Street Photography: Choosing your Focal Length (85mm, 50mm, 35mm, 28mm)

I think focal length is dictated by the subject for me. I shoot mainly landscape and nature and from 18mm through to 200mm quite regularly, and occasionally 300mm depending on the subject. I have no real experience of street photography and just realised that I rarely photograph people unless they form a strong colour contrast. I live in a small English village and rarely visit towns or citieses

I really appreciate the video! I have been shooting with 85mm for a few months now and I just fell in love with it for street photography and portraits, but I wanted to try 35mm and I definitely found myself cropping in more/getting closer to my subjects. I only messed with 35mm for about 2 weeks now and I want to keep using it but I think it clashes with me as a person. I'd much rather stand back and observe a subject than get close, however I also want something more compact for travel! I guess I'll keep trying 35mm but maybe up it to 50mm if I can't get used to it!

I use 85mm on Fuji crop sensor. I have 2 reasons. First - in Northern Europe people have a larger personal space and it's just not right to get into it. But the most important, for me, street photography is about unusual events happening in usual places mostly. And the subject is like a particle in the quantum physics - if it sees that you observe, she will change her behaviour. So observing thru the camera. I sometimes find an interesting place, with lights and shadows and stay there until I am done or smth happens. I have my composition ready, focus done and just waiting for the subject.

I really like your content. It's very useful.

The same for me,I use the 23mm and 33mm on Fuji X Mount that give you the equivalent of 35mm and 50mm

as an person with limited mobility, I have used a zoom as it allows me to capture images that I would miss by not being able to get set up fast enough, but my current mission is to try focal lenghts 28 to 40 to see what works for me

I use 30mm macro lens on my Fuji for street. Sits nicely between 35 and 50mm equivalent and great for close up to.

Over the decades, I have tried 21, 24, 28, 35, 40, 45, 50, and 55mm for one lens/one body street photography. All worked well.

I rarely use the 35mm and the 50mm in the same lens kit.

My favorite street three-lens kit for my Leica rangefinder is: 21/35/90mm.

My favorite street three-lens kit for my SLR is: 24/50/105mm.

Agreed with you totally the 35mm is the idea lens.I am an urban sketcher and most of my sketches are like the 35mm focal length. Thanks for sharing.

Hey Sean. The last photo in 28mm sequence is William Klein's, I think.

I am totally 135mm guy at this moment combined with 50mm for street photography

28mm is the hardest focal to get your eyes used to

Late to the party here but…..After watching a few videos and now yours, I’ve gone against the grain and decided to do something I’ve never done. I’ve bought a 25mm and 45mm f1.8 prime lenses (50 and 90ml on micro four thirds) and am going to limit myself to those for the next year. Additionally, I’m going to have a subject purpose of architecture and abstract only.
This is either going to be a disaster, or it’s going to make me realise even I can take a half decent shot!

35 mm absolutely sux

For video it's a little bit different because of 16/9 crop and horizontality.
In 16/9, I would say : 24mm for context + 35mm for subject and context and mouvements + 65 or 70mm for itv + 90mm for portraits

However I am a huge fan of 35mm + 50mm + 65mm for street photography. 50mm is one of the most versatile focal length for me. I also love 20mm for architecture and landscape.

Like you, I went with Fujifilm back in the day. Still there. The 35f1.4 (50mm full frame) quickly became my favourite. I haven’t used it since early Covid, but as I took the kid to a museum today, I grabbed the proper camera (as opposed to the iPhone) and the 35mm. As I was shooting, I found myself taking a step forward or back to frame, before I put the camera to my eye. I just knew what would fit into the frame and where I needed to be to get the perfect composition. That’s what you get from using a single focal length for some time. You instinctively know what it looks like. Moral of the story (and that’s pretty munch what you’re saying) is, live with a single lens for a while and learn to understand the focal length.

I use a Nikon 24-120 mm f.4 as a go-to lens for more reasons than I can put here. I carry a second body with the 14-24 mm f. 2.8 lens because I sometimes need a wider perspective than 24 mm will give me. Go-to f. stop is f. 8, but that varies. Aperture priority is normal, or manual. I don't have one focal lenght I go to most. I range between 30 mm and 90 mm most of the time. But, I did find that 24 mm wasn't quite wide enough sometimes, particularly if I intended to correct the persective, which uses up part of the image area.

I prefer 35mm and 40 mm focal length. Walking on the street in Bangkok, 50mm focal length is impossible to have good composition and 28mm focal length feels like “right in your face”. 35mm and 40mm focal length also give you perfect blend of subject isolation and context.

I used a Fujinon 56mm bc I can distance myself from the situation and still get the shot

note to myself

85mm for potrait photography
35mm for wider scene (great for travel), most accurate to human eyes

There is nothing wrong with cropping.

I tried a very lot in the Fujifilm-World and now I ended with the X100V and the X-T2 with 35 f1.4 … feels like finally finished now. Great Video, so true content — thank you very much!

EyE found that 40mm-ish suits my needs best. Consequently, I shoot with a 20mm LUMIX for micro 4/3, a 27mm Fujinon for APS-C, & a vintage Konica Hexanon 40mm f1.8 for full frame. The best compromise for prime lens street shooting for me, although I do use other focal lengths when the mood or need strikes.

Thank you Sean. A real pleasure to hear you tell your story.

I'm a brand new shooter with a X100V. Love it.

I really liked and appriciate this video, helped me put words on stuff i felt when taking photos, but didnt really know how to express in a Camera-adjacent context.


As for what im using:

i got my Sony a6400 like 2 months ago, trying to work out my focal-length for myu first none kit lense these days.

Really tempted to go for "zoom" so i can experiment, and have something no matter what i come across.
But im mostly into candid street photography\architecture and Landscapes and some family portraits\events.


Issue im having with my kit lense (16-50mm) is that i have to (or feel like i have to) be in peoples face all the time, and im not very comfortable with that yet.. *
And it also Turns candid\real into posing type of deal...
I really love the idea of taking pictures of moments or people just living their life, finding the beauty in that!

I also dont seem to be able to get the magnificence of a lot architecture! (but some of this might just be skill).

And even the few pictures i take, that im somewhat happy with, never really turn out how I see the world...
I also might be putting to much preasure on myself, for only having had the camera for 2months... but i digress.

Hi Sean great video, another tip find your lens of choice is to look at your phone photos and if you cropped them or not and then to find out what equivalent your phone lens is as mine is iPhone 7 28mm. I've always had a zoom and most of my street photos were taken with a 17-55 2.8 but I want to get a fix 85 or maybe 65 for a different project

I really love the 85mm focal length for street photography, I just wish it wasn’t such a big chunk of glass hanging off my A7C!

I’ve got my first camera w a 28-60mm zoom lens and after a few weeks of shooting wide at 28mm I starting trying 35 and 50 and found things to be so much more satisfying and rich and energetic.. the 28mm feels quite flat and too busy and hard to pin down nice compositions. I’m not out shooting landscapes, talking heads, and city-scapes though.

I've got kind of a dumb question how do you know the focal length of your camera+lens

Great video, thank you! Normally use(d) R6+24-70.
Recently bought X100V and I have to get used to 35mm, nice journey. Do you (or anybody who reads this) know if TCL-100 will be adding value compared with digital zoom to 50mm and if so, why?

As a filmmaker, because I don't really do much still photography, I always have a 28mm and a 50mm in my bag. Those two focal lengths cover the way I see the world, and although sometimes I can't get the exact shot that I might want because I don't have an extreme focal length, if I'm working on a film, I can always rent an extreme lens, maybe a 12mm, or 400mm if I need something like that for a moment, whatever I might need, but 99% of the time I can do everything that I want to do with 28mm and 50mm. I personally believe that once you find the focal lengths that you're comfortable with, that's when you can really begin to become creative. Your soul enters the equation when you already know what the images are going to look like before you get back to your computer. Your camera literally becomes a part of your body. And now you can truly Express Yourself in this visual language. I think it's a great idea to begin with a zoom lens first, and stick to one focal length for about a month, and then move on to the next focal length, and at the end of six months or so, I think you would have a pretty good idea of how you see the world through your camera. Great video as always. Really enjoy your channel. Your storytelling.

I just recently started back on photography from a long hiatus, I have been using a 30mm on a crop sensor so 45mm and have yet to experiment on the street and finding my ideal focal length

I started with a 350D!

I have almost an identical journey to you. 85mm (50mm 1.4 on APSC), 50mm (50mm 1.4 on FF), 35mm (22mm on APSC) then (23mm on APSC) and finally 28mm (18mm on APSC) and (28mm on FF). I switched system from canon to Fuji at the 35mm I wanted the tactility of the fuji vs everything on the touchscreen of the canon m series I wanted the small form factor.
I am most comfortable at 35mm I travel and it's wide enough most of the time. The GR3 gives me the wider shots if I need them and means not changing lenses.

Lovely video and great explanations, but APS-C sensors change the magnification NOT THE FOCAL LENGTH.

28mm I cannot see the world in any other way.

I swear this is the Same Story Like mine... Just with an other cam... ❤❤nice Video ! I started with 50 mm in apsc and Just bought a 23mm for the apsc... Next year i want to buy a füll frame....

I’ve been using the same 50mm lens for 50 years (for film), but for digital street photography I carry two bodies - one with a 50 (76 full frame equiv) and the other with a 12 (18 full frame equiv).
Although I agree that 35mm would be a sensible focal length if I were to carry one camera, the images from my two chosen focal lengths can often be very dramatic.

This video is very well appreciated. I seriously connected with this in a way which finally made sense to me as an artist. So many photography tutorials are just a dizzying barrage of data. Your explanation provided all of the context I've been missing. Thank you much!

Oh and I'm a noob with a Canon T8i & 50mm BTW.
85MM is next on the bench, but this has me really curious about the 35.

this was very helpful. thanks

May I offer some heartfelt thanks. Recently retired from a (too) long career in corporate america, I'm looking forward to spreading my wings.. and capturing my journey through photography. So it is that I'm just learning the craft.. I recently got my first ILC and a couple of lenses (with a couple more on my wish list) and am learning some of the technicalities around what makes a kit wide or bright or fast and what makes a composition engaging. Still, I wanted to thank you for this video.. it brought the discussion of focal lengths down to a very human level while acknowledging the technicalities of the effect that focal length has on perspective. Through all the technical discussion I've encountered about 16mm architectural photography or 50mm portrait photography or 600mm telephoto action photography, yours made the concept of focal length real for me.. something organic and personal.. more in keeping with what I imagine photography ought to be.. and while I will likely be experimenting with different focal lengths on this journey, I wanted to thank you for your very personal perspective.. for suggesting that it's not all about the science and technicalities.. that sometimes it's about finding yourself in the craft... 🥲

50 has been perfect for me. I have attempted 35 and I fall into the trap most new photographers do and try to cram as much stuff into the shot as is humany possibly.

I never liked the focal length of a 50mm lens on an aps-c camera, its too tight for me for snapshots and not tight enough for portraits or telephoto subjects. I even find 50mm equivalent a bit too tight. For a long time, I'd use a 35mm, 28 is a little too wide. But recently, I got a cheap 23mm f1.4 for my micro four thirds camera, and I love the 46mm focal length, its wider than a 50 equivalent, but tighter than a 35 equivalent. I think I"d like a 40mm on full frame too, I have a 35mm now but I like the in between length of a 40-something now, you can take the photos you would with a 35 by stepping back, or the ones you'd take with a 50 by getting just slightly closer, but I find the 40-ish to be perfect for me for casual shooting around.

Fuji 18 1.4, 33 1.4 and 56 1.2
Perfect for me and all I need 😊

blessings!

Tyvm :)

Love this Sean - great content as always. I've battled with focal lengths but as you suggest, i know it's because I don't stick to a fixed length long enough to study and learn it and so I default back to zooms. But, I'm getting there. I know that I love 50-ish for portraits (55 is my go to lens on my Sony for that), and for street: I too know that 28 is too wide, but I don't quite like how much context I lose at 50mm. 35mm still didn't feel quite right so I've recently been using a 40mm on a fuji. I think this is right and find that I'm comfortable with this, and if I zoom with my feet, it's back or forwards in equal measure. Someone told me to try and stop zooming with my feet though and just try and learn the lens. I do find the freedom from zooming refreshing as you get to just take in the world and forget the camera more so shooting with a prime (or fixed length) is definitely a more immersive experience.

I haven't long come across your vids and enjoying them mate, thanks. I recently traded in a 75-300mm for a 50mm on a Canon APS-C sensor, so have nothing above 80mm, and finding I'm enjoying 50-80mm more. I think this is down to the fact that I tend me quite aware of everything around me generally when in public, do narrowing down my own field of view this much really helps me focus on a subject more than anything wider.

We have the same first DLSR: 350D!

Other than on my iPhone, on my 5DM3, I use my 24-70 most frequently and the long end of the lens when the subject is a person or two. But when the subject is a scene (which may include people), then I'm at either 50mm or sometimes 35mm. I rarely hit 28mm as it's feels too naked, messy, and unrestricted for my taste.