[Nikon D5, Sigma 35mm ƒ/1.4, ISO 900, ƒ/1.4, 1/100]

What lenses do you take on a job? I might take all I can, but a better question might be which ones you try to use the most.

One lens I have loved to use a lot these past couple of years is the Sigma 35mm ƒ/1.4 Art lens. It is so sharp.

I love to fill the frame, get pretty close to people, and let that background go out of focus, giving that smooth BOKEH. Bokeh has been defined as “the way the lens renders out-of-focus points of light.”

The cool thing beyond the BOKEH is shooting a much lower ISO than you have to do, say ƒ/4 or ƒ/5.6.

The shallow depth-of-field makes the subject pop out of the photo.

The closer you get to the subject, the even shallower depth-of-field becomes with the lens.

The other cool thing I love about giving clients photos with this lens is you cannot get this look with your iPhone.

While I love this lens, I often have to just react to a moment. I need to have more than a 35mm lens. I love a good zoom, and when photographing people, I love the Sigma 24-105mm ƒ/4 Art lens.

Sometimes I need to be wide, like in this photo of the Sunday School teacher reading a story about the Protestant Reformer Martin Luther.

Next, I need to go a little tighter in the photo.

Then I am right back out shooting wide again.

I like working around three to five feet of the people I photograph. Sometimes I might get a little closer or have something in between me and the subject that backs me up.

I am on the other side of the table with this lady in the Sunday School class. But I could get a little closer by zooming.

Here the lady is in between this lady and me smiling. But I could isolate her and make you, the audience, look where I want you to look.

Next, I turn and get some shots of the teacher. You cannot run everywhere on a photo shoot without becoming the focus of everyone. That often happens when I have just a couple of fixed lenses. I might have an 85mm ƒ/1.8 on one camera and then the 35mm ƒ/1.4 on the other camera, but with the zoom, I can get much better compositions without moving so much that I become distracted.

I rarely use on-camera flash, but I had no assistant, and setting up a light stand would have been knocked over with so many people. The people were backlit and were pretty much a silhouette. I filled in using the Godox V860IIN with MagMod sphere to soften and spread the light. I used slow sync and was able to capture this moment with the Sigma 24-105mm ƒ/4 Art lens.

My goal was to give the client a variety. You cannot do that with one lens as quickly as mixing up the looks with a few lenses.

I hope these insights help you on your next photo shoot.