The choice of lens for a photographer is even more important than the choice of camera. In this review you will find a description of focal lengths from 14mm to 300mm. Each focal length has its own specifics, this must be taken into account when choosing a lens. I think you need to start with a kit lens. You can even use a zoom like 18-135, and only then approach the choice of more specialized optics. This is an individual and creative process.

The optimal focal length depends on:

filming genre
filming locations
specifics of work
the creative vision of each photographer

All this can be decided only by already having some experience in photography. Below I will share my observations. All information concerns working with. If you have a camera with a crop matrix, multiply the numbers focal length by one and a half.

Fish eye

The shot from above was taken with a lens. This lens gives full frame coverage on a cropped camera and a circle with black edges on. Viewing angle: 180 degrees diagonally. Shots taken correctly with fisheye look mesmerizing. The peculiarity of this focal length ( come from 4mm to 15mm) is that it has a very narrow scope of application. Fisheye is a lens with the widest possible viewing angle, but without distortion correction. The end result is rounded lines that should be straight, and a very specific perspective. Take this lens with you for a few bright shots. It is difficult to use it for a long time.

14mm

The focal length lens is also very specific. This concerns the geometry of the resulting image. The slightest misalignment of the camera causes severe distortion. This is especially felt when. In nature, the horizon easily collapses. The angle of vision is very wide - you need to understand whether you need it. It has advantages: you can, for example, remove the entire interior of the car from the inside; in any cramped room you will not have problems with the viewing angle; in nature you can make interesting panoramas with a voluminous foreground. You can only shoot portraits with this focal length very carefully and at full height. In general, photographing people with a lens with such a focal length requires extreme thoughtfulness. This, however, applies to any filming - here you need to think before taking a shot. The 14mm lens is not an everyday tool.

24mm

24mm- quite a wide angle. When working with a wide-angle lens, you always need to think about what should be included in the frame and what should not be. This focal length is easier to work with. It does not bend space as much and is more consistent with ordinary perception. 24mm is very comfortable to shoot indoors. Capturing the entire room will not be a problem. At the same time, geometric distortions are much less pronounced. This is a convenient focal length, you can travel with it (which I would not recommend doing with only 14mm), shoot a report inside small rooms, take landscape photos. For portraits, a 24mm lens is, again, of little use.

It is often mistakenly believed that focal length- this is the distance to the focusing object. This is, of course, not true. Focal length- one of the most important characteristics of the lens, which determines its viewing angle, that is, the sector of space that falls into the frame. The shorter the focal length, the larger the viewing angle of the lens.

Depending on the viewing angle, lenses are divided into wide-angle, normal and telephoto lenses.

Wide angle A lens is considered to have an angle of view greater than that of the human eye. The focal length of wide-angle lenses is 35 millimeters or less.

The image obtained by such a lens has a rather pronounced perspective and background objects seem smaller than we are used to seeing them, but the viewing angle of such a lens allows you to shoot in tight spaces without any problems. Here are examples of photos taken with a 16mm ultra-wide-angle lens.

We see how high angle This lens has a wide range of views, but it comes at the cost of significant perspective distortions - they are especially noticeable in the corners of the image. Here's another photo taken with a 16mm lens:

The same thing - the huge angle of view made it possible to fit a huge amphitheater into the frame. A pronounced perspective effect is also noticeable - small objects in the foreground seem huge, and large objects in the background seem unusually small.

Wide Angle Lenses are used in cases where one frame needs to cover a large space - mainly in landscape and interior photography. For a large angle of view you have to pay with a specific “aggressive” perspective - the lens distorts the proportions of objects in the foreground and background (see photo with the amphitheater), and also has a tendency to collapse vertical lines (see photo indoors).

Normal A lens whose angle of view is close to that of the human eye is considered. Another, more correct definition of a normal lens is a lens that has a focal length equal to the diagonal of the frame (in the case of a film frame, 43 mm). The focal length of normal lenses may vary slightly and ranges from 40 to 50 mm. Compared to a wide-angle lens, the angle of view of a normal lens may seem small, but the lens has a calmer perspective. Photos taken with such a lens are perceived most naturally, sometimes called the “effect of presence.” Here is an example photo taken with a 50mm lens.

Please note that the perspective of a normal lens is much more familiar and “calmer” than that of a wide-angle lens. The ratio of the sizes of objects in the foreground and background is familiar to the eye - this is the main advantage of a normal lens. Reverse side medals - in order to photograph a sufficiently large object, you need to move far enough away from it. This is not very convenient and not always possible. A normal lens is best suited for shooting in open spaces, so-called “street photography”. For landscape and indoor photography, this lens may not have enough field of view to fit everything you need into the frame.

Telephoto lenses have a focal length of 60 mm or more. It’s easy to guess that the longer the focal length, the stronger the lens “zooms in”. Telephoto lenses with focal lengths up to 135 mm are often called "portrait lenses". They provide a relatively small zoom effect, so shoot distant objects close up they won’t work, but the perspective of these lenses is optimal for portrait photography- distortion of facial proportions is minimal. Here are two examples: the first portrait was taken with a wide angle (28 mm):

The photograph shows that the proportions of the face are seriously distorted - it looks excessively convex and even the eyes seem to be looking in different directions. Conclusion - if you shoot a portrait with a wide angle, it will look more like a cartoon!

Another example is a photograph taken with a focal length of 80mm:

Now the proportions are all right! Plus, the increased focal length made it possible to “stretch” and blur the background, now it does not distract us from the main objects.

When shooting even closer-up portraits, when the face occupies most of the frame, lenses with an even larger focal length are used - up to 135 mm. A longer focal length is rarely used in a classic portrait, since due to the weak perspective the face may look too flat. On the other hand, it can smooth out some imperfections, such as a too long nose.

Long focal length lenses are used when it is not possible to get close to the subject.

Please note that the photograph does not convey the depth of the landscape well - the objects in the foreground are approximately the same size as those in the background. Because of this, the landscape does not look natural. Telephoto lenses are also used when photographing shy birds and animals, for shooting sports photo reports, when you have to shoot from the stands, and the distance to the subject can be several tens of meters.

So we decided which scenes are best to shoot at which focal lengths. For simplicity, we summarize this information in a small table.

Of course, the ranges of focal lengths are approximate - it is impossible to provide for all genres and all the author's ideas in a small tablet! In real situations, the optimal focal length may differ significantly from what is given in the table.

How to find out the focal length of a lens?

To find out the focal length of a lens, just read its markings. Let's take a common Canon lens - the “whale” one (in the picture on the left)...

The arrow in the figure marks the inscription indicating the range of focal lengths - from 18 to 55 millimeters. Similar inscriptions are on all lenses without exception. If there is only one number, then the lens has a fixed focal length and does not have zoom.

Another important point, which cannot be ignored - this is the so-called equivalent focal length. Those focal lengths discussed in the section on viewing angle and perspective apply to film cameras, as well as digital ones, which have a matrix the size of a film frame - 36 * 24 mm. Such matrices are called “full frame” or FF (from English Full Frame - full frame). They are “inserted” mainly into professional cameras. In most amateur and semi-professional devices, the matrix size is 1.5-1.6 times smaller than the film frame. Matrices of this size are called APS-C (Advanced Photo System - Classic). What happens if, say, a lens with a focal length of 50 mm is attached, for example, to a Canon EOS 650D with an APS-C matrix? How will the picture differ from the full-frame Canon EOS 5D Mark II? Let's look at the pictures...

If the EOS 5D matrix receives the entire image formed by the lens, then only the central part of the image falls on the amateur 650D matrix; it is marked with a yellow dotted frame.

As a result, photographs taken by different devices with the same lens will differ slightly from each other.

It is easy to notice that on an APS-C matrix, a 50 mm lens seems to give a smaller viewing angle. Therefore, to get the same viewing angle as a full frame, you need to reduce the focal length. How much should it be reduced to get the same picture as the full frame? Right! The same amount as the APS-C matrix is smaller than the FF matrix, that is, 1.6 times! By the way, the coefficient 1.6 is called crop factor. The higher the crop factor, the smaller the physical size of the matrix.

50mm: 1.6 = 31.25 mm

Thus, we calculated what focal length the lens should have in order to provide the same viewing angle on an APS-C matrix as that of a 50 mm lens at full frame - approximately 31 mm. In such cases they say: a lens with a real focal length of 31 mm on a 1.6 crop has an equivalent focal length of 50 mm.

Now let’s make an addition to the table with focal lengths that was drawn above...

Now let’s look at the distance scale of the kit lens and use imaginary multi-colored markers to mark the areas of application on it, something like this:

Naturally, the picture is approximate, but it clearly helps to determine what types of shooting a kit lens is suitable for. The 18-55 mm range was not chosen lightly - it allows you to perform the most popular types of amateur photography. Of course, the possibilities of a kit lens are not limitless. They are not recommended to take close-up portraits (the closest shot, the face in the entire frame); for this, a lens with a focal length of about 85 mm is desirable (so that the equivalent focal length is 135 mm). If you try to shoot such portraits at a focal length of 55 mm, you will have to do it from too close a distance, which will make the perspective distortions of the facial proportions noticeable (of course, not as much as at a wide angle, but it will still be noticeable). Also, it is impossible to shoot distant objects with a kit lens due to the lack of focal length.

People often ask me: if you buy a “superzoom” (for example, 18-200 mm), can it take beautiful portraits? Agree, it’s a tempting idea - to buy one lens for all occasions! Alas, everything is not so simple. On the one hand, the range of focal lengths of a “superzoom” really makes it universal, but on the other hand, due to its relatively small aperture ratio, it cannot always provide a shallow depth of field, which in most cases determines the beauty of a portrait. What depth of field is, why it is needed and how to control it will be discussed in the next chapter!

Nikon photography simulator with different focal lengths

See how the field of view of the lens changes with changing focal length and when used on a full frame sensor (FX) and on a 1.5 crop sensor (DX).

Questions for self-control

Determine the range of actual and equivalent focal lengths of your lens.
What types of shooting is your lens best suited for?
What types of shooting does your lens not support?

Lens - essential element any camera. And focal length is the most important characteristic of a lens. However, novice amateur photographers experience complete confusion with this characteristic. They cannot understand: for example, a lens with a focal length of 24-70 mm on a full-matrix camera is it good or bad? Is 15-44 mm on a “cropped” DSLR normal or not enough? Is 7.1-28.4 mm on a point-and-shoot camera quite small or is it still ok? Well, let's figure out what the focal length of a lens is and what its different values mean. A lens is a system consisting of several lenses. The image of the object being photographed enters the lens, is refracted there and reduced to one point at a certain distance from the back of the lens. This point is called focus(focus point), and the distance from the focus to the lens (lens system) is called focal length.

Now let’s talk about what these or other focal lengths mean in practical terms. Initially, let’s agree that we are now talking about a lens designed for shooting on a full-matrix camera (in this article we talked about what a “full matrix” is). Let's take a purely practical look at the differences between frames taken with one focal length or another. We shoot from one point and change focal lengths from 24 to 200 mm. Focal length 24 mm.
Focal length 35 mm.
Focal length 50 mm.
Focal length 70 mm.
Focal length 100 mm.
Focal length 135 mm.
Focal length 200 mm.
Obviously, the shorter the focal length, the more is placed in the frame, and the longer the focal length, the closer the lens brings distant objects. Short focal lengths are used for shooting all kinds of images: landscapes, architecture, large groups people. Long focal lengths are used for shooting, for example, animals and birds, for sports photography, when you need to catch some spectacular shot close-up. A focal length of 50 mm approximately corresponds to the viewing angle of the human eye (46°). Lenses with a focal length of less than 35mm are called wide-angle. With their help, it is convenient to photograph nature and architecture, however, it should be borne in mind that the wider the angle (smaller focal length), the greater the distortions caused by the laws of optics will be present in the photographs. For example, if you shoot high-rise buildings with a lens with a focal length of 24 mm, then closer to the edges of the frame on the right and left the buildings will appear tilted - here is an example.
Lenses with a focal length of less than 20mm are called ultra-wide-angle lenses, and they distort the image very much. (There is also a separate type of lens with a fisheye effect.) Here is an example photo (from here) taken with a wide-angle fisheye with a focal length of 8 mm.
Lenses with long focal lengths are called “long focal lengths”, and those with very long focal lengths are called “telephoto lenses”. In general, the classification there is approximately as follows: Lenses come with a fixed focal length (the so-called “primes”) and with a variable focal length (the so-called “zooms” from the word zoom, bring closer). As a rule, lenses with a fixed focal length take better pictures (and are cheaper) than zooms set to the same focal length. That is, for example, in the general case, a 24 mm wide-angle will give better quality than a 24-70mm zoom set to 24mm. (There are exceptions, but we won’t get into those jungles now.) And now we come to a very important question. What is this strange range of focal lengths on my Fujifilm X20, you may ask? It says 7.1-28.4 mm. Is it like a super mega extra wide angle? No. The fact is that when we talk about cameras with a cropped matrix, the physical focal length of the lens does not change (it cannot change), however, since much less fits into the frame on a cropped matrix, it turns out that the “angle of view” of the lens narrows, and Accordingly, for a given matrix the focal length will be different. Precisely “as if different”, because if the lens has a focal length of 50 mm, physically it will remain that way on any matrices. But the shots will be different. I'll explain now. Let's say we have a lens with a focal length of 50 mm. It forms a circular image, which, superimposed on the full-size matrix, gives us a full frame - there it is, marked in the illustration.
We put the same lens on a camera with a cropped matrix - for example, with a crop factor of 2. What will a frame taken with the same lens look like? It will appear within the blue rectangle in the illustration. That is, less. And less means the object will be closer, so it turns out that when shooting with a lens with a focal length of 50 mm on a camera with a crop factor 2 matrix, the focal length will be equivalent to shooting with a lens of 100 mm (50 mm times the crop factor) on the camera with a full-size matrix. The problem is that cropped camera lenses usually indicate the physical focal length of the lens. And in order to understand what these numbers generally mean, you need to multiply the specified focal length by the size of the crop - then you will get the numbers of the focal length (distances for zoom) in the equivalent of a full-matrix camera (35mm matrix) and you will understand what range of focal lengths is present in this camera Example. Fujifilm Finepix X20 camera, zoom range - 7.1-28.4 mm. The crop factor of this camera's matrix is 3.93. So we multiply 7.1 by 3.93 and 28.4 by 3.93 - we get a range (rounded) of 28-112 mm in 35 mm equivalent. In general, the most common range for a digital camera. Second example. Amateur DSLR with a kit lens. The lens has a range of 18-55mm. The crop factor of the matrix is 1.6. Multiply - we get 29-88 mm. The range is very so-so, but you can use it. Thus, in order to clearly understand what focal lengths are available in your camera (or in the camera you are going to buy), you need to multiply the focal range numbers indicated on the lens by the crop factor - this will give you data on focal lengths of 35- mm equivalent, which will be quite clear to you. It is clear that for full-format cameras with their “native” lenses, no recalculations need to be made. By the way, sometimes, for the convenience of users, manufacturers write on non-replaceable camera lenses their physical focal length, and its equivalent for 35 mm - like, for example, the Sony RX10 camera, where the physical range is 8.8-73.3, and on the installed The 2.7 crop produces an excellent range of 24-200 mm: from a good wide-angle to a very decent telephoto lens.

Have you ever wondered how the focal length of a lens affects the aesthetic appearance of a photograph? Even when shooting the same scene, choosing a different lens can make a big difference in how the photo looks. The fact is that different focal lengths of the lens when shooting the same subject change the nature of the relationship between the subject and its background, and also affect the perception of the distance between them.

The illusion of a decrease in the distance between the subject and the background is a property of long lenses. They tend to flatten the image, while wide-angle lenses enhance the effect of perspective. Do you know why lenses with a focal length of 85mm are so popular in portrait photography? These lenses have the effect of "flattening" the image plane, so that the nose and facial features do not appear larger in the photo than they really are.

Although many people don't like using prime lenses, using this technique can produce great portraits. Personally, I shoot most portraits with 50mm or 85mm lenses. There are a number of reasons for this. Firstly, such lenses level the image plane. Using a long lens, we can reduce or completely eliminate the geometric disproportions of facial features caused by the effect of perspective. The same applies to the subject's body parts.

The use of long-focus optics also affects depth of field. You may already know that depth of field is the range of distances from the camera at which objects will be clearly in focus. Some people think that depth of field depends only on the lens aperture, but the focal length of the lens has no less influence on it. A long lens allows you to reduce depth of field, helping to separate your subject from the background.

Often this is exactly what is required for portrait photography. By choosing a long lens, you bring the background out of focus and draw the viewer's attention to your subject. And vice versa - the use of wide-angle lenses allows you to clearly convey not only the subject, but also its surroundings.

However, there is no perfect lens or focal length that suits all occasions. If you want to show how your subject relates to its surroundings, experiment with different focal lengths to see how they affect the relationship between your subject and background.

To illustrate, I took a series of photographs on a bridge near my house. Notice how the relationship between the bridge and the model changes in these images.

I used different focal lengths. The first lens was the Tokina 12-24mm f/4. The second is Nikon 35mm f/1.8. The last one is Nikon 80-200mm f/2.8 with settings at 100mm and 200mm. All images were taken at f/2.8 to equalize the effect of depth of field (with the exception of the Tokina, which was set at f/4).

(Keep in mind that the pictures were taken on a Nikon D300, so the focal length modifier must be taken into account as it is a DX format camera)

So, let's look at the pictures. In each of them I tried to maintain the same composition, with the model occupying almost the full frame in height. Please note that the model occupies approximately the same space in the photographs, but the background is significantly different. What is most striking is the difference in size of the bridge located against the background.

The first shot was taken at the widest angle (12mm focal length) with the Tokina 12-24mm lens. You may notice a strong perspective effect. The lines of the road lead the eye to the bridge, which is barely visible in this photo. A wide angle also results in a large depth of field—almost everything in the photo is in focus. As a result, everything is included in a single scene.

This photo was taken with a Nikon 35mm f/1.8 lens. 35mm is the middle of the usual focal length range. The bridge now appears closer to us, and the depth of field is shallower compared to shots at 12mm. Although the angle is still quite wide, and we have only just begun to separate the object from the background.

Here we are in the area of ideal focal lengths for portrait photography. The photo was taken with a Nikon 80-200mm f/2.8 lens set to 100mm. Please note that the model image has become more “flat”. The bridge now appears much closer to the model, and we've eliminated the effect of road lines leading the viewer's eye away. In addition, we began to get rid of the large depth of field, isolating the subject from the background. This focal length is good for shooting faces and waist-length portraits.

In the last photo the lens was set to 200mm. The distance compression effect has reached its maximum, and the model appears to be standing very close to the bridge. We also got a very shallow depth of field, almost completely separating the model from the background. Although we shot the same person standing in the same place, different focal lengths resulted in completely different images.

Conclusion

In this tutorial I tried to show you the benefits of using different focal lengths. Test shots show that changing the focal length can change the scene.

Experimenting with focal length is a powerful creative tool. Choosing the right focal length is very important to getting the right composition for your photo. Wide-angle lenses allow you to include background or create depth in your photo. Long lenses compress the distance between the subject and the background. In general, for each scene you need to select the appropriate focal length of the lens.

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Translated from the site photo.tutsplus.com, the author of the translation is indicated at the beginning of the lesson.

When working with a camera, it is very important to understand what the focal length of a lens is and how to work with it. Every photographer should learn to realize their creative potential by using focal length as one of the tools in creating a photograph. In addition, for every person involved in photography, it is important to work comfortably with the camera, so you should decide which lenses are most suitable for you.

1. What is focal length

Focal length (FR) is a complex mechanism that influences various characteristics future frame. Without going into details, FR affects the image scale. How larger number focal length, the larger the objects in the photo will be, and they will be located closer. Focal length is a numerical reflection in millimeters of the distance between the camera sensor and the optical center of the lens (convergence point). You can clearly see the principle of measuring DF in the diagram:

2. Focal length ranges. Their application

The focal length is divided into:

Ultra wide angle 12-24 mm

These lenses are not used often. They capture a very large space and at the same time greatly distort it. Such a large girth is unusual for the human eye, so the pictures may seem strange to many. Such lenses are used when shooting large objects from a short distance or in architectural and interior photography in confined spaces. Such lenses are not suitable for photographing people, as they greatly distort the perspective and, as a consequence, the body structure and facial features.

Wide angle 24-35 mm

I call these devices kit lenses. The 24 mm FR produces virtually no distortion, although it is still noticeable to the naked eye. Such lenses are most often used by journalists in reportage and documentary photography. This lens has a wide frame angle, so it can accommodate many objects in the scene. In this case, distortions practically do not appear.

Standard 35-70 mm

These types of lenses with an FR of 45-50 mm have approximately the same coverage as the human eye. Peripheral vision is not taken into account. Standard lenses are the most common and are used for a wide variety of purposes.

“Fifty dollars” is the name of a lens with a fixed focal length of 50 mm. Its aperture is most often f1.8. Lenses with a fixed focal length provide higher quality images than zoom lenses due to the fact that they have a larger aperture ratio and do not spread out over several focal lengths.

Telephoto lenses 70-105 mm

After 105 mm, long telephoto lenses begin, as well as primes for portrait photography (approximately 85 mm). Telephoto lenses are great for portrait photography. They do an excellent job of separating the foreground from the background without flattening or distorting the picture.

Super telephoto lenses 105-300+mm

These lenses are suitable for photographing distant objects. This could be mountains, buildings, people in the distance and wild animals. Such lenses are not suitable for landscape photography, since at a focal length of more than 300mm they greatly flatten the perspective.

3. Perspective of the photo and its PD

This section will describe the effect of focal length on perspective. The picture below shows three objects that are 10 cm apart from each other.

4. Crop factor

If you have a camera with a crop sensor, then you should know what the crop factor is. For example, if you take full-frame optics and install it on a camera with a crop sensor, the image will be cut off at the edges. The trim factor is approximately 1.6. For a specific example, let's take a lens with a focal length of 35 mm. The photographs he takes with a camera with a crop sensor will look the same as photographs taken with a full-frame camera with a 50mm lens.

More details on how it works are shown in the diagram:

Buying a lens made specifically for cropped cameras will not solve this problem, since it is generally accepted to specify a focal length that will be relevant for a full-frame camera.

For example, two more pictures taken with a camera with a crop sensor. One photo was taken at a focal length of 24 mm, and the second at 300 mm.