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My 35mm – My least favorite “favorite”
I love my 35mm 1.8 because it is so versatile. Especially in wedding photography you often don’t get a lot of choices. Sometimes your getting ready space is tiny and I need something that wide just to take photos with good composition. I also love that it has this more intimate feeling to it. Photos taken with wider angle lenses give this feeling of you, as the viewer, are in the moment with the subject. It just feels more emotional to me in a lot of ways. My least favorite thing about a 35mm is the distortion. I try to avoid wide angle lenses in people with either very round or very elongated features. It distorts them in a more noticeable way.
- My 85mm – Ole Trusty
My longest standing favorite lens is my very loved 85mm 1.8. I have thought about upgrading to the 1.4 recently. I haven’t purchased yet because after renting it I think the bokeh is slightly better than the 1.8, but it’s not $1500 better. That lens is quick to focus and it’s the perfect focal length for couples portraits. It’s perfect because the 85mm only slightly distorts, but in a very flattering way for humans. It has a slimming effect usually and the way it compresses the background it really lets my subjects pop off the background. It’s also really light and easy to carry around/grip.
- My 135mm – My Big Kahuna
This lens is huge. It’s not as big as a 70-200mm zoom but it has a lot of weight. I prefer it over a 70-200mm because it is slightly lighter and I get so much more light with the 1.8 compared to the 2.8. It also gives incredible bokeh and compression! My favorite way to use this lens is when I either have repeating patterns in the background or a lot of distand between my subject and the background. It really shines when there is a tunnel type of effect behind them, so repeating patterns on both sides. I’ve often had people tell me these photos look photoshopped right out of camera!
