Photojennica – Lens Selection

This post contains affiliate links, which help to support this site. Thank you!

In part one I told you about what cameras I recommend. Now we’re heading over to learn about what lenses are best {in my opinion}. First you need to know what your subject is. Are you photographing people? Children? Food? Weddings? This really is too big of a subject for one lil post but I’ll expand on this later. If you’re really just starting out and already spent all your money on your camera then the first thing you need to do is read the manual. Don’t get all focused on lenses. Learn your camera first. Just play around with the kit lens for now.

As you’ll see, the lenses I recommend are costly. But what can I say? Some girls like shoes and clothes and pedicures. I like glass. That’s why you won’t see me in front of the the camera too often 😉

I just spent the evening chasing my toddler around for you guys. I want to show you the difference in lens selection. First up is the 18-55mm kit lens.

Once you’ve gotten a grasp on that I highly recommend a 50mm.

This lens is great at both food and people photography. The best part? It doesn’t cost an arm and a leg. I still have the one I bought years and years ago. This baby lasts. It is especially good for toddler photography. If you’ve never chased a toddler while trying to take his picture…bring band aids. I have used this with photographing toddlers since 2006. Now, I did end up upgrading to the Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 if anybody wants to upgrade further.

Below you can see the difference between taking a photo with the kit lens compared with the 50mm.

{kit lens on top, 50mm on bottom}

If you’re willing to drop some more money the Canon EF 85mm is a fantastic step up.

I’m telling you the order of when I got the lenses. 50mm was my first love, then came along the 85mm. The sharpness of the 85mm is spectacular for that price. By this point in our lil photo session we had to start bribing with cookies.

Below you can see the difference in the 50mm vs the 85mm. Can you see how much more bokeh/blur you get in the background with the 85mm?

Moving on to the macro lens. Meet the 100mm.

This one I prefer to use as a macro. It does a great job on extreme close ups. Insects, animals, flowers, etc. It can be used as an everyday lens if needed. If you look at the header of this blog my most favorite photo ever is the one of my newborns lips using the 100mm.

Below is a comparison of the 85mm and the 100mm.

This next lens is AMAZING!!!! I have wanted this particular lens for YEARS. It costs a lot. But it’s worth every penny. Introducing the 70-200mm.

This sucker is heavy. Like, start working out now if you think you want to get it in a few years. It’s fantastic for weddings and just people photography in general.

Below is a comparison of the 100mm and the 70-200mm.

Last but not least is the 24mm.

I can’t give you too much information on this lens. I only got it because the Canon EOS 5D Mark II doesn’t come with a kit lens so I needed something that could take wide angle shots. In the photo below I was really close to them.

Below is a comparison of the 70-200mm and the 24mm.

Phew, this was quite a long post. I hope it helps you in lens selection. As you can see I tend to lean towards the fixed lenses. Which means a lot of leg work. With a fixed lens your body is the zoom. However, my favorite is definitely the 70-200mm. If I could only keep two lenses it would be the 70-200mm and the 100mm.

Here, I wanted to share some favorite photos using these lenses. Enjoy!

50mm

85mm

100mm

70-200mm

24mm

Blessings!