What a Longer Focal Length Can Offer Your Street Photography
I started photography on perhaps the most popular focal length, 35mm, in the form of my RX1R, which I shot through my time at university. From there I moved to 50mm, which was a revolution to me in the way I saw and thought about my images. I now shoot the majority of my favorite images on a 90mm, which although not entirely unconventional is still far from the “standard.”
Distance
The tighter nature of a 90mm lens by definition will affect the distance with which you are dealing with your subjects. It means you are often further from the action, allowing you to take in not only the scene but also vantage points and angles which you may have missed if you were in the thick of it with a wider lens.
It also means achievable candid portraits at close (but not too close) distances, as well as being able to play with that extra space between you and your subject that the distance gives you.
Less Aggressive
Being further from your subject in street photography means that you are less likely to be confronted when taking a specific person’s photograph. It is also easier to play off the idea that you were photographing something else if you do end up in a confrontation. You’re able to shoot people from directly in front of them from a few steps away, whereas with a wider length you would have to stand conversation-distance from them.
Personally, I prefer shooting dead on, as it has a more intimate feeling compared to images you can tell were taken just as someone walked past someone, awkwardly positioned to the side of the frame.
Low Distortion
Longer focal lengths are of course known for their main characteristic, which is that they produce a very distortion-free frame. This lies in contrast to the more “classic” 28mm/35mm focal lengths which are some of the most popular for street photography because of their wide field of view — however, the distortion can often bend reality in ways that don’t really add anything to the image and can be unflattering to subjects.
I feel like lens design especially in recent years has done a lot to combat the effects of distortion, and I’ve used some excellent 35mm lenses which could easily pass as 50s if not for the FOV.
That said, I prefer the rendering of the mid-telephoto, and the way it defines my subjects in a cleaner, more precise way.
Straighter Lines
When shooting subjects that lie on a dead plane across from me it is really great to have all constituent elements dead on with the edges of the frame Bendy lines can occur when a wide angle is even slightly off of the plane you are shooting on, leading to odd perspectives especially in an urban city environment where I mostly shoot.
Greater Depth of Field
There are some street photographers who I’m sure would argue that bokeh has no place in street photography, and that separation should be achieved through framing and figure to ground rather than defocusing the background. I mostly agree with this and feel that the majority of my street photographs are not “bokeh shots” however I still find that on purely aesthetic terms I do like when I’m able to incorporate it into an image.
Longer focal lengths naturally have shallower depth of field, and even when stopped down to f/11 I’m able to get fantastic separation between my subjects and backgrounds.
With shorter lengths, you would need a very wide aperture, or need to be very close in order to achieve the same effect.
Composing with the Foreground
I’ve been really enjoying finding elements in the foreground to help contextualize either the story or composition of my images. Usually with a 50mm, I would be close enough that my view of my scene would be unrestricted.
With a 90mm that extra distance means I can include things in the foreground that really help to guide the viewer’s eye. I also think it really helps to lend a voyeuristic feel to an image, as if you were a character looking over someone’s shoulder rather than simply seeing whatever the photographer wanted.
Easier Isolation
I shoot the majority of my images in portrait orientation because it is easier for me to “reduce down” a scene into a “slice” of an image in vertical form rather than horizontal. A longer lens does something similar, by giving me a smaller area to work with, and really finesse exactly what I don’t want to include.
For busier environments, this is invaluable, especially on film where I cannot crop in as much as I would be comfortable with my digital cameras.
Personal Preference
I find that so many people make the decision to shoot on a 35mm or even a 50mm simply because that’s what was recommended to them at the time of buying their camera. Gear recommendations can often become an echo chamber and people become disheartened when their state of the art camera and lens combination is not delivering the results they actually wanted.
Focal length can seem different for people who simply see differently, and sometimes a wider-angle lens just isn’t for you. That doesn’t mean you can’t shoot a specific genre, it just means you need to learn how to make a length you are comfortable with work for you.
All of these points should be balanced against some of the shortcomings, or negatives I have found with shooting longer lengths. Usually even a mid-telephoto lens will have greater weight and size compared with a standard “nifty” fifty. They will also usually have smaller maximum apertures, and with the wider f/2.8 and brighter you are looking at even heavier and expensive options.
When using a longer lens it can be harder to engage with your subject if that is your preferred method of shooting, and the distance from your subject can mean that you overlook details in things like their posture or expression that you would have caught had you been closer. 50mm and 35mm for portraits definitely allow for a more intimate shooting experience.
Although I love my 90mm, I maintain that 50mm (for me) is the most versatile lens for everyday use, and is the focal length I have shot the majority of my assignments in photojournalism as well as personal documentary. In street, however, my 90mm has been producing my best results for a while. It took me some time to become literate with the focal length but now I’m confident with it I will be using it in situations I wouldn’t have previously considered – even for close quarters photojournalism, where I would ordinarily use a 50mm.
I don’t think many people aside from other photographers will care much about what focal length you shoot, let alone what camera – the results themselves will always be what stays with them. I encourage you to try a longer focal length, especially if you feel uninspired by images in the 28-50 ranges, but you may equally find that a 15mm is what gives you the most keepers. It takes a lot of trial and error before discovering a method that works to produce the images you enjoy, and I don’t think there is an easy way other than simply committing to applying that trial and error to as many options as possible.
About the author: Simon King is a London based photographer and photojournalist, currently working on a number of long-term documentary and street photography projects. The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author. You can follow his work on Instagram and you can read more of his thoughts on photography day-to-day over on his personal blog. Simon also teaches a short course in Street Photography at UAL, which can be read about here.
