wpas

I read that the 85mm lens is an ideal lens for portraiture work. However, if you have a cropped DSLR camera, that’s a lens that seems impossible to buy as all of the 85mm lenses I see for sale, including the Nikon, are for full frame cameras. So that an 85mm lens placed on a cropped camera, as I believe most of us own, will actually be a 127mm lens, not a great portrait lens. Therefore, for most of us, I guess we should be using a 50mm lens that will give us an actual 75mm effective focal length which is closer to the recommended 85mm lens. I’m I thinking correctly here or am I missing something?

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

Any 85mm lens, either "DX" or "FX", will give same view on "APS-C" camera that a 127mm lens would give on a "FF" camera. Other than that, you are correct.

Kmgw9v Loc: Miami, Florida

You are missing something. The 85mm on a DX camera is a fine portrait lens. So, is a 105mm.

rmorrison1116 Loc: Near Valley Forge, Pennsylvania

I use my EF 85 f/1.2L on both FF and APS-C bodies. On Canon cameras and lenses there's a red dot, white square and white dot on the bodies and lenses. If the lens has a red dot it will mount and body with a red dot. Same goes for the white dot and white square.
On an APC-C body, I simply move farther away from the subject.
I like to use it on my EOS M50 with the EF to EOS-M 0.71X adapter.

rmorrison1116 Loc: Near Valley Forge, Pennsylvania

Yes it is a good portrait lens. Some folks instead of just giving things a try, simply over think things.
I had that 85mm lens long before I had a full frame body.

Kmgw9v Loc: Miami, Florida

Research something like “Best Portrait lens” on YouTube. That should help fill in what you are missing.
Point being: there are many lens options for making good portraits.

JohnSwanda Loc: San Francisco

I bought an 85mm lens specifically as a portrait lens on a DX camera, and it works just fine for me. Why do you think a 127mm equivalent is not a good portrait lens? With film cameras, 85mm, 105mm, and 135mm lenses were all considered good portrait lenses. For me, a 75mm equivalent lens would be too short for tight head shots.

RichardSM Loc: Back in Texas

Very good well written, I’m in agreement with you John, the smugness of some of these folks are what I don’t understand, it’s like what I say is what it is do as I say it pretty arrogant!

Kmgw9v Loc: Miami, Florida

Smugness?

GoofyNewfie Loc: Kansas City

In photo school, I was taught the ideal focal length for a typical classic portrait is twice the “normal” length for your particular format.
That would mean for your Nikon D5600, 35x2 =70mm.
85mm is closer to 70 than 50, though you can get great results with either.
I would prefer the longer focal length as you will have a smaller background area to deal with since you’d have a narrower angle of view. This helps reduce possible distractions in the background and gives you a bit more working distance than a 50.
My favorite for DX is Sigma’s 50-150 f/2.8.
It’s the DX equivalent of a 75- 225 on a full frame.

LiamRowan Loc: Michigan

IMHO the answers do not appear smug. A lot of photographers shoot portraits greater than 85mm on full frames because they like the compression of facial features at that length. Personally my only concern would be working distance with the 85mm on a crop sensor, especially if you're shooting more than one person. 50mm on a crop sensor does yield a very beautiful result.

RichardSM Loc: Back in Texas

What other word would you use?

wpas

Thank you all for the great information.

E.L.. Shapiro Loc: Ottawa, Ontario Canada

For general portraiture, with a DSLR or mirrorless camera, a range of focal lengths between 50mm and 105mm is quite workable. Of course with various sensor sizes there is going to be differences in FIELD ANGLE but there are other factors to consider.

A "portrait" can be a tight headshot, a traditional head and shoulder image, a 3/4 or full-length image or even a group of two or more subjects.

A moderately longer lens is preferred by most experienced portraitists to help in avoiding certain distortions and thereby maintaining proper perspective, however, perspective is not controlled by focal length but rather by distance. The "proper" focal length for the type of portraits you are making enables you to work at a comfortable distance whereby you can easily communicate with your subject and maintain good perspective, both elements at the same time.

Somewhat longer lenses can make background management and selective focus easier to achieve. It can be less difficult to put a background out of focus sufficiently to obtain better "bokeh" and help subdue distracting background elements.

Perhaps a zoom lens that would encompass a range of theses prescribed focal lengths would be a good solution to your issue. You could vary the focal length according to enabling a practical and aesthetically pleasing working distances and make variations for the aforementioned types of portraits.

There are no currently manufactured lenses (for DSLRs) that are specifically designated as "portrait" lenses. Many years ago in the film era, there were lenses with that designation in that they were of the correct focal length, as explained above, for large format studio cameras and many were soft-focus formulas. There are some classic favorites for the 35mm format such as the Nikor 105mm- it is not a soft-focus model. Canon produced a 135mmm soft-focus model that ostensibly is a "portrait" lens. Nowadays, in digital photography, it is your choice depending as to the style you wish to produce, the type of work you are doing and the equipment you presently own. A portrait can bee tack sharp, sentimentally soft, or very soft- it depends on taste, style and approach. A lens does not need to be razor-sharp for every style of portraiture so even a so-called "kit" zoom may do very nicely.

The 85mm is not the "gold standard"- something in that range or the equivalent for your camera body will suffice.

Here on the UHH forum, there is an Advanced Portraiture section where you are welcome to participate- ask questions, get answers and critiques, join in the discussions and pick up some of the finer points.

PS- All this optical theory is great, however, a good rule of thumb for beginning to master portraiture is to put down the books on optics, the calculators and the computer keyboard and pick up the camera. Pop on a lens of one of theses suggested focal lenghts, recruit a willing subject who does no mind beig tortured and (just a little) at try you hand at it. Post some shots in the section I mentioned and get some pointers. Once you get your sea legs, then you can invest in you favorite lens.

wpas

Wow! I feel I just had a real lesson. Thanks a bunch for taking your time to answer my question. This is a recent photo I took with a Nikon 18-200mm zoom set to about 80mm. I wasn’t happy with the background.