My next lens (portraiture): help?

[bigbrother]

Hey all! Relative beginner here and, get ready for this, I now want a new lens :).

I just took some portrait shots with my M50/nifty 50 (via EF adapter) and the results were, to the shock of absolutely no one I'm sure, astounding.

It got me thinking as to what would make sense to step up my game and increase my capabilities and versatility whilst shooting dynamic portraits (think outside a studio), and here's what I've concluded:

- I would love a zoom lens that would allow me to go from about 15mm (the lowest on my kit right now) to somewhere around the 50 mark. 60-70 would be even better. Basically, I've been finding that the 50 is forcing me to get too far away from my subject most times. For doing a full body shot with decent background framing, I need to often cross the street, etc. And with my kit lens, I enjoy 15-20mm shots but nothing more as the 50 handily defeats it there.

- The low, low, low 1.8 f/stop on the 50 has me addicted. I'd say 90-95% of my shots are taken with the aperture wide open, and the small remainder almost exclusively with 2.2-2.5. Doing some cursory searches shows me that a zoom lens that low is near impossible to find/afford... right? It seems to me the best I can hope for is something in the low to mid 2s, say 20 to 60 range.

Basically I want to be able to go from full body shots to head or head and shoulders with a single lens that maintains that background blur so desirable for portrait work.

Notes:

- I am, as said, virtually a beginner. So it's quite possible I've missed some key elements here, stated things incorrectly, and/or overlooked some basic things you all know.

- I'm not yet too familiar with the conversion between standard (EF) lens focal lengths and my M series, so please take into account that my experience is with an EF-M series 15mm on the desirable low end and an EF series 50mm on the desirable high, whatever that means for your recommendation.

- I'm not wedded to the idea of a Canon lens... just seems nice.

Thanks so much!!

[RobertTheFat]

---

@bigbrother wrote:

---

@ebiggs1 wrote:

"I've been finding that the 50 is forcing me to get too far away from my subject most times. For doing a full body shot with decent background framing, ..."

First do you know what a "portrait" is?  It isn't a "full body" shot.

---

Don't really appreciate the condescending tone here; I literally posted all over my question that I might get things wrong, I'm a beginner, have probably missed things, etc. in part to try to prevent people from doing exactly this. But, forum pedants will be forum pedants, I suppose.

---

Please don't be oversensitive. We're all friends here and try to help each other when we can.

There's actually a good reason why a portrait lens makes you back away from your subject. If you get too close, especially if you're taking a head shot, a "normal" or wide-angle lens will tend to exaggerate the length of the subject's nose. Backing away corrects that.

If you don't believe me, look closely at the TV sequences of people being interviewed from home because of the COVID lockdowns. Sometimes the person will appear to have an oversized face glued onto an absurdly little head. That's because they're sitting too close to the camera in their laptop, which has a lens wide enough to capture a fair-sized scene but exaggerates the size of the foreground.

[ebiggs1]

"Don't really appreciate the condescending tone here;...,  But, forum pedants will be forum pedants, I suppose."

Suggestion, swallow a bit of the attitude and listen to the others then. The advice was meant to educate. Nothing more.

[wq9nsc]

I guess we could start a go fund me account to send Ernie to niceness charm school 🙂 

However, my personal preference is I will take useful and accurate information delivered harshly over a polite but less useful delivery.  Ernie has a ton of experience over a lot of different shooting situations and I appreciate his sharing. 

I worked with a lot of people in central admin during my 30 years at the university and my two favorites had all of the charm and tact of Genghis Khan with rabies but they made up for that many times over with competence, honesty, and highly ethical behavior.  We worked well together and put out fires without wasting time.  I look at photography in the same light because if you don't resolve the problem very quickly the opportunity to capture is usually lost and that probably impacts the way some of us look at other situations in life.

Rodger

[ebiggs1]

Thanx for that Rodger. My only thoughts were to find out the level of "beginner" the OP is. Beginner has a different definition to different people. Perhaps the others and you can help.