The moment to select the equipment to face your next great holiday adventure can be more complicated than you can imagine. The big question is: travel comfortable and light or carry all the equipment I have? Before trying to answer the previous question it is necessary that you become an even more important: What kind of photographs do you expect to take? When preparing your backpack for a trip, there are many scenarios and possibilities with which you can run into what, taking some time to think about what photographs you want to find around the corner, will be essential. That is why, in today's article, I have prepared a list of the main aspects that you should pay attention to, if you want to travel comfortably but, at the same time, without missing any great photography. Do not miss it! You will take your best photographs with one of these objectives.
WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO WANT IT FOR ...?
While it is true that, when preparing the backpack, you may be tempted to take with you an arsenal of objectives to be “covered” in any situation, this may not be as practical and convenient (especially for your back). Keep in mind that, the more you load your backpack with lenses and accessories, the heavier the trip will make you and believe me that, after a few hours walking under the sun's rays, you will feel like revoking everything through the air. For a photographer like you, as important as defining the destination or the hotel where to stay should be to define what kind of photographs you hope to obtain throughout this new adventure. Taking pictures in a large cosmopolitan city is not the same as taking them in the middle of a tropical forest or on the slopes of a mountain range. That is why the key to every great choice is: good research. Depending on the destination you are going to visit, you must evaluate, what are the photographic possibilities that they offer you in order that you can choose which are the ideal objectives so that you can take your next great series of photographs. But, for this, it is necessary that you know in which is the ideal objective for each one of the situations with which you can run into.TARGET TYPES ACCORDING TO FOCAL LENGTH:
The focal length of your lens not only indicates the “level of approach” that you can obtain when taking a photograph but also, depending on the focal length you plan to use, your photographs will change the perspective, the angle of view, the depth field and how to frame each of them. Choosing between a focal length or another will depend on what type of photographs you plan to take more than the distance you will be from your subjects or objects to be portrayed. That is why, if any of the terms I mentioned above were strange to you and you don't know what they mean, the following article will answer you: “ How to Capture Splendid Compositions Thanks to the Focal Distance of your Objective ”. As a review, here is a brief description of the different types of objectives that you can find and their ideal use:- Super wide angle: these types of lenses have a focal length ranging from 8 to 18 millimeters and will allow you to cover a viewing angle between 100 and 180 degrees or even more. The most extreme of these objectives will allow you to look at the world from a "Fisheye" . If you want to take panoramic photographs or leave everyone speechless with a stunning photograph taken with a fisheye, do not hesitate to take one of these objectives with you.
- Wide Angle: those objectives whose focal length ranges from 18 to 35 millimeters and that cover a viewing angle of between 100 and 60 degrees. If you plan to go out and portray excellent landscapes, a wide-angle lens is one of the essential ingredients that every landscape photography needs .
- Standard: these are all those objectives whose focal length ranges from 35 to 65 millimeters and that cover a viewing angle of 60 to 35 degrees. These types of lenses are ideal for you to take pictures of the "social" or portrait type. If you plan to take many photos of your beloved, your children or your friends sharing unique moments, take a standard objective with you. Do you want to meet the king of these? I present you at 50mm f / 1.4 .
- Short tele: these objectives are those whose focal length varies between 65 and 135 millimeters, that is, their mink angle will be approximately 35 and 18 degrees respectively. These types of objectives have the problem of being halfway: they are something "long" to use in social photography and something "short" to photograph lenses at a long distance.
- Telephoto lenses : these lenses cover a viewing angle of 18 to 8 degrees, which means that their focal length varies between 135 and 300 mm. These types of lenses are ideal for photographing distant subjects and also to compress the perspective in an image. If you plan to take an action and adventure trip, a telephoto lens will be essential if you don't want to miss any details.
- Super telephoto lenses: the focal length of these objectives is almost extreme: you can find them from 400, 600 and up to 1200 and, unless you plan to give your first steps in documentary photography and then finish in the chiropractor to make your back, You won't need one of them.
WHAT KIND OF PHOTOGRAPHS DO YOU PLAN TO TAKE?
As a summary, here is an outline that will help you better understand the different types of objectives and for what type of situations they were designed so that, when you are planning your next trip, you can choose which of them will accompany you and which ones will wait at home on your return:FIXED OR VARIABLE FOCAL POINTS?
As I told you in the article: " Everything You Need to Know About The Focal Distance Of Your Objective ":The objectives of fixed focal are those that, as the name implies, do not allow to vary the focal length for which they were designed, instead, the objectives of variable focal allow to cover a greater route when displacing the position of the lenses and vary the focal distance.The objectives of fixed focus have as main advantage that their optical quality is superior to those of variable focus which will result in sharper photographs with less aberrations and, being built with less moving parts, they are more resistant and robust, but very light In addition, they tend to be much brighter than those of variable focus which will allow you to make better shots in low light conditions and at the same time, when working with more open diaphragms (f / 1.4, f / 1.8, f / 2.8), you can Get more unfocused funds. The objectives of variable focus or "zoom" have as main advantage its great versatility and comfort to work with them since they will allow you to adjust the frame without moving. This type of objective may be essential for certain types of photographs where you require a greater focal variety, such as nature or sports photography. In addition, by bringing together a large number of focal ranges in a single lens, you will avoid constantly exchanging lens in your camera, gaining speed and avoiding bumps and dust on the lenses and sensor of your camera. Its main disadvantage is: its price (since it is usually considerably higher than those of fixed focal) and that, having a much greater number of moving parts, are more fragile in the face of any blow or accident.
THE IDEAL GOAL FOR TRAVEL PHOTOGRAPHY
If you have come here waiting for me to tell you what the ideal objective for travel photography is, I am sorry to inform you that this does not exist, or at least it will not be me who tells you. The one in charge of choosing which or which of your objectives will accompany you in your next adventure is you. Depending on the type of trip you are going to take, the different photographs you want to take and the degree of versatility or not that you require of an objective, you must choose between one and the other, between fixed or variable focal points, etc. There are photographers who prefer to carry a lot of extra weight in order to carry the ideal objective for each situation that can cross them and there are others that, the ideal is one that allows them, in a single objective, to have a large number of Focal distances (18-200 mm) to avoid changing every two times by three of the objective and having to carry a lot of these from here to there. The decision is only yours.