50mm vs 85mm for portrait photography

Portrait comparing the 50mm and 85mm focal lengths on Canon, photo 1

In today’s photoshoot we are comparing the 50mm vs 85mm for portrait photography. Below are the photos I took on each of the lenses to test out a few factors that are important when photographing portraits such as the compression when it comes to full body, mid body and close up shots, any distortion in extreme closeups, lens flares, CA with backlighting and harsh sunlight.

Lenses

Canon 50mm f1.2

Canon 85mm f1.2 II

Body

Canon 5D mkiv for both lenses

model madeline

makeup lidija j

I have a whole series comparing prime lenses and focal lengths, you can check them all out here:

35mm vs 50mm

50mm vs 85mm

85mm vs 135mm

85mm vs 100mm vs 135mm

24mm vs 35mm vs 50mm vs 85mm vs 135mm on a full frame camera

24mm vs 35mm vs 50mm vs 85mm vs 135 on a crop frame camera

Crop frame vs Full frame

This blog was put together with Narrative. I love using Narrative as part of my photoshoot culling process to see which images from a shoot I should edit and I also use it to easily & quickly be able to put together these blog posts with different layouts of images side by side. I’m really excited to say I’ve teamed up with Narrative and have a 15% discount code for you guys using the code julia15 or just clicking this link! You can download a free trial to test it out for 7 days too :) And the gear links listed above are affiliate links, so they help me out as a creator and don’t cost you anything extra

Watch the video below to see the behind the scenes from our photoshoot as well as hearing my thoughts on both these lenses! Please subscribe to my channel if you haven’t already, I upload a new video every single Wednesday.

All photos edited with my San Francisco Lightroom Preset!

Portrait comparing the 50mm and 85mm focal lengths on Canon, photo 2 Portrait comparing the 50mm and 85mm focal lengths on Canon, photo 3 Portrait comparing the 50mm and 85mm focal lengths on Canon, photo 4 Portrait comparing the 50mm and 85mm focal lengths on Canon, photo 5 Portrait comparing the 50mm and 85mm focal lengths on Canon, photo 6 Portrait comparing the 50mm and 85mm focal lengths on Canon, photo 7 Portrait comparing the 50mm and 85mm focal lengths on Canon, photo 8 Portrait comparing the 50mm and 85mm focal lengths on Canon, photo 9 Portrait comparing the 50mm and 85mm focal lengths on Canon, photo 10 Portrait comparing the 50mm and 85mm focal lengths on Canon, photo 11 Portrait comparing the 50mm and 85mm focal lengths on Canon, photo 12 Portrait comparing the 50mm and 85mm focal lengths on Canon, photo 13 Portrait comparing the 50mm and 85mm focal lengths on Canon, photo 14 Portrait comparing the 50mm and 85mm focal lengths on Canon, photo 15 Portrait comparing the 50mm and 85mm focal lengths on Canon, photo 16 Portrait comparing the 50mm and 85mm focal lengths on Canon, photo 17 Portrait comparing the 50mm and 85mm focal lengths on Canon, photo 18 Portrait comparing the 50mm and 85mm focal lengths on Canon, photo 19 Portrait comparing the 50mm and 85mm focal lengths on Canon, photo 20

All photos edited with my San Francisco Lightroom Preset!

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