Video: How to pick the perfect focal length

One of the fundamental skills for a photographer is understanding how different focal lengths, and the distance you are from your subject, can drastically change how an image looks.

If you are new to photography, this video tutorial by Dave Paul at The Camera Store TV is a particularly handy watch as it breaks down the process of picking a lens.

Dave begins by looking at the fundamentals of what focal length is, then looks at how it affects different parts of your composition. Your choice of focal length has a huge impact on your final result, and better yet, when you start to understand the strengths and limitations of your lenses, you can leverage these to your advantage to show your subject in more flattering ways, or to make more creative or unusual shots. 

While the video covers a lot of content, one useful takeaway is that just because a lens is marketed as a “portrait lens”, for example, it doesn’t mean it can only be used for portraits, and in fact some of the most creative images are captured with lenses you'd never expect to see used for that application.