What Is A Long Focal Lens Suitable For Shooting? The Difference Between Long Focal Lenses And Short Focal Lenses

Long focal lens is one of the common types of lenses in photography, as it can provide greater magnification and long-distance shooting ability on the camera due to its long focal length.

What is a long focal lens suitable for shooting?

The long focal lens can capture detailed distant scenery, suitable for shooting scenes and themes that require zooming in on distant subjects. It is widely used in wildlife photography, sports activities, distant photography, and other scenes.

1.Wildlife Photography

In wildlife photography, a long focal lens allows the photographer to capture exciting moments of wildlife while maintaining a certain safe distance. It can help you fill the picture, capture details, and highlight the characteristics of the animals.

2.Sports Photography

Long focal lenses are also very useful for capturing fast moving athletes or sports activities such as ball games. It can bring your subject closer from afar, making the athlete or game more impactful and dynamic.

Shooting sports scenes

3.Long-range Photography

When you want to shoot distant mountains, lakes, or other natural landscapes, a long focal lens can bring the distant scenery closer, helping you obtain more impactful and detailed landscape photos.

4.Portrait Photography

Although not commonly used for portrait photography, long focal lenses can also be used for long-distance portrait photography. Using a telephoto lens can capture distant characters and better highlight the subject, creating a unique background illusion effect.

The difference between long focal lenses and short focal lenses

As two different types of lenses commonly used in the field of photograph & videograph, there are certain differences between long focal lenses and short focal lenses:

1.Focal length

The focal length of a long focal lens is longer than that of a short focal lens, and the focal length determines the viewing angle and magnification of the lens. The longer the focal length, the closer the lens can bring the object closer; The shorter the focal length, the wider the angle of view the lens can obtain.

A long focal lens has a narrower viewing angle and higher magnification, which can bring the distant subject closer and capture details more clearly. Compared to other lenses, short focal lenses have a wider viewing angle and lower magnification, making them suitable for shooting wide-angle and wide-ranging scenes.

2.Shooting distance

A long focal lens can capture distant shots and effectively focus on distant subjects; On the contrary, when shooting objects at close range, there are certain limitations to the telephoto lens.

Short focal lenses are suitable for close range shooting, which can be closer to the subject and provide a larger field of view, making them more suitable for shooting scenes that require interaction with the subject; On the contrary, short focal lenses are not suitable for shooting distant scenes.

Close-up shot

3.Bokeh

Long focal lenses typically have a larger maximum aperture, which can provide a smaller depth of field, creating a more noticeable blurring effect between the subject and the background, and highlighting the subject more prominently. Short focal lenses typically have a larger depth of field and can present more details of the scene, often failing to produce the same noticeable background blurring effect as long focal lenses.

4.Ray capture

Due to its large aperture value, a long focal lens can take clear photos in low light conditions. Short focal lenses have smaller aperture values and may require more exposure time or use auxiliary lighting for shooting under low light conditions.

5.Image distortion

Compared to short focal lenses, long focal lenses are more prone to distortion and uneven image fields, especially in the edge area of the lens. Short focal lenses are relatively stable and perform better in terms of distortion and image field issues.