As a portrait photographer, you need the best camera lenses to capture the best aircraft imagery. The best aircraft photography is a great challenge for portrait photographers unless they have a decent camera and lenses. The difference between aircraft portraits taken by an amateur and professional portrait photographer is vast.

When it comes to the best aircraft photography, good lenses are the most important equipment of all. Even if you have the most basic camera, a high-quality lens can bring all the difference to your aircraft portraits.

Camera Lenses for Portrait Photographers, Aircraft portraits - Alaskafoto
An Everts Air Cargo DC-6 Taxing out to Runway 15/33 at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport. Photo by Rob Stapleton

Choosing a lens for portrait photography is a tough decision to make. Exploring the best aircraft portraits and professional portrait photographers can help you learn a lot about portrait photography.

Important Considerations to Choose the Lens for Portrait Photography

Follow the footsteps of a portrait photographer when choosing your camera lens. If you want to do the best aircraft photography, take into account the following considerations-

· Zoom Lens or Prime Lens: Before delving into the features of lenses to look for, it is important to know the two different types of lenses. The Zoom lens has a variety of focal ranges making each lens versatile. With the help of a zoom lens, you can take a wide variety of aircraft portraits without switching the gear. The professional portrait photographers prefer using Prime Lens due to the best aircraft photography results it delivers. The prime lens is lighter to carry than a zoom lens and provides high-quality image results.

· Focal Length: As a portrait photographer you must be clear about which focal length is right for you. The focal length to do the best aircraft photography depends upon many factors-

o The location whether it is an Airshow, Aviation academy or open space;

o The number of aircraft in the frame;

o Whether or not you want to include the surrounding environment in your aircraft portrait; and

o How close you want to be to your subject.

The focal lengths between 35mm to 200 mm are commonly used by portrait photographers. You can choose the focal length depending on the aircraft you intend to capture, your style, and preferences.

· Number of Lenses: The number of lenses largely depends on how many lenses you want to carry with you. If you want to do aircraft photography with just one lens you should look for a Zoom lens. The zoom lenses will give you the liberty to shoot a wide variety of aircraft portraits without swapping lenses. You will have to carry different lenses if you want to use prime lenses to do aircraft photography.

· Space: If you plan to do aircraft photography in open spaces, you have a lot of options for lenses. You will need wider lenses and shorter focal length if you plan to create aircraft portraits in a confined space.

· Blur Effect: The blur effect commonly known as Bokeh creates amazing aircraft portraits. The subject aircraft is in focus and the background is blurred. The larger aperture creates more blur effect in the aircraft portrait. To get more creative aircraft portraits, you must look for a lens with a wider aperture. A lens with a wider aperture of F/2.8–1.4 provides a better low light performance.

· Camera’s Sensor Size: When searching for a lens for aircraft portrait photography keep in mind the aircraft you will be shooting. The body of the aircraft will impact the effectiveness of the focal length of your lens. The effect of the same lens will be higher on a crop sensor camera than a full frame camera.

· Price: The affordability is an important factor but you should not compromise on camera lenses. Investing your money in a high-quality camera will result in better aircraft portraits.

You must figure out what focal length of the lens you want for portrait photography. It would enable you to choose the right lens to do the best aircraft photography. Get in touch with the best portrait photographers at www.alaskafoto.com