Lens Kit question, did I make a bad choice?

ShaneB

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First I want to apologize if this is the wrong area to post, however I have been waiting almost a week debating if I should post or not and well here it is.

I am on a tight budget and cannot afford a huge camera, I did however last year get a Canon T3 which came with the EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS II SLR Lens.

Now about 3,000 pictures later and ( I shot on a Fuji Fin Pix and a small Panasonic compact camera before this and have 14,000 shots in two years, I know not a lot but I did learn a lot moving into the canon). Did I screw up on ordering the below mentioned lenses for my camera bag? I cant afford a 24-70mm or 24-105mm type lens yet.

But I shoot close and personal Glamour style shots, mainly portraits not much full body or outdoors. Well some out doors and for my budget I ordered the
Canon EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 III USM Telephoto Zoom Lens and the
Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II Camera Lens.
This backed with my 18-55mm did I make a bad call on my lens choice or will this hold me over until I can afford a higher budget Lens?

Any advise would help.
 
170 views and not a reply seems kinda like I either asked the format wrong or no one knows if this set up would work professionally until I could get a more better lens set up.. Guess I will go look someplace else for answers, thank you all who viewed this question.
 
Part of the problem may be that you posted in the wrong forum, so I have moved it for you.

The Canon 50 mm f/1.8 II is cheap because it has the lowest build quality of just about any other Canon lens. The lens does have some pretty good optics.
The Canon 50 mm f/1.8 II only has 5, straight, sharp edged aperture blades, so it delivers a very nervous, jittery appearing bokeh quality that looks way short of professional.

When dropped the Canon 50 mm f/1.8 II very often breaks into 2 large, irreparable pieces.
There are lots of photos online like these -
http://www.petapixel.com/assets/uploads/2011/11/broken1_mini.jpg
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3122/2315711126_b382a0477b_z.jpg?zz=1

I am not familiar with the other lens.
 
Welcome aboard Shane.

Don't sweat it too much. You've chosen some very common lenses, a lot of other people have gone the same route. They are on the low end of the quality scale, so it really depends on your usage and your expectations.

In your second post you mention using them professionally, and that's a whole different ball game. Sure, you could use them (professional photos are more about the photographer, than the gear) but good professionals also know the benefits of good quality lenses.

If these are for ongoing professional use, then I'd say it's a bad investment because you'll end up replacing them sooner rather than later. But you need to understand that professional quality photo gear isn't cheap.
 
Just to add sometimes weekends can be a slower period of replies - people are often out doing various things and the time is a bit more random so often threads get less views and attention at the weekends (its also a slow time for photo comments too!)


As for your specific question Mike and KmH have already given you good answers with regard to the quality and the overall approach. Another few things that you might want to consider:

1) Glamour and portraits are going to very strongly rely upon your lighting. How you light the shot and what control you have over the lighting is going to be key in different bad from good photos - even if you have top of the line lenses and cameras you will need the lighting done right otherwise they'll just be really sharp snapshots/mugshots. It's an area where as you save your money you would do well to look at flash units, studio strobs, diffusers and other technicalities and might well want to invest in them before upgrading your camera body or lenses further.

2) Remember that you can rent many professional grade items from rental houses; this is great if you need them to cover a professional shoot (provided of course that you've the skill to use them to their best potential) however it will eat into any savings you have. Short term you could factor it into whatever fee you charge for your professional work whilst also ensuring that you charge enough to save up to afford the higher end gear.
Note if you're renting any new to you gear always hire it a day or two before you need it so that you've time to use and see how it works before you put it into use on the day

3) If you are aiming to be a professional you need the tools, if you can't save for them you could consider putting together a business proposal and approaching a bank or similar finance body to get a business loan to help you with the startup costs. Yes this will cost you more in the long term, but it could give you the financial capital to allow you to start with the right gear and set the right level of quality for your professional work rather than risk your reputation with clients and the market before you've even really got off the ground.




Of course this all looks at the hardware side and assumes you've the technical skills to control lighting and camera correctly as well as the subject and any additional items such as makeup. On that score we can't say if you have or don't have that (we don't know enough about you or your experiences) but its an area where many here can pitch in to help and give advice on resources that you can look into to help further understanding.
 
Def don't sweat it, shoot with what you've got, and what you can afford until you can upgrade.

The equipment certainly helps, but I've seen many photos taken with stuff that would be laughed at by camera snobs, but the photos are amazing. The end result is what matters, and if you can learn to utilize the equipment you have, you might be surprised by the results...
also, if you're tight on cash, look into buying equipment used, just be careful about who/what you buy!

ps, x2 on renting stuff first! It's a great opportunity to see what fits your style best.
 
Those are all decent lenses. Especially the 50mm f/1.8. That lens is probably the best bang for the buck on the market. The lenses you have ordered are pretty much the standard lenses that almost everyone goes through in the beginning, and they'll work just fine for a long time. At least you're adding more glass to your bag instead of already trying to upgrade cameras ;)
 

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