The 85mm Focal Length and How the Industry Uses It

The 85mm focal length has been a staple in the photography community for portraitures. However, this prime lens doesn’t get the proper recognition it deserves. Photographers usually gravitate to the 85mm focal length because of the compression of a subject to its background, but it does that and more.

How Do I Utilize My 85mm Lens?

The 85mm focal length is my favorite for many other purposes than portraits. In fact, I’m not a portrait photographer at all, but a landscape photographer. Whether in the Swiss Alps or Iceland, this lens comes out of my camera bag more than any other. The 85mm is my macro lens, but it is also, the lens I use when photographing subjects that far away. Of course, the 35mm lens comes in close second to that 85mm. No, I don’t use any zoom lens because I like to move around and put my feet to work, rather than a zoom.

Which 85mm Lens Do I Use?

The best 85mm lens I’ve used is from Sigma, having an f-stop of 1.4. The smaller the f-stop number, the more light is allowed into the lens. When this happens, the background will become more blurry, and as photographers, we recognize this as bokeh. However, whatever 85mm prime lens you have, give it more love than just for portrait photography.