6 Must-Have Lenses For Wedding Photography

Pye Jirsa

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Photography TipsCamera Reviews and NewsPhotography Basics

Wedding photography is unique in that it encompasses several genres of photography: fashion, portrait, architectural, product, macro, family, and sometimes even travel photography. Few genres demand more from photographers and their gear.

In order to deliver a complete wedding photography product, you’re going to need lenses that allow you to capture each of these aspects with artistry and creativity. In a perfect world, we’d have the finances and manpower to haul every available lens to the venue; in reality, we’re limited to a handful of lenses, each of which needs to be accessible, high-quality, and versatile.

Here is a subjective list of 6 must-have lenses for any given wedding.

1. 70-200mm F/2.8 Zoom Lens

This is my favorite lens. It creates beautiful bokeh (blur) at f/2.8, and the compression you get when you’re zoomed in from 150-200mm gives your image a look that’s hard to achieve with any other lens. It also allows you to get in close to the action without disrupting the moment.

The 70-200mm also allows you to capture candids, from the tears at a wedding ceremony to the laughs at a wedding reception.

Mirrorless Options

DSLR Options

2. 50mm Prime Lens

This is another one of my favorite lenses. The 50mm focal length is great for portraits, and it can save the day when the light starts to drop; the wider aperture allows you to depend less on your flash and it creates a softer, more natural look for your subjects.

Whether for (certain) candid moments or posed portraits, a 50mm lens is simply one of the best all-around prime lenses for all types of photography, especially weddings.

The 50mm definitely allows you to create stunning portraits, especially with modern-day options reaching such impressive apertures as f/1.2. Just 10+ years ago, you would need to stop down most 50mm prime lenses to f/4 or f/5.6 if you really wanted sharp results, thus throwing away the highly unique and advantageous aperture.  Simply put, the shallow depth of field that softens your subjects’ skin and makes them pop off the page.

Ultra-Fast Mirrorless 50mm Prime Lens Options

Normal Mirrorless 50mm Prime Lens Options

DSLR 50mm Prime Lens Options

2024 Update: After more than 15 years in business, we have noticed something rather common with our wedding photographers: If you like 50mm, you should also try 35mm, too! This slightly wider-angle prime lens is still relatively “normal”, but its angle of view is often perfect for more active, candid, and in-the-moment images compared to a 50mm. So, try both, and see which one you like more! All brands that have excellent 50mm options, also have multiple excellent 35mm options too.

3. 24-70mm F/2.8 Zoom Lens

The versatility of the 24-70mm zoom lens is critical for smaller spaces and high-action moments. For example, a tea ceremony in a Vietnamese wedding is commonly held in a living room. The 70-200mm would be too compressed for this situation, and a 50mm or any other prime lens would not provide enough versatility, as you typically don’t have much room for movement.

Indeed, with many cultural wedding ceremonies, you may often find yourself in a packed small room, shoulder-to-shoulder with other guests, and a 24-70mm zoom is the only way to adequately document the whole event.

Mirrorless Options

DSLR Options

2024 Bonus Recommendation: Modern advancements in optical technology have given us some incredible alternatives to the traditional 24-70mm focal range. For example, if you mostly do posed portraits and not much close-quarters photojournalism, consider the truly amazing Canon RF 28-70mm f/2 (yes, that’s right, f/2!) …with its stunningly gorgeous prime-like bokeh. Or, if you barely use zoom lenses OR the normal zoom ranges, you can go with a lightweight, compact, budget-friendly alternative such as the Sigma 28-70mm f/2.8, Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8, Nikon 28-75mm f/2.8. Last but not least, if you want even more zoom range than 24-70mm offers, there are a few highly unique options such as the Sony 20-70mm f/4 G, or the more common f/4 alternative, the 24-105mm’s.

4. 100mm Macro Lens

If your bride and groom are spending thousands of dollars on the details of a wedding, they are sure to appreciate you capturing the event in detail. With a 100mm Macro, you can capture detailed shots with the same quality and detail as product advertisements in magazines. Add your touch of lighting and creativity, and you get ring shots like the one below.

Be sure to check out Wedding Workshop 6 | Photographing The Details for an in-depth overview of how to capture details that get shared and published.

Mirrorless 100mm Macro Lens Options

DSLR 100mm Macro Lens Options

2024 Update: A lot of non-macro lenses today are also offering modest macro capabilities, such as 0.5x or “half” of a dedicated macro lens, or 2:1 reproduction. If you aren’t going to be doing a ton of macro photos, but want get some close-up images at weddings, consider one of these lenses. With subjects such as jewelry, shoes, flowers, food, and other things, you can choose any prime lens from 35mm to 85mm or 105mm, that offers roughly 0.5x macro. One of our favorites is the Canon RF 85mm f/2 IS STM, because it doubles as one of our final recommended lens categories. (Spoiler!)

5. 16-35mm Wide-Angle Zoom Lens

Sometimes the 24-70mm lens just isn’t wide enough to capture everything you want, especially at a wedding! The ultra-wide angle focal lengths beyond 24mm help you capture the whole environment, and even exaggerate perspective.

Venue and scenery/landscape shots also provide a great addition to your wedding day coverage, as they set the scene for the day and allow you to take full advantage of the scenery, especially at beautiful venues. If you don’t have a wide-angle detail photo in your wedding album.

Whether you had a giant party at a tropical resort hotel, or you eloped on a mountaintop, you need a 16-35 or similar!

16-manchester-grand-hyatt-san-diego-wedding-photographer-just-got-married-photos

17-the-fairmont-san-francisco-indian-wedding-photographer

Mirrorless Options

DSLR Options

2024 Update: This category of lenses has been one of the most-improved in recent years, thanks to mirrorless optical designs. Want something even wider? Every lens mount has a 14-24mm option; some even 12-24mm! Want something extremely compact, lightweight, and affordable? There are multiple excellent choices, such as the Sigma 16-28mm f/2.8, or the Tamron 17-28mm f/2.8 and the Nikon 17-28mm f/2.8. Or, Sony just released an impressively compact 16-25mm f/2.8. Alternatively, if you want more zoom range, the Tamron 17-50mm f/4 offers a unique perspective.

6. 85mm Prime Lens

When this article was first published in 2009, (yes, we’ve been in business THAT long!) …the Canon EF 85mm f/1.2 was in our honorable mention category. It created beautiful images, but the autofocus was terrible and the sharpness was average.

Over the years, we have fallen in love with this focal length, and the options have drastically improved! The 85mm lens is a true portrait lens compared to a 50mm; it doesn’t distort the perspective of the subject, especially if a face or body part is placed around the edges of the frame. This lens also offers great compression and background bokeh at wider apertures. Thanks to the longer focal length, even an f/2 or f/1.8 aperture will provide incredible bokeh!

Mirrorless 85mm Prime Lens Options

DSLR 85mm Prime Lens Options

Honorable Mentions | Best Lenses For Wedding Photography

We have had a lot of favorite lenses over the years as wedding photographers, and while some of them were purchases that we actually regretted, many deserve an honorable mention because we still love and use them today!

  • 24mm f/1.4
    For those who do a lot of low-light event photography, such as a wedding reception dance floor or a portrait under the stars, you should strongly consider investing in this relatively specialized lens. A 24mm f/1.4 is available for almost every camera mount today, both mirrorless and DSLR, especially with an adapter.
  • F/2 zooms
    We mentioned one of these already, but there are more! The Canon RF 28-70mm f/2 is an incredible mid-range zoom with the buttery bokeh of our favorite 2-3 prime lenses all in one. There is also the new (as of July 2024) Sigma 28-45mm f/1.8, with a slightly more modest zoom range but a slightly faster aperture and a much more modest price tag! Additionally, for those who are looking for something longer, Tamron and Rokinon/Samyang have made 35-150mm f/2-2.8 zoom lenses. None of these zooms are universal enough for us to recommend them to all wedding or portrait photographers, but each one is a truly unique offering that deserves a mention.

What do you think? What are your must-have lenses?

If you haven’t done so already, check out our Lens Wars series, the ultimate visual guide to real world differences between a whole host of Canon professional zoom lenses and primes. In total, we tested 25 Canon lenses valued at over $40,000 dollars starting from 17mm to 300mm focal length.

CREDITS: All photographs by Lin and Jirsa Photography are copyrighted and have been used with permission for SLR Lounge. Do not copy, modify or re-post this article or images without express permission from SLR Lounge and the artist.