A Primer on Lenses
Lenses are every photographer’s favorite subject to discuss--we get pretty passionate about lenses, and everyone has an opinion. This post is going to focus on prime versus zoom lenses, and what type of glass creates that really special look that we are able to achieve as professional photographers.
First of all, what effect does the quality of glass in a lens have on a photograph? The answer is sharpness and bokeh. Prime lenses are known for their high quality glass, which renders crisp, clear images of the subject while leaving the background and foreground beautifully blurred or out-of-focus. In most cases, prime lenses have a larger maximum aperture than zoom lenses, which allows them to capture more light. Sometimes wedding venues have low levels of light, so a prime lens is ideal.
Lens quality affects the look and feel of the background and foreground portions in the photograph as well. The aesthetic quality of the out-of-focus section in a photograph is called bokeh. A high quality prime lens can create beautiful bokeh by capturing more light and giving the background and foreground areas in a photograph a soft, romantic glow. Poorer quality lens glass can result in distracting background blur in a photograph, rather than enhancing it.
Some of the sharpness and bokeh that a prime lens offers is sacrificed with a zoom lens in order to allow for the convenience of being able to adjust focal length quickly. Zoom lenses contain many moving parts to allow for this adjustment, so the quality of the image is always compromised. Prime lenses are designed to capture the highest quality image from one specific focal length, so they are much more specialized. Here at the studio, we use prime lenses for the vast majority of occasions (we do usually have one or two zoom lenses at the ready just in case as well). This means that we sometimes have to carry several different prime lenses of varying lengths with us, but it is worth the extra weight because we want to be able to capture those special shots.
As I mentioned earlier, lenses are every photographer’s favorite subject. If you are a photographer or aspiring to be one, let’s hear from you--what type of lenses do you prefer and why?