Choosing the Right Lens for Portraits

The lens you choose for portrait photography has a greater impact on the final image than almost any other variable. It determines compression, bokeh quality, working distance, and the subtle way your subject’s features are rendered. Understanding these characteristics helps you select the right tool for every portrait scenario.

The Classic Portrait Focal Lengths

The 85mm lens is widely considered the gold standard for portrait photography on full-frame cameras. At this focal length, facial features are rendered naturally without the distortion that wider lenses introduce. The working distance of roughly eight to twelve feet gives your subject comfortable personal space and allows you to direct them without shouting.

For tighter headshots and beauty work, a 100mm or 135mm lens compresses the background further and produces beautifully smooth bokeh, the creamy out-of-focus areas behind your subject. These longer focal lengths require more physical space, making them better suited to outdoor sessions or spacious studios.

Wide-Angle Portraits With Intention

While conventional wisdom warns against wide-angle lenses for portraits, a 35mm lens can produce striking environmental portraits that place the subject within their surroundings. The key is positioning: keep your subject near the center of the frame and avoid placing faces near the edges, where barrel distortion stretches features unfavorably.

A 35mm or 50mm lens excels at storytelling portraits, images that show a chef in their kitchen, a musician on stage, or a craftsperson at their workbench. The wider field of view provides context that telephoto lenses cannot capture, making these focal lengths essential for documentary and editorial work.

Aperture and Bokeh

Fast lenses with maximum apertures of f/1.4 or f/1.8 allow you to isolate your subject against a blurred background, drawing the viewer’s eye directly to the face. However, shooting wide open at f/1.4 produces an extremely thin plane of focus where one eye may be sharp while the other falls slightly soft. Many experienced portrait photographers prefer f/2.0 to f/2.8 as a working aperture that balances subject separation with sufficient depth of field.

The optical design of a lens also influences bokeh character. Some lenses produce smooth, circular highlights in the out-of-focus areas, while others render busy or angular shapes. Reading reviews that specifically address bokeh quality helps you choose a lens whose rendering matches your aesthetic preferences.

Zoom Versus Prime

Prime lenses generally offer wider maximum apertures, sharper optics, and lighter weight than zoom counterparts. A 70-200mm f/2.8 zoom provides tremendous versatility and is a workhorse for event and wedding photography, but it weighs significantly more and typically costs two to three times as much as a prime. For photographers who shoot primarily in studio or controlled environments, a single prime lens at your preferred focal length delivers superior image quality at a lower price point and encourages you to move your feet rather than your zoom ring, often resulting in more thoughtful compositions.