Which lens will you choose under these same conditions

Question

I am sorry for asking this question but I really want to learn it. Say you are using a crop body, you have both 50mm/1.4 USM and 85mm/1.8 USM lens in your bag. Now you want to take a portrait where there is adequate light, space and you have decided to take the shot at f/2.2.

Now I want to know which lens will be good to use to take such a shot, and why

Thanks Hasin

Answer

Both are certainly capable of taking the shot, so I guess you are looking for the differences. Obviously, you have to stand further with the 85mm to get the same framing but a few other things will change:

• The perspective will be more compressed on the 85mm. In general that is considered more flattering for portraits, particularly of non-Asian, since it makes the nose look smaller.
• There will be less depth of field at the same aperture on the 85mm, so you can blur out the background more. Of course you can open the 50mm much more to compensate.

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