Nowadays Wedding Photography is widely trendy. As it is a different section of photography, it needs various types of elements and lenses to capture the couple’s wedding memories perfectly. That is why selecting the right lens for professional wedding photography is important.
Wedding photography is supposed to be aesthetic, and versatile. A good lens can offer all the features such as multiple lighting effects, portraits, and a beautiful blurring system. Using a good lens can ensure a quality image with proper details.
Prime Lenses
Prime Lenses normally come with fixed focal lengths. These lenses don’t have the features of zoom in and zoom out. It normally has a single focal length like 50mm f/1.2 or f/1.4., 85mm f/1.4 or f/1.8, and 35mm f/1.4 or f/1.8. Let’s quickly discuss the Pros and Cons of these lenses.
A. 50mm f/1.2 or f/1.4
Pros:
This lens is good for photography in a portrait mood. It has the feature of getting a natural view almost similar to human sight. 50mm focal length is best for capturing realistic portraits. It is very lightweight and has multiple lighting options and a wonderful to get a smooth and impressive background.
Cons:
The disadvantage of the lens is its fixed focal length. And that isn’t a good fit for dynamic shooting. Though it is good for portrait photography, one can’t shoot multiple images at a time. As it needs to switch the lenses very often.
B. 85mm f/1.4 or f/1.8
Pros
This lens is also best for doing portrait photography. It can make the photos more natural with versatile effects, perfect for headshots. Also, it offers smooth background blur features and good clear images.
Cons
The bad side of this lens is its limitation of capturing a large group of photos. And it is heavier than other lenses.
C. 35mm f/1.4 or f/1.8
Pros
The lens has the versatility to capture Portraits and different types of shots. It can capture multiple types of milieus and give an aesthetic vibe in photos, which is perfect for storytelling. With this lens, you can get more details of the subjects and more background details. Also, it has wonderful features for doing photoshoots in low-light conditions. Easy to carry and budget-friendly.
Cons
This is not appropriate for taking shots at a very short distance. It may fail to capture proper details of the subjects. And mess up the facial features if the shot is taken from a very short distance. This lens has limited flexibility in its features.
Zoom Lenses
Zoom lenses are vitally important for doing wedding photographs. It has versatility in its image quality and capturing features. Below are the Pros and Cons of the Zoom Lenses.
A. 24-70mm f/2.8
Pros
This is a kind of versatile lens with many features and regular aperture. It can cover a wide range of situations and is good for wide-angle photoshoots and close shoots. It is a very flexible lens. It can capture a group of photos at a moment without switching the lens frequently. This lens offers clear and sharp images with good quality. Perfectly works in low-light conditions too.
Cons
But the lens is a little bit heavy compared to other lenses. That can be an obstacle while doing wedding photography, as it is not lightweight and tough to carry.
B. 70-200mm f/2.8
Pros
It is a good choice if you are required to take candid shots. With this lens, one can capture perfect candid shots without interfering with the scene. It offers natural clear-quality images with smooth backgrounds. can separate the subjects from the background and can make a photo very professional. One can take different kinds and different distance shots at a time from a single place.
Cons
If we talk about the failings of this lens it is quite heavy and expensive. Not suitable for beginners and those who are looking for a budget-friendly lens.
Special Lenses
100mm or 105mm Macro
Pros
The good side of this lens is it has features for taking shots that can provide good details of the subjects. Macro lenses are specially designed for close-up shots that can give you proper detail of the subject you are capturing. It can capture the different themes of wedding photography perfectly. Such as the shots of a couple’s rings, flowers, invitation cards, mirrors, signing pens, etc. With all these facilities, it also provides good quality sharp images.
Cons
It has limitations in its versatility, as a result, you can only capture some types of shots at a time. And the macro lens is quite slower than other lenses in auto-focus functionality. Whatever, this can be a good choice to get good-quality images.
Recommended Combinations
For professional Photography, and to get a smooth hassle-free experience you can combine lenses based on your specific requirement. Such as:
A. Two-Prime Setup
Combination: 35mm and 85mm
Benefits: This combination is perfect for a good range of wide and tight shots. With the combination of 35mm and 85mm, you will be able to capture a wide-angle view in environmental photoshoots with tight portraits.
If you compare prime lenses with zoom lenses, prime lenses are more lightweight than zoom lenses. Which is easy to carry anywhere, and you can continue your photoshoots in a wedding without any barrier to carrying them. Also, as an extra advantage, you will get good quality sharp images.
B. Zoom and Prime
Combination: 24-70mm f/2.8 and a 50mm or 85mm prime
Benefits: Zoom and Prime lenses can be a good combination for getting versatility in your images and for high-quality portraits. Together these two lenses offer standard quality images and you can capture wide-angle group shots at a time without switching the lenses every time. Both lenses have wide apertures and are perfect for charming portraits with smooth backgrounds. Also can work perfectly in lower-light situations.
C. Dual-Zoom Setup
Combination: 24-70mm f/2.8 and 70-200mm f/2.8
Benefits: Dual-Zoom Setup can cover almost all scenarios with its wide-angle capturing feature. This combination allows you to capture all kinds of scenarios in a wedding ceremony. You can capture any candid moment perfectly or can get a closer shot with perfect details of the subject. Also, this lens combination offers much versatility in its image quality.
Considerations
Before starting wedding photoshoots, one must make a photoshoot checklist. It is important to make sure of what one needs during a wedding photoshoot. And to consider some factors for hassle-free photoshoots all day. Such as camera body, shooting style, lighting conditions, and budget.
A. Camera Body
Before starting shooting make sure you have a flexible, easy-to-carry camera. In that case, a lightweight camera body is preferable. If a camera is consistent with other shooting staff then it’s less tiring during wedding photoshoots.
B. Shooting Style
It is also important to decide what type of shots you want to capture. It could be candid shots or interactive. Based on this you can finalize the lens for the shots. At a wedding, there are a lot of criteria as the couple wants different types of stylish shots so you may go for a combined setup lens.
C. Lighting Conditions
Light can make huge differences in your photos. You need different kinds of light conditions for different types of shots. Natural light is important to get more details and instinctive results. Natural daylight is preferable for decoration, rings, and flower shots. Go for early evening light or gloomy light to get aesthetic vibes. If you are doing photography in a room use soft bright light.
D. Budget
Budget is something you must consider before a wedding photoshoot. Based on your budget divide every cost accordingly, such as your lens cost, camera cost, or lighting cost. Investing in lenses is most important as it is the major subject of photography. Or you can consider renting lenses if you have budget issues to buy multiple lenses at a time.
Conclusion
To conclude, it can be said that wedding day is an important day for anyone’s life. So, everyone wants some precious memories of this day for cherries in the future. That’s why selecting the best lenses, photographers, and cameras is important. Make sure whatever lenses you are using can capture the true essence of a wedding. And for that, you can consider the discussion for choosing the best lenses for wedding photography. To know about more photography tips read other style of photography blog.
