My Favorite Lens for a Beginner Photographer

When I started my business years ago, I did NOT have a lot of money to splurge on prime lenses for my camera, especially after I just saved up money to buy my camera body. After a bunch of researching and asking around, I decided to purchase the Canon 50mm f/1.8 STM lens and it is still my FAVORITE lens to date! Not to mention, it’s only $125!! SO affordable! It is PERFECT for photographing portraits and works great during my senior sessions and wedding days.

I always get messages from beginner photographers or friends asking my opinion on what lens they should purchase first and as long as they want to photograph people, I ALWAYS suggest this one. My favorite part about the 50mm is the fact that it focuses on the subject while blurring out the background to get that bokeh effect that both I, and my clients love. It works best for me when I’m shooting during golden hour and allows me to capture the background brightly lit and get that golden light to shine through. This lens is also made of plastic instead of glass, so not only is it lighter, but I also don’t have to baby it as much and I’m not too afraid of dropping it and having it shatter everywhere. I will admit that I almost never put the lens cover on this lens when it’s in my bag and when I take it out, it is still in perfect condition.

Take a look at some of my favorite images that I have taken with the 50mm 1.8 and let me know if you have any questions, I’d be happy to answer them!