All right, we're going to talk about focal length. focal length is that number that you have on your lens that tells you how zoomed in or how zoomed out that lens is going to look, when you put it on your camera. A really common lens that almost everybody has is a 50 millimeter. And that lens is so common, because when you put it on a full format camera and you look through that eyepiece, it's going to look almost the same as your natural eye looks looking out into the world. And so it looks very normal to us. And because of that it's become a common lens.

And just so you know, the millimeter measurement that it's using has to do with when that lens is attached to the camera, the distance from the lens element to the sensor that it needs to be to get resolved properly. So it's not really super important for us to understand that aspect of it. All we want to know is how these numbers translate to what the photograph looks like. So the general rule is, the higher that number is The more zoomed in and close that lens is going to get to something. And the lower that number is, the wider and zoomed out that photograph is going to look. So there's two types of lenses.

There's a prime lens, and there's a zoom lens. A prime lens is a fixed focal length. For example, again, the 50 millimeter prime lens is only going to be 50 millimeters no matter what, you've got focus adjustments, but you don't have a zoom adjustment. prime lens advantages are, they're usually smaller, they're usually less expensive, and they usually sharper. And I say usually for all those because it's not always the case that you stack a prime lens against zoom lens, and it's better in all three of those areas. But generally, it's going to excel in those three categories over a zoom lens.

Now zoom lens has a range. So you'll see when you go to look at zoom lenses, you'll see 24 millimeters to 70 millimeters. That means you can put that lens on your camera and you can spin the zoom ring on lens and choose any focal length between the low and the high number. So I can shoot a 24 millimeters, I can shoot at 27, I can shoot it 42 all the way up to 70, which is really handy, especially when you're doing events, or really any type of photo shoot and you want to quickly change your focal length, you don't have to change your lens, you just spin the barrel of the lens and change your focal length. The drawbacks are, they're bigger, generally, they're heavier, and they're usually more expensive. And they almost always don't get the same level of sharpness as a good prime lens will get.

And the reason for that is because when you're spinning that lens, you have multiple lens elements or pieces of glass that are moving further and closer apart in order to achieve those different focal lengths. And they have to be a little bit less precise than a prime lens because the prime lens has everything fixed in place and it does not move. So when they build that lens of the factory, they can get that thing. Perfect and fix it in place. And that's that Or a zoom lens has to be able to move in order for you to change your focal length. So it's not always quite as dead on as a prime lens is going to be.

Now a high end zoom lens is going to be better than a low end prime lens. So these rules are just general rules. When you start to get into the bigger zooms like a 70 to 200 that's gonna be a really big lens that's sitting on a camera. They're bigger than the camera bodies and they get very heavy. Some lenses have seven, nine, maybe 11 elements in them, the more glass the heavier they're going to be. lenses when you get down into the lower focal length, such as below usually about 12 mil millimeters or so you can start to get a lot of edge distortion.

And when you get really low they turn into fisheye lenses because you can only achieve such a wide point of view by turning into a fisheye. So somewhere down in the 567 mil ranges are typically fisheye lenses. And when I say fisheye, I mean it looks like you're looking into a bubble. And you can see everything is curved. So that's what focal length is. That's how it affects your photographs.

The the other elements of focal length is that the more zoomed in that you are, the more compression you're going to get. And that means that if you have your subjects standing 20 feet away from you, and you have a wall behind them, that's 20 feet away from them. And you're shooting at, let's say 20 millimeters, which is a very wide focal line, then that person is going to seem like they're extremely far away from that wall that's behind them. And if you change your lens to a 200 millimeter, which is a very tight zoom lens, then that person and that wall are going to be squished together and your perspective. That's what compression is. It brings all the background elements and you're seeing Object closer together.

And that's going to become more apparent as your focal length increases, it's become less apparent as your focal length decreases. So if you want to really separate your subject from the background in terms of distance, then you'd have them close to you, you'd have a really, really wide focal length. And those background elements are going to seem extremely far away. And if you want the opposite, you're going to want to get a tighter lens, and you're going to want to go as zoomed in as you can, and those things will squish together. So that's the basics of focal length. The best way to experience it is just to grab a few lenses that are different focal lengths and play around and see how it affects the look of the photo.

I would encourage you to put your camera on a tripod, get the widest lens you have and get the most zoomed in lens that you have. And take a photo of the same scene with both lenses and compare and see how those background elements and foreground elements are further apart and closer together. And then that way when you're in a situation where you need to photograph that looks a certain way in your head. You know how to achieve it with focal length