We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: when it comes to photography, the lens is key. The lens you choose will affect what you can and can’t do. Here’s a handy guide on choosing the right lens for your photography.
READ MORE: Buying the Right DSLR and Lenses for Your Photography
Portraiture
The always-useful general purpose 15-85mm lens with image stabilizer and auto focus is just great for portraits and fashion tests. Professionals would use a 24-70mm f/2.8.
Close-ups
For products and some nature photography, you will want to capture the features of your subject in crisp detail. For this you’ll need a 100mm macro lens with 2.8 aperture – with a set depth of field, this lens is great for shooting close-ups.
Interiors
For interior photography, where you’ll need to capture confined spaces of all shapes and sizes, a wide-angle lens is called for the task – we recommend a 10-22mm wide angle lens with auto focus.
Landscapes
Landscapes, with their panoramas and vistas, require more versatility than most fields 0f photography. For a great landscape lens kit, you’ll need a general purpose lens, a telephoto zoom, a wide angle lens, and a macro lens to give you the range of focal lengths required. The general purpose lens will likely be your most-used landscape lens. The wide angle lens will allow you to emphasise a foreground subject against an all-in-focus large scene while the telephoto lens will keep distant subjects large in the frame.
Action
Whether reportage, sports or wildlife photography, the common element in all these is action. To capture quick movement with clarity and no blurring, you’ll need the larger apertures and faster shutter speeds (f/4, f/2.8) found in telephoto zoom lenses. Sports will be well suited with 70-200mm f/2.8 lens; more experienced photographers can take advantage the 300mm f/4 or f/2.8, the 400mm f/2.8, or the 600mm f/4 lenses, requiring more care to track movement but offering greater close-ups.