24~70 Zoom for Flaunt Magazine
Fashion photography is a unique combination of all types of photography. Fashion often includes portrait photography, environmental photography, product photography, macro photography, and sometimes even landscape photography are all included under the required knowledge umbrella to be successful in fashion photography.
In order to deliver a successful fashion photography shoot, 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; but in reality, we’re limited to a handful of accessible, high-quality, and versatile lenses.
Here is a list (from my camera bag) of must have lenses for any given fashion or advertising assignment. I’m listing Canon lenses since I primarily shoot with 5D Mark II’s when it comes to my DSLR choice, but each lens listed should have an equivalent for other brand name DSLR producers.
Variable Zoom Lenses
1. 24-70mm f/2.8L USM Zoom Lens
This is my favorite lenses. it’s fast and versatile, it allows for quick shooting and it’s razor sharp. I can use this lens while shooting a portrait and pull out wider with it to include the environment when on location.
2. 70-200mm f/2.8L Zoom Lens
This lens creates a beautiful bokeh (blur) at f2.8, 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 on the subject without disrupting the moment you are trying to capture.
3. 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM Ultra Wide Angle Zoom Lens
Sometimes the 24-70mm lens just isn’t wide enough to capture everything you want. The ultra wide angle helps you capture your surroundings, such as in reportage on the street or in tight spaces.
Prime Lenses
4. 50mm f1.2 L USM Prime Lens
This is another one of my favorite lenses. It can save the day when the light starts to drop and allow you to bring out the backgrounds. It also, makes you less reliant on your flash, creating a softer, more natural look for your subjects. The 50mm also allows you to create stunning portraits, as the low aperture creates the shallow depth of field that makes your subject pop off the page and softens your subject’s skin.
5. 85mm f1.2L II USM Prime Lens
This is a great lens, but not a necessity if you’re happy with the results from your 70-200mm. The nice thing is it is the perfect portrait lens and carries a fraction of the weight of the aforementioned variable zoom.
6. 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM Lens for Canon SLR Cameras
If your shooting beauty and are not able to back up enough to gain the compression you would with a 200mm here is the solution. With the 100mm Macro, you can capture detailed shots with the same quality and detail as product advertisements in magazines. because t is a macro lens, it is a bit flatter, thus giving you the feel of the 200mm compression. In addition, if you want to come in tight for a detail shot such as the lips or an eye, this is your baby.
What are your favorite lenses?
9 Comments
My favorit lenses , 85mm and the 24 70mm i can do any thing with them
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Hi Jerry,
The Canon 70-200 f2.8L is my favorite lens and I also use the 50 f1.2L in the lower lights…..love the blogs!!!
Larry White
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Excellent article. I agree on the 70-200mm. I do find myself using that at 85mm quite often.
One of my favorite lenses, you did not mention, is the 135mm prime. A gorgeous lens!
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Jerry Avenaim Reply:
December 19th, 2009 at 6:54 pm
Mark I have to agree with you, it’s just not ‘in my bag baby’. Although I’m very much on the fence with putting it in there. It is a deadly lens, and it’s perfect for portrait and beauty shoots! I appreciate the input!
Keep shooting my friend!
Jerry Avenaim
[Reply]
Great post – not just from the perspective of actually knowing what glass you prefer, but also hearing the reason why each one gets its place on your preferred list. I have a total of 4 lenses, which includes the 24-70, the 70-200 for the zooms, & the 85 1.8 & the 50 1.8 making up the primes. While the 24-70 and 70-200 are smashing pieces of glass, I love the 85 & 50 for their sharpness and low light capabilities when shooting bands live on stage. While I don’t use it the most, my favorite lens is the 50 1.8, but because it produces delicious results while being the cheapest Canon lens out there. In my opinion, for $70, this lens has definitely earned the title of ‘deadly’.
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Great article.
By the way, is there a L-lens for that macro you mentioned?
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Jerry Avenaim Reply:
December 20th, 2009 at 8:24 am
Thank you and yes there is. It is a fairly new and expensive model. The Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L IS USM is over $1,000 on Amazon. it does feature image stabilization which is a fantastic feature when shooting in available light!
[Reply]
Good post Jerry. I never really liked the form factor of the Canon 85 f1.2, and I’m a bit old school and don’t always care about autofocus, so I bought, and am VERY happy with the Zeiss 85mm 1.4 manual focus lens with Canon mount. I LOVE the contrast, color and sharpness I get with the lens. The 50mm 1.2 — total crush object for me right now. On my short list along with the 100 macro.
Jeff Berlin
[Reply]
Jerry Avenaim Reply:
December 20th, 2009 at 1:05 pm
If my eys were that good, and I didn’t move around as fast as I do, the Zeiss lenses would be me top choices bar none. I’m still toying with the idea of the Zeiss 85mm prime… Thanks for your input Jeff!
[Reply]
the 24-70 2.8 is the one I have for all my fashion and glamour photoshootings.
I like your statement that you can use it to quickly make a wide angle shoot of the complete environment.
I do that a lot when I am photoshooting in order to document the lighting for myself. In between the shots I quickly use the 24mm to photograph the whole setup. Its useful for me when I ever want to remember how I lit up a scene. Great lens! And great post!!
thanks
Luis
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Jerry,
Enjoyed looking at your site and reading your tutorials and this blog. I am an architect and mostly do architectural photography but it was very interesting to find out that I use many of the same lenses (24-70 f2.8, 70-200 f2.8 and 16-35 f2.8) that you have in your list of favorites. I would like do more portraits and thought to get a 50mm. I wonder if you find there is a significant difference between the f1.2 and f1.4? The latter is quite a bit less expensive so I thought of getting that.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
Arpad Ronaszegi
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hello guys,i just decided to buy the canon eos 550d as my first camera to shoot some models friends but I’m very confused about the lenses,what should I buy to start?I’m a beginner and I’d love some suggestion,should I buy only the body and an extra lenses that allows me to shoot most of what is needed as EF28-135mm F/3.5-5.6 IS USM or keep the original 18-55mm and one extra as 70-200mm,please suggest me something.
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