when to use 18-55mm vs 55-250mm

<p>I'm new to DSLR photography. Just received Canon XSI this week with EF-S 18-55 and 55-250 IS lenses. I know<br>

conceptually 18-55 is normal/wide angle and 55-250 is telephoto. But since I don't have any experience with any<br>

lenses, can someone tell me in exactly what situation to use one lenses vs the other. I would like to take photos<br>

of my kids in soccer game, swim meets or family vacations, and possibly some shots of nature or landscape. thanks.</p>

<p>You'll probably find the 18-55 useful for most everyday use and the landscapes. The 55-250 is a telephoto, usually used for subjects at a distance (the soccer players, for example, or wildlife you can't get close to). It has some other uses as well, such as portraits (take several steps back and shoot with the lens in the 55-100 range, the distance from the subject will give what is usually considered a more flattering perspective).</p>

<p>Personally I would not use a zoom lens for any of my Canon Cameras, They are traditionally slower than fixed format and you have issues with vibration and wear, (causes blurred images). I am not sure if you understand what is meant by fast or slow lenses, but the widest aperture is where it is judged. a Canon 50mm f/1.2 is probably the fastest lens you will find now, (I believe they had a 1.0 in a 50mm FD) the fastest Canon EF zoom lens you will find is a 17-55mm f/2.8 which runs about $1300 new, (if you can find one) under $500.oo the fastest you may find is f/3.5 to 5.6...<br>

I use an EF 24mm f/1.8 and a 100mm f/2.8 Macro, (each is around $500 new) which does me just fine, the 100 is an excellent Portrait lens. I can get close up to a models face without having to be so close as to create a comfort issue, and you may discover when you are close to an object, Items closest to the lens will appear larger than normal, (ie ever seen a huge nose on a photo of an attractive girl?).<br>

But, before you decide how much to spend on what lens, first decide where your photographic passion lies.</p><div></div>

<p>Go out and shoot, you'll see. :)</p>

<p>But couple of tips. As Andrew said, for portraits 55-250 works nicely in 55-100 range. Try taking a head & shoulders shot at 18, 35 and 55 settings, then at 70 and 100. Compare facial features, backgrounds and subject isolation between shots. Do this in aperture priority mode (Av) and set f5.6 which all of the focal lengths share.<br>

Second. You often hear that wide angles are for landscapes. Yes, why not, but this is not written in stone or something, more like a new found craze with all those ultrawide lenses available. (10-14mm is *amazingly* wider than 18mm.) Sometimes telephoto is just the ticket and composing is much easier than with wide angle.</p>

<p>Aperture. When you want to have great depth of field, for example when taking landscape images you have interesting detail in the foreground very close to you but want the whole scene in focus, you want to use small aperture (large f-number) but keep in mind that f22 (or f32) is not really meant to be used with aps-c sensor cameras like your XSi. The image starts to degrade after f11, it's not always very apparent, especially if you print small, but it does get softer due to diffraction. I recommend you stay at f8-11 and only go to f16 if that's really needed. Just mentioning because sometimes people blast away happily at whatever aperture and sometimes there's confusion due to the tips of older landscape shooters who may stop down to f32-64... but this is not with a very very small aps-c camera.</p>

<p>O.K. Here's the simplistic answer.</p>

<p>Normal usage:</p>

<p>1. Get as close as you can get.</p>

<p>2. Use the lens that fills the viewfinder with your subject according to your wish.</p>

<p>Special effects:</p>

<p>1. Choose whether you'd like your distance to your subject and the distance between the subjects emphasized or downplayed.</p>

<p>2. If you want to emphasize the distances use the smallest number of mm's that does the job. If you want the distances look less use the highest number of mm's that does the job. (Note: this does take some walking around and experimenting.)</p>

<p>By the way: John, this is the beginner forum. This is a question posed by a person whi wants nice pictures of sons and daughters. Not only that but the original poster already bought the hardware and wants to know the best way to use it. Your answer seems a tad hardcore to me. Maybe I misread, if so: sorry in advance.</p>

<p>zz: Have fun shooting and keep asking questions... the road to enlightenment or in any case exposure...</p>

<p>Thanks so much for all replys. When I read individual reply, I thought I had a good understanding of the message. However when I tried to synthesize messages from different responses (including some from other threads), I felt a little confused. Andrew suggests 18-55 for everyday and landscape shots, but 55-250 was also suggested for landscape. I know both answers are absolutely correct anwsers, it's just me. Therefore I was wondering if someone could please tell me what is your thought process in terms how you decide which lenses to use, what aperature and shutter speed, etc. In another word, I would like to know how a good photographer think about taking that great photo at the moment and spot. Thanks.</p>

<p>I go by the shot I want. I see what I want to shoot, where I want to shoot from (because to me the viewpoint and composition are at least as important as the subject) and then choose the focal length based on what the desired field of view is.</p>

<p>That's when I'm taking my time. If I'm at a game I have a tele zoom and I'm shooting whatever action I can get a good view of.</p>

<p>As for landscapes, if by landscape I'm thinking I want an expansive view of a valley, or some foreground subject I can get really close to and make the perspective go nuts with a wide angle and see some mountain in the background, then wide angle. If I want to shoot one plant or a rock or whatever, that's going to be more of a normal or somewhat tele situation. I was on a fishing trip last week and shot a whole roll of landscape in B&W with a 50mm prime lens. (50mm on film is about 35mm on your digital with APS-C sensor size.) With APS-C zoom lenses and landscapes, I find more often than not the 18-55 is what you want, but as Kari said don't fall into the trap of landscape always meaning a wide angle shot that shows as much natural scenery in one frame as you can, because often those shots are boring.</p>

<blockquote>1. Get as close as you can get.</blockquote>

<p>Unless you're doing macro shooting, this is usually a bad choice due to the perspective distortion caused by close proximity. Your eyes are binocular in function so your brain is able to compensate for this when you look at things, but the camera can not compensate in this manner. You are better off backing off physically but zooming in with the lens, especially if you're shooting people or animals, because you'll usually get a better perspective.</p>

<p>Bill, you are of course right, that's why I opened with:</p>

<p><em>Here's the simplistic answer.</em></p>

<p>My answer is a starting point, not an endpoint. An endpoint would be a 40 page essay.</p>

 

<blockquote>

<p>I would like to know how a good photographer think about taking that great photo at the moment and spot.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Now there's a question that might take a while to answer...</p>

<p>Uhm... so I'll try again to give the simplistic answer.</p>

<p>1. Walk around in the general area of your subject. Change your point of view; high, low, close, far, in front, to the side, from the back. There will probably be a view that hits you as being good or even surprises you into a "wow" reaction.</p>

<p>2. Get your camera out of the bag, try to frame the shot to regain that view that you liked while walking around. Depending on your subject and distance you'll need a wider or longer lens. Play around with the horizontal, vertical or even tilted orientation of your camera.</p>

<p>3. Take several shots. There's always one unsharp, there's always something crooked or badly exposed.</p>

<p>Options for creativity: force yourself to use all the lenses you have with you set at different focal lengths for each subject that you want to photograph.</p>

<p>Repeat until you learn what lens you need to get a certain effect or until you're just happy with the way you shoot and the results you get.<br>

<em><br /> </em></p>

<blockquote>

<p>1. Walk around in the general area of your subject. Change your point of view; high, low, close, far, in front, to the side, from the back. There will probably be a view that hits you as being good or even surprises you into a "wow" reaction.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>...and when you do this in a place where people can see you, yes, you look silly. Doesn't matter, sometimes good shots require odd postures. If you feel the perfect position is such that you're forced to half kneel and lean to the left, so be it. :)<br /> But seriously, walking around is a very good point. It often makes a great difference to "I'll just stand here (randomly), lift the camera and zoom in, that's what the zoom is for, right".</p>

<p>Zoom is "only for zooming" when you have limited access, terrain is rough, you don't have the time, etc. Otherwise it's good to think about the perspective and different viewpoints. Do that head & shoulders exercise I recommended, add full body shots into the mix (so that you see more of the surroundings) and it should become quite clear that focal lengths and distance have more effect than just "zoom". Sometimes the effect is subtle, sometimes huge. Learn when it matters most (by shooting and shooting and...).</p>

<p>Just to make sure: I mean that you frame all the shots in the same way, keep your subject at the same size in the viewfinder and move back and forth according to focal length.<br /> If you (or your subject) don't move you're not changing the perspective and you're actually taking the *same image* all the time but with different crop. You can try this by taking an image at 30mm and 50mm while standing in the same place. Then put them side by side on your screen and crop the 30mm image until the subject is framed the same way as in the 50mm shot... sure, the image has less resolution now but it's still the same.</p>