No doubt, zoom lenses are extremely convenient and useful for a wide variety of applications across a wide range of genres. Nonetheless, prime lenses can help you improve by forcing you into creative problem-solving, and this fantastic video essay discusses why you might want to try using them more often.
Coming to you from Brian Matiash, this great video essay discusses why you should consider working with prime lenses more often. One of Matiash’s main points is that a prime lens restricts your compositional choices, which actually leads to better creativity. Restrictions are actually a great way to increase your creativity, as they force you to find ways to solve the problems they impose on your process, and through these solutions come new ideas. Of course, if you do not have a prime lens, you can mimic the challenge somewhat by simply committing to using a single focal length on your zoom lens. It is unlikely you will be able to use as wide an aperture as you might be able to on an equivalent prime lens, but the compositional challenge brought about by being restricted to the same focal length will still be of value. Check out the video above for the full rundown from Matiash.