5 Best Lenses for Newborn Portraits

The skills of a photographer will determine how great a photo would be. Getting a high-featured camera is the first step in putting your skills to good use. After that, you will need to think of the best lens for your purpose. 

Every photographer in the newborn portrait niche knows the better your lens, the higher the quality of the pictures of these little humans you would be able to capture. Most professionals will recommend having about four different lenses while few advised two is okay ― a go-to and macro lens. Depending on your choice and budget, we have compiled a list of the best lens for newborn portraits available in the market today.

Best Lens For Butterfly Photography

​#1 ​Canon EF 85mm f/1.2L 7 Items Kit Lens 

Rating

Pros

CONS

  • Sharp and clear photo

  • Hasty and quiet focus performance

  • Dust and moisture resistance

  • Optical image optimization

  • Full functionality requires premium
  • Chromatic aberration can be better

Review

The Canon EF 85mm is packed along with six other products you will need for your newborn photography. Camera sling backpack, photo compact monopod, SanDisk 64GB memory card, filter kit, camera cleansing set and MagicFiber cleaning cloth.   

This lens aside from being a great option for your newborn photography career, it will also deliver quality photos for wedding photography and reportage. The USM feature delivers brilliant autofocus while offering astounding manual focus control.

Shallow falloff is incredible and you will need to adjust the manual switch to control manual focus mode.

#2 Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM Inexpensive Lens  

Rating

Pros

CONS

  • Minimized ghosting and flare
  • Quiet while in operation
  • High contrast
  • Compressed perspective
  • Awesome bokeh
  • Budget-friendly
  • Filters may not match

Review

Looking for an inexpensive option to the Canon EF 85mm f/1.2L? Canon has a model designed for your budget. It is one of the easiest to operate in the 85mm lineup. 

The images are sharp and clear, and you can easily adjust the focus using the ring. The lens is small and lighter than other models in the lineup. Its f/1.8 aperture allows you to separate subjects. It performs great under low-light too.

Focus quality and shallow depth of field are made great using the rounded eight-blade diaphragm. You won’t have to worry about noise as it is quiet during operation.

​#3 ​Nikon AF-S VR Micro-NIKKOR 105mm f/2.8G IF-ED Lens 

Rating

Pros

CONS

  • Auto focus

  • Standard magnification

  • Image stabilization

  • Stunning sharpness

  • Silent Wave Motion

  • Vibration reduction

  • Quite heavy

Review

We recommend the Nikon 105mm f/2.8G as a macro lens for your newborn photography. This is the first macro lens with Nikon Silent Wave Motor (SWM) and Vibration Reduction (VR) systems. It is also the first macro-lens to offer image stabilization. Its AF features help to gain allows autofocus on any Nikon DSLR and you are not denied the ability to manually adjust the focus yourself. 

You will be able to capture sharp images four stops slower than any other alternatives. This model is however quite heavy but for its high-performing features, the stress of moving it around worth it.

#4 Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 STM Lens for Newborn Photography  

Rating

Pros

CONS

  • Compact

  • Very cheap

  • Quiet autofocus performance

  • Optics design can be better

Review

In case you don’t know, the Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 was announced during the 25th anniversary of the EF 50mm f/1.8 II ― as its replacement. 

Here is something compact and lightweight for newborn photographers that likes moving around with lesser weight in their bag pack. You will be able to capture sharp images even in low light. Editing of pictures is also easier with the lens, the background can be blurred while taking shots of subjects.

Its stepping motor (STM) gives makes lesser noise while in taking newborn portrait images. With all of its astounding features, this lens remains the lowest priced on our list.

The lens is well equipped to handle backlit and harsh environments. This is made possible by its super spectra coating which is designed to minimize flare and ghosting.

​#5 ​Nikon AF FX NIKKOR 35mm f/1.4G 

Rating

Pros

CONS

  • Good focus
  • High quality optics
  • Close focus capability
  • Barrel distortion

  • Edge softness can be improved

Review

You don’t have to worry about noise while shooting newborn photographs with this lens. It will help you capture fantastic images whether you are shooting prenatal or postnatal portraits. 

The lens retains its powerful performance even in low-light areas using an optical technology designed for FX and DX sensors to produce high clarity and contrast.

When tested by PCMag, the overall sharpness of the lens at f/2.0 scores 2, 825 lines with about 1, 848 lines at the edges. At f/2.8 the overall sharpness of the lens shows 3, 129 lines with approximately edges that hit 2,351 lines.

The focal length of 35mm is a perfect design for a lens expected to deliver results that falls in-between ultra-wide and standard ― medium length.

To reduce the ghosting and flares, the Nikon decided to use the Nano crystal coating and Super Integrated Coating (SIC) technology.

Overall, the Nikon lens is a great choice for newborn portraits, wedding coverage and photojournalism.

Conclusion

There you go with the best lens for newborn portraits you can choose from. Your purpose of use and budget should be considered before choosing any. However, all of our listed lenses will give you high-quality images.

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