Hi everyone, although I like to study the photography topic, Iām really a noob when it comes to practical terms.
I would like to take pictures at a family event which will take place in a garden in the evening/night.
Well, my gear is quite modest, and I know I donāt have what I need to take good pictures of both the place and the people there. Iām looking to rent a nice lens to carry around as I take pictures (and enjoy the party too! So Iām just taking one š ). So I would really appreciate some advice on what to rent.
There are the four lenses I found while digging, two are primes, two are zooms:
Canon RF 24MM F/1.8 IS STM: itās fast, with IS, but Iām not sure about portraits with this focal length.
Canon EF 24mm f/1.4 L II USM: super fast, no IS, still not sure about portraits with this focal length.
Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM: IS, quite fast, zoom lets me take portraits, but Iāve read itās not very sharp.
Canon RF 15-35mm f/2.8 L IS USM: IS, quite fast, zoom lets me take portraits (not strongly as the one above but still).
Hereās my situation:
Which lens would you reccommend? Since Iām renting them I was thinking about going all in with the expensive ones, the cost wonāt increase much. The primes are so bright I feel comfortable they will be bright enough, but I donāt know if I can take good portraits at 24mm. On the other hand, zooms let me do more things, but I donāt know if I can handle f/2.8 with my crappy and shaky hands.
Of course, if you can think of other lenses that would be perfect for the job Iām all ears!
Cheers
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I would stick with a prime. You may think youāll use the zoom, but I have a feeling youāll probably end up finding a distance you are comfortable with and shooting from that, instead of adjusting your zoom with each shot.
Since youāll be shooting low light and you arenāt confident in the steadiness of your hands, youāll definitely want some form of image stabilization, otherwise you will miss out on shots. Really, your best friend is going to be flash. Iād recommend getting a speed light to help with AF and lighting, so you can get those crisp low iso shots that you will want. If you arenāt comfortable with an external flash, then Iād say to rent it ahead of time and do some work before hand to learn the ins and outs.
Out of the lenses youāve posted, Iād recommend the 24mm 1.8 with image stabilization. Though I would aim for something closer to 35-50mm focal length.
Remember, you are running a crop sensor, so all of your focal lengths will be might shorter than advertised. A 50 will act like a 35 and a 24 will be something like a 15-18. Iām a Nikon guy, so I donāt know if that knowledge translates directly to Canon, but I donāt think there is too much of a difference.I had the math backwards for whatever reason, but I stand by my advice.Good luck and happy hunting.
You have the crop factor backwards. Itāll increase the effective focal length. Multiply the crop factor by the focal length of the lens
Edited. Thanks. I donāt know what got into me.
Agree on using a speedlight, but if flash is in the picture stabilization wonāt be as necessary. I wrote up a fairly similar reply on the .world version of this post.
Thanks a lot for the help!
I have experience with a 24mm prime and I was never truly satistied with landscape/scenery pictures because it was too narrow for them, and neither with portrait pictures because it was too wide. Of course, this is with it in my hands, there certainly are people out there who can use it better than I do.
Iām using a RF 15-30 f/4.5-6.3 when itās bright outside and I like it a lot, I like the flexibility it gives me, that is why Iām tempted by the absolute brightness of the primes Iāve found, but also Iām tempted by the flexibility those zooms give me.
I donāt think Iāll be using an external flash because I fear my setup will become too cumbersome to carry around, and I prefer the feel I get from pictures when there is no flash involved :(
I would be looking more at flash guns as lighting outside in a garden at night is probably not just dark, but really bad for photography.
A f/1.8/lens in the 35-50mm bracket should be fine when paired with a flash. I wouldnāt rely on Tue cameras own flash if it has one though, a cheap hotshoe mounted flash will be a lot better.
Good point - thereās a difference between dim, but still somewhat directional, light that you can have your subjects pose around and straight up dim light. A dim light directed at someoneās face will result in a lot more detail than that same amount of light randomly diffused around the scene. If itās going to be truly dark, with no sources of directional light, and OP is a pixel peeper they probably wonāt like the results.
If OP does go the flash route, which I hope they do it itās actually dark, there would no longer be a need to shoot wide open unless maybe theyāre focusing on single subjects. For groups, more depth of field is good.
Itās going to have ambient lighting, similar to a fair, with those hanging light bulbs and illuminated stands. Hopefully I give the right idea, english is not my first language.
Another issue I have with the flash is that I donāt like its effect on the pictures, and Iāll be using it wrong because Iāve never used one so thereās also that.
Ambient lighting, especially if you can get it to fall fairly directly on faces, will be the thing to try to use to your advantage.
Youāre doing great with your English!
As far as flash, there are two things you can do to make it better:
One thing to keep in mind is the R10 has a APS-C size sensor. That means that the effective focal length of those lenses will be higher than on a full frame camera. I believe Canon uses a 1.6 crop factor for their APS sensors. So, while a 24mm lens is very wide-angle on a full frame camera, it will be only moderately wide on your camera.
For portraits, a moderately long lens usually produces more pleasing results than wide angle. Wide angle lets you capture more of the scene around a person, but then itās more of a landscape that includes people, not a portrait. A portrait should focus on just one (maybe two) subjects.
Of the lenses you mentioned, the 15-35 is probably your best bet. Itās a āLā lens, which is Canonās top-of-the-line. Itās fairly bright.
You might also look for Canonās 50mm f 1.2 or f 1.4 āLā lenses. With the crop factor, 50mm is comparable to 80mm on a full frame.
Your subjects will fill the field of view. You might have to take a step or two back, but theyāll look better than when shot with a wide angle lens close up.
Thanks, I feel like this a lot. I love taking pictures with my ācheapā 50mm, and if I didnāt restrict myself to one lens only Iād bring that too because I just love it.
The 15-35 is the one tempting me the most, Iām just asking knowledgeable people if it will be enough for me with my crappy hands given the low light environment :)
Do you already have the 50mm f1.8? Thatās a good portrait lens. Not as sharp or as bright as the much bigger, much more expensive āLā 50s, but still brighter than a f2.8 lens.
If youāve got the 50mm, my advice is to take that to the party as your only lens. If youāre going to spend money on something, spend it on a flash.
With a flash, you should be able to stop down, even at night. Try f/4 or f/8. That will boost sharpness. If youāre concerned about weight, consider the Canon EL-100. It weighs 6.7oz without batteries. Iām guessing it takes either 2 or 4 AA batteries.
Longer fast primes can give you that tiny depth of field that gives that lovely separation between the subject and background. Pair with a bounced flash (assuming youāre indoors)* and you can get gorgeous images.
Downside is if youāre in a smaller area, a longer lens can make it tricky to frame up properly (you may find yourself trying to become one with a wall). A shorter zoom can give you a bit more flexibility (forget a big range zoom, theyāre too slow and you wonāt use half of it).
*Read it back, youāre outside! A diffused flash (ideally off-camera) can give you that nice separation closer up even with a slightly slower lens. I would try the 15-35, and a flash with an extension cord (and a diffuser attachment or bounce card!). Flash can also ensure you get a nice shutter speed (dunno what the shutter sync is on a R10, but you should be fine with the hand shake), and maybe a decent pair of gloves in case it gets cold as the night goes on!
Sounds like someone needs a nifty fifty!
Camera stuff
It depends on what youāre trying to achieve. Are you doing candid portraits where the people are in natural positions and not looking at the camera (thatās the preferred style for things like corporate events), then you want something longer and as fast as you can get, no flash. If youāre going to have people posing in front of you and look at the camera then Iāll join the crowd and recommend getting a flash, with canon you might have a setting for ānaturalā or āambient priorityā to reduce the whole flashiness of it. In that case the 24s are probably fine, theyāll be a 38mm equivalent on your body, so not actually that wide and should work for single portraits or groups (zoom with your feet).
Here are my favourite lenses or combos to cover events, but keep in mind I do this professionally and definitely cannot enjoy the event as a guest at the same time:
Personally I would never cover an event with primes as they just donāt offer me the flexibility I need but again different situations, in your shoes Iād probably grab the 24 and enjoy the pleasure of shooting around the 35mm length, my favourite prime length.
Thanks a lot for the input!
Yes, I will be taking pictures of both the place and the people, especially of people being natural and not concerned about me, so I would avoid the flash for that reason too (also, the setup becomes too bulky with one).
I also enjoy very much shooting at 24mm but Iām not too comfortable with it in these situations, Iād like to be closer to the subjects but further from the scenery (if that even makes sense), but since Iām renting the lens I can go for something expensive which does both!
That 15-35 f/2.8, is it the RF one? Itās one of the lenses Iām considering. Do you have like a sample gallery I can take a look at?
Yeah the RF, I still havenāt updated my website since I got that one so I donāt have photos to share but this video was pretty much entirely shot on it besides a few with the 100mm macro, when I shoot video I also switch between full frame and a crop mode that gives me 1.6x.
Itās a great lens very sharp and it has IS and all that. I do question whether itās ideal for āwildlifeā style event photos, Iād rather something a bit longer to give myself a better chance people donāt notice me, but I think for your situation it might make sense since youāre also a guest and wonāt spend your time actually hunting, and the 1.6 crop gives you a bit more reach. Be warned the RF autofocus with an RF body is amazing and will ruin EF with adapter for you.