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Photography @lemmy.world HKPiax @lemmy.world

Which lens for low light event + portraits?

Hi everyone, although I like to study the photography topic, I'm really a noob when it comes to practical terms.

I would like to take pictures at a family event which will take place in a garden in the evening/night.

Well, my gear is quite modest, and I know I don't have what I need to take good pictures of both the place and the people there. I'm looking to rent a nice lens to carry around as I take pictures (and enjoy the party too! So I'm just taking one 😅). So I would really appreciate some advice on what to rent.

There are the four lenses I found while digging, two are primes, two are zooms:

  • Canon RF 24MM F/1.8 IS STM: it's fast, with IS, but I'm not sure about portraits with this focal length.

  • Canon EF 24mm f/1.4 L II USM: super fast, no IS, still not sure about portraits with this focal length.

  • Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM: IS, quite fast, zoom lets me take portraits, but I've read it's not very sharp.

  • Canon RF 15-35mm f/2.8 L IS USM: IS, quite fast, zoom lets me take portraits (not strongly as the one above but still).

Here's my situation:

  • I have Canon Eos R10 with the EF adapter.
  • My hands are shaky, so without IS I need to be at least at 1/125...
  • I like to keep ISO really low (<6400) if I can.
  • I kind of pixel peep (I know I don't have the right because I'm crap but I can't resist) so I like to take as sharp pictures as I can.

Which lens would you reccommend? Since I'm renting them I was thinking about going all in with the expensive ones, the cost won't increase much. The primes are so bright I feel comfortable they will be bright enough, but I don't know if I can take good portraits at 24mm. On the other hand, zooms let me do more things, but I don't know if I can handle f/2.8 with my crappy and shaky hands.

Of course, if you can think of other lenses that would be perfect for the job I'm all ears!

Cheers

15
15 comments

  • Thoughts:

    • Take a prime and let your feet do the zooming
    • Go as fast as your budget allows, especially if light will be dim and you want your shutter speed to be high(ish). I've been pleasantly surprised by how low I can keep ISO levels in pretty dark situations with a fast prime. A f/1.4 lens is 2/3 stops ahead of a f/1.8 and a full two stops ahead of a f/2.8 lens. That's either 4x lower ISO, 4x faster shutter, or a smaller mix of both depending on your priorities
    • Depth of field will be something to consider, especially if you're taking photos of more than one person. If you have more than one face in the frame you'll want to make sure they're in the same horizontal plane and that you're perpendicular to it. If you have multiple rows of people you will need to stop down to make sure everyone's faces are sharp. For example, I took photos of my kids on Santa's lap this winter at 50mm and f/4 on my A7III (full frame). I had it focused on one of my kid's faces. Both kid faces were tack sharp, since they were in the same horizontal plane, but poor Santa was a bit soft. On my next go-round I'll either stop down more or work on focusing slightly behind the front row of subjects so everyone will have more equal focus. Granted, this won't be quite as bad on a crop sensor body. I'm guessing my total depth of field was something like 0.38 meters. On a crop body that would increase to a bit over a half meter at 35mm (50mm equivalent) and staying at f/4. All this said, if you have more than 2-3 subjects you're going to have a hard time staying wide open on a fast prime
    • Bring a speedlight and a diffuser if you can. It may be preceived as tacky to use flash these days, but it will solve your camera shake concern and allow you to shoot stopped down for more depth of field. If you're the designated photographer, this is the path I would take
    • With a wide lens, you might be able to get away with a slightly slower shutter speed. I know some folks have pretty bad tremors, but it's worth seeing what you can achieve consistently
    • How much space will you have to move around/how far can you be from your subjects? How many people are you going to try to fit into one photo? I shoot full frame and really enjoy 35mm (your 24mm), but I need to be 3 feet or less from my kids if I want them to fill the frame from their waist up. If you want tight framing on single subjects and/or or have the space to back up a little, it might be worth looking at 50mm equivalent lens (~35mm with a crop sensor). A 35mm equivalent focal length will let you capture more people and/or more of the scenery behind them though

    • I'm finding just now some time to reply. First of all, thank you for your advice!

      I don't think I can bring an external flash with me because I'm a guest too and I'll be going around the place dancing and eating, and I fear it would become too bulky if I also have a big flash on the camera :( I won't be the official photographer, rather the nerdy cousing with a camera so nobody expects much from me, I just really care because I love taking photos. The field is quite large and I can move around freely, and in my mind I'd like to take pictures of the scene from relatively afar or with no specific subject, but also group pictures with 2 or three people and even portraits.

      I totally understand the DoF argument: at f/1.4 I might get a very bright picture of a sharp nose with some blurry eyes! I'll step down a bit in those cases and hope for the best. Correct me if I'm wrong, but when taking "scenery" pictures with no close subject, won't the DoF become larger (I mean, larger area of things in-focus)? So in those case I can be wide open.

      I have a EF-S 24mm f/2.8 which is light and bright, which I could use for the scenery (even though I prefer shorter length for this) but from my experience it's not narrow enough when I want to take pictures of people looking at me; and I have a RF 50mm f/1.8 which is also light and very bright, also super sharp but it's kinda too narrow for portraits and definitely too narrow for scenery. I also have a RF 15-30 f/4.5-6.3 which I white enjoy but It's unusable for me in low light...

      The need for a nice lens to rent is precisely because I am not comfortable in low light in general except for close portraits. I know I'm asking for everything here while also restricting heavily on what I can use, so maybe I'm just dreaming and there is not a setup which fits all my requirements and I'll have to compromise.

  • Advice you are probably already aware of (as IAMALlama has already given excellent technical advice):

    • Whatever you go for, do an experimental run in comparable conditions beforehand. Preferably two or three, especially if the event is important to you. Learn the lens and its quirks, and what post-processing can save.
    • Have you ever tried a monopod to address handshake? Much less in the way than a tripod, yet almost as good.
    • Focal length dictates the best distance at which to take any scene to "Fill the frame" (and v.short can also get a little disorienting). The resulting Depth of Field, which others have mentioned, also has an impact. Think about the sort of photos you are after, and make sure in particular those 24mm lens meet the requirement.
    • Think about backup kit and accessories (batteries, cards, ...).
    • Make sure you also enjoy the event, not just get photos of it!

  • The problem with low f stopped lenses like the 1.4 and 1.8 is the depth of field becomes very shallow. So while you can use a high frame speed like 1/125 to remove blur, you can end up with the wrong part of the face in focus.

    For example the 24mm f 1.4 lens has a depth of field of only 6.7 cm (2.6 inches). That means the eyes can end up blurred if the tip of the nose is in focus. The f 1.8 has a dof of 8.6 cm which can work for most faces but you don't have a margin of error.

15 comments