Photographers are required to use different focal lengths when taking a shot from a scene or trying to capture a portrait of an individual. Each photo type will have a different requirement, due to which it is essential for a photographer to keep a suitable lens with him all the time. A 50mm lens is one of the most common lenses found in every photographer’s bag. This focal length gives several significant advantages to all photographers, regardless of skill level.
Similar Articles you may like to read –
Prime Lens Photography? When To Use Prime Lens? Why They Are Good?
Wide Angle Lens Photography? What Are Wide Angle Lens? When And How To Use Them?
35mm vs 50mm vs 85mm lenses. How to use them and which one is right for you?
What Are Zoom Lenses? When And How To Use Zoom Lenses?
Therefore, whether you are a beginner or a pro, you must know why should someone use 50mm lens for photography. All of the advantages of a 50mm lens are also listed in this guide for you.
Why Would You Use a 50mm Lens?
First and foremost, the vast majority of 50mm lenses are quite affordable and can capture a wide variety of objects with excellent image quality. The user gets so many choices with this lens, such as control variance that have much faster apertures than standard kit lenses. Photographers will benefit from being able to get clean images with a shallow depth of field and background blur that clearly accentuates their subject.
Realistically, digital cameras are difficult to understand and operate. The Menu systems are filled with several options, making it difficult to get a perfect uniform setting. However, one must understand them to capture good photos.
We know that understanding the various types of cameras, settings, and techniques can be overwhelming if you are new to the photography industry. Thus, we have provided this master article – camera 101, to help all beginners and even experienced photographers understand their cameras.
Click Below to know all about Cameras, From start to end.
There will be the ideal 50mm for you, and it will give you the most realistic perspective, for better or worse. It is true that some lenses with long focal lengths have a tendency to distort faces or other objects in photographs, which can be either a benefit or a drawback.
However, this issue won’t arise if you use a 50mm lens. A 35mm lens that simulates a human eye would be the best option for providing you with a completely realistic perspective. This lens is less adaptable than a 50mm lens, though. A 50mm lens is unmatched if you want to produce natural images and make them as genuine as possible.
Is The 50mm Lens Suitable For Taking Portraits?
The 50mm lens is fantastic for portraiture, in case you haven’t figured by now! You have a good working distance from your subject using a 50 mm lens. You can maintain intimacy while remaining close enough to offer directions without invading the subject’s personal space. Particularly for environmental portraits, the 50mm excels. You can capture portraits with a flattering focus length while still leaving space for the location and scene that the photo contest requires.
Because the background is so blurry, it loses context and significance, both of which are crucial for an environmental photo.
Is 50mm Suitable For Landscape?
Landscape photography can absolutely be done with the 50mm lens. The reason is that, a 50mm lens is able to hold its quality while balancing the foreground and also the background with suitable depth of field. This enhances the composition and photographers are able to incorporate different weather and lighting conditions. The fact that it’s so light and affordable, a 50mm lens may be used with ease by any photographer.
If you are a general photographer with no clear area of expertise who occasionally captures landscape pictures, you will undoubtedly need to put forth more effort in composition. But a 50mm lens is always a fantastic option because of its sharpness, color, and detail. Just be aware that the working fixed focal length on a crop sensor camera can be closer to 75mm or more, so make preparations in advance.
Reasons to Choose a 50mm Lens
Perfect For Portraiture
Any portrait photographer utilizing a crop sensor camera will likely respond with 50mm as their preferred focal length. While the closest focal length in practice is 85mm, the full-frame equivalent is roughly 75mm. Of course, a variety of focal lengths can be used for portraiture. Using a 50mm lens on a crop sensor camera results in compression that is somewhat close, but the field of view is the same.
However, the 50 mm standard lens is a clear victor because of its attractive and natural appearance. Additionally, pet photography is an excellent use for this focal length.
Macro Photography Is A Viable Option
While it’s a little trickier to maintain the lens steady while taking a macro image, this method allows you to capture some reasonably good macro shots. It is important for every new photographer to know that, when done correctly, macro photography works flawlessly with a 50mm lens. Of course, you could always bring extension tubes with you, but it isn’t the most convenient or comfortable solution. By doing so, you can broaden your photographic skills and practice a new photographic specialty.
Bring The Subject Up Close
The 50mm lens brings life a little bit closer as compared to a 35mm lens. Sometimes you won’t be able to zoom in, or a bigger range of view might just be too cluttered. You can get a tighter frame with a 50mm lens to focus fully on your subject.
It Promotes Effective Composition
The human eye’s focal length is 50mm. Because it has the same field of view as in daily life but cropped, it is, therefore, the most natural one to picture with. One of the most important lessons for aspiring photographers is this. Additionally, it’s healthier and more enjoyable for the rest of us. A bundled kit lens is frequently available for beginners for a wonderful price, but a fast 50mm prime lens offers great bokeh and outstanding low-light performance in a much smaller, lighter package.
Excellent for Low-Light Situations
In addition to having a shallow depth of focus, the 50mm lens also allows for nighttime shooting. Many lenses have this as their weak point, and the 50mm lens is ideal in this situation. The aperture opening is the straightforward cause of this. While many telephoto lenses have a fixed or variable aperture of f/2.2, most 50mm lenses have an f/1.4 or f/1.8 aperture. However, this is more than sufficient to let in additional light, giving you a fantastic night photo.
Isolate The Subject
A 50mm lens shooting at its widest aperture (often f/1.8 — or even wider) will beautifully separate your subject from its surroundings, whereas the 35mm will frequently collect everything and keep everything quite crisp. This is ideal for portrait photography because it allows you to isolate the subject from the surroundings, drawing attention naturally to the focal point of your picture.
Your photos will appear more theatrical because of the soft, out-of-focus areas that are produced with this tutorial’s shallow depth of field. A wide aperture also aids in low-light conditions. The greatest place to start if you want to make them look like Hollywood heroes is with a 50mm lens and a wide aperture.
Outstanding Optical Quality
The 50mm fixed prime tends to be sharper because it is a prime lens rather than being at the very edge of a zoom lens of comparable caliber. This is due to the fact that a prime lens must make significantly fewer optical compromises. The various 50mm versions differ from one another in terms of optical fault severity and sharpness. You ultimately get what you pay for.
Naturally, a 50mm lens frequently has an absolutely enormous aperture size, so it’s normally advisable to stop it down a few stops to get the sharpness just right. While doing so, the enormous aperture continues to let in more light, which is useful in low-light situations.
Fantastic for Landscapes
The 50mm prime lens is more than sufficient for landscape photography, even though it may not immediately come to mind as a “primary” option for this. Going too wide and failing to accent any one point of interest in a landscape photograph is a typical error. Much of the backdrop is removed when you crop in at 50mm, giving the subject more opportunity to breathe as the focal point of the picture.
Additionally, you always have the choice to add a panorama together after the fact if you discover that you actually require a wider focal length. Try leaving your wide-angle camera lens at home the next time you’re out for a walk and only bringing the 50mm.
Amazingly Versatile
All focal lengths have a sweet spot, and that is 50mm. It isn’t particularly broad, but it’s also not particularly telephoto. The fact that a 50-mm fixed focal length may function rather well in a variety of situation types makes it one of the most useful lenses to own. In terms of pure versatility and value for money, a 50 mm prime lens is tough to beat.
How To Use a 50mm Lens – Easy Tips
You might be wondering how to shoot with a 50mm lens because they are commonly utilized for anything from street photography to journalism and portraits. This largely depends on the subject you’re photographing, but our advice will give you some ideas to play around with and figure out what you want to photograph.
· When using autofocus for humans, birds, or animals, turn on topic detection if your camera has it. Even when utilizing an extremely shallow depth of field, this aids in maintaining the eye or face’s sharpness.
· To render a shallower depth of field, try with different settings on apertures. This will make your personality stand out against a delicate background or put them in the center of an environmental portrait. The majority of your image will be fuzzy if your depth of field is shallow, which is good for many shots but may not be perfect in all circumstances.
· Shooting in low light for moody pictures with shadows and producing bokeh effects with background light is also enjoyable. It will help you motivate for using a fast aperture lens.
How Does A 50mm f/1.4 Lens Compare To A 50mm f/1.8 Lens?
The 50mm prime f/1.4 is consistently sharper than the 50mm prime f/1.8 with owning and using both of these lenses. You could easily detect the difference in sharpness at the same aperture if you shot them side by side. With the 50mm prime lens’s silent motor, focusing is hardly audible. The f/1.4 is also composed of plastic, like the 50mm f/1.8, but it feels higher quality in hand.
More articles you may like to read –
Camera Lenses For Photography, When To Use Which Lens? Type Of Lens
What Is Flare Photography? How to Achieve Perfect Lens Flare?
How To Set Dslr Camera Lens To Autofocus?
How To Set Lens Focus To Infinity?
What Distinguishes 50mm Lenses From Other Lenses?
There are several factors for which a 50mm lens can be differentiates from all the other lenses. Generally it is compared with a 35mm lens and users are often confused in choosing between the 35mm and 50mm lens. Both lenses are excellent, popular choices. A broader field of view is often provided by the 35mm, although it also has higher distortion. The 35mm lens is excellent for getting up close to the action or including a lot of background elements in your picture.
On the other hand, 50mm lenses are a more attractive focal length for portraiture, but they can be awkward in confined spaces like inside or around crowds outside. So it is a better option for you to try out your photography skills in every field of life.
It is adaptable, reasonably priced, and excellent for taking different types of photos. This is the reason they also sometimes also call it a “nifty 50” lens.
Pros Of Using 50mm Lens
- These lenses are compact and lightweight because they don’t need stabilization or zooming mechanisms.
- There are several models to pick from, and they offer great value.
- It is a versatile lens with a focus range similar to human eyesight that works well for candid images, portraits, street photography, landscapes, and other types of photography.
- It can help you improve compositional skills.