Is there a correct lens choice for Portrait or Head Shots ?

There are very few lenses that cannot be used as portrait lenses. Lenses with focal lengths ranging from 14mm through 800mm can be used to capture the world's most valuable (but not always the most cooperative) subject - people. Still, not all lenses are good choices for all portrait situations, and some lenses truly excel for portrait photography.

The first portrait photography concept you need to be aware of is perspective. If you move in too close to your subject, the part of their body closest to the lens is going to appear drastically enlarged relative to the rest of their body - due to the perspective. That body part is usually the nose - and few people want their nose enlarged - and doing so can make them uncooperative. The subject may also be uncomfortable with you in their personal space - an uncomfortable subject will not likely photograph well.

The converse is also true. If you are too far away from your subject, their features become compressed in appearance. I find this look far more attractive than the big nose look and often prefer to use longer focal lengths for my people subjects, but be aware of what is happening in your images. Being too far from your subject makes communication difficult. Physical obstacles (such as a wall) can also inhibit the use of longer focal length lenses.

The portrait lens focal length decision should be based on the perspective you want, the subject framing desired and the working space available. A wide angle lens makes the most sense when used for environmental portraits - where your subject is in the environment they are to be photographed with - such as a workplace. And conversely, a long telephoto lens should be used for a tight head shot - to keep the nose nicely-sized.

Conventional teaching is that the 85-135mm focal length range is ideal for portrait photography (field of view crop factor included). I generally agree with this teaching, though I will often use wider focal lengths - such as 50mm for full body portraits or 24mm for large group pictures. And I prefer a longer focal length for tightly-framed portraits - such as head shots my 18-200mm is choice.www.dancemedia.org

A blurred background will make your portrait subjects pop. Longer focal length lenses will make blurring away a distracting background easier, as will wide apertures. The wide apertures will of course reduce depth of field. The right balance of depth of field and background blur must be achieved - the mouth & both eyes in focus is often my minimum standard.

Are you shooting in a studio with a special background (such as rolled paper) and using studio strobes? You will probably be using narrow apertures such as f/8 or f/11. In this scenario, your lens choices increase dramatically. Most decent lenses in the focal length you need will perform reasonably well for you.

The sample portrait included at the top of this page was captured with an 50mm prime lens and an f/1.2 aperture using a crop Canon 60D body. The background is almost completely melted away while a pleasing perspective has been captured.