Our Two Favorite Lenses and Shooting Wide Open

POSTED IN : Shooting & Workflow
FILED UNDER : , ,

Welcome to another Reader FAQ!

Thanks for submitting your questions to us – we get such a thrill out of answering our readers most pressing questions about their businesses.

This is an ongoing series, so make sure to read the rest of our Reader FAQ posts.

If you have a question that hasn’t been answered already, check out the info at the bottom of this post for how to submit.

You never know, it just may be featured here on the bloggy-blog!

On with today’s question…

If you only could use one lens for an entire wedding which would you choose? And do you guys shoot wide open? The light is always so awesome in your pictures!!

That’s easy – the Canon 50mm f/1.2 L.

I can tell you from looking into Lightroom and filtering based on metadata that we use this lens the most on a consistent basis.

 

However, if we could use TWO lenses, it would be the 50 mm f/1.2 L AND the Canon 135mm f/2.0 L.

 

That’s what I call a dynamic duo. The reason I love the 50mm so much is that it’s the perfect focal length on a full frame sensor and is actually very close to how our eye perceives the world.

Additionally, it’s incredibly crisp and sharp all the way through the range.

Erin and I are firm believers that people look best in natural light, so we spend a majority of the time shooting “wide open” which means using the lowest (biggest) aperture possible.

 

Not only does shooting wide open allow us to shoot in conditions that would ordinarily require a flash, but also shooting wide open separates the subject from the background (making the background extra blurry).

 

An important thing to note about shooting wide open is that you MUST be very very careful with your focusing due to the shallow depth of field that is created.

This causes us to have to over-shoot our subjects to ensure that we get the perfect focus.

To be specific, I shoot the 135 at f/2.0 all day and the 50 at f/ 1.8 (you have be very careful with the focus if you’re going to open up all the way to f/1.2, even though its beautiful).

We LOVE answering questions from our readers (we’re not kidding, it’s the best part of this blog).

Head over to our Photographer-Only Facebook Group and vote with others on topics you’re dying to hear about!

***As always, make sure to read through the current Reader FAQ posts to make sure your question hasn’t been answered already!***

Cheers,

Jeff

Be sure to check out our other FAQ Posts:
[catlist id=19 orderby=date order=ASC numberposts=-1]

Search

We teach photographers to build life-giving businesses that they absolutely love.

About Us

We're Jeff & Erin

We’re Jeff and Erin Youngren – and it’s our mission to help you thrive not just as a wedding photographer, but as a business owner. It’s time to set aside the stress and comparison of a hustle mindset, and build a life-giving business instead.

We met in college, got married, and started corporate jobs before we discovered (and fell in love with) wedding photography. But like many creative entrepreneurs, we were booking anything we could, strapped to our laptops and living dangerously close to burnout.

So we dug in and learned how to build a thriving business that supports our dream life – instead of a joyless business that runs a stressed-out life.

Today, we photograph only 10 Dreamie weddings per year, but we also run two other wedding brands plus a commercial studio in San Diego, CA. And we do it by only working the hours that fit into our life. The other hours? We spend those living a joyful life raising our two beautiful sons, James and Samuel.

hugs,

Jeff and Erin

New Here? Start with these posts!

Free Resources

Freebie : Our Wedding Day Schedule

grab our free WEDDING DAY SCHEDULE These are the very templates we base all our wedding day schedules off – with a First Look and a No First Look option. We hope you find it super helpful! See How We Do It! It’s been so helpful for us to send our clients schedules...

Read More

Creative Rising

The Wedding Photography Timeline We Love

Listen on Apple Podcasts | Listen on Spotify Creative Rising Episode 202 [TRAINING] If you're frustrated with your wedding days always running late, which means you're not getting enough time for photos and your couple feels rushed all day long, then it's...

Read More

Creative Rising

When Should You Leave Your Day Job?

Listen on Apple Podcasts | Listen on Spotify Creative Rising Episode 109 [TRAINING EPISODE] You're working a full time job, but you're also running a creative business on the side that's growing rapidly. In fact, you're spending just as much time on your...

Read More

Creative Rising

How We Built a Dreamie Business

Listen on Apple Podcasts | Listen on Spotify Creative Rising Episode #101 [TRAINING EPISODE] Are you a wedding photographer that’s ready to finally start shooting the clients you want? Are you wondering how to actually find them and book them? Before the world...

Read More

Listen to the Creative Rising Podcast

Listen to the Latest Episodes – or Subscribe Here

Our Signature Program

Thrive Business Intensive

The Thrive Business intensive is a 12 week program for photographers who are ready to level up their business in ways they never thought possible. 

Are you ready?

"This program changed everything..."

-Rebecca