Photography Lenses

brian.parkhurst@btinternet.com says:

Yes. The usual way is to use the 55mm end of the zoom range,If you use the wide angle 18mm setting it can distort the face a bit if you get very close.The best way to see this is to try your own lens on someone and preview the image either on your rear screen or on your computer.Your lens covers the 50mm focal length,so the only reason you would wish to change to another lens is if you need to blur the background more than your f numbers will allow.A smaller f number would give you a more blurred background,again using aperture priority mode try it with your camera and see the difference that different f nos. make.

sirensofsilence says:

You can, but at the wide end (the 18mm end) you will either get a lot of ‘room’ around the person you are photographing (which may be good if you want them to look isolated), or, moving closer you will distort their features (which can look cool, if not flattering - see the cinematography of Christopher Doyle). 50mm is roughly what your eye sees, so that might be quite nice, although it’s generally thought that anything from 75mm upwards produces a nice effect - flattening the features and blurring the background.
Try taking some wacky close-ups of people and pushing up the contrast and colour in photoshop for some cool effects.

screwdriver says:

Using your kit lens at the 55mm end will be fine, the advice about getting a 50mm wide aperture ‘fast’ lens is sound as you can get a narrow depth of field used wide open (small f number). It doesn’t have to be a new lens, some of the older primes can’t be beat for quality, you might have to manually focus, but that’s a good idea too.

So be on the look out for a Canon fit 50mm f1.8 (or better yet f1.4 or f1.2) prime lens, with an adapter you can use M42 lenses (manual everything except metering) many of which are superb glass. I would recommend an 135mm Pentax Takumar which is what I have used for decades for portrait work, but with your smaller sensor the 55mm might be a better choice, and you won’t have to spend a fortune to buy one there are thousands out there. Avoid like the plague any with ‘fungus’.

Chris

Dr. Sam says:

I just wrote a long answer on this subject, so I’ll take the easy way out and just give you a link to that question.
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You can use the 18-55 lens easily for portraits, but stay up in the 50-55 mm end of the lens to avoid distorting your subjects’ features. The drawback on this is that it will give you an maximum aperture of f/5.6, which is not ideal for portraits. Read the answer in the link above to see why. Also, read Pooky’s answer to that question, which is right above mine. He has some links to examples.