Prof canon lens under $1000 for full scene family portraits?

[jemmalee1005]

Hi guys! So glad I found this forum! A few years back I purchased the Canon rebel t4i. I never fiddled with the options on it much and I only use the lens that came with it and a lens I got off my mom's old film canon before the dawning of digital lol. Both lenses are alright but I'm trying to take my hobby pro by doing family sessions, portraits, children, senior portraits, newborns et. I'm very creative and I hope my natural ability to see things differently will take me somewhere lol. Sadly I just spent $250 in newborn props lol. That's really my main interest, newborns and children but I'd also like to do family portraits and weddings sometimes. I prefer outdoors but this winter I'll have a mini studio in my home. Now with this said I'm looking for a better lense and am only just now grasping some of the technical jargon but it's still quite over whelming. I'd like someone to kind of cut thru the gray and give me a simple answer lol. Sooo...I was looking at the Canon ef 70-200 f/2.8 L it's about $2200 ...However that would eat up my entire budget and I'd really have to up my rates ...business is slow as it is so I'd hate to do that...but then again I really like what I've heard about that lense..is it worth putting that kind of money into it? I'd much rather keep my range below $1000 and still get great quality but I have no idea what I'm doing lol! Can someone tell the go to lense under $1000 or would I be better off just throwing all of my savings at the 70-200 2.8? I'm a stay at home mom with my baby attached to my hip and I'd love for this to become my career so I really appreciate the help!

 

[robbins.photo]

Hi guys! So glad I found this forum! A few years back I purchased the Canon rebel t4i. I never fiddled with the options on it much and I only use the lens that came with it and a lens I got off my mom's old film canon before the dawning of digital lol. Both lenses are alright but I'm trying to take my hobby pro by doing family sessions, portraits, children, senior portraits, newborns et. I'm very creative and I hope my natural ability to see things differently will take me somewhere lol. Sadly I just spent $250 in newborn props lol. That's really my main interest, newborns and children but I'd also like to do family portraits and weddings sometimes. I prefer outdoors but this winter I'll have a mini studio in my home. Now with this said I'm looking for a better lense and am only just now grasping some of the technical jargon but it's still quite over whelming. I'd like someone to kind of cut thru the gray and give me a simple answer lol. Sooo...I was looking at the Canon ef 70-200 f/2.8 L it's about $2200 ...However that would eat up my entire budget and I'd really have to up my rates ...business is slow as it is so I'd hate to do that...but then again I really like what I've heard about that lense..is it worth putting that kind of money into it? I'd much rather keep my range below $1000 and still get great quality but I have no idea what I'm doing lol! Can someone tell the go to lense under $1000 or would I be better off just throwing all of my savings at the 70-200 2.8? I'm a stay at home mom with my baby attached to my hip and I'd love for this to become my career so I really appreciate the help!

Greetings Jemma, ok a couple of quick caveats. I don't shoot Canon, so I'm certainly by no means an expert on Canon lenses. Now I can tell you from experience that a 70-200 mm F/2.8 is a great lens, they are very versatile and just have a ton of uses. However particularly on a crop sensor body the 70 mm is going to be tough to shoot with indoors unless your looking at a really, really big room. So really if your looking for portrait work indoors that probably wouldn't be my first choice.

I get a lot of use out of my 50 mm 1.8 AF-S G on my nikon, it makes a great portrait lens and works fairly well indoors, but really for smaller rooms I need something even wider so I'll most likely be looking at adding a 35 mm prime or possibly even a little wider at some point.

If you don't need quite that much aperture maybe a zoom, something in the 17-50 mm range with a constant F/2.8 aperture might be a very good selection as well. Not sure what's available for the Canon but I'm guessing you could probably find something in that category for a lot less than your $1000 budget. It won't give you quite the speed of a prime but it would be more versatile and would give you the wider angle for smaller rooms.

Hope that helps.

 

[KmH]

What is a "full scene family portrait"?

To spend 1/2 as much, you will be giving up some lens quality.

As mentioned how much room you have will determine what focal lengths you can or can't use when you have multiple subjects in the image frame.
The more people there are the further from the group you need to be while also keeping the lens focal length and FoV (field of view) inside the space you have to work in.

For $1000 you can get the professional grade Canon EF 24-70mm f/4.0L IS USM Standard Zoom Lens.

It's f/2,8 pro grade counterpart is $2100 - Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L II USM Standard Zoom Lens

But, if you have your heart set on a 70-200, in your price range is the 3rd party, $1200 - Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8 APO EX DG HSM OS FLD Large Aperture Telephoto Zoom Lens for Canon Digital DSLR Camera

At your budget of $1000 and for groups of people (families) I would recommend the Canon 24-70 mm f/4.

 

[jemmalee1005]

Thank u both. It sounds as though ill need 2 dif lenses, would i be best off getting a separate lense for the newborn photography?....If I were to get a lense for newborns in particular that requires a lot of detail in low light what would be recommended?

Full scene family might consist of 4 people 2 children 2 adults with some scenery around them

 

[KmH]

With a newborn you will be in much closer.

So again the focal length and FoV needed indicate use of a 24-70 mm zoom lens.
The f/4 will cost you 1/2 of what the f/2.8 costs.

Doing high quality photography and running a photography business is a lot easier and efficient (financially) if you have a basic technical understanding of the tools you use.
Understanding Camera Lenses
Digital Camera Sensor Sizes: How it Influences Your Photography
Using Wide Angle Lenses
Using Telephoto Lenses
Camera Lens Quality: MTF, Resolution & Contrast

 

[jemmalee1005]

Lol touché! I definitely need to become educated and hope to as I delve further into it. Just looking for the best equipment to start out with so I won't have to fix my mistake purchases later lol. Thanks for the help!

 

[Blaidd]

Why don't you look at renting a few lens and see what will work for you. I still have my 24-105 f/4L IS and love it. I just sold my 70-200 f/4L IS and teleconverter because I wasn't using it that much. You can always pick up a nifty fifty for around $100 or less. Don't forget the used market as well. I've seen the version 1 of the canon 70-200 f/2.8 L IS going for around $1100-$1200. It's not the latest and greatest, but it still holds its own and gets the job done.


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[pdq5oh]

Consider these two lenses for a crop sensor camera. A Canon 70-200 f4 IS. New about $1300. Used about $8-900. The other is theTamron 17-50 f2.8 non-VC. Used about $230 or so. I don't think VC is necessary on this lens and the non-VC version is sharper and much cheaper. So you could have both lenses for very near your budget. Both will cover your needs and give you excellent image quality. I have both of these lenses and am very happy with them. Another thing to consider is a good external flash, if you don't already have one. You'll likely find the built-in flash inadequate. Good luck.