Indoor portraiture

[Boddie]

I just bought a 17-85 IS 4-5.6 specifically for indoor work. I want to get into candid portraits and wonder what sort of ISO I could get off with on my 30D. Anybody able to steer me in the right direction?

Cheers

[paulthomas]

I was always taught to use a wide apature (something like f2.8 or more) and a medium long focal length for portraits to get a shallow DOF which is critical to getting a nice OOF background. I bet the Sigma 105/2.8 or 150/2.8 would make great portrait lenses in spite of being macro lenses.

[Boddie]

A New Canon 50mm F1.8 Lens Then Me Thinks

[eeyore]

Originally Posted by Boddie

I just bought a 17-85 IS 4-5.6 specifically for indoor work. I want to get into candid portraits and wonder what sort of ISO I could get off with on my 30D. Anybody able to steer me in the right direction?

Cheers

it very much depends on the light , but they reckon that the IS is worth two stops (a new IS lens is out now with IS worth 4 stops but it aint the 17-85) so therefore if you would normall need IS) 1600 you can get away with ISO400 (or of course if you are willing to live with the noise you can leave it on 1600 and get 2 stops more speed).

Originally Posted by boddie

A New Canon 50mm F1.8 Lens Then Me Thinks

could be nice , certainly cheap enough to be worth buying anyway , but you might find that for candids a prime is a bit limiting , especially in a busy indoor environment, if your targets are moving arround a zoom might be better.