Portraiture
Keen to perfect your portraits? Pro photographer and journalist Damien Demolder explains why there’s no one right focal length for portraiture, as well as the importance of wide apertures and what other benefits you realise over standard kit lenses
Want the perfect portraiture lens? Here are our recommendations
You can use a range of focal lengths for portraiture, although something in the 50-135mm range is ideal. If you use a cropped-sensor camera, such as a Micro Four Thirds model, look at slightly wider lenses such as the Panasonic 25mm f/1.7 Lumix G Asph. Whichever lens works for you, it should have a wide maximum aperture such as f/1.4 or f/1.8 to help you to separate your subject from the background. Make sure to look out for lenses with eight or nine diaphragm blades, ideally rounded, as these will help you create circular out-of-focus highlights (bokeh).