3 Ways To Use A 24mm Lens

This was originally published on my Substack on JAN 23, 2023.

24mm is well known focal length for capturing photos. Since it is wider than 35mm, it gives you space to add context to an image or use scale to help tell your story more effectively. I recently used my Sony FE 24mm f/1.4 GM on an assignment for The Wall Street Journal and ended up in various situations that I found the focal length useful.

Here are 3 ways that a 24mm lens can prove to be useful.

Establishing Shots

24mm is a wide focal length and can be useful for setting up the scene in a story. An establishing shot is the first shot in a scene that provides an overview of the setting. As an establishing shot, it can help inform where the story takes place, which gives context to the written elements. The wide angle of a 24mm lens can be particularly useful in providing a broad and expansive view of the scene, making it an ideal choice for establishing shots and it's easy to use for landscapes and street photography. It’s why you see focal ranges similar to it like 23mm or 28mm on point and shoot and compact cameras, like the Fujifilm X100V or the Lecia Q2, respectfully.

Interior Shots

24mm can be just as useful indoors as it can be for outdoors. Due to the wide nature of the focal length it can be used to capture the entire room in one shot and because it isn’t super wide, like 12mm, the distortion is minimal. Having a lens that opens up to a wide aperture, in this case f/1.4, allows more light to get to the sensor which makes it easier to shoot handheld.

Portrait Shots

The 24mm lens is not typically considered a portrait lens, but can be used to create unique and interesting portraits. 24mm gives a wider perspective, allowing you to capture the subject and surrounding elements to give more context to the image by adding additional surrounding pieces, such as furniture or plants.

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Used in the above ways, a 24mm lens can be an extremely potent tool in your kit. Wether its for establishing shots, interior work or the occasional portrait, it has the versatility to capture a lot of things.

Thank you for reading! If you liked the photos in this article and would like to see more of my work, you can check that out here or chat with me in my Discord!