How Lenses Can Help You To Take Better Photos

There are so many lenses out there. How can you possibly know which lens or lenses will help you? Relax – I have got this covered.

Lenses on cameras give photographers options. To understand how lenses can help you take better photos, you need to know what you want to photograph, how you want to take these photos, and what you want your photos to look like. Once you know these things, you can find the lenses that work for you and look into the wonderful world of lenses.

In this episode, I tell you.

• Where do you start with this?
• How I ended up with the lenses I have
• How the lenses I have help me to take the photos I need

I also want to tell you

• What if you use a phone to take photos?
• What I do. Or did.

All explained in plain English, without the irrelevant detail, in less than 27 (ish) minutes!

What is not to love? How utterly splendid.

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• 13:21 (Cont.) How Lenses Can Help You To Take Better Photos

Transcript

How Lenses Can Help You To Take Better Photos 

Hi, and a very warm welcome to Episode 190 of the Photography Explained podcast. I'm your host, Rick, and in each episode, I will try to explain one photographic thing to you in plain English in less than 27 minutes (ish) without the irrelevant details. I'm a professionally qualified photographer based in England with a lifetime of photographic experience, which I share with you in my podcast.

Here is the answery bit
Lenses on cameras give photographers options. To understand how lenses can help you take better photos, you need to know what you want to photograph, how you want to take these photos, and what you want your photos to look like. Once you know these things, you can find the lenses that work for you. Just so you know, only you can do this. Once you know what you want to do, you can look into the wonderful world of lenses.

Lenses are tools that photographers use to take the photos they need. In this episode, I tell you how I ended up with the lenses I have.

That was the answery bit - here is the talky bit.

I want to start with a few general things. 

Where do you start?
When choosing a lens for a camera, and indeed a camera body, the starting point is always to decide what you want to photograph.

If you are not sure, a general-purpose lens is a great place to start. If you want to photograph the details in flowers, a macro lens is for you. If you want to photograph motorsport, a telephoto lens is a must. Or is it?

So start with what you want to take photos of.

Now, I am going to make a massive leap here—I am going to assume that you, dear listener, will be aligned with me to a degree and that you will be thinking of zoom lenses, which are all I use these days.

I covered this in the last episode, but as a quick reminder, a zoom lens has a variable focal length, such as 24-105mm. A prime lens, a non-zoom lens, if you like, has a fixed focal length, such as a 50mm lens. 

There are some things I need to pick up on before I go on, which I covered in the last episode. Don't worry; I will be brief.

Focal lengths explained quickly
A 50mm focal length on a full-frame camera gives a view similar to that we see with our own eyes. A lens with a focal length of less than 50mm, as in a smaller number than 50, gives a wider field of view and is called a wide-angle lens. A lens with a focal length larger than 50mm, which is a larger number, has a narrower field of view.

A 50mm focal length gives a horizontal field of view of around 40 degrees.

Popular focal lengths for lenses are within the 24-200mm range. A 24mm focal length is a wide-angle lens, giving a field of view of around 73 degrees. A 200mm focal length is a telephoto lens, giving a field of view of around 10 degrees.

You can get lenses with smaller focal lengths, which are wider, and lenses with larger focal lengths, which give narrower fields of view. I could talk about these focal lengths forever, but I have a different plan.

Crop factor explained quickly
I need to mention the crop factor again. I'm sorry, I just have to. Sorry.

50mm on a full frame camera is a standard lens. To get the same field of view with a cropped sensor camera you need a 31-33mm focal length. And a 25mm focal length with a micro four thirds camera.

So 24mm on a cropped sensor camera gives you 36ish mm. To get the same field of view as a full frame 24 mm lens, you need a 16mm ish focal length. Not good. But at the telephoto end of things, a 200mm focal length on a cropped sensor camera gives you an effective focal length of 300-320mm, which, to some, is good—and 400mm with the micro four thirds system.

Maximum aperture explained quickly
The maximum aperture is the size of the opening in the lens. The smaller the number, the larger the maximum aperture, and the more light that gets through to the camera sensor. And the bigger, heavier and more expensive the lens is.

OK—that is the fundamentals. Now, I have been thinking about how to explain this, and I am going to start by telling you what I do. Well, why not, eh? Let's use me as an example. There are so many telephoto lenses out there, so many wide-angle lenses, prime lenses, zoom lenses, cropped sensor cameras, and full-frame cameras. How can you possibly choose a lens to help you to take better photos.

What do I do?
I use a full-frame Canon 6D with a Canon 17-40mm f/4 L lens. A full-frame camera with a full-frame sensor and professional-quality lens sounds expensive, right? Well, not really. You can buy a used Canon 6D for less than you might think. I found loads of them on one of the websites I use, costing up to £400. And the lens is £750 brand new on Amazon. Prices vary, of course, but this gives you an idea.

I also have a Canon 24-105mm lens and a Canon 70-200mm lens. I will come back to these.

I use the 17-40mm lens for 95% of my photos, and I probably take 80-90% of those photos using the 17mm focal length.

I know what I am doing and know that 17mm works for me. This is a great example of knowing what you are photographing and what you need to help you do this.

The 17mm focal length gives me a 93-degree horizontal field of view. That is wide—wide enough to capture interior spaces without exaggerating them, which is very important to me. Any wider than 17mm risks making spaces look bigger than they are. If I use a focal length of more than 17mm, I risk not fitting an interior space into one photo. So 17mm works for me for what I do and like.

On a shoot, I will leave the other lenses in my car. They are there if I need them, but I probably won't.

I take photos of buildings, interiors, and exteriors, and the 17-40mm focal length works well for me.

The lens's maximum aperture is f/4. Lenses with larger maximum apertures let more light in, allowing you to use faster shutter speeds, but they are larger and more expensive.

Canon doesn't make an f/2.8 version of my lens, so I need to look at the closest lens to this, the 16-35mm lens. There is an f/2.8 and an f/4 version.

The f/2.8 lens costs around £1150 for the Mk 3 version. The Mark 2 version is around £750! And the f/4 version costs around £860. Now, I have to say that's not too bad for professional-quality lenses. 

The f2.8 lens weighs 790 grams, while the f/4 version weighs 620 grams. These are not huge differences, granted, but you get the point. For me, the point is this: I do not need a lens with a larger maximum aperture, as I take my photos with my camera on a tripod, and I photograph buildings that are not moving. So, the f/4 lens works for me. However, I am now looking at the 16-35mm lens and thinking about how nice it would be. Stop it, Rick!! This can be a problem, shiny newness syndrome! Or GAS, as it is known - gear acquisition syndrome.

I also like taking landscape photos
For my landscape photos, I like to use my Canon 17-40mm lens. I like wide-angle photos, but when I’m photographing buildings, I don't want to go too wide, as things can begin to look unnatural. But with landscape photography, you can go much wider. Much wider indeed. And this is where I would dearly love the Canon 11-24mm lens. 11mm gives a horizontal field of view of an impressive 117 degrees. I could really use that for my landscape photography work.

But I wouldn't use 11mm for my photos of buildings. If I used 11mm, I would be making interior spaces look much larger—artificially large. For some people, that would not be a problem, but for me, this is a no-no. I take photos of buildings for architects, so I need to replicate the spaces accurately. The same applies to real estate photography.

Now, if I was photographing buildings for fun, that would be fine. That is the point. You use the lenses that work for what you are doing.

Again, I take my landscape photos with my camera on a tripod. I enjoy doing this, so a lens with a larger maximum aperture does not really interest me.

As to the other lenses I have
I bought the Canon 6D with a 24-105mm lens. This is a great general lens, a really great general lens. This is a great lens to start with. 24mm is a really good wide angle focal length. 105mm is a mild telephoto focal length, but the range is good. I used this when I was starting and found that I was taking more photos with the 24mm end of things because of what I was photographing and what I liked in my photos.

This led me naturally to the 17-40mm lens. On rare occasions when I am walking around a place with my Canon 6D, I will use the 24-105mm lens. I will explain why I don't do this in a minute.

My third lens is the Canon 70-200mm f/4 L lens. This is another excellent lens I used to use more, but much less so these days because of what I take photos of.

And that is it—there is no more with my Canon system. I have got rid of the other lenses.

Here is a list of the lenses that I have owned.

• 8-15mm fisheye zoom lens - I loved this lens but did not need it.
• 40mm pancake lens - I bought this because I thought I needed it - but I did not.
• 50mm f/1.8 lens - again, I bought this because everyone says you should have one of these - no, you shouldn't - I bought it and never used it.
• 100mm macro lens—I read something about macro lenses and bought one. I used it half a dozen times, and that was that.
• 100-400mm lens—I loved it and used it, but it sat in a cupboard for a couple of years without being used, so I sold it.
• 24mm tilt-shift lens. To be a real architectural photographer, you must use a tilt-shift lens, right? Really? Not for me.

I’m not going to apologise for repeating the point —get what you want, not what people tell you you have to have!

I also have an Olympus EM5 camera.
This is a micro four thirds camera, which I use for travel photography. My go-to lens is the 12-42mm pancake lens. Of course, 12-42 equates to 24-80mm on a full frame camera.

I like this lens because it is super compact. I can fit this camera and lens combo in a pocket. It is the smallest camera and lens combo I have ever had, and I love it.

I also have a 12-40mm lens, 24-80mm full-frame equivalent, with an f/2.8 maximum aperture. When I bought this lens, there was only the f/2.8 version. As lovely as this lens is, an f/4 version would be fine for me. And do you know what Olympus did? They introduced a load of f/4 maximum aperture lenses.

So if I got the 8-25mm Pro lens, with an effective focal length of 16-50mm, I would be a happy chappy.

Finally, I have the 40-150mm lens, which gives me an effective focal length of 80-300mm. That is a really good zoom range. 300mm gives a horizontal field of view of about 7 degrees.

With my Olympus system, my three lenses take me from 24mm to 300mm in real terms, which is all I need for my travel photography. These lenses are smaller and lighter, and I am happy to travel with this gear.

The lenses help me get the photos that I need. I take day-to-day stuff with the pancake lens, but when I am photographing a sunrise, I will use the pro lens, which gives me higher quality. However, the f/2.8 maximum aperture does not give me any real benefits.

That is what I do, and these are my thoughts on how I decided which lenses I need.

The talky bit
It is up to you what lenses you need. I can't tell you what you need. I can't tell every listener what lenses each of you needs in one podcast episode. But if you have any specific questions, please let me know.

No, there are so many variables here.

Like these. You do not have to only use a wide angle lens for landscape photography. You can get great landscape photos with a telephoto lens.

• But

Don't take headshots of people with a wide-angle lens—you will not get flattering results. For portrait photography, use a focal length of around 85mm to get the best results.

• And

Don't photograph motorsports with a wide-angle lens unless you are close, and then you can get some great effects. But for general photos of fast-moving cars on a track, you need a telephoto lens with as large a maximum aperture as you can afford. This helps you use faster shutter speeds while keeping the ISO as low as possible so as not to compromise quality.

• Standing right next to an F1 car can get amazing photos using a wide-angle lens.
• So you can use a wide-angle lens for motorsport.
• You can use a telephoto lens for landscape photography.
• But for flattering photos of people, use the right focal length.
• For sports photography, you will probably need a telephoto lens with a large maximum aperture.

And this is part of the challenge—different lenses give us different things.

Ever wonder why professional photographers at major sports events have massive lenses? There is a reason someone has spent $10,000 on a lens. Lens choice should always come back to need. If you are photographing lions in the jungle, a wide-angle lens will not help you—wildlife photography again has specific needs.

It depends on what you are photographing, how you are photographing it, and what you are trying to get out of the photo. What I do will probably be a different type of photography to what you do.

So, the one thing I want you to take from this episode is this: Work out what you want to take photos of before you buy a lens.

If you are unsure, get a general-purpose lens, as I did; the Canon 24-105mm lens was the one I got with my first full-frame camera.

But before that, I had a cropped sensor camera with the 18-55mm kit lens. That is a great starting point for lots of people. 18-55mm gives you an effective focal length of around 28mm to 88mm - wide-angle to telephoto. That is where I, and many, many other photographers, started. 

Right—I am done there.
I did have a load of other stuff in my script, but that was pretty much repeating what I said in the last episode, and no one wants that, do they? I quickly covered depth of field in the last episode, but I am going to pick this up in a future episode all of its own. But I will still call it depth of sharpness!! So I am done here.

Oh no, sorry. Here's a quick word on money.

How much money do you have to spend?
Remember that when you buy a lens, you are making a long-term investment. A lens will not get superseded in a year. I have had my lenses for over ten years, and they work perfectly. That is in part because they are professional-quality lenses,, but also because I look after them. I am going to cover that in the next episode.

What if I use a phone to take photos?
Get a camera. You can take better photos with a camera than you can with a phone. That is all I want to say here.

What do I do?
I have told you that. I found my way over many, many years. What I have told you here will hopefully help you and save you time and money as you go along your photographic journey.

Some thoughts from the last episode
Well, this is a follow-up to that episode. The beauty of modern cameras, whether DSLR or mirrorless cameras, is that you can see what you are taking a photo of through the viewfinder or LCD screen. Whatever lens you are using, you can see what it is capturing.

And that helps if the numbers are confusing.

And you can also check a photo after you have taken it to see what you have got.

But you still need to think before you take every photo. 

Next episode
How to look after lenses. I want to cover this. It might be a quick episode, although I have said that before, haven't I? I want to tell you how I look after my lenses, which have served me faithfully for many years. Yes, that is what I am going to do.

Ask me a question.
If you have a question you would like me to answer, email me at sales@rickmcevoyphotography.co.uk or visit the podcast website, photographyexplainedpodcast.com/start. Or text me from the podcast feed.

If you want to say hi, please do – I love hearing from my listeners.

OK - I am done.
This episode was brought to you by microwaved leftover sausages on a protein bagel no less, which I consumed before I settled down in my homemade, acoustically cushioned recording emporium.

I've been Rick McEvoy. Thanks again very much for listening to my small but perfectly formed podcast (it says here) and for giving me 27 minutes of your valuable time. After I have edited out the mistakes and other bad stuff, this episode will be about 30 minutes long.

Thanks for listening

Take care and stay safe.

Cheers from me, Rick