How and why I shoot STREET PHOTOGRAPHY with a 50mm lens

The legendary 50mm lens. Love it or hate it for street photography, you can't ignore it. In this video, Jeff takes you through his reasons for shooting on the street with a 50mm, and some tips on working with the lens.

The images were shot on:

Leica M9-P, Leica M Monochrom, and Leica M6TTL cameras.
Lenses used were a 50mm Summicron-M (V) and a Leica 50mm Noctilux- M (IV)

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📷 All of the black & white images in the video were edited with our SilverChrome profiles and presets for Lightroom:

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2024 WORKSHOP INFORMATION

1-2-1 TUITION & MENTORING

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🎥 Gear used in the making of this video with our Amazon Affiliate links:

[MatthewSeratti]

When I watch your videos, I feel like I am learning from a photographer rather than a YouTuber or an Instagrammer. That is very appreciated. Well done.

[paulgero]

Great tip about quick focusing using the hard stop of infinity...

[Joanne_Mahlmeister]

That infinity focus tip is absolute gold. Thank you for sharing it, and as always, another wonderful video.

[markhillyer]

Looking at a scene vs being part of a scene - I've never thought about it like that. I like it.

[JeffreyHauser]

Nice tip on starting manual focus with lens set at infinity to quickly find focus. I recently purchased the Fuji 33mm f1.4 lens & it has become one of my favourites. Tack sharp, with nice contrast & it is quick to find focus.

[cityslacker]

in the 90s, I worked for one of the biggest news magazines. two of our primary photographers never walked anywhere without at least one camera on them. they always kept 50mm lenses on those casual rigs that they just slung over their shoulder or around their neck.

[bernardlesperance]

I love my manual focus Nikon 50mm f/1.2. Renders absolutely beautifully. Have taken many of my best (most beautiful) street images with it.

[burmashavetom]

After years of shooting 35 and 50, I've recently switched to 28 and 40 and it's been a great adjustment. 40mm is a great focal length to work with, but of course lens options and frame lines for it on RF cameras can be limited. I've been shooting with the Minolta CLE with 28/40 and I'm finding everything about it much more comfortable and suitable.

[brianhinesley]

when i was shooting film with my pentaxk1000 i would constantly use sunny16 and set my manual lens to "zone focus" about 2-3 feet from my subject and it generally didn't let me down, of course i would minor tweak my focus

[NeilSlater]

Found you via the podcast you did with Paul R. You already gave me a cool tip here about manual focussing. I just started picking up my old manual film kit again and so it's a really handy tip for me! I love what I've seen so far. Cheers, N

[martingreenberg]

Thank you for this video.

The choice of your lens is very personal. I see many YouTubers using 28 and even 24mm. Too wide for me. Sometimes I use a two body and lens setup so the 2nd Les is 85mm. I go back & forth between 35 & 50mm. The difference between the two is a step or two. Foot focus.

I usually frame my image with the EVF. When the scene is moving quickly I just point, shoot, and hope. The 35mm field of view is more forgiving. As you point out, the 50mm is about what I see so I have to be more precise. I don’t spray & pray but do take several shots when not using the EVF. I’m a digital shooter so there is no penalty for taking multiple images. I bet HCB would have appreciated having this option in his bag of tools.

Who says old dogs can’t learn new tricks? Normally I intend to produce tact sharp images. Recently I’ve been experimenting with intensional camera movement a la Ernst Haas. Last year I’d have said you blew the image at 4:53. Now I kind of like it. I know this has never happened to you. Occasionally I’ll make a mistake choosing a shutter speed such as when quickly taking the camera out of the bag (why was the camera in the bag?) to take the shot. Sometimes my setting get tossled when in the bag. I say a bad word or two but when I see the image I like it. I then tell my friends I intended to introduce the motion blur.

So there I am. Sometimes I play at being HCB and other times EH. I can get medicine for this kind of thinking.

Mask On Nurse Marty (Ret)

[jkjoker]

“i feel im looking at a scene with a 50mm, and i feel im part of a scene with a 35mm”

what a great way to say it

[brianhinesley]

50mm has always been my go to, it allows me to get close enough to my subjects without having to walk into them like a 35 or wider and it allows me to get more of my subject without cropping off their body or standing a mile away "kidding" with a tele photo, i always hear street photographers bashing 50 but for me, unless i'm amongst crowds of people "which is not that common in chicago" then it's not really necessary for me to go wide. I have a 7artisan 12 t 2.9 lens(crop with fuji xt4) for such occasions but i will always love 50! (35f2 crop 1.4x)

[mardouqhouseofe]

i like the hard stop tip on focusing. Thanks a lot.

[bentravis]

I have only recently found your channel but love your videos, very inspirational thank you!

[marcobreier]

what a great video. thx a lot and of course brilliant photos.

[yonmusak]

I've gone from 28mm and 35mm and recently spent a bit of time with a 50. The initial experience was one of using a telephoto lens. Took a while to change my way of seeing things and framing.

[diforbes]

Good video. I liked the infinity focus suggestion.

[stuartmills.sizephotography]

Great tip on the manual focusing. I use a couple of vintage lenses a fair bit so will give this a try 👍

[bernym]

Worth watching for the speeding up manual focusing tip alone. Subscribed. Thank you.