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Part I ✦ Understanding Digital Wedding Photography
Lenses for the Wedding Photographer
The lenses you choose are an extremely important part of your photographic arsenal. The glass they
contain is the only thing that modifies the light as it travels through the camera to eventually strike the
sensor and become an image. This is an area where you do not want to conserve money. Instead, pur-
chase lenses that are the absolute best you can afford, and then some.
Lenses obviously determine the critical quality of sharpness, but as you soon discover through the exam-
ples and text in this book, your lenses can also determine many other qualities about the way an image
appears. Every type of lens has its own unique qualities and characteristics that it imparts to an image.
The f2.8 lenses that many pros think of as standard equipment often have huge glass elements that result
in added weight and add an extra $1,000 on to the price tag. Is it worth it? Most professionals, including
myself, agree that it is. Do you have to have f2.8 lenses in order to shoot good pictures? No! Most ama-
teurs and professionals that are new to the business cannot afford the expense of purchasing a full set of
top quality lenses all at once, so they may opt to purchase lenses with a variable aperture to cut down on
start-up costs. Later, as the business grows, you can afford lenses that are more expensive.
Because ...