Hey Everyone! Hope you're having a great week! This week is Part 2 of our series on Landscape photography Gear. I have been shooting Landscape photography for quite a few decades and will try to pass on what I have learned by trial and error. And believe me there has been lots of errors! This week we will discuss the Lenses you will need for Landscape Photography. Through my travels and decades of shooting Landscapes I have gone through lots of different lenses from top of the line to the cheap kit lenses. I have gone through primes and zoom lenses and have come up with what I think you need in your Landscape photography lens Kit so lets get started. If you are new to photography you should match the correct lens to body. What does that mean? In the last blog where I talked about camera body and sensor size you should match the appropriate lens to body. You can't use a crop sensor lens on a full frame camera but you can go the other way around. If your confused get with a experienced photographer to help you through the process.

Zooms or Primes? Well during my time shooting Landscapes I have gone through phases where I shot only primes and phases where I have shot zooms only. After all of that trial and error I have come up with what I think its a good answer. You really might need both! LOL For over all general Landscape photography I think that Zooms are the best option. Let's say you're on a trail and can't get off of the trail a zoom is great at zooming in or out to get the composition that you want without leaving the trail. Zooms work great for this and the quality of zooms these days are fantastic. In years past it was primes that had the sharpness and contrast that you wanted but now with newer zooms you can't tell the difference. Now remember I said both. For general landscapes Zooms but for specialized I say Primes. What is specialized Landscape? I think that Astro/Landscape that a prime would be better. Mainly because you can get a wider aperture to get more light in for the shot. And also Macro I would prefer a Prime lens. But these are specialized areas of Landscape photography and are only needed if interested in those areas.

What Focal Length Lenses? Well this is a tricky subject and I will start and say it depends. I know that's a lame answer but it depends on what type of landscape photography you like. I would say look at some of your favorite photographers and their photos. Thats what your are going to try to emulate as a budding landscape photographer. So if your favorite photographer shoots wide angle shots I would get something like a 16-35mm lens But if you favorite photographer shoots isolated shots I would say a 70-200mm might work for you or maybe your in the middle and a 24-70 might be the ticket. Well look there I just named the holy trinity of lenses. the 16-35, 24-70, 70-200. These are all great choices to landscape photography. You need to find out what you like to shoot. Right now in my landscape kit I'm shooting a 20-70 and a 100-400 and that's all I'm carrying. On my last Fall Colors trip those are the only two lenses I took for a 5 day trip in West Virginia and they worked great. Now I have a 16-35 but haven't used it in a while. I didn't want for anything else on my trip . But that's me. You might be different. You need to find out what you like need. I do shoot astro occasionally so I have a 20mm that I use. Usually a 14 to 24mm primes are used for this. I only take this lens with me if I expect to shoot Astro. You may think that you need every lens that there is but honestly a two lens kit for Landscape is all you need a long and a short .  Say a 16-35mm and a 70-200mm would be great for most people.

What about Apertures? In an earlier blog I said that Aperture is the most expensive part of photography and it should come into play when buying and choosing a lens. The wider the Aperture the more you can isolate and blur or create bokeh in your photographs. Which is great if your taking portraits but in landscape you want as much of the scene in focus as possible.  So shooting at Wide apertures f/2.8 in zooms is not needed. These lenses are also very expensive. For example I have a Sony 20-70 f/4 lens cost is 998 on Amazon the Sony 24-70 f/2.8 lens newest version cost 2200 on Amazon. Big difference! So I'm saying if you are not going to shoot portraits you don't need the f/2.8 Zoom in any focal length . I think that if you get a constant f/4 lens you will be very happy in Landscape Photography. Most landscape shots are shot at f/8 or smaller like f/11 to get the most depth of field in focus. So spending the extra money to get the fancy lens for landscape is a waste if you ask me. I've had both and they are both great lenses but for what I shoot the f/4 lenses work best for me . Not only are they cheaper but they are lighter and smaller. Things I need when walking through the woods. Carrying around a 70-200mm f/2.8 is like carrying around a toddler all day. It just wears you out. With my prime lenses for Macro or Astro photography. For Astro I wouldn't get wider than f/1.8 a f/1.4 although is nice is twice the weight/size and cost where a f/1.8 will give you the results you need. For Macro a f/2.8 is the common Aperture. Remember the primes are specialties and not needed for general Landscape Photography.

Used or New? Well that depends on your finances. I would say that if you can afford newer lenses get them they are very sharp and any corrections are made in software. And they tend to be lighter. You can buy these used also but from a reputable  seller like KEH or MPB you still get a warranty although a shorter one. I like used and all of my lenses I buy used if possible since I'm on a fixed budget.

So in conclusion I would say get a short and longer zoom in your kit. Say 16-35mm and a 70-200. I would get them in fixed f/4 aperture. For specialty lenses like Astro or Macro I would get Prime Lenses as mentioned above. So until next week Get out and Shoot. 

Hey if you want to check out my photography go to my instagram account Max Stansell Photography there are over 2000 post there. Here is the link

 Max Stansell Photography Instagram Link