Choosing a Lens

One of my favorite lenses to shoot with is my 70-200mm. One of the great features of a long lens is the shallow depth of field that it produces at wide apertures. Your subject will be in focus, and items in the foreground and background will be out of focus. This really gives some nice dimension to your image. This lens is also fun to use if you are shooting tight on your subject. Long lenses are also more flattering for portraits because you have a more “normal” field of view.

There is another great benefit that is often overlooked, and that is long lenses bring the background closer to your subject. Take a look at the 2 photos below. The couple was standing in the same location with the structure in the background. You will notice that in both images, they are essentially in the same location and take up the same amount of space in the frame. The only thing that changed was the lens and my distance from the couple. In the first image, I was just a few feet away and shooting with a 24mm lens. In the 2^nd image I was much farther back shooting at the 200mm length. See how the long lens brings everything closer.