Canon 135 F2L - the best wedding portrait lens ?

BAK wrote:

First of all, there's the question of what is a wedding portrait.

A lot of people think THE wedding portrait is a photograph of the bride and groom, standing side by side, showing the train of the bride's dress, at the way up to their heads, including the top of her veil.

The bride probably spent months of time and perhaps thousands of dollars to get that dress for the most important day of her life.

With a so-called full frame camera, a lens in the 35 to 50 mm range would work well.

But another wedding portrait of importance is a horizontal image of the bride and groom standing side by side, extending far enough down that the bride's flowers are in the shot.

With a so-called full frame camera, a lens in the 35 to 50 mm range would work well.

If what we count as a wedding portrait is a group portrait of bride and groom and both sets of parents, a 35mm lens would probably be the best bet.

If our goal for a beautiful wedding portrait is a vertical head and shoulders shot of the bride, her veil, the jewelry around her neck, and a bit of the top of the neckline.

For this, something in the 70 to 100/105 mm range would be a good choice.

And if you are going to take some of these shots in a fairly quick series, you might not be too interested in changing lenses.

If I went back to being a real wedding photographer, I'd want to work with two bodies (probably one crop and one full frame) with a Tamron 24-70 on the crop camera and a 70-200 Tamron on the full frame part of the time, and with the lenses switched some of the time.

BAK

I agree with the typical lenses used for weddings. For the few weddings I shoot I mainly use the 24-70L ii and 70-200L ii. I do use the 35, 50 & 85 primes along with the 100L 2.0 Macro for detail shots. I don't use the 135L for true portraits but rather for more casual candids when time permits. I do like this lens for that purpose. I was expressing my opinion to the OP on the 135L but should of articulated more on its use for portraits.