It’s all about the lens

My lens of the moment has to be my Canon 85mm. f1.8 You can use it in very low light conditions, it’s an ideal lens for capturing flattering portraits and you can use it with great effect to achieve shots with a very shallow depth of field, great if you want a blurred background. All in all a very versatile lens and one that won’t break the bank.

Most people will agree that the 85mm lens on a full frame camera is the ideal portrait lens  and is usually my first choice. Below are just a few that I have shot using that lens. The black and white image was shot using studio lights but the colour images were lit mainly with available light and wide open apertures giving the soft out of focus background.

Below are another couple of images shot with the 85mm lens. In this case it wasn’t the focal length of the lens that was the major importance, it was the aperture. Both shots were captured with continuous lighting at a very low light levels and it was important to get as much light as possible into the camera. Here an aperture of f1.8 proves to be very useful.

 

and so to finish off , a few images from a recent shoot with Bobbi Castle at Hallam Mill. I could lie and tell you that these were also shot with the 85mm. lens but they weren’t they were shot with its little brother, the very similar 50mm lens. The 50mm. gives you most of the benefits of the 85mm. and can be used in more confined spaces. By many, considered not as good as the 85mm. for portraits but it is certainly easier to capture the full length shots. You won’t find it quite as easy to get the out of focus backgrounds with the 50mm. lens but when you can pick one up for under £100 without too much effort its well worth having one in your bag as a backup.

 

 

 

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