your go too lens for family photos?

honestly usually my cell phone, which is now the iphone8 plus. if I'm using DSLR I use whatever lens fits.

I like the 50-200 the most, but for small room work the 18-55 DX glass is doing well.

Andrew

Easy Choice the EF 24-70 f/2.8 II, it is so versatile and sharp that I found I no longer needed my 24L and 50L.

PCousins wrote in post #18499505
Easy Choice the EF 24-70 f/2.8 II, it is so versatile and sharp that I found I no longer needed my 24L and 50L.

I have one and would agree - but with my extended family 800mm is better

johnf3f wrote in post #18500759
I have one and would agree - but with my extended family 800mm is better

Might want to try and hunt down one of the 1200/5.6s...

I've shot this entire family season with 35mm L II on one body and 85mm 1.8 on my waist. The 1.8 is a joy because of the weight and once you hit f2.2, so sharp! So good for those candids when you let the kids run around. And even doing half-body, group shots @ 85mm f4, the compression is gorgeous.

johnf3f wrote in post #18482642
My Canon 800 F5.6 L IS - you haven't met my extended family!

I've always wanted to handle/fondle one of these beasties.

Pity you don't live nearer South Wales - you would be welcome to have a play with it!

Naturally I am careful with expensive gear but I am far from precious about it. Very often I see other Canon users struggling with lenses that are too short for Kingfishers and the like - so I make sure that they can get the opportunity to get the shots they want when I can.

When I was starting out a lot of people helped me so I am just returning the favour!

johnf3f wrote in post #18502235
Pity you don't live nearer South Wales - you would be welcome to have a play with it!

Naturally I am careful with expensive gear but I am far from precious about it. Very often I see other Canon users struggling with lenses that are too short for Kingfishers and the like - so I make sure that they can get the opportunity to get the shots they want when I can.

When I was starting out a lot of people helped me so I am just returning the favour!

You deserve some kind of cosmic karma sir. ::thumbsup::

Very best,

MalVeauX wrote in post #18502244
You deserve some kind of cosmic karma sir. ::thumbsup::

Very best,

Not at all - but thank you anyway.

It is just very rewarding to see how happy other photographers are when they try the 800. Perhaps I am secretly trying to bankrupt them?

johnf3f wrote in post #18502249
Not at all - but thank you anyway.

It is just very rewarding to see how happy other photographers are when they try the 800. Perhaps I am secretly trying to bankrupt them?

I know what you mean, the realty of a $13,000 USD lens just sets in real hard, but it's still very gracious of you to share and allows others to take it for a spin. Very few would ever trust people they don't know with anything, let alone a lens, that is even remotely expensive. So karma to you.

Very best,

Sigma 18-35mm f/1,8.

aiming for a 50mm f/1,2L for family portraits soon

currently reading up advice/experience for the 50mm f/1,2L

Since the arrest I absolutely love my 100-400mm with 2x extender. Allows me wonderful candids of the kids from the car window.

Thanks everybody for the comments. I'd highly appreciate any advice you could give on aperture and group family photos. If it just 4 people or large groups of 5+. Just trying to understand aperture in these situations where you can keep everybody sharp in focus. Happy Thanksgiving!

James Crockett wrote in post #18502578
Thanks everybody for the comments. I'd highly appreciate any advice you could give on aperture and group family photos. If it just 4 people or large groups of 5+. Just trying to understand aperture in these situations where you can keep everybody sharp in focus. Happy Thanksgiving!

No need to guess. It's a good idea to simply know a few approximations for the focal lengths and focal-ratios you use the most. You will then know them intuitively. But to start out, to give yourself a ballpark, you can plug in some numbers and calculate some safe approximations so that you have a good starting point:

http://www.dofmaster.c​om/dofjs.html

Pick a focal length, sensor size, focal-ratio and approximate subject distance and take a look at total depth of field, this will give you an idea of what focal-ratio you may need as a starting point for a group of people. 3~4 feet should be enough for a small group of people, one row deep. But, you may want a little more DOF just to be safe, for example.

For groups, I will stop down a little more than a single because I'm willing to give up a little DOF/light/etc to ensure they're all in focus (can't fix blur in post!). Sometimes I risk it, wide open if I want, because I have them all on the same plane (stacking/rows I would stop down of course, significantly).

Things to keep in mind, the wider the angle of view from a short focal length, the more depth of field you'll have. The longer the focal length with a fast-focal ratio, the thinner depth of field can be. But say you want the look of a shallow depth of field, on a group, how do you do that? That's easier done with a very long lens with a fast focal-ratio (this is where 200mm F2.8's and the like come into play, and some even use longer, like 300mm's; too much working distance for my taste though).

++++++++++++

That said, I commonly use 35mm & 85mm on full frame (and equivalents) that are fast. With the 35mm, I will shoot at F2 (single or one plane group) or F2.8, full body (1 row stacked group). With the 85mm, I will shoot F1.4~F2 (single or one plane group) or F3.5~F4 full body (1 row stacked group). If I was dealing with 3 rows of stacked groups, I'd stop down more, and I'd probably use a wider lens in general and at that point be more concerned with lighting, shadows on faces, squinty eyes, etc, than depth of field.

To give you an idea of how you can have F2 on two different lenses that are both essentially 35mm FOV, two different sensor sizes, and different distances to subject, and how DOF can be really different:

Example (natural light), here's an APS-C with a 35mm equivalent FOV (23mm on APS-C) lens at F2 (which on an APS-C sensor is a lot more like F2.8 in terms of the DOF due to proximity to subject changes), at F2, three deep, I only needed 3 feet of DOF to keep them sharp. But as you can see, there's actually a ton of DOF here, even at F2, because I'm using a wide angle lens and I'm at full body with plenty of room to spare to get the environment, so I probably have more like 5 feet total DOF in sharp focus here before it rolls off softly to the background.

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/21uN​qY5

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/21sD​ZXW