Prime lenses, a good read for newbies =)

[daredevil123]

hi,
yup, my apologies for the photoshop point, its been ammended.

as for your example, you might stand there and zoom to take the shot, but i would walk around the subject to fit it to the FOV of my prime lens. thats the difference. it forces me to explore many different perspectives.

thats not to say u cant do the same with a zoom, but for new shooters, theres always the tendency to just stand there and zoom in/out. so i feel primes will train u them to use a zoom. and thats in fact, what it helped me do.

regards,
benjamin

No need to apologize. I am just sharing my vewipoints about PP. With any tool, it can be abused and overdone. But that doesn't mean using it is a sign of lack of skills.

 

[Octarine]

I agreed with his point, coz I know that with a zoom lens, there is a tendency to compose a shot by looking through the viewfinder and operating the zoom ring. Hence the photog is not really conscious of what focal length was used to capture the shot. Knowing the focal length later (by looking at the exif) doesn't quite 'connect the dots' in the brain...

Ah, ok .. get your point.
Yes, this tendency is there. The more the newbie is not aware of the changes in perspective. Did some tests on my own, comparable to those to be seen on many websites: same object, same size in frame, different focal length. It's really an eye opener and helps to watch out for that when using zoom. Should be done by everybody instead of just reading. Now sometimes I rather use 'leg zoom' than 'lens zoom' just to achieve the perspective I want, although I have a zoom lens.
But I also noticed a lot of details when browsing through results after a day out .. and LR showed me not only "17mm" but also I saw the distortions in perspective. So it comes together here.

 

[pinholecam]

TS, nice article.

Any reason why your prime lens recommendations for wide lenses stop at 20-24mm?

 

[Ben Ang]

TS, nice article.

Any reason why your prime lens recommendations for wide lenses stop at 20-24mm?

din recommend anything lower than 20mm cos those tend to get very expensive. and 35mm was covered as normal for dx.