These are three essential lenses for landscape photography

When we speak of landscape photography lenses, the first thought for many photographers will be wide angle lenses. In this video, Nigel Danson shows you that it’s not only about wide angles. He suggests three lenses essential for landscape photography, which will provide you with plenty of versatility and creative options.

Super wide

As I mentioned, wide angle lenses are almost synonymous with landscape photography. Nigel’s favorites are the 16-35mm f/4 for Nikon and the 10-24mm f/4 for Fuji. One of the most obvious benefits of lenses with such a wide angle of view is that they present you with a different perspective on things. Another is that it’s easy to get everything in focus without having to calculate the hyperfocal distance for your scene.

Nifty fifty

If you ask me, you can use a nifty-fifty in almost any situation. We’ve seen amazing landscape photos by Timmy Smalls taken only with this lens. I also enjoy shooting landscapes with the 50mm. Nigel likes it because it makes you think about composition a little bit more by limiting yourself to a single focal length. In addition, 50mm primes usually have great optics so you’ll get splendid image quality. They also usually have a large aperture, which gives you great bokeh.

Nigel uses a Sigma 50mm ART f/1.4 on his Nikon and the XF35mm f/2 on his Fuji camera.

Zoom

And finally, a long zoom lens can also be great for landscape photography, although it wouldn’t be the first choice of many photographers. It lets you cut out specific elements of landscape, giving you minimalistic images. Lenses such as a 70-200mm compress the background and give you more creativity and versatility. Nigel talks about this here, and he really likes using telephoto lenses for his landscape photography. His preferred models are the Nikon 70-200m f/2.8 and the Fuji 50-140mm f/2.8.

What do you think? Are these three types of lenses what every landscape photographer should have in a gear bag? What’s your  lens for landscape photography? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

[3 ESSENTIAL lenses for landscape photography (and how to use them) |Nigel Danson]