How to Shoot Prime Lenses

 

Art Model, Trixie ©2017 Terrell Neasley

Prime lenses can be challenging to shoot with if you are used to using zoom lenses. However in all truth, they simplify your shooting experience more than they challenge it. Old school shooters used DSLRs with a 50mm 1.8, a 35mm, or maybe even a rangefinder style 24mm that was non-removable. 

So what are some of the difficulties of shooting with prime lenses. In truth, there is only one and that's the fact that prime lenses do not zoom. All other issues people talk about usually stem from that one main thing. 

1. Missing the range of a zoom's versatility

2. Changing lenses all the time

3. Having to move around

4. Can't use it if you are in a tight space without a wide-angle lens

Art Model, Trixie ©2017 Terrell Neasley

First, go back and look at my previous blog post, "The Case for Prime Lenses" to see the benefits of shooting primes. The trade-offs might be enough for you to forget about these minor infringements. If you're still having a tough time seeing it, then read on.

None of the cons of a prime lens inhibit your ability to make a good shot. Unless, that is, if you want to make your photographs from the comfort of a recliner with cup holders and a foot rest. If that is the case, then I will concede your point right here.

Art Model, Trixie ©2017 Terrell Neasley

However, I'd wager this is not the case. Prime lenses simply make you an active shooter, but in a good way. You become more engaged and alive. You bring in more movement and it pushes you to "see" and become more creative as your continue to work and gain experience. Dare I say it, it could be considered exercise! Because you will activate and engage photographic muscles that don't get developed as well when you use a zoom lens. 

Here is what you do. Get used to using your feet. Have a comfortable pair of shoes. This doesn't mean you need hiking boots. Just something comfortable to walk in, at least. If you are outdoors in the backcountry, then yeah... have some boots. Just make sure you are comfortable in them so you aren't tiring too quickly as you move around.

Art Model, Trixie ©2017 Terrell Neasley

Understand your shot selection and shoot according to the lens needed. For instance. Moving your person back and forth will usually suffice when you are using a lens in a single perspective. if you have a need to shoot at 50mm you can move in to get a 70mm perspective. It's practically the same. However, when necessary, get all your wide perspective in one group. Then change lenses and get all your portrait perspectives. See what I'm saying. Don't mix the two. If you do, you'll be switching lenses more than necessary, going back and forth more often than you need. 

As far as tight spaces go... well hell. You'll have that problem even if you have a zoom lens. The answer is simple... know your location and shot selection requirements. Then bring the gear necessary to accomplish the goals. 

I get it. Some locations aren't planned. Sometimes, you have a camera kit and see something spontaneously and it just doesn't work. Well, chances are, you'll run into the same problem with a zoom. In that case, you have to live with the hard lesson all photogs have to learn: You're not going to get every shot. Sometimes, you don't have the right gear. Sometimes, autofocus misses. Sometimes, there isn't enough light. Live with it and try to learn from the experience. 

Art Model, Trixie ©2017 Terrell Neasley

You should be able to cover 85% of your shots at all times with your gear. That's 85% of what you traditionally do. If you don't shoot wildlife, don't be pissed because you missed a rare sighting of a Blue-Eyed Ground Dove (Columbina Cyanopis) because you don't have a 600mm 1.4 lens. No... that's not your gig. Eighty-Five percent of all I do is covered between my 24mm 1.4, 55mm 1.8, and my 90mm 2.8 macro. The far away stuff, I let it go or get the best I can with it and maybe crop-in. If you endeavor to stand out, don't look for safe, security, easy, or SOS (Same Old Sh*t as everybody else is doing). Be like Trixie. Trixie don't do safe. Her brilliance will likely leave you feeling less secure about your own. Nothing about her is easy (Except for her hospitality! You will get drunk!) And she definitely does not put up with SOS people. Be a Trixie!

The Case for Prime Lenses

 

Art Model, Alba ©2021 Terrell Neasley 
Shot on Sony a6500, 55mm, 1/30th, f/1.8, ISO 640

It may not be a well-known fact about me, but I like to shoot with prime lenses more than I do zoom lenses. Yep, it's the truth! And this is a preference for me that has developed from years of experience with both types of lenses. Over time, my palate has been refined to a different taste and zooms lenses have become baloney to my "prime" steaks.

I began photography shooting zooms. Before I even understood zooms, I figured a small number that goes to a big number was the shit. So a 55mm that zoomed to 250mm was big stuff. Then I came to realize my ignorance and switched to the trifecta of lenses, the 16-35mm, 24-70mm, and the 70-200mm... all f/2.8! I ran with this for a long time and eventually added my first prime, the 85mm 1.2! That's correct. My first prime was a $2500 lens and not the $100 nifty-fifty 1.8. 

Art Model, Alba ©2021 Terrell Neasley 
Shot on Sony a6500, 24mm, 1/10th, f/5.6, ISO 3200

The 85 1.2 is where it started and where I first learned real speed in a lens. F/2.8 USED to be fast glass. F/1.2?? Now that's speed! But what good was this speed? How often would I need this speed? Yes, I like fast glass, but honestly, it's a bit over-rated. I shoot in the dark a lot, so it comes in handy, but rarely do I find myself needing 1.2 shallowness as a travel photographer. Two-Eight is still really good and so is One-Eight. That being said... don't kid yourself. F 1.4 is the standard. 

But the more true reason I'm all primes now is the quality of my work and that's all that should matter. And I'm not talking just sharpness, but that's high on the list of considerations when you're shooting a high-resolution camera system. What I DON'T get from a Prime lens is also important. I don't get chromatic aberrations. I don't get a lot of vignette. Distortion is also minimized. And when I do get a little barreling when shooting my Sony 24 1.4 G-Master, it's pretty much auto-corrected when I begin editing using lens profiles. I also don't get any gravitational lensing in my work. Shit... sorry. Mixing astrophysics into my photography. I do that sometimes.

Art Model, Alba ©2021 Terrell Neasley 
Shot on Sony a6500, 24mm, 1/50th, f/2.8, ISO 100

Anytime you consider the pros and advantages of something, it's fair to do cons and disadvantages. However here's the thing... with prime lens, the Number 1 disadvantage is a PRO for me!

Yep, I said that right and that's what you read. Ask anyone. The biggest disadvantage for primes is the fixed focal length. It only has one. It's such an disadvantage that they made it the name of the alternative to prime lenses... Zoom Lenses. Having a fixed or singular focal length means you CANNOT zoom to a greater or lesser focal length.

What's a focal length? That's the first number you use to describe a lens. You refer to it in millimeters, such as a 24mm lens. A 200 millimeter lens. Twenty-Four to Seventy Millimeter lens. Like that... see?

Art Model, Alba ©2021 Terrell Neasley 
Shot on Sony a7r2, 24mm Macro, 1/80th, f/2.8, ISO 400

If there is one number, it's a prime. Prime, meaning one. If there are two numbers, it's a zoom. You can zoom from one focal length to another. Sometimes that zoom range will be short and sometimes long. A 16-35mm lens is short focal range, but typical for a wide-angle lens. A 28-300mm lens is considered to be an all-in-one lens with a long zoom range. 

A point of fact to understand is that focal length has nothing to do with the Angle of View for a lens. Wide-angle vs Telephoto isn't defined by millimeters. It's defined by degrees. Focal length is an actual distance defined by the distance between the point of convergence and the sensor (or film plane). Click on the highlighted text for illustrations of this. 

Art Model, Alba ©2021 Terrell Neasley 
Shot on Sony a7r2, 55mm, 1/40th, f/1.8, ISO 640

So back to my point. How is the main disadvantage of a prime lens a PRO for me? In a nutshell, it helps me develop as a photographer. A prime lens makes turns ME into the Zoom function. If I need a closer perspective (Zoom in) I move my feet! If I need to zoom out, I move my feet! In either case, I am choosing my composition and interacting with my subject. It makes me more involved to make these choices and since it is not something as unconscious as spinning a zoom ring on a lens, I become more purposeful and more focused on what my selections are. I think about my composition more. I do not do it as an afterthought while operating the camera. I become more resolved and the reasons for making those specific choices are much more conscious and deliberate. I am better for it, because I took the control away from my tool and did it myself. 

Light has to travel through more glass and air inside the barrel of a zoom lens. This makes it more prone to light loss and diffraction as it bounces around the inside of the lens. It's manipulated through more glass of various concave and convex shapes on its way to the point of convergence before it hits your sensor. This can vary the degree of sharpness from one photo to the next as well as introduce chromatic aberrations and vignettes.

Art Model, Alba ©2021 Terrell Neasley 
Shot on Sony a7r2, 55mm, 1/60th, f/3.5, ISO 100

I enjoy shooting with prime lenses, even when I am forced to change lenses from my 24mm to my 55mm lens. I shoot wide to standard. Rarely do I shoot telephoto anymore. It's not my genre and hardly ever has it been so. I noticed this 10 years ago while doing a lens profile on my photos and less than 10% of my images where shot on anything longer than 90 or 100 millimeters. 

I don't say I'll never use zooms. I'm even thinking about the Tamron 35-150. I'm a travel photographer but not all my work needs to be artistic. Sometimes I just want to see further out and get that shot. And I don't knock zooms either. The 24-70 served me well! But as I said, I refined my tastes and prime lenses suit me better. They might even be more expensive in some cases. But I get my speed. They are often smaller and lighter weight. And as I've stated, the quality is unmatched. The 24 to 70 is badass. But I prefer a 24mm lens and a 55mm lens. And soon to have... a 105mm Macro!

Art Model, Alba ©2021 Terrell Neasley 
Shot on Sony a7r2, 55mm, 1/60th, f/1.8, ISO 100