Lens choice: creative consistency vs versatility?

[lct]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

Just now, capo di tutti capi said:

I don't understand beautiful photos for the sake of beauty. 

Not understanding is not  forbidden but you can certainly comprehend that some people, especially artists, are only interested in beauty. Some people want to tell a story, others not, the same way as some people are interested in politics and others not. 

[Advertisement]

The Leica Q3 is available for pre-order at B&H Photo Video and Adorama

[capo di tutti capi]

4 minutes ago, lct said:

Not understanding is not  forbidden but you can certainly comprehend that some people, especially artists, are only interested in beauty. Some people want to tell a story, others not, the same way as some people are interested in politics and others not. 

Let's leave this topic for later. Otherwise, everything will be mixed up

Topic starter asked you to tell us about your experience. Everyone began to list the lenses they use. But we don't know what they use them for. What is the logic?

Edited May 18, 2021 by capo di tutti capi

[pippy]

8 minutes ago, capo di tutti capi said:

are you going to tell all the viewers what's in the picture and where it was taken? (Even to friends). In a year you'll forget it yourself

You greatly underestimate the capabilities of my memory.

If your own is so bad perhaps it's time to seek medical advice?

Philip.

[capo di tutti capi]

4 minutes ago, pippy said:

You greatly underestimate the capabilities of my memory.

If your own is so bad perhaps it's time to seek medical advice?

Philip.

I bet 100 dollars for the fact that in 30 years the children will not remember what their grandmother came to them for and what they ate at the table. In the photo in the home album.

Edited May 18, 2021 by capo di tutti capi

[lct]

3 minutes ago, capo di tutti capi said:

Let's leave this topic for later. Otherwise, everything will be mixed up

Politics is nothing else than a human activity. If you're interested in politics you may wish to become a photo journalist for instance or if you're interested in flowers you may like to show the roses of your garden.

[capo di tutti capi]

7 minutes ago, lct said:

Politics is nothing else than a human activity. If you're interested in politics you may wish to become a photo journalist for instance or if you're interested in flowers you may like to show the roses of your garden.

You can show it directly, or you can show it with philosophy. So some photos are on Instagram, others in galleries

Edited May 18, 2021 by capo di tutti capi

[oldwino]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

I still think the original topic is an interesting one to ponder…but it seems this thread has lost the plot. 

[pippy]

5 minutes ago, capo di tutti capi said:

I bet 100 dollars for the fact that in 30 years the children will not remember what their grandmother came to them for and what they ate at the table. In the photo in the home album.

They will if you take a photograph of the food.

In this manner I can remember every single dish my wife, daughter and I ate as well as what we all had to drink the very first evening afer we arrived in Seville a couple of years ago.

I used a 35mm lens.

Philip.

[pippy]

1 minute ago, oldwino said:

I still think the original topic is an interesting one to ponder…but it seems this thread has lost the plot. 

Thank you for the timely reminder, oldwino, and I'll bow out of the local sparring contest for which, I am sorry to say, I am largely to be faulted.

Sincere apologies to the OP for having helped take this thread down an unexpectedly strange path.

Philip.

[capo di tutti capi]

5 minutes ago, pippy said:

They will if you take a photograph of the food.

In this manner I can remember every single dish my wife, daughter and I ate as well as what we all had to drink the very first evening afer we arrived in Seville a couple of years ago.

I used a 35mm lens.

Philip.

I'll try it in other words. You can show the puzzle pieces and then tell everyone about the whole picture. But it will be so until the amnesia comes. As a result, no one will ever see the whole puzzle.

[lct]

8 minutes ago, capo di tutti capi said:

You can show it directly, or you can show it with philosophy. So some photos are on Instagram, others in galleries

Sure but this has little to do with focal lengths. You explained that you prefer UWA lenses. I confirmed that i prefer standard ones. Such is life, we are all different.

Edited May 18, 2021 by lct

[capo di tutti capi]

1 minute ago, lct said:

Sure but this has little to do with focal lengths. You explained that you prefer UWA lenses. I confirmed that i prefer standard ones. Such is life, we are all different.

I still haven't heard what you're using it for....

[hdmesa]

16 minutes ago, capo di tutti capi said:

I bet 100 dollars for the fact that in 30 years the children will not remember what their grandmother came to them for and what they ate at the table. In the photo in the home album.

One reason many photographers can only take a 50mm: we use our iPhones for context shots. When in tight quarters, as I imagine many European settings may be, a wide angle makes a lot of sense. Where I live, everything is far apart, even inside homes. Many open concept homes with living rooms connected with the kitchens are as large as many homes in other parts of the world – and in those situations, if I shoot with a 21mm, the shot is mostly walls

Another data point: I mostly take the Q-P (28mm) when I travel, and I'm somewhat obsessed with taking macro or close-up photos with it. So wide angles can be used to exclude context – they don't automatically mean you will capture the context of your surroundings. And if you have enough space, 50mm can include a lot context. I guess my point is it depends less on the focal length and more on what and how you choose to frame your shots.

Edited May 18, 2021 by hdmesa

[capo di tutti capi]

2 minutes ago, hdmesa said:

One reason many photographers can only take a 50mm: we use and our iPhones for context shots. When in tight quarters, as I imagine many European settings may be, a wide angle makes a lot of sense. Where I live, everything is far apart, even inside homes. Many open concept homes with living rooms connected with the kitchens are as large as many homes in other parts of the world – and in those situations, if I shoot with a 21mm, the shot is mostly walls

Another data point: I mostly take the Q-P (28mm) when I travel, and I'm somewhat obsessed with taking macro or close-up photos with it. So wide angles can be used to exclude context – they don't automatically mean you will capture the context of your surroundings. And if you have enough space, 50mm can include a lot context. I guess my point is it depends less on the focal length and more on what and how you choose to frame your shots.

at least one person wrote what he uses lenses for. thank you!

Edited May 18, 2021 by capo di tutti capi

[lct]

16 minutes ago, capo di tutti capi said:

I still haven't heard what you're using it for....

For anything from 0.3m to infinity. 

[capo di tutti capi]

It looks like this. My experience. The first two years I shot at 40mm. For 17 years I have shot from 18mm to 200mm. For two years I have been shooting 21mm and 50mm because it suits me. Guess what I photographed.

[Guest]

2 hours ago, pippy said:

Fortunately I'm not a horse; I don't wear eye pads and I can rotate my head some 170 degrees from side to side and some 100 degrees up to down.

Perhaps your reasoning - plus the added difficulty imposed by having hooves instead of hands - explains why so few horses have become famous photographers?

Philip.

In fairness horse p horse was a brilliant  german fashion photographer.

[pippy]

9 minutes ago, capo di tutti capi said:

It looks like this. My experience. The first two years I shot at 40mm. For 17 years I have shot from 18mm to 200mm. For two years I have been shooting 21mm and 50mm because it suits me. Guess what I photographed.

Your birthday cakes?

Philip.

[Advertisement]

Hallo,

Look here: Leica M

[capo di tutti capi]

1 hour ago, pippy said:

Your birthday cakes?

Philip.

Read the topic starter

1.I was stuck at home in quarantine at the time, so I had plenty of time to think. And the more I thought about the creative versatility the three lenses would give me, the more I considered how their different rendering and very different focal lengths would also impart a lack of visual consistency in my work. 

My answer. The story can be told with all kinds of lenses. There will be no contradiction  in the render. Look at the "theotherguy"

2. To what extent do you value the versatility a wide range of different lenses gives you vs the consistency of the sort of choice I have made? 

 (How much better it is to have completely different lenses compared to close focal lengths.) 

I’m more interested in your personal opinion, ideally in the context of what and how you like to photograph. 

Everyone started writing a list of lenses.

My answer. If you photograph the pieces of a puzzle, you will not be able to show the whole. I mean. You have a narrow angle lens. If you photograph fragments of the Eiffel Tower, you will not be able to show it in full. 

All on the topic

 

 

 

Edited May 19, 2021 by capo di tutti capi

[Rick in CO]

You can try an experiment that will cost about as much as one of the lenses under discussion. Buy a CL or TL2 or TL and the 18-56mm zoom. Take an excursion to shoot what you like and then analyze the focal lengths in the metadata for the pictures YOU find best. That will be your answer.