Short focus lenses generally refer to lenses with a focal length of 35mm or less. They have a wide angle of view and a large depth of field, allowing a single lens to capture more elements and scenes. They are very suitable for shooting street environments and have a wide range of applications in street photography.
Due to their unique optical characteristics, short focus lenses offer distinct advantages in street photography, enabling the capture of wider scenes and more dynamic compositions. Let’s explore the main applications of short focus lenses in street photography:
1.Capture vast scenes and environments
Because of their shorter focal length, short focus lenses typically have a wider field of view, allowing them to incorporate more scene elements and capture broader perspectives. In street photography, they can be used to photograph larger scenes, such as bustling markets, busy streets, and large-scale street events.
In addition, short focus lenses can capture a wider range of environmental information, not only recording the subject but also showcasing the surrounding urban landscape or cultural environment, thereby enhancing the appeal and environmental description of the image.
2.Capture dynamic and wonderful moments
Short focus lenses have a greater depth of field, allowing them to keep objects in sharp focus over a wider area. This eliminates the need for precise focusing, enabling the capture of fleeting moments in street life.
For example, on a crowded street, a short focus lens can quickly lock onto moving pedestrians, vehicles, or other dynamic elements while retaining enough background information to make the image more vivid and interesting.
Short focus lenses can capture dynamic and exciting moments
3.Emphasizing perspective and sense of space
Short focus lenses can create a strong perspective effect, which stretches space and makes objects in the image appear elongated or compressed, enhancing the depth and visual impact of the image. This effect is very popular in certain street photography subjects, such as when depicting architectural lines or cityscapes, as it can make buildings and vehicles on both sides of the street appear more exaggerated.
4.Documenting city life and local customs
The wide field of view of a short focus lens can capture more scenes and details, allowing photographers to record the full panorama of city life and street scenes, such as pedestrians, vendors, and street performers. With a short focus lens, street figures can be integrated with their surroundings, revealing richer narratives.
For example, when shooting street scenes, a short focus lens can simultaneously record environmental elements such as buildings, pedestrians, and vehicles, creating a strong sense of everyday life.
Short focus lenses are often used to record urban life
5.Portable and flexible shooting
Short focus lenses are typically small and lightweight, making them ideal for the flexible shooting style of street photography, which requires rapid movement and capturing fleeting moments.
Furthermore, their small size makes them relatively discreet, less likely to attract the attention of the subject, allowing photographers to capture natural, authentic moments without disturbing them, resulting in photos with a sense of life and authenticity. Therefore, photographers can easily carry short focus lenses, moving freely through the city to capture wonderful moments at any time.
6.Close-up shot
Short focus lenses allow photographers to get close to their subjects and shoot at very close distances. This close-up shooting style is suitable for capturing the expressions and details of people on the street, creating more impactful and intimate images that make the viewer feel as if they are in the scene.
7.Suitable for shooting in low light environments
Many short focus lenses have large apertures, making them suitable for shooting in low-light street environments, such as neon-lit streets at night, cafe windows, and reflective pavement on rainy nights, where the wide angle reduces noise. Furthermore, when shooting with a small aperture, short focus lenses can produce beautiful starburst effects, ideal for capturing city lights at night.
Short focus lenses are also suitable for shooting in low light environments
8.Create unique visual effects
Due to their unique perspective and distortion effects, short focus lenses are often used to create distinctive visual effects, such as perspective distortion and exaggerated foregrounds, giving photographs a unique artistic feel.
These effects can add artistry and creativity to street photography, making ordinary scenes extraordinary. For example, using a short focus lens to shoot from a low angle can highlight foreground objects and create an exaggerated perspective effect.
In short, short focus lenses have a wide and diverse range of applications in street photography. Whether capturing dynamic moments, urban life, or creating artistic works, short focus lenses can provide photographers with abundant creative materials and inspiration.
It’s important to note that short focus lenses are prone to edge distortion; therefore, careful composition techniques are necessary when shooting to avoid placing important elements at the edges of the frame.
Final Thoughts:
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Post time: Nov-28-2025
