Why focal length is important

They, too, are there to provide a cleaner image with more detail and less distortion. Zoom designs are a whole new world. They often use more than a dozen lens elements, sometimes even Ultimately though, their angle of view and focal length can be compared to single lenses. These lenses are often considered speciality items. Usually, they are not included as part of a starter kit.

They create such a wide angle of view that can feel unnatural to work with at the beginning. This is down to the lens having to fit more of the scene into the image than what your eyes can see at once.

Ultra wide-angle lenses are often used in event and architectural photography. They help to get a lot into a photo when shooting in a confined space. These lenses are not suitable for portraits. They enhance the perspective so much that facial features can look unnatural.

Landscape photographers and adventurers, however, love them. An ultra-wide lens is able to distort perspective in ways that these genres value. When used for journalistic scenes, ultra-wide-angle lenses can provide a dramatic, interesting angle.

A mm or mm zoom, for example, is a crucial tool in the bag of a press photographer. These focal lengths can be found in the lineup of most manufacturers. Rectilinear wide angles project an image in which the straight lines remain straight. Fisheye lenses distort the scene into a spherical shape. Fisheyes are rather special tools. Wide-angle lenses are used by photojournalists for documenting situations. This is because they are wide enough to include a lot of the context, whilst still looking realistic.

The widest lenses commonly used in movie production also fall into this range of focal lengths. Their field of view is ideal for showing plenty of the environment. But thanks to the wide aspect ratio, subjects can be far enough away to not appear distorted. I like to use this range when shooting on the street or with friends in a closed setting. Examples would be at the dinner table or the pub. Standard lenses as called standard for a reason — these are the most common lenses, in both prime and zoom format.

It will provide excellent results. A prime lens will always provide better results than your kit zoom lens, as it is built with a single purpose. It does one job well. Kit zooms also fall into this category. They usually cover a zoom range of mm on crop cameras or mm on full-frame and film cameras.

Both of these zooms cover the entire standard range, as well as some wider angles. This range is often where kit lenses stop. This is a good range for portraits as the perspective of the lens will make human faces look natural. Most short telephoto lenses separate the face from the background, without completely isolating it. A large proportion of dedicated macro lenses also falls into this category.

This is because short telephotos are long enough to provide enough working distance. But they are short enough to not make huge macro lenses. Their fairly natural perspective also plays a big role in this. Lenses in this range are often used for distant scenes such as buildings or mountains. But they can provide interesting perspectives in that field, too. Lenses in this range are often used for sports and animal photography.

Portraits are also a great genre to use them in. Shooting portraits with long lenses can provide exceptional subject separation and background compression. There are hard-to-imagine extremes in this range. But there are longer ones not in mass productions. They are owned by select companies in special fields.

I tackled most of this in the previous section. Let me give you a better idea of how the focal length affects the perspective of a photo. I took four photos of the same subject at different focal lengths and compared them below. The subjects three soup cans remained in the same position about 10 inches apart from one another in every photo.

This means the effective focal length will be higher than listed. The focal length of a lens is an indicator of the distance from the subject: the images are all framed the same.

Differences arise because the focal length is getting longer zooming in as the camera moves further away from the subject. Remember, the distance from the subject is changing the perspective. The focal length is just used to compensate for this.

The diagrams below show the way this works. The shorter the focal length, the wider the angle of view and the lower the magnification. There are two types of lenses-prime and zoom. Prime lenses have a fixed focal length and zoom lenses have variable focal lengths.

Prime lenses tend to be more compact and lightweight than zoom lenses. This is an advantage when shooting in low light conditions as it will increase the possibility of hand holding the camera and freezing the subject without shake or blur caused by the longer exposures.

Photographing using prime lenses with large apertures also means you can get a shallow depth of field which is useful for portraiture where you might want a softer or blurred background also known as bokeh. Wide angle lenses are popular lenses for landscape photography , interiors, large group photos and when working in confined situations.

Standard lenses are popular as they are closest to the angle of view we humans see. These lenses have minimal distortion, which can be flattering to the subject.

They tend to use large apertures and allow a lot of light to enter the lens which makes them fast in low light conditions. Standard lenses are the popular choice for a wide range of photography including portraiture, nature and low light situations where the photographer can not use a flash or is looking to capture the scene with available light.

Telephoto lenses between 70 — mm are very popular lenses for portraiture and product photography as well as nature and wildlife imagery. They allow the photographer to produce close crops on the subject. In the case of portraiture a telephoto allows the photographer to take the photo at a distance that does not intrude upon the subject. These lenses provide a good range for wildlife and sports photography where the photographer is limited as to how close they can get to the subject.

Close-up photography uses a specific range of lenses that allow up to reproduction. These lenses allow the photographer to focus very close to the subject and reproduce them at a life-size ratio on film or an imaging sensor. These lenses are popular for subjects such as flowers, insects and small products. By clicking Sign Up, you are opting to receive educational and promotional emails from Nikon Inc. You can update your preferences or unsubscribe any time. Search Articles. Glossary Off On.

What is Lens Focal Length Focal length, usually represented in millimeters mm , is the basic description of a photographic lens.