Portrait lens

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annamoore1990

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Annaliese
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Hello,

I have only got a kit lens at the moment and do a lot of photos of children and couples so looking to get a portrait lens for my canon 500D but not sure which is the best one to use.. I am looking for the cheaper option but also a good option.

Any advice would be great

Thanks xx
 
Seen MANY lovely images shot with the Canon 85mm f/1.8 USM, great quality, costing around £275 (ish) new.

Or look at the more expensive Canon 135mm f/2 'L' glass, another cracker lens, but costing around £700 (ish) new.
 
Is the kit lens not letting you get the pics you want? :shrug:

If not, then people normally suggest wide aperture primes, f1.8 or better. What focal length? It depends on the kind of pictures you take, and the situations you take pics in (space). :shrug:

I've seen some Pros use the 24-70mm and the 70-200mm f2.8 lenses for versatility, but they are normally mated to FF cameras.

The bargain lens for Canon is the 50mm f1.8 which can be had for about £75 and is what a lot of people start with as a cheap lens upgrade. :)
 
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Given the old adage 'there's no such thing as a portrait lens', the best lens to do what I think you want is the 85mm 1.8. I love mine, if that's too much money, the 50mm 1.8 isn't bad - for me it's not long enough - but then I always had a 135 lens in the days of film (similar field of view).
 
It depends what type of portraits you want to take. I personally prefer to use a 35mm focal length for candid portraits. This brings in a lot of background which helps to place the portrait in context.

However most formal portraiture is much more tightly shot. If that's what you're after I would recommend the Canon 85mm f/1.8 USM. It's very reasonably priced and would suit a variety of portrait applications.

If you're not convinced checkout this lens sample thread:
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=1287825
 
daugirdas said:
85mm is the best bang per bug,

Maybe 100mm macro L if you want a more fun lens

and it's LENS, not lesE or anything else.
Click to expand...

and it's bang per BUCK, not buG or anything else (tongue firmly in cheek!) :lol:

The 85mm is a great focal length and the "compression" of the longer focal lengths are pleasing for portraits. Depends on what you shoot vs budget!

S
 
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