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I only started using a 28mm equivalent focal length on my Fuji's (X70 and the 18mmf2). It's not my favorite focal length, tend to prefer either 24mm or 35mm but 28 is growing on me.
I think the most important thing to remember about wide focal lengths is that some of the greatest photographers had "trouble" using them. HCB said it was difficult to compose with a 35mm, so you can imagine his frustration with 28mm. To each their own, of course, but 28mm is king. There's something really pleasing about creating visual harmony and getting things layered just right with a wide lens, and I think you nailed it with these tips.
I bought a griii as my take everywhere and street camera. I’m someone who shoots between 45-70 for most of my work. The 28 mm is forcing me to get outside of my comfort zone and be closer to subjects. I’ve found the main thing I dislike about 28 is that it often looks like a cell phone snapshot, but the whole point of 28 for me is the challenge.
People sleep on 28mm for portraits for sure. Your points are absolutely bang on with how to take a nice portrait and show the environment. Especially critical for travel photos where you want the environmental context!
One thing that i like about this sort of focal length is that, contra to the tedious doctrine that states that the 50mm was so dominant because it most closely captured our field of view, the 28 and 24 actually do come very close to capturing our field of view, while not drawing on what we have in our extreme peripheral vision. Any distortions - deliberate or otherwise - aside, the images from these lenses seems to have a sort of naturalness about them - the scene has room to breathe - and if i was wanting to see more of the scene with any clarity, i'd have to turn my head. So it seems to me. Cheers & a nice vid.
I have very limited experience with photography but my favourite shot was taken using an old Pentax 28mm F3.5 lens. It was part landscape, part portrait (kinda) of my sister that came about just by chance when out for a walk one winter's day.
We used to smack the hell out of our mattresses and carpets every year during winter to clean it! I am glad to see that this was not just ours gimmick :D
Thank you for persevering to create this video and for not getting killed in the process. Really helpful tips. I recently got a XF10 and keep coming back with rubbish quite frankly. It’s clear that I’ve become lazy and very used to (or dependent on) zooming so this camera will be a lot about trying to learn to zoom with my feet and, as you say, being more intentional about what I put in the frame. I think the sweet spot of capturing more environmental shots is another reason why I’d really like this to work for me as an everyday lens especially travel photography. Really helpful - thank you.
Nice one! Interesting points there 🤔 I wonder what you’d point out about other focal lengths. Could be a series 😎 In general, I really appreciate your thoughtfulness for what you include in your shots. It took me shooting street w a manual focus 50mm (or the equivalent 35mm F 0.95 via Fuji) to truly engage w each shot. Am really liking how it forces me to be more selective of what captures the essence of the moment.
Yes, I love 28mm. I recently returned to film photography and this clip came up in my recommendation. When I started shooting, my Pentax standard lens was 55mm. It was a bit long, so I bought 28mm. Since then, 28mm is my standard. Now I use Minolta CLE and just bought Voigtlander 28mm/f2. Looking forward to shoot photos with this lens.
Really interesting points. Definitely something for me to keep in mind. I just got a 35mm film camera with a 28mm lens so maybe I'll go try it out this weekend.
I've only just started paying attention to the 28mm look. Been trying out 28, 35 and 50 look with my Sigma 18-35 for street photos. I like the distortion the 28 fov provides. The 35 look was too clinical, and "perfect" looking, the 50 was nice when I needed range, but often doesn't have enough context to tell a story if I'm shooting something spontaneous nearby. Just picked up the 18mm f/1.4 on my Fuji and can't wait to go shoot more.
@@-grey Do you mean my focusing method? So far I set it to f/8 so almost everything is in focus. I hold my camera at chest level and just keep walking around, shooting in burst mode in AF-C if I see something interesting. My camera is set to full-time pre-focus even without touching the shutter/back button. So everything in the zone I set is always in focus. It lets me get quick shots since I can't use the traditional zone focusing on Fuji. If I have time or I'm fishing for photos in a good location I will set single focus on where I want a person to walk and just wait.
Thanks for the video. I have tried using 28mm for street photography but found it too wide for my taste. I really prefer the 35mm focal length for street. However, I simply love the 28mm for landscape photography. However, I prefer to shoot landscapes with my 6x9cm medium format camera with a 28mm equivalent lens (65mm).
I agree with your points especially the one with having a chaotic frame with no clear points of interest. I shoot a slightly tighter focal length which is a 35mm equivalent lens and I am kinda guilty of that as well. Any more tips on how to tame the chaos that comes with shooting a wide angle lens? Good to have you back man and cheers!
Whenever I shoot concerts or gigs, my zoom lens on my nikon was always stuck at the widest focal length for a few reasons. I'm too lazy to zoom in and zoom with flash looks a bit unnatural to me, everything is fast paced so there is no time to think, and I just like the way it looks because of the compositional easter eggs thrown into the chaos such as a person's arm sticking out and it acts as a leading line.
Seems to me, with almost any lens focal length, that choosing 1:1 in general creates a tighter focus and then one can merely switch back to 16:9 or 3:2 for a wider shot. This seems to work well with everything up to 50mm.
Thanks for the informative video and really like your casual style in delivery. Look forward to putting some lessons into practice with my new 28mm. Cheers
thanks for putting your life on the line for making this video lol. I love that you shoot with 28mm and makes it seem way more important to and artistic for the whole photograph. great explanation just subscribed!
Thanks for this.. I have "28mm" in my Q2 and just purchased the MP. I was looking for some guidance on whether to get a 28mm for the MP or just use the Q2..
Thar at 2:31 is honestly a good idea. In Europe people did that also until tumblers became popular. Clothes were dried outside on rotary clothes dryer, carpets and mattresses with a rug beater. Looks like people in Japan are definitely wiser as in the Western civilisations.
Hi Ulysses... I have a Leica TL2 with a 18mm Elmarit on it..(27) full frame. I like this setup when I travel as it so small... I can put it in a jacket pocket..( not a Jeans). Great video as usual. Take care
Hey Ulysses, what's your ideal distance from the subject when shooting 28mm? I like to hyperfocal at f/5.6 from 1.5m to approx 2.75m (apsc). From my experience I think further away and stuff gets too small in the frame to really have significance, so you really have to divide up the frame with light or depth, or think of the shot like a landscape in motion or something. Closer than 1.5m I think people become uncomfortable and tense up, and the photo feels awkward or voyeuristic unless you're one of those Nat Geo pros with a 11mm lens somehow cheek-to-cheek shooting warlords in the jungle. I have tried taping a 2:1 cinema crop on my LCD which allowed me more distance without compromise, but it's not a look for every day. Honestly, I find 28mm quite challenging in general, but there are times when it is ideal, and in those times it really shines. How do you feel about 35mm or 40mm compared to 28mm? Would you lose more opportunities, lacking that width, or would you just not need to get so close all the time?
Cool video. I find my Minolta Telesor 28mm f/2.8 lens on my camera 90% of the time. Even though it's only f/2.8, it's an old vintage lens, it's got so much character, I get some really cool compression, but also it's unbelievably sharp when I stop it down. And I get really beautiful colors with it. Definitely my favorite focal length, probably because I'm used to it. :-) and I'm a filmmaker, I don't really do still photography that much. Thanks for sharing, be careful of passing vehicles. :-)
thoughtful. thanks for the effort and the sharing. i am trying to "learn" the Sony 28/2 on a A7R3a. and i find it challenging. especially since i'm usually using a 50mm. thumbs up.
Great video. thank you for all of the information. Are you using a mic for recording this video? If so what are you using? I don't see it but the audio is very consistent no matter your distance from the camera.
Really appreciate the sharing since 28mm is my favourite focal length. I am now considering to buy a Leica RF body with 28mm lens or Nikon SLR, according to your point about getting close, I think the Nikon SLR lens can get much closer but I always want to experience shooting with a RF, may I have some advice for that? I am doing that just for fun and want to have a reliable body shooting film Sorry I am a little bit off topic but can you share how do you record the audio in this kind environment? I mean there must be a lot of environmental noise and I can’t see any mic is attached.
28mm wasn't meant for portraits, but what it does is it puts the person in a place, or rather it tells the viewer, (the photographer or the subject, perhaps decades later) what, when and how, the circumstances of that moment are much more easily recalled than with a lens with compressed background. Compare 28mm to an extreme, like 400mm. With the latter, you get the (face of the) person and some smeared background, in the former, you get the person, you get the place, which can be a room in a house, restaurant, a street in some city, a pathway in the woods - but you will much more easily recall where this was and what you were doing at that time. Also, I think, in the range of 28-400, the longer the focal distance, the less of a master you need to be to make a pleasing photo, and you can be very, very lazy, everything you point that long lens at is isolated, one subject. It's like juggling with one ball. So, if you want to improve your skills, you have to go wide. Many balls.
Your Q-P still broken? Or why are you holding the Lens hood so tightly? :D Great Video, I just got a Q and I need to learn about the do´s and dont´s of the 28mm. All the best from Germany.
Many point and shoot camers also come with a 35 or 38mm lens. It's not as wide and you can get more specific with your framing - and it's still quite wide and neutral
