advice needed on lens for Canon EOS 5d Mark II

Hello everyone,

I'm new on this forum and I'm here especially to ask you for advice. In six months I will start with travelling around the globe for five months. In order to document my trip I bought a Canon EOS 5d mark II. However, I don't have a lens yet and I would like to receive some advice on which lens to buy. I'm totally in love with the work by Garance Doré but unfortunately I cannot read the Exif information of the photos. I learned online that Garance also uses a Canon EOS d Mark II, but I could not find any information on the lenses she uses. Does anyone have an idea which lenses could have been used in the following type of photos:

http://www.garancedore​.fr …12/maison-des-reves-5.jpg
http://www.garancedore​.fr …12/maison-des-reves-6.jpg
http://www.garancedore​.fr …2/maison-des-reves-12.jpg
http://www.garancedore​.fr …12/maison-des-reves-9.jpg

Picture Credit: Garance Doré

Thank you so much in advance for any advice given. I'm very much looking forward to buying a nice lens so that I can start with following photography classes so that I can prepare well for my trip.


Best regards,
Rosalie

Welcome to owning a Canon! Just a word of advice, a lot of the pros (and a few of the ameuters) take great offense when you directly post photos that aren't your own work unless you give full credit or even better just a link to the photo. It's a copyright thing.

I think a better way to approach your lens question is to get an idea of your budget and what types of scenarios and types of pictures you want to capture on your trip because there are a great variety of lenses that could have captured those images, it depends in part on where the photographer was in relation to the subject and the exposure settings.

Welcome to POTN Rosealie. Googling Garance Dore lenses produced this "So he gave her his backup camera: a professional-grade Canon EOS 5D with a 50mm f1.4 lens Ms. Doré was both touched and skeptical. “It’s either the most beautiful moment of my life,” she recalled, “or it’s just stupid, and he’s really trying to seduce me.” There are lots of other articles about her, I agree with you - she does take beautiful images - you might find more by trying Google and poking around in the many articles about her work. Or...you could try send her a message and asking.

Thank you for your reply Keyan.
I'm sorry I did not knew. I can edit my post and just link to the photos instead. I just wanted to show the beauty of the photos and the effects that I would like to achieve.

I would like to shoot my holiday locations (hotels), landscape pictures, but also portraits. I know that this is quite diverse so I might need several lenses. I was just wondering whether anyone had an idea which types of lenses were used to shoot the type of pictures that garance does, since they look very dreamy and beautiful.

If you want a single lens to take on your trip, the 24-105L is a great option. Add a 50/1.4 for low light and portraits...
If you are ready to take more lenses with you, there are many options...

rick_reno wrote in post #14748662
Welcome to POTN Rosealie. Googling Garance Dore lenses produced this "So he gave her his backup camera: a professional-grade Canon EOS 5D with a 50mm f1.4 lens Ms. Doré was both touched and skeptical. “It’s either the most beautiful moment of my life,” she recalled, “or it’s just stupid, and he’s really trying to seduce me.” There are lots of other articles about her, I agree with you - she does take beautiful images - you might find more by trying Google and poking around in the many articles about her work. Or...you could try send her a message and asking.

Thank you for your reply and the useful information, Rick. I also read that many streetstyle photographers use a 50mm f/1.4 lens. I was wondering though, whether this lens can also create such wonderful landscape pictures?

sebr wrote in post #14748667
If you want a single lens to take on your trip, the 24-105L is a great option. Add a 50/1.4 for low light and portraits...
If you are ready to take more lenses with you, there are many options...

Thank you for your help. I don't have a huge budget given that I'm also saving up as much as possible for the trip itself so I was actually looking into buying one or two lenses.
I will read more about the 24-105L in combination with the 50mm f/1.4 lens.

rick_reno wrote in post #14748662
Welcome to POTN Rosealie. Googling Garance Dore lenses produced this "So he gave her his backup camera: a professional-grade Canon EOS 5D with a 50mm f1.4 lens Ms. Doré was both touched and skeptical. “It’s either the most beautiful moment of my life,” she recalled, “or it’s just stupid, and he’s really trying to seduce me.” There are lots of other articles about her, I agree with you - she does take beautiful images - you might find more by trying Google and poking around in the many articles about her work. Or...you could try send her a message and asking.

.. and indeed I will do more research and I can always send her a message. I think that she gets a lot of daily fanmail though. But it doesn't hurt to try.

Its a little early for me so if I have gotten the wrong impression I apologize. I am getting from your post that you have the notion if you buy the same lenses as she you will achieve the same results.

Each photographer has their own style and skill set, therefore results will be varied.

I own the same equipment as some very talented photographers on this site, but my photos pale in comparison.

As far as lenses, choose whats good for you. I think a 24-105 would be a good traveling lens as I own a 5DII also, and find the lens very versatile. It covers a good range and has image stabilization which will help you quite a bit. But don't take my word for it . Rent some lenses before your trip and see what suits you.

Welcome to the forum and I hope your trip is memorable.

madjack wrote in post #14748709
Its a little early for me so if I have gotten the wrong impression I apologize. I am getting from your post that you have the notion if you buy the same lenses as she you will achieve the same results.

Each photographer has their own style and skill set, therefore results will be varied.

I own the same equipment as some very talented photographers on this site, but my photos pale in comparison.

As far as lenses, choose whats good for you. I think a 24-105 would be a good traveling lens as I own a 5DII also, and find the lens very versatile. It covers a good range and has image stabilization which will help you quite a bit. But don't take my word for it . Rent some lenses before your trip and see what suits you.

Welcome to the forum and I hope your trip is memorable.

I get your point and it was not my intention to imply that buying the same lenses would give the same results. Since I just started reading more about photography and orientating on which lenses to buy it is very helpful to look at other photographers to see what kind of lenses they are using and what kind of photos they are able to shoot with them. I therefore was just very curious to see whether anyone had an idea what kind of lens could be used to create such landscape pictures as the ones on Garance´s blog. But of course it´s a long way to go to come even close to the photos she creates.

Hi Rosalie,

Welcome to the forum!

I agree with all of the advices from the previous posts.
Here is mine:

Option 1:
EF 28-135mm and 50mm f/1.8 - Lighter and cost less
Option 2:
EF 24-105mm and 50mm f/1.4
- Heavier and cost more - Better build for harsher environment

Have a great trip!

P.S. Regarding your statement, "I therefore was just very curious to see whether anyone had an idea what kind of lens could be used to create such landscape pictures as the ones on Garance´s blog", my comment is: It is not the lenses, but it is you who create the wonderful pictures. I am sure with your point-of-view, your landscape pictures will tell the story of the world as beautiful as Garance's

Having read Rick_Reno's post and looked at the photos I could well believe they were all taken with a 50mm lens on a 5DII.

Madweasel wrote in post #14748783
Having read Rick_Reno's post and looked at the photos I could well believe they were all taken with a 50mm lens on a 5DII.

Thank you for your help. Considering the advice given in this thread, I think the 50mm f/1.4 would be a good lens to buy.

blueskyoveraquatic wrote in post #14748777
Hi Rosalie,

Welcome to the forum!

I agree with all of the advices from the previous posts.
Here is mine:

Option 1:
EF 28-135mm and 50mm f/1.8 - Lighter and cost less
Option 2:
EF 24-105mm and 50mm f/1.4
- Heavier and cost more - Better build for harsher environment

Have a great trip!

P.S. Regarding your statement, "I therefore was just very curious to see whether anyone had an idea what kind of lens could be used to create such landscape pictures as the ones on Garance´s blog", my comment is: It is not the lenses, but it is you who create the wonderful pictures. I am sure with your point-of-view, your landscape pictures will tell the story of the world as beautiful as Garance's

Thank you very much for your help. I appreciate the options you gave me and I will definitely look into them. And thank you for your beautiful comment, that is indeed how I should see it. I should remember that it is not about the lens but about me who will capture all the memories of my trip!

It is easy to get caught up in equipment (guilty!) and forget about actually just taking good photos.

I agree with the others that the 24-105 would be a good all purpose lens, and the 50 1.4 would serve as a low light and specialty lens.

How well do you understand how aperture, shutter speed, and ISO affect the image your camera will capture?