I’m often asked “What’s your favorite shot?” co-created by aspiring and professional filmmakers. A more accurate way to express it might be “What is your favorite focal length?”
It’s an interesting question, and I’m sure most directors will have an answer…at least those who have made multiple films and begun to develop some creative biases.
Early in my career I was experimenting with lenses and not really focusing on focal length. As long as it’s from a technical standpoint, I’d be just as happy shooting a scene with an ultrawide lens as I would with a telephoto lens. But over the years I’ve found myself drawn to certain focal lengths far more than others. While I always try to treat every lens as a blank canvas, I’d be lying if I said I don’t have a few favorite focal lengths that I rely on more than others.
I think the choice of lens (and to a greater extent the choice of focal length) affects the viewer’s perception of any given film as much as the music. Just like music can completely change the tone and texture of a scene, so can a different focus…
A close-up of an actor shot with an 18mm lens will evoke completely different emotions than a close-up of the same actor shot with an 85mm lens. While this may be an obvious example, the same comparison can be made between lenses with similar focal lengths, such as 28mm vs. 35mm or 85mm vs. 100mm. The differences may be more subtle, but the characteristics of each focal length still influence the visual language used.
After a certain amount of time shooting, most of us unconsciously find ourselves returning to the same lenses/focal lengths over and over again. Aesthetically speaking, we often find a “sweet spot” where certain focal lengths seem to fit perfectly with how we feel as filmmakers. Of course, this will vary from filmmaker to filmmaker, as we all have our own unique preferences. But whatever their favorite focal length is, almost all directors have one—whether they realize it or not.
As I outlined in my last blog post, the 28mm focal length is known for some special characteristics and has therefore been the first choice of many directors over the years. While I also love 28mm glass and often choose to shoot with a 28mm lens (such as 24mm or 35mm), there is a different focal length that I really enjoy. If I had to choose one focal length to shoot everything for the entire project or even for the rest of my career, I would choose the following focal lengths: 50mm.
50mm lens
I almost exclusively shoot narrative material on cameras equipped with Super 35mm sensors, so when I elaborate on my opinions below, please understand that everything is relative to a standard movie camera equipped with a Super 35mm sensor. Not full frame. Not Micro Four Thirds. Super 35.
Now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s consider what makes the 50mm focal length so special…
First, since 50mm lenses are considered one of the “normal” focal lengths (like 35mm), they produce a field of view similar to that of the human eye. For me, this is huge because most of my narrative work is built around characters, settings, and emotional tones, which are best captured in a realistic way. Unlike wider or longer lenses, which in some ways produce more stylized images, the 50mm lens is as close to reality as possible.
Not to mention, I’m a big fan of cinéma vérité and the 50mm focal length is perfect for this style of shooting…
The 50mm lens is short enough to handle handheld smoothly (it becomes more difficult at 85mm or above), but still long enough to capture absolutely gorgeous close-ups – not unlike the results you’d expect from an 85mm lens.
The 35mm lens might be considered a more versatile lens in terms of FOV (field of view), as it can certainly shoot with a slightly wider FOV than the 50mm…in other words, it will squeak in more environments. Your wide/establishing shots, or interior scenes in tight locations.
That’s all well and good, but personally I’m more than happy to sacrifice the slightly wider capabilities of a 35mm lens for the extra control over shallow depth of field that a 50mm lens has. For example, a 50mm lens is often the perfect choice for covering 2 shots, as it can sufficiently separate the actor from the background without completely losing perspective of the environment.
So while some filmmakers may think that the slightly longer focal length of a 50mm lens will limit framing options more than a 35mm lens, I actually very much welcome this slight limitation. As I’ve said countless times on this blog, I wholeheartedly believe that more constraints equals better art. Whether you limit the number of locations to be scripted, the length of time each scene can be edited, or in this case the width of a shot based on lens selection, these limitations will force you to think outside the box.
drama about me shadows on the road, We used two zoom lenses (Sigma Cinema 18-35mm and Sigma Cinema 50-100mm) to capture each scene. We did it to speed up the action because we were shooting almost entirely guerrilla-style, but in retrospect we probably could have shot almost the entire movie on 50mm and still come out ahead.
Sigma 50-100mm T2 Cine Lens – B & H $3999
As I was finishing post-production on the film, I couldn’t help but notice that almost all of my favorite shots in the film were shot with a 50-100mm zoom lens, set to 50mm. This can partly be attributed to the mysterious aesthetic Long – especially when we’re shooting in a van or a small motel room with limited space.
But it was because of this creative limitation that we were forced to come up with more unique framing choices or angles, which ultimately resulted in some of my favorite shots. In the end, I feel that when shooting at 50mm we get the best of both worlds: the special aesthetic characteristics of a 50mm lens (including slightly less depth of field), but also some useful limitations.
Here is the trailer Shadows on the road. Many of the shots used in the trailer below were shot at 50mm (on a Sigma 50-100mm cinema zoom lens), including the last shot, which is one of my favorite shots of the entire production.
The color grading and look building for this trailer was done using my Cinematic LUT pack, available here!
But back to the glass…
Most of what I’ve said so far is purely subjective. But even from a more objective/technical level, the 50mm lens has some advantages that shouldn’t be ignored…
For one, 50mm lenses almost always provide the highest image quality and lowest distortion compared to any other lens in a given series. In other words, if you were to test every focal length in the same series (such as Rokinon’s Cinema lenses), you would almost always find that the 50mm lens would provide the best optical results. This is because they are normal focal length lenses (certainly not prone to distortion) and because they are easier to manufacture, which may result in fewer technical problems during production.
Even many cheap 50mm lenses outperform other focal lengths in more expensive series. I’ve seen some sub-$500 50mm lenses beat more expensive 28mm or 24mm cine lenses in some areas, which goes to show how solid the 50mm lens seems to be overall.
For example, the famous “Nifty 50” Canon lens only costs $110, and while it does lack the build quality of a proper cinema lens, it can deliver results comparable to lenses that cost several times the price.
Canon 50MM F1.8 – B & H $110
The 50mm lens is also known for being extremely fast. This is why even lower-cost 50mm DSLR lenses often have F1.4 or even F1.2 maximum apertures. Not to mention, if you dig a little deeper, you’ll find some even more impressive glass, like this 50mm lens from SLR Magic with a maximum aperture of F0.95.
SLR Magic Hyperprime 50mm F0.95 – B & H $2995
final thoughts
Thankfully, none of us need to choose one lens to shoot everything with, but it’s still fun to imagine what you would choose if you had to. For me, the image quality, unique characteristics, shallow depth of field/low light capabilities, and overall versatility make the 50mm my favorite of all focal lengths…maybe one day I’ll even shoot an entire shoot with the 50mm just for fun movie, just to see what happens.
And you? Is the 50mm lens also your first choice? Or are there other focal lengths you prefer? Please tell me in the comments.
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