Top Three Lenses

Here are my recommendations for shooting in the field or even on local shoots and getting great shots.

I personally thing it's all about the lenses. Less about the body but of course matching your body and your lenses will give you the most optimal tools. For example, I shoot with Nikon and shooting with a DX body and an FX lens will give you great shots still but they will not give you the full potential of the lens because your DX chip will automatically crop your photos. Not a huge deal but you just need to know. 

On the other hand, shooting with the less expensive DX lenses on an FX body will work but why would you do that unless, like me, you just don't have a choice yet.

Anyway, with that said, let's talk lenses.

First off... spend the money to get great glass, and plan on spending between $1500-$2500 a lens. You might get away for less but probably not.

For shooting candid portraits I recommend three great lenses that will give you a pretty good focal range and shoot fast. In general, I would recommend trying to purchase lenses that shoot at f2.8. For me, that's almost all I'll shoot at. I like a really shallow DOF in most cases. It's harder to shoot that way on the fly but when you get a great lens with great bokeh the images can be quite stunning. If you can get f1.4 or f1.8's that's even better but know that you are really going to have to perfect your focusing.

So my top picks as of this moment would be:

12-24mm at f3.5-f4.5 (Because we have it already but if you can swing it, and you shoot enough of it you might try  Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8G ED AF-S Nikkor Wide Angle Zoom Lens) (Nikkor)

50mm f1.4 prime lens. (Nikkor)

70-200mm f2.8 for those longer or tighter shots. (Nikkor)

Just be aware that the bigger the lens the more suspicion you'll be under for taking a photo. People WILL notice the 70-200 f2.8. It's a big lens. Beautiful and hard working but noticeable.

Those are my top picks.

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Photo by Sean Stark