Lenses for Landscape

Wide-angle lenses are the most commonly used types of lenses for landscape photography. More specifically, ultra-wide-angle optics, with focal lengths ranging from around 12mm to 20mm, tend to be the most popular. Shooting in this way tends to exaggerate foreground objects, so a strong foreground element in a scene tends to favour wider-angle optics.

Wide-angle lenses are the most commonly used types of lenses for landscape photography. More specifically, ultra-wide-angle optics, with focal lengths ranging from around 12mm to 20mm, tend to be the most popular. Shooting in this way tends to exaggerate foreground objects, so a strong foreground element in a scene tends to favour wider-angle optics.

The longer the focal length, the closer together objects at differing distances appear to be, a phenomenon often termed a ‘compressed perspective’. An advantage of shooting in this way is that it places greater visual importance on background elements, which can suit a certain type of scene. Longer lenses also allow photographers to pick out very small vignettes within the landscape.