What lenses would you recommend as a must have for someone starting out in

[Brandon]

Photography? Especially those interested in shooting portraits.

[Cubby]

1. 50 mm as a standard lens, 1.7 or less.
2. Around 28mm wide angle.
3. About 135mm telephoto.
Get a portrait filter fo the 50mm lens as that will be the most used lens.
Use fast film, if using film I usually use 400 when using film camera, and a lot of natural lighting. NO Flash! Stand about 3 feet from subject. (fill viewfinder with subject)
That is about the basics. From there you can expand with lenses.
Remember the lower the lens number, 1.7 e.g., the better the lens.
My digital camera has a protrait setting on it.

[Pooky]

If it's a full frame DSLR--then 100 mm lens would be perfect for portraits.

Canon 100 mm f 2.8 Macro on Canon 5D

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2164/2168941423_e1ba49bf59_o.jpg

Same lens

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2411/2299520120_66b1c2c15a_b.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2341/2294503848_06feb20f7e_o.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2007/2265480647_0ba80a787c_o.jpg

Basically the photographer is far enough from the subject--and you wouldn't want to use anything too wide anyway, it makes the subject look like this:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3152/2294122425_bf78cafba2_o.jpg

(Canon 16-35 mm f 2.8 L at 16 mm setting)

The kit lens that comes with your camera is a good, all-around lens that you can begin with.

If you're getting a cropped sensor DSLR (and most of them are)--a 50 mm lens would work as a 75 to 80 mm, which is just a tad "shorter" than 100 mm--so it's really good for portrait, too.

[cat_walk]

120-150mm

make sure you buy the right company that makes your camera's lenses

[Michael U]

It depends on the chip size!
On 35mm or DSLR full sized chip equivalent and I would go for:
24-28mm
50mm (std)
75-85mm (portrait)
Or a zoom or 2 covering the range - ideally with a wide aperture (f2.8 or so)... much more expensive but it will make a huge impact on your work if you know how to use them (and light!).

You need to make an allowance for a factor of 1.6 on sub sized chip cameras like the Canon 400d, so a 10mm lens will then act like a 16mm lens.

Personally I wouldn't go for a long tele - in 18 years as a pro covering a very wide range of subjects I very rarely need a long tele... they look good but are not practical for GP photography (essential for sports, wildlife, surveillance and paparazzi... but not much use in many other situations).