22 21 September 2019I http://www.amateurphotographer.co.ukI subscribe 0330 333 1113
LeeFrost
Lee is one of the UK’s best-known travel and
landscape photographers, selling his images
internationally through leading picture
libraries. He is also a prolific author on the art
and craft of photography and leads sell-out
photo workshops and tours around the world.
Visitwww.leefrost.co.uk.M
y first SLR came with a screw-mount
50mm f/2 lens. No kit zoom like you get
these days, just a good old fixed focal-
length, manual-focus 50mm. At the
time I felt short-changed. It didn’t bend and stretch the
world like a wideangle or magnify it like a telephoto. It
just saw what I saw, pretty much. After a while though,
I began to see the benefits of that lens, and even when
zoom lenses started to take over the world, I still made
sure there was space in my bag for a 50mm.
Fast forward almost 35 years and it’s still the case.
When I travel, my Canon 50mm prime travels with
me. Obviously, I have a 24-70mm zoom that covers the
same focal length, but the two lenses are like chalk and
cheese. They serve completely different purposes, and
the prime 50mm has got me out of more sticky
situations than I care to remember.
TravelWhentravelling, it’s important to keep
camera gear to the minimum. Lee Frost
tells us how he does it with a 50mm lens
Keepit light
Photographers tend to carry far more
gear around than they actually need,
which can be tiring when you’re on your
feet all day. The perfect antidote to this
is to leave everything behind except a
camera body and one lens – and what
better lens than the 50mm prime, for
all the reasons discussed earlier.Moveyour feet
Zooms can make you lazy. Instead of using your
feet and physically moving closer to or further
away from the subject, you tend to flick your
wrist and the lens does that for you. Sometimes,though, it’s better to move yourself. A fixed-
focal-length lens like the 50mm gives you no
choice, so as well as producing great images, it
can make you a more considered photographer.Shoothandheld
Thewide maximum aperture of a
50mm lens not only means you
have a nice, bright viewfinder
image, but it also allows you to
shoot handheld at decent shutter
speeds in low-light situations where
slower zooms would let you down.
For example, if you were getting a
shutter speed of 1/30sec at f/1.8
with your 50mm, in the same
situation a 24-70mm f/4 zoom
wide open at f/4 could only manage
a shutter speed of 1/6sec.
Looksharp
Theoptical design of prime lenses
is simple compared to zooms,
which ultimately means sharper
images. Even the cheapest 50mm
primes are super-sharp and
produce crisp, contrasty images
throughout the aperture range,
while the more exotic options are
the sharpest lenses on the planet.
If image quality is high on your list
of priorities, you really need to buy
a 50mm lens.Technique MAKING THE MOST OF 50MMALL PICTURES ON PAGES 22-23 © LEE FROST