Appropriate focal lengths

[Lizziejane]

Hi everyone,

I'm finding that I'm still very confused about which lens to use when. Despite having spent the last 5 months cruising every website I can find on photography, I've seen very little on "which lens to use when".

For example, my son got a new guitar and he wants some "cool" pictures of it. I know in my mind that I want several that are close up of the strings, but I don't have a macro. Am I better off to use my 50mm prime, getting as close as possible, and being prepared to crop away lots of unwanted stuff. Or should I shoot from much further back, using my 70-300 but being able to zero in on one spot more specifically?

I don't know why I have such a hard time with this concept...but it does baffle me!

TIA!

Jane

 

[MICKEY88]

Hi everyone,

I'm finding that I'm still very confused about which lens to use when. Despite having spent the last 5 months cruising every website I can find on photography, I've seen very little on "which lens to use when".

For example, my son got a new guitar and he wants some "cool" pictures of it. I know in my mind that I want several that are close up of the strings, but I don't have a macro. Am I better off to use my 50mm prime, getting as close as possible, and being prepared to crop away lots of unwanted stuff. Or should I shoot from much further back, using my 70-300 but being able to zero in on one spot more specifically?

I don't know why I have such a hard time with this concept...but it does baffle me!

TIA!

Jane

the best way to learn is to set up the guitar and try different lenses and see which gives you the look you want

 

[jann1033]

which lenses do you have? the 50mm you can probably crop at least by 1/2 is you get it sharp enough. my favorite lens for close ups is my 70-200 f4, at 200mm then i crop it the rest of the way( i can usually crop by about 1/2) just cause it is my sharpest best lens overall, the only problem being i have to be about 4 ft away... my macro lens just isn't as sharp

this is with my 70-200,from about 4 ft away i didn't even see the frog( probably no bigger than 1/4 " in real life as the flower was only maybe and 1 or so ) till it downloaded it so i didn't focus on it ( and cropped a little to much, hence the blur). also hope it's not the plant's partly digested lunch since these were so kind of pitcher plants, sorry if it's kind of gross

 

[tinksdad]

It does get better with use.

I love the macro shots, a good macro lens is a great thing to have in your bag. Macro lenses will focus very close to the subject. However, you can do similar with a lots of different lenses. If the tight shot is what you want, then either move close or crop to you liking. If you wan to get a lot of foreground and background in the shot, then a wide angle lens is going to work better. If you want to be able to zoom in from your present vantage point then a high power zoom would be an appropriate choice.

Prime lenses are "usually" sharper than a zoom, but lacks the focal distance versatility. Faster lenses (with lower, consistent apertures, like f/2.8) are better for lower light shots.

Try the 50mm and position the light to rake the guitar body (if you can get a similar light to the guitar body, that would cool). Have the guitar positioned to be angled from the bottom of the frame to the top and get down low. Try some different aperture levels for different DOF to see what you like best.

just some thoughts.....

 

[seashoreCM]

I don't think it matters what focal length lens you use so long as you can get the picture framed the way you want.

For this reason not much is said about when to choose a telephoto or wide angle or macro lens. Photographers just play it by ear, if they can't get close enough, they put on a longer focal length lens, etc..

Usually you get more depth of field for a given field of vision with a longer focal length lens (more "telephoto").

You do get size distortions -- closer objects appear disproportionately larger with shorter focal length lenses. Or for that matter the opposite is seen with telephoto lenses, long objects with one end nearer the camera, or deep objects, appear shorter or shallower respectively.

Given a lot of time to set up and frame each shot, I would choose the lens to get the picture the way I want without the need to crop later.

Disney hints: http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/disney.htm

 

[Lizziejane]

Thanks all! If I'm hearing right, there's no "rule" - just go with what works best.

I've taken the shots with both the 50mm and the 70-300. Just got to download them now...

One thing I did discover is that getting the full guitar into a 50mm frame meant I had to back WAY up!

 

[mabas9395]

The other thing that matters besides focal length is minimum focusing distance. You might decide that standing 1ft away from the guitar with your 50mm fills the fram like you want it, but if it has an 18inch minimum focusing distance, you're out of luck.