compromise.

The above is a generalization and certainly there are junk primes that are not as good as high-end zooms. I would hope that your 50mm is real Nikon or Canon rather than simply a lens that fits Nikon or Canon.

DWS · Jun 9, 2008

another vote for 50mm & 85mm, f/1.4 or f/1.8

Mav · Jun 9, 2008

You didn't mention what system you have, but if Nikon you need to be careful with the poor background rendering of the Nikon f/1.8 lenses. It can be pretty harsh looking and ruin portrait photos if you're not careful. This applies more to outdoor type shots though where you can have a lot of light points in the background which will get rendered harshly (poor bokeh). In a studio environment it wouldn't really matter. The f/1.4 Nikkors are much better, and I hear even the Canon f/1.8's are fine. My Nikon 50mm f/1.4 is far better for portraits than the f/1.8 version just because of the nicer background rendering with light points even if you're not shooting wide open, and it's still relatively affordable.

here's what a Nikon 85mm f/1.8 will do with a clean background.

I have some other photos from this lens where portraits were ruined because of poor background rendering, which is why I sold it. but if you're careful and preferably indoors where you can control your background better it's fine.

crowl31 · Jun 9, 2008

I have a Canon, and the Canon 50mm 1.8.

If i were to purchase the 85mm would that work well both indoors and outdoors?

Is a Prime lens only good for close up portraits? I'm concerned that if I want to include the background in some shots i'll be limited.

Thanks!

Socrates · Jun 9, 2008

crowl31 said:
I have a Canon, and the Canon 50mm 1.8.

If i were to purchase the 85mm would that work well both indoors and outdoors?

Is a Prime lens only good for close up portraits? I'm concerned that if I want to include the background in some shots i'll be limited.

Thanks!

The 85 will work just fine indoors provided that you have sufficient room to back up. Otherwise, a "head and shoulders" shot will be "head" only.

The whole purpose of these "portrait" lenses is to EXCLUDE the background.

Early · Jun 9, 2008

crowl31 said:
I have a Canon, and the Canon 50mm 1.8.

If i were to purchase the 85mm would that work well both indoors and outdoors?

Is a Prime lens only good for close up portraits? I'm concerned that if I want to include the background in some shots i'll be limited.

Thanks!

You can shoot it in any light you want. If you want more depth of field, simply stop the lens down to a smaller aperture.

Incidentally, that 70-200mm lens your instructor told you about would make an excellent portrait lens with the added advantage of reaching 200mm.

Socrates · Jun 9, 2008

Early said:
Incidentally, that 70-200mm lens your instructor told you about would make an excellent portrait lens with the added advantage of reaching 200mm.

Naah. 70mm is too long and the lens doesn't open up wide enough.

Jamesy · Jun 9, 2008

Socrates said:
70mm is too long

well an 85 won't be any better will it:thumbsup:

...anyway, I think a 70-200 would be the t1ts. and useful for plenty of other things.

dylj · Jun 9, 2008

For what it's worth, a lot of pro portrait photographers on youtube use the 70-200 2.8

Check out Bert Stephani ... and there were two others, I can't remember who they were. But they liked working with the longer lens (getting too close to the subject makes him/her uncomfortable) and the aperture is plenty wide with strobes and equipment. Depth of field is razor thin at 200 f/2.8.