swabubin

I am shooting a wedding at the end of the month. I want to get a new lens and wanted to know what would be best. I don't do many weddings so my investments won't go over $300. I have a Canon 60D camera. My lenses are 18-135mm and also 50mm. When I shot some photos the other day with the 18-135mm they came out blurry and I don't want that to happen at the wedding. Any suggestions??

MT Shooter Loc: Montana

You need FAST lenses, at least f2.8 or faster. If your 50mm is a f1.8 it might be your best best. If your 18-135mm is the F4-5.6 model it will blur under the best light unless you step up to ISO 1600, and then the pics won't be worth the time due to all the digital noise. An 85mm F1.8 and a 135mm F2 were the 2 lenses I had on my bodies back when I did weddings in the 80's. All manual equipment then, no AF to help out, my eyes won't let me do that anymore.
As far as cost and investment, you won't get asked to do many weddings without the equipment to do a nice job. Kind of a Catch 22 situation.

CaptainC Loc: Colorado, south of Denver

Offhand - and with just the information you posted - I would say you need to figure out why the 18-135 images are blurry. It could be that it is your technique and no lens will rectify that. If you have shot with that lens in the past and images were OK.... Probably not the lens.

If you want one lens for a wedding, I will let someone else recommend a sub $300 lens - I don't know of one good for a wedding in that range because for a wedding you really should have a fast (f2.8) zoom. You might find the 50 is something you can live with.

MWAC Loc: Somewhere East Of Crazy

I would just rent a lens if your budget is $300. As CaptainC pointed out your going to need a fast lens with a nice large f stop and that just can't be found within your budget.

swabubin

this wedding is for a friend. I don't really advertise for weddings. Just doing it as a favor. My 50 mm is a 1.8. Not sure why the photos I took with my 18-135 were blurry. After getting home from a shoot the other day I practiced at home and they were great. Not blurry at all. Maybe the distance (?). All I know is that I want to be further away from the bride and groom when taking shots. You can't get too close and I thought maybe a better lens is what I needed. I did buy a speedlite and have never opened it. Bought it a month ago. I thought that would help for indoor lighting. ANyone have any suggestions for speedlites? Maybe a quick tutorial or a website to get me started. I really would prefer someone to show me instead of reading that bible they call a manual, but since it's this late in the game I don't think there's a chance of that!! LOL! Any tips on the speedlite would greatly be appreciated.

Thank you!

MWAC Loc: Somewhere East Of Crazy

I think one of the best pieces of advice I ever got when I started taking my photography seriously was if you value your friendship NEVER offer to photograph their wedding. It's just opening a whole big can of worms that if something goes wrong will end your friendship faster than you can say "I Do"

Roger Hicks Loc: Aquitaine

Yes, but there's a big difference between 'offering' and 'not being able to wriggle your way out of'.

My wife and I have only ever used primes at the 5 weddings we've shot, usually 35mm and 50mm on full frame, though one of her best pictures was taken with a 75mm. I'd CERTAINLY not want a cheap, slow zoom.

To the OP: You need to be VERY sure you can deliver acceptable results, which means quite a lot of experience in shooting all sorts of things. But if you have genuinely mastered your equipment, shooting a wedding should really not be all that difficult, technically. Just incredibly stressful and nerve-wracking. You might care to look at http://www.rogerandfrances.com/subscription/ps%20weddings.html which begins,

"This is not a guide to shooting weddings commercially. We have never done this, and we never want to. Rather, it's about shooting weddings for friends. This may either be because they're too young and broke to afford anything else (which accounted for the first two that Roger shot), or because they're very old friends and really, really want you to shoot their weddings: you would offend them more by refusing than you would by doing it on your terms."

Oh: and all five of the couples whose weddings I shot have remained friends, though I have lost track of the wife of the only one of the five who later divorced. I am reasonably confident that the divorce had nothing to do with my photography!

Cheers,

R.

nikondaddy Loc: Mayfield,Kentucky

fuzzy pictures are the photographer,s error there are no lenses made to correct this but a steady hand and good focus can cure it with any lenses. A photographer,s talent should make his camera the slave and him the slave owner but not the other way around. You got every thing you need to a dif you can do it.

Lupane Loc: Gainsville, Ga.

If you budget allows it, and keeping in mind that there is no single wedding lens...the most popular lens is the Canon
EF 24-70mm f2.8L. The EF 10-22mm f3.5-4.5 is great for groups. The 50mm f 1.8 II is also a great lens. The 17-85mm is also a magnificent lens. Best wishes at the wedding.

dpullum Loc: Tampa Florida

Roger, you and I have agreed before. There is a big need for affordable wedding photography, money is tight for many. Her focus problems may be that the lens is focusing on the wall between the couple and not on them. Like in the good ol days we set the camera to a fixed distance and tight lens, fast film, and 1/60 and got good results.. simple and effective.

I like your "rogerandfrances" site. The B/W and sepia gives an air of formality and classic look. After all would the Maltese Falcon be classic if it were in blazing color with car crashes! And... the reason the 4 couples have remained together is because they look at the wedding photos you took and remember the warm loving feeling...

Lupane Loc: Gainsville, Ga.

steve_stoneblossom Loc: Rhode Island, USA

You said you don't shoot weddings. Why buy a lens for a job you seldom do? Rent a fast zoom- or two. 24-70 2.8 and 70-200 2.8 are most wedding shooters lenses of choices. Along with your 50, you should have it covered. Make sure you are using your highest tolerable ISO setting if in low light, and check shutter speed regularly.
Figure out why your shots were blurry.

Dria Loc: Ohio

Do you have a speedlite or just the on-board flash? I took pictures at my nephews wedding (not as the photographer--NO way) I wish I had my speedlite for that.
As for the lens you better go out and about and shoot with that lens--how about at lunch time in a "semi" busy area--just shoot people (unobtrusively)-- is some questions you just tell them you are testing a lens. then go home and look at the pictures on the computer--zoom in and see at what point you loose sharpness--then you will know how much you can crop with that lens without loosing clarity.
Quite honestly I recently got a Canon 24-105 f4 L... yes it was expensive-- BUT except for sports I think it is FANTASTIC!

Question for those who say fast lens...
I know most say a "fast lens" as in a 2.8 or less--BUT with large aperture comes a shallow depth of field so you would have to be very careful about the amount one face being in focus and other faces being too far back or forward of the focused face and ending up with those faces "soft" is this true?

steve_stoneblossom Loc: Rhode Island, USA

Agreed re: depth of field. If you intend to use a flash all day, then speed becomes less relevant. If you intend to try to shoot with only ambient light, then you have to determine if you can get by with your 50mm for those shots or not. I also agree with your point regarding flash, as in not using in-camera flash. A good flash might be a wise rental also.

candick Loc: Tampa Bay

Amen!