Wedding Photography - How to Choose the Right Lens

You have begun photographing weddings and now it is time to upgrade your gear to the Pro’s level. Through your experience and research on other professional wedding photographers, you realize that there is an assortment of different tastes of the perfect lenses for wedding photography. The truth is, there is no perfect kit. Here I will give you a flavour of a few lens I feel you must have when photographing a wedding.

Portrait Lens
The most important lens to have is a portrait lens. To know how to choose a preferred portrait lens over another, it is important to understand some of the fundamentals of how a lens works.

When you direct a camera at a subject, you produce an image through the viewfinder (this is where the photographer looks through in a digital camera). The lens on the camera magnifies the image producing an image that is either ‘x’ times more closer or ‘x’ times more smaller. Different bodies calculate the magnification at different ratios. A typical focal length you would want for a portrait shot is 85mm. A 50mm lens with a body that magnifies 1.6x (crop factor) should do the trick. It is always a good thing to try shooting portrait photos at a distance. Although there are no strict guidelines in how you take your photos, keep in mind that when you move up closer to your subject, the larger the object is you are focusing on in the forefront. Here are just a few suggestions for your next purchase of wedding portrait lenses.

Nikon 50mm f/1.8
This is a prime lens. It retails for about $140 CAD and is one of the best lens you can get for the small price tag it’s got. The lens has a wide aperture of 1.8 allowing you to really focus in on a subject, while blurring your background. Very cool effect.

Nikon 85mm f/1.4
This is also a prime lens, probably one of the best in the market right now for wedding photography. Although it is a bit more pricy ($1,180 CAD), the amount of detail and sharpness you get from this lens is unimaginable.

Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8
This is a telephoto (zoom) lens that could be your only purchase of zoom lenses. Not only does it produce sharp photos, but you can get up in front of your subject as close as 200mm. At 1.6x crop, your focal length is about 320mm. Imagine that, the only telephoto lens you will ever need. A nifty lens like the 70-200mm comes with a nifty price tag too. You can purchase this lens for about $1,800 CAD.

Those are just a few of the portrait lenses you should have for taking wedding photographs. I would recommend sticking with Nikon branded lenses if you have a Nikon body. Other brands such as Sigma and Tamron has similar lenses that can produce matching results if you’ve mastered using their lenses. Continue reading and learning about wedding photography techniques. After you’ve equipped yourself with quality gear, the next step is all in your imagination and creativity. Go capture it!

Kevin Luc is a Toronto wedding photographer who specializes in fashion, beauty, commercial, portrait, automotive and wedding photography. Be sure to visit my Toronto wedding photography studio and photography blog for more examples of my past work.