Becoming a better photographer with prime lenses
Categories: Featured, Lenses, Photography Gear, Photography Tips
Written By: james
One of the questions many photographers ask themselves when buying a new lens is if they should buy a zoom or prime (single focal length) lens. Most of the time they pick a zoom lens and to be honest, I would pick a zoom lens too, it’s just more practical. But there are some photographers out there who use nothing but prime lenses and claim that using anything else makes you lazy.
Below is a list of way to better yourself as a photographer with prime lenses which will hopefully convince you to have at least one of them in your arsenal.
Know your lenses.
I went through a phase once where I would use nothing but prime lenses. Back then I was lucky enough to have access to some really high quality glass through work and would often find myself using a 14mm 2.8, 50mm 1.2, 85mm 1.2, or 200mm 2.0. After a lot of practice, I learned what each lens could and couldn’t do. I knew what kind of distortion I would get, how far away I had to be from a subject, and what kind of depth of field was possible. Knowing how these things behave at different focal lengths can help a lot, especially when you go back to using a zoom lens.
After shooting nothing but prime lenses for a while, I eventually starting manually focusing. Probably because my left hand had nothing better to do. Getting back to the basics and stopping your dependency on your cameras automatic features will help you understand your equipment, and that’s the first step to mastering it.
Zoom with your feet.
If your lens can’t zoom, then the only way to do it is by moving. This is usually a reason for not buying a prime lens, but it’s actually like a blessing in disguise. You are now forced to physically walk in order to change the perspective and composition of your photograph, no longer can you let the zoom do all the work. This will result in you being more aware of your surroundings, incorporating that into your pictures, and eventually understanding the importance of framing.
Plan your composition.
If you limit yourself to only prime lenses, you have to learn the capabilities of each one of your lenses and which one is best for certain situations. Say you want to photograph a statue, your first instinct would be to zoom, fill the frame, and shoot. Having prime lenses on the other hand, you now have to think about what lens you want to use, where you want to stand, and different resulting perspectives.
Take into account the background, surrounding buildings, objects, anything. It can all be used to add something to the photograph. Sometimes the background is just as important as the subject.
Stop being lazy.
When I go anywhere with my camera, I always have a 24-70 2.8L attached to the body. It’s a very good lens but unfortunately, the only times that I do change lenses is when I find 24mm is not wide enough or 70mm is not long enough. I myself am guilty of being a lazy photographer. Ways to combat this laziness is by using primes and forcing yourself to change lenses constantly. This will help improve your creativity by, as already mentioned above, making yourself plan your composition.
Practice makes perfect. Experiment with a prime lens any chance you get. A good idea is to use only one focal length to photograph a subject, then photograph it again but this time use a different focal length.
Conclusion.
A lot of people find a style of composition that they like and stick to it. They don’t try anything new because with a zoom lens, it’s easy for them to get their desired results. Prime lenses help break this by forcing you to try something new, to think differently, and to experiment. And after you learn the importance of framing, perspectives, and composition, you can easily transfer that knowledge to zoom lenses and hopefully no longer be a “lazy photographer.”
To sum things up:
- - Know how things behave at different focal lengths.
- - Stop your dependency on your cameras automatic feature.
- - Be aware of your surroundings and incorporate it into your picture.
- - Understand the important of framing and composition.
- - Try different perspectives.
- - And stop being lazy.
What lenses (prime) do you have?
Do you think you have improved because of prime lenses?
Do you sometimes find yourself being a lazy photographer as a result of zoom lenses?
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August 13th, 2008 at 8:18 pm
Hi there.
While I agree that primes force you to work “harder” to find your composition than zooms, I think that zooms give you more flexibility when composing because you have a better control over the perspective of the picture.
Of course you can switch lenses until you get the perspective you want, but carrying 5 lenses instead of one when in the field is not that convenient. And it is also kinda time consuming.
I talk about it here:
http://www.megapixelicio.us/2008/07/15/focal-length-and-perspective/
August 14th, 2008 at 1:22 pm
The only prime I currently have is a 105mm I use for macro photography which works great since I am near to the subject anyway. I have a 70-200mm for sports, but I’m wondering how a 300mm prime would work out. It would give me the range I want, but would it limit my shots? I have been shooting track cars for the last year and wonder if it would be versatile enough to be used there…
August 14th, 2008 at 1:46 pm
@Pete: The 300mm would only be good if you can have a certain level of control over your distance to the subject. If you know where you are going to sit and that distance is good @300mm when the subject is at a certain spot, just meeter and focus for that point and you are set.
If you have no control over the shooting conditions you are better with zooms. That is why studio shooters mostly have primes while weding photographers use zooms (24-70 & 70-200 mostly)
August 15th, 2008 at 3:42 am
Zooms, primes… If you have no clue what do you want to do, neither will help you.
Primes are sexy, but there’s nothing wrong with being lazy and creative at the same time - hence (even if I love primes) I stick to zooms. 
August 15th, 2008 at 4:13 am
I’ve been thinking about getting a prime lens recently, just a nifty 50mm (which will be 80mm on my body) mainly for portrait, just to see how i get on with them. i agree with wojtek - primes are sexy. and i want them
August 15th, 2008 at 4:37 am
[...] has an interesting article on how to use prime lenses to become a better photographer. When I first started out, I heard [...]
August 15th, 2008 at 8:11 am
A couple of issues that need to be addressed: Primes are faster, sharper for the money. Sure, you can buy a bad prime, and you can buy a better zoom, but the 50mm f/1.4 is about $300. No zoom on the market can do f/1.4. Hell, even the 50mm f/1.8 is faster than any zoom (and sharper than most).
You can buy one outstanding zoom (24-70 f/2.8, say) for about $1200. You can get the 24mm f/2.8 ($300), the 50mm f/1.4 ($330), 35mm f/2.0 ($250) and the 85mm f/1.8 ($360) for a total of $1250. Each of those primes is going to come close to or (in some cases) exceed the image quality of the zoom (which is an L and a really good zoom) . The fact that you get one, one and a half and two full stops greater speed in the primes is a huge factor.
August 15th, 2008 at 2:45 pm
That is about what I figured. I didn’t think prime lenses and sports would mesh together too well. Primes work great for studio and macro photography.
August 15th, 2008 at 2:59 pm
@Torgeaux: it is all true, but there is one big caveat: you have to have the time to switch lenses between shots, else you can only use the lens that is on your body…
I see primes more like speciality lenses and zoom like general walk around lenses.
August 16th, 2008 at 2:17 pm
There’s some handy little tips here. I think that whether or not prime lenses are going to help you is pretty dependent on how and what you shoot, though. Using a prime on assignment where a zoom might have gotten a shot that a prime wouldn’t have (due to being able to zoom and get the shot fast, rather than having to run across the street in traffic) is just asking to lose your job or piss of clients.
In regards to sport photography, most professionals do use prime lenses. Unlike non-professionals, though, they tend to have several cameras on them with different lengths. Zoom lenses get to be overbearingly heavy and expensive past about 200mm.
Another argument worth looking at, is that while having several prime lenses might cost the same as a zoom lens, filters for each might end up emptying your wallet. On the flip side, though, dropping your camera and breaking your single zoom lens might mean your career is over when you might have been able to replace a prime.
August 18th, 2008 at 6:43 am
Megapixel: No real need to change that often in most situations. However, sometimes a zoom is the only thing that will work in a given situation. My point is, a zoom is not superior to a prime in any way, it just fills a different need. Since sometimes what you want is the highest quality optics, those rest in primes, not zooms.
Corey: The 24, 50, and 100 in my example take the same filters.
February 6th, 2009 at 5:13 pm
Awesome article. I totally agree – I also wonder why so many people respond with ‘but you can be creative and still use the zoom!’ as they have, therefore, completely missed the point.
I remember university and our first photography lesson was to be given a fully manual SLR with a 50mm 1.4 lens - we were told to go out and fill 3 films. If we’d have had zoom lenses those reels would not have lasted long - but it was quite a tough exercise - with some interesting results.
Using Primes does force you to think and to physically move… and to use natural light sources more. I also find that I crop less (due to thinking about my framing more).
It also brings back the ‘good’ element of a point’n’shoot. I love primes…. I could happily use a prime all day.