What is the correct lens to use to take a portrait picture? There is no definitive answer to this question; however which ever lens you use could have a dramatic different to the final outcome. For me my personal favourite lens is my Canon 70-200 IS F2.8 and I know there are many photographers out there that would agree with this lens choice. But why this particular lens you may ask? For me being able to zoom in to 200mm means I can compress the foreground and background and in many instances crop any distraction there may have been in the background. Also being able to shoot at F2.8, give me a shallow depth of field, again reducing and background or foreground distractions in the image.

The image above shows a simple portrait shot of Suzanne taken during a recent engagement shoot at Burgh Hall in Glasgow. This is a good example of how I choice to use my Canon 70-200. Here are my camera setting for this shot: –

Camera: Canon 5D MKII

ISO – 200

Shutter Speed – 1/200 sec

F-Stop  – 3.2

Focal Length – 200 mm

I positioned Suzanne so here back was against the wall and that the soft diffused daylight was illuminating her face plus getting the all important catch lights in her eyes. Now looking at the camera setting the aperture of F3.2 gives the image its shallow depth of field, very evident on the wall both foreground and background. I could have shot this image at a focal length of 70mm however I opted to zoom to 200mm and take some paces backwards to get the compression to the image and in doing so removed the distracting tree branches now out of shot. Setting the ISO to 200 meant that as I was hand holding the camera zoomed to 200mm I had a reasonable high shutter speed to reduce any camera movement. So there you go how I like to take simple portraits.