When using the Nikon D50 digital camera, what lens is best for taking headshots & three quarter shots?

Question

I'm basically trying to find out the specific purposes of different types of lenses.

Answer 1

Remembering that the D50 has a 1.5x lens factor, I'd say that a 60 mm lens is good for head shots. It lets you get back from your subject a bit and it will give that "classic" portrait look you would get from using an 85 mm lens on a 35 mm film camera. 105 mm (35 mm equiv.) is a great portrait lens, also.

If you are looking for a lens to start out with, consider the Nikkor AF-S 18-70 f/3.5-4.5G ED DX lens. This will take you from the 35 mm equivalent of 27-105, so you will be able to try out a lot of focal lengths in the "portait" range. If you really settle in on one, you can go buy it as a prime lens for better optical quality. Personally, I have the Nikkor 60 mm f/2.8 macro lens (aka "micro") and it is an excellent lens for macro AND head shots, but it is a $400 lens.

http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/1870.htm

Answer 2

Well this is a massive generalisation....Nikon have made hundreds of different models, and some of which may be weaker at the night shot, but then shooting at night requires different equipment and techniques. The size of sensor and the pixel density has a big role. For example if we compare the Nikon D3 and D3x, they are essentially identical bar different sensors. The D3x has a 24megapixel full frame sensor, while this is not coming up to the resolution of a piece of film, under low light conditions the high pixel density means it has a noisy image. The D3 has a 12 megapixel sensor, half the number and this is undoubtedly one of the leading low lighters along with the Canon 5D mk 1, and the Fujifilm S5 pro. Secondly longer exposures mean that you won't be able to hold the camera as steadily, so you will need a tripod, and if you're doing a portrait you will need some form of lighting to freeze in the action. Any camera should be able to take a decent night shot as long as you know how to take it. If you can use a tripod, then you can push the ISO down as low as possible. Don't be worried about using extended exposure times. It's not unusual to use exposures of 2minutes or more even, I've been using exposures up to 30 minutes recently.

Answer 3

The best lens for that job is a dedicated portrait lens, and the best portrait lens for the D50 is the Nikon 85mm f/1.4 ($1000). A budget alternative is the 85mm f/1.8 ($380).
With a Nikon film body you could also use a 135mm lens, but on a D50 the 85mm lens is pretty close to that already - the 135mm lens would be too long.
Another alternative is the 70-200 f/2.8 ($1600). This lens is very good wide open, provides great bokeh, and being a zoom it's also very useful for sports and general photogtraphy. (You probably won't use the 85mm primes for anything besides portraits.)
The drawback with consumer grade zooms is that they need to be stopped down to say, f/5.6 or f/8 for good image quality. The lenses that I mentioned above are all excellent at f/2.8 and f/4... and these are the aperture setting you want to use for portraits.
You asked for the best - not the best value for money.

Answer 4

Try a long focal length, around 80mm should do the trick, and try shooting with a shallow depth of field by opening up your f-stop all the way. This will throw the background out of focus and feature your subject nicely. As always make sure the eyes are what you focus on.