In what situations would you, personally, use a focal length of 50mm?

splproductions · Aug 10, 2012

I hope this doesn't sound like a completely stupid question. I'm asking this because I've been learning lately about how the distance between you and your subject (and thus, the focal length you choose to photograph that subject), will either "stretch" things out (wide-angle) or compress them (telephoto).

A photoblog I was reading said that 50mm gives you the "normal", human-eye perspective, and going either wider or more telephoto "alters reality", and that is where you start getting creative.

So in what situations do people use a "normal" focal length of 50mm? ETA: In case you don't read my later post, I'm talking 50mm full-frame, not 50mm on a crop-sensor.

(NOTE: I realize that the focal length isn't what changes the perspective - it's the distance between you and you're subject - so we don't need to go down that road).

MLeeK · Aug 10, 2012

Are you wondering about the effects of lens distortion? Does this help This Image Shows How Camera Lenses Beautify or Uglify Your Pretty Face

splproductions · Aug 10, 2012

MLeeK said:
Are you wondering about the effects of lens distortion? Does this help This Image Shows How Camera Lenses Beautify or Uglify Your Pretty Face

No - I've been to that exact site just today, and many others like it. I realize that for portraits, you should be standing a certain distance from the subject, and the focal lengths that allow you to fill your frame properly at that distance fall in the ~85mm range and up... to a certain point obviously.

So I guess my question is, when would you use 50mm? (For any style of photography, not just people photography). This site I was reading kind of made it seem like 50mm was a "boring" focal length because it presents the subject as the human-eye would see it, and you want your photography to "come alive" - whether that be stretching things out or compressing them.

I'm probably not making myself very clear. I'm just thinking about what prime lenses I want to eventually get, and I'm wondering what I would use a 50mm focal length for. Do people consider 50mm to be boring and not very useful?

Sw1tchFX · Aug 10, 2012

Just about everything. 50mm on FF (usually 80mm on 645 actually) is my favorite focal length to shoot.

Ballistics · Aug 10, 2012

50mm is pretty good for chest up portraits. I've gotten into the habit of shooting in the 100mm range but 50mm does well.
On my D7000, the 50mm does not give normal perspective.

SCraig · Aug 10, 2012

50mm is considered to me a "Normal" lens on a 35mm camera, or a full-frame DSLR. On a crop-sensor camera "Normal" is closer to 35mm.

Personally I seldom use 50mm. The two lenses I use the vast majority of the time are a 17-70mm zoom and a 70-300mm zoom. The rest of the time it's normally a 150-500mm zoom.

Ballistics · Aug 10, 2012

SCraig said:
50mm is considered to me a "Normal" lens on a 35mm camera, or a full-frame DSLR. On a crop-sensor camera "Normal" is closer to 35mm.

Personally I seldom use 50mm. The two lenses I use the vast majority of the time are a 17-70mm zoom and a 70-300mm zoom. The rest of the time it's normally a 150-500mm zoom.

How is that 150-500mm?

PhotoWrangler · Aug 10, 2012

splproductions said:
So I guess my question is, when would you use 50mm? (For any style of photography, not just people photography).

As with anything photography related, your question is highly answered with personal preferences. I know wedding photographers who will shoot nearly an entire wedding with nothing more than a 50mm lens. Conversely, I know other wedding photographers who have every lens in the Nikon lineup, and use them on every single shoot.

splproductions said:
Do people consider 50mm to be boring and not very useful?

The 50mm 1.8 is generally regarded as one of THE MOST useful lenses in my opinion.

Derrel · Aug 10, 2012

When my 45-P or my 60-D just won't do!

I like a 50 on FF for people outdoors, in social situations,or in sucky lighting conditions. A 50mm lens is good on FF for creating a natural "look" that is not wide-angle and not telephoto, and which preserves a pretty "realistic" size/spatial/distance relationship between near objects and background objects. On crop-body digital, a 50mm is a short telephoto, with good sharpness, LIGHT weight, and small size; a 50mm 1.8 or most 1.4 models qualify as totally nonobtrusive, so you don't look like some kind of perv or peeper to jealous boyfriends or raging, over-protective fathers,etc.. Self-conscious non-photography-involved people feel comfortable when a 50 is pointed at them--whereas say,a big, coffee-can-sized, white Canon 24-70mm f/2.8 lens spooks many people.

CCericola · Aug 10, 2012

Use the 50 for groups. Anything less is unflattering. Unless you are using a super wide like a 14 and trying to get a specific look. If you are restricted by space and can't use at least a 50mm focal length then do what you gotta do but just know your people won't look their best.

Sent from my iPad using PhotoForum

splproductions · Aug 10, 2012

Thanks for the comments everyone. Keep them coming! I realize that this question is very opinion-oriented and will vary from person to person, but I'm interested in what those opinions and tastes are.

Also, just to be clear, I'm curious about 50mm focal length "as is", i.e., not modified by a crop-sensor. I am shooting crop-sensor, so when I'm asking you all when you would use 50mm, I'm really asking, "For the crop-sensor shooters out there, when do you use ~35mm", and "For the full-frame shooters out there, when do you use 50mm".

I'm asking this question because I'm trying to decide how/when I would use a 28 or 35mm prime (on my 1.6x crop) if I ever got one. I already have a 50mm prime that I use a lot for portraits.

Ysarex · Aug 10, 2012

splproductions said:
I hope this doesn't sound like a completely stupid question. I'm asking this because I've been learning lately about how the distance between you and your subject (and thus, the focal length you choose to photograph that subject), will either "stretch" things out (wide-angle) or compress them (telephoto).

A photoblog I was reading said that 50mm gives you the "normal", human-eye perspective, and going either wider or more telephoto "alters reality", and that is where you start getting creative.

So in what situations do people use a "normal" focal length of 50mm?

(NOTE: I realize that the focal length isn't what changes the perspective - it's the distance between you and you're subject - so we don't need to go down that road).

Whoa! Gotta love the Internet! Anybody can blog anything. On my blog I present solid proof that Obama is in fact the Anti-Christ and that Romney is his disciple and that the Mayan prediction for the end of the world is actually the 2012 election and that they will both lose to Sarah Palin (write in) who will proceed to destroy all life on earth.

Now on to that photography blog you were reading....

To begin with you're talking about a 50mm lens on a 35mm camera -- that's important because lots of folks now use crop sensor cameras. The 50mm is "normal" on a 35mm camera not because it duplicates human-eye perspective, but because it's focal length is approx. equal to the diagonal of the format. In the discipline of photography a "normal" lens for any camera is a focal length equal to the diagonal of the recording format. So the 80mm is normal for a Hasselblad since the format diagonal is 76mm. The 35mm film diagonal is about 44mm and we rounded it up. A 150mm lens is normal on a 4x5 inch film camera and the diagonal with allowable clipped edges is around 145mm. On a 6x7 camera the normal lens is 90mm -- 60mm by 70mm -- a^2 * b^2 = c^2 -- do the math.

Altering reality: If you want to carry through this idea that perspective in a photo from various distances is different or similar to what the human-eye sees you've got a complex task ahead of you. One thing you'll have to do is factor in to the equation the size of the final print (image) and the distance from which that print is viewed. It's a simplistic start but we can do that math. Is there a standard correct viewing distance from which a photograph is or should be viewed? Let's let the public help. Put a bunch of photos on the wall of different sizes and have say 10,000 people look at them and measure how far back they stand by their own choice. If you do that you'll discover that people tend to view a photograph from a distance that is pretty close to double the long side of the print. So for example, on average people will stand back about 40 inches to view a 16x20 inch print. Again this is simplistic but if you plug that value in and do the math then the lens focal length on a 35mm camera that will present accurate perspective to the print viewer is approx. 75mm. A 75mm lens on a 35mm camera is considered portrait length and very much the equivalent of a 50mm lens on a modern digital camera with an APS variant crop sensor.

Joe

P.S. I see some additions while I was typing (hot topic); so a 50mm on a 35mm camera is leaning a little on the wide side if you're trying to present perspective in the final image as it would have appeared to human eyes at the scene.