- Canon EF Portrait Lenses
Canon makes several lenses for the EF lens mount and EF-S lens mount that are well-suited for
portrait photography .Criteria
Lenses suited for traditional portrait photography are medium telephoto lenses, in the 85mm-135mm range, which provide the desired perspective distortion in head and shoulders shots (compressing facial features), and have fast aperture, of f/2.8 or faster, to allow shallow
depth of field , focusing attention on the subject.One can use other lenses, either with shorter focal length (particularly for full body shots), or longer focal length (particularly in
fashion photography , to increase the flattening effect, or in very cropped facial shots). Other lenses can be used for artistic effect; one could use afisheye lens , for instance, though this is considered neither traditional nor flattering.Lenses
Lenses that fit these criteria on a full-frame camera are:
*EF 85mm f/1.2L II
*EF 85mm f/1.8
*EF 100mm f/2
*EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro
*EF 135mm f/2L
*EF 135mm f/2.8 with SoftfocusThe EF 135mm f/2.8 with Softfocus is of particular note, as it includes
soft focus , which is often a desirable effect inglamour photography .APS-C
When used with DSLRs with cropped sensors, notably the
APS-C -sized sensor with 1.6crop factor (such as the popularCanon EOS 400D (also known as the "Digital Rebel XTi" or "EOS Kiss Digital X"), one instead uses 50mm–85mm lenses, as these provide a35 mm equivalent focal length of 80mm–136mm.Lenses that fit these criteria are:
*EF 50mm lenses (f/1.2, f/1.4, f/1.8 II, f/2.5 Compact Macro)
*EF-S 60mm f/2.8 Macro
*EF 85mm f/1.2L II
*EF 85mm f/1.8
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