The last of these three budget lenses for portrait photography certainly isn’t the least one when it comes to image quality.
A quick online search for portraits taken with this lens gives you quite spectacular examples of what this lens can do.
Sigma 50mm f1.4 EX DG HSM – This alternative from Sigma is very highly respected and retails for around £300-£350. Like the Nikon, it features a maximum aperture of f1.4 and is available for both Canon and Nikon cameras.
Get more tips on budget portrait lenses over at Digital Photographer.
Source: Digital Photographer
There are several great 50mm – 35mm film lenses which with an inexpensive adapter, become 75MM on APS digital cameras( mirrorless and dslr) which have much better optical quality(resolution, DOF, color, etc.) than newer dslr portrait lenses. Both the Nikon and Canon 50mm f1.2 are legendary, used as the primary lens by many professionals through the turn of the millennium. As I had Contax film camera gear I used the Zeiss 50mm f1.4. I now have a Sony mirrorless and still use the indestructible Zeiss with a regular adapter which turns it into a 75mm + uses the sharpest inner 75% of the glass(highest resolution) and also invested in a Metabones speed adapter which keeps it a 50mm but boosts the f/stop to 1.2. Both ways produce incredible results unmatched by any modern lenses. Caveat is you have to manually focus, which purist photographers prefer anyway.