Travel photography often demands a certain range of versatility; you need to have the ability to be able to capture various types of shots in a variety of lighting conditions. This can be achieved by using a lens that handles a range of focal lengths, with a low to wide to telephoto ratio.
This is an important point, because it can significantly impact your ability to take different types of shots. The type of lens that you’re using will also play a key role in the quality and composition of your images. That’s partly because it determines the focal length and focal length determines the angle of view. However, it also means that it will determine the size of the part of the scene that you see at any one moment. Which will, in turn, affect how you compose shots, whether you use it to blur the background or show more of your subject. A good travel lens should have a range of focal lengths, which is the distance between the end of the lens referred to by the letter and the point where the rays of light are focused referred to by the letter. This gives you a different view of the world depending on where in the scene you focus. If you’re zoomed in on a tight group of people, you’ll have more of their faces in the frame. If you’re zoomed out, you’ll have a wider view, letting in more light. And if you move closer to the group, you’ll also have more space between people to fit their bodies in without being overly cropped. The most important characteristic of a travel lens is whether it has a wide range of focal lengths, and in what order they appear. Many travel lenses especially wide-angle ones contain a large number of focal lengths, such as a 12mm-wide, a 30mm-wide and a 35mm-wide focal length range. You may wish to consider these options: Wide Angle (12 mm) – 15.5 inches Normal Vision (24 mm) – 25.4 inches Tele/Macro (35 mm) – 26.7 inches Macro( 50 mm ) – 33.3 inches Zoom Lens (70-200 mm ) – 105 inches Superzoom( 90-450 mm ) – 180 inches These represent just some examples of the possibilities available, but theres plenty of other combinations, too. Choosing a lens, therefore, isn’t necessarily all about choosing the right combination of focal lengths for each shot. It’s mostly about deciding which combination works best for you. So let’s look at the characteristics of those five focal lengths in more detail below…
Wide Angles – 10mm, 16mm, 24mm etc..
When I talk about “travel”, I mean short trips outside my home town, like when I go camping, shooting landscapes, walking around cities… Basically anything else except taking photos from inside my car seat! There are many great reasons why having a wide-angle lens would make sense for travelling. First off, there is simply no better way to get into the heart of a city than putting yourself up high above street level. With a wide-angle lens, this becomes infinitely easier. Secondly, and perhaps even more importantly, wide angles enable me to photograph more subjects and environments than narrower lenses do, so getting away from the confines of driving allows me to explore new places and areas. Thirdly, because wide-angles tend to compress things together rather than stretch them apart, they give you greater freedom when composing frames. In fact, you could argue that it is generally more difficult to create interesting compositions with narrow-angled cameras. Finally, wide-anglers allow you to shoot close ups very easily. When combined with long zooms, you can achieve amazing results. As with the shorter focal length lenses, however, you must be careful not to get into situations where you might lose control over the camera. The longer focal lengths require much steadier hands. But once again, they offer advantages far outweighing the disadvantages. Wide-Angle Lenses are suitable for capturing a lot of information in a single image. They enable you to show the whole picture, and to include lots of elements within it. To sum up this aspect quickly, here is an example: An extreme wide angle lets you cover a big area while leaving room for everything you want to put into the photo. This makes a perfect tool for landscape photographers who want to show a massive expanse of sky and earth simultaneously. Not only does it allow us to fill our screens with vast views, it enables us to place foreground objects in an almost realistic position. For those looking to take portraits, wide angles are ideal for showing expressions and features accurately. Even when used at relatively small apert ures, well chosen backgrounds provide effective separation and contrast, making everyone’s eyes pop out clearly. One thing to bear in mind is that the further back the object is placed, the less its details become visible. Longer focal length lenses have similar effects . At f/2.8, say, a distant building looks sharp enough to read signs on. By f/11, though, we start losing clarity until the building looks featureless. Another advantage of wide-angle lenses is the sheer amount of visual data contained within them. Because they record so much in every frame, they create tons of material that can be worked with later. Photographers often spend hours working through stacks of raw files captured during travels. From my experience, I know that a single day spent exploring a city is usually enough to gather dozens of unique pictures. Some of these pictures aren’t worth keeping, but others can prove useful for future projects. Having lots of material definitely helps to keep boredom down and keeps you motivated throughout a trip. On top of that, wide-angle lenses open up avenues for creativity. Using a wide-angle lens doesn’t always limit your choices. Rather, it opens up a world of creative opportunities. You don’t necessarily have to stick to a specific theme. Instead, you can experiment with whatever aspects interest you at the time.
Overall, wide-angles come with pros and cons. They work perfectly for scenes in crowded spaces. In terms of composition, they force you to think differently from traditional perspectives. Wide-angled photographs are known for bringing attention to individual items, instead of groups.
Conclusion.
If you decide to carry around a bag full of gear anyway, then dont miss out on a chance to try out your favorite wide-angle lens. Experimentation and learning new techniques never hurt anyone, after all. Especially when you can learn something and still enjoy doing so.