Portrait lens advice

Unless I'm mistaken, the Sigma has no aperture ring.

The Sigma 56 f/1.4 is fantastic, and not that costly.

White-collar said:

Unless I'm mistaken, the Sigma has no aperture ring.

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You are correct, but for me, there is no need for a physical aperture ring on that lens.

White-collar said:

Unless I'm mistaken, the Sigma has no aperture ring.

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While I totally understand the disappointment with that, the lens still has quite a few pros as well.

allineedislight said:

yes, the old 35mm f1.4 lens is perfect for environmental portraits.

It does have a more classic rendering / drawing that many prefer over the more modern lenses (including the 35 f/2.0 you already own).

the lens is also small and quite light and it focuses quite close (and it is sharp when focusing close, in contrast to the lens you have).

The more modern lenses (eg. 33mm) may focus faster but they are large and heavier and have a different rendering.

For me I keep coming back to the 35mm f1.4 because it renders everthing so special and it yields a certain 3D look that not many lenses have.

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That's my experience as well with the 35mm f1.4. It's plenty of sharp enough even wide open and renders such great images that's it's become permanently stuck on my x-pro 3. The new 33mm f1.4 is said to be near perfect, but it's a lot larger and almost double the price if you buy it new.

Lots of great suggestions here. I'd like to add that the 35mm f1.4 is a great "everyday" lens as well fot portraits, it's light gathering capabilities over the f2 version is also a reason to recommend it.

Wider the lens it will create more dynamic and depth in a picture. We need to shoot knowing how wide angle work and we should pose the person correctly to make it work

But longer focal length will simply compress the image and blur the background.

Give first priority to longer focal length. I would even shoot with 600mm but then i have to use an assistant to pose and communicate via walkie talkie lol. So i find 75 to 135mm give me that range where i can communicate with the subject.

Second go for larger aperture to blur the background. Still i would say longer focal length should be your first priority.

135mm f/4 lens will be more flattering than 50mm f/2 lens.

50mm f/2 will be more flattering than 24mm f/1.4

When focal length is equal the smaller the f number gives more background blur but the compression and flattering is mainly relay on longer focal length.

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Lens choice depends to some extent on the photographer's style. I've always tended to make portraits with a longer than "normal" lens. On full frame something in the 85-200 range and now with my XT3 I shoot a lot with the 90 f2. I love the look of the images from that lens. The only downside is at times it's a little long for certain locations and studios.

With the Fuji camera if I'm going wider I've been using a 16x55 2.8 wide open with good results.