The best Canon lenses for professional portrait photography

Whether you're shooting traditional studio portraits, indoor environmental portraits by natural light or reportage-style street portraits, having the right lens for the job in your kitbag makes a huge difference. But what are the factors professional photographers must consider when choosing a lens for portraits or a hybrid lens to capture people in motion?

"Traditionally, a portraiture lens is one that gives a flattering look to the face," says Canon Europe Senior Product Marketing Specialist Mike Burnhill. "A mid-telephoto lens, with a focal length from around 50mm to 100mm, has a natural compression that gives an attractive appearance to faces. However, for environmental portraits, where you want to show someone in their surroundings, focal lengths from 35mm to 50mm are quite common.

Canon has a vast range of prime and zoom lenses that can be used for creative photography, and its L-series lenses are perfect for astrophotography, shooting wildlife, black and white and low-light photography. But what lenses do professionals rely on day in, day out for portrait photography? And which Canon hybrid lenses are best when you need to capture both video and stills of people, such as at a wedding, fashion show or during an documentary interview? Here, Canon Ambassadors Guia Besana, Helen Bartlett and Ilvy Njiokiktjien, along with bridal fashion and wedding portrait expert Félicia Sisco and award-winning studio portrait photographer James Musselwhite, reveal the lenses they use and why they like them. In addition, Mike and fellow Canon Europe Product Specialists Mark Fensome and Tibor Szövetes explain the features that make these lenses ideal for particular kinds of portraits and shooting situations.

Mike adds: "This is a dedicated portraiture and low-light lens, and one of the sharpest lenses available on the market. When you couple that optical quality with the f/1.2 aperture, it allows you to capture whatever intrigues you about a subject in super-sharp detail, but also throw a messy background completely out of focus. This lens can take subjects and put them in a different world, because you can blur out everything that surrounds them. Your images become just about the subjects and how light plays on them."

"The RF 50mm F1.4L VCM is our most versatile 50mm lens. As well as being a high-quality standard lens for photography, it offers features that videographers crave, such as built-in, optical focus breathing suppression and an Iris Ring for precise, silent aperture adjustments while you're filming."

Mike says the RF 85mm F1.2L USM lens was designed specifically as a portrait lens. "If you want to shoot a flattering portrait, it's the perfect lens to use," he says. "You need a lens that's super-sharp, but at the same time you don't want it highlighting every pore, wrinkle or blemish. This lens has a contradictory profile – it's sharp, but it's soft.

"It can record sharp eyelashes, for example, but then it blurs similar tones such as skin tones together, so it gives a lovely portrait look. It also gives an attractive, smooth bokeh, which makes the background look beautiful and removes distractions. It's a popular lens for portrait photographers because it makes their lives easier – the images require less post-processing to create a flattering look for the client."

The Canon RF 85mm F1.2L USM DS lens offers the same exceptional sharpness for the in-focus areas of an image but adds a specially developed Canon-exclusive Defocus Smoothing coating that produces an even silkier bokeh and softer edges to out-of-focus highlights. When Félicia tried this lens, she found it made distracting backgrounds dissolve away. "The backdrop looked so smooth and the blur was more delicate than I would normally be able to achieve," she says. "The effect on the image is something that really complements my style of photography."

"It's a very sharp lens but has a really nice bokeh quality as well," Ilvy adds. "I was taking a close-up portrait of a girl standing in front of the barn, and the background was so soft that it looked like it was a portrait studio backdrop. I find its compact size a real benefit too. I do most of my photography outside of my own country, so it's good to have equipment that's easy to travel with. The RF 85mm F2 MACRO IS STM is light but sturdy, which is equally as important."

Mike says this addition to Canon's RF lens range is perfect for portraits. "The focal length gives you flattering perspective compression as well as shallow depth of field for out-of-focus backgrounds. The f/2 aperture means it's great in low light, especially with the built-in 5-stop IS. It's compact in design, and at 500g it's relatively light. As well as having all the characteristics of a great portrait lens, it also offers a 1:2 macro capability and, as it's almost completely silent in operation, it can be used for video. It's a flexible, multi-purpose lens at an affordable price."

Mark agrees: "A favourite prime lens among many professionals, the RF 100mm F2.8L MACRO IS USM is fantastically versatile, equally adept at both macro and portraiture work," he says. "It has the added bonus of a Spherical Aberration Control feature that allows the user to fine-tune the bokeh at the turn of a ring on the lens, while providing a soft-focus effect at the same time. It's a unique feature in the RF lens line-up and ideal for creative portraiture."

This lens improves on the legendary Canon EF 135mm f/2L USM in every area. With its slightly brighter maximum aperture and optical Image Stabilizer, the RF 135mm F1.8L IS USM lens extends the opportunities for portrait photography in low ambient light. It focuses closer and supports precise and reliable autofocus even when used at f/1.8.

The combination of fast maximum aperture, IS and accurate focusing makes the RF 135mm F1.8L IS USM lens ideal for candid portraits at weddings, where there is often low light and photographers are shooting handheld while on the move. These functions also make it an excellent choice for indoor sports photography – and it is Canon's first non-super-telephoto lens to feature the customisable function buttons that sports professionals rely on.

"The RF 135mm F1.8L IS USM lens is a portrait lens that's designed for professionals who want their images to stand out from the crowd," says Mark. "It offers exceptional image quality and superb image separation with a very fast f/1.8 aperture for excellent bokeh and low-light performance."

While you’re unlikely to reach for a 35mm lens for a close-up head-and-shoulders portrait, this moderate wide-angle focal length is a great way to show the person in their environment. The Canon RF 35mm F1.4L VCM hybrid lens is lightweight, sharp and excellent in low light, thanks to the bright f/1.4 maximum aperture. Its circular 11-bladed aperture provides beautiful bokeh, making defocused lights in the background of a portrait look exquisite. Even when stopped down, the aperture’s odd number of blades add an attractive starburst effect to sources of light.

Like the Canon RF 50mm F1.4L VCM, the RF 35mm F1.4L VCM is a versatile portrait lens, with its hybrid design delivering precise control and professional results whether you’re shooting photos or videos of people.

"Wider lenses such as the RF 35mm F1.4L VCM are great for reportage-style photos and documentary videos or when you're shooting interviews and need to frame two people talking to each other," Tibor says. "The RF 35mm F1.4L VCM is also a crucial option for weddings and corporate work, where you’ll need to cover group portraits of various sizes. You get a wider view that you do with a 50mm lens, but it gives you a natural perspective with very minimal distortion."

"I've found the five stops of image stabilisation to be helpful when photographing indoors in low light, where a longer shutter speed can allow me to keep my ISO down if I'm photographing a static subject, such as a sleeping newborn. I use the Control Ring on this lens for controlling my ISO, which is brilliant when working with kids who might run quickly between areas with very different lighting. Using Manual, I can set the aperture and shutter speed to achieve the creative effect I'm looking for, and use the Control Ring to alter my ISO quickly to ensure the correct exposure."

Mark adds: "Canon's standard f/2.8 zoom lens is the perfect all-rounder, with the IS adding to the lens's excellent performance and versatility. The f/2.8 aperture throughout the zoom range allows for a shallow depth of field and good low-light performance when taking portraits or other scenes. This is a professional workhorse lens, designed to be used day-in, day-out, and because it's an L-series lens and weatherproof, it can be used in all situations."

“It’s a great hybrid lens for candid portraits,” Tibor suggests, “or for music videos or live events where you don’t have direct access to the stage and you need the ability to shoot from further away."

“Like the other recommended hybrid lenses for portraits,'" Tibor continues, "the RF 70-200mm F2.8L IS USM Z is designed with video also in mind, so focus breathing is very minimal. You have additional functionalities, including the Iris Ring and compatibility with our optional Power Zoom Adapters for smooth, professional zooming effects. The lens’s Dual Nano USM motors enable electronic parfocal focusing while zooming as well, to help you retain focus on a person as you zoom.”

"As a unique, super-fast, bright zoom lens boasting an f/2 aperture throughout the zoom range and prime-like image quality, this may be a lens that's hard to put down," Mark says. "It is an excellent performer in low light and offers exquisite depth-of-field control for beautiful portraits, all thanks to the super-fast f/2 aperture."

"Its versatility is key, but also the speed of focus, especially with the Canon EOS R6's eye detection AF feature. While you can adjust focus in the traditional way, with buttons and dials, it's sometimes swifter and easier to utilise the touchscreen at the back of the camera. You can trust the camera to work from there to not only detect eyes and faces but to focus on the eyes with precision. This is key for a portrait photographer as the eyes are where the viewer looks first."

Mark points to the advantage of the f/4 constant aperture throughout the zoom range: "While it's not quite as fast as its f/2.8 counterpart," he says, "it does have a longer 105mm reach, which helps with image separation, image compression and the creation of a beautiful bokeh wide open at the telephoto end. Altogether, with its large zoom range and image stabilisation, this is a very versatile and capable standard zoom that offers plenty of opportunity for great portraits."

Portraiture is one of the most creatively rewarding genres of photography. From the concept and styling to the choice of lighting and lens, there are myriad approaches that you can take. Whether you want to capture a classic, flattering head shot with an 85mm or 135mm prime, an environmental portrait with the wide end of a standard zoom, or details in a beauty shot with a macro lens, Canon has got you covered.