Your preferred focal length for portraits on DX?

Just wondering what focal length and glass Nikonites prefer for shooting portraits on DX? More broadly, what lens attributes would you consider must-haves for family portraiture? For instance, would AF and VR be critical requirements, or would manual work? Or, can one assume good lighting (and thus, settle for moderately wide aperture, instead of pricey f1.4 or less)? Thanks for weighing in!



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gustafson said:

Just wondering what focal length and glass Nikonites prefer for shooting portraits on DX? More broadly, what lens attributes would you consider must-haves for family portraiture? For instance, would AF and VR be critical requirements, or would manual work? Or, can one assume good lighting (and thus, settle for moderately wide aperture, instead of pricey f1.4 or less)? Thanks for weighing in!

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Specifics will depend on how much working room I have, and what kind of portrait I'm doing but, generally speaking, for portraits on a DX body I like to be in the 85mm to 135mm range. Must have's, in my book, are f/2.8 or faster, great color, contrast and sharpness... But that goes for just about any lens.

Remember as well getting nice, soft backgrounds is not only a function of a large-ish aperture, but also of distance between subject and background. When I'm shooting outdoors my rule of thumb is to have ten times as much distance between the subject and what is behind them, as there is between myself and the subject. For instance, if there is ten feet between the subject and myself, then I want to have 100 feet between the subject and the background. If you're shooting against a wall or a backdrop then this really doesn't matter of course. Other things that I think make for good portraits are keeping peoples heads in a "clean space"; this means keeping extraneous elements away from your subjects head. The other thing is a clean, simple background that consists of as few colors as possible.
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Thanks for the response! Great tip on thumb rules for outdoor shooting. And your suggested range makes me feel good about my recent 105 f2.5 Nikkor-P (Sonnar) purchase


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gustafson said:

Thanks for the response! Great tip on thumb rules for outdoor shooting. And your suggested range makes me feel good about my recent 105 f2.5 Nikkor-P (Sonnar) purchase

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I haven't seen one of those in a looooong time... What a fantastic piece of glass! Congrats on the purchase. Some people will feel 105mm on a DX body is a little too much focal length but I like the additional working room such lenses provide, personally. When I can step back from my subject I find they tend to relax and be less self-conscious about having their photo taken. Meanwhile, I'm still getting fairly tight shots so I don't have to crop so hard in post.
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I love my 85mm f1.8G for portraits on my DX body. Such a great value.