This article explains which lens is suitable for portrait photography. If you are looking for a lens for portrait shots, this article will help you.
Only when you know which lens is suitable for portraits can you choose the right lens and take satisfactory photos. The key to portrait photography is that the main subject stands out from the background. Three elements of the lens play a decisive role in this.
Three important elements when choosing a lens for portraits
1. The aperture: A large aperture from F1.4 to F2.8 blurs the background, making the main subject stand out.
2. The focal length: A focal length from 50 mm to 200 mm minimizes distortion and enhances depth effect.
3. Optical performance: A high-resolution lens precisely preserves skin texture details, effectively avoiding glare and reflections.
1. Prime lens
A prime lens is a lens whose focal length is fixed due to its design. Typically, a prime lens has good resolution, excellent imaging performance, and high brightness.
A 50 mm lens is classic among all lens types, with an image effect closely resembling human vision. With an aperture from F1.4 to F1.8, a soft and blurred background can be created. It is suitable for indoor portraits and everyday shots without distortion.
The 85 mm lens is considered the king of portrait photography. Its narrower angle of view combined with a large aperture of F1.4 allows for shallow depth of field, creatively highlighting the main subject. Additionally, the high-quality optics preserve fine skin texture and reduce glare, making it especially suitable for outdoor portraits or wedding shoots.
The Sirui Aurora 85mm F1.4 is a full-frame autofocus lens that perfectly combines the strengths of this classic focal length. It provides a natural image effect and beautiful bokeh. Thanks to the large aperture, it offers excellent low-light performance and impressive imaging quality. The precise and fast autofocus is ideal for dynamic subjects like children or animals.
Thanks to its ED lens and three high refractive lenses, it reduces edge distortion to a minimum, ensuring perfect image quality. Despite the high image quality, it is still affordable.
2. Zoom lens
A zoom lens means a lens with variable focal length, for example, 24 mm to 70 mm or 70 mm to 200 mm. Zoom lenses are characterized by their variable focal length and combine wide-angle and telephoto functions, making them suitable for diverse scenarios.
A zoom lens with a focal length of 24 mm to 70 mm is popular. At 24 mm focal length, it is ideal for night shots and portraits with depth effect because of the wide angle of view, while at 70 mm focal length, the background depth can be compressed in low light, similar to a prime lens. With a large aperture, the background is naturally and softly blurred. You can adjust the focal length as needed.
A zoom lens with a focal length of 70 mm to 200 mm is advantageous for shooting distant subjects. Lenses with a long focal length over 135 mm are ideal for moving subjects and distant portraits, such as dancers or runners. However, with a smaller aperture, it has weaker bokeh than a prime lens.
3. Wide-angle lens
A wide-angle lens, also called a short focal length lens, has a focal length less than 40 mm for full-frame DSLR cameras, for example, 35 mm, 28 mm, 24 mm, 17 mm, or 14 mm.
Because the angle of view is very wide, the relationship between people and their environment is clearly shown with a wide-angle lens. If you want to do portrait photography by the sea, a wide-angle lens with an aperture of F1.4 and a focal length of 24 mm is definitely a good alternative.
When using a wide-angle lens, distortion at the edges of the image is usually unavoidable, so it is advisable to position subjects and people in the center of the image when shooting.
4. Macro lens
A macro lens is suitable for macro photography of special subjects. With 1:1 magnification, it can capture hair, skin pores, and jewelry at a micro level. Thanks to the large aperture, for example F2.8, sharpness for local details like lipstick or gemstones is optimized. It also enables perfect close-ups in difficult lighting conditions. It is excellent and ideal for beauty bloggers.
Conclusion
Only when you know which lens is suitable for portraits can you make the right choice. In portrait photography, prime lenses, zoom lenses, wide-angle lenses, and macro lenses each have their own strengths. With a prime lens, you can precisely control the focal length, while zoom lenses offer better flexibility and quick adaptation to changing subjects. For specialized approaches, macro and wide-angle lenses are good.
If you are a beginner, the 24 mm to 70 mm zoom lens with an aperture of F2.8, which offers versatile functions at a fair price, is a good alternative. If you are a professional, the 24 mm prime lens with an aperture of F1.4, which delivers premium quality, is definitely the right choice for you.
