Camera lenses for glamour portraits?

[alicefred]

I have a Canon EOS 40D Digital SLR and totally impressed with the overall performance. I got it few weeks ago from B&H Photo Video through a Dealrocker.com deal. I want to shoot glamour portraits and wondering what kind of lenses should I use for this kind of photography? Any budget friendly recommendations will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Big Mike]

You can shoot just about any type of photography with just about any lens....it's just a matter of circumstance and personal style.

Fast prime (non zoom) lenses are often a good choice because they offer a great image quality (for the price) and their large aperture gives you the option to use a shallow DOF.

When you say "budget friendly"...how much are we talking about?

 

[Newcastle Shooter]

I love 50mm lenses - Canon do a 50mm 1.8 for under £100. Heard wonderful things about it. I'm a Nikon man so havent used it but i use a 50mm 1.4 which i truly love.

But as Big mike says - you can shoot anything with anything (almost!)

Enjoy.

 

[table1349]

Typical portrait range is 70mm to 120mm. Pick a good quality prime in that range that fits your needs, wallet and working space.

 

[den9]

i have no experience but i hear a 135 f/2.0 is a pretty popular portrait lens.

 

[table1349]

i have no experience but i hear a 135 f/2.0 is a pretty popular portrait lens.

It can be if you have the room to use it. One reason the "standard" portrait range starts at 70mm is the characteristics of lenses of that length and longer.

One of the reasons for the 70mm - 120mm range is working distance. Outdoors, unless there are obsticals in your way it's not a problem. In a studio space becomes a premium and lens length can matter. I have the 135 f2.0L and love it. It is very sharp with excellent bokeh.

Here is a good focal length calculator for what ever working distance you have. http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/camera-lenses.htm

 

[burnws6]

50mm and 85mm.....prime....and make them open up wide. Done deal. Compression and DOF is king with glamour shots.

 

[alicefred]

Thanks for your inputs.. I will certainly take a look on your recommendations..

 

[Village Idiot]

Classic portraiture, which fashion/glam pretty much fall under is usually done with longer focal length lenses, as what was posted above.

However, as Mike said, you can use anything. I'm big on using UWA for modeling shots where you can either work to minimize distortion and to have a big photo or you can use the distortion to your advantage to accentuate features or place a some what comical or satyrical spin on a photo.

 

[Sw1tchFX]

135 f/2 or the 85 1.8 or 1.2.