Street photography traditionally makes use of a relatively wide angle lens, with 35mm and 24mm options often being the most popular. Of course, you do not have to limit yourself to those focal lengths, however. This interesting video essay makes a case for why you should grab a 50mm lens the next time you head out for a street photography session.
Coming to you from Robin Wong, this great video discusses the benefits of using a 50mm lens for street photography. Usually, street photography is shot with a 24mm or 35mm lens, as this allows the photographer to immerse themselves in the action and capture intimate, dynamic shots. However, a 50mm lens can be a nice alternative. A lot of street photographers eschew telephoto lenses because they have overly long working distances and can be tricky to use in crowded situations, but a 50mm can be a nice in-between, offering a bit more ability to isolate subjects in the frame while not being such a long focal length that it forces you totally out of the action. On top of that, if you enjoy working with narrow depth of field, you can typically get a narrower DOF using a longer focal length and the same aperture. Furthermore, wide-aperture 50mm lenses can be purchased for less than $100. Check out the video above for the full rundown from Wong.
4 Comments
Not the nifty-fifty myth again. *groan*
The only reason people bought 50mm lenses in the film days was because it were the cheapest lenses when you needed a wide aperture. Because of the low price it was often the kit lens.
Any focal length you use exclusively for an extended time becomes your favourite. Not because it's the perfect focal length, but because you're so well trained to it.
For a lot of people this was 50mmm, for others (like me) it was 35mm.
There's nothing "special" or "magical" about 50mm.
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PS: Personally I avoid anything between 35mm and 70mm, but that's just me, because of the focal length I have trained to see. (If I had to use one focal length for the rest of my life, it would be 35mm.)
My apoeal to all video creators is to please hurry up and get to the point and omit all the verbage; Robin Wong makes some good points in support of the 50mm but the content could be cut by 50% making the video much more succint and still put the points across.
That's why I stopped watching videos promoted here or on petapixel.
If you think your content is good, write an article.
Exactly, but I wonder...do they have time frames they need to meet or they can video however long they want?