Portrait Lens?

[Clayford_Photography]

Hey guys, I am going to be buying Canon's Rebel XT. Can anyone suggest a lens that would be good for doing portraits? Senior pictures and such?

 

[Buszaj]

What's your budget? I've heard good things about the 50mm f/1.8, nice cheap lens. Uhh, I think that the 85 prime may also be pretty good. I also remember when for my school pictures the photographers were using the 24-105 L, a bit expensive though.

 

[Big Mike]

Welcome to the forum.

There is no proper lens for shooting portraits. Some photographers prefer to shoot with longer lenses...some with shorter lenses. Keep in mind that longer lenses tend to compress things, which is usually good for making people look good. Wider lenses tend to accentuate things, which can look funky but might not be flattering to your model.

What's your budget? I could recommend a $70 lens or I could recommend a $1500 lens. If you are doing this for money, it would be recommended that you use a high quality lens in order to get the best quality possible.

 

[Clayford_Photography]

I dont think I will be asking for any money for awhile because im so new, im in the learning stage. My budget is pretty small. I wouldnt want to spend over maybe 200 at the most on a lens. I dont know if this helps but really what I want to be able to see in my pictures are those really crisp, and detailed eyes, and the blurred background

 

[Big Mike]

and the blurred background

This is accomplished with a shallow DOF (depth of field). A shallow DOF is a result of a few things but mostly the aperture of the lens. The larger the aperture, the more shallow the DOF. The max aperture of a lens is listed right in the name/description with an F number...the lower the F number, the larger the aperture.

With all that, and your budget, in mind. I would suggest a 50mm F1.8 lens. You can buy it for less that $100 and it's a pretty good lens for that price. I would also recommend the 85mm F1.8 which is a little more but it is a very, very good lens for the price.

I would also recommend that you get the standard kit lens that usually comes with the camera...the EF-S 18-55. It's not a great lens but if you don't have something like that, you would be missing out on a lot of things.

 

[Clayford_Photography]

thanks for the help! i appreciate it

 

[Chris of Arabia]

At the risk of repeating myself lmao, I still think that the Canon f2.8 60mm Macro is well worth considering in this role. It comes out at 96mm as a 35mm equivalent, which I find to be a comfortable distance to work from a sitter, and it's also excellent should you want to do some macro work too.

 

[Big Mike]

Most likely a very good lens, but it's 5 times more expensive than the 50mm F1.8