Wedding photographers: why do you need a humongous lens like you were a paparazzo?

The humongous size of many lenses used in wedding photography is a side effect of the optical quality, large apertures, and sometimes long focal lengths of the lenses. It has nothing to do with impressing the client. For instance, the Canon 24-70mm f/2.8 and the Canon 70-200mm f/2.8 are both very large, tan lenses. The size happens because of all the glass inside the lens fixing distortions, chromatic aberrations, etc.

No photographer wants to lug around a huge heavy lens; they'd much rather bring a much smaller lens instead if it was sufficient to do the job. Big lenses have their uses. Bigger glass= wider aperture and better quality.

I personally do think the size factor does come into account to some extent when it comes to "impressing the client". I know it sounds naive, but most clients will think of you as more 'professional' the bigger and more gear you bring to the photoshoot. No client would want to pay you hundreds or even thousands of dollars for a wedding just to see you show up with a tiny point-and-shoot camera.

Calm down, you are overreacting. Is he questioning your right to cancel, or are you frightened he can cause you financial trouble in the future? Print the email, Xerox it, and keep it in a safe place. This should be the end of your worries. Wendy, are you gossiping too much about your wedding now? Some "friends" may want to see you in a pickle for a year over something you should take up with someone experienced in this. Your friends are right, back down, drop it, and forget for awhile anything about wedding photographers. You're getting married next year. Explore and compare the costs of local wedding photographers, when you are ready, or ask a good friend for help with this now, as you may feel you've ruined something you haven't even started. Get costs, experience (theirs), references from satisfied customers. People involved with your wedding may have some good contacts. Stay within your budget. You've got pre=wedding jitters, and can only make things more complicated. Time will take care of this. Congratulations on the wedding.

Even when there is a legitimate technical reason for using a big lens, a photographer have to think about impressing the client.

I gave my husband a Nikon D70 for Christmas last year. It came with one of those little lenses that goes from like 20 to 70, I don't remember. He takes decent pictures with it. What would I think of a wedding photographer I hired coming to the assignment with a camera like my husband's?

That I could've gotten my husband to do it. I'm sure a pro is knowledgeable enough to take good pictures with a camera like those I can get at Walmart. But he or she had better have a million times more experience than my husband. Experience isn't as easy to show to the client as a big lens is.

I'm not a wedding photographer, so don't pick my answer. But I have wondered about this very thing.

There ARE circumstances in which a large lens is necessary. For one, the families want an unobstructed view of the couple's first kiss as married, but they also want that moment captured for posterity. So, you need a "paparazzi" lens to fulfill both expectations.

Now, once they get out of the church and they set up lights, one would think a smaller lens would be appropriate. Earlier today I actually saw a wedding photographer set up lights just in front of the church door, and it was a sunny day, and he went to the bottom of the steps about 50 feet away. I seriously wondered why that was necessary. I would have used a smaller lens and gotten one or two steps away from them, not all of them. But I was not about to go tell another photographer how to do his job.

Dear Troll, why do you ask questions in an accusatory manner? Is it because you've already made up your mind about the answer? I think that might be the answer.

You might as well ask a race car driver why he uses a formula one car for formula one racing. It's the tool that's needed to do the job.

I use 2 lenses typically at a wedding, a 70-200mm f2.8. This lens opens wide so I can actually get shots without using my flash (as is often requested by the celebrant) and with a range of up to 200mm I don;t have to be right on the alter right next to the bride and groom taking my pictures, I can take them from further away and not be a distraction to the ceremony. The wedding is not MY day, it's the bride and grooms day.

The other lens I use if a smaller 24-70mm f2.8. I use that for the formals and the reception. It also opens up wide but is better suited to taking picture closer up to the people.

To take nice close ups of the bride and groom as the groom slips the ring on the brides finger with a "smaller non papparazi" lens would require that I be a about 5-6 feet away from the couple and so enter the L series lens.

As for the "Is it just to impress the clients" ... yes, we spend over 4000$ on lenses just so the client can go ... oooh that thar be a really fancy thingamagig.

"is it just to impress the client?

Nope. Not at all.

The bigger the objective glass you have the more light you can gather. Also, bigger means more corrective elements in the lens. That's a good thing.

For professional photographers a big lens has nothing to do with phallic symbolism, it's all about image quality and the resulting customer satisfaction.

Off course it is to impress the client - why else do you think?

I mean, everyone knows that the bigger the lens then the better the photographer.

Now go away and troll somewhere else please.

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DON'T FEED THE TROLLS FOLKS.