Best lense for indoor portraits in low light or one dimensional light

[Lilchilichoco]

Hi everybody. I want to do indoor portraits in controlled low / single direction light. Which lense do I need ?

Many thanks for your time
Best regards

[T06]

.....my wife will get jelous of the time I reply to you with. If you were to buy Canon or Nikon, the cheapest & one of the best bang for the buck lenses you can buy are the 50mm primes.

[Lilchilichoco]

T06, tell her you are my guru.............!! Can you tell me a specific lense in Canon and Nikon both.....as in what should I ask for at the shop.

(God help the clueless and the kind souls who respond to their lost in the fog queries!!)

Thanks and Best Regards

[achuang]

For Nikon and Canon there are the 50mm f/1.8 lenses or the more expensive 50mm f/1.4 lenses. Depending on how far you are from the subjects, an 85 f/1.8 may be suitable. Both Nikon and Canon have these lenses. There is an 85 f/1.4 in the nikon mount and an 85 f/1.2 in the canon mount which cost a lot. The 50mm lenses are a fair bit cheaper than the 85.

[D Thompson]

Depending on the size of your area either a 50mm f1.8 or a 85mm f1.8. The 50mm is a lot cheaper, but the 85mm is very nice. You could also drop some more $$ and pick up the f1.4 versions.

[DonSchap]

Just a question:

Anyone shot through that EF 50mm f/1.2L USM, yet?

[Lilchilichoco]

achuang......D Thompson.......

Could you please elaborate on "depending on distance."......how much distance works for which lense?

2. What do the values 1.4....or 1.8 refer to?

[achuang]

Hi chili,

We say depending on distance because after the 1.5x crop factor of most digital cameras, a 50mm lens becomes an equivalent of 75mm. And an 85mm becomes a 127.5mm lens. So if the room is not that large, then an 85 may be too long. The 85 is a good length for head shots. The 50 is a good length for half or full body portraits.

The numbers 1.4 and 1.8 refer to the aperture. Both are fast aperture lenses, but the 1.4 is 2/3 of a stop faster than the 1.8.

[Lilchilichoco]

Thank You achuang........your answer has been very helpful.

Best Regards

[polaski]

Just about all the other answers are sort of on target. The traditional focal length for head and shoulder portraits using 35mm film (that's full-frame 24x36) is from about 85mm to 120mm. What those lenses do is provide a more natural perspective view of the face.

For instance, with 35mm film and a 50mm prime ("Normal") lens, you might get close up and fil the frame with the face and the nose would look disproportionately large. Similarly, if you fill the (35mm film) frame with someone's face with a 135mm lens, the face would look sort of flat (and possibly fat).

Of course, there are portraits that include much of the torso and even full body, so any lens can be used.

With my Pentax *istDS, the magnification factor is 1.5, so a good prime lens of 50mm would provide a 75mm angle of view. That does NOT mean that it will provide a 75mm perspective !!! The perspective will still be one of a 50mm lens, but since you are using only the smaller sensor to record the image, it will appear as if you included the person's face along with a goodly part of the face's surroundings.

Does this mean the 50mm lens isn't good for DSLR portraits? No, of course not. The perspective will be as if you are using a 50mm lens to make an environmental or head-and-upper-torso portrait. but the smaller sensor is limiting the image to the head.

Which is all to say that the 50mm prime lens is great in a DSLR, whether it be for portraiture, or more tightly cropped compositions of other things.