Using Canon's f/1.4 RF prime lenses for wedding photography and video

As an elopement and destination wedding photographer, Canon Ambassador Raïs De Weirdt often shoots in remote and inaccessible locations – on a mountaintop or an ice floe, in a desert or by a smouldering volcano in Iceland. This means she needs to travel as light as possible, and lenses have to earn a place in her kit bag. Even when she is shooting in less exotic locations, her dynamic style means she has to be able to move fast. Her lenses must be easy to handle as well as practical to carry.

Recently she added two lightweight, versatile f/1.4 Canon hybrid prime lenses to her wedding photography kit bag: the RF 50mm F1.4L VCM and the RF 85mm F1.4L VCM. Here, she talks about shooting photos and video with these lenses, and reveals how hybrid lenses have changed her approach creatively.

"Personally, I need to be light on my feet as a wedding photographer," Raïs emphasises. Even when shooting in the most conventional wedding venues, she characteristically moves around the couple, bantering with them and snapping them in motion rather than in formal posed portraits as much as possible. For this dynamic style of shooting, she requires lightweight lenses with bright apertures that allow her to use fast shutter speeds. The Canon RF 50mm F1.4L VCM and RF 85mm F1.4L VCM fitted the bill perfectly.

"When I'm going up mountains for location shoots," she continues, "I also want to be as light as possible. Taking extra lenses is a deliberate choice, because I'm usually carrying a couple of drones, a tripod and a lot of props. But these lenses are so light and compact, they change everything. Naturally they have the beautiful optical characteristics of prime lenses that I've always loved, and I think every photographer loves. I will definitely be throwing them in my kit bag a lot more."

To ensure optical quality, both lenses have UD and aspherical lens elements to suppress chromatic and spherical aberrations respectively, plus Super Spectra and ASC coatings to minimise reflections that lead to ghosting and flare. They deliver exceptionally sharp images, edge to edge, and both include Voice Coil Motor (VCM) focusing technology for smooth, precise autofocus, which Raïs found both rapid and very quiet – perfect for capturing the key moments in a wedding.

Raïs's main lens is the Canon RF 24-105mm F2.8L IS USM Z. "I'm in love with it and take it everywhere," she says, "but sometimes I just need a wider aperture, for example when shooting ceremonies or receptions in dark environments."

With the RF 50mm F1.4L VCM lens, she says, there are no compromises when shooting in low light. The wide f/1.4 aperture also results in outstanding separation of subjects from their background. "I know there's a little bit of a trend in wedding photography of shooting at a narrower aperture, especially to show the beauty of a venue," she comments, "but I love the wide open look. The narrow depth of field produces the dreamy look I'm known for." In broader shots of the event just as much as in portraits, this lens creates a particularly appealing creamy bokeh in out-of-focus areas, with smooth circular highlights thanks to its 11-blade circular iris.

In addition to all this, both the RF 50mm F1.4L VCM and the RF 85mm F1.4L VCM are hybrid lenses. Canon's hybrid lenses build on the company's renowned photographic lens design, combining the benefits of outstanding stills lenses with added features tailored for professional video capture. Raïs says clients are asking for video more, but even where they are not, she now delivers video clips as a bonus.

The stills/video switch on top of her EOS R5 Mark II makes it easy to switch from one to the other, and Canon's hybrid lenses make the transition seamless, without the need to switch lenses. This means she can move quickly and capture unrepeatable moments in stills or in motion, as appropriate.

"I always shoot story snippets in between stills, because they add so much more depth," she explains. "I use them for my website and marketing material – and even when the clients expect only stills, I like to surprise them when they scroll through their online gallery. Discovering that some images are moving in there gives added value to my client."

Raïs has long applied this philosophy of delivering even more than expected, for example giving clients not just an album of pictures but a box of premium prints she produces herself on fine art paper using a Canon pro photo printer. Video enables her to add an entire extra dimension. "I always think, if I can give not a five-star service but a ten-star experience to my clients, what would that look like? What would that extra touch be that makes them want to recommend me?"

Creatively too, Raïs says, video has changed her approach. "Videographers look at the world so differently. Photography is the art of capturing as much in one frame as possible. But for video you're trying to make a sequence of clips that move one cohesive story, and you're capturing an angle from here, an angle from there, and then a little detail. The story is built up from all these tiny little aspects." She is looking for these much more in her photography now.

Raïs also says she is strongly influenced by cinematography in her photographic style. "Because you want to tell this story and you want to give it this depth, you shoot way more over-the-shoulder shots or in-between aspects, or maybe shoot from a bit farther away, as an 'establishing shot'. I feel that creatively videography has unlocked a lot in my photography, because now I look a little bit more from a video perspective and I shoot photos with that sometimes more 'cinematic' framing."

Raïs now usually shoots together with her partner, videographer Joachim Blomme, offering clients a complete photo-plus-video package. Joachim also loves the hybrid lenses, and one advantage is that the pair can travel lighter, sharing a single kit bag. (Of course, they laugh, this becomes a disadvantage when they both happen to want to use the same lens at the same time.)

Joachim says the RF 50mm F1.4L VCM and RF 85mm F1.4L VCM achieve a look "like you're shooting on a very, very expensive cinema grade lens set. I think the way they compress the frame and the way the depth of field rolls off are really cinematic – less harsh than photography lenses of the past."

For him, the absence of focus breathing is a defining characteristic. "I really like the way they just grab the focus and hold it in a smooth way, like a camera assistant would do. The autofocus is not jittery like traditional photography lenses'." He explains that in the past, even prime lenses would "hunt around" to focus. The resulting change in framing wouldn't really make a difference to your composition in a still photo, but in video this oscillation effect would be perceptible to the viewer, sometimes to the extent of inducing nausea. In these new hybrid lenses, it just isn't an issue. "You really notice the difference, and that's where these lenses shine."

"In the past," Joachim continues, " if I wanted to shoot with photography lenses, I used to always take into account their limitations in video – oh, I can't push in too much or I can't move my focus too much, because otherwise you get that nauseating warping caused by focus breathing. So for me the biggest advantage of these lenses is, I don't have to think about that anymore. They have perfect autofocus with a cool look that I used to get only with very expensive cinema lenses that I had to fiddle around with a wheel on the side to focus manually.

"I'm a lot faster in getting the shot that I want, and so much of my headspace gets freed up for creativity, because I don't have to think about working around the limitations of my lens anymore."

Another benefit Joachim mentions is the uniform design across Canon's range of full-frame hybrid prime lenses, which results in easier handling. "We did a commercial shoot the other day, where I switched between the 50mm and the 85mm lenses a lot, and it was so smooth. The size and the weight are consistent, so you can change the lens and not have to recalibrate your gimbal. The only thing that changes is your field of view, and all the rest stays the same. In post production and in your storytelling, it's just a seamless transition between lenses that I really enjoy."

Interestingly, where Raïs says hybrid shooting has made her photography more "cinematic", Joachim says he loves the photographic look his videos can achieve with the Canon hybrid lenses at wide apertures. "In video," he observes, "I tended not to go wider than f/2 because with motion I generally don't really trust that the focus will stay where I want it to be." With the narrower depth of field at wider apertures, moving subjects can all too easily slip out of the plane of focus. "Definitely with modern styles of shooting with fast camera movements, it's always very difficult. But I like that photographic look you can get with an f/1.4, and with the RF 50mm F1.4L VCM lens I found myself going towards the f/1.4 a lot more, to get a nice smooth background." This becomes feasible, he explains, because he can trust his camera with this lens to reliably track his subject and keep it in focus. "In video you always have the motion giving that extra separation of your subject from the background, but when you open up to f/1.4 you get that photographic separation without the movement."

Speaking of modern styles of shooting, both Joachim and Raïs emphasise the versatility of the Canon hybrid lenses for polished, smooth video as well as today's fashionable rough-cut look. "For social media we definitely focus on the more 'hip' edits," Joachim says, "but for clients it's generally slower, steadier, more polished. The flexibility is beautiful, but it depends on the client. If it's more than the extras we always add, then we discuss really clearly what style they're looking for."

Raïs adds that in most weddings, they will deliver a clip shot in a fashionably shaky, run-and-gun style, because this captures the genuine emotion of the occasion. "So much of your shot happens before you shoot it. It's the interaction that you have with the couple and that the couple have with each other. If they're really at ease and really themselves, you feel that in a photo – and you feel it even more in video. I always say to my couples, 'I will make you laugh'. I make it exciting and we run around and they generally have so much fun, and it shows. Those are the clips that we really like to include, and they love it. But we also always give some really polished clips, like some slow-mo. Usually they get one of each, because then it's super-pro and super 'fun in the moment'."

"Canon's f/1.4 hybrid prime lenses are an unmissable addition to my wedding camera bag," Raïs concludes. "For me as a wedding photographer, the RF 50mm F1.4L VCM is the most versatile lens when shooting in low light, producing the soft, buttery bokeh I'm so known for. The RF 85mm F1.4L VCM is perfect for details in between wide angle shots. Both lenses are light and compact, and also super silent, which I love for wedding ceremonies." Both deliver exceptional sharpness across the frame, with smooth and precise autofocus.

In addition to being outstanding lenses for photography, both have advanced professional video features. "To me, the hybrid lenses are game-changing," Raïs says. "Canon hybrid zoom lenses like the RF 24-105mm F2.8L IS USM Z don't lose focus when zooming in, and there's no more focus breathing – and since I need to refocus so many times and usually have only one chance to get the shot, that's very important to me. The hybrid lenses' Iris Ring offers stepless variable manual iris adjustment, which is invaluable for smooth aperture control when shooting video. They're perfect for the hybrid shooter, and I always shoot hybrid now."