“Last year, I purchased a Canon T2i (550D in Europe) as a starter DSLR since I’ve always wanted to get into photography. I worked with film cameras and darkrooms in the past but through a class.
I got rid of the 18-55 kit lens, went to a 28-135, and finally upgraded to a 18-250. Do you use an particular prime/portrait lens? “
I love to use lenses that have a wide aperture. The object you photograph pops out more and the background gets blurry it’s called depth of field.
You can manipulate this effect in your photographs by adjusting your aperture. A wider aperture produces a shallower depth of field and a narrow aperture produces greater depth of field.
My prime lens is a Tamron 28-75mm 2.8 that I use most of the time. It’s a really good lense and you get it for under 500$ In fact most of the photographs I posted so far where taken with that lens.
However my favorite portrait lens is the Canon 85mm 1.8. Which is with a price of under 500$ one of the best portrait lenses you will find. On my Full-Frame 5d body it works just amazing!
Since you have a APS-C (1.6 Crop) Camera I recommend the Canon 50mm 1.8 or if you want to spend a little more money the Canon 50mm 1.4 which when used on a Canon’s Smaller Sensor Camera bodies becomes an effective 80mm lens, due to the 1.6x crop factor.
Your results will change immediately due to the wide aperture. It’s harder to focus but it’s totally worth it!
I hope this answers your question. Let me know if there is anything else you want to know.