Canon EF portrait lenses

Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM, a classic portrait lens

Canon makes several lenses for the EF lens mount and EF-S lens mount that are well-suited for portrait photography. These lenses may also be used for other purposes, often being suited for indoor sports photography as well, due to suitable focal length and wide aperture, though autofocus speed is an issue in sports photography that is less important in portraiture.

Criteria

Lenses suited for traditional portrait photography are medium telephoto lenses, in the 85 mm–135 mm range, which provide the desired perspective distortion in head and shoulders shots (compressing facial features), and have fast aperture, of f/2.8 or faster, to allow shallow depth of field, focusing attention on the subject.

One can use other lenses, either with shorter focal length (particularly for full body shots), or longer focal length (particularly in fashion photography, to increase the flattening effect, or in very cropped facial shots). Other lenses can be used for artistic effect; one could use a fisheye lens, for instance, though this is considered neither traditional nor flattering.

Lenses

Lenses that fit these criteria on a full-frame camera are:

The EF 135mm f/2.8 with Softfocus is of particular note, as it includes soft focus, which is often a desirable effect in glamour photography.

APS-C

When used with DSLRs with cropped sensors, notably the APS-C-sized sensor with 1.6 crop factor (such as the popular Canon EOS 600D, also known as the "Digital Rebel T3i" or "EOS Kiss Digital X5"), one instead uses 50mm–85mm lenses, as these provide a 35 mm equivalent focal length of 80mm–136mm.

Lenses that fit these criteria are:

EF 50mm lenses (f/1.0, f/1.2, f/1.4, f/1.8 II, f/1.8 STM, f/2.5 Compact Macro)
EF-S 60mm f/2.8 Macro
EF 85mm f/1.2L II
EF 85mm f/1.4L
EF 85mm f/1.8

References

Portrait Photography, by Philip Greenspun, p. 2, “Lens”
Castleman, William L. (9 September 2007), EF 85 f/1.8 vs EF 100 f/2 vs EF 135 f/2: Is there a detectable difference in perspective? (3rd ed.)
Bryan Carnathan, Canon Portrait Lens Recommendations
Canon, EF Lenses 101 :: Applications :: Portrait
Bob Atkins, Portrait Lenses for the Canon EOS system

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Canon EF/EF-S/EF-M lenses
EF-S zoom	EF-S 10–18mm EF-S 10–22mm EF-S 15–85mm EF-S 17–55mm EF-S 17–85mm EF-S 18–55mm EF-S 18–135mm EF-S 18–200mm EF-S 55–250mm
Ultra-wide zoom	EF 11–24mm EF 16–35mm EF 17–40mm
Standard zoom	EF 24–70mm EF 24–105mm EF 28–135mm EF 28–300mm
Telephoto zoom	EF 70–200mm EF 70–300mm EF 75–300mm EF 100–400mm EF 200–400mm
Wide-angle prime	EF 14mm EF 20mm EF 24mm EF-S 24mm EF 28mm EF 35mm
Standard prime	EF 50mm
Telephoto prime	EF 85mm EF 100mm EF 135mm EF 200mm
Super telephoto prime	EF 300mm EF 400mm EF 500mm EF 600mm EF 800mm
Distorting lens	EF 8–15mm Fisheye
Tilt-shift	TS-E 17mm TS-E 24mm TS-E 45mm TS-E 50mm TS-E 90mm TS-E 135mm
Macro	EF-M 28mm Macro EF-S 35mm Macro EF 50mm Compact Macro TS-E 50mm MACRO EF-S 60mm Macro MP-E 65mm 1–5x Macro TS-E 90mm Macro EF 100mm Macro TS-E 135mm Macro EF 180mm Macro
EF-M zoom	EF-M 11–22mm EF-M 15–45mm EF-M 18–55mm EF-M 18–150mm EF-M 55–200mm
EF-M prime	EF-M 22mm EF-M 28mm Macro EF-M 32mm
Lens accessories	Extender EF
Discontinued zoom	EF 17–35mm EF 20–35mm EF 22–55mm EF 24–85mm EF 28–70mm EF 28–80mm EF 28–90mm EF 28–105mm EF 28–200mm EF 35–70mm EF 35–80mm EF 35–105mm EF 35–135mm EF 35–350mm EF 38–76mm EF 50–200mm EF 55–200mm EF 70–210mm EF 80–200mm EF 90–300mm EF 100–200mm EF 100–300mm
Discontinued prime	EF 15mm Fisheye EF 40mm EF 135mm with Softfocus EF 1200mm TS-E 45mm