The Portrait Lenses

I recently argued with a person on the internet about portrait lenses and I think it's very important to actually know what makes a certain lens good for portrait. First of all, we need to know our location and the space that we require for the shoot and right after that we need to choose the proper lens.
Let's answer one simple question:

Why are some lenses good for portrait and some are just not doing the trick?

The answer is simpler than we think. The secret is not in the aperture, it's not in the size, the weight, the brand or the stabilization... It's all in the aberration, and I mean the distortion of objects (face, body etc.) The less distortion we have in the image the better our models look. This is highly dependent on the focal length and, to some extent, on the sensor's crop factor (click here for more on full frame vs. APS-C sensors). Longer lenses produce images with a lot less distortion. Ideally outdoors I'd shoot with an 85mm or longer lens (if you have a vario lens make sure to keep it zoomed at over 50mm) to steer clear from any distorted faces. My big love however is the 50mm prime lens that gets me the results I need. It's small and it's perfect for outdoor portraiture.
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However, if I want to shoot in a studio a vario lens is required. Some people who rarely do studio shoots will go ahead and start proposing prime lenses for studio portraiture but people who know the trade will tell you prime lenses are pretty much useless between four walls. The reason you need a good vario (basically anything between 18 and over 100mm would be nice) is that studio shoots take a certain amount of time that can't be expanded too much (studio hours, models, make-up artists, stylists and what not) and we want to get the job done so shooting with a prime lens means moving lights back and forth as well as setting their strength over and over again. And all this because if we want to zoom in on the model with a prime lens we have to take a step forward and drag the lights (all front lights that would hit our back for standing in front of them) with us instead of zooming in with a vario lens and taking the framing we want.
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By using vario for portrait shoots in closed spaces we solve many problems and make the shoot possible. Just make sure you're not too close to the model at a smaller focal length to avoid distorted images. Zoom in and out using the vario and don't zoom out all the way because it will be a disaster.
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A good vario lens will get you where you need to be at the studio but nothing beats the bokeh of a prime lens when shooting outdoors. This is one of the main reasons people get a nice 50mm prime lens (apart from its low price of course). You have lots of space behind the model and lots of space to move around and take angles and go around outdoors so this is the best option for the case. Indoors, however, you need a sharp vario with as little aberrations as possible to cover different framing from one line of shooting without moving the lights too much. You will be using aperture values between f5.6 and f13 on a single-color background so forget about the bokeh of the 50mm.

Write your questions below and I'll be more than happy respond. For more on lenses click here.

All the best,

Kamen Kunchev

Lenses! So many!

So many lenses to choose from and so little money to spend. One doesn't simply walk in and order all the lenses! First of all we need to decide what pictures we'll be taking in order to decide on the equipment. Once we are relatively sure about that we can go shopping.

Let me tell you what lenses I own and we can take it from there:

• 50mm prime for portraiture in the open and indoors where I need to capture more light. It's fantastic and I just love the bokeh. Tips on outdoor portraiture with samples - click here.
• 18-55mm kit for when I need to go shooting at weddings (I shoot with this lens at tables). You just can't go without a vario for such events. I prefer this lens because it's cheap, it's stabilized, I wouldn't care bumping it occasionally and performs rather well in cases when sharpness is not that important. Tips on wedding shots at tables - click here. You could also go around town shooting buildings or mount it when you want to break away from the concrete and take some nice nature shots (flower photography tips here). It's wide and will provide a decent vario range.
• 500mm mirror for the beautiful doughnut bokeh that is unique to this type of lenses. It's really fantastic even though the lens is not sharp it will give you unique effects and make people wonder how you did that. To be honest, I don't really use this lens so often.

From the looks of it, I like shooting outdoors and this variety of lenses gets me right where I want. Here's what I'd like to get for Christmas:

• 85mm prime - the bokeh is just fantastic and the sharpness is a wow.
• 24-70mm - really sharp and the aperture is wide open. What I really like about this lens is that it's also fantastic for studio shots where you not only need the vario but also the sharpness. Speaking of studio you can check my backdrop tips here.
• 80-200mm or 70-200mm at 2.8 - we all just need a long range lens from time to time so why not get a really decent one. This one is not on the necessity list because it's heavy and big. You can't just carry it around always and you need more space to take photos with it. Once you get it though you will want to keep it.

Here's my general advice about what to look at when picking a lens:

1. Prime lenses will give you great sharpness, beautiful bokeh and lots of light. You will be shooting with such lenses mainly outdoors where you have plenty of space. Get a 35mm prime if you want to shoot in tighter spaces as well. Also these are less expensive, lighter and focus very fast.
2. Vario lenses are pretty much universal and are perfect for the casual photographer who likes the dSLR quality of image. If you have a higher class vario you can really use it for anything. I am talking about the 2.8 aperture lenses. You can shoot in a studio, outdoors, indoors... pretty much anything. Note that these are expensive but for a very good reason.
3. Know your camera. If you own a full frame camera make sure you're buying full frame lenses. Cropped sensor cameras, on the other hand, can use full frame lenses just fine.
4. Know what you want to shoot. Most often people buy something because they were told it's good. I like my 50mm because I like getting the details and I use it every day. Some people are really enjoying landscapes and will need a wider lens starting at 18mm (or wider) and won't need an aperture starting at 1.8 for shooting mountains and rivers.
5. Get a tripod for the long lenses. You will need it especially in poor light conditions.

Alright! Comment and ask away! I'd be more than happy to get into more details responding to your comments below.

All the best,

Kamen Kunchev