Budget Portrait Photopraphy?

I'm getting into fuji and I bought the XT100 with the 35mm f/2. For budget portraiture I was thinking the 23 f/2 and 50 f/2. Even though I am not primarily a portrait photographer and I was wondering if that is all the lenses I would need?

P.S. I'm not a big fan of zooms

I would say that in my book you're pretty much covered. I use 35mm for most of my photography and I think it makes for more interesting portraits as you as you can place a person in an environment rather than a straight up portraits.

Of you want a more traditional focal length for portraits I would go for the 50mm f2. This is an excellent lens and I would say my second favourite focal length 😀

Julie

Your 35mm f2 is fine

Now start looking into lights and modifiers and so on. Portraiture is not very demanding of camera and lens but needs a full understanding of lighting and posing

tdwesbo wrote:

Your 35mm f2 is fine

Now start looking into lights and modifiers and so on. Portraiture is not very demanding of camera and lens but needs a full understanding of lighting and posing

I don't really pose my subject and I will be doing the majority of my shoots outside/in natural light or with a single speedlight and a transmitter.

I agree with other posters.

In addition, you may want to shoot with just the 35mm for a while. It will become obvious very soon whether you will want a wider, or a longer lens next, or maybe a similar lens but with a wider aperture.

A different approach, if you want an extra lens, is a manual focus lens, either new or vintage. There's quite some new Chinese and Korean lenses in Fuji X-mount with a very pleasing character, and usually very affordable.

This recent thread could be of interest: https://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/4310489

Enjoy, portraits are fun!

Personally I think the 23mm f2 will be of no use in fact the 35mm f2 is also rather short if you're working outside and more so if you are using artificial light and modifiers neither will this lens give much separation as the distance to the subject increases. 50mm f2 will work but personally I think the 60mm f2.4 (used) would be more ideal. It gives space to the subject while being close enough to maintain intimacy. For me its oof bokeh rates close to the 56mm f1.2 or 90mm f2 (the best outside portrait lens of all).

Vic

50mm F2 hands down.

Try some legacy lens. Especially if you want some 50+mm

I'm using Rokkor 58/1.4 and Nikkor 105/2.5.

MC Rokkor-PF 58/1.4

Nikkor-P 105/2.5

RawGrass wrote:

I'm getting into fuji and I bought the XT100 with the 35mm f/2. For budget portraiture I was thinking the 23 f/2 and 50 f/2. Even though I am not primarily a portrait photographer and I was wondering if that is all the lenses I would need?

P.S. I'm not a big fan of zooms

The 35 f2 would be great, and adding the 90 f2 together would be perfect.

Here's what I'd do.

Buy the 50 f2 or 60 f2.8 for the compression and flattering perspective. From a practical perspective, the 35 f1.4 is a better "all around lens", but it is not a portrait specialist's tool. It will show slight distortion for a head shot (not because of the lens, because of the distance).

Also, from experience, if you show a woman her portrait at 23/35/50 FOV's, she almost always picks the 50 (and the one with the thinnest depth of field), unless it's to show off the location / view, in which case, the 23 half body at f2-f2.8 might be preferred.

RawGrass wrote:

I'm getting into fuji and I bought the XT100 with the 35mm f/2. For budget portraiture I was thinking the 23 f/2 and 50 f/2. Even though I am not primarily a portrait photographer and I was wondering if that is all the lenses I would need?

P.S. I'm not a big fan of zooms

I have a budget set : 23 2.0, 50 2.0 60 2.4 and 55-200 (planning to ad 18mm F2.0)

Also i am not a real portrait photographer.

To be honest, the 60 2.4 is my best portrait lens, it gives something "magical", nice bokeh. Ofcourse the 56 1.4 is the ultimate, but expensive and heavy.

When i go on a walk, my 2.0 primes are with me. When i think i will shoot some objects or portraits, the 60 2.4 replaces my 50 2.0

If you go used lenses, you can pick up the 2 lenses for about the same price.

In the end, you can't go wrong with the 50 2.0, but maybe you can try the 60 also (i had the luck that i found a store where they had all the fuji lenses to try out)

You can make good portraits with almost any lens, although a fixed focal length forces you to work within its limits.

The pose and the light should support your vision, if you have no vision, there'll be no portrait.

Jupiter 8 50 mm F/2 @ F/2 (on X-T100). Price including adapter is on average 40 EUR, can be less if you are lucky (I paid 20 EUR on a local flea market).

There are some other cheap MF vintage lenses with good characters for portraits available out there. L39 mount fits nice to X-T100, M42 adds some bulkiness. However, Pentacon 135 F/2.8 and Pentacon 200 F/4 are all in the range of 50 EUR and worth trying.

Wider and fast focal lengths are more problematic for budget vintage lenses in my experience. Flektogon 35 F/2.4 is already quiet expensive since it easily sells for 150 EUR. Jupiter 12 isn't adaptable.

Jupiter 8 50 mm F/2 @F/2

Canon 50mm FD f/1.4 SSC bought on ebay for $50

I like the results from both my 35/1.4 and 60/2.4 (the latter is a lovely lens if you don't mind slightly slower AF) but also agree with other posters that there's much good fun to be had with MF lenses.  The Samyang 50/1.2 is superb at the price, and of the legacy lenses I'd very highly recommend the old Pentax Super Takumar 55/1.8 (M42 mount).