What lens do you prefer for portraits?

[Rajah Sulayman]

Originally Posted by Olivier H

I also use the lens a lot for everyday situations, but it lacks a bit of angle for indoor shots...

That's actually exactly why I opted for the Sigma 30mm f/1.4 over other fast lenses -- it was the widest one I could find.

I belong to a small theatre company that operated out of a tiny black box theatre. Since I did a lot of our production photography, I needed a wide lens and 50mm was just too tight for such a small space. With 30mm, though, I could sit right in the first row (to ensure unobstructed view) and still manage to get some good shots (such as the one below).

[TerryL]

I do alot of portraits outside, I use my canon 70-200mm L 2.8 IS, set at 85mm-100mm, seems to get the best results.

[Olivier H]

Originally Posted by rajah sulayman

That's actually exactly why I opted for the Sigma 30mm f/1.4 over other fast lenses -- it was the widest one I could find.

There is also the Sigma 20mm f/1.8. it is also good for portraits in some situations.
Examples here, from the page of a flickr contact of mine:

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[Rajah Sulayman]

Ooh. That's a sexy lens. I may need to rent one someday to play with it.

[psykon99]

I love using the Canon 50mm f1.8 for portraits. Mine is the pre-plastic body. My mom used to shoot an EOS 630 film SLR. She donated her old stuff to me. That little lens has gotten me through all sorts of circumstances. I love it!

[Up North Photos]

Being a veteran Pentaxian I've used the film slr with a 100 macro with success but now with the shake reduction digi I prefer the 100-300mm for my portraits. These pictures illustrate the affect of range from 100,200,and 300.

[dhopp44]

I am a very new newbie and have the Canon Xti 10MP. I have the 18-55MM and 75-200MM AF lenses and was wondering what the best settings are for pictures of the kids with Santa. In additon, flash or no flash. Also reading these threads people often refer to the lens as f1.8 etc. I thought the f number was set by the camera? IS it actually in the camera but automatically adjusts the lens? I told you I was new but have recently shot some incredible (I think) sports photos of my kids.

Thanks

[Nicole]

You might want to try the portrait setting on your camera if you're very new to the settings and you aren't quite sure which ones to use and when. Without knowing what the lighting is like for the pictures it's hard to say if you will need the flash or not. The flash can reflect in things like glasses and can make people look washed out. The portrait mode should be able to get reasonably good results without getting into too much detail. Good luck!

Some lenses are referred to as f/1.8 because they have a larger than usual aperture and this is the maximum aperture that they are capable of (at least, larger than the usual aperture that the lenses that come with the camera have). While the camera will set the f-number automatically in the different auto modes, you can select it manually in the Av or M modes. This is useful when you're trying to shoot in low light or when you want a lot of the picture out of focus.