> John Pattenden wrote:
>
> I'm due to become a dad in a couple of months which
> is an excellent excuse
> to buy a new lense.. something suitable for
> portraits.. my line up is
> currently 17-35 2.8 / 50 1.8 / 70-200 f4 / any
> suggestions for a nice
> portrait lense would be helpful, probably fixed
> focal lenght and suitable
> for indoor use..
There's a big element of personal taste here.
Generally, portrait lenses are in the range of 85mm to
135mm, and Canon's got a whole bunch of choices. It
depends a lot on what you want to do.
For environmental portraits, the short end of the
range works well, giving you enough working distance
to avoid perspective distortion, but not forcing you
way back, like a 135 might. For tight head shots, a
135 is probably the way to go. My personal choice is
the 100mm f2. I can get tight shots without being
right in the subject's face, but can still back up far
enough in most situations to get the surroundings, if
I want. And it's fast enough to get really
out-of-focus backgrounds if that's what I want.
But the lens I find myself using more and more is my
70-200 2.8L. I can get as wide as an 85 and as tight
as a 135, and more. I can back off and zoom to 200 if
I really want to isolate the subject. And the 2.8 is
still fast enough for most indoor work, and to give
decent background blur.
I'd suggest starting with your 70-200. Pay attention
to where you're using the lens most, and if you think
you need something smaller or lighter or faster, then
you'll know what focal length range will work best for
you. With a subject as small as a newborn, you may
well find the 200mm length more useful than you'd
expect.
HTH,
=====
Bob Meyer
Life is uncertain. Eat dessert first.
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Get personalized email addresses from Yahoo! Mail - only $35
a year! http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/
*
****
*******
***********************************************************
* For list instructions, including unsubscribe, see:
* http://www.a1.nl/phomepag/markerink/eos_list.htm
***********************************************************
