Best portrait lens

[egpj]

I like the 50 allot of times but the 90 Summicron is very faithful. I can open it up to f2 and have wonderful portraits where the eyes are in focus then as you move back to the ears they start to ggo out of focus and the background is unidentifiable. Or I can stop it down and have everything tack sharp. Beautiful lens!

 

[Sumo_du_Jour]

Comes down to your to definition of Portrait.
This was taken with a CV 12mm.

 

[Doug]

Pretty radical portrait, sumo! 🙂

 

[Pherdinand]

I also seem to see a monsterface next to the kid🙂

 

[Kevin]

It's probably THE FLY you see in the background !!!!

 

[Skinny McGee]

The first photo is of my daughter the back ground is an azlalea. The second photo is my wife in here hammock

 

[Sonnar Brian]

I "lean" toward the 85mm F2 Nikkor as my favorite portrait lens. In Leica Thread Mount, mine was under $300 in near mint condition. The Jupiter-9 is a great lens if you get one calibrated for the Leica standard, or if you have a Contax or Kiev.

http://www.rangefinderforum.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=1089&cat=3204&page=2

 

[Doug]

Pretty much any focal length can be useful for portraiture of some kind. 🙂 Distance determines perspective, and the range of "conversational" distances will give you that familiar perspective. From there, the choice of focal length just changes the breadth of area that you capture in the shot.

Some changes of distance can affect the prominence of certain of the subject's features. For instance, if the subject has prominent ears, you can move a lilttle closer and they'll seem less prominent, and the expense of a more prominent nose! If the subject has a button nose, that's probably all to the good!

Here's one shot fairly close-in with a 35mm lens...