Camera Lens Choices
Welcome back. Here is some information about lens choice for flat lay photography. My favorite lens for this kind of work is a 24-70mm lens with an available aperture range of 2.8 to 22.
One trick with flat lay photo is that unless you want to have to climb a later, you’ll want a nice short lens - that’s where the 24mm part comes in. The longer the lens, the further you’ll need to be from your subject in order to capture the whole composition. Your standard kit lens (mine is 18-55m) will capture your subject fine, in terms of working at standing height over a flat lay, but it’s aperture range is limited. We’ll talk more about aperture and other camera settings for flat lay work in the next photography post.
In general, to receive the best benefit of a lens, I’m working to use a lens inside of it’s most extreme settings. I don’t want to start work on a project and be limited because I have to be ALL the way zoomed out or ALL the way zoomed in OR at the lens’s maximum or minimum aperture. Yes- you may be able to get the photo you’re hoping for, but it’s sort of like you’re not quite using the right tool for the job and you won’t have as much wiggle room to find that perfect shot.
Lens Primer:
First, know that there are two kinds of lenses. Some are called ZOOM lenses. These lens have a focal length distance that is variable. Like 24-70mm. Their advantage is in their versatility and ability to capture subjects at different distances.
Then there PRIME lenses (like a 50mm lens). These lenses have one focal length. Their advantage is that they are lightweight to carry and can have wider apertures, allowing for more light to come in. But if you want to switch from capturing one person’s portrait to a whole group. you’ll find yourself having to back up quite a distance in order to get them all in the frame. The diagram below demonstrates the angle of view for different kinds of lenses.
Understanding lens focal length for Flat Lay work:
If I go up to my 50mm lens (1.8 to 16 aperture range), I need to put my camera up on the tallest possible setting of my tripod and climb up on to a step stool in order to view the screen. I use my 50mm lens mostly for portraits and still life floral designs and some close up detail shots with lots of background blur.
If I use the standard kit lens that came with my camera (an 18-55mm lens with an aperture range of 3.5-5.6) I can capture my whole subject without a ladder — that 18mm shorter length is helpful, but I am more limited in my ability to work with light with the narrow aperture range because it only opens as wide as 3.5 and as tight as 5.6—which is my exact target aperture for flat lay work.
Here is a diagram that shows the angle of view with different kinds of lenses. The shorter the lens, the more are you can capture close up. Longer lenses will allow your to zoom into subjects that are father away, but the field of vision, the angle, is more narrow.
Understanding lens distortion:
Lens distortion happens when an image appears to be bent in one of three ways. It may look like the image is bloating outward toward the viewer (pincushion distortion), pinched toward the center (barrel distortion), or has a wave form to it.
Pincushion distortions can appear when the longest telephoto lenses are used at their shortest length (least zoom).
Barrel distortions can appear when a lens is at full zoom — at it’s maximum reach.
Waveform distortion happens when you are using a very wide angle lens at it’s full zoom. It’s kind of like a combination of both barrel and pincushion distortions.
In simplest terms: images start to be less realistic in scale when we push our lenses to their extremes. This is one reason photographers carry different lenses for different projects.
Why I prefer a 24-70mm lens:
I prefer a 24-70mm lens for flat lay work because it allows me to stand directly over my subject (with a tripod) at a comfortable height and without pushing the lens to its limit either way— zoomed out or in. I choose a 24-70mm lens with a wider aperture range. I love being able to open a lens up really wide and allow a lot of light in for some projects. Or being able to close it down and create a moody scene where almost everything in the scene is in focus. In the case of these flat lays, we want all the little elements to be in focus. In the next photography post I’ll share some helpful tips about lighting and explain my preferred aperture and other settings for flat lay work.