portrait lens

11 years 5 months ago #261314 by anothershot
What is the best lens for portraits?
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11 years 5 months ago #261323 by garyrhook
You will get different answers depending upon who you ask, but I believe that it is generally agreed that a focal length of at least 50mm, perhaps around 75-85mm, is best to accurately capture facial structure. Perhaps up to 105mm or so. Longer and you get more ability to separate the subject from the background, without any real change in the way facial features are captured.


Photo Comments
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11 years 5 months ago #261330 by hghlndr6
:agree: Way back when I did portraits and had a choice of primes to use, I'd shoot in a range of 50 to 135mm (35 mm format). Less than 50mm distorts facial features the closer you get to the subject. If you don't get close, the distortion isn't so much a problem and if you're goig for the "environmental portrait," it could work. My favorite for portraiture was the Nikkor 135mm (because that's what I had in primes). It enabled me to easily separate the subject from the background as Garry said. These days, my portrait work is "casual" (as opposed to "paid"), using a zoom, and I'm generally in the 100-200 (35mm equiv.) range.
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