A successful portrait require proper light on face, exact focus, balanced DOF and Bokeh, color and contrast. An expert hand always makes a thing better. In photography we have a wide variety of lenses to choose. Sure you can shot anything with any lens but every lens is designed to perform on some specific topic. Here I’ve tried to name some portrait lenses for amateur photographers.
See more Portrait Photography tips
Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM
There are few lenses in market which are call portrait lenses. It has been agreed by most of all photographers that the best focal length range for portrait photography is 50mm to 135mm. Based on the portrait type, you can choose your lens for the out of the box portrait.
For full body portrait, you can use EF 50mm f/1.4 USM
Most impressive and renown portrait lens is Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM
For tight frame or headshots with extreme bokeh and crispy sharpness there is only few lenses above Canon EF 135mm f/2L USM
Canon EF 28mm f/1.8 USM
Environmental portrait requires a wider focal length with sharp image, beautiful color contrast, balanced DOF. Canon EF 28mm f/1.8 USM
To know more about lenses, visit Know DSLR Lenses series
I did not mention the most important thing for successful portrait. That is the proper expression of subject. No lens can help on that rather a photographer should manage it. A telephoto lens can give a decent distance to make a comfort zone between subject and photographer. The comfort zone can help a little to bring the expression.
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5 Comments
good work!
but you didn’t mention whether the focal lengths are for crop-sensor or for Full-frame…. an 85mm lens becomes a 128mm lens on crop body…. and a 35mm lens becomes a 52mm lens on crop… this changes the whole usefulness of each focal length… the quality of the lenses shouldn’t be the only things we should consider…. the angle-of-view covered by each lens is most important and can be the main decision-making criteria for their choice for a particular shoot….
and on another note, you have to consider zoom lenses…. 24-70 and 70-200mm focal lengths are extremely popular among all types of portrait photographers….
Well the lens suggestions ware for the amateur photographers and I assumed that most of the amateur (exceptions r not example basis) use crop sensor. Angle of View is a really a missing point here.
Reason behind not including 24-70/70-200, and most expensive 85 f/1.4, 50 f/1.2 lenses is those are mostly Pro lenses and this post is mentioned for amateur
As solution another blog could be put in on Angel of View and Crop factor for lens and linked here for reference
can’t agree 100% with the words that amateurs are mainly using these lenses… most amateur don’t use 50 1.4 lens, rather they use 50mm 1.8, which is almost one-third the price… and 85mm 1.8 used my many pro’s, and the 24-70mm is used my many amateurs worldwide who can spend… and 135mm f2 is nothing but a pro lens… few amateurs own this actually…
anyway, I get you point and wait for more… keep it up!
Can’t disagree with you. Well I’ll have to be more specific from next
Great Help! Thanks a LOT!