What’s a good lens for portraits?

When taking pictures of people, photographers need distance from their subjects, as getting too close results in a perspective that exaggerates facial features. However, being too far away can lead to a featureless compression of the subject.

The photographic style’s lens requirements

The 85-135mm focal length range is ideal for portrait photography - field of view crop factor included. However, use of a wider focal length for full body portraits and group pictures and a longer focal length range for tighter-framed portraits such as head shots is effective.

• Photographers can opt for fixed or zoom lens focal lengths
• When not using a backdrop users will probably want to blur the background - a wider aperture setting and long focal length will make this possible
• Wide maximum apertures also make low light portrait photography possible