Lens selection - Is it dictated by our choice or our environment?

[Peter Brown]

Hi all,

I've just been reading Jack Dykinga's new book and in the section discussing lens choice he mentions that when photographing in the American Southwest, with it's huge open vistas, his lens choices usually end up being in the wide-angle range, whereas photographers he's talked to who work in mountain or forested regions seem to use the normal to longer focal lengths more often. He comments that ". . our vision seems to be shaped by the land." This seems to hold true for me too. Living in Australia with the vast expanses of the outback, the huge panoramic skies and the long deserted coastlines, I have a tendancy to use wider angle lenses. Panoramic photography, 6x17 in particular, is also very popular here with landscape photographers.

What I'm wondering is, does the environment in which we shoot (live) dictate our lens choice more than we think?

I'm interested in comments from others who shoot mainly in a certain type of enviornment, forests, deserts, mountains, - do you think this influences your lens selection or is it more the way you "see" that influences your choice?

Are we divided into "wide angle" shooters and "long lens" shooters by choice or by environment?

Interested in your comments ; -)

Kind regards

Peter Brown

[Jim Galli]

Peter, I would have to say neither. I think it's the individuals "vision" that may dictate which lens lengths best accomplish it. I love photographing shining oily steel on a working steam engine. For that I naturally gravitate towards a 210 or 240 on 4X5. But when I'm in the ancient bristlecone forest, or Death Valley, the 90 comes out. This should be a fun thread. Thanks for asking. J

[Richard Boulware]

Peter: I think the question you have raised has more to do with your own style and what you are trying to say in your photographs. Unfortunately, a lot of people on this board get all caught up in lenses and technique, and seem less interested in the personal viewpoint, and trying to capture what their soul feels and tries to communicate. Many landscape photographers use slightly long lenses, but seem to focus more on wide angles. I would put myself in this arena...like my old college classmate, Dave Muench. As an escapee from the world of advertising photography, now interested in landscape work, I tend to focus more on the 75mm and 90mm lenes and use the 150, 210 and 270 also. Perhaps the answer is your own style and what you want to portray. I like the wide angles. I have a theory of using wide panoramas and using forground objects to get that feeling of having stuff in the forground that makes you want to touch, smell, see and feel the atmosphere you are trying to capture. I am also familiar with the 6X17 format, having photographed for the Eastman Kodak Coloramas, from a helicopter over Colorado and the Rocky Mountain west. I guess my answer to your question....is,..it depends upon your own personal style and what message you are trying to convey to your viewers. Many landscape photographers shoot from a comfortable distance with the camera positioned at the comfortable height of the maximum extention of the particular tripod they are using. Can't remember the last time I saw a shooter using a camera, inverted, with the tripod center column upside down, and the camera close to the ground with a good wide angle lens, capturing a leaf, or some lichen up close in the forground. Pitty! It's kind of like the old days when the Rollei was popular and everything was jokingly shot with the camera at 'belly-button' height and viewpoint. Best of luck. Richard Boulware - Denver.

[Ed Burlew]

Look at Clyde Bucher's work in the everglades, right down in the sand in the swamp tide lapping at the tripod head, a 90mm in front of 80 square inches of emulsion. Of course people shoot from all angles, And you dont have to invert the tripod head , just munt it on a clamp and put that on the leg or mount the head on a board and put that on the ground, and get out that split field close up filter from your old 35mm experiments. The fresh look for large format has to do more thatn just imitate what we did with 35mm, Of course wide is where the large negs soar with detail and tones. So is long lense photography fun with large format to forshorten. The vision is what your eye is comfortable with, and as a photographer you amy see with a 85 or 105 mm in 35 and it is comfortable, But then you have to stretch. I remember a photog years ago, being published in one of the popular glossy mags about his "Power Pictures" where he opened the shutter and then posed scenes in the dark on fields an hills like passion plays and exposed each scene with a simple flash and when the 10 or 20 scenes were all on one sheet of film he closed the shutter. That ws reall y out there stuff. But multiple exposure is juat the thing of every day for the architecturel photog who does the day the daun and the interior lights all on one sheet with different exposures to get one final image and puts all that collection of time into one shot. Who does Duane Michaels like pics on large format to capture the spirt's journey? The point is that the arge fomats is THE MOST VERSITILE and all techniques can be used without excuse. After all its just a piece of film and your imagination. Does anone do wildlife with large format today? and why not???

[Ed Burlew]

Good comment on the lenses, Concentrate on a lense for a while to get to know it and how you can frame and how it expresses. Don't jump around so you don't learn a lense, I f you have more thatn two the just take one out for a session and use it and learn that lense. You will understand hoew to use the lense. Use a wide for portraits and lanscsape and interiors. Use a long for the same and then after you learn each mix it up. Sort of like the gym. No strain no gain.

[Peter Brown]

Thanks for your responses so far, but I think I should clarify my question a bit .

I have over thirty years experience in professional photography, so I am not actually asking which lens I should use, but rather I was just interested in whether other LF landscape photographers find that they have chosen their lenses more for the environment in which they photograph or whether it's because they visualise (see) more as a "wide angle" person or as a "telephoto" person and have therefore chosen their lenses for that reason?

As an example I have a friend in Switzerland who seems to use longer lenses more often than the wides. Is his choice dictated by his environment - mountains, forests or is it just because he "sees" as a long focus person? I'm sure he'll tell us - ;-)

Does shooting with a longer lens in the forest/mountains help to create that close, enclosed feeling we feel when walking through this type of terrain - is that why we instinctively reach for a long lens instead of a wide? Do many of you who shoot in the forests and mountainous regions, use wideangles more often than longer lenses?

I, on the other hand shoot more often with wides, to capture the vast landscape of the outback and the uninterrupted views of the blue skies. I occasionally use longer lenses but the majority of my shots would be with wideangles. I like long lens shots also, but they just do not seem to work quite as well in that type of environment. So is my choice of lens dictated by the environment in which I shoot? I would think so. My longest lens is 210 mm, my shortest 65mm .

I look forward to more intersting comments in this philosophical discussion .

Kind regards

Peter Brown

[Jim Galli]

Hi again Peter. I live in oceans of sage brush! I get bored/ frustrated with foregrounds of sagebrush that go on forever before I get to the subject. I have a fabulous 75 for the 4X5 that seldom gets used, and I bought a 159 for the 8X10 and never took a picture with it. For that reason I suppose I do lean more toward mids and longs, and that is a "where I live" thing. As far as matching the way I see, NO, just the opposite. What drew me into photography is what the lense can see that I can't! I have relatively poor eyesight. Sometimes I sit and marvel at what my lens saw. Details from upper right to lower left. All focused at the same time. Again, thanks. J

[Dave Schneidr]

I think my choice of lenses has gone in cycles. For a while about two years ago I couldn't get wide enough lenses. I used my 90 almost exclusively and longed for a 65mm. For a period this past year I found myself always reaching for the 305mm on the 4x5 and when frustrated that it wasn't long enough grabbed the 250mm on the 6x6 system. I have moderated again to using the whole bag when appropriate. I think it has to do with changing ideas about what you are trying to express. I am sure some people lock into a "wide angele only" mode.

[David A. Goldfarb]

Interesting question. Since moving to New York City, I've tended toward wider lenses in all formats, because spaces indoors and out are so cramped. If I go to someplace less densely packed, though, I often become more selective and turn back to longer lenses.

A friend of mine who is working out on the Eastern tip of Long Island, New York, tells me he finds himself using panoramic formats a good deal, because the coastline is a feature of nearly every picture he makes, whether it be landscape, seascape, architectural, or portrait.

To the person who asked about wildlife photography with LF: it's not a promising prospect. Long enough lenses just don't exist, and imagine dealing with 4000mm of bellows and three or four tripods on an 8x10" camera to match the angle of view of an already cumbersome 600mm lens on a 35mm camera. I did once see some sort of really big military optic (maybe 2000mm telephoto) adapted to a 4x5" Graflex SLR--what a monster!

[Jason_1622]

I think it has a little to do with both, because sometimes I control the lens and sometimes it will control me. I only shoot 210 with the 4x5 because that's the only lens I own for it, but when I rented a 65 I was trying to find as many places I could shoot with it before it had to be returned. I know that with 35mm gear, I have specific lenses that I like to use for certain subjects but find that a specific shot may not work with the traditional lens that I normally choose. Or sometimes I just try a different lens to mix things up a bit. Working for a daily paper, photos can start to look old pretty quick if they are all shot the same way all the time...