Focal Length Matters

I made a portrait of my pup, Leila, with an 85 mm lens on a full frame camera. The result would not have been the same if I’d used a wide angle lens.

Once upon a time, photographer me was chatting with a non-photographer about making photos at an event.

She wanted me to use a zoom lens so I could “take photos of people further away.” My internal voice thought, “no, no, no.”

Why were my thoughts so contrary?

Well, because most non-photographers don’t actually know what focal length does. In this post I’ll go over a few key points that will leave you much happier with the photos you make.

My first favorite lens was a normal lens with a super wide aperture.

Normal Lenses

I’ll start this discussion with normal lenses, because people often speak of photography as moments in real life.

Well, a normal lens is what can get us closest to this.

A normal lens is 50 mm for full frame cameras and 35 mm for cropped-frame cameras.

There is no type of distortion, and is a favorite among some street and documentary photographers. That’s what you often hear it called the nifty fifty.