Suitable Wedding/Portrait Lens - Canon Fit Help Rqd.

snoop69

snoop69

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Hi all,

Ive been invited to a wedding in July & have been given the ok to practice
wedding photography.

I will have around £400 to spend on a lens/lenses & dont mind buying used
equipment.

What would you recommend for close up & candid type shots.

It will be a church wedding but im not yet sure where the reception is being
held.

I currently have the 18-55 lens as i sold my others to fund the Sigma 120-300
which would be too much to carry aorund all day long.

Any advice would be appreciated.
 
Tamron 28-75mm F2.8

Gives a very useful focal range of 45-120mm on the crop sensor, and the F2.8 will help in the low light.

Or if you want to go 'wider' meaning you'll have no choice but to get in closer there is always the Tamron 17-50mm F2.8, giving a range of 27-80mm.


Both can be had for around £300 each
 
just bought a tamron 28-75 and so far i like it (was 250 @ misfuds) can't give too indepth a review apart from it doesn't feel like my 80-200L (as expected) but it seems to take nice pics
 
A good prime lens can be enough for weddings. Last year I traded in my 17-40 and 70-20 for the 35 L lens, and shot a couple of weedings with just that lens (400d camera at the time). Some of the indoor shots would not have been achievable at F4 with my old lenses, and I was extremely pleased with the results.

The Canon 35 F2, 50 F1.4 or 85 F1.8 would all add the low light-ability that your kit lens does not have for not too much outlay.

P.S. Worth noting that I wasn't the main photographer at any of the weddings.
 
On 1.6X crop bodies my favourite lens combination is the Canon 17-55/2.8 IS and 70-200/2.8 IS. I shot my most recent wedding with a 1D3 and used my 24-70/2.8 and 16-35/2.8 for that wedding. I also have a 50/1.4 and 85/1.8 for when the light is really bad but I have yet to use either one at a wedding.

The common theme for the zooms is that they are all constant f/2.8 max apertures. That is important, not only to get adequate light and keep shutter speeds up without insane ISO noise, but also to make manual exposure a practical proposition. Unfortunately all the zooms I've mentioned are well beyond your budget. For your camera and your budget I'd suggest the Tamron 17-50/2.8. It's very close to the range of Canon's 17-55, has the same constant f/2.8 max aperture and, while it lacks IS and USM focusing, it is considerably cheaper yet maintains good IQ.

Having said all the above, I did manage to shoot my first wedding with a 17-85/4-5.6 IS lens. I did struggle with that lens, as 85mm/5.6 is far from ideal, but I did manage to scrape some OK results. If you can, get yourself an f/2.8 zoom of some kind. Yes, you can shoot with primes, or a prime, but that is going to severely limit your compositional options. You can't keep running back and forth during a church service. 17-50(55) is a great range for a one lens solution on a 1.6X crop. I think 28-75 would risk not being wide enough in some situations. If your lens is a bit short you have the option to crop. If your lens is too long your only option is to chop off people or limbs - not necessarily ideal.

p.s. 17-50ish is a bit on the short side for a portrait lens. An 85/1.8 would be a great portrait lens on a cropper and a useful fast and long supplement to your lens collection for weddings.
 
Thanks for the assistance - much appreciated.

Some of the Canon lenses mentioned are out of my price range so should
i consider Sigma alternatives like the..............

Sigma 17-70mm F2.8-4.5 DC which can be had for around £260

Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 EX DG on Ebay for £350 but from Hong Kong

SIGMA AF 17-35 mm / 2.8-4 EX IF HSM DG on Ebay £270 from Ireland

Other options are from the classified section of this forum should anything
turn up.

Ive always been lucky with purchases from HK but then i havent purchased
anything much over £50 either so i would rather make my purchases over
here if possible.

Thanks once again.
 
I find sigma rathar hit and miss with the QC on some of their lenses hence the suggestion of Tamron.

They are not as popular a the Sigma's as far as third-party lens go, but they can certainly hold their own on image quality.
 
Chillimonster said:
I find sigma rathar hit and miss with the QC on some of their lenses hence the suggestion of Tamron.

They are not as popular a the Sigma's as far as third-party lens go, but they can certainly hold their own on image quality.
Click to expand...

Thank you, i will also check on Tamron alternatives.

Also, just had a look at a Canon EF 28-135mm f3.5/5.6 IS USM on the
Jessops site. Its £399 or cheaper on Ebay. Is it worth considering?
 
I really think 28mm and even 24mm is not wide enough on a 1.6X crop body. I also strongly recommend you get a lens with constant f/2.8 max aperture throughout the zoom range. f/2.8-4.5 is not a constant f/2.8. f/3.5-5.6 is even worse.

Here are prices for the Tamron 17-50/2.8 - http://www.camerapricebuster.co.uk/prod250.html. Of the suppliers listed I would recommend Warehouse Express as your prefered supplier.

If you can find the lens you want cheaper from Hong Kong then, FWIW, I have bought plenty of Canon camera gear (lenses, a body and accesories) from Hong Kong eBay retailers (mostly Digital Rev), amounting to easily over £3,000 in value, and never had a problem. It's also worth checking out Onestop Digital, who I've also used. The Tammy is only £266 including taxes and delivery from them - http://www.onestop-digital.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=24_29&products_id=301. That's quite a decent saving over the UK price.
 
tdodd said:
I have bought plenty of Canon camera gear (lenses, a body and accesories) from Hong Kong eBay retailers, amounting to easily over £3,000 in value, and never had a problem.
Click to expand...

Thank you for your advice & reassurance on Hk purchases :thumbs:
 
snoop69 said:
Thank you for your advice & reassurance on Hk purchases :thumbs:
Click to expand...

As always, do your research and shop wisely. I've bought from several eBay Honk Kong suppliers but I review feedback carefully - quantity, quality and timeliness (checking for account hijacks as well) - and my big purchases have pretty much all been with Digital Rev. I used to use URGalaxy as well as Digital Rev, but they seem to have vanished from eBay. Digital Rev does have a UK based support centre with a UK phone number for support, which is a nice additional boost to confidence. They also trade in the UK outside the eBay environment - http://www.digitalrev.com/en/index.php - although goods are still sourced from Hong Kong.
 
I've just run a quick analysis of shots from my most recent wedding.

Here is a focal length breakdown....

20090506_112649_0001_LR.jpg


These were all shot on a 1D3, with a crop factor of 1.3X. Thus to translate the focal lengths I used to the equivalent focal lengths on a 450D, here are some corresponding values for my commonly used or extreme focal lengths.

16mm for me = 13mm for you
24mm for me = 20mm for you
35mm for me = 28mm for you
70mm for me = 57mm for you

You can perhaps now see how useful the Canon 17-55/2.8 IS lens is for wedding shooters with 1.6X crop bodies, and if on a budget how the Tamron 17-50/2.8 at least gets you close.

Here's my aperture breakdown....

20090506_112703_0002_LR.jpg


Note how much use that f/2.8 aperture gets used.

Finally, my ISO breakdown....

20090506_112718_0003_LR.jpg


100 ISO served me well for outdoor daytime shots. 800 ISO was good enough in the church (with apertures from f/2.8 - f/3.5). I needed 3200 ISO and f/2.8 for the evening shots. On a 1D3, using 3200 ISO is not a big deal. On a 450D you really don't want to push ISO above 1600, or even 800 if possible. That just reinforces the need for f/2.8 or faster across the focal length range.

With all that said, if you are just practicing your wedding photography, you might just try with your current 18-55 and just see how far you can get. It's not the best tool for the job, by a long way, but it might be useful to get first hand experience of the limitations before shelling out for a better lens.

p.s. what's your situation as far as having a tilt/swivel flash is concerned? You'll most likely need one of those for the evening shots, and possibly for daytime fill if the lighting is unsympathetic. If you don't yet have a flash you should consider working one into your budget. Once again, as this is just for practice, you could see how you get on without, but I wouldn't want to approach a wedding for real without a flash and also backups for everything - camera body, lens(es), flash and batteries.

EDIT : Thread on the Tamron 17-50 here - http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=132211
 
You have had some good advice in this thread and I would also suggest the Tamron 17-50 f2.8, but if you don't want to jump into this, your 17-55 will be okay for the group shots outside, and you can pick up a new 50mm f1.8 for your low light stuff for about £70 new from Kerso, or keep a look out on here for a S/H one. If you don't like it, you can always sell it again with a little loss.
 
It's called "ExposurePlot" and available free from here - http://www.cpr.demon.nl/prog_plotf.html

All you need is a folder or folder tree (it'll read sub-folders) of JPEG files with EXIF intact and it will plough through them and create the graphs. You can tweak the granularity of the graphs and even specify crop conversion factors for focal length if you wish.
 
snoop69 said:
Hi all,

Ive been invited to a wedding in July & have been given the ok to practice
wedding photography.

I will have around £400 to spend on a lens/lenses & dont mind buying used
equipment.

What would you recommend for close up & candid type shots.

It will be a church wedding but im not yet sure where the reception is being
held.

I currently have the 18-55 lens as i sold my others to fund the Sigma 120-300
which would be too much to carry aorund all day long.

Any advice would be appreciated.
Click to expand...

Snoop
if you are only planning on shooting this one wedding, don't spend too much on equipment. i agree with many of the comments above but at the end of the day, it's your money.

If you plan on making money from wedding photography, there is only one route and it's an expensive one. You need backups for everything, flashes, lenses, memory and a whole lot more.....

Why do you consider the 120-300 too much to carry around? I generally have the 24-105 on my 40D and the 70-200 f2.8L IS on my 20D plus a bag full of lenses on my back!!! It's heavy work but rewarding.

For close ups, as suggested above the Tamron 28-75 is a nice lens (it's my backup lens) as is the Tamron 17-55. The prime reason they are good is that they are fast (f2.8) and can cope better with changes in light. The constant aperture throughout the range means less worry about exposure changes. Variable apertures can be a pain in a fast moving event like a wedding.

I guess you are not the only tog at the event? Are you shooting it as a supplement to a pro?
 
tdodd said:
I've just run a quick analysis of shots from my most recent wedding.
Click to expand...

Thats very,very much appreciated - thank you very much.

EOS_JD said:
Snoop
if you are only planning on shooting this one wedding, don't spend too much on equipment.

If you plan on making money from wedding photography, there is only one route and it's an expensive one. You need backups for everything, flashes, lenses, memory and a whole lot more.....

Why do you consider the 120-300 too much to carry around? I generally have the 24-105 on my 40D and the 70-200 f2.8L IS on my 20D plus a bag full of lenses on my back!!! It's heavy work but rewarding.

I guess you are not the only tog at the event? Are you shooting it as a supplement to a pro?
Click to expand...

This will be the 2nd wedding ive shot as a 'bystander' so to speak.
If i do my homework & can get it right as a novice, then i would like to
go to on a course & learn further.

My main interests are portrait & sports photography so i would like to
choose new lenses which would be suitable for both wedding & portrait.

The Sigma 120-300 is a bit of beast & if it was the same weight as the
Canon 70-200 then i could live with that but for walking around with family
It would be impractical.

Its a budget wedding so the main tog isnt a pro either. I have spoken to him
& will have free reign providing i dont get in his way.

I will also be seeing the vicar to get a feel for the church & lighting etc as i
would like to experience this from a pro's point of view. I have read a lot of
horror stories so it should be a good experience.

Here a pic i took at a friends wedding with my 450d. I had only had it a few
weeks & had the kit lens & a 2nd hand 55-200. I feel i didnt do too bad using
my first 'proper' camera at a place i had never been to before.

KarinaWedding2092008070.jpg


Thanks for the advice - you have all been very helpful.
 
the above image is just a standard shot and doesn't really say much about what you can/cannot do - but is a nice well exposed shot.

Weddings are not all about photography. Managing the scores of people is very tough. managing poses in a very short space of time is tough!

No matter whether a budget wedding or not, i'd be trying to get the best shots i could - think of your portfolio.
 
EOS_JD said:
the above image is just a standard shot and doesn't really say much about what you can/cannot do - but is a nice well exposed shot.
Click to expand...

I know its not the best but it was just an example of what i managed with
zero experience with either dlsr cameras or weddings.

Im glad i got a nice clear pic though which was a after seeking advice from this forum :)
 
you have to choose.

do you prefer the prime lens or the zoom?
are you able to change the lenses when is the right moment?

The first wedding i made with zoom (was 4 years ago, i think i used a sigma 24/70 on 1d and a sigma 70/200 on 10d) and it feel so good and simple.

than I made some wedding with the 1d with a canon 17/35 2.8 and a 5d with 85 1.2

the last wedding I made was with the sigma 17/70 and the canon 28 1.8

The next wedding I try with the 28 1.8 on 1ds and I hope to buy an 85 1.8 or a 135 f2 on the 20d and the 16-35 and 14 as "joker"

I love the prime lenses, and if you want to try, I think a 24-28mm on 1.6x is a good focal lenght to do a wedding. It's so difficult, but the difference between a 17/70 and a 24-28mm is really big :-D
 
Little update..........

Have recently purchased the following lenses :-

Sigma 70-200 2.8 macro APO EX DG &

Sigma 24-60mm F2.8 EX DG

Hopefully that should cover me for indoor & candids.

Should i consider something else for group shots or will the Siggy or my
18-55 kit lens cover that?
 
siggy should be ok if you can back up a bit for larger groups, I was tight in at a recent even and shooting at 19mm on a 1.6 crop space was tight and woulda gone wider if i could
 
snoop69 said:
Should i consider something else for group shots or will the Siggy or my
18-55 kit lens cover that?
Click to expand...

Any thoughts on the 18-55 kit lens guys?

Should i keep it or change it for something more suitable?
 
It is the widest you have, and I wouldn't recommend getting rid of it at the moment, it could be a valuable backup (if your 24-60 went, it would be difficult to get groups at 70mm)

Do you have the oportunity to go to the church and venue to see whether 24 is wide enough?
 
coldpenguin said:
It is the widest you have, and I wouldn't recommend getting rid of it at the moment, it could be a valuable backup (if your 24-60 went, it would be difficult to get groups at 70mm)

Do you have the oportunity to go to the church and venue to see whether 24 is wide enough?
Click to expand...

Good point :thumbs:

Here are a couple of pics in the church. The vicar is indicating where the
B&G will be standing. The other pic is where the signing will take place.
Both taken with the 18-55mm.

Church-0143.jpg


Church-0141.jpg
 
The second photo looks like it is OK with the 24mm, the first is at 20mm.
The top one could be a bit tight, if you want to get the Groom's family, and the band in at the same time.
First off, I thought the church looked nice and bright. Then I noticed the hands, and looked at the exif. Speed was 1/40 at f/4. Ouch. I suppose if you get them whilst they are singing, then they many not be too blurred. f/2.8 would take you to ~1/70?
 
Thanks Coldpenguin,i will be returning next week to see what my new lenses
are like at the church.

Im also going to see if i can get any further back & get more of the front
row in the shot.

Could you assist with any base settings to start with?

Thanks in advance.
 
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