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JK Education

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When it comes to lenses, we are very particular with the glass we use.  I’m a firm believer that the lenses you use makes a difference in the quality of your images. We use all Canon L series lenses. I’ve spent the last few years building up my lens arsenal.  That was one major benefit of teaching while running our business!

We use certain lenses for certain parts of a wedding day so I’m here to share our knowledge with you! It’s definitely taken me some time to figure out what works best for us.  And what works for us may or may not work best for you.  One of the most important things I did before buying a lens was to rent it first.  I spent three years renting lenses for all our weddings until I was able to buy them all myself.  This allowed me to try them out before I actually bought them.  For us, we used Photo Rental Source which is based here in Houston.  I could drive over to their office, pick up lenses the day before the wedding and bring them back on Monday. I used Photo Rental Source so much they actually knew me by name! So, if you’re looking to rent before you buy, I highly suggest them!

Now I don’t know everything there is to know about lenses but I’m sharing everything I do know and have come to love about our lenses! And believe it or not, I’m even sharing things I’m not so crazy about in case you’re doing some lens shopping and comparison out there!

Since we are natural light photographers, we shoot “primarily” with prime lenses (hah!). Prime lenses are lenses that have no zoom. They’re a fixed focal length.  So, if you’re shooting with a prime lens and want to “zoom” in or out, just step forward or backward. Done. Prime lenses also have lower apertures (that’s the number with the decimal point) which means they let in more light.   The lower the number, the wider the aperture is so the more light that can come in.  It’s kind of like when your pupils dilate in the dark to adjust to the low light.  So, in other words, an aperture of 2.0 will let in much more light than an aperture of 4.0. When you’re looking at the name of the lens (i.e. 50mm 1.2L) the 1.2 is the lowest (and widest) aperture the lens can go.

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35mm 1.4L

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This is a wide angle lens.  We use this lens when we need to get into tight spaces or when we need to capture an epic background. This is one of my go to lenses during wedding receptions.  It’s fast at focusing which is great for dancing shots and is light weight enough that I can carry it around for hours and not get tired.

We also use this lens when we need to cram a lot of people into one photo. So, for example, full bridal party shots or large family photos.  This lens is not great, however, for close up portraits because of lens distortion.  In other words, it’ll make your subjects face look really weird…kinda like the edges of their face is being sucked into a vacuum.  Nobody likes that look! So this lens is strictly used when we need to shoot with a wide angle to get more into the frame.

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50mm 1.2L

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The 50mm is my bread and butter.  It’s the lens I use most often! The first lens I bought (that wasn’t the kit lens) was the 50mm 1.4.  That was an amazing lens! It was a total game changer for me.  It helped me gain a new creative composition perspective and with its low aperture (f-stop) helped me learn how to shoot in low light.  After a few years, I upgraded to the 1.2L.  A lot of people ask if you can really tell a difference between the 1.4 and 1.2 and personally, I say yes, you can! I notice a difference in color vibrancy and overall quality. This lens is a great all around lens. I use this lens during every part of the wedding day from details to portraits.  If you’re thinking of buying a prime lens, the 50mm would be a great place to start!

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85mm 1.2L

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Oh, the 85mm.  It’s dreamy, it’s creamy, it’s one of my favorite portrait lenses! I love using this lens during engagement sessions and during the bride and groom portrait session on the wedding day.  It offers such a great variety and I love how the portraits look! The 85mm allows me to get “up close and personal” without having to move my feet.  I can stand in one spot and take a portrait with the 50mm and then the 85mm and get two totally different looks. One thing I love doing with the 85 is pushing the aperture down to 2.0 (or even 1.8 if I’m feeling adventurous) and the results are amazing! I also love to use this lens to shoot through a bush for a pretty foreground. (Our clients know this as, “I’m going to be a creeper and take photos of you through a bush.”)

As a rule with lenses, the higher the focal length number (50 vs. 85) the more lens compression there is.  Lens compression is a type of distortion and, to us, is basically how “blurry” the background is.  Lens compression makes the background seem much larger than it actually is and since you have more distance between you and your subject (because it’s so “zoomed in” you have to stand further back), the background becomes blurry (also called bokeh).   The 85mm has amazing bokeh (aka blurry background) and gives me dreamy, creamy portraits! One down side to this lens is that it’s slow to focus.  That means it’s not going to be your friend in low light scenarios or on the dance floor. For me, it’s strictly a portrait lens.  The other down side to this lens is that it’s heavy.  This lens is a gorgeous chunk. Take your time with this lens to get those dreamy portraits and you’ll love the results!

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135mm 2.0L

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The 135mm is probably a new one for some of you.  This is basically a prime telephoto lens. It’s a lens that lets us get close to the action and still gives us the dreamy light of a prime lens. We us this lens mostly during ceremonies and first looks.  I will use the 70-200mm and Michael will use this one.  Since this is a prime lens with a low f-stop, it’s great for dark, indoor ceremonies when we need light!

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100mm Macro 2.8L

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The macro lens.  It’s a lens I only use for one thing but is probably one of the most important lenses I’ve ever bought! I only use this lens for ring and detail shots. Am I crazy for buying a lens for only one part of a wedding day? No! This lens has allowed me to get gorgeous detail shots which in turn has helped boost my brand to look and be more high end.

The tricky thing with this lens is that since it is a macro lens (which means super up close and personal), it shows you just how much you actually move when you’re shooting.  When I’m shooting ring shots, I actually tend to hold my breath because this lens notices every little bit of camera shake. You can take 20 ring shots and only have 5 come out in focus because of camera shake (or maybe that’s just me!). It take a lot of practice to get clear and focus detail shots so if you get this lens, do yourself a favor and practice at home before taking it with you on a wedding day. You’ll thank yourself later! And also play around with using manual focus and auto focus with this one.  Manual focus can be a life saver with ring shots!

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24-70mm 2.8L

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This is another one of our most versatile lenses.  The 24-70 can be both wide angle (with the 24mm) and portrait style (with the 70mm).  This is one of only two zoom lenses we own and the one Michael uses the majority of the wedding day.  He loves this lens because he rarely has to change lenses! He uses this during all the pre-ceremony activities, sometimes during the ceremony, and the entire reception.  If you’re about to shoot a wedding and are looking into renting or buying just one lens, get this one.  It covers a lot of bases!

Another reason we love this lens is for traveling.  This was the only lens we took with us to Europe and we were so thankful to not have to carry around multiple lenses! The 24mm is a very wide angle so it’s great for architecture and those amazing buildings in Europe but it can also zoom in to be a great portrait lens.

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70-200mm 2.8L

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Michael and I actually have a nickname for this lens.  It’s so big and so heavy we started calling it- “The Big Kahuna”.  This is a zoom lens and is also called a telephoto lens.  When I’m shooting with this lens, I feel like I’m doing bicep curls!! I use this lens during the ceremony so I can get close ups of the couples faces, and Michael uses this lens while he’s being a second shooter on portrait sessions.  He loves using this lens during engagement and bride and groom sessions because he can be out of my way and still get great shots! This is also the lens I use during first looks as it allows me to stay out of the way and still get a great shot of the groom’s reaction.

This lens has amazing bokeh (background blur) when zoomed in all the way to 200mm. That means it has a lot of compression! The background will be super smooth and blurry while the subject seems to “pop” out of the scene. This is an amazing portrait lens! If you’re shooting a wedding and can rent two lenses, get this one and the 24-70mm.  You’ll really have all your bases covered.

I hope this post was helpful and that you gained some knowledge about lenses! Or even how we shoot certain parts of the wedding day. There may be another lens blog post coming your way in the future!