Getting The Most Out Of Your Prime Lens



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There are a lot of reasons to shoot with a prime lens. Sure, you’re losing the convenience of having multiple focal lengths on one lens, but using a prime lens will more than make up for it in other areas. Not only are they relatively inexpensive due to their simple design, but prime lenses also typically produce sharper photos, have wider apertures, and are less bulky than their zoom lens counterparts. Here’s some pointers to make sure you’re getting the most of out your lenses, including some tips on purchasing a prime lens that you won’t “outgrow” as your skills improve.

Getting The Most Out Of Your Prime Lens

Photo by n3rraD

Choosing The Right Prime

Prime lenses come in a wide range of focal lengths. Since you won’t be able to zoom in and out with the lens as you would do on a zoom lens, it’s important you pick out a focal length that best suits your needs and style of photography. The most popular prime lens is the 50mm, or the nifty fifty as it is more affectionately called. A 50mm prime lens is especially great for taking portraits and it is also very common with street photographers. If you’re not sure which focal length to get, a 50mm prime lens is a great starting point and excellent addition to any photographer’s kit.

Landscape and architectural photographers may prefer a wider lens, something under 40mm, that will allow them to squeeze in more scenery. 35mm prime lenses are also commonly used by street photographers. On the other end of the spectrum, a telephoto prime lens will help you get tighter into your subject. Common telephoto lengths are 85mm, 100mm, and 135mm; however, it’s not uncommon to see a 600mm prime for bird and sports photography.

Lastly, if you are shooting on a crop sensor camera, you may want to consider purchasing full frame lenses. A full frame lens will still work on a crop sensor camera, so if you ever upgrade your equipment, you won’t have to replace your lenses, too. Whereas, lenses made for crop sensor cameras, will not work on a full frame camera.

Learn To Love Neutral Density Filters

One of the best parts of a prime lens is taking advantage of wide apertures to create a shallow depth of field or some lovely bokeh in the background. While this is usually an advantage, there will be bright, sunny days when you want to shoot at f1.8, but it’s just too much light. When you can’t compensate for the excess light by adjusting the shutter speed or ISO, you’ll find a neutral density filter is there to help. The filter will block out a certain number of stops without you having to compromise any of your exposure settings.

Getting The Most Out Of Your Prime Lens

Photo by Kain Kalju

The more you shoot and become comfortable with exploring the limits of your prime lens, you’ll find a neutral density filter is almost an essential element to your gear bag.

Everything In Moderation

When shooting with a fast lens, it’s going to be tempting to want to shoot everything wide open. As you’ll discover, though, you need to use discretion when shooting at apertures below f1.8, f1.4, and especially f1.2.  Before firing of a shot at f1.4, think to yourself what an appropriate depth of field actually is. It’s not uncommon to see a portrait of someone in which a wide aperture resulted in important elements of the subject’s face to be out of focus.

Getting The Most Out Of Your Prime Lens

Photo by Tetsumo

For example, on a wide aperture, a person’s nose may be in perfect focus, but their eye, the most important part of a portrait, will not be sharp at all. You can refocus on the eye, but this will only cause the nose to be out of focus. Boosting your aperture up a stop or two is often enough to add a touch more depth, without overdoing it. An exercise you can do to help you better understand depth of field is to set your camera up on a tripod, adjust it to aperture priority mode and take a test shot of a fixed object at different apertures. Compare the depth of field between each of the shots when you’re finished.

Finally, keep in mind that just because you can’t zoom in and out with your lens, you can still use your feet to “zoom” in either direction. In fact, another hidden benefit of shooting with a prime lens is they train your eye by getting you to think more creatively about how to compose a shot–don’t be afraid to move around the entire scene until you get it just right!