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A Visual Guide to How 35mm, 50mm and 85mm Lenses Differ For Portrait Photography

Chris Gampat
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06/06/2018
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Chris Gampat The Phoblographer Tamron 85mm f1.8 Di VC extra sample images Jenn's portraits (3 of 4)ISO 4001-160 sec at f - 1.8

Last Updated on 06/06/2018 by Mark Beckenbach

In case you were looking for a new lens for portrait photography, consider this.

Photographers who love taking portraits have most likely experimented with a variety of focal lengths, or they’re at least curious about what each does for the genre. Popular focal lengths include 85mm, but in the past few years 50mm and 35mm lenses have become better and better when it comes to portraiture. They have less distortion and overall just have a more pleasing look about them. Today, every manufacturer makes good lenses; and when it comes to portraiture the only thing to keep in mind is what sort of portrait you want to create.

What to Keep in Mind

Here are some questions to ask yourself when you shoot a portrait that will help you figure out what lens to choose:

  • Who are you photographing?
  • What is their body type?
  • What kind of portraits are you doing?
  • What is the purpose of this shooting?
  • What are you getting out of it?
  • What are they getting out of it?
  • When are you shooting?
  • What is the lighting like?
  • Can you augment the scene with your own lights?
  • Why the hell can’t you augment the scene with your own lights?
  • How much room do you have to shoot?

35mm Lens for Portraits

The 35mm focal length is perhaps best served for what I like to call environmental portraiture. It’s a wider lens and so with most normal sized people, it’s going to make certain parts of them look bigger than they really should look. This is partly due to perspective distortion and partly due to just the design of the lens. I don’t recommend using 35mm lenses up close and personal; in my own experience it hasn’t resulted in the most flattering images unless the person is very fit. Otherwise, 35mm lenses can make most people look great when you pull back and show them in an entire scene.

Use 35mm lenses for:

  • Environmental portraits
  • Full body portraits
  • Group portraits
  • Close ups if the person is thinner

Sony Zeiss 35mm f1.4

In this situation, a 35mm lens is used with very specific posing. By bringing Alberto’s arms forward, they look bigger and therefore this seems a lot more masculine overall.

 

50mm Lens for Portraits

The 50mm focal length is sort of an interesting one. This article pertains to proper 50mm focal length lenses and on full frame 35mm sensor cameras and film. For this, 50mm lenses can surely work out very well for portraits. But if 35mm lenses require you to be a bit further away from your subject, 50mm lenses allow you to get in a tad closer. Even so, I still wouldn’t get in incredibly close. The upper quarter of a person’s body is probably where I’d draw the line with a 50mm lens.

Use a 50mm lens for:

  • Portraits of normal folks no closer than a quarter of the person, typically the upper portion

 

With the subject sitting, have them lead forward a bit more and ensure that their tights aren’t actually on the seat. Rest the elbow in the middle of the thighs and have the hands do something. Hands are very expressive and tell a lot about the person. Shoot them a bit off angle. Ask them to raise their chin up a bit as well.

85mm Lens for Portraits

85mm lenses are truthfully the most versatile focal length for portraiture. I find that 135mm are the best for the genre, but 85mm tends to give photographers the most versatility overall when it comes to shooting. With an 85mm lens, a photographer can shoot a pretty close up headshot and they can also pull back further to get more of a subject. The only problem is that the space that you’re working in can be tight, and so 85mm may not be the best option. But if you’ve got more room, then I highly encourage going right for an 85mm lens of some sort.

Use an 85mm lens for:

  • Basically, anything portraiture related
Model: Megan Gaber
Model: Grace Morales
Model: Natalie Margiotta. Zeiss 85mm f1.4 Milvus

35mm 50mm 85mm body type distortion Environmental focal length lenses portrait portrait photography questions
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Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.