The Perfect Lens for Every Portrait Photographer

this is the perfect portrait lens it's an 85 millimeter F2 prime lens it is beautiful I'm shooting a lot of headshots and portraits on there now this is the perfect portrait lens this is 24 to 105 millimeter F4 I'm shooting a lot of portraits and headshots with no this is the perfect portrait lens this is a 70 to 200 millimeter F 2.8 EF Mount and I am shooting a lot of headshots and portraits with this now uh [Music] I want to disabuse you of the notion uh that there's any such thing as the right lens for a specific kind of photo especially for portraiture I used to be involved in a in an organization where they judged uh images and and a critique that I heard a lot of that really rubbed me the wrong way was this is the wrong lens for this shot and it would always come down to portraits and and the the thing that people would be saying was portraits need to be shot with an 85 millimeter or 105 millimeter macro things like that like as if there was a right lens four portraits I shoot close-up portraits at 24 millimeters on this lens I like I have them in my portfolio on my website I have images in my portfolio on my website that I have shot at 200 millimeters there is no right lens for portrait photography the right lens is the one that gets you the image that you are trying to get if what you want to do is create a specific look that is close up and and a wide angle something like a platon would do then a wide angle lens is is necessary there is no such thing as the wrong lens for a portrait the right lens is the one you chose to make the portrait so let's let's get past that people have been using different kinds of lenses for different kinds of portraits since the camera was invented for someone to tell you that there is only one way to do one thing that's very rigid thinking it inhibits you from from going out and experimenting and and and discovering your style and your voice and and who you are as a photographer and what your vision is for the kind of work that you want to create the people who repeat and regurgitate that same nonsense they heard the same thing that they're telling you that an 85 millimeter lens is a portrait lens 95 millimeter lens is just an 85 millimeter lens you can shoot Landscapes with an 85 millimeter lens if you wanted to you can shoot architecture with an 85 millimeter lens you can shoot food photography with an 85 millimeter lens you can shoot portraits with an 85 millimeter lens you can shoot whatever you want with an 85 millimeter lens that does not make it a lens that is specialized for portraits it just happens to be the lens that people want to use because they think it's the most flattering for faces so should that be a portrait lens no of course not just I'm so flustered by this I get so frustrated by this argument that I can't even get my words out all I want to do is I just want to say and I want to reiterate that you as a photographer need to constantly for the rest of your life work on finding your voice playing experimenting don't get stuck in a rut that like this is the only lens that's good for portraits it's not start shooting portraits at 24 millimeters start shooting portraits at 200 millimeters shoot them at 1200 millimeters so that's it for this video if you agree hit that like button if you disagree let me know in the comments look forward to seeing you in the next one take care