Portrait lens advice,

TassieD

Evening all,

I have the opportunity to do some corporate photography work for the company i work for. Mainly portraits from what has been talked about so far. My question what is the prefered focal lens for this type of work. The bonus here is that they are going to pay for my efforts.

Shay Stephens

TassieD wrote:

Evening all,

I have the opportunity to do some corporate photography work for the company i work for. Mainly portraits from what has been talked about so far. My question what is the prefered focal lens for this type of work. The bonus here is that they are going to pay for my efforts.

Depends on the type of portrait and the amount of space you have between you and the subject. But it is usually hard to go wrong with a 100mm especially for headshots. I get good work done with a 50mm too.

Pezpix

TassieD wrote:

Evening all,

I have the opportunity to do some corporate photography work for the company i work for. Mainly portraits from what has been talked about so far. My question what is the prefered focal lens for this type of work. The bonus here is that they are going to pay for my efforts.

To be honest, you need to provide some better information about what exactly you are shooting with (camera, lighting, etc) Also, will it be outdoors or studio work?

Well, just to take a stab at this, I'll assume that you have a Canon camera since its more or less what I know and use... My ideal setup with a Canon 5D, 1D series or 30D would be to have a soft diffuser, flash bracket, 85mm f/1.2L or f/1.8 glass. Another good portrait lens is the 50mm f/1.4L, and the 35 f/1.4L is wonderful for wide angle shots. The flash would be a 580ex with a fill flash bracket. Anyway... just my .02c

TassieD

Shay Stephens wrote:

Depends on the type of portrait and the amount of space you have between you and the subject. But it is usually hard to go wrong with a 100mm especially for headshots. I get good work done with a 50mm too.

Thanks Shay,

Appreciate the feedback and will go with the 50mm for the time being.

TassieD

Pezpix wrote:

To be honest, you need to provide some better information about what exactly you are shooting with (camera, lighting, etc) Also, will it be outdoors or studio work?

Well, just to take a stab at this, I'll assume that you have a Canon camera since its more or less what I know and use... My ideal setup with a Canon 5D, 1D series or 30D would be to have a soft diffuser, flash bracket, 85mm f/1.2L or f/1.8 glass. Another good portrait lens is the 50mm f/1.4L, and the 35 f/1.4L is wonderful for wide angle shots. The flash would be a 580ex with a fill flash bracket. Anyway... just my .02c

Hi there Pezpix,

You are very correct, I should have given all the info. I shoot with a Canon 30D and 350D I have the 50mm 1.8 and a bunch of others but this is the fastest of them.

The portraits will be indoors in the office enviroment. I have the Sigma 500 flash at present but plan on picking up the 580ex for this project.

Cheers and appreciate your feedback and sugestions.

01af

TassieD wrote:

I shoot with a Canon 30D and 350D I have the 50 mm 1.8 and a bunch of others but this is the fastest of them. The portraits will be indoors in the office enviroment.

For persons at their desks, in front of their computers, or at the machines they're operating (i. e. portrait shots that include a bit of a person's typical environment), a 50 mm lens on an APS-C-format camera is perfect. For head-only portrait shots however, it's just a bit too short. So in addition to your 50 mm lens, bring along a zoom lens that includes the range from, say, 70 to 100 mm (fully or part of it). Lens speed doesn't matter very much; minimum focusing distance matters more. Most standard zooms and short-to-medium-telephoto zooms are appropriate. For group shots, also bring a (moderate) wide-angle lens, e. g. 24 mm (can be a zoom, of course).

-- Olaf

LiquidAir

The 50/1.8 will serve you well enough. Stop it down to f/4 and you will be fine. As for lighting, I would put the 580EX and a silver umbrella on light stand and use a reflector for fill. The easiest way to do that is to get the ST-E2 optical trigger to put on the camera. If you can rig a second flash, I would probably put it on a boom above as a hair light and shoot against a dark background.

Art Scott

ok i am bit of a renegade when it comes to this but here are my favs for portrait work....a medium zoom 28 - 70mm(35mm equiv) & 70 -200mm zoom f2.8 or 4......I like longer lenses so I am not right in YOUR face shooting and so things in the under 70mm are for me too short unless I am doing wide angle and trying to enclude some of the persons personal (or work) enviroment....if it just to be standard head / shoulder or full length potraits in the home or office then I opt of the 70 - 200, unless of course it is just toooooo confining to use even at 70 - 100mm..then you must opt for shorter / wider lens.

LiquidAir

Art Scott wrote:

ok i am bit of a renegade when it comes to this but here are my favs for portrait work....a medium zoom 28 - 70mm(35mm equiv) & 70 -200mm zoom f2.8 or 4......I like longer lenses so I am not right in YOUR face shooting and so things in the under 70mm are for me too short unless I am doing wide angle and trying to enclude some of the persons personal (or work) enviroment....if it just to be standard head / shoulder or full length potraits in the home or office then I opt of the 70 - 200, unless of course it is just toooooo confining to use even at 70 - 100mm..then you must opt for shorter / wider lens.

On a full frame body, I agree that you don't want to go wider than 70mm or so, but I think that on a crop body 50mm is workable (effective 80mm). For posed head shots on a crop body my first choice would be the 85/1.8 but if I had the 50/1.8, I am not sure I would buy a new lens just for one job.

rebelxtnewbie

TassieD wrote:

Hi there Pezpix,

You are very correct, I should have given all the info. I shoot with a Canon 30D and 350D I have the 50mm 1.8 and a bunch of others but this is the fastest of them.

The portraits will be indoors in the office enviroment. I have the Sigma 500 flash at present but plan on picking up the 580ex for this project.

Cheers and appreciate your feedback and sugestions.

I don't know much about the Sigma flash, but the 580ex is excellent! As for a lens choice...what other lenses do you have? I like the 100mm for portraits. The bokeh is smoother than the 50mm. I heard the 85 f/1.8 is nice too.

LiquidAir

The 85/1.8 is a great lens. The bokeh is much smoother than the 50/1.4 and the AF is both faster and quieter. If you are planning on picking up a new lens for portraits and you don't want to shell out for L glass, this is the one.

AntoineD

rebelxtnewbie wrote:

I don't know much about the Sigma flash, but the 580ex is excellent!

As far as I've seen, the 580ex is indeed way better.

I don't really like Sigma flashes' light quality… it feels… "flashy".

leanne-b

Have to chuck in my 2 cents worth ... I use 50mm as I like to get in fairly close (without too up close and personal) ... my old instructor would shoot me for that though - he would always say always go with something like 100mm. Sounds like you have it sussed.