

One question I am often asked on my YouTube channel is “What focal length lens should I buy or use for portraits?” Photographers always want to know if they should purchase a 35mm, 50mm or 85mm lens for their portrait work.

The answer is that it depends on the distance between you and your subject. You can take portraits with a 35mm lens, but if you’re too close to your subject, then your portrait will have distortions. A 50mm lens is the most popular entry-level lens, but even it can give you a bit of distortion if you’re composing head shots with your camera in portrait orientation. Yes, this is true, even after calculating the crop factor. Having said this, if you keep a little distance between yourself and the subject, then you won’t see any distortion with a 50mm lens.

Look at the following pictures. Each is taken with different focal length lenses: 35mm, 50mm and 85mm.

35 mm 50 mm 50mm with distance 50mm with distance 85mm

Clearly, the 35mm photo reveals distortion. The 50mm has a bit of distortion, but the same shot in landscape orientation would have been distortion-free. I would say 85mm is ideal for close-up headshots because you’ll see no distortion.

What should you do if you don’t own a 85mm lens? Try not to position yourself too close to your subject. That will take care of any distortion. If you own all 3 focal lengths, then simply pick the right lens, depending on what kind of composition you’re creating.

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All pictures are taken by PhotographersOnUTube. You can find their Photography Tutorial channel at http://www.Youtube.com/user/photographersonutube and Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/PhotographersOnUTube.

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