85mm for Weddings? Here's What Nobody Tells You
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 ก.พ. 2025
- Martin Castein Wedding Photography Tutorials is dedicated to teaching wedding photography on youtube.
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Excellent video. I almost ALWAYS have one of my camera rigs set up with a 85mm. The other camera, depending on the venue, space etc, is usually a combination of my 70-200, or a 24-70, or a 35mm or 50mm prime (All being used at different points within the wedding, reception, formal photos etc.) Your advice about making sure you're adding "Context" and showing the surrounding scenes and not just blowing out every image with a f/1.4 with those buttery soft fall offs that we all love. Shooting couples together at f/2.2 is my "Go To" as well.
It'll be interesting to compare 85 and 105
Your advice has given me the confidence to use an 85 for photographing my grandchildren when they are out and about and I really like the results for all the reasons you give. Thank you for the advice!
thats great to see, well done
Love my 85mm. My favourite lens for portrait photography.
Incidently, by explaining this lens focal length for weddings, you also explained why this could be a very nice lens to take on holiday for the family and street shots while still showing surroundings. I don't shoot weddings, but do travel a fair bit, and all these videos are very nice, because a lot of it also translates into these other genres. Thanks for that!
Although my wedding combo kit was fast 35/85 f1.4 kit for 10 years I would not recommend to any newcommer in wedding photography to focus mainly on this 85mm focal length. The 85mm is pretty tight field of view and can be very limited in narrow space, indoor etc. For begginer I would recommend to study and realize relation between working distance and perspective! You can get enviroment with subject around in context even with tele focal lens like 85mm but the problem is that you are gonna be too far from the subject -> starting to look like safari. This is the main reason to consider 28-50mm focal range. From 24mm you are getting perspective distortion, which is also not optimal. Find your own style is part of the journey. Wish good light and happy shooting.
I agree completely I think the 28-75 2.8 lenses are ideal for weddings especially beginners and it’s what I recommend to people starting or just anyone anyway. Primes are good too but takes experience for being in the right place and really knowing where to be.
Thank you for the helpful video!
Suggested topics for further videos:
Wedding photography under difficult lighting conditions (for example, at midday under a gaping arbor or in rooms with high and/or dark ceilings).
Preparations for a wedding (for example: checking equipment, charging batteries, additional equipment such as tripods, light shapers, etc., packing list, ...).
When to use the flash and when not to.
Flash bouncing at weddings.
Beautiful couple photos with natural light.
How to take beautiful backlit photos.
Mastering mixed light.
...
I started shooting with a 45mm and 85mm on a crop sensor. It taught me to stand back. Where I live there’s a lot of open space. Stepping back with an 85 on full frame you can get beautifully compressed environmental portraits, you just may need an assistant to do the communication with the client. 😃
I’m a Nikon d850 dslr shooter and I have used the 85 f1.8G very often. But once I got the 85 f1.4G I realized the improvement in the image quality, the look, the color. There are reasons for f1.4 lenses for weddings.
Excellent topic and very well explained
Indirectly, you give a wonderful explanation of why I love the look of the 45mm 1.2 on Micro Four Thirds so much. It just hits that sweet spot. Thanks again for a very thoughtful video that is about photography, not just gear!
I dont shoot weddings, but my favorite lens it is a Canon EF 85mm 1.8. and I use 5.6 most of the time.
Posing tips for couples please!
Thank you for your video. I have a 25 year old 85/f1.4 and I really like it very much. Recently I have tried extending its usage beyond "portrait".
Thanks Martin very helpful. That engagement shoot looks like my local park in Hampstead. So u have left the perfect amount of context in guess. Love 85mm focal
You're right, and I been observing this too.
Many people too obsessed with shallow dof and technicalities, but forgot that the client also paid for venues.
And now I use a tad smaller aperture for portraits so the background is visible but nicely made to just "background"
Thank you for great advice. 100% agree about context and environment. People abusing shallow depth of field too much.
Perfect analysis - thank you for this valuable video.
Best regards from Hamburg
Stefan
Yes.. I’ve been drawn to the 85mm . Looks really good. Ordered the viltrox for my Fuji.
I love your explanations, Martin! I just randomly choose between f/2 and f/2.8 haha so will be more deliberate and try f/2.2 to see how that goes!
Martin, at my level of experience (shooting for hobby at about 5 years), your words along with your examples, really provide excellent insight and instruction. I have heard this before, and figured much of this out on my own with my lenses (i.e. the used 200mm f2 or the used 105mm f1.4) - that is that context - many times - matters, and that adequate separation from the background doesn't have to include always shooting wide open (i.e. what's the use of shooting it at that location if you can't tell where it is?). Now, I'm my examples are not weddings, but the most common thing I heard from many on social media were (talking about the 200mm f2) - "If you don't shoot that lens wide open (all the time), why did you buy it?". I'm not sure if "they" ever stopped the lens down, but I learned - because I stopped the lens down to f7.1 to gain context of the environment - realized that the 200mm still provided significant benefit over my 70-200mm zoom - in that the transition zones of the out of focus elements were smooth. Point (as you say) really is, don't always think you have to blow the background out to indistinguishable mush, just because you can, but learn your lens characteristics, and how you can use it to best tell the story. As always, you're an excellent educator for those that listen. Thank You.
thank you buddy. yeah there is more to a lens than its wide open performance and you have to make judgements about what looks best there is a difference from what manufacturers sell you and what is correct. Just like the entire sharpness thing, sell the easiest measurable metric and make people repeat it.
"what you said!" ;-)
Hi Martin, thanks for your great videos and advice! I am using the RF 85 f/2 as a portrait lens, and find it has problems with fringing on high contrast borders and in spectral highlights. It's enough of a problem that I plan to relegate that lens to half-macro floral duty only, as soon as Canon offers an 85 1.4 that's better corrected for CA. Since they have come out with the 24, 35, and 50 1.4's in such short time, I have a gut feeling that an 85 1.4 could reasonably be right around the corner. So I am going to await that, rather than jumping into another old EF lens (Sigma 85 1.4).
I'd love to know what the essential moments are in a wedding to capture, what lens you use on each, and what is the workflow like.
Great perspective in this video. I'm guilty of completely negating the background on favour of a close up on the people so this video spoke to me 😂
I shot a beautiful wedding with a 85mm, one of my favorite wedding's Nikon D3 and 85mm F1.4 world class photos
I agree, I shot a wedding two weeks ago, and 90% of the pictures took were with Sigma 85mm f1.4,,,,
This makes sense! Thanks
Thank you!
This was very informative Martin. I'll be shooting my first wedding soon and will be sure to keep your advice in mind when using my 85 f1.8. The wedding reception will be held in a large very dim aviation museum and I'm wondering if I can get away with using off camera flash with no softbox in order to stay mobile. I will have an assistant so that should help. Thanks for your advice.
Hi, Martin. It's an interesting video, I use a Nikon f1.4 85. G lens and a Nikon 1.4 35 G lens I also use a Nikon 24mm - 85mm 3.5 - 4.5 for good DOF.
Excellent video ⭐️
Many thanks
I use and love my 85mm f 1.4 for my portrait photography. It's pretty much my go to on location as well as in the studio. I still shoot with dsl-r Nikon d850, but would love a Z 8 or a Z 9.
Thanks, you barsteward. Just ordered an 85mm f/1.8mm.
Shooting theatre, I’ve gravitated towards the 85mm to Prime actors face and the 35mm for the secondary actors reactions and CONTEXT in the OTS (Over The Shoulder) shots - once for the prime age a second take for the secondary with the 85mm to give me a good mix to work with in post. Of course, I’m speaking more of video but the same composition challenges.
(And I use the 1.2/1.4 because the cameras are rigged out on tripods)
A very helpful and generous video. Thank you. I really enjoy wedding photography and can produce good results, albeit in a second shooter capacity. However, when the darkness falls and the first dance is about to start, my fear of the flash cuts in, and the success of the next half an hour sometimes feels determined more by luck than judgement. Anything you can say to help my flash photography would be well received.
A few people messaged me saying similar about flash i will make a video of this but need to think how to explain it well.
Conquer your fear by consistently practicing using flash. Unless you practice the knowledge you gain from videos, books etc you'll always fear using flash ultimately avoiding it all together.
Thank you@@martincasteinweddings
85mm F1.8 is great. I also like my 90mm F2.8 Macro....
Do you think 85mm is better than 50mm for portraits?
I am shooting my first wedding for a friend in June. My main concern is getting focus when there is more than two people. It would be great if you made a video on where to focus and any other tips that would help . I will be using daylight and off camera flash.
ok noted, just out of interest how do you see off camera flash being used during the wedding, like at what parts of the day?
@ Will have flash to hand for outdoors if needed also a reflector. I will anticipating I will need it for indoors in the day and evening .
I plan to visit the venue before the wedding to get some ideas for places to shoot also back ups if weather is not great on the day, as in the UK anything can happen.
you just have to be careful with flash indoors if off camera as you can end up missing moments if you need to move and then the light is in the wrong place and moving it and setting it up can be a real pain. I will try to make a video about this kind of thing soon anyway as a few are asking for this. Flash at weddings seems to raise a lot of questions which is understandable.
@ I was thinking of off camera for just portraits indoors but for walking around catching moments I was thinking of something like Magmod sphere either on camera or bouncing light from on camera flash either off something appropriate if white surfaces or a Magmod bound on my flash
I always shot weddings on the holly trinity of lenses. Canon 16-35, 24-70,70-200 L 2.8’s. Just started getting primes. If you like the length of the 85 why not the 100 f2 macro so that you could get the same portraits you would get with the 85 plus be able to get the detail shots and ring shots with the same lens.
Interesting… I was wondering how you see the 85mm comes into play for the ceremony itself. I recently shot a fairly large wedding. The ceremony ran 45 minutes, so that I was able to change from a 35mm to 85mm to 180mm (primes on D850 and Z7ii). The 35mm (on Z7ii) was useful to show more context and for the bride and groom’s exit (recessional). the 180mm was perfect (on D850) for the first kiss and other moments without me having to move too close. With the 85mm, I felt I had to move up closer to find a balance between context and yet showing the faces clearly enough. My wife was also photographing using 70-200mm, so we covered the ceremony together. But I came away wondering if the 85mm was the right tool during the ceremony. Since she prefers zooms and primes are my preference, it made me think 105mm or 135mm might be more flexible in moderately sized venues with 150-200 folks attending. Anyway, interesting and helpful video!
I would use the 55mm f/1.8 on my 35mm film camera if I could only choose 1 prime lens to photograph a complete wedding. That lens is slightly tighter than the 50, but is more flexible than the 85. It will also enable me to add quite some context ( not too much though ) to the images. Just a thought.
Great video Martin.. as a predominantly wildlife photographer who has been roped into photographing a wedding, any help is welcome.. an insight into using the 35mm at a wedding would be great.. A lot of wedding tutorials are American, the problems we face in the UK are slightly different, any help again would be wildly appreciated I am sure..
I live for these videos about the 85mm bc it's the only lens i I currently own 😅.
well its a great lens to own!
Weddings with multiple primes? Love my photographer’s vest with its deep pockets in the studio. Could I wear it to a wedding or bar/bat mitzah to carry my primes?
It depends how fast you can change lenses with it if the pockets are deep. I use a shoulder bag and I don’t use lens caps so I can change lens in about 2-3 seconds any slower and you miss stuff but deemed on your entire setup
Thank you for the video. Isn’t more difficult to take sharper photos with longer focal lengths?
You may need to increase your shutter speed in order to reduce camera shake or subject movement.
Hello Martin. This "full aperture" trend has the dramatic effect of taking away from photographers a whole part of knowledge, such as that which you share with us in this video.
How many current photographers are able to understand what happens when you close/open the diaphragm and/or when you get closer and move away from the subject?
The only thought "why buy a lens at ƒ/1.2 if you're not going to use it all the time" gives a very good idea of the incredible level of ignorance and lack of understanding of how a lens works in which these "photographers" lock themselves.
Working all the time at full aperture does not require ANY knowledge of photography. We could put a piece of gaffer tape on the aperture ring, there would be no difference. Dosing the distance and aperture relative to the result we want to obtain requires a good knowledge of photography.
This "all the time wide open" mania actively contributes to the degradation of the general level of photographers, and to the trivialization of the images that we see on networks in particular.
In B2B (photos for magazines, for brands, for advertising, etc.) you will be refused images "without background". The background has a meaning. And your clients could legitimately ask themselves the question of knowing if you are capable of composing an image with its subject AND its background!
Thank you for this video
1.8 glass is much lighter kit too. Easier to pack and carry.
yeah and thats even more true with the mirrorless systems, for some of them the 1.2 glass can be enourmous. i had this issue with nikon where i could not longer get the system in my largest backpack and needed two backpacks, much larger than my dslr setup which is crazy but as soon as you go to the 1.8 lenses its fine again. try packing a 50mm 1.2 and 85mm 1.2 with 2 bodies then 2.8 zooms, it doesnt work.
What about using a 70-200 2.8. Could you get the same results if zoomed to 85mm?
Sort of, I should make a video about this actually, I just made a note because yes but no sort of. Its a very good question but the answer is too long for a comment. I will make this video very soon.
It's hard to deny how beautiful an 85mm. However, as I've progressed in my career, I began to someone dislike the compression because to me it looks unnatural and 'fake'. I think I brought my RF 85 1.2 out on 3 of ~25 weddings last year. Personal taste though!
Doesn't the 85 give you a bit of space so that you are not annoying everyone by getting under their feet and being constantly in their personal space?
Hi Martin, would a 50mm F1.8 on a Canon R7 APS-C give a similar result because of the 1.6 crop factor? Thank you
yes it would go for it.
@martincasteinweddings Thank you
I have shot a few weddings on the Sony A6000’s with a Sigma 19mm f2.8 and a Sigma 60mm f2.8. Not as fast as the f1.8 glass but the 60mm at f2.8 = 90mm at around f4 the images were lovely.
I would love to see some on camera flash videos relating to weddings. And how you would or wouldn’t light family formal shots when outside.
Thanks Martin.
How about we talk about 135mm primes?