Introduction
Photographers can argue for days about the lest lens for this or that. It is widely debated among so many photographers; however, something I have noticed in many photographer groups are that photographers within the same genres typically go for similar lenses. While I am primarily a motherhood, newborn, and family photographer, I also shot many years of weddings, so hang tight. I’m one of those lens junkies that always had to have the newest thing to compare. Allow me to save you some time and money.
Zoom Lenses
We all have a general idea of what zoom is. You can zoom in or out, closer or farther from your subject. What I didn’t realize when I bought my first portrait lens? The things didn’t zoom. Weird. I’ll get to that in the next section. So, why are you talking about zoom lenses if they aren’t portrait lenses? Okay. Okay. Some zoom lenses can be pretty good portrait lenses. I love my Canon 70-200 f/2.8L II, but decent zooms come at a cost. Personally, I’m dying to get my hands on the new Canon RF 28-70 f/2L because I hear that’s a game-changer. Get to the point. Okay.
Prime Lenses
Here we go. I don’t mean to throw too much shade on zooms, but portrait lenses are often primes. What does that even mean? No, it’s not affiliated with Amazon Prime; although, that’s a great place to purchase one. Prime means no zoom. Fixed. It means you move your body to zoom in and out. The best and most-used portrait photography lenses (from my own personal experience and from being a part of a large photography community) are as follows: 35mm, 50mm, 85mm, 135mm.
I could honestly throw away all of my many lenses and run my entire business with just the Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens if I had to. Yup. Not a Canon. Sigma. A third-party lens seller is my number one pick. You will hear similar recommendations from many other photographers as well.
But what if you’re just starting and not ready to drop that money like it’s hot just yet? I am ALL about helping beginner photographers get started without wasting money. Why? Because I wasted SO MUCH money when I started photography. I needed a guide, someone to tell me what’s good and not, someone to tell me this is a smart purchase and this is a dumb one.
Let me be your person. Let me help you save not only money, but so much time as well. Our time as photographers is precious because there’s so much information to learn that it becomes overwhelming. I’m giving you a place to start. No more excuses. Let’s do this thing. Click here to get started.
