After 5 years using Canon 85mm f/1.2 I recently bought Sigma 35mm f/1.4
It takes time to adjust with the new field of view and compositions on wider frames than tight medium-tele 85mm, but I think this lens gives me more space and a lot more details in the background or general atmosphere to shoot a character and to tell a story.
fast focusing & sharpness of this lens is amazing, which I recommend it to any portrait, lifestyle and fashion photographer. the only disadvantage is when the aperture is wide open on f/1.4 there is some vignette which can be easily ignored and fixed in post.
Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark III
Lens: Sigma 35mm f/1.4 DG Art
Light: Natural, Sunset
In that light and with a beautiful model you can shoot with anything and it will look great.
Good job!
I agree
however, for such landscapes its a lot more fun to use a wide lens to get the most out of such beautiful view. at least to me, it's very interesting to experiment with 35mm after using 85mm for a very long time.
Composition-wise you are right that wide shots are best for these landscapes. However you can make a wide shot or an extremely wide shot with any lens. I sometimes like using long lenses exactly for that purpose, like using an 85mm at a distance of like 40-50 meters.
The challenge I had with 85mm for taking wide looking shots is that in order to achieve more details in the background you have to use smaller apertures.
the difference between 35mm at f/4 and 85mm at f/4 are significant due to optical aspects. so for achieving the same look and feel as 35mm at f/4, I had to use even smaller aperture like f/5.6 for example and at sunset that would cause me a lot of ISO to use to compensate my exposure, and yet because there is no Image Stabilizer on either of my lenses I can't use shutter speed below 1/100 on 85mm but I can use 1/40 on 35mm and still have sharp images.
haha, I hope you understand what I mean by all these because it might sound complicated.