Portrait Lenses – Which one is the best??

Portrait lenses, which one is best??

I get this question all the time, so I knew it was time to write up an article on portrait lenses. In this article I’ll go over depth of field as it relates to focal length, aperture, distance to the subject, and crop factor.  Why some glass is better than others, and for what reason?  What distance is optimal for portraits and at what focal lengths? Recommended Glass!   If this sounds interesting, keep reading…To start off this article on portrait lenses, I want to go over a few really important concepts as it relates to portraiture that you should know before purchasing a lens.

• Distance to subject and perspective
• Focal length and perspective
• Distortion
• Aperture
• Sharpness
• Bokeh
• Cost
• Image stabilization

The ideal distance to the subject gives us the correct perspective, which will insure the features are captured with the correct proportions the human eye expects to see.  That might sound confusing and I apologize, but It really is a pretty simple concept to grasp.  When photographing people you want to be at least 10 feet away ideally and even further for groups.  This distance might sound like a lot, but it really isn’t as it relates to perspective.

When using a wide angle lens up close for a head shot you will yield a very distorted look enlarging the nose and altering the perspective so much that the ears disappear.  Check out the image below of Chopper.  Although not a human you can clearly see the distorted effect that this Sigma 10-20mm lens has on my buddy.

Chopper – Canon Rebel XTI, Sigma 10-20mm @ 10mm, f/4 ISO 400, 1/800sec

His tongue is stretched and his nose and head are so ballooned he looks like the Tasmanian Devil from the cartoon!  A very cool effect mind you, but not particularly flattering for a Senior Portrait head shot or a tight family photo.  However, in the correct circumstances a wide angle lens can create amazing landscape style portraits like in the image below of Grand Central Station and our friends Michele and Anthony.

Canon 5Dmark II, Canon 17-40 f/4 L @ 19mm, f/10, 1/8thsec, ISO 400

Why the wide angle lens “works” for the Grand Central Station image, and not the other is muti-fold, but basically it’s the distance to the subjects as it relates to the camera and lens.  Because I’m so far away in the Grand Central  Station portrait, the perspective is correct enough that the models are not distorted looking. The point being, distance matters so you have the correct perspective on your subject and there “features” appear in the correct proportions. This way your model in theory should look there best.  In other words the focal length of the lens has no effect on the perspective of the portrait, the distance controls perspective.  So that being said, Any focal length in theory can be good for portraits if used correctly

Focal length also matters!!  In the image below I was using my 5D Mark II, and Canon EF 100–400 f/4-5.6 L IS lens at about 20 feet away.  I got down on my belly and zoomed in to 400mm. This high focal length allowed me to get a great head and shoulders photo with no perspective distortion.  This high focal length in relation to the subject to background also created an amazing fall foliage bokeh.  The only downside I can think of to using a lens like this is you will need some room between you and the model which can be tuff at times.  For more on how focal length relates to Aperture, and distance be sure to check out my Understanding Aperture Tutorial over Here >>

The ideal focal length varies depending on what your shooting. For example, knowing that 10-12 feet is a good distance, the focal length will need to change in order to get a tight head shoot vs a full body shot. I personally love using my Canon 70-200mm lens on my full frame 5D Mark II for baby and child portraits.  That 70-200mm focal length gives me enough range in my studio at ~10-12 feet to zoom in close for a killer face portrait, quickly adjust to about 135mm for a head and shoulder shot, then go out until I get a nice full body shot. This can all be done in about a second with this lens.  The downside of using a lens like this is it can get heavy after a bit, especially if your not used to it.  Strap on a 5D Mark II with a battery grip and you have one pretty heavy set-up.  It’s tuff for Michele, but she can do it.  Check out he pics of Layla below both taken with the Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS USM lens at the same distance.

Canon EF 70-200 f/2.8 L IS @ 150mm

Canon EF 70-200 f/2.8 L IS @ 105mm

If I need to shoot a family I would prefer to use the 70-200 and move as far back as needed, but sometimes that is just not possible. So I would put the Canon 24-105 f/4 L IS lens on and adjust the focal length until I can fit the group nicely.
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