What lens should you buy?

hey everyone today i will be comparing three very popular prime lenses for portrait photography at an on location photo shoot so i have three focal lengths that we'll be comparing today i have lots of photo examples to show you guys and i want to share with you what i think each of these focal lengths excel at and what each of these focal lengths don't do so well so the first comparison that we're going to be doing is by taking a photo with charlotte and i standing in one spot on each of these lenses the first focal length we have is the 35 i have the zeiss 35 1.4 which is going to be our widest lens for today i also have the size 50 millimeter f 1.4 and finally i have the g master 85 millimeter f 1.4 which is going to be our most zoomed in focal length so as you can see with these three photos side by side this is the wide range we have between each three of these lenses for the rest of the comparisons in this video i'm going to be moving around to frame each picture on every lens to look the same so this is going to start giving us an idea of how a focal length affects a person and the background in a photo so the first comparison we're going to do is with a full body shot we're going to start on the 35 the 35 millimeter has the least compression and the background is more prominent in our photos i personally really like this lens for my portraits because you can see more of the background next up we have the 50 millimeter and this is my go-to focal length for full body shots the 35 can distort what someone's body looks like by stretching it out but the 50 is more true to the eye there is also some depth of field to help your subject stand out from the background but it's not too much as i like that you can still make out what the location looks like in the background last but not least we have the 85 millimeter and this is a great lens for full body shots if you're going for a magical feeling in your photos the compression and background to foreground separation makes for some really stand out shots where the subject is the main focal point of the image and the rest of the background just melts away in the final comparison photos you can really see that the 35 background is super prominent in the shot in the 50mm charlotte starts to stand out a little bit more and in the 85mm shot the background is fully blown out in some beautiful creamy pocket for our next comparison i'm going to take a mid-length portrait in landscape orientation and i find that this is where the three lenses look the most similar to each other starting again with the 35 millimeter there is some distortion here depending where you place your subject so usually when i'm shooting with a 35 i try to avoid placing anything at the very edges of a frame as that's where limbs and heads and objects in the frame start to stretch out for fashion photography i do love this weird look it's quite editorial looking i also love that when you have enough space between your subject and the background the pocket is smaller but it looks so beautiful in the background so now i've switched over to the 50 millimeter 1.4 for the mid length shots just like the full body shots i always feel like the 50 focal length is the safe in the middle option there is still a little bit of distortion but not that much that it's going to start distorting facial features and limbs and the background to foreground separation is really flattering for portraits next up we have the 85 millimeter and to be honest with you i don't particularly like capturing shots like this with an 85 when i'm using an 85 i definitely like to push the limits a little bit more and shoot either extreme close-up photos or extreme full body shots i actually shared an example of how i like to use an 85 this way with the extreme full body shots in my 85 millimeter composition tips video so i'll leave that link down below if you guys want to watch that i'm gonna get a little bit more into the sun so we have like a lens flare but again just like we saw in the full body shots as we get closer you can see how the 85 millimeter is starting to flatten out our subject and she looks much more prominent in the photo compared to the other two focal lengths for our last comparison in today's video i'm going to be taking an extreme close-up photo and i'm going to take two different ones for this i'm going to take a portrait orientation close-up and a landscape orientation close-up and this is where i think you'll be able to see the most difference between each of these focal lengths and how it affects someone's face even though i personally like using a 35 for close-up portraits it's not a look for everyone and it doesn't always work in the close-up photos is where you can see the most distortion when it comes to using a 35 millimeter lens for close-ups again i choose to use a lens like this because it looks weird and editorial and i just like what it looks like so it's not always flattering but it does have its uses you can see that the 35 makes noses appear a little larger and it makes your subject's facial features appear closer together [Music] in the 50 millimeter close-up portraits our subject looks more like they do to the real eye the 50s still has a little bit of distortion but not as much as a 35 where it's going to really distort facial features and stretch things out in a photo this framing here is about as close up as i would usually go when taking close-up shots with a 50 if you get any closer you will start to notice more distortion last but not least the final lens change for today that we have is the 85 millimeter for our close-up portraits and finally we have the 85 which is my favorite focal length to take close-up portraits with especially portraits in landscape orientation the compression helps your subject stand out even when there is a lot of negative space in the photo [Music] so one of the reasons an 85 can be super handy for portrait photography is if you are shooting in a very busy looking location you can use an 85 and use that compression to your benefit to help calm down the background and get your subject to stand out more in your photo you can also see that this lens is compressing and flattening out our subject's face so here's something a little bit interesting that i wanted to talk to you guys about is how a focal length can really change what someone's face looks like and i noticed this the most with an 85 because it does have that flattening feature that it does with the compression of that telephoto lens so take someone like me for example i have quite a round face and i find that when i get my portrait taken with an 85 it flattens my face out even more than what i see in real life and it looks even rounder so for me personally i prefer having a photo taken on like a 50 which is a little bit wider it's going to slim my face down in a portrait a little bit more so as you can see in these comparison photos you can really see charlotte's face shape change depending on what lens we're using so compression and distortion is relative to the distance and focal length but this comparison and pretty much all my videos on youtube are coming from a practical point of view and how you and me would use these lenses out in the field at a photo shoot so as i've mentioned throughout this video i choose to use the 35 because of its distortion so sometimes i'll take photos with it where you don't see that distortion as much and sometimes i'll really exaggerate that distortion for the creativity and the style of the photo similarly to the 85 sometimes i will accentuate that background to foreground separation you get and sometimes i'll use an 85 because it's a flattering focal length for the particular person i'm taking a photo of so in summation and to describe to you why i would choose to pick up each of these lenses at a photoshoot very generalized terms the 35 is a fun editorial looking lens that i use to show off more of the background to tell more of a story and to really accentuate and exaggerate features with the distortion the 50 millimeter i would say is an in-between lens it's not bad at anything but it also doesn't have a standout look but in saying that it is super easy to capture all kinds of portraits if you only have one lens and finally the 85 is a beautiful lens for close-up portraits it's great for getting that nice compression the background foreground separation and i would personally use this lens if you like bucket and making your subjects stand out for a classic portrait photography look so if you're stuck deciding on what lens you should buy what should be your next prime lens hopefully this video and those example images will help you out from my personal experience when i first started photography i couldn't afford lenses i could only afford one so i decided to go for the 50 millimeter focal length since it was such a good all-rounder lens to be able to capture a variety of portraits with i could also do my own personal photography with it i did a little bit of landscape photos as well even though it's not perfect for that but the point is it was a good all-rounder lens since i could only have one lens since then i have really grown my kit a lot and i am a 100 prime lens photographer so i don't have any zoom lenses in my kit and i find now that i always use the 35 and the 85 together because they have very exaggerated looks to each other and i don't reach for my 50 that much as i would prefer to either go for the exaggerated wide look with a 35 or the exaggerated compressed look with an 85 instead of going for the middle ground and a 50. another consideration is if you are a zoom lens photographer say you have a 24 to 70 or some kind of equivalent and a 70-200 and you want a prime lens to be able to have a faster lens to shoot with a 50 millimeter might be a good option since again it's a jack of all trades i'd love to know which one is your favorite prime lens in the comments below for me it's a 35. you guys already knew that and i want to say thank you so so much for watching i make new videos every single week so i will see you guys all next time bye

Channel: Julia Trotti

Views: 66,970

Keywords: fashion photography, portrait, portrait photography, julia trotti, photoshop, lightroom, premiere, adobe, natural light photography, natural photography, natural light fashion, digital film, digital film actions, canon, sony, photography

Id: K_Tm2_dmqWI

Length: 10min 47sec (647 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 21 2021