I simply must start with the oft quoted Robert Capa: “If your pictures aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough.” Somehow, I think a lot of us already have a feel for the fundamental problem here, but we fix it the wrong way. We want to get closer to our subjects, but we do it by buying longer lenses.
One thing I love about photographs is that normal viewers can feel how close they are to the subject. And I am talking about everyman kind of viewers, not photography educated folk who talk about lens length and depth of field and all that jibberish. There is something really fundamental going on in people here, and we photographers have a chance to touch that gut level feeling.
Using a long lens is not the way to get close. Using a long lens is a way to look like you are close, but actually to move away from your subject. Is this good or bad? No. It just is, and the viewer will feel the difference.
What Capa means, and the way to tap into that gut reaction from viewers, is to physically move in closer to your subject. We are talking about photography with a 50mm or wider lens, if you really want to know. When you move into that wide angle range, you either capture way too much information in the shot because you are standing too far away, or you move in and take shots that make viewers connect with the people in the photo. When close, they can experience the same things, feel the same things as those in the photo.
When you look through work of guys like James Nachtwey and wonder how they make you feel a part of the photo, this is one of the biggest factors. Of course, then you have experience, angle, and all the rest, but it would be impossible (for the most part) with longer lenses (50mm+).
If you have a kit lens, throw it wide open, or close to it, and leave it there for a while. Shoot around. You will most likely review your shots and see how boring they look. Leave the lens alone…the experiment is not over. Now, you need to do the second part: move in closer than you shot the first time. No, you will not solve all the world’s photographic problems, but you will have just discovered how to draw viewers into your photographs in a whole new way.
Long lens is very useful for such things as nature photography where your subjects are in motion.
Good portraiture however is a result of the photographer having a solid foundational knowledge of their subject. People photography is 20% camera work and 80% relationship and the closer you are to your subject, the better you get to know them.
Great tips Coop.
There are loads of great portraits out there done with long lenses. I often use my 85mm (125mm on my cropped sensor) for portraits. You are totally right: knowing your subject sure helps. I would add, though, that understanding people is the other side of that. In other words, some really great portraits have been caught between total strangers. So, there is something else to that.
Anyway, I do want to be careful that this post is not taken to be about portraiture, because it isn’t necessarily. It is just about getting close, in lots of contexts.