Which lens to purchase for portrait photography

[suz_od]

Hi all
I am in the hunt for a new lens and have been trying to do my reasearch on which one would be my best choice. Heres my situation I currently have a canon 500D and only have the kit lenses at the moment. I do mostly portraits but have been asked countless times if I can do proms and weddings also which I would love to do but I first would like to upgrade my equipment I have a budget of around $1200 (australian dollars) im so over whealmed with all the choices and advice and would like to know from peoples expierence on which would be my best choice? any and all advice is appreciated and welcomed

[Gaurav Prabhu]

Canon 550D being a APS-C DSLR will bring into play the crop factor which will make your wide lens appear telephoto. For portraits generally 70-105mm focal length is required. A 50mm f/1.8 is good to begin with. A fixed focal length(prime) is recommended instead of zoom lens.

[inkista]

The 50/1.8 II is, imho, the third kit lens. If you want an upgrade towards pro equipment, it's not your answer. The most commonly recommended all-purpose event lenses are the 24-70 f/2.8L USM, and the 70-200 f/2.8L IS USM, because both of these can be used for available light with the f/2.8 max. aperture, and are zooms, so give you more framing versatility. But both are likely to be outside your budget right now.

What you may want to consider is that weddings and proms and other event shooting is not all like doing portrait photography: while posed photos do happen, a lot of event shooting is about being in the right place at the right time and nailing it with only a single chance. The equipment that can help you do that varies with the shooter. Some folks use fast primes, others use f/2.8 zoom, still others use flash. But mostly it's a matter of mental toughness--how long can you stay alert to the possibilities and anticipate them?

You need to analyze how you shoot and what you think is going to work best for you.

My personal choice in your situation would be to start relatively small. Get a fast prime of some kind, and an external flash. And then practice event shooting with friends' and relatives' birthday parties or the like before attempting a wedding.

[sybren]

For portraits I nearly always get my EF 85mm f/1.8 USM lens. It's awesome! I really love it to bits. I also like the fact that it's a prime lens - somehow it's easier to know how it reacts and what kind of pictures I get from it, because the field of view is always the same.

[suz_od]

thanks for the advice :-) I totally understand portraits and weddings etc are diffrent I put that info in there to give as much info as I could the proms and weddingd I have been asked to do are friends and relatives who totally understand Im definately no pro but they are letting me do it for experience and arent expecting the world from me theres just so many choices and opions out there that im not sure which to get is it worth saving and getting the 70-200 f/2.8L IS USM to get the zoom I figure get a good one now while I have the $$$ and also I have been told im better off upgrading my lens b4 upgrading my camera its sooo confusing lol I really appreciate all the advice p.s I have the canon 580EX II just after the lens now :-)