Which lens for portrait photography to choose?

Portrait photography is a type of photo that we are led to take very regularly, whether with friends, family or strangers. The equipment needed to shoot can be very simple (an APS-C sensor and a single lens with a large aperture fixed focal length lens for example) and quite affordable in most cases. In short, you will easily find something to shoot nice portraits without having to invest large sums in very bright optics that clearly can cost you a lot of money. This is also the case for landscape photography lenses.

Except for certain action situations, the autofocus of even the simplest cameras will be enough and you will already have access to a lot of lenses with a good price-performance ratio to shoot portraits at attractive prices. In low light, as in all domains of photography, you will be faced with some difficulties, but again, lenses with fairly wide apertures can easily be found and the use of flashes or other light sources will expand the possibilities. Conversely, in landscape or wildlife photography for example, the subjects are often either too large or too far away.

This article will first briefly introduce you to the DSLR and mirrorless cameras suited for portrait photography, with, as mentioned above, a wide choice since most cameras will have good performance in this area. No need for a full frame camera at 2000€ to capture beautiful portraits! Then, I will detail all the lenses that I recommend, both to start and learn photography, as for those looking to choose a great lens to target the field in a serious way.

Finally, I’ll talk about accessories that can be used to improve your pictures, whether it’s flashes to add light or diffusers and reflectors to shape it. An article of advice on settings and tips, among others, to better achieve your portraits will quickly follow, so that you can make the most of the material that will be presented here. The idea clearly is that after reading this article, you will be able to choose the focal length you need for your portrait pictures, whether you want/can have a constant aperture or not, or whether you want to buy one or multiple lenses. So how to choose a portrait lens and which ones to choose?

If you already own a Nikon body (DSLR or mirrorless), I invite you to read my guide on the best portrait lenses at Nikon. I outline all the lenses, both zoom and prime lenses, I consider ideal for portrait photography, and I detail them one by one!

Overall, this is a general article to help you choose a portrait lens. I will soon produce precise articles explaining the different possibilities in terms of portrait and going in more detail. I will also talk more about the alternatives from third-party brands. Coming soon.

The size of the sensor is an important point to take into account both on an DSLR camera as on a mirrorless camera. Larger sensors (full-frame sensor for example) allow, as always, better performance in low-light conditions. Generally speaking, this will often be less essential in portrait photography, especially in cases where you can, for example, direct your subjects or use accessories to add light. However, larger sensors will indirectly provide a shorter depth of field for the same framing, in order to isolate the subject by blurring other areas, which is why cameras with APS-C, full-frame sensors or even medium-format sensors are particularly popular. That said, rest assured, there are other solutions to isolate the subjects and allow you to take beautiful portraits with cameras with a smaller sensor such as mFT (micro four third – Micro 4/3 for mirrorless).

You can therefore choose the camera that suits your budget, from the lowest to the highest end, without the risk of going wrong. Usually, it will almost always perform well enough for portraits. The lower end will have a little more trouble following moving subjects (wildlife for example), but unless the subject is Usain Bolt in the middle of a race it won’t often be a problem. If the amount of light is insufficient (e.g. dark areas), some low-end cameras will have more trouble taking a picture and catching the subject (you’ll see your autofocus “slipping” as they say in the jargon…). If you like to take ” robbed ” portraits, mirrorless bodies are generally more discreet and therefore more interesting, and a swivel screen will also give you some possibilities.

In most brands, mirrorless or DSLR cameras, it is easy to find lenses suited for this type of photos. DSLRs will keep a wider choice with sometimes more affordable bodies and lenses, such as the D3x00 and D5x00 or the 2000/4000D and 250D combined with the 50mm and 85mm f/1.8 at Nikon and Canon. But portrait is a practice very adapted to mirrorless cameras, since most of their disadvantages compared to DSLRs will not be obstacles while many of their advantages will turn out to be serious assets. So, Olympus E-M 10 III, Panasonic GX800, Fujifilm X-T100, Sony A6000 or Canon M50 will all be good cameras. For those interested in full frame, the first generation Sony Alpha 7s, the A7 and A7 II, are also good options. Indeed, they can be found much cheaper today and the flaws attributed to them, in particular the slow AF, are not really important for portrait photography, just like entry-level DSLRs such as the 6D from Canon or the D610 and D750 from Nikon.

For portrait photography, generally recommended are focal lengths between 35 and 200mm (24 and 135mm in APS-C, 17 and 100mm in mFT) depending on the type of portrait, from the contextual integrating the subject into its environment to the close-up shot. Of course, there is nothing to stop shooting portraits with a wide-angle or very long telephoto lens to change perspectives and effects, but this will require more experience and practice. Avoid ultra wide-angle/Fisheye lenses, which, due to their focal range, will cause a lot of distortion. For a laugh with friends, it’s quite funny though, haha!

The short focal lengths, 35 and 50mm, will often be more practical for environmental portraits (or in case of lack of distance), while the longer focal lengths, 85 and 135mm for example, allow to reduce the plans. Nevertheless, short focal lengths can also be used to give relief to a tight portrait or long focal lengths to compress the plans for wide portraits. To put it simply, the background elements will be less present with a long focal length for the same framing. Fixed focal length lenses between 35 and 135mm with fairly large apertures (around f/2) are often relatively affordable and of very good quality. Zooms with generous apertures of f/2.8 (or even more) are often more expensive.

Choosing the right lens is never simple, but then why use a large aperture, a very bright lens to shoot portraits? Is the aperture of the diaphragm important to consider then? These large apertures will offer you two main advantages. Firstly, they allow you to collect more light towards the sensor and therefore reduce the exposure time to better freeze movements or reduce the ISO sensitivity to obtain a better image quality. Secondly, they allow you to play a little more with the depth of field to better isolate the subject by accentuating the background blur, the famous bokeh. Fixed focal lengths with even larger apertures, f/1.4 or f/1.2 for example, which are popular with professional photographers, and are also quickly becoming very expensive. That’s why fixed focal lengths with apertures of f/1.7 or f/2 are really interesting. They are much cheaper than versions with larger apertures and even cheaper than most f/2.8 zooms, although they do not have the same versatility.

Zooms opening at f/2.8 such as 24-70mm and even more recent 70-200mm telephoto zoom lenses usually have built-in stabilization. In most cases, in portrait photography, the exposure time needed to freeze the movements will be enough so that this stabilization is not essential. However, it will provide a certain comfort for long focal lengths where a too short exposure time can cause blurred movement, for motion capture or for movies. For those who don’t know, panning is a technique that consists in following the subject during the shooting with a relatively short exposure time so that the subject is sharp and all the elements around it are blurred, thus causing a phenomenon of “panning”. Many fixed focal lengths do not have stabilization in these focal lengths, but for example, most recent mirrorless cameras have stabilized sensors, so there is no need for stabilization on the lens. By the way, would you like to know more about the different sensor formats in photography?

For information, all the lenses mentioned above are summarized in the table below (for APS-C bodies) and this one (for full frame bodies). This will allow you to compare lenses specifications.

Let’s get to the heart of the matter: finding a lens for portraits. For APS-C sensors for Nikon and Canon and regarding zooms, some “standards” cover focal lengths that can be appreciated for portraits, such as 16-80mm f/2.8-4 at Nikon or 17-55mm f/2.8 at Canon. You can however find much cheaper at Sigma with the 17-50mm f/2.8 and 17-70mm f/2.8-4. Sigma also offers, at a higher price but of exceptional quality with an unprecedented maximum aperture for a zoom, the 18-35mm f/1.8 art. The choice in long focal length zooms for this format is more limited, with 55-200mm and 55-250mm f/4-5.6 Nikon and Canon, and once again an exceptional zoom at Sigma, the 50-100mm f/1.8 art. If you want more choice, you will have to go for full frame compatible lenses like the 70-200mm f/2.8 and f/4, or the recent 35-150mm f/2.8-4 from Tamron.

For fixed focal lengths, same thing, since there are few APS-C lenses available for DSLRs. At Nikon, the only one you will find is the 35mm f/1.8 DX, considered by some as the reference to have in your bag for its very acceptable price and its contained dimensions, or the 35mm f/1.4 art by Sigma also existing for Canon. To go further, you will have to look again at full frame compatible lenses such as the 50mm and 85mm f/1.8 from Nikon and Canon. There are also more high-end f/1.4 versions available and much more expensive from Canon and Nikon. Finally, among third-party brands, Tamron offers a 35mm and 85mm f/1.8. Sigma also offers a 35mm f/1.4, a 50mm f/1.4 and an 85mm f/1.4.

Here is a summary of the lenses that I recommend for portrait photography with an APS-C DSLR camera (the possible references dedicated to the full-frame sensor are detailed in the paragraph and the table below)

About full frame lenses, we find for standard zooms the 24-70mm f/2.8 (Canon/Nikon/Tamron/Sigma) and 24-105mm (Canon) and 24-120mm f/4 (Nikon), which can also be used for APS-C and cover fields of views even more adapted to portrait than the 17-55mm and 17-70mm. They will indeed be equivalent to 35-105mm and 35-150mm / 35-180mm. For telephoto lenses, the famous 70-200mm zooms f/2.8 (Canon/Nikon/Tamron/Sigma) and f/4 (Canon/Nikon) mentioned above will also work well. Tamron’s recent 35-150mm f/2.8-4 is here again a good option to have an affordable, relatively bright zoom that covers a focal range very suitable for portraits with a full-frame camera.

There are many fixed focal lengths for full frame, from 35mm to 135mm through 50 and 85mm. At Nikon as well as at Canon, you will have in the f/1.8 range 50mm and 85mm (Canon/Nikon) which are quite affordable (the f/1.4 and f/1.2 versions are expensive). In 35mm, Nikon has an f/1.8 and an old f/2 while Canon offers a fairly recent and stabilized f/2. Beyond 85mm, Nikon offers old 105 and 135mm f/2 as well as a much more recent and excellent 105mm f/1.4. In both brands, you also have access to the 35 and 85mm f/1.8 from Tamron, which have the particularity of being stabilized, and the 35, 50, 85 and 105mm f/1.4 and 135mm f/1.8 art from Sigma, all of excellent quality and often more affordable than the top of the range Nikon and Canon.

And all the lenses I recommend for a full-frame DSLR camera (well, the main ones to avoid the table from being too long).

As for the DSLR lenses above, I’ve decided to summarize the recommended lenses in three tables:

• For the Micro 4/3 mirrorless bodies
• For APS-C mirrorless cameras
• For full frame mirrorless bodies

Regarding micro 4/3 sensors from Panasonic and Olympus, which share the same mount and can therefore use lenses from both brands, there are many references between 15 and 75mm, from 15, 20, 25 and 42.5mm f/1.7 at Panasonic to 17, 25, 45 and 75mm f/1.8 at Olympus for the most “affordable”. For larger apertures, there are also much more expensive lenses such as the 17, 25 and 45mm f/1.2 at Olympus and the 25mm f/1.4 and 42.5mm f/1.2 at Panasonic. Sigma offers in this mount some very interesting fixed f/1.4 lenses as well, the 30 and 56mm. For zooms, the 12-35mm and 35-100mm f/2.8 from Panasonic are quite pleasant because of their dimensions, as well as the 12-40mm f/2.8 and 40-150mm f/2.8 from Olympus.

Here is the summary table of Micro 4/3 lenses that I recommend for portrait photography

In APS-C, you will find from Fujifilm the standard 16-55mm f/2.8 and recently the 16-80mm f/4, or the 18-55mm f/2.8-4 zoom often supplied as a kit. For longer focal lengths, the 50-140mm f/2.8 is very performant but relatively expensive, we are still waiting for a zoom of this type with an aperture of f/4. For the moment, we will have to look at the 55-200mm f/3.5-4.8. For fixed focal lengths, you will find the rather affordable f/2 range in 23, 35 and 50mm and the higher range f/1.4 in 23 and 35mm, f/1.2 in 56mm and finally f/2 with the excellent 90mm. At Sony, you will find the 16-55mm f/2.8 G and the 16-70 and 18-105mm f/4 for the standards. For long focal lengths on the other hand, you will have to go for lenses designed for full frame. In fixed focal lengths you will find 24, 35 and 50mm f/1.8, otherwise you will have to turn to full-frame lenses as well. At Canon in the EF-M range, zooms have rather limited maximum apertures, and in fixed focal lengths you will find the 22mm f/2 and 32mm f/1.4 as well as recently the 30 and 56mm f/1.4 from Sigma.

For full frame, you will find the same kind of lenses at Sony as in DSLR at Nikon and Canon, namely 24-70mm (f/2.8 and f/4) and 70-200mm (f/2.8 and f/4), as well as a 24-105mm f/4 and a recent 28-75mm f/2.8 from Tamron. As for fixed focal lengths, you will have a range of f/1.8 lenses in 35, 50, 55, 85 and 135mm as well as 35, 50 and 85mm f/1.4. Note that Sigma also offers an excellent 85mm f/1.4 (great quality and much cheaper than the Sony). At Nikon, Canon and Panasonic, the full-frame mirrorless camera line-up is very recent, so you currently have a 24-70mm and a 70-200mm f/2.8 in each brand, at Nikon also a 24-70mm f/4, at Canon and Panasonic a 24-105mm f/4, and finally a 70-200mm f/4 at Panasonic. In fixed lenses, Nikon offers a 35, a 50 and an 85mm f/1.8, Canon offers a 35mm f/1.8, a 50mm and two 85mm f/1.2 (the second version called DS has a specific treatment to soften background blur), while Panasonic has for the moment only a 50mm f/1.4.

As is often the case in photography, light will often come to lack, but for portraits it will be especially interesting to model in order to enhance the subject even more. Thus, accessories such as a flash will prove to be valuable assets in many cases. However, it will take a lot of practice and knowledge to make the most of them, especially the flash, which is not just a lamp that shoots a flash. It allows you to direct this flash, to control the intensity, and even to use it multiple times by placing several flashes strategically. Flashes offered by manufacturers are often quite expensive, but other third-party brands make copies that are often much cheaper and almost as efficient, such as Yongnuo, Meike or Godox.

In order to shape the light, you will also find diffusers and reflectors, as their names indicate, the first allowing to diffuse the light in order to soften it and the second allowing to reflect the light to reduce the luminosity variations of a scene. Neewer offers many diffusers and foldable reflectors with different types of faces, silver, gold, neutral, black … at very affordable prices. The bigger they are, the greater their effect. This same brand also offers softboxes with tripods and powerful lamps to create a small “studio”.

That’s the end of this article on equipment suitable for portrait photography. As you can see, it’s not necessary to spend a lot of money on high-end equipment to get good results, even an entry-level camera at 300€ and a lens with an f/1.8 aperture (sometimes even f/1.4) will allow you to achieve sublime portraits. All you have to do now is learn how to set up your camera, manage the light and direct your models, which I hope to be able to share with you in the next article on the settings and tips adapted to this type of photography. If you like articles on equipment, I invite you to read “how to choose your mirrorless camera lenses?

See you soon,

Sylvain