Budget portrait primes

Think of portrait primes and you’re probably thinking fast 85mm lenses. They’re undeniably ideal for fairly tight head-and-shoulders shots, but that’s not the whole story. Often, you might prefer to go for half-length or three quarter length shots, or even environmental portraits that show a person in their surroundings. Then there’s the matter of photographing couples and families. A focal length of around 50mm, still with a fairly fast aperture, can be a better fit.

The equation changes if you’re shooting with a DX rather than FX format camera: fitting a 50mm lens will bring you back to an effective focal length of 75mm, which is great for shooting those classic, more tightly framed portraits.

Bearing all this in mind, we’ve picked out a smart selection of primes that are particularly portrait friendly – and come with budget friendly price tags.

The contenders

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Find out why these lenses are great for portraiture on a tight budget

The key attractions of a prime lens are that you can expect very good sharpness and low levels of distortion, but blur is equally important. A main facet of ‘fast’ lenses is that wide apertures enable a tight depth of field, so you can throw distracting backgrounds out of focus and really make the main subject stand out.

The lenses in this test group have fast aperture ratings between f/1.05 and f/2, but depth of field is also dependent on focal length and focus distance. For head-and-shoulders portraiture with an 85mm f/1.8 lens, the depth of field is tight enough to blur somebody’s ears when you’re