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Features

3 Great Lenses We’ve Used for Boudoir Photography

Chris Gampat
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04/13/2022
3 Mins read
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If there were any subject that could be controversial in photography, it’s boudoir photography. There are tons of stigmas about it, but there don’t have to be. It all starts with good intentions and, honestly, just thinking about the situation. With that said, any camera and lens can do a great job. But some are just better than others.

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Tips on Getting Better Boudoir Photography

Here are a few tips getting better boudoir photos:

  • We’ve got a series on the site called Sensual vs Sexual that aims to teach photographers about the difference and how body language can affect that. It’s an important part of boudoir photography.
  • Boudoir photography is more about creating and showing off a mood. There’s also a huge part about connection and trust.
  • The lenses that we’re choosing can help you create great boudoir photography. But it’s still up to you to come up with the ideas, play with lighting, understand poses, and all.
  • Don’t ever overlook the hands! Placement of the hands can mean a whole lot of different things. 
  • The angles in boudoir photography tell a lot about the scene.

Canon RF 50mm f1.2 L USM

Pros

  • Gorgeous bokeh
  • Weather sealing
  • Pretty fast autofocus, much faster than the DSLR versions
  • Build quality is solid
  • The textured, matte feel is nice
  • The control ring around the lens feels like an organic aperture ring
  • People simply look good with this lens attached

Cons

  • Expensive, but when you consider what this lens is, then it makes sense for what you do.
  • Though it sort of isn’t needed, image stabilization would have been nice due to the size.

How is it for Portraiture?

In our review we state:

“If I’m going to be very honest, the Canon RF 50mm f1.2 L USM is the best 50mm lens that I’ve tested. I loathe the 50mm focal length. LOATHE IT! But with this lens, I feel like I’m shooting with a medium format 80mm f2 lens in the 645 format. It’s beautiful and in every single way, Canon is leading the way when it comes to 50mm focal lengths.”

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Mitakon 35mm f0.95

Pros

  • Ultrafast F0.95 aperture
  • Balances well with Fujifilm cameras
  • Adds a nice weight to Fuji cameras
  • Smooth accurate focusing ring

Cons

  • No Autofocus
  • Aperture ring is clickless, easy to move by accident
  • No electronic communication with the cameras

How is it for Portraiture?

In our review we state:

“No doubt, many of you are looking at that F0.95 number and are drooling at the idea of some insane bokeh. But if you are coming from a full frame world I have to tell you that you will be disappointed. However, if you have been with Fujifilm for a while now, this will be some bokeh that will blow your mind. The F0.95 bokeh on this lens is something that I would equate to roughly equal the look of F/1.4 or so on a full frame system – which isn’t bad at all because you have to remember you are getting this lens for significantly cheaper and in a significantly smaller package than a full frame setup.”

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Canon RF 24-70mm f2.8 L IS USM

Pros

  • Fast-focusing abilities
  • Sharp image quality
  • Very lightweight
  • Built incredibly well
  • Well balanced and smaller than the Sony G Master
  • Image stabilization
  • Fairly priced

Cons

  • I don’t have one

How is it for Portraiture?

In our review we state:

“What I’m super satisfied with is the sharpness from this lens. It’s positively fantastic. When the output from a flash is added, the sharpness gets even better. Any photo editor will be happy with these images, and any wedding client is bound to be satisfied. In the case of a wedding client, you’re not going to get bleeding sharp results, and quite honestly, that’s fine. I don’t know of a single bride who wants to see her pores vs. retouching and smoothing her own skin like crazy before posting to Instagram.”

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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.
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