I recently purchased a new Fujifilm XF35mm F2 R WR lens to add to my kit. On an APS-C camera this lens is approximately a 50mm focal length full frame equivalent, and provides a tighter perspective when compared to my 28mm and 35mm options.
With prime lenses like these you really have to use your feet to get the perspectives that you’re looking for.
Here are my favourite pictures from the very first outing with the new lens.
I absolutely love the juxtaposition here as it looks as though the person in the foreground was actually on the street in 1969, and in the picture on the wall.
I love creating layers and depth by incorporating multiple people in a picture. What I like most about this picture is the guy on the tram platform staring into the sky, whilst the guy in the foreground (and others) are simply looking ahead of where they’re walking.
To me this implies that there is something unknown in all four directions of the picture.
A young boy playing soccer on a very busy Sydney CBD street, now that is unique and something that you might typically only see in South American countries.
Despite the chaotic scene, most of the people here have enough space around them, allowing the picture to avoid being too messy and distracting. With a 50mm lens you have to take many steps backward before creating this shot.
“With prime lenses like these you really have to use your feet to get the perspectives that you’re looking for.”
An eye on Sly!
Pictures like these are much more engaging when taken with a tighter focal length, my wider lenses would not have been able to compress the scene and bring the artwork and person closer together.
Mind you, they weren’t too far apart to begin with, but still, the tighter focal length is more practical here, unless there are interesting characters to the left and right.
Even then, the tighter focal length allows the picture to be more intriguing by including the large face on the artwork and just one person.
Check out the father staring at me as I came down the escalator, obviously uneasy about me taking pictures! I bet that he is one of a zillion people who happily take pictures with their phones in public all the time, post the pictures and tag whoever is with them, yet frown when someone does it with a proper camera?!
And, and, and… if and when WE publish the pictures, no-one knows the identity of the people in the picture. Soooo, Mr and Mrs Public, what the hell are you whining about?!
RANT over!
The compression of a 50mm focal length allows perspectives such as these. This picture was taken from the southern/city side of Circular Quay train station, against the tram platform, and looking through the opening toward the ship terminal and Sydney Harbour Bridge.
These people were approximately 150 metres from the ship.
In this picture I allowed the 50mm focal length to compress the depth of the scene. I also purposely allowed the two people in the foreground to be inside the minimum zone focus range, therefore they were out of focus, allowing the eye to bounce from them and into the rest of the picture.
Here are a few images of the new lens on my Fujifilm X-Pro3 camera.
I gotta be honest, whilst I was out there trying techniques that I believe I needed to use in order to maximise the benefits of a 50mm focal length, I wasn’t inspired, nor confident that I was making interesting enough pictures.
When looking through the pictures after uploading them I still didn’t feel good about them.
I decided to take a break from them and returned to them a day or so later, and that gave me a new perspective and focus on the pictures, and only then could I see that in some ways I did achieve the desired results.
Even if I did not feel good about any of them, it was my very first time at using this focal length. Making changes such as this often require time and patience.
I am keen to continue to pursue compositions with this focal length, but not with every shoot.
I firmly believe that the 28mm and 35mm focal lengths are my favourites for street stuff, but now I have a challenging and very interesting option to throw into the mix every now and then.
If you’ve never shot with a 50, take a leap of faith and grab one, and be patient if at first it doesn’t feel right.
Hope you enjoyed my thoughts and the images, I appreciate you taking the time to check it out.
Roger Brooks.