P#16 Q3A: Our Master Photographer's Favorite Lens for Portrait Photography

More Than One

Bobbi Lane: Normally a medium telephoto lens is what you want for the best perspective when you're going to do a head and shoulder shot -- something in the 85-105mm range if you're on a full frame camera and you could go like 60mm or 65mm to about 105mm for a half frame camera. That's for the accurate perspective.

That doesn't mean that you can't use other lenses.

Again, it comes back to what your concept is. Sometimes I use wide angle lenses because I want to include more background or I want a little distortion. Those are special cases.

My all-time favorite lens is the 85mm and a fast lens, either a 1.4 or a 1.8.

The reason for that is because when you have those really fast lenses there are a couple of things that happen. First, there's more glass because the lens is sharper. Second, it has more light-gathering ability so it allows you to shoot in lower light situations and still handhold without having to go on a tripod.

The other really important thing about it is that when I can shoot wide open, that means that I can use a much more selective depth of field and really make the background go out of focus. It's a little difficult because so many people have zoom lenses now and they have those variable zoom lenses. They may be 4 to 5.6.

When they zoom to a medium telephoto, their widest opening is 5.6 and 5.6 is actually sometimes too much depth of field if you really want to blur the background out. With an 85mm 1.4 or 1.8, they just sing. I use those a lot.

In Closing

The best lens for portraits? Bobbi says there is technically more than one answer to that question, but her favorite lens is the 85mm 1.4 or 1.8 for her portrait photography sessions.