Best Canon Lenses for Wedding Photography

First off, if you are a wedding photographer, I highly suggest you shoot with the Canon 5D Mark II if you do not already have one. The reason being is that the Canon 5D Mark II is the best Canon camera for wedding photography. It’s ability to shoot in dim light situations with little noise at high ISOs will increase the quality of your work dramatically. Also, the camera’s low light ability means that you can shoot in low light with f4 lenses, which Canon makes a lot of. This will save you money on glass if you already do not have f2.8 and faster lenses.

Lets break down these lens choices by focal length. We shall start wide and go up to the longer telephoto zooms!

Canon 16-35mm f2.8L II USM Wide Angle Zoom

This lens is the best ultra wide zoom Canon has for your full frame camera. Not only is it excellent on full frame cameras such as your 5D Mark II, the video quality is amazing on crop frame cameras such as the 7D. The lens is fast, sharp, accurate and silent. In terms of vignette problems it performs much better than the 17-40mm lens. It is sharp from edge to edge. It is excellent for landscapes, as well as, ultra wide group shots and reception shots on the dance floor.

Canon 50mm f1.2L II USM Lens

This lens has a large aperture that produces a narrow depth of field creating the great soft background blur effect you would need in portrait shots. Use this lens for dim light conditions or for when the bride is getting ready and you want shallow depth of field to blur out the background of distracting objects. It has amazing quality, small compact size and weight, and it opens up to 1.2.  The cost is around $1,479, but if you want a similar lens, not totally up to par with one, go with the Canon 50mm 1.4 for $300. Having one of these lenses is crucial because if you have all f4 lenses, at least you have one that can shoot in low light without flash. They don’t call the 50mm focal length “normal” for no reason. It is the standard focal length, not wide nor telephoto, the 50mm lens gives you the image closest to how your eye perceives things. It works in a wide variety of conditions and will make you a better shooter because of the fixed focal length, you will have to move in or further away to get the right composition.

Canon 85mm f1.8 USM Lens

The Canon 85 1.8 lens is another great lens for any shooter that wants and needs a fixed focal length, very sharp portrait lens. Works wonders on both full frame and crop bodies, increasing the focal length to a perfect 136mm. Although the auto focus seems a bit slow and focusing is more critical because of the wide open apertures this lens is capable of, I recommend this lens for the times you want your portrait to really pop. This lens is sharper than any zoom in my opinion. Being a compact lens it also fits easily in your bag and can also be easily placed in a small soft lens bag that you hang on your belt, so when you need to do some portraits, simply put this on your camera and shoot some breathtaking, color popping, portraits, in any lighting condition.

Canon 24-105mm f4L IS USM Series Lens

The Canon 24-105 L Series lens is by far, my favorite, all time, walk around lens. No lens in the Canon lineup is more versatile than the 24-105. Previously, I was the proud owner of the 24-70 2.8 Lens which gives you more light, but had some significant drawbacks when I started using it side by side with my 24-105. I decided to sell the 24-70 because it was too similar to the 24-105, which I had to have due to the longer focal length. 70mm on a full frame camera is too shy from being a portrait lens where longer focal lengths really help ensure noses do not look too big etc. It also comes with Image Stabilization meaning you can hand hold this lens using longer shutter speeds, thus giving it an edge over the 24-70 even though that lens opens up to 2.8. Also the weight of the 24-70m is heavy compared to the more versatile 24-105. Most importantly when I just want a little more reach, but I do not want to switch to my 70-200, having that little extra focal length really makes this a great lens. I use this lens for everything, it works great for group shots and all around shooting. I use it exclusively whenever I take my camera out for the day or when I am traveling and I need to be light. I usually bring the 50mm, and 24-105 when I do my projects in West Africa. So far it has been a very solid lens and is my favorite right next to the 70-200mm.

Canon 100mm f2.8L Macro IS USM Lens

As a wedding photographer you need to be versatile and have a wide variety of shots. Using the aforementioned lenses above to get close up detail shots of the rings, jewelry, etc will not get you the same 1:1 ratio results as this macro lens does. This means you can shoot something as small as the wedding rings, get super close, and fill the frame. You cannot do this with other lenses because you will not be able to achieve focus while being so close, so that’s when you reach for the 100mm Macro. It also doubles as an amazing portrait lens, giving you super sharp images with shallow depth of field. Although, definitely not the first lens you need to purchase as a wedding photographer, it should be on your short list if you have all the other lenses listed here.

Canon 70-200mm f2.8L IS II Lens

This is the most expensive lens in the lineup at around $2,500, but worth it! Grab this lens when you shoot the ceremony and want to remain unobtrusive and shoot around the perimeter behind the guests. The 2.8 aperture, combined with sophisticated image stabilization means it will shoot in low light hand held. If you do not like the weight or the price, I recommend the 70-200 f4. It is much lighter and has image stabilization, but does not get you the extreme shallow depth of field this lens does. This lens also works wonders for a portrait lens and when shooting in large locations where you need a ton of reach. If you shoot with two camera bodies, I like using this lens on the 7D making it a super telephoto because of the crop factor and then placing the 24-105 on the 5D Mark II and you really have the ability shoot a wide variety without a lot of fuss. If you could only have two lenses I think it would be this one and the 24-105. So even though it is expensive, it does hold value well and will make your photos that much better that price will not even be an issue after one wedding season.

Canon 15mm f2.8 Fisheye

Excellent lens for a full frame camera as it super sharp and not fuzzy in the corners. It has excellent image quality which is surprising for a speciality lens of this type since it is purposely heavily distorted and one would think that the most distorted areas of the image would be of low quality, but it isn’t. Great, when used sparingly for some wide ceremony shots, interior/exterior pictures of the wedding venue, wide landscapes, being in confined spaces or more comedic portraits.

Other lenses on my list to buy since I also think they are very important are the Canon 24 1.4 L Series Lens – I am looking into this lens more and more since it has such  great reputation, but I have always wondered how much I would really use it at a wedding because I like to be versatile and my 24-105 zoom has been really good to me. I plan on using this lens more in the future to see if I want to take the plunge and buy it.

There are many others as well that I would consider specialty lenses that, in a wedding situation would be helpful, but at the moment are not mandatory for business and those are:

Canon 300mm Lens – Currently I use the 70-200 on a crop body when I need the extra throw. But, if I ever went on a safari I would pick this lens up.

Canon Tilt Shift Lens - If I did a lot more architecture where straight lines are vital I would own one of these. I am sure it would make a great lens for establishing shots of hotels, wedding locations, etc, however, I have been able to live without it. I am curious to hear from others though what they think about using this lens for weddings.