What nikon lens are best for shotting portrait photos

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mattsace

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Hey guys i am new to photography and 19 and have just got my first nikon d3100 ,and just wanted to know what are the best lens to use and for what use , thanks matt
 
mattsace said:
Hey guys i am new to photography and 19 and have just got my first nikon d3100 ,and just wanted to know what are the best lens to use and for what use , thanks matt
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I suggest you read up a bit more, and perhaps research your needs a bit more precisely.

The best lens depends on what you want to photograph (even in portraits), a 200mm f2.8 or similar would be wonderful for head and shoulders, but not the best for a group shot.

You could also pay £100 or £1000 for a lens, what do you want to spend?
 
Welcome to the forum Matt. As Dave has already said, think about what your budget is, what you intend to shoot and take your time in building what kit you get.
It's a very addictive hobby and you will soon find that you think you want/need more lenses.resist it!
A good lens in Nikons line up is the 18-70mm. I had that as my very first lens and in some ways, wish that I hadn't got rid of it. Very sharp lens for the money.
Buy secondhand too. Most photographers look after their gear and you will save a fair bit of money.
Enjoy the forum and I'll look forward to seeing some images from you.:thumbs:

Kev.
 
The rule of thumb is the longest lens you have space to use to limit distortion of features.
 
As its a crop I'd say the 35mm f1.8 (also not too expensive) or sigma 30mm.
However other people would say the 50mm (f1.4 / f1.8) or an 85mm f1.4

Budget and useage (35 is more in your face, 50 needs a bit more space, 85 a little more than the 50).

If you have a kit lens, put that at the require mm (30/35/50/85 ?) and see which you would use.

If you are new to this then stick with the kit lens for 6 months then evaluate which length you used the most.

Unless you have deep pockets ;)

Also - see about joining up with a local meet, you might be able to try some of the lenses (may be?) to see which you'd prefer before spending on them.
 
ecniv said:
As its a crop I'd say the 35mm f1.8 (also not too expensive) or sigma 30mm.
However other people would say the 50mm (f1.4 / f1.8) or an 85mm f1.4
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My only issue there is the confusion between field of view and perspective.

While it is a crop this will change the field of view (narrowing by 1.5), but this won't change the perspective. So a head and shoulders portrait will still have 30mm perspective ie. have a unflattering "look into a spoon" effect.

For portraiture I still feel a minimum of 50mm, preferably 85mm is needed for flattering facial features.
 
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Dave1 said:
My only issue there is the confusion between field of view and perspective.

While it is a crop this will change the field of view (narrowing by 1.5), but this won't change the perspective. So a head and shoulders portrait will still have 30mm perspective ie. have a unflattering "look into a spoon" effect.

For portraiture I still feel a minimum of 50mm, preferably 85mm is needed for flattering facial features.
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But wouldn't the photographer move back to get the same shot?
 
if your on a budget and are willing to try used nikon manual focus prime lenses there are 3 worth considering.nikon 50mm f1.8 series E around £35 ish,great for lowlight when close-up.100mm f2.8 seriesE,still relatively good in lowlight and useful for not so close-up candid head/shoulder/full body,around £70ish,and Nikon 105mm f2.5 Ai/Ais which is my prefered fixed prime for candid portraits,good in lowlight,great dof and bokha,around £130ish.all of these will cost you possibly less than a 1/3rd of a new a/f nikon equivelent and as you are new to photography using m/f and settings is a great tool for learning the basics
 
pmiddleditch said:
if your on a budget and are willing to try used nikon manual focus prime lenses there are 3 worth considering.nikon 50mm f1.8 series E around £35 ish,great for lowlight when close-up.100mm f2.8 seriesE,still relatively good in lowlight and useful for not so close-up candid head/shoulder/full body,around £70ish,and Nikon 105mm f2.5 Ai/Ais which is my prefered fixed prime for candid portraits,good in lowlight,great dof and bokha,around £130ish.all of these will cost you possibly less than a 1/3rd of a new a/f nikon equivelent and as you are new to photography using m/f and settings is a great tool for learning the basics
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Will these meter on a D3100?
 
Dave1 said:
Yes, but by moving back with the longer lens perspective changes, and this changes the look of the image.

http://stepheneastwood.com/tutorials/Tutorials_Lens_Perspective.htm

Which includes an example image of how perspective changes with distance/focal length. Notice how prominent the changes get when you get down to 35mm.
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Hi Dave - but by using a 35mm on a crop, the field of view narrows, forcing the photographer to move back to maintain a head and shoulders shot (for example), and changing the perspective.

Ie the persepctive is down to the location of the camera, not the just focal length used.
eg for a head and shoulders shot, a 35mm crop perspective is approx equal to a 50mm full frame perspective.
 
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A focal length of 135 to 200mm is best for traditional head and shoulders portraits.
 
Rapscallion said:
Hi Dave - but by using a 35mm on a crop, the field of view narrows, forcing the photographer to move back to maintain a head and shoulders shot (for example), and changing the perspective.

Ie the persepctive is down to the location of the camera, not the just focal length used.
eg for a head and shoulders shot, a 35mm crop perspective is approx equal to a 50mm full frame perspective.
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The FOV doesnt change, a 35mm lens is a 35mm lens and has a xx° FOV, using it on an APS body means you are cropping from the full image the lens is capable of and just not seeing the entire FOV of the lens (which gives the impression of zooming in). If you took the 35mm lens and put it on full frame and then cropped the central bit down to the same size as is covered by APS-C the image would be identical. The lens characteristics will always be those of a 35mm wide angle.

What changes is perspective, and that is well shown in those images on the tutorial show.
 
Dave1 said:
The FOV doesnt change, a 35mm lens is a 35mm lens and has a xx° FOV, using it on an APS body means you are cropping from the full image the lens is capable of and just not seeing the entire FOV of the lens (which gives the impression of zooming in). If you took the 35mm lens and put it on full frame and then cropped the central bit down to the same size as is covered by APS-C the image would be identical. The lens characteristics will always be those of a 35mm wide angle.

What changes is perspective, and that is well shown in those images on the tutorial show.
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No, the fov does change, a 35 DX on a DX body and a 35 DX on a FX body will give a different fov.
 
callumduff said:
No, the fov does change, a 35 DX on a DX body and a 35 DX on a FX body will give a different fov.
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Actually yes, in hindsight I've managed to confuse the whole thing exactly wrong. FOV changes while perspective remains the same.

God knows how I managed to get myself so twisted about, everything I said needs the terms FOV and perspective swapped :cuckoo:

Thats what happens when you type crap when you are supposed to be working :shrug:

someone else explains it better than my mess of posts

http://www.tutorial9.net/tutorials/photography-tutorials/crop-factor/

The subject of crop factors and focal length multiplier can be a bit confusing and hard to understand at first — I will try to explain it as simple as possible but yet informative enough for you to get the entire picture.

The size of the sensor is what controls the crop factor, and it’s always compared to a 35mm film size. So when people talk about Full Frame they are talking about cameras that have a sensor the same size as a 35mm film (24x36mm).

[ILLUSTRATION IN LINK]

As you can see in the illustration above, a body with a crop factor captures only the center part of the image. The image itself is round because that’s what the lens produces, and the sensor only picks up the light that reaches it. A full frame sensor will capture edge to edge of what the lens capture.

It’s important to know that the crop factor changes the field of view, it doesn’t actually change the focal length, since that is something that is decided by the design of the lens. The same results could be produced by taking a photograph with a full frame camera and crop it to only show the center — however it would require a camera with a good enough sensor that such a small crop would still produce a good quality image. These high-end sensors are currently only found in the top of the line cameras from Nikon and Canon.

What it also means is that the perspective doesn’t change with the crop factor, if you stand on the same spot and take a photograph with a full frame camera with a 50mm lens and then take another photograph with a 1.6x crop factor camera you will get the exact same perspective (the 1.6x camera will however not have the same view of field).

When people say that a 50mm lens is the natural focal length they talk about perspective in relations with the human eye, and as stated above, this is the same even on cropped bodies, a 50mm lens still produces a natural looking photograph. To test this, use a 50mm lens and look through the viewfinder with one eye and have your other eye open, you will notice that the perspective looks the same for both eyes, no matter if you’re using a cropped body or not.
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I'm going to sit in a dark room for a while :bonk:
 
No problem. Everybody makes mistakes :)
 
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