50mm vs 85mm - Which is the best focal length for portrait photography?

Tough question right?

I’m fortunate enough to have been a pro photographer for many years now. I shoot a wide variety of subjects, but they always seem to fall into the categories of portraits, lifestyle and fashion work. I’m always photographing people—no still life, product shots, or architecture. I know it's a bit silly to say that I always photograph people as a portrait and fashion photographer. That seem's like an obvious statement, but it has had a huge role for me in choosing the lenses I work with and invest in.

In addition to being a professional editorial and fashion photographer, I’m also quite involved in training emerging photographers.

The one question I get asked the most is:

“Which lens should I buy to attain the best classic portraits?”

This is a highly discussed question and one that we have all faced at least once in our journey. To answer this question properly though, you have to keep in mind a few key details, such as what you are going to photograph and whether or not you are allowed any creative freedom in capturing it.

If you’re going to be photographing products or architecture, then you need to remember that the majority of the time you’ll have to document these things without any distortion and very limited creative liberties. If you take a picture of a building with a 50mm lens standing on the ground, the distortion created by that lens can give the impression of it falling over.

The same rule applies to smaller still life shots. Certain focal lengths of lenses are simply not well suited to represent the straight lines we see in architecture and packaging. Your client is not going to be too thrilled when you show them their building appearing to fall over or their packaging appearing bent and warped.

On the other hand, if you are going to be photographing people, there are no straight lines in sight and you can afford to use the lens distortions in your favor.

If you’ve made it this far, I’m sure you’ve probably realized this isn’t going to be a scientific approach with distortion graphs and calculus. This is simply my advice and opinion based on many years of experience behind the camera and client feedback of the work that I produce for them.

If I’ve ever taken a portrait with my 50mm lens and I’ve made my subject appear taller—and slimmer— they have yet to complain about it.

The point I’m making here is that, as photographers, we’re all in a creative market.

We have creative freedom to do whatever we think looks good, not necessarily what looks “right.”

UNDERSTANDING THE KEY DIFFERENCES BETWEEN 50MM AND 85MM LENSES

Let’s back it up here a second. What actually is “right” when taking a portrait or editorial shot? What is considered “right” by most photographers is usually dictated by what our own human eyes see. If you attach an 85mm lens to a full frame camera, hold it vertically, and then open both eyes while you look through the viewfinder, you should see that both of the images from each eye line up.

It's almost like you aren’t looking through a lens at all. Do the same with a 50mm lens and you’ll soon find that you can no longer visually combine the two images together.

This happens because the 50mm lens is distorting the field of view. To photograph your subject in anything but 85mm would cause some sort of distortion. This is the running theory behind the slightly dated notion that 85mm-105mm are the classic sweet spot focal lengths to eliminate any distortion.

As I mentioned, an 85mm lens is going to give you a more accurate representation of what’s in front of you. This lens compresses the shot so that things that are slightly closer to the camera appear to be on the same plane as things that are slightly further away. This will create some really nice shallow depth of field effects, but it also can be a little easier in general for beginner photographers to use. An 85mm lens won’t distort the subject in any way and will only compress your image, so whichever angle you decide to shoot your subject from you’re going to get great results.

For example, if somebody has a larger nose (like myself) and you photograph them with an 85mm lens, this won’t distort the nose. It will instead give the impression of it being closer to the face and consequently smaller.

If you’d taken the same shot with a 50mm lens, you would certainly need to be a lot more careful about the position you photograph from.

SELECTING A CLASSIC PORTRAIT LENS: 50MM OR 85MM?

Perfect. So an 85mm lens won’t distort my image. That means I can pop it on my camera and shoot away without worrying about making people look ugly.

Why on earth would I ever want a 50mm lens?

The reason you may want one is so that you can enhance what’s already in front of your camera, using your practices and a little knowledge of the lens. The 50mm lens will without a doubt distort your subject. This will become more distorted the closer you are to your subject, but you can use the distortion to your advantage with the right techniques.

If you get down a little lower than your standing subject (for example, you can start shooting up towards them), you can make them look taller. This also has a slimming effect.

This won’t work all the time. It does depend on the persons individual body shape, but with a little experimentation you can usually find the right angle every time.

There are also times when you’ll be shooting in an interesting environment and you’d like to show more of the subject’s surroundings. This will be very tricky with an 85mm lens as it is more like being "zoomed in", effectively eliminating any room for your location to be in the frame. The 50mm lens,, with the proper usage, will have just enough distortion to show a lot of your environment, but without distorting your subject in a negative way.

So what do i use?

Personally I use 50mm lenses all the time, whether it be in the studio or on location. I've also found 40mm to be a very nice focal length as well, I call it my 50 with some more.

I find them by far and away the more versatile choice.

When I chose to purchase a 50mm, not only did I want the lens’ signature look, but I also wanted a lens that could properly represent my subject and the location they were in for an upcoming editorial.

It was a fashion shoot in a real life cave so I needed a lens that would give me great environmental photos. I knew that not only would the space be small but that I also wanted to show the location in the shot.

With the available space and look I was after in mind, this shoot would just not have been possible with an 85mm lens.