Which Lens Should I Use?

One of the most important decisions a photographer makes that will determine the look of their photograph is lens choice. Should you use a wide angle lens to show the whole scene? A long telephoto lens to compress the scene? A macro lens to get close and show all the details? A specialty lens like a Lensbaby or Tilt-Shift lens? The answer is – it depends on what you want your vision for your image is.

A couple weeks ago, I spent some time at the National Arboretum in Washington DC photographing a beautiful cherry tree with three different lens. Each lens gave me a very different look to my photos. All the photos were taken with my Sony A7iii full-frame camera on my tripod.

The first lens I used as my Sony 90mm Macro lens. The lens’ widest aperture is f 2.8 so I can get a very nice shallow depth of field if I want. The lens is image-stabilized so I can photograph hand-held with it without having to really up the ISO to get a sharp photo.

 

 

 

The next lens I worked with was my Lensbaby Burnside 35. This is a fun manual focus lens known for it’s swirling bokeh and vingnette effects or in other words – the Burnside gives me a great swirl effect in the background. It’s not a lens I use often, but when I do, I’m often pleased with the photos I get with it.

 

Finally, the third lens I worked with was my Lensbaby Velvet 56. Another manual focus lens, the Velvet 56 is known for it’s soft focus look especially when used wide open at f 1.6 and it’s ability to focus as close as five inches from the subject.

 

 

As you can see, each of the three lenses gives me a very different look for my photographs. And so back to the original question – which one should you use? The answer depends on what lenses are in your bag and what is the look you want for your photographs.

Figuring out which lens to use and how that choice will affect how your photo looks is one of the skills we’ll be talking about during my Gardens of Philadelphia workshop from May 5 – May 11. For more information about the workshop, visit https://beautifulflowerpictures.com/store/photographing-the-gardens-of-philadelphia-may-2019/