Good lens for indoor portraits??

garry1307

garry1307

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I have purchased a back drop and some continuous lighting so I can take some pics of my children in nice clothes etc, was wondering what a good lens to buy would be for this sort of work??

I have a nikon d3100 camera, your advice would be much appreciated, also would u recommend a flash aswell or would the flash on camera be sufficient?

Thanks for reading
 
Hi

Welcome to TP?

What is your budget for the lens and flash? This will help with the recommendations.

Thanks
 
Probably around £450 for lens and around £100 for flash. But this is my limit don't really want to go over if can help it.

Thanks for replying
 
I don't want to put a downer on you, but even the best lens won't make bad lighting any better.

So have a look in how to light (someone will surely recommend a book soon) and then buy the lighting setup that caters to your taste, or start small with a speedlight, umbrella and reflector and work your way up.
 
What lens are you using just now?
I love the 50mm for portraits (FX) and liked the 35mm on Dx, (my favourite was 17-55)
If you have a 18-55 or similar, see what focal length works best for you. I like the 85mm and 105, but with your cropped sensor, you'll need plenty room to use them
The 17-55 is a great dx lens, just about in your budget 2nd hand, and an sb600 maybe?
 
At the moment I have an 18-55 kit lens but I also purchased last the 35mm prime lens which I prefer
 
A flash like Yongnuo 560 III, a set of rf-603 triggers for your model of camera (as they come with a lead for shutter release, if you want one and pair up to the 560 III flash), umbrella and light stand and at least the 50mm f1.8g, I would not recommend the 35mm f1.8g as it will distort when getting in close and make noses quite big, you say you have some lighting all ready so maybe you have that sorted, the above is just my recommendation, make of it what you want.

So at least a 50mm f1.8g or even the 85mm f1.8g, also some type of zoom is usable for portrait.
 
Don't buy a lens just yet. Use your kit zoom at 55mm and that'll be fine for head and shoulders.

What you need is a flash of some sort, stand, umbrella or softbox, a reflector and radio triggers. When you've got the hang of that, then consider ways to move forward.

It's more about knowledge and experience than kit.
 
Thanks for the advice, I have the back drop and umbrella lighting already was wondering about certain flash to get aswel
 
I like the holga lens a lot, its 60mm, f14, so flash needed but it can make lovely pictures, and 10 quid :-)

there's a tamron 60mm macro, and classic 90mm macro, they would offer good dual use value, I guess :-)

but lighting helps a ton, so get that sorted too
 
As said stick with the lens you have at the moment, lighting will be more beneficial to you, you say you have continuous lights at the moment, unfortunately mixing a flash with those not the best as the flash used in manual mode (camera and flash) will kill the ambient light which is basically the continuous lights, so would say you need to look at one or the other, so all continuous or all flash.
 
With continuous lighting you would need a lens that can give a very wide aperture. Or you will simply have to bump the ISO so high it will look very noisy (grainy). My advice is go for a 50mm prime lens as these can give you the option to go for a very shallow depth of field which is great for close up portraits (literally face only). Also if you can use some bounce back umbrellas in a budget studio kit you will be able to get razor sharp portraits. Soft boxes and shoot through umbrellas often soften the skin but sometimes they can literally remove all the detail in the skin tones and just look muddy.

A prime lens should cost no more than £200 especially online. As for the studio kit you can normally get an interfit kit for about £200 that can get you 2 umbrellas and they come with a basic DVD usually to help you get started.

Now you may want a light meter for this studio outfit. In my opinion save your money and just practice. Once you get used to your kits power you will know how to set it up just by memory, as a basic light meter for flash photography is about £130.

Hope this helps a little
 
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