Whether you're shooting traditional studio portraits, indoor environmental portraits by natural light or reportage-style street portraits, having the right lens for the job in your kitbag makes a huge difference. But what are the factors professional photographers must consider when choosing a lens for portraits or a hybrid lens to capture people in motion?
"Traditionally, a portraiture lens is one that gives a flattering look to the face," says Canon Europe Senior Product Marketing Specialist Mike Burnhill. "A mid-telephoto lens, with a focal length from around 50mm to 100mm, has a natural compression that gives an attractive appearance to faces. However, for environmental portraits, where you want to show someone in their surroundings, focal lengths from 35mm to 50mm are quite common.
The best Canon lenses for professional portrait photography
"The other big consideration is the maximum aperture. Shooting with lenses with very wide apertures, such as f/1.2 or f/1.8, allows you to put the emphasis on the face or whichever part of the image you want while blurring out distracting elements in the background or foreground."
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Canon has a vast range of prime and zoom lenses that can be used for creative photography, and its L-series lenses are perfect for astrophotography, shooting wildlife, black and white and low-light photography. But what lenses do professionals rely on day in, day out for portrait photography? And which Canon hybrid lenses are best when you need to capture both video and stills of people, such as at a wedding, fashion show or during an documentary interview? Here, Canon Ambassadors Guia Besana, Helen Bartlett and Ilvy Njiokiktjien, along with bridal fashion and wedding portrait expert Félicia Sisco and award-winning studio portrait photographer James Musselwhite, reveal the lenses they use and why they like them. In addition, Mike and fellow Canon Europe Product Specialists Mark Fensome and Tibor Szövetes explain the features that make these lenses ideal for particular kinds of portraits and shooting situations.
Best standard Canon portrait lens: Canon RF 50mm F1.2L USM
Guia Besana started her career as a reportage photographer and has shot celebrity portraits for high-profile editorial clients, as well as staged and conceptual portraits in her acclaimed personal fine art projects.
"I used the Canon RF 50mm F1.2L USM lens while shooting my project A Rummage of Flowers," she says. "It was my favourite lens on that shoot. It's a high-quality lens, very solid and precise, and at f/1.2 it's also very fast. Afterwards, when I downloaded the images and looked through them, I saw there was no distortion at all. It's an exceptional lens, especially for portraiture and still life."
Canon RF 50mm F1.2L USM
Mike adds: "This is a dedicated portraiture and low-light lens, and one of the sharpest lenses available on the market. When you couple that optical quality with the f/1.2 aperture, it allows you to capture whatever intrigues you about a subject in super-sharp detail, but also throw a messy background completely out of focus. This lens can take subjects and put them in a different world, because you can blur out everything that surrounds them. Your images become just about the subjects and how light plays on them."
Best standard hybrid prime portrait lens: Canon RF 50mm F1.4L VCM
With its fast f/1.4 maximum aperture, 11-bladed iris and advanced optical design, the Canon RF 50mm F1.4L VCM hybrid lens is capable of rendering portraits with a beautiful cinematic quality. It's been engineered with this look in mind; as part of the professional hybrid RF lens range, the RF 50mm F1.4L VCM is an outstanding performer for both portrait photography and filmmaking.
The 50mm focal length provides a natural perspective similar to that of the human eye, and it's an excellent choice for full-length and three-quarter portraits. "The f/1.4 aperture gives you a really nice background blur and is bright enough to give you flexibility when you’re shooting in darker situations – especially at weddings and other live events where you can never be sure of the lighting conditions," Tibor says.
Canon RF 50mm F1.4L VCM
"The RF 50mm F1.4L VCM is our most versatile 50mm lens. As well as being a high-quality standard lens for photography, it offers features that videographers crave, such as built-in, optical focus breathing suppression and an Iris Ring for precise, silent aperture adjustments while you're filming."
Best Canon lens for flattering portraits: Canon RF 85mm F1.2L USM
Félicia Sisco, who has enjoyed a successful career in wedding, bridal fashion and editorial photography, says the 85mm focal length is ideal for her portrait work. "With an 85mm lens I can do everything – close-up portraits and full-length shots," she explains.
The Canon RF 85mm F1.2L USM combines the creamy bokeh of the EF 85mm f/1.2L II USM and the sharpness of the EF 85mm f/1.4L IS USM, but brings them up to date with the refined handling, speed and performance that portrait photographers expect from an RF lens. Félicia says she particularly loves the lens's control ring, which enables the user to conveniently control ISO, shutter speed and aperture. "It's perfect for me," she comments.
Canon RF 85mm F1.2L USM
Mike says the RF 85mm F1.2L USM lens was designed specifically as a portrait lens. "If you want to shoot a flattering portrait, it's the perfect lens to use," he says. "You need a lens that's super-sharp, but at the same time you don't want it highlighting every pore, wrinkle or blemish. This lens has a contradictory profile – it's sharp, but it's soft.
"It can record sharp eyelashes, for example, but then it blurs similar tones such as skin tones together, so it gives a lovely portrait look. It also gives an attractive, smooth bokeh, which makes the background look beautiful and removes distractions. It's a popular lens for portrait photographers because it makes their lives easier – the images require less post-processing to create a flattering look for the client."
Also consider: Canon RF 85mm F1.2L USM DS
The Canon RF 85mm F1.2L USM DS lens offers the same exceptional sharpness for the in-focus areas of an image but adds a specially developed Canon-exclusive Defocus Smoothing coating that produces an even silkier bokeh and softer edges to out-of-focus highlights. When Félicia tried this lens, she found it made distracting backgrounds dissolve away. "The backdrop looked so smooth and the blur was more delicate than I would normally be able to achieve," she says. "The effect on the image is something that really complements my style of photography."
Best Canon prime lens for low-light portraits: Canon RF 85mm F2 MACRO IS STM
This lens's maximum aperture isn't as large as that of the Canon RF 85mm F1.2L USM lens, but its 5-stop Hybrid IS makes it an even more versatile option in low light.
"The image stabilisation is quite amazing," says Ilvy Njiokiktjien, who was the first pro to shoot with the lens. Ilvy is a documentary photographer known for her revealing portraits of people around the world, recording their lives and communities. "You can use this lens for handheld shots when it's really quite dark. I used it to photograph several generations of a family living on a farm in the Netherlands, and I was able to get sharp results at slow shutter speeds when shooting in their barns and stables.
Canon RF 85mm F2 MACRO IS STM
"It's a very sharp lens but has a really nice bokeh quality as well," Ilvy adds. "I was taking a close-up portrait of a girl standing in front of the barn, and the background was so soft that it looked like it was a portrait studio backdrop. I find its compact size a real benefit too. I do most of my photography outside of my own country, so it's good to have equipment that's easy to travel with. The RF 85mm F2 MACRO IS STM is light but sturdy, which is equally as important."
Mike says this addition to Canon's RF lens range is perfect for portraits. "The focal length gives you flattering perspective compression as well as shallow depth of field for out-of-focus backgrounds. The f/2 aperture means it's great in low light, especially with the built-in 5-stop IS. It's compact in design, and at 500g it's relatively light. As well as having all the characteristics of a great portrait lens, it also offers a 1:2 macro capability and, as it's almost completely silent in operation, it can be used for video. It's a flexible, multi-purpose lens at an affordable price."
Best Canon portrait lens for details: Canon RF 100mm F2.8L MACRO IS USM
This macro lens blends beautiful bokeh with intense sharpness. It's a lens that studio portrait photographer James Musselwhite reaches for when he wants to capture detail. "It's ideal if you're capturing portraits that are intended to draw the viewer's eye to a specific area of the photograph," he says, "especially in fashion setups, where an accessory is the focus.
"It's also a keen lens to use when your stylist has spent time and effort on hair and specifically makeup. When this is done to an expert, artistic level, it can raise the standard of your portraits, and the sharpness of this lens in capturing fine attention to detail is key. Even at f/2.8 the portrait is pin-sharp, possibly sharper than it would be with most other portrait lenses, and the overall feel gives a high-end, glossy magazine look to the images."
Canon RF 100mm F2.8L MACRO IS USM
Mark agrees: "A favourite prime lens among many professionals, the RF 100mm F2.8L MACRO IS USM is fantastically versatile, equally adept at both macro and portraiture work," he says. "It has the added bonus of a Spherical Aberration Control feature that allows the user to fine-tune the bokeh at the turn of a ring on the lens, while providing a soft-focus effect at the same time. It's a unique feature in the RF lens line-up and ideal for creative portraiture."
Best Canon lens for creative portraits: Canon RF 135mm F1.8L IS USM
As Mike points out, longer focal lengths are more flattering for classic portraiture, particularly when it comes to headshots. With shorter focal lengths you need to be closer to the subject, which can lead to distorted facial features and a caricature-like result.
The Canon RF 135mm F1.8L IS USM lens provides a higher degree of compression than the popular portrait lens focal length of 85mm. Its narrower angle of view also makes it easier to isolate the subject from the surroundings, with the fast maximum aperture giving more creative control over depth of field.
Canon RF 135mm F1.8L IS USM
This lens improves on the legendary Canon EF 135mm f/2L USM in every area. With its slightly brighter maximum aperture and optical Image Stabilizer, the RF 135mm F1.8L IS USM lens extends the opportunities for portrait photography in low ambient light. It focuses closer and supports precise and reliable autofocus even when used at f/1.8.
The combination of fast maximum aperture, IS and accurate focusing makes the RF 135mm F1.8L IS USM lens ideal for candid portraits at weddings, where there is often low light and photographers are shooting handheld while on the move. These functions also make it an excellent choice for indoor sports photography – and it is Canon's first non-super-telephoto lens to feature the customisable function buttons that sports professionals rely on.
"The RF 135mm F1.8L IS USM lens is a portrait lens that's designed for professionals who want their images to stand out from the crowd," says Mark. "It offers exceptional image quality and superb image separation with a very fast f/1.8 aperture for excellent bokeh and low-light performance."
Also consider: Canon RF 35mm F1.4L VCM
While you’re unlikely to reach for a 35mm lens for a close-up head-and-shoulders portrait, this moderate wide-angle focal length is a great way to show the person in their environment. The Canon RF 35mm F1.4L VCM hybrid lens is lightweight, sharp and excellent in low light, thanks to the bright f/1.4 maximum aperture. Its circular 11-bladed aperture provides beautiful bokeh, making defocused lights in the background of a portrait look exquisite. Even when stopped down, the aperture’s odd number of blades add an attractive starburst effect to sources of light.
Like the Canon RF 50mm F1.4L VCM, the RF 35mm F1.4L VCM is a versatile portrait lens, with its hybrid design delivering precise control and professional results whether you’re shooting photos or videos of people.
"Wider lenses such as the RF 35mm F1.4L VCM are great for reportage-style photos and documentary videos or when you're shooting interviews and need to frame two people talking to each other," Tibor says. "The RF 35mm F1.4L VCM is also a crucial option for weddings and corporate work, where you’ll need to cover group portraits of various sizes. You get a wider view that you do with a 50mm lens, but it gives you a natural perspective with very minimal distortion."
Best Canon zoom lens for portraits: Canon RF 24-70mm F2.8L IS USM
Attach the Canon RF 24-70mm F2.8L IS USM lens to an EOS R System camera, and you're prepared for practically everything that's going to be thrown at you on a portrait assignment. Helen Bartlett, who specialises in natural, black and white family portraits, says she uses this zoom lens when she wants to travel with minimum kit and maximum flexibility. "It allows me to think on my feet and vary my approach on fast-moving family photo shoots," she says, "and the combination of the fast aperture and wide angle mean it's a great lens for shooting indoors.
"I'll also use it when I want to avoid changing lenses, such as on a windswept beach with sand flying around, or out in the rain when I need the flexibility of multiple focal lengths with no risk of damage to an exposed sensor.
Canon RF 24-70mm F2.8L IS USM
"I've found the five stops of image stabilisation to be helpful when photographing indoors in low light, where a longer shutter speed can allow me to keep my ISO down if I'm photographing a static subject, such as a sleeping newborn. I use the Control Ring on this lens for controlling my ISO, which is brilliant when working with kids who might run quickly between areas with very different lighting. Using Manual, I can set the aperture and shutter speed to achieve the creative effect I'm looking for, and use the Control Ring to alter my ISO quickly to ensure the correct exposure."
Mark adds: "Canon's standard f/2.8 zoom lens is the perfect all-rounder, with the IS adding to the lens's excellent performance and versatility. The f/2.8 aperture throughout the zoom range allows for a shallow depth of field and good low-light performance when taking portraits or other scenes. This is a professional workhorse lens, designed to be used day-in, day-out, and because it's an L-series lens and weatherproof, it can be used in all situations."
Most versatile Canon hybrid zoom lens for portraits on-the-go: Canon RF 70-200mm F2.8L IS USM Z
An 85mm prime lens is the classic choice for flattering portraits, but a 70-200mm gives you that coveted portrait focal length and lots more flexibility.
The Canon RF 70-200mm F2.8L IS USM Z doesn’t have the very large maximum aperture of the RF 85mm F1.2L USM, but its fast f/2.8 aperture gives plenty of creative depth-of-field control, and coupled with the longer focal lengths enables the subject to be isolated against beautifully blurred backgrounds. A 5.5 stop Optical Image Stabilizer helps you achieve sharper results in low light, with the stability further enhanced when the lens is paired with an IBIS-equipped camera.
Canon RF 70-200mm F2.8L IS USM Z
“It’s a great hybrid lens for candid portraits,” Tibor suggests, “or for music videos or live events where you don’t have direct access to the stage and you need the ability to shoot from further away."
“Like the other recommended hybrid lenses for portraits,'" Tibor continues, "the RF 70-200mm F2.8L IS USM Z is designed with video also in mind, so focus breathing is very minimal. You have additional functionalities, including the Iris Ring and compatibility with our optional Power Zoom Adapters for smooth, professional zooming effects. The lens’s Dual Nano USM motors enable electronic parfocal focusing while zooming as well, to help you retain focus on a person as you zoom.”
Best Canon zoom lens for low-light portraits: Canon RF 28-70mm F2L USM
With its combination of large maximum aperture, convenient zoom range and exceptional optical quality, the Canon RF 28-70mm F2L USM lens is a wonderful tool for both studio and location portraiture. The ring-type USM AF motor delivers rapid and near-silent autofocus, while the intuitive lens Control Ring enables quick adjustments of frequently-used settings during a portrait shoot.
Although it isn't equipped with optical IS, the RF 28-70mm F2L USM is able to benefit from the In-Body Image Stabilisation (IBIS) built into a number of EOS R System cameras. Advanced lens coatings, UD lens elements and a nine-blade aperture ensure consistently high image quality at all focal lengths.
Canon RF 28-70mm F2L USM
"As a unique, super-fast, bright zoom lens boasting an f/2 aperture throughout the zoom range and prime-like image quality, this may be a lens that's hard to put down," Mark says. "It is an excellent performer in low light and offers exquisite depth-of-field control for beautiful portraits, all thanks to the super-fast f/2 aperture."
Most versatile Canon portrait lens: Canon RF 24-105mm F4L IS USM
If you favour flexibility over the fastest maximum aperture, then the Canon RF 24-105mm F4L IS USM is a standout choice for portraits. It gives you all of the classic portrait focal lengths in a single, lightweight zoom.
"This is my absolute workhorse lens and the one I reach for at the start of most photo shoots," says James. "I find both sharpness and overall image quality to be flawless.
"Because I shoot primarily with strobe lighting, f/4 is more than wide enough for the majority of my work. It gives me such a wide range in focal lengths. I can create dynamic, wide-angle shots that bring the viewer into the character of the person I am trying to capture, a 50mm to recreate what the eye sees, and the longer focal lengths to capture headshots that have power and impact.
Canon RF 24-105mm F4L IS USM
"Its versatility is key, but also the speed of focus, especially with the Canon EOS R6's eye detection AF feature. While you can adjust focus in the traditional way, with buttons and dials, it's sometimes swifter and easier to utilise the touchscreen at the back of the camera. You can trust the camera to work from there to not only detect eyes and faces but to focus on the eyes with precision. This is key for a portrait photographer as the eyes are where the viewer looks first."
Mark points to the advantage of the f/4 constant aperture throughout the zoom range: "While it's not quite as fast as its f/2.8 counterpart," he says, "it does have a longer 105mm reach, which helps with image separation, image compression and the creation of a beautiful bokeh wide open at the telephoto end. Altogether, with its large zoom range and image stabilisation, this is a very versatile and capable standard zoom that offers plenty of opportunity for great portraits."
Portraiture is one of the most creatively rewarding genres of photography. From the concept and styling to the choice of lighting and lens, there are myriad approaches that you can take. Whether you want to capture a classic, flattering head shot with an 85mm or 135mm prime, an environmental portrait with the wide end of a standard zoom, or details in a beauty shot with a macro lens, Canon has got you covered.
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