Portrait lens for Grandchildren and picky parents

gshoward671 wrote:

Having been a long time Nikon user, I am new to Fujifilm and need some guidance on selecting a portrait lens that will used primarily outdoors for pictures -both random and planned- for grandkids. I have a 17 year old grandson whose parents want a "professional" look to his senior pictures and then there are the toddler grand kids that will have pictures made as opportunity presents- (there won't be much posing):-)

I own an X-T3 and a 16-55mm lens. I would like a prime lens for simplicity, flexibility, and bokeh quality. I have considered the 35 1.4; 50 2.0; and the 56 1.2. Need some suggestions and guidance along the way here.

Thanks in advance! Grear

What lens do you use currently?

I would ignore all the 'pose properly' suggestions as you have stated there won't be much of that.  It is absolutely possible to get professional images of kids running about and playing, a walk in the woods is ideal for it.  Especially in Autumn when the leaves are displaying some lovely colours before they 'fall'.   Even with the 18-55 lens you can achieve great results.  Get them out on a nice bright say, use the sunlight coming through the trees to illuminate the backdrops,  shoot the lens wide open and get some separation between the kids and tress in the background - when the leaves are falling get them to pick some up and throw them, this will keep them locked into a smaller area and you get some nice action.  Maybe get them to sit on a pile of leaves on a pathway with some separation to the background where you'll get nice fall off and hopefully some nice colours too.

It doesn't have to be a forest, a local park or anywhere there's trees and room for them to run about.

I say the kit lens because it's much more versatile for this type of shooting, though I prefer primes myself.  Even F4 is sufficient to get some nice bokeh if you're doing it right.  If you feel you do need a prime I would say something like the 23 1.4 or the 35 1.4, they are plenty fast enough, I've captured my kids at play when they were a little younger using the 35 1.4 and had no issues.