Five Areas of Photography Where Prime Lenses Shine

New photographers agonize over cameras, old photographers agonize over lenses. That's

been true as long as I've been in the business. Another debate that goes around periodically

is prime lenses vs zoom lenses. There doesn't need to be any real debate about primes and

zooms anymore, they both have their place in photography the trick is knowing when to pick

one over the other. how to be a photographer

A lot depends on what type of photography you're doing. Some types of shooting demand a

high quality zoom lens. Wedding photography moves so fast that you have to be able to

move, frame and shoot very quickly. All the same at weddings I keep a 35mm fixed focal

length lens on my backup body. I know, with that field of view, I can shoot any scene taking

place in front of me and be able to crop out the photo I want later. Stick with me after the

jump for the situations where prime lenses offer compelling advantages.

Landscape Photography

Landscapes don't tend to move very fast and you have a lot of options about where you

setup your camera. The landscape photographers I know shoot prime lenses almost

exclusively and that's because they crave consistency over speed. Landscape photography

also demands a flat plane for imaging. One thing most landscape photographers hate is any

hint of wide angle distortion. Eliminating barrel distortion means shooting with a minimum

35mm lens on an APS-C camera and 50mm on a full frame camera.

Photojournalism

PJs almost always carry more than one camera and one of those cameras has a fixed focal

length lens. In the case of journalism, they're looking for speed; being able to swing your

camera up and be ready to shoot by the time it reaches eye level. With a zoom lens you can

lose precious seconds adjusting the frame. It's sort of like the old days of newspaper

photography when photographers were hulking massive 4×5 cameras with a flashgun and

flash bulbs. That giant 4×5 negative allowed them to shoot fast and then crop out the picture

they wanted later.

Food Photography

Food photographers are lighting and detail freaks who figured out how to turn their near-OCD

attention to detail into a living. Food photographers need consistency and precise control

over Depth of Field and that nearly always pushes them toward prime lenses. Speed is not

an issue in food photography, but lighting, shadow and texture are everything. It's relatively

easy to adjust the distance of the camera, so there's every incentive not to use a zoom when

the slightest bump might throw off the frame.

Video

The DSLR video revolution is officially over with the introduction of video cameras like the

Sony FS100, which has a Super 35mm image sensor and video camera features. And yet

the reason video was added to DSLRs remains. Photographers are frequently asked to do

double duty covering local stories, shooting stills and video for the same piece. Prime lenses

are generally considered better for video and the reason is consistency.

Architectural Photography

Architecture lenses are usually a specialized type of fixed focal length lens called a tilt-shift

lens. The lens has additional gearing and adjustments that allow the photographer to move

the center line and to carefully control the elements that are in focus. It can be maddening

watching architecture photographers setting up for shot. It's a lot harder than it looks.

Lenses are nothing more than tools and, like any craft, one of the keys to success is

selecting the proper tool for the job.