Welcome back to our “What’s In Our Bag?” series where we talk all about our gear! Last time I introduced you to all of our gear and today I’ll be focusing on my favorite lens: the Canon 50mm 1.2L. This was our first L Series prime (non-zoom) lens and I fell in love with it right away! Even though it’s a prime lens, it’s really versatile and I use it throughout the entire wedding day. I’ll be using a few photos from Karen and Chris’ Inn at Lambertvlle Station Wedding to show you the kinds of images this lens produces.
The first time on a wedding day that the 50mm goes on my camera is during bridal portraits. Once our bride is dressed, I put the 50mm on my camera and use it to capture her finishing touches like in the image below:
I like using the 50mm for bridal portraits before our bride leaves for the First Look or ceremony. It’s also the perfect lens to photograph the bride holding some of her special items, such as her bouquet. The 50mm produces such beautiful, creamy bokeh (the blurry background like in the image of the bouquet as pictured below) and I just love that!
The downside of using the 50mm is that, since it is a prime lens, I can’t zoom in and out. Instead, I have to zoom with my feet by moving closer or farther away from the subject. However, the beautiful images the lens produces are well worth the effort!
The 50mm is the lens that I use the most during portraits. I love that I can use it for both full body shots and close-ups so I get a lot of use out of it at this point in the day.
I also use the 50mm at other points throughout the day but bridal prep and portraits are definitely the two most popular times of day that I put it to use. If you are a hobbyist and aren’t ready to spend the $ on the 50mm 1.2L I highly recommend its little brothers! The 50mm 1.4 (not pictured) or 50mm 1.8 II (pictured below) are much more affordable but allow you to experience the same focal length and a wide aperture, too.
More resources
I hope this blog post is helpful to you! If you’d like to read another perspective on this lens be sure to check out this review by Denver Wedding Photographers Mathew and Ariel Irving.
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