The Natural Light Portrait Book

Why I Avoid 50mm Lenses for Close-Up Portraits

The 50mm lenses are handy if you’re doing full-length fashion, but if it’s a headshot, or head and shoulders, or anything the least bit close in, the distortion those lenses create is not at all flattering to your subject (see above—the only thing I changed was the lens). I get that people are drawn to a 50mm lens—you can get an f/1.8 for around $100 to $125, which is insanely low for a sharp, fast lens you can shoot in low light and/or put the background out of focus. However, to get the background out of focus with a 50mm, you have to get fairly close to your subject, which means you’ll have some ...