Thursday Vibes: Choosing Lenses for Portrait Photography

by | Oct 19, 2023

Today’s Post by Joe Farace

“In a portrait, I’m looking for the silence in somebody.”– Henri Cartier-Bresson

Whenever I’m with a group of photographers, like at one of my Coffee & Camera events—they’re coming back in 2024—some photographers tell me that they would like to try shooting portrait or glamour images but think they don’t have the right equipment making it an unattainable goal. Nothing could farther from the truth. All that’s really needed to produce professional quality portraits is a camera that takes interchangeable lenses, a few simple accessories and a model that’s willing to pose for you.

My basic lens kit for portrait or glamour photography is simple and the specific lens I is typically determined by whether I’m shooting indoors or outside.

Indoors or Studio Portraits

There are two facts-of-life about shooting on location glamour indoors: First, there’s never enough space to shoot, which is why I often find myself pressed up against the opposite wall. Second, the corollary to this challenge is there’s usually never enough light to shoot an available light portrait. That’s why I prefer a relatively fast 85mm prime lens for indoor portraits but don’t overlook the possibilities offered by a 50mm lens or 25mm focal length (equivalent) for Micro Four-thirds system cameras.

That doesn’t mean you can’t use a zoom tens (more later on that subject,) Alternatively and depending on your DSLRs or mirrorless camera’s multiplication factor, a 135mm lens might be tight fit for some indoor locations but if you have the space you will love the perspective this focal length produces with either full frame DSLRs.

In the studio these days, I’m typically shooting with a Panasonic Lumix GH4 Micro Four-thirds mirrorless camera and more often than not I’ll use the Lumix G Vario 14-45mm f/3.5-5.6 lens, which lets me shoot full length shots at the 14mm to 25mm focal lengths (28-50mm equivalent) or more traditionally framed portraits at the 45mm (90mm equivalent) focal length. This lens is no longer available having been replaced by the Lumix G Vario 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 II ASPH MEGA O.I.S lens, which I am told, by reliable sources, is not quite as sharp. The exception to my using the 14-45mm lens is when shooting I’m shooting with continuous lighting sources. That’s when I’ll choose the Olympus M.Zuiko Digital 45mm f/1.8 lens.

Outdoor Portraits

Outdoors, you usually have more light and more room to work in than when shooting indoors—even if it’s in your studio. Outside. there’s typicality also enough room to do full length poses, which can be a challenge when shooting in my 11×15-foor home studio. (That wasn’t true for the photograph above left that was made when shooing in my friend Jack Deans HUGE studio.)

For full length shots, I typically use zoom lenses in the wide angle to mild telephoto range. A lens like the classic (but discontinued) Canon EF 28-135mm provides flexibility for choosing high or low camera positions. For APS-C cameras, I like the EF-S 15-85mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM that is available on the used marketplace. Although thrifty shoppers might prefer the also no longer available EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM lens. I bought’em when they were available and tend to hang onto any lens that I continue to us on a regular basis. (And you should too instead of chasing the newer, more expensive offerings. But that’s just my opinion and I may be wrong.)

Another option is using something from the mild telephoto to the longer telephoto range such as the classic 80-200mm or 75-300mm lenses. These kinds of longer focal lengths can produce a nice looking perspective along with shallow depth-of-field allowing a subject in a full-length pose to pop out of the background placing the focus squarely on them.


 

If you enjoyed today’s blog post and would like to treat me to a cup of Earl Grey tea ($2.50) and if you do, thanks so much.

You can get more details about how I make these kind of shots and the lenses used in my book Studio Lighting Anywhere that’s available new from Amazon.com for $28.68 or starting around ten bucks used, as I write this, which seems like a heckuva deal. The Kindle version is $14.99, if you prefer a digital format.