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kyidyl · 3 years

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Kyidyl Does Archaeology - Part 5

(as per usual, all these posts are collected under the KyidylCL tag)

Pottery and shErds

So, what are we talking about today? Well, I think the next thing is gonna be pottery. This is where we’re gonna talk about time, space, and dating a site. Because most people think that the only way to date an archaeological site is via C14. That’s not true, and actually we don’t always do it. C14 dating can have some problems, including that the wood used in the fire is likely older than the time in which it was cut down and burned. It also only goes back 50,000 years, so anything older than that won’t have any carbon isotopes (it’ll have all decayed), and we have to use other things that are more expensive. And c14 testing itself is expensive - we sent in 2 samples and it was around $500/sample so we spent about $1000 on testing. Instead, there are other ways to date a site and one of the most accurate is pottery.

See, like all other kinds of material culture (AKA, stuff people leave behind. Non-material culture is like...song and story and stuff like that.), pottery follows stylistic trends and trends in how it was made. And it does this both regionally and chronologically. Which is great, because if we find bits of one type of pottery we know is made in one place in a settlement in another place, then we know the two people traded with each other. But I have to explain something else so that determining a date from pottery makes sense.

Every area of the country has what’s called a “type site” for a given period of time. In undergrad I was lucky enough to actually get to work on the type site for the Safety Harbour period, which is Weedon Island....ironically enough there’s a Weedon Island period and Weedon Island isn’t the type site for that period so uuuhhh...yeah it’s weird lol. Anyway, a type site is a site that is considered stereotypical for a given time and place in history. Usually they’re large and well-preserved, and they’re often the first sites found in that time period/area (but not always, which is how the above weirdness happened.). And so what happens is we dig ‘em and analyze the finds and do testing on those finds. So now we know “hey, this kind of pottery comes from here and it is X years old”. Now you know when you find it in other places where and when it comes from. This is all a very generalized explanation, but I think any more is like extraneous detail you don’t need. Just know that things like type sites help us determine where and when stuff like pottery was made. Lots of literature usually exists for type sites, but I actually can’t remember the type site for this area for this time period.

We also use a term called “diagnostic”, which is used much as it is in medicine. If we find a certain thing that was only made during a specific time period or in a certain place, then it’s diagnostic. IE, a certain kind of pottery is diagnostic of the late, middle, or early Woodland. The pottery we have at our site is diagnostic of the late Woodland. Some of the lithics we thought might be a bit earlier, but honestly I think that was just misidentification by the site director bc we were in the field at the time. Lastly, identifying pottery has a few components. Color and decoration I think are easy to understand (they didn’t have glazes, but you can make different colored pottery by varying the composition of the clay and the temperature at which it is fired.). Paste and temper are the other two. IDK how modern pottery is made, but old ass pottery is made with paste - the main body of the clay, the matrix that contains the temper - and temper. Temper is stuff they’d crush up and mix in to help it not break during firing and heating during normal use. So we combine these factors to ID the pottery and thus the age of the site and trading habits of the people in question. One last thing you need to understand about pottery - ancient people used pottery the way that we use disposable things. They didn’t think it was like an important thing that had to keep safe. They’d use it until it broke and then toss it in the garbage pit and make a new one. So it’s really common and we find it all over the place, but TBH in the future pottery *won’t* be diagnostic anymore because our ceramics come in such a wide variety that we couldn’t possibly hope to narrow down time or place.

Alright, so who wants pictures? You, of course. Who *doesn’t* want pictures? Here’s some of the pottery we found:

This is the larger shard that I found in the features I’ve talked about in previous installments. You can see where I accidentally broke it. >.> Anyway it’s kind of unique bc of the light color outside and the black inside. It’s like...idk, 4 or so inches long.

This is a rim piece that I happened to find two matching sherds of. I always check the rim pieces because the patterns on them usually make them easier to fit together. Honestly I’ve got hundreds of pot sherds from this site and I don’t have the sanity to try and make pots from them.

This is the outside and inside respectively of the largest piece we have. TBH taking this thing out of its box and handling it makes me nervous because of how large it is - about the size of my hand, but I did include my earbuds for scale. The black is charring from both firing and subsequent use, and it came out of the pit feature I’ve been talking about. And do you wanna know the cool thing about the inner surface of pottery? Because they didn’t use glazes, the surface was porous and retains the unique chemical traces of what was made in them. However, the vast majority of the time those kinds of tests aren’t done because archaeology as a whole is extremely underfunded and trace chemical analysis of pot residue is an expensive test requiring expensive equipment and expensive scientists. Funnily enough I probably could do some of this testing bc I used to be premed and so I’ve taken a lot of chemistry and know how to read a mass spec thing, but I don’t have access to the chemicals or tools to do these kinds of tests. Plus, they’re often destructive...which....I mean...there’s so much pottery that it doesn’t really matter if one piece gets destroyed but like you do still have to be careful *which* piece you destroy.

Anyway, you also can see the striations on the outside piece, and that’s decoration on the pot. It probably also helped with gripping it. This is a piece of Shepardware, which is diagnostic of the late Woodland period in the Shenandoah valley. Here’s some more cool pottery:

This is a random assortment of the kind of stuff we regularly pull out of the ground when it comes to pottery. The most common kind we have is the orange on one side black on the other (3 upper rt pieces), whiteish (upper left 2), orange on both sides (lower left 3) and totally black (lower right 3). All of ‘em are some variety of shepard or pageware. You can see the texture on a lot of them, too. We have a good mix of textured and untextured, and that’s why the composition of the pottery is more diagnostic than the decoration. Frankly, people can and will put whatever design they think looks cool. But they made that particular design by wrapping twine around the end of a flat stick and pressing it into the surface of the wet clay. I also chose those two upper right pieces because they have really visible temper. Here’s a side shot of one of them:

You can see how big the bits are compared to my fingers (yeah, there’s dirt under my nails....I haven’t taken some tweezers to them yet after working on the car.). And...wait, I WAS going to try to describe this to you but then I was like “no, they deserve better” and I broke out my DSLR and my macro lens and took some pics. Here are some macros of the temper:

The white balance is a little off on the top one...the bottom one is more true to color (they aren’t the same piece of pottery, but they are a similar color). So you can see that it’s crushed up limestone. Pardon the depth of field on those...I had to open the aperture pretty wide to get one that wasn’t blurry bc I don’t exactly have bright lights in my room.

Anyway....so that’s the pottery we’ve gotten at the site and what we can learn from it. It’s going to take some time before we can start determining patterns and whatnot in regards to style, but we do have some evidence of trading here because some of the pottery we have is from the piedmont culture....

...wait, let me explain what that means. When archaeologists need to describe a group of people who existed in a given place in a given time based on similarities in material culture regardless of ethnic and social grouping we call it a culture. This is different than the standard meaning of the world culture, or even the way a cultural anthropologist would use the word. So when I say the piedmont culture, I mean people that lived in the general area of the Piedmont plateau during the late woodland. They were of varying tribes, languages, etc. And we do this to describe the extant boundaries of cultural influence of particular trends in physical objects and not the social groupings of the humans in question. So, for example, lots of people are familiar with the Clovis culture. When archaeologists use this term we mean “these are the boundaries of the places we are finding physical objects in the group we’ve named Clovis” not “everyone in this area was a Clovis person”. Like no, obviously, they weren’t. There were tons of social groups, tribes, etc. that were all distinct and different. It’s a way of mapping cultural influence via physical objects to see how far they spread and who was using them.

So, we have some piedmont stuff despite not being in the piedmont area, so we know that they were trading with those natives. If you’re interested in more detail here, this is the VDHR resource I use for IDing pottery. It looks like it came to visit you from the late 1990s, but the info is good and it’s easy to use.

Anyway, that’s it for tonight. Tomorrow is gonna be rocks and weird stuff, depending on how much I end up saying about rocks. Probably not much bc we know how I feel about rocks. ;)

#kyidylCL #archaeology #science #pottery #native pottery #native americans #anthropology

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slrlounge1 · 5 years

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Wedding Photography DSLR Prime Lenses – The Complete Guide | 2019 Update

Overview of Wedding Photography Equipment

With so many different styles of photography out there, wedding photography equipment can vastly differ from one photographer to another. For example, a natural light photographer may require a very different set of lenses and accessories than a photographer with more fashion and studio lighting influences. And then there’s the whole issue of DSLR versus mirrorless (native) lenses!

Regardless, we still can narrow down our list of recommendations to what we think the majority of wedding photographers should own. For this particular article, we will focus on prime lenses only, and other articles will get into zoom lenses, camera bodies, lighting, and accessories that a wedding (or “lifestyle portrait” type) photographer might need.

To view our complete guide to camera bodies for wedding photography, click HERE. To view our complete guide to zoom lenses for wedding photography, click HERE.

Define Your Style: Primes VS Zooms In WEdding PHotography

The very first thing we need to discuss is primes VS zooms. When it comes to wedding, event, and portrait photography this always seems to be the biggest issue that divides all the advice-givers out there. There are highly zealous people who passionately argue in favor of each!

In our opinion, it is simply a matter of preference, not a “better / worse” type thing. Some photographers find that they simply hate zooms and love primes, while others cannot live without a set of good f/2.8 zooms. Both systems are capable of delivering amazing results; it simply depends on your style as a photographer. (How much you like to move around, or be challenged to think creatively, or if you have a bad back or something lol?)

Therefore, we will make our recommendations from both perspectives, in separate guides, and this article will focus mainly on zoom lenses.

Before we get to individual lens recommendations though, we need to talk about your overall kit. Recommending individual lenses just doesn’t complete the whole story for a wedding photographer because there are just so many different angles to cover!

A Complete Kit – Zooms

The absolute safest bet for wedding photography is a set of 2-3 fast zooms and 1-2 fast primes. For example a 70-200 plus a 24-70 and/or a 16-35 zoom, and a 35mm, 50mm or 85mm prime thrown in for creative shooting and low-light. That right there is many wedding photographers’ go-to setup.

Some photographers prefer the 24-70 mid-range because it is versatile enough to shoot almost everything from details and venue shots to candids and formal portraits. Other wedding photographers feel that 24mm just isn’t wide enough for their style and they opt for a dedicated wide-angle zoom instead. (Sometimes these folks wind up never using their 24-70 again!)

Either way, the bottom line is that it takes about 3-4 total lenses to create a well-rounded “product” for a wedding. (Not even counting specialty lenses such as macro or fisheye lenses.)

If you rely heavily on your zooms, then it is usually better if they are f/2.8, sharp as heck wide open, and stabilized if possible. Oppositely, if you rely more on your primes and only rarely use your zooms, you might be able to get away with f/4 zooms, or older / third-party f/2.8 zooms. But we’ll get into budgeting in a bit.

A Complete Kit – Primes

Usually, the wedding photographers who love primes fall into two categories- Those who love 50mm only, and barely use any other lenses, …and those who prefer a combo of two or more primes, usually a 35mm and 85mm setup. You often find these photographers shooting with two camera bodies at once, with those two primes permanently attached to each camera.

In my professional experience, I prefer a combination of primes and zooms. I love 85mm primes and 28-35mm primes, but wider and longer angles are best covered with a zoom. (The “zoom with your feet” thing really works best between 28mm and 85mm!) To be frank, I just find that 50mm gets boring after a while so I love having an 85mm prime on one of my cameras, paired with something wider on a 2nd camera.

Of course, when I talk about “permanently” attaching certain lenses to your cameras, I just mean the one or two lenses that a wedding photographer would use most frequently. You still need to supplement your arsenal with a few other lenses, in my opinions. Shooting with a single lens just won’t produce a full and complete product. For example, a prime shooter might rely mainly on a single 50mm prime or a 35+85 combo, but also have a 14-24 and 70-200 in their bag as I mentioned above.

This article will focus mainly on prime lenses and specialty lenses for wedding photography. Our article on zoom lenses can be found HERE.

The Lenses That “Define Your Style”

Whatever your style, you should be able to identify that one special lens that you just adore, the lens that helps you define your style. This is the lens you should spend the most money on, and maybe even consider having a backup of!

For example, if you love 85mm as much as I do, you might want to consider one of the best 85mm’s that money can buy. Unfortunately, most of those “exotic” 85mm’s are massively heavy, and expensive! So, why not also buy the f/1.8 versions as a backup, or for shooting more active situations where you need very snappy autofocus?

The Nikon, Canon, and Sony 85mm f/1.8’s are all incredible lenses, and they are great at nailing focus consistently even in terrible light. Plus, they’re much lighter and smaller, if you’re in a candid situation where you want be unobtrusive or incognito.

Why am I bothering to say all of this? Because often times, beginners feel compelled to go straight to the absolute most expensive lenses, all across the board, before they even know what their style is. To these people buying anything less than the absolute best is just a waste in the long run. If money is no object to you then that’s great, you can start shopping now; the rest of us can keep reading and figure out which lenses to invest in first etc…

In my opinion, as a working professional buying an affordable lens in the short term just becomes a backup lens in the long run. Especially if it is that one special focal length you just love. Imagine if you accidentally drop or get a splash of water your favorite lens, mid-wedding, and it becomes non-functional. What do you do for the rest of the day? Do you just completely change your shooting style and not use that focal range at all? The difference would really, really show in your final delivery. So don’t be afraid to purchase a mid-price lens if it is all you can afford at first. Also, it is better to make a small investment in a lens that you wind up only using here and there than to mistakenly spend $2,000 on a lens that you hardly ever use once you define your style…

So, spend the most money on the lenses that define your style. Then “fill the gaps” with other lenses. Maybe this means you get a few of the high-end prime lenses that you love, and just use third-party lenses to cover a zoom range that you use less often.. Or a combination of both primes and zooms; whatever suits you!

Disclaimer #1: Of course this philosophy of prioritizing your budget mainly applies to those who are just starting out. As you achieve success as a professional, (hopefully!) you’re welcome to fill your camera bag with all the best lenses on the market. Reward yourself for all your hard work! We’re not here to encourage hard-working photographers that they should buy a set of low-budget lenses. However, when you’re just starting out, keep your overall budget in mind and try to define your style before making big investments. Renting lenses and 2nd shooting at weddings, for example, is a great way to try stuff out.

Disclaimer #2: We understand that even our “value” recommendations may seem a little pricey to some people. We simply believe that any aspiring professional wedding photographer should be able to invest this much in at least 2-3 lenses. If you’re on an even smaller shoestring budget, we simply find it difficult to recommend any lenses below a certain price point because they usually do have more significant drawbacks that can cause you to regret the purchase eventually.

Without any further ado, we will break down the must-have prime lenses for wedding photographers, in our usual Gear Guide categories- “Performance Champions” and “Value Winners”. Enjoy!

50mm Prime Lens Recommendations

All-Around Value Winner: Nikon 50mm f/1.8 G Canon 50mm f/1.8 STM Sony 50mm f/1.8 FE

From the aspiring pro wedding photographer who is on a budget to the veteran who is simply tired of lugging around a bag of heavy lenses, and even the f/2.8 zoom lover who barely ever uses primes, …there is no better news than Nikon’s decision to revamp their f/1.8 prime lineup in sharp, professional-grade new lenses. The $200 Nikon 50mm f/1.8 G is the most affordable of any new lens that we recommend to wedding photographers. This is not your uncle’s crappy “plastic fantastic” 50mm, it is a well-built, reliable piece of glass that even has a weather-sealing gasket at the lens mount!

I try not to publish “fightin’ words”, but from my tests this dirt-cheap beginner prime has equal or better sharpness than even our bokeh champion, the Canon 50mm f/1.2 L. Yeah, it’s that good. No, the DOF and colors aren’t as good; the Canon 50 L is still in a league of its own. I just want to make it clear that this Nikon 50mm is a force to be reckoned with if all you need is sharpness and solid quality.

Of course if you really love 50mm as a focal length and are working as a professional, you might as well just spend another ~$250 and get the Nikon 50mm f/1.4 or the Sigma 50mm f/1.4, since they too are relatively affordable at around $400-500. You should only budget so little money for a 50mm if you already know that your style lies more with a different focal range. Personally, I’m happy with the 50 1.8 G because I love to use 85mm and 28mm / 35mm a lot more. I really only get out my 50mm anymore for specific group shots that require that exact focal length.

Why are there no other “value winners” in this category, you might ask? Because quite honestly the other 50mm f/1.8 options out there are just not a good long-term investment for a professional wedding photographer. If you’re a Nikon shooter then this new 50mm 1.8 G should be your starting point, and if you’re a Canon shooter you should actually skip both the Canon 50mm f/1.8 and the f/1.4, and just get the Sigma 50mm f/1.4 instead. It is way sharper and stronger built than either of the affordable Canon 50mm’s. Yet the Sigma is so good that it belongs in our performance champion category! But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Performance Champion (Unlimited Budget) Canon 50mm f/1.2 L II Canon RF 50mm f/1.2

Unless you count the rare and elusive Canon 50mm f/1.0 L, these two lenses are the champions of all full-frame 50mm’s when it comes to achieving shallow DOF and creamy bokeh. The price tags, size and weight are pretty significant though, making their purchase a pretty big decision. They’re worth every penny, for sure, especialy the new mirrorless RF version. It destroys the other Canon 50mm’s with respect to sharpness and autofocus speed.

Keep in mind that the older, (DSLR, EF mount) Canon 50 1.2 L is indeed sluggish to focus, and accuracy can drop in low light, depending on which camera you shoot it with. A flagship 1-series Canon might not let you down, but with a Rebel or almost any camera with less AF power than the 5D mkIV, …you will struggle to nail focus consistently. Therefore, this (older) lens is best suited for general posed portraiture and only light photojournalism.

Performance Champion (Semi-affordable) Sigma 50mm f/1.4 Art

At just under $1000, (usually $950, but watch for a $100 rebate every now and then!) …this Sigma lens isn’t exactly a cheap 50mm, however it competes very well with all the other 50mm primes on the market, including the $4000 Zeiss Otus!

Performance Champion #3: Nikon 58mm f/1.4 G

Don’t be fooled by its lack of “f/1.2” written on the lens, this “normal” prime also packs some incredible, creamy bokeh.

Of course, if you already own the older Nikon 50mm f/1.4 G and you don’t use 50mm all the time, you can probably just keep on using that older lens. However, if you really love 50mm and want “that look” from your shallow depth shots, you should certainly consider upgrading.

Medium Wide Angle Prime Lens Recommendations

Between 24mm and 50mm there are a handful of prime lenses that many wedding photographers (especially the photojournalist types) love to use.

Again keep in mind that depending on your style, you might be much better off with a 24-70mm zoom instead, and you should rent/try out lenses before investing. Basically, the only main reason to buy a prime lens in this range is if you really want an aperture faster than f/2.8, otherwise, you’re better off with a zoom. These are some of the most commonly regretted purchases among newbie photographers, so proceed with caution!

35mm Performance Champion: Sigma 35mm f/1.4 EX DG Art

This was one of Sigma’s very first “Art” class lenses. It took the prime world by storm, surpassing its direct competition, the Canon 35mm f/1.4 L (mk1) and Nikon 35mm f/1.4 G, …and at almost half the price! While the name-brand 35mm’s are indeed also performance champions, this Sigma steals our recommendation for any new buyers.

If you already have a name-brand 35mm f/1.4, you probably won’t really need to upgrade. The Canon 35mm f/1.4 L mk2 is indeed an incredible lens, however, it’s also nearly $1,700.

35mm Value Winners: Nikon 35mm f/2 Canon 35mm f/2

Both of these lenses are relatively affordable, and good performers. They’re only f/2 though, making it tough for them to compete with the latest razor-sharp f/2.8 zooms. Unless of course you’re also looking to save weight – both of these 35mm’s are about the size and weight of a “nifty fifty”, making them a delight to shoot towards the end of a long wedding day.

These aren’t exactly “go-to” staple lenses though, for a long-term, heavy-duty workload. They’re certainly still a good intermediate buy, however, to indulge in your need for lighter and smaller lenses to use towards the end of a long wedding day, as I mentioned above, or simply to test the waters of this focal range and see how much you like it.

35mm Performance AND Value Champion: Canon 35mm IS f/2

An oddball, this lens is. While it costs almost as little as its un-stabilized, aging siblings from Canon and Nikon, it is amazingly sharp, built almost like an L lens, and stabilized! Therefore we feel that it deserves both value and performance recommendations. If you are a bit jittery and hate heavier lenses, give this one a try for sure.

28mm Performance AND Value Champion: Nikon 28mm f/1.8 G

Some prime-loving photojournalists feel that 35mm isn’t wide enough yet 24mm is a little too wide. Queue the 28mm primes! This new Nikon 28mm f/1.8 is a stunning performer. The image quality is superb, as good as any of its f/1.4 competition at 24mm or 35mm.

For those of you Nikon history buffs out there- why didn’t we bother listing the legendary Nikon 28mm f/1.4 in this category? After all it is indeed a “performance champion”… True, but unfortunately it has become such a collector’s item that it is highly overpriced compared to the alternatives. If you’re a Nikon die-hard fan you could consider it, otherwise you can find many better ways to spend ~$3,000!

F/2.8 Prime Champions: Canon 28mm f/2.8 IS Canon 24mm f/2.8 IS

These two lenses are great, but difficult to place in our guide- they are relatively expensive, for such modest specifications. They’re stabilized and sharp as heck though, so if you really like shooting natural light and hate the weight of a 24-70mm, but are OK with f/2.8, then do consider one of these.

Performance Champions: Nikon 24mm f/1.4 G Canon 24mm f/1.4 L mk2

While these two lenses aren’t much cheaper than an f/2.8 zoom that covers their range, they are at least a bit lighter and smaller. Also while the ability to create shallow DOF at 24mm isn’t that dramatic, the faster aperture does wonderful things for shooting hand-held in low-light, making them favorites among wedding photojournalists who prefer natural light.

This is one of the main “love/hate” relationship lenses for full-frame wedding photographers. Some find they never use it and just stick with their 24-70, or a 35 / 50mm prime, while others fall in love and the lens never leaves one of their cameras. Either way, if you love this focal length and you love shooting hand-held in natural light, these two lenses are awesome.

…Then again, if Sigma winds up making a 24mm f/1.4 “Art” that is nearly as good as their new 35mm f/1.4, these two name-brand 24mm’s could potentially get bumped out of their top spot. (It’s Sept. 2013 now; only rumors thus far about a Sigma 24mm)

Speaking of Sigma wide-angle primes; currently there are three older f/1.8 primes available, the 20mm, 24mm, and 28mm f/1.8. All of these lenses are decently sharp enough to be considered, though a little too pricey for a “value winner” title.

Ultra Wide Angle Prime Lens Recommendations

First I need to disclaim that ultra-wide angle prime lenses are pretty uncommon in wedding photography. To be honest most wedding shooters should probably just consider one of our ultra-wide zoom lens recommendations which we discuss HERE.

Why? Because most of the older primes in the 14-20mm range are totally eclipsed in performance by today’s zooms, and some of the more affordable zooms are almost as affordable as a comparable prime. So unless you randomly come across a great bargain at a garage sale or on Ebay, stick with the ultra-wide zoom recommendations.

Then again, all of these recommendations offer significant weight savings over most ultra-wide zooms, as well as decent cost savings.

Nikon 20mm f/2.8 Canon 20mm f/2.8

These two primes are tough to justify buying even for a prime lover, because they both cost even more than one of our favorite f/4 ultra-wide zooms, (the Tokina 17-35mm f/4) …and only a few hundred dollars short of a used f/2.8 ultra-wide zoom. Yet they are getting pretty old, and corner softness / field curvature can be a problem.

In fact compared to a zoom, the only reasons to buy one of these two lenses are like I mentioned- if you really care about keeping your total kit as light as possible, or if you “score” one for really cheap.

Tokina 17mm f/3.5 ATX Pro

A much better choice in my opinion than any other ultra-wide prime, the Tokina 17mm f/3.5 ATX Pro is a little-known gem. While most other ultra-wide primes either have bad image quality, fall-apart construction, or are cost-prohibitive, …this lens is decently sharp, rock-solid yet tiny, and extremely affordable! (The Nikon 18mm f/2.8 and Nikon 20mm f/2.8 are both $600+, while this lens is <$300) Additionally, it is compact, lightweight, and compatible with 77mm filters!

These lenses are a little hard to find, but create a “saved search” on Ebay or check KEH.com every now and then, and you should be able to score one for about $300 or less eventually.

Canon 14mm f/2.8 L Nikon 14mm f/2.8 D

These two lenses are for the low-light photojournalist who often works in tight quarters and wants something as wide as possible without having to pony up for the likes of the Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8 G or Canon 16-35mm f/2.8 L mk2, and/or have it take up a ton of space in their bag.

They are the classic “rent one to see if you like it, don’t just randomly buy them” type of lens

Fisheye Lenses

We can once again harken back to our landscape ultra-wide lens recommendation here: Fisheye lenses are such specialized items that you should only invest in them to the extent that you plan to use them. If you’re obsessed with the fisheye look, such as for dance floor action shots or other interesting angles, then maybe consider a Nikon 16mm f/2.8 Fisheye or a Canon 15mm f/2.8 Fisheye. However, the Sigma 15mm f/2.8 EX DG Fisheye is a great option too if you just use it as a “play around” type lens.

Personally, as a Nikon user, I’d rather just get the oldschool manual focus Nikon 16mm f/2.8 AIS Fisheye, because it’s built like a rock (no, literally!) and I can just jam it in the bottom of my rolling camera case and not worry about it.

Telephoto Prime Lens Recommendations

Since there are primes available from 85mm to 200mm, once again we’ll have to just throw all the “performance champions” and “value winners” together in a jumble. Here goes nothing!

All-Around Value Winners: Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM Nikon AF-S 85mm f/1.8 G

A great alternative to a 70-200 zoom for low-light candids and portraits, these two lenses are well-loved by any photographer who wants a portable, lightweight telephoto prime for portraits of 1-2 people.

They’re also killer for general low-light photojournalism, however at well under 100mm they just don’t fully replace a 70-200 zoom, especially in larger venues. You might need to get a cheaper 70-200 or another telephoto prime to supplement an 85mm prime.

Canon 100mm f/2

Another little-known gem, for those who tried and liked 85mm but want a little extra reach. Great sharpness and overall image quality, once again the only issue is that you need to remove chromatic aberrations in post-production. Also, like the Canon 85 1.8 it is a little less rugged than an L prime.

Sheer Performance Champions: Canon 85mm f/1.2

The king(s) of bokeh, when it comes to 85mm. While f/1.2 primes are usually a little more sluggish than their f/1.4 and f/1.8 alternatives, anyone who shoots portraits and weddings knows that there are still times when it’s worth it to nail focus and achieve a gorgeously blurred background.

Just be sure you’re well-practiced at nailing focus at f/1.2 before jumping into an action-packed wedding day. Nailing focus at any aperture faster than f/4 isn’t easy, but f/1.2 and 85mm are a whole new level of shallow DOF. The older Canon 85mm f/1.2 L II is a bit of a slug to focus, honestly, however the new mirrorless RF 85mm f/1.2 L ought to be much snappier if it is anything like its RF 50mm f/1.2 sibling.

Sigma 85mm f/1.4 Art Nikon AF-S 85mm f/1.4 G

These two 85mm lenses are also ready to deliver beautiful bokeh and incredible sharpness, despite their 2/3 EV smaller aperture.

As with any fast prime, you should remember to use chromatic aberration removal in post-production, but other than that the image quality of both lenses is world-class. Both are also well-built. (OK, let’s be honest, the Sigma is a monster!)

Nikon AF-S 105mm f/1.4E ED

Nikon’s fast-aperture telephoto portrait champion is this beast, the 105mm f/1.4E. It is everything that an 85mm f/1.4 could offer, and then some. If you’re looking to really “kill” a background with bokeh, or shoot telephoto candids from a distance in low light, this lens offers more reliable autofocus than any Nikon-mount ~105mm alternative.

Canon 135mm f/2 L

A truly legendary lens among Canon photographers, you just cannot go wrong with this lens if you are looking for an alternative to all the hefty 70-200mm’s. Although it lacks IS stabilization, the added stop of light and shallower DOF is worth it!

Sigma 150mm f/2.8 OS Macro EX DG

While an 85mm or 100mm lens is not “long” enough to fully replace a 70-200mm zoom, this Sigma 150mm f/2.8 OS Macro is close enough to do the job quite well. (Especially if you have a 30-50-megapixel camera, and use 1.2x or 1.5x crop mode for general candid work.)

This lens includes stabilization, which most 105mm’s and 135mm’s do not, and it is also a 1:1 macro lens! A triple threat for any portrait/candid/event photographer who wants a prime in this focal range.

Exotic Performance Champions: Canon 200mm f/2 L IS Nikon 200mm f/2 VR

These two lenses, although some would argue are overkill for weddings and lifestyle type portraits, seem to be the “Rolex” of telephoto bokeh champions.

Bottom line, these two lenses are both flawlessly sharp, incredibly snappy to focus, and offer a truly unique shooting experience.

Of course, any successful wedding photographers could do just fine with a 70-200mmm f/2.8, but that’s not the point. These lenses are what camera geeks buy instead of a Harley when they turn 45.

Sony Prime Lenses For Wedding Photography

Over the last 5 years, Sony’s full-frame mirrorless system has gone from having almost no native lenses, to a complete and formidable arsenal of both zooms and primes. With the release of the newest GM (that’s Sony’s label for their best stuff) 135mm f/1.8, a Sony prime shooter has plenty of incredible options to choose from for both wedding and portrait photography.

Sony FE 24mm f/1.4 GM

Quite simply, this is the best 24mm around. We don’t know how they did it, but Sony managed to create a 24mm f/1.4 prime with incredible image quality from corner to corner, even wide open at f/1.4 or f/2. It’s also quite lightweight and portable, and offers an aperture ring that can be de-clicked for video use, plus a customizable Fn button.

Sony SONNAR T* FE 55mm f/1.8 ZA

This relatively compact, modest aperture prime is one of the most impressive performers that Sony has produced in its range. Incredibly sharp, it offers not just portability for those long 12+ hour wedding days, but also, its diminutive size allows the photographer to shoot in a more relaxed, casual atmosphere compared to sticking a giant 24-70mm or 70-200mm in everybody’s face. In short, this lens represents everything that is good about being a prime shooter!

Sony FE 85mm f/1.4 GM

As its GM designation indicates, this lens is incredibly sharp, relatively snappy to focus, and built solidly. If you’re looking for a workhorse 85mm prime that you can mount natively on your full-frame Sony (FE) body, this is a lens that can deliver the goods.

Sony FE 135mm f/1.8 GM

If you’re looking for extreme bokeh, look no further (pun intended?) than a 135mm f/1.8 prime, such as the Sony 135mm f/1.8 GM. Like its DSLR competitor the Sigma 135mm f/1.8, the Sony 135mm FE GM will deliver gorgeously shallow depth, while offering a longer subject distance which actually helps you keep a subject’s face in focus more, compared to the same framing with a 50mm f/1.2 or 85mm f/1.4. The Sony offers a high-speed, accurate AF motor system, as well as a physical aperture ring that can be de-clicked for smooth video shooting.

Manual-Focus Prime Lenses For Wedding Photography

While I personally have a hard time recommending manual focus lenses for use in wedding photography due to the active nature of weddings, there are some photographers out there who use manual lenses with great success.

The most popular manual focus primes are the classic focal ranges- 35mm, 50mm, or 85mm. Nikon, Zeiss, and Rokinon are the most common players here with Nikon and Zeiss offering beautiful image quality and incredibly robust lens construction, while Rokinon (and Bower and Samyang) offer great image quality too, but with build quality that may not last as long as a Zeiss lens.

Of course, for those of you who truly love the subtle aesthetics of bokeh and flare, certain Leica lenses seem to be a holy grail among lenses with “character”. Be prepared to pay a pretty penny for the best lenses, though.

My personal favorites? Although I would rarely ever use them at a wedding, I love the Nikon 35mm f/1.4 AIS, The Nikon 50mm f/1.2 AIS, and the Zeiss ZF 85mm f/1.4. But again, keep in mind that diving into this world is only advisable for the experienced shooter who knows how to manually focus quickly and accurately.

One benefit of modern mirrorless cameras is that you can quickly magnify the view around your selected focus point, making it truly easy to nail focus in any relatively static situation. Some mirrorless cameras will even auto-magnify to 100% whenever they detect that the focus ring is being turned!

Crop-Sensor Prime Lens Recommendations For Wedding Photography

What if you shoot with a crop sensor camera? There are both a handful of great APS-C and Micro Four Thirds dedicated prime lenses, plus of course with most systems you can also just use full-frame prime lenses too.

For this reason, we’ll restrict our recommendations to those wider and medium focal lengths, which allow you to achieve a focal length equivalent that isn’t easily achieved using a full-frame lens on a crop-sensor.

Sigma 16mm f/1.4 DC Contemporary Sigma 30mm f/1.4 DC Contemporary (Also in Sigma Art form) Canon EF-M 22mm f/2 STM Canon EF-M 32mm f/1.4 STM Fuji 16mm XF f/1.4 WR Fuji 23mm XF f/1.4 R

Specialty Lens Recommendations For Wedding Photography

Wedding photographers are a versatile bunch. At the beginning of a wedding day in a dimly lit hotel room, they can go from shooting candid group photos to macro close-up photos of wedding rings and other jewelry within a matter of seconds. This begs the question- should you buy a dedicated macro lens, or just use your 24-70 or your favorite prime?

That is really a personal decision, simply based on how much you love doing macro photos. But in our experience, most non-macro lenses are just quite soft when shooting at extremely close distances. You can try using a 50mm prime stopped down to f/2.8, and some 50mm’s can focus really close, but others cannot, and none have nearly as much “magnification” as a dedicated macro lens.

Macro Lenses – Value Winners: Tamron 90mm f/2.8 VC Macro Tokina 100mm f/2.8 Macro Sigma 105mm f/2.8 OS Macro

If you really like doing high-quality wedding ring shots, you’re in luck- You don’t really need to break the bank if all you want is something that is super-sharp and focuses extremely close-up.

Any of these three lenses will work amazingly well, especially if you plan to use manual focus and shoot from a tripod, or use flash. (We recommend manual focusing for macro shots anyways, but if you really prefer to hand-hold and use autofocus for your macro shots, you might consider a lens with stabilization. See below)

(Yes, you can also use these lenses at normal distances for general photography, too, especially the Tamron and Sigma stabilized lenses.)

Macro Lens – Performance Champions: Canon 100mm L f/2.8 IS Macro Nikon 105mm f/2.8 VR Macro Sony FE 90mm f/2.8 Macro G OSS

This set of lenses is a might be a bit pricey for a wedding photographer, if you only ever use them for macro shots. However, at ~100mm and with both stabilization and great autofocus, they all make great portrait lenses, too!

So, if for example you primarily shoot telephoto on a zoom such as a 70-200mm, but you’re looking for a prime lens that can do double-duty as both a macro and a lightweight portrait lens for whenever your arm gets tired of hoisting the big 2.8 zoom, one of these macro lenses will be an amazing tool in your kit.

Tilt-Shift Lenses

Tilt-shift lenses were designed to correct perspective and improve depth of field, however, many portrait and wedding photographers dabble in using them to significantly alter depth and perspective in, well, very weird ways. It’s a difficult skill to perfect, and should only be used sparingly in our opinion, but it’s still a pretty cool effect Canon and Nikon both make 24mm, 45mm, and 85mm tilt-shift lenses, and Rokinon now makes a 24mm tilt-shift that is a great affordable option, especially considering the specialized nature of these lenses and the fact that you’ll probably only use it once or twice per job.

Conclusion & Additional Reading

Remember, your 1-2 favorite prime lenses are only part of a wedding photographer’s system! Depending on your style, you may want to supplement the wide and/or long end of your range with a zoom or two. The important thing is to practice a lot and define your style before making any major investments… If you’re just starting out, we highly recommend renting a bunch of different lenses and finding opportunities to 2nd shoot, or just get out and do some general practice on your own!

Here’s the other gear guides we have published for wedding photographers:

Our complete guide to wedding photography DSLR bodies Complete guide to wedding photography zoom lenses

Click HERE to return to the main collection of photography equipment recommendations!

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opepin · 7 years

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july: week three

17: i was really awake at 7:15 am when my alarm woke me up, but i went back to sleep for like 5 more minutes to see what i would do in the dream i was having. LOL. well, i got up, did my hiit workout, and i had the hardest time lowering my heart rate so i could stop sweating and take a shower. .___.; after like 10 minutes, i was finally able to do it...kinda, but i had to take a shower anyway and eat breakfast and then get to work on time...ish haha. my heart rate has dropped back down to 53 bpm :) yay, it makes me happy that it’s normalizing again. my face was pretty red and i was still sweaty when i got to the train... it’s okay! i just gotta keep going and wake up earlier to give my body time to cool down. the moment i walked in, cait was like woahhh, where have you been and etc. aw, it was nice welcome back chat with her, raj, joe, and charles. some of the devs weren’t there because they had to go to their client site and everyone apparently, just rolls in later on in the day now :O lol so my not being there is not a big deal :P

i started my work day by filling out an enrollment form for benefits! i’m getting my own dental insurance -- i feel so adult. lol. then i started working on templates mixed in with some internet errands. it’ll be a short week for me because i’m taking the day off to celebrate kevin’s birthday with him on thursday :3 hmm being at the office again is so far, refreshing. i got a good amount of work done and got to catch up with phil after lunch. charles made lunch plans so i went to south station to get food from the taco party food truck but they weren’t there... so i had to do some social media hunting and i found them down the street next to gogi on the block. i got their deep fried tofu and chorizo seitan taco with a side of tortilla chips and pinto dip. mmm. i ate all of that at my desk and i was so fullll. then i ate some of the cherries i brought from home. i ate so much that i was pretty uncomfortable in the tummy for the rest of the day lol.

i continued working until 4 pm and i got real worked up about tax withholdings and allowances because something changed in my paycheck and i was trying to figure out if i needed to fix it... sigh. then i noticed that haowei and charles dipped real quick after coming back from a bathroom break... raj said he hurt physically somewhere and cait, michelle, and i were all worried and watching him lol. then i left to catch the train where this lady (she was injured / had a limp) decided to take the stairs while the braintree train was approaching. the guy behind her turned around and ran down the other side of the stairs and i just stayed behind hoping that i would make it. then she stopped midway... and when she finally got to the bottom, my train JUST left. omg, i was in such a rage. it felt like she did it on purpose because she looked back at me right after the train left and then said nothing and stopped again. i just walked around her. the next train was 15 minutes away and it was flipping packed. i had to be standing behind the most inconsiderate human being. this guy decided that he owned the entire aisle and just let his body hang out 3/4 of the aisle while holding on to the top of the holds. his hand was inches away from my butt and i was putting all my body weight on my still healing foot. i was so ticked off that i kind of pushed him whenever i could and etc but he kept taking up space -_____-” #commuterrage

he left and i got a seat on the train for the rest of the ride. i picked up packages and had to get a trolley because one of my packages was just so freaking heavy. i only realized what it was when i opened it in the apartment... me and my mom got kevin a boos cutting board and i decided to splurge and get him the largest one... i didn’t expect it to be so damn heavy. well, i read 6.5 lbs but it was SO heavy. i decided to hide it along with the boxes (just in case we need to return for a more practically sized one) under half of the bed lol. then i went to play with the new smartphone lenses i got in the mail as well. the wide angle one works like a dream and the macro one is okay... i don’t think i’ll be using that one much anyway. when kevin came back, i debated on whether to keep or return them... i made a snapchat video and asked people and they all said to keep it. i had sort of an anger episode after telling kevin about my day and what i should do about my paycheck stuff and ugh, i just couldn’t not yell and kinda shake things around. i ran around the apartment yelling ‘why ______?! why ____?!?!’

then i exercised while kevin cooked steak for dinner. the video i did was more cardio than strength so i did a lot of cardio today and i was wiped out. i took a shower and then kevin and i ate his deliciously cooked steak topped with the most delicious onion glaze ever. we watched izombie, i cut up all the dying strawberries, we ate them, and then kevin went on a small run. he’s starting to do cardio now and he told me to keep him honest... WILL DO >:D haha. i did my pt stretches and iced my feet while reading a chapter of the journey mapping book. then i brushed and got into bed just right before 12 am. i stayed up relieving an itch to edit a picture i took today with the wide angle lens, updated to instagram, and then went to sleep at 12:30 pm. zzzz. i was working from home tomorrow so i would get enough sleep to wake up at 8 am. :)

18: i woke up at 8 am, did some hip hop cardio, showered, ate breakfast, and woke up kevin. then i started work, got fired up over an article about a girl’s post on linkedin that talked about job rejection (very generic) and how she is now getting job offers and that the linkedin post is now viral -__-”, and then got even more bummed out when i was talking to cole and he revealed that all the teams at t7 will be separated when we move office locations :/ and also that the dev team went to check out the space yesterday and left me in the dark... well, i’m not in the dev team so i guess i have no right to feel sad or left out, right? it’s gonna be an interesting move :/ sigh. i ate lunch while we had our all-hands and then went to pick up kevin’s present from the package concierge :) the packaging for the thing i got him is so on point. i’m so excited to surprise him thursday morning (:

i hopped on a call with phil and dave before stand up and we figured out some things. i pointed out some design details that could be addressed -- i’ve been feeling akjnskdf about my tasks right now because everything feels so disorganized with the new features even though it’s supposed to be easier to use the product :/ well, we figured stuff out, got on stand up, and then i worked on the templates for a bit and stopped because we have a trial with a potential customer tomorrow and we didn’t want to import any unfinished sample journey maps in there if i was working on any. i got pretty tired from everything that happened in the morning so i doodled a bit to make myself feel at least a bit better before taking a nap and then doing my ab workout. after i finished, i took some pictures for pas with the wide angle lens i got and also talked to vivian for a bit on chat. kevin came back early from climbing, showered, and then we cooked right away because both of us were pretty hungry.

i rested my foot while editing my instagram and stuff. my foot started to hurt a bit but nothing is swollen. i may have done too many jumps today and yesterday... we ate dinner while finishing the latest season of izombie?! i didn’t know we went through it all that quick ): now we have to find something new to watch and / or just wait for our shows to come out again. the rest of the night, i did my pt stretches while watching half of an episode of beat shazam and then read a chapter in the journey mapping book while icing my feet. then i got ready for bed and had the hardest time falling asleep... :( i knew i wasn’t gonna get a good night’s rest by the time i did ko...

19: i had a slight headache when i woke up and my foot kind of hurt so i did low impact cardio in the morning. then i showered and ate breakfast. my stomach was cramping a lot so i decided to work from home in the morning and then head over to the office after my physical therapy appointment. i fell asleep trying to wake up kevin LOL but then i woke up and got started on work. i put on the latest world of dance episode and then continued creating templates. my stomach felt slightly uncomfortable the rest of the morning... i ate some plain buns before heading out to physical therapy. i had a bit of a longer session today because it was my last. there was some swelling in my foot again but that’s because i did 2 hiit workouts in one day on accident... i got a good farewell and then walked over to the office. i ate lunch before hopping on stand up and getting on a call. after that, i wrapped up what i did today and then headed out to pick up kevin from work at around 4:30 pm. i looped around to grab kevin a slice of cake from flour bakery and got lost doing that... so i was really sweaty by the time i got to kevin. it was soooo humid and hot today.

we walked to south station because the silver line was working above ground today and it was too hot for that. we got to south station and it was PACKED. we waited for 2 trains and then rq’d and made a reservation at a restaurant on opentable and walked over there LOL. we actually made a reservation for miel, a restaurant i booked for tomorrow’s dinner... so i had to tell kevin and he just laughed and called himself clever... haha. we were the first ones to get dinner and we also looked really out of place with our attire HAHA. we were also super sweaty. kevin got scallops and risotto and i got ratatouille pasta with red wine sangria. the sangria was good~ the pasta was subpar, but kevin’s food was deliciousssss. lol we felt too out of place to ask for the pasta to go in a box so the waiter took it and we never saw the rest again. oh well~ :/ by the time we finished eating, south station was pretty empty. we got home and just chilled out. i didn’t exercise in the evening because i walked like 40+ minutes in the humidity and i sweated a lot. so i just showered and watched beat shazam before hopping into bed at around 12 am. i stayed up to wish kevin a happy birthday of course :)

20: i got out of bed at 10:30 am or so and then set up all of kevin’s gifts on the island, wrote him a card, and made the gifts look presentable LOL. kevin already knew that he was getting a cutting board, but not the skillet and the accessories :) i woke him up at around 11:20 am and then brought him to the island and he was actually so surprised. i thought he knew i was going to get him a cast iron skillet because i’ve been telling him that we should cook steak and etc. haha. he got caught up in reading about seasoning it but then we got ready to leave for brunch at brownstone! the ‘t’ trains got there whenever we got on the platform so we had perfect timing today. we ordered drinks and got delicious egg benedicts and hash. i got the duck and sweet potato hash and kevin got the pulled pork benny. everything was delicious~ they even put a candle in his english muffin LOL <3 we got midday tipsy from drinking and walked around copley mall for a bit before going home.

we chilled on the sofa for a while when we got home. kevin read fanfic while i talked to people on facebook messenger. then we drove to roche bros to get ingredients for steak dinner (: we got back and kevin started seasoning the skillet while i did my workout for the day. he looked so happy with that large af cutting board and skillet. :P i showered and then watched kevin cook. hehe, he looked so happy. kevin had to clean the skillet a bit after cooking so our food kind of got cold but still delicious! kevin made us roasted potatoes, asparagus, and a medium steak with mushroom and onions on top. mmm. we ate while watching ‘quanitco.’ lol i got hooked right at the very first episode and we watched maybe 4-5 episodes after because there is always a twist!!! i got ready for bed before 12 am and then spent the final minutes just cuddling with kevin :3 then i went to sleep. kevin handed me my feet xray bill though and i had to look at it before i went to sleep and it got me so tilted because they charged me more than the received estimate. .__. i spent some time looking up the massachusetts pricing transparency law for health care and just gave up and went to sleep at 1 am. i did not sleep well though.

21: the health care system in america sucks. i woke up in a pretty bad mood because i looked at my x-ray bill yesterday night and i woke up with the same disgruntled thoughts -_- after brushing my teeth, i called them and they said they had no record of the estimate i was given, but they did call to check and gave me 10% off my bill. so i guess it turned out alright because i ended up paying around what i was quoted for, but still, wtf, health care? after that call, i ate breakfast, and started my work day. i felt like i needed to exercise but i needed to get some actual work done today because i feel like i’m lagging behind in some ways. i did a good amount of work and then i fit in a 30 minute oblique workout before showering, washing the dishes, and making sure all is well in the apartment before heading out to meet kevin at the envoy. this meant me stressing out about meeting him later than usual. i did calm down on the train ride there and told kevin how i felt. the overnight bag was hella heavy though so i had to stop on the bridge and rest before meeting up with kevin. my back was soaked when i got there.

we checked in and went to our room first. the room was so nice :) i loved the sliding doors with the antique map designs on them. i really liked the tv and its placement right in front of the bed. kevin and i watched quantico before getting ready to head out to miel for his birthday dinner. it was a nice walk there but our dinner there wasn’t...well, the service was pretty bad and it might be because we used a voucher? but i’m not sure. we got seated outside right away but it took forever for our server (he reminded me of my grandpa) to get our order and get our food out. he forgot to make our sangria and apologized but we were almost at our entrees by the time he remembered. he kept disappearing and attended to other tables before us for some reason too. well, the food was pretty good. we got beef tartare, atlantic sole and gnocchi, steak and frites, and sorbet for dessert. mmm. we had to take our entrees back to the hotel only to find out that there wasn’t a mini fridge. well, our dinner was 2 hours long and we spent more than half of that waiting for our food. :/ so meh. we were really full when we got back so we rested and then got a bucket of ice for our food (didn’t use it though) and then we explored the hotel. they have a fancy af fitness center that we ended up not using.

we walked along the wharf and it was so nice :) then we spent the rest of the night watching quantico. the shower was nice too with the waterfall design and the space. the envoy also has fresh brand shampoo and lotion (ofc i took that stuff when we checked out). we got a vegan almond butter coconut ice cream sandwich before room service closed down for the night and it was DELICIOUS. we stayed up until 4 am and then went to sleep in the comfy hotel bed. what a day. what an experience with kevin (: <3 i hope he’s enjoying his birthday weekend so far. hehe i love spending time with him and staying in nice hotels lulz.

22: we did wake up at 10:15 am and then i ordered room service for us for breakfast. it was so exciting! :) i got steel cut oatmeal and kevin said it did taste better than regular oatmeal hehe. i also got $6 chamomile tea... why is tea so expensive at hotels? we watched an episode of quantico as we ate breakfast and packed. lol i think we’re very lbejafhsjdf about the characters right now. we finished packing and checked out right at 12 pm. then we stopped by starbucks so i could get a drink and get gold status again LOL. we finished the pink drink by the time we got to south station. when we got back to the apartment, i unpacked all of our stuff, chilled on the sofa for a while, and i tried on my warby parker glasses. i hated them LOL. the lenses caused a lot of chromatic abberation and made my eyes terribly small so i was not into them. the frames also felt/looked smaller than they were in the store?? kevin said they looked fine and he still liked them but i was not into them. so i asked him if we could drive over to south end to spectacles and check out their frames and etc.

even though he was tired, kevin agreed and then we left :) so grateful for this bear <3 we found a really good parking spot and then met paul, the owner of the store. he adjusted my glasses for me and checked the prescription and he suggested frames and etc. the moment i walked in there, i knew that i was gonna buy glasses from him and return my warby parker ones. kevin and i had a fun time trying on glasses. kevin was also bummed because we went down to the leasing office to make an appointment to see the apartment with the den earlier that day and she told us that they had someone else sign a lease for that apartment already... wtf? we’ve been talking to her about it for weeks and they mentioned nothing about this until now. i was ajkfnsjkf about it but not as much as kevin. i got these cute round “treasure” glasses and 1.74 high index lenses for $250. it would have cost about the same if i upped the lenses to 1.74 at warby parker as well.

we drove right to kam man because we were hungry and made a makeshift meal plan for the week because we’re leaving on friday. we split a beijing crepe and bought some buns. unff chinese sponge / chiffon cakes are the best. we were in and out real quick. we put everything away when we got home and then kevin played some hollow knight while i watched. then kevin went to cook and i did 30 minutes of cardio. we ate dinner while watching quantico and then kevin went to run in the fitness center and i just did dance cardio in the apartment. this new video is pretty great, but lots of jumping x( i stopped by the center to give company to kevin and then got distracted by talking to daniel about bartering LOL. kevin showered first while i did the dishes haha and then i showered and i think we stayed up watching quantico? maybe we didn’t...but it says on my fitbit that i went to sleep at 2:30 am... he might have gamed while i watched some thing on the ipad. zzz. well, we stayed up because we had nothing planned for tomorrow :)

23: it was our lazy day today. kevin got up at 10 am to talk to priya on the phone and i lazed in the bed until around 10:30 am. i ate a banana with peanut butter and some oatmeal for breakfast while i looked at this week’s coupons and planned my outfits for our upcoming trip on friday! i watched some youtube videos and then crawled back into bed after a bit. after his call, kevin made soup dumplings and i ate some along with leftovers. i did some packing while kevin gamed a bit and then we went to bj’s to use our coupons. we stocked up on a ton of meat and i got more contact solution and lotion~ we also got a 6-pack of lunchables...LOL. right when we got back, we split a pizza and nacho one. mmm they still taste the same. then kevin went to game while i did a bit of cleaning. then we watched a few more episodes of quantico and then kevin cooked japanese curry for dinner. i did 30 minutes of cardio while kevin cooked and then stopped to fold laundry. then we ate dinner and watched more quantico. i also talked to my mom for a bit and she told me to have safe travels~ we also ended up eating 5/6 lunchables by the end of the day and then i did 30 minutes of back and then 20 more minutes of hip hop cardio because i was feeling bad about eating them lunchables LOL. i showered and then got ready for bed and snoozed at around 12 am. wow, we did a lot today :O

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slrlounge1 · 5 years

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Wedding Photography DSLR Prime Lenses – The Complete Guide | 2019 Update

Overview of Wedding Photography Equipment

To view our complete guide to camera bodies for wedding photography, click HERE. To view our complete guide to zoom lenses for wedding photography, click HERE.

Define Your Style: Primes VS Zooms In WEdding PHotography

Therefore, we will make our recommendations from both perspectives, in separate guides, and this article will focus mainly on zoom lenses.

A Complete Kit – Zooms

Either way, the bottom line is that it takes about 3-4 total lenses to create a well-rounded “product” for a wedding. (Not even counting specialty lenses such as macro or fisheye lenses.)

A Complete Kit – Primes

This article will focus mainly on prime lenses and specialty lenses for wedding photography. Our article on zoom lenses can be found HERE.

The Lenses That “Define Your Style”

Without any further ado, we will break down the must-have prime lenses for wedding photographers, in our usual Gear Guide categories- “Performance Champions” and “Value Winners”. Enjoy!

50mm Prime Lens Recommendations

All-Around Value Winner: Nikon 50mm f/1.8 G Canon 50mm f/1.8 STM Sony 50mm f/1.8 FE

Performance Champion (Unlimited Budget) Canon 50mm f/1.2 L II Canon RF 50mm f/1.2

Performance Champion (affordable) Sigma 50mm f/1.4 Art

Even though it is only $400, (with a $100 instant rebate that is often available) …this Sigma lens finds itself in the performance champion category because it is just that darn good. In fact it competes well with the Canon 50 1.2 which costs a whopping $1,000 more! Unlike most copies of the Canon 50mm f/1.4 which desperately need to be at f/2 in order to really start getting sharp; the Sigma 50mm is good enough to be shot wide open even for very important shots. When it nails focus, that is. Sigma’s HSM focus motor in this lens is just barely more snappy than Canon’s USM focus motor in the 50 L.

Performance Champion #3: Nikon 58mm f/1.4 G

Don’t be fooled by its lack of “f/1.2” written on the lens, this “normal” prime also packs some incredible, creamy bokeh.

Medium Wide Angle Prime Lens Recommendations

Between 24mm and 50mm there are a handful of prime lenses that many wedding photographers (especially the photojournalist types) love to use.

35mm Performance Champion: Sigma 35mm f/1.4 EX DG Art

If you already have a name-brand 35mm f/1.4, you probably won’t really need to upgrade. The Canon 35mm f/1.4 L mk2 is indeed an incredible lens, however, it’s also nearly $1,700.

35mm Value Winners: Nikon 35mm f/2 Canon 35mm f/2

35mm Performance AND Value Champion: Canon 35mm IS f/2

28mm Performance AND Value Champion: Nikon 28mm f/1.8 G

F/2.8 Prime Champions: Canon 28mm f/2.8 IS Canon 24mm f/2.8 IS

Performance Champions: Nikon 24mm f/1.4 G Canon 24mm f/1.4 L mk2

Ultra Wide Angle Prime Lens Recommendations

Then again, all of these recommendations offer significant weight savings over most ultra-wide zooms, as well as decent cost savings.

Nikon 20mm f/2.8 Canon 20mm f/2.8

Tokina 17mm f/3.5 ATX Pro

These lenses are a little hard to find, but create a “saved search” on Ebay or check KEH.com every now and then, and you should be able to score one for about $300 or less eventually.

Canon 14mm f/2.8 L Nikon 14mm f/2.8 D

They are the classic “rent one to see if you like it, don’t just randomly buy them” type of lens

Fisheye Lenses

Telephoto Prime Lens Recommendations

Since there are primes available from 85mm to 200mm, once again we’ll have to just throw all the “performance champions” and “value winners” together in a jumble. Here goes nothing!

All-Around Value Winners: Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM Nikon AF-S 85mm f/1.8 G

Canon 100mm f/2

Sheer Performance Champions: Canon 85mm f/1.2

Sigma 85mm f/1.4 Art Nikon AF-S 85mm f/1.4 G

These two 85mm lenses are also ready to deliver beautiful bokeh and incredible sharpness, despite their 2/3 EV smaller aperture.

Nikon AF-S 105mm f/1.4E ED

Canon 135mm f/2 L

Sigma 150mm f/2.8 OS Macro EX DG

Exotic Performance Champions: Canon 200mm f/2 L IS Nikon 200mm f/2 VR

These two lenses, although some would argue are overkill for weddings and lifestyle type portraits, seem to be the “Rolex” of telephoto bokeh champions.

Bottom line, these two lenses are both flawlessly sharp, incredibly snappy to focus, and offer a truly unique shooting experience.

Of course, any successful wedding photographers could do just fine with a 70-200mmm f/2.8, but that’s not the point. These lenses are what camera geeks buy instead of a Harley when they turn 45.

Sony Prime Lenses For Wedding Photography

Sony FE 24mm f/1.4 GM

Sony SONNAR T* FE 55mm f/1.8 ZA

Sony FE 85mm f/1.4 GM

Sony FE 135mm f/1.8 GM

Manual-Focus Prime Lenses For Wedding Photography

Crop-Sensor Prime Lens Recommendations For Wedding Photography

Sigma 16mm f/1.4 DC Contemporary Sigma 30mm f/1.4 DC Contemporary (Also in Sigma Art form) Canon EF-M 22mm f/2 STM Canon EF-M 32mm f/1.4 STM Fuji 16mm XF f/1.4 WR Fuji 23mm XF f/1.4 R

Specialty Lens Recommendations For Wedding Photography

Macro Lenses – Value Winners: Tamron 90mm f/2.8 VC Macro Tokina 100mm f/2.8 Macro Sigma 105mm f/2.8 OS Macro

If you really like doing high-quality wedding ring shots, you’re in luck- You don’t really need to break the bank if all you want is something that is super-sharp and focuses extremely close-up.

(Yes, you can also use these lenses at normal distances for general photography, too, especially the Tamron and Sigma stabilized lenses.)

Macro Lens – Performance Champions: Canon 100mm L f/2.8 IS Macro Nikon 105mm f/2.8 VR Macro Sony FE 90mm f/2.8 Macro G OSS

Tilt-Shift Lenses

Conclusion & Additional Reading

Here’s the other gear guides we have published for wedding photographers:

Our complete guide to wedding photography DSLR bodies Complete guide to wedding photography zoom lenses

Click HERE to return to the main collection of photography equipment recommendations!

from SLR Lounge https://www.slrlounge.com/wedding-photography-dslr-prime-lenses-complete-guide/ via IFTTT

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