Lenses for 40D?

I would never "do" a wedding shoot, never, never, never!!

joedlh wrote in post #6259234
Others have addressed the lens issue. Let me address this one: I have been in situations where I have been asked to photograph an event. When I've told people that I don't do formal weddings, they say, "That's okay. We want casual shots." Inevitably there was a particular pose or type of photo that they wanted, which I did not give them. Many clients will not realize it, but wedding pictures cover a lot of territory, not the least of which is "making me look as beautiful as I feel." Photographs also document the event and the attendees. A wedding professional will sit with the client and specifically identify all the shots that they want. It becomes part of the contract.

As somebody who is new to wedding photography, are you familiar with the full range of poses that people like to see? I confess that I'm not.

Put in your shoes, I would tell my friend to get a professional to take the formal shots and I would serve as the second shooter to capture the "moments".

Sorry joe...I should've have refreshed my webpage before adding that last part. I would have noticed that you posted this and there was no need to add it into mine.....good points!! lol

ebann wrote in post #6259284
I might as well throw in another question: Jef suggested ST-E2 and a flash... does that mean to suggest flash off-camera? Any reason why on-camera is not a good idea?

OP suggested that they mostly want to shoot outdoor portraits, thus the off camera suggestion. On camera outdoors means direct, which I won't use for anything other than fill, and then only for snapshots.

There are a few great uses of an off camera diffused flash for outdoor portraits. One is to shoot subjects backlit during the golden hour while exposing for the background. Light them from ~45 degrees using diffused flash and they look great. You can get these nice, contrasty subjects with a dramatic sky (not blown out) behind them. Without flash the subjects would be underexposed, with on camera flash they will be flat.

You can also use the sun low in the sky to backlight a subject in a rim light position, and again light the subjects main with a diffused flash.

Yet another, shoot subjects in the shade midday with a bright sunny background. Unless you are willing to blow out the background you must expose for it and light the subjects with flash. If you do this direct and onboard, the subjects will be very evenly lit and they will appear flat.

Here are two examples. The first is a vacation snapshot. I exposed for the sunset and lit the kids with onboard flash. Note how flat the lighting is. In the second shot I was just playing around with a new lightstand and asked the kids to stop and pose for a second. This isn't a great shot (I love the power lines, personally) but note how much better the light is on the subjects.

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I'm not wanting to play the devil's advocate here, but I have to agree with JeffreyG on a few points. The difference between P&S photography and SLR photography is staggering. In my experience, it's been even more different than night and day.

I owned a P&S Digicam before buying my first DSLR, and while I wasn't born with the photographers eye, it's taken me almost four years of on and off studying photos, reading these message boards, reading books, taking online classes, and more to get a fairly decent handle on the type of photography that I wanted to do.

I think that type could be changing soon, so there's a good chance that I'll be reading heavily on more urban/field-type photography. I honestly thought (like I think a lot of people do, though I'm not saying the original poster does) that buying a DSLR would just instantly make my photos better. I learned the hard way that that isn't the case, and it wasn't a fun lesson to learn.

Just as a friendly forewarning, if this wedding is your first event with a DSLR, you may not end up with the photos you want and probably most definitely different from that captured with a P&S.

My suggestion would be to shadow (for lack of a better word) a few weddings. Watch what the wedding photographer does and ask him if wouldn't mind if you took a few shots yourself. Post a few up here on these message boards in either the sharing section or the critique section, get some pointers, and try again. I'd also suggest buying probably more than a handful of wedding photography books (they are in no short supply) to get as many different angles from as many different wedding photographers as you can.

Back to your original question, it really all depends on how far away you're going to be from your subjects and your budget.

If you're going to be fairly close, and you can spend the cash, the 24-70 f/2.8L is an incredible lens that produces tack sharp images. If that one is a bit too expensive for the time being, I'd suggest (from personal use), the 28-105 f/3.5-4.5. I love that lens. It's a great lens for the price, IMO.

If you don't mind using your feet as the zoom mechanism, the 50 f/1.8 is great and the 80 f/1.8 is also great (both fixed focal length). While I haven't had a lot of time with the lens to test it, I hear the 50 f/1.4 is a bit soft wide open, but it is a nicer lens all around than the 50 f/1.8. You just can't beat the price on the 50 f/1.8 though. Fixed focal length lenses tend to have less elements and element groups than zoom lenses usually producing a better overall image than a zoom lens at the same focal length.

If you're going to have to stand at the back of the venue while the actual wedding is taking place, it's going to be tough to get enough light (even with a flash). For long distance, I'd suggest the 70-200 f/2.8L IS. It's a great lens (though more expensive than the 40D itself) and would work well say in a fairly large church (since the 1.6x crop factor ends up giving you a focal range of 112mm - 320mm at f/2.8 and you still have IS to help out).

Hope that helps

Invest in good glass (L series) bodies come and go but lenses are useful for
a long time. Buy the kit with the 28-135 and start from there.
17-40L would be a good first lense investment.

James Salenger wrote in post #6259844
Invest in good glass (L series) bodies come and go but lenses are useful for
a long time. Buy the kit with the 28-135 and start from there.
17-40L would be a good first lense investment.

The only downside to the 17-40 would be that he couldn't get the 80mm focal length for portraits. While I know portrait photographers have differing opinions on which focal length is better (50mm, 80mm, both or either), the 17-40 only offers 50mm and up to 64mm at its longest focal length (factoring in the 1.6x crop factor). While more expensive than the 17-40, the 24-70 offers both the 50mm and the 80mm focal lengths along with a wider maximum aperture (f/2.8 instead of f/4).

Edit: though if the original poster is going to be doing mainly portrait photography, the combination of the Canon 28mm f/1.8 Prime + the 50mm f/1.4 Prime (44.8mm and 80mm respectively) might be a good alternative and would probably end up costing about as much as the 17-40L and less than the 24-70L along with providing even wider maximum apertures to allow for greater Depth of Field effects if desired.

Thank you to those who provided some nice recommendations.

I already stated the wedding is over a year away, I am taking classes and I already have multiple sessions lined up for practice and I have been shadowing a professional/well known photographer from my area. I also already have someone to be my second photographer. I am not shooting a wedding tomorrow, it's over a year away as previously stated.

I thought forums were meant to give good advice, at least the ones I've been to in the past were. I didn't come here to prove myself and I most certainly didn't just wake up this morning and say "Hey I can totally be a wedding photographer! I'm going to buy a camera and just see what happens!"

I think I'm digging myself a bigger hole. Anyways, thank you again to those who gave some really good recommendations!

No you did not you asked about a lens for a 40D with a description of what you wanted to do with that.
This thread needs to get on that topic and provide answers in a POTN way or it will be closed faster than you can hit the refresh button.

I think JeffreyG's first post was right on the money. He didn't "bash" you for wanting to shoot somebody's wedding for the first time, just gave a bit of advice since you're question/post was pretty loaded. Plus, if you looked at the suggestions, he gave you lots of good info.

You say you want the 40D kit plus 2 other lenses. 40D kit right now is $1300. Add on a 70-200 2.8IS $1600 and 17-55 IS $1000, now you're looking at $4000 right now.

You still don't have:
Lighting
Backup body
low light lens - 50 1.4, 85 1.8, 50 1.2, 50 1.4

It didn't sound to me based on your post that you understood how much it was going to take to get into a good wedding kit.

From what's been suggested, conservatively it's going to cost you anywhere from $5,000 - $8,000.

Also, I think you would be doing a disservice to your clients if you didn't have a backup, and I don't mean point and shoot backup. Stuff happens and it's likely going to happy at the most inopportune time.

What kit is the wedding photographer using that you've been shadowing? What are his/her suggestions for lenses?

I don't think anybody here has meant any offense, we're all trying to help, but just asking for "a couple" lenses so you can shoot weddings and paid engagement/portrait sessions is opening up a huge can of worms.

I don't know why it's any of your business, but the photographer I'm shadowing owns a XTi, 30D, 40D, 5D and one of the marks's...I can't remember which because those are totally and completely out of my range so I didn't bother worrying about it, for now anyway.

I am thankful for JeffreyG's advice, he came off the wrong way (and I guess I did? I thought I was pretty clear in what I was asking) and I'm glad he still gave some good recommendations...and thank you!

Yes I am aware how much this costs...I don't know where you're getting the idea that I said that I only have a budget of $1000 (or whatever amount), what can I get?? I said I'm probably going to get a kit and would like to get some additional lenses that would be good for outdoor portraits, etc. I didn't ask about lighting, back-ups, etc...I was clear, I asked about lenses. It's not that hard.

There is a difference in trying to help and trying to insinuate "issues". I'm sorry I didn't post my entire story but I didn't think it was necessary since all I was asking for were some recommendations based on what I plan to do. Geesh.

One suggestion I have in regards to the practice necessary to become a good wedding photographer is to practice at events similar to weddings where you aren't charging someone a fee.

Church gatherings and lunches, social meetings, reunions, etc. are all good.
I have the ambition to be a good wedding photographer also and while I'm working to get the expensive hardware in place, I'm practicing a lot.

Good luck.

Ashnicole331 wrote in post #6265925
Yes I am aware how much this costs...I don't know where you're getting the idea that I said that I only have a budget of $1000 (or whatever amount), what can I get?? I said I'm probably going to get a kit and would like to get some additional lenses that would be good for outdoor portraits, etc. I didn't ask about lighting, back-ups, etc...I was clear, I asked about lenses. It's not that hard.

There is a difference in trying to help and trying to insinuate "issues". I'm sorry I didn't post my entire story but I didn't think it was necessary since all I was asking for were some recommendations based on what I plan to do. Geesh.

You say you didn't ask about lighting or back-ups, and ONLY lenses, but you did mention multiple times that you want to shoot a wedding and engagements/portraits. People here aren't just trying to spend your money on useless items. Those all help in what you are trying to accomplish, they were suggested on TOP of the lenses.

Doing photography as a hobby and not having a backup is not a big deal. But when you're working with paying clients, and you get an ERR99 and you're only camera stops functioning, then what? I only suggested the backup to save you some possible headaches and grief. Camera issues/errors/malfunct​ions happen. You might be a lucky one and never have an issue, but if people are paying me and I'm wanting to make sure they're happy, I'd feel really bad about cutting short a shoot...or worse, missing out on the walk of the bride, or the presentation of the new couple, because my camera crapped out.

Just my thoughts...

it is just possible that the very helpful bunch here were offering free advice from their many and varied experience to help you cover things that you may not have even considered.

I for one am glad that you are so confident and i wish you well.
my 2 cents is this if you display this type of attitude to your clients it won't matter how talented you are or what gear you have, you won't get any work.

Ashnicole331 wrote in post #6265925
I don't know why it's any of your business, but the photographer I'm shadowing owns a XTi, 30D, 40D, 5D and one of the marks's...I can't remember which because those are totally and completely out of my range so I didn't bother worrying about it, for now anyway.

I am thankful for JeffreyG's advice, he came off the wrong way (and I guess I did? I thought I was pretty clear in what I was asking) and I'm glad he still gave some good recommendations...and thank you!

Yes I am aware how much this costs...I don't know where you're getting the idea that I said that I only have a budget of $1000 (or whatever amount), what can I get?? I said I'm probably going to get a kit and would like to get some additional lenses that would be good for outdoor portraits, etc. I didn't ask about lighting, back-ups, etc...I was clear, I asked about lenses. It's not that hard.

There is a difference in trying to help and trying to insinuate "issues". I'm sorry I didn't post my entire story but I didn't think it was necessary since all I was asking for were some recommendations based on what I plan to do. Geesh.

I don't think anyone here was trying to belittle you or insinuate anything, but were speaking from experience to help you out and give honest advise for what you're going to have to deal with.