Originally Posted by
Xenedis
Not that I do a lot of environmental portraiture, but when I do, I'm inclined to opt for my 35/1.4.
On a 135-format (D)SLR, it's just the right length to be wide enough to offer context, while not being too long to lose the story.
The wide aperture of my particular 35mm prime also makes it easy to nicely diffuse the background, and even at f/1.4 it's quite sharp.
It's about as general-purpose as a lens gets for me, and if I had to take only one lens for general opportunistic stuff, it's the lens I tend to take.
A 35 and an 85 nicely cover many situations, but for 'scaling (most of my photography), 16mm is it.