Beginner Wedding - canon 6 d lens

[Mimi&maxi]

Hey can someone urgently help me some advice as I feel I’m drowning on the internet!!

I’m a novice really but have been asked to do friend of my partners wedding. I bought an 18-55 mm lens for my canon 6 d mark ii and it was the wrong fit and then I discovered that I wasn’t able to get that lens for my camera.

My question is what is the best standard lens I could use for a wedding? For a canon 6d mark ii any help and advice would be greatly appreciated

Thank you

Danielle

 

[woof woof]

A standard range zoom would be a 24 or 28-70mm. At the cheaper end they come as 28-70mm f3.5-5.6. Moving up the price scale you can have a 24 or 28-70mm f2.8 or f4.

Personally I'd go for a 35mm f1.8 but really... do you want to do this? What will happen if they're not happy with the pictures you take? Will you potentially fall out over this? Maybe the best thing to do would be to politely point them at a pro wedding photographer and you shoot the day for fun and chip in the odd photo they might like?

 

[realspeed]

are you going to be the main photographer?I would suggest if you got the wrong lens and don't know which one to use for your camera then don't do the weddings as you don't seem to be experienced enogh. A wedding is a get it right at the time event no going back for a retake. IF you don't have the right equipment and a backup camera and lenses then politely decline. That would be my advice

 

[Compuwight]

Hi, I would re-iterate, are you sure you want to do this. Weddings are very special events and you need to be on your A game. I went down this road many years ago and it caused nothing but heart ache, they did not have the budget for a professional and I foolishly (with the benefit of hindsight) agreed to help out. It became apparent early doors that they expected a professional job including prints and an album for free. I took what I considered to be a good set of pictures only for them to complain that I did not get the shots they wanted and the quality was not what they expected. Lesson learnt on my part ' No good Deed, goes Unpunished'

 

[sajo]

I've been asked before and politely declined, At one point I suggested working alongside a pro [with his agreement] but in the end they chose someone else.
However its not my choice and If you want to go ahead, I'd suggest the 24-70mm option as others have suggested.

 

[Phil V]

As per woof woof's post, the std zoom most useful for this would be a 24-70 2.8, The Canon L will likely cost more than you paid for your camera, But maybe a Tamron or Sigma will do the job well enough.

When I shot weddings with a 6d, my preferred option was a Sigma 35mm 1.4 on one body and a Canon 135mm f2 on the other,

That brings us to whether its a wise decision to be shooting weddings when you're unsure what's a suitable lens? You'll be expected to make dozens of decisions an hour, based on your technical knowledge and people skills - one without the other isn't a great deal of use.

If you're not entering into this with enough gear for redundancy, an ability to set up a camera without thinking and the people skills to defuse a fight between the best man and brides dad, then you're probably out of your depth.

 

[troutfisher]

I’m a novice really but have been asked to do friend of my partners wedding

No offence but you stand a good chance of shortly needing a new partner or your partner will have lost a friend.
Please don't do it.

 

[andrewc]

I too would choose a 24-70 or 28-70 f/2.8 lens. Canon and Sigma have made lenses in this fitment and the older versions are more affordable, but still likely to be circa £ 500 for a secondhand lens.

However most people find shooting a wedding quite stressful, and many friendships have suffered over it, either due to over-expectation by the bride (and groom), or inexperience on the part of the photographer.

 

[Andy_S]

Are you being asked to be *The Photographer* or take photos as a guest? If the former, its probably better to decline for all the reasons given above (experience, kit, backups etc.) but take your camera as a guest if you'd like to. Just bear in mind weddings festivities may not be the safest place for expensive camera equipment if you've had a drink or few.

Lighting is something else to be thinking about. Do you have a flash, and know how to use it?

As a guest I took photographs at a friends wedding reception using a 50mm f1.4. The fixed focal length didn't give as much flexibility as the 24-105mm in my bag but I was very pleased with the results and didn't feel the need to change. The venue also had fairly low, white, ceilings which bounced the flash nicely.