Master Your Lenses in 20 Minutes | Tomorrow's Filmmakers

[Music] hey guys justice here with tomorrowsfilmmakers.com the largest online film academy in the world and i'm here with our newest team member matt and today wanted to talk about a certain subject that we get asked about as much as what camera to buy and that is all about lenses what is a focal length what's the difference between a zoom lens and a prime lens what would be the best scenario to use one kind of lens over the other and in this video we're going to answer all of those questions so that you will have full confidence when choosing a lens because let's be honest lenses can be pretty confusing you've got all these numbers on them some look exactly the same except one is a lot more expensive and which one do you use in certain situations these are all the questions i asked when i started out and we want to answer all of those for you today now of course today we're going to be going over the basics of lenses and focal lengths but if you want to go even more in depth about composition cinematography using your camera and really anything about filmmaking you can check out our full course over at tomorrowsfilmmakers.com we have over a thousand training videos and over 100 hours of content on every single aspect of filmmaking taught by leading professionals in the film industry learn the best from the best tomorrow's filmmakers is your one stop to learn all the skills that you need to succeed with over 15 000 students in over 50 countries a lifetime membership to our award-winning 800 film course is only 97 bucks if you want to take advantage of this crazy deal you can check out our website in the link below and head on over to tomorrowsfilmmakers.com to learn more first off let's answer the super important question right out of the gate what is a lens now a lens is not just glass you put in front of your camera it's actually so much more than that without a lens your camera is practically useless every digital camera has what's called a sensor and without a lens attached to the front of your camera that sensor can't focus on anything at all because all that you would see is blur now take that lens and attach it on the front of your camera and now you can actually see your environment and your subject a lens isn't just glass you put on your camera it's actually super intricate and detailed and has many different layers and sections within it to allow you to focus on your subject and get the perfect shot now there's actually two different kinds of lenses one being zoom lenses and the other being prime lenses if you have either of these you'll notice that on a zoom lens there are two rings and that is because one is used to focus and the other is to change your focal length this is because zoom lenses well zoom crazy right you can start at one focal length and if you want a different look you can just zoom the lens in or out and change your focal length that way on the other hand your prime lenses will only have one ring on the outside for focus because they do not zoom and are limited to that one focal length that's written on the lens now let's say you just bought a camera and it came with a few lenses the real question is how can you tell what you're going to be able to see when looking through your lens just based on the numbers on the outside so let's take a few lenses and explain some things now your focal length is the millimeter number you see that's written on your lens or the mm number the lower the number the wider the lens can see and the higher the number the more zoomed in it is now a zoom lens will have two numbers on the lens letting you know what the range is on that lens so looking at a 24 to 70 lens you automatically know that this lens will zoom from 24 millimeters to 70 millimeters and you'll be able to shoot at any focal length between you'll see that if we slowly zoom in starting with 24 millimeters then going to 50 millimeters and now 70 millimeters and you can see that the higher the number the tighter the field of view is a prime lens will have one number on it like this 50 millimeter lens the one number is letting you know that this lens is not a zoom and is only limited to 50 millimeters now in a moment we're going to go over the differences between zooms and prime lenses but before we do that we want to talk about three types of lenses that you will definitely come across and what they mean now these three lenses are a wide angle lens a mid-range lens and a telephoto lens a wide angle lens is exactly that it is a lens that has a very wide field of view and allows you to bring in more of your surrounding into the frame usually around eight millimeters to 35 millimeters you can use a wide angle lens to establish a setting or environment capture a landscape or even make your subject feel really small and insignificant the opposite of this would be your telephoto lens a telephoto lens is designed to be super zoomed in and even at its widest it's still really zoomed in these are usually 70 millimeters to around 200 or in some cases even 400 millimeters and so on you would use this kind of view for maybe wildlife or a concert or something where you need to be really far away from your subject but still want to capture all of that detail you would zoom in and use a telephoto lens now everything in between a wide angle lens and a telephoto lens is considered a mid-range lens this will be your most natural looking field of view and is what most filmmakers use today this is anything really between 35 millimeters to 75 millimeters now again these are used the most in filmmaking and are usually considered the standard for shooting video and this is because they look the most natural to what our eyes see so although with our eyes we see things in a really wide field of view the way mid-range lenses handle faces and the environment looked the most natural to us and this is why mid-range lenses are used the most in filmmaking right next to the lens millimeter there is another number and that is going to be your lens aperture sometimes called your f-stop this number represents the lowest aperture your lens can be now really quickly for those of you that don't know what this is your aperture number just represents how much light your lens is able to let in so the smaller that number the more open your lens is the brighter your image looks and how blurry your background is and to the contrary the larger that number is the darker your image is and the background will also be in focus so for example this 50 millimeter lens can actually stop all the way down to 1.4 which is actually pretty low and the lens can open up a lot to be really good in low light again the lower this number the more open your lens can get to take in more and more light this is an amazing feature to have and so with that most lenses with low apertures like f 1.2 f 1.4 or even f 1.8 tend to be a little bit more pricey than standard kit lenses that are up to around f 3.5 to 4. for example this 50 millimeter f 1.8 lens runs for about 100 but this 50 millimeter 1.4 just a little faster runs for around 350 yet the 50 millimeter 1.2 is four times that amount and even though it does have a better build quality and better glass the fact that you would pay over a thousand dollars more for f 1.2 instead of f 1.4 shows how valuable having a lower aperture really is another feature some lenses might have is stabilization or a vibration reduction and this just means that lenses with this option will have a switch on the side of the lens that triggers stabilization on or off to help get smoother handheld footage now it won't completely stop all movement but it will definitely handle some sharp movements if you're shooting anything handheld you can tell a difference whenever we shoot handheld without image stabilization and then turning it on again doesn't make it look like it's on a tripod but it takes away all those small handheld jitters this feature also tends to cost more money when you're lens shopping now the good news is this feature isn't quite as necessary as it used to be and we have plenty of lenses without it and this is because a lot of newer mirrorless cameras we shoot video with also have an in body stabilization which means that it has a stabilization feature inside the actual camera and not on the lens and on top of that if you use a gimbal all the time like we do this makes the stabilization feature on the lens not quite as necessary if you see a lens online with the exact same specs but one is way more expensive it's probably because one includes stabilization and the other does not for example here is a 70 to 200 f4 canon zoom lens without stabilization and it's only about 450 dollars and on the other hand the version of the same lens with stabilization built in is around 1200 bucks now don't get me wrong it's still a great feature to have and has come in handy many times it's just not quite as important as it used to be with all the new technology that we have and so now we want to take a look at two different kinds of lenses that you'll come across and that is zoom lenses and prime lenses and give you some pros and cons to each first let's start with zoom lenses the first and obvious advantage to a zoom lens is that well it can zoom now some zoom lenses can have a focal distance that starts at a wide angle and even ventures into a telephoto lens like a 28 to 135 millimeter so you get the entire focal range with only one lens some zoom lenses can be a wide angle as well as a mid range like the 18 to 35 millimeter or maybe the lens is still in the wide angle category but has the ability to zoom like an 11 to 16 millimeter so it really just depends on what the millimeter range is like we said a 24 to 70 millimeter lens can be at 24 millimeters 70 millimeters or any focal length in between this can be extremely helpful when running gun shooting like at a wedding or a concert where you don't have a ton of extra time to sit around and change lenses when i'm filming a wedding i almost never use a prime lens there are way too many things happening and i need to be able to zoom to 70 millimeters for a detail shot and then zoom out to 24 millimeters for the bokeh toss that would be impossible if i couldn't zoom another pro to using zoom lenses is that you only need a few lenses to cover every focal length you know for example if i have an 18 to 35 a 24 to 70 and a 70 to 200 boom i'm covered from 18 millimeters all the way to 200 millimeters with just three lenses i mean seriously you would need like 10 prime lenses to come close to covering all of these focal lengths and you'd probably have to sort through a very messy camera bag and end up wasting precious shooting time so zoom lenses are great because you can zoom with them and you don't need nearly as many lenses to have a good variety of focal lengths now you might be thinking if this is so convenient then why would i not shoot with zooms all the time why even own a prime lens well some zoom lenses especially the cheaper ones you might come across two numbers where the aperture should be this means that your lens will change aperture as you zoom so this here is a 28 to 135 f 3.5 to 5.6 at 28 millimeters you will be at a f 3.5 but when you zoom in to 135 millimeters you will see the image actually getting darker and the aperture changing the more expensive zoom lenses have fixed apertures where there is only one number for your aperture and it stays there no matter how zoomed in or zoomed out you are a 24-70 f 2.8 stays at f 2.8 throughout the entire zoom this is probably the biggest difference between a cheaper zoom lens and a nice professional one also typically zoom lenses aren't quite as sharp as prime lenses and yes the difference might be so small that most people can't even tell but it definitely is still a fact zoom lenses are much larger and have a lot more glass inside which means that there's much more room for mistakes dirt dust haze or cracks in the glass and that could result in a not so sharp image putting this 50 millimeter zoom lens side by side with a 50 millimeter prime lens you probably don't see much difference or if any difference at all but in reality the prime lens is a little bit sharper and it's much easier for your zoom lens to get increasingly soft over time and lose its sharpness the more you use it now a prime lens is any lens that does not zoom this means if you have a 50 millimeter prime lens that lens can and will only be set at 50 millimeters for the rest of its life to get a different composition you'll need to either switch to another lens or move your actual feet to walk closer to your subject or walk further away this is great for new filmmakers because it forces you to move around more and get a better feel for creating your own composition and framing rather than just zooming in or out there are also many pros to using prime lenses such as the fact that they are a little bit sharper there is less complex glass on the inside without the need for zooming so you will typically have a sharper image out of them this is why most professionals in hollywood stick with prime lenses when you spend all day setting up for a scene you have plenty of time to make sure you have the right lens on your camera and so you can be more intentional with it however if you're running gun shooting it might make more sense to shoot with a zoom because you might not have all the extra time to switch lenses in addition prime lenses also can have lower apertures very easily because they don't have much glass inside them so yes a 24-70 f 2.8 lens might be able to stop at 50 millimeters and get that focal length but you're limited to f 2.8 if your shoot requires a 50 millimeter focal length you get a much sharper image and a better looking background if you had a 50 millimeter prime lens of 1.4 or even 1.2 because you'll be able to let much more light in this is also extremely helpful in low light because lower apertures can again just take in so much more light on the downside these low aperture prime lenses can be really expensive especially if you're on a lower budget and the variety of focal lengths is more valuable than one really good prime for two thousand dollars you could get two really nice zoom lenses that would cover you across multiple zoom ranges or you could get two primes and be limited to two focal lengths so just to make sure you understand these numbers we have a couple lenses that we want to go over and make sure you fully understand them now this is a 24 to 70 f 2.8 which means that it's a mid-range lens with a fixed aperture of f 2.8 that means that the lens will be f 2.8 all the way through the zoom this is a 28 to millimeter f 3.5 to 5.6 this lens can zoom from a wide angle to a telephoto but at the cost of an aperture that closes as you zoom this one has one number on it 50 millimeters which means that it's a prime lens and doesn't zoom and this particular lens has an aperture of f 1.4 this means that this lens can stop down lower than most zoom lenses because it is a prime lens now compare this one to the same exact lens except that one is an f 1.8 besides build quality you're paying extra for that extra few stops of aperture so read all of the numbers on your lens pay close attention if the lens is cheaper find out why it's better to spend a little bit of extra money rather than spend less and regret it now that you know what the numbers on all these lenses mean how do we actually use the information to aid to telling our story every lens choice and focal length you choose will communicate something different to your audience a wide angle can be used to make your subject feel small or lonely in a big world or environment or maybe establish an overall scene or setting or if you have a wide angle lens and get close to a face it can distort the face a little bit and make the audience feel awkward this is commonly used to show a character realizing something super important or maybe being overwhelmed maybe instead you want to show the feeling of someone being watched from a distance you could use a long telephoto lens to express the feeling of your subject being watched or stalked these are used all the time in thrillers in suspenseful movies we'd encourage you to go do some homework and yes for us homework is just to go watch a movie and just really pay attention to every shot and see how they make you feel so you can really see and understand just how important it is to use different lenses and focal lengths in your own video work having all of this new knowledge you might be wondering which should i use a zoom lens a prime lens and to answer that i would say ask yourself the most important question what will you be shooting are you shooting wildlife you might need a telephoto lens so you can keep a safe distance will you be in a rush and not have a ton of time to set up each and every shot using a zoom lens might be more practical for you if i was shooting a wedding i'd probably stick to a zoom lens a hundred percent of the time on the other hand maybe you have plenty of time to set up your shot and that little bit of sharpness is crucial for your work so prime lenses would be best will you mostly be in low light situations and need that extra bit of light having a prime lens with a lower aperture might be the most important thing for you figure out what you'll be shooting the most and then buy lenses that fit that need whatever that looks like for you we have both zoom lenses and prime lenses and sometimes one is better than the other depending on the project that we're working on but just to give you guys a little bit of advice if your camera comes with a kit lens use it don't try to spend a bunch of money on lenses when you're still learning how to film or learning your camera it is definitely something you'll need to upgrade but it will get you started and get you filming after your kit lens buy a 50 millimeter you can go with the f 1.8 which is a little over 100 or the f 1.4 which is around 350 dollars either way buy a 50 millimeter lens next buy a mid-range lens somewhere in the range of 24 to 70. after that determine if you would use a wide angle or telephoto lens more and then buy whichever one you need there are different lens options for different camera brands but that is what we would recommend use your kit lens buy a 50 millimeter prime and then a mid-range lens and then a wide or telephoto lens whichever one you need more so i know we've covered a lot of information rather quickly but we hope this video has helped you gain some basic knowledge on lenses and which would be best for you if you'd like to learn more about lenses or your filmmaking gear or really anything about filmmaking whatsoever you can check out our full course at tomorrowsfilmmakers.com we have over a thousand training videos and over 100 hours of content on every single filmmaking subject that you can imagine if you'd like to join over 15 000 other filmmakers just like you pursue their dreams and learn all about film click the link below and sign up for our full academy for 90 off yes our 800 online film course is literally just 97 bucks so click the link in the description and head on over to tomorrowsfilmmakers.com and learn all the skills that you need to succeed [Music] gosh is it really this close yeah pretty much it's a little shocking

Channel: Tomorrows Filmmakers

Views: 147,476

Keywords: lens, lenses, focal length, camera basics, filmmaking, film basics, learn filmmaking, shutter speed, aperture, how to film, how to video, how to film a video, filmmaking basics, beginner filmmaker, fulltime filmmaker, parker walbeck, video basics, videography basics, learn video, online film course, film school, run your camera, what lens to buy, what lens is best, sigma, sony, canon, blackmagic, telephoto, what lens should i use, how to use a lens, lens basics, lens function

Id: L2QBkp_cF9Y

Length: 17min 40sec (1060 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 10 2022