24-70mm Lens | How To Shoot

In this blog, I will share some tips and advice for shooting with a zoom lens. While there are many different types of zooms, we will stick to the traditional 24-70mm and talk in full frame terms for the sake of simplicity.

The 24-70mm has been a staple in my photography kit since the beginning, and while I personally prefer to use primes, when it comes to travel and “getting shit done”, the 24-70mm is unbeatable.

I’m currently writing this in the back of a taxi on the way to the airport after two weeks of shooting in Sri Lanka using only the 24-70mm, so these thoughts are very much backed by experience.

A note on aperture

If you’re reading this before buying your 24-70mm lens, then may I strongly suggest getting a lens with a constant aperture as opposed to a variable one.

Most kit lenses and cheaper zooms will have a variable maximum aperture. This means that at 24mm you could be at f/2.8, but the moment you zoom into 70mm, the widest available aperture could be f/4 or smaller, depending on the lens.

In practice, this won’t always make a huge difference, but it can still have a noticeable impact on your images, especially in low light. I personally prefer to know that my maximum aperture stays consistent throughout the zoom range, so for that reason I would rather buy a constant f/4 lens instead of an f/2.8 to f/4 variable aperture zoom.

Why 24-70mm and when to use it

For me, the 24-70mm is a travel lens for when I’m unsure what to expect, when there will be a wide variety of subjects, and when changing primes isn’t a practical option.

For example, my current trip to Sri Lanka involves some street photography, landscapes, wildlife, and everything in between. While the 24-70mm isn’t exactly a wildlife lens, I didn’t want to bring a giant, heavy telephoto. Furthermore, every day I’m faced with humidity, rain, and plenty of dust. Coupled with trying to capture everything, the 24-70mm makes much more sense than a bunch of primes.

Of course, there is no free lunch, and you pay the price by having a bigger and heavier kit. I’m now on the way to my next destination, where I will only be using a 40mm pancake prime, and it’s so nice not to drag the 24-70mm around.

Always start at 24mm

The first bit of advice I can give you is to always start at 24mm. The obvious practical advantage is that the lens is in its smallest form factor, assuming it’s a zoom that extends as you zoom in, making it easier to handle. The more important advantage is that you can always zoom into something, but you can’t zoom out.

For example, if you left your lens at 50mm because that’s what you like using, and you see something happening right in front of you, by the time you’ve zoomed out, you might have missed the moment. Even if you got the shot, you could still be a little too tight for the composition you had in mind.

However, if you’re at 24mm and see something happening further ahead, even if you weren’t quick enough to get to 50mm and took the shot at 35mm, you can still crop in later.

You can always crop in, but you can’t crop out, so for that reason I always default the lens to 24mm.

A collection of primes

On a zoom lens, you will typically find markings for common focal lengths such as 35mm and 50mm. Try to treat the zoom as a collection of primes rather than one lens. I don’t necessarily mean leaving the lens at a specific focal length, but thinking about what prime you would use for a particular scene rather than mindlessly zooming in and out.

So as you approach a scene, ask yourself, is this a 35mm or a 50mm shot? Then try the two focal lengths and see what works better.

This is just my personal approach, and I’m not saying it’s the best, but it helps me make more thoughtful decisions rather than zooming in and out until it looks right.

Avoid the easy route

When I first started shooting with the 24-70mm, I found myself automatically defaulting to 70mm because it was the easy route.

When you first start learning about composition, it’s easier to compose a tiny portion of the scene at 70mm compared to figuring out a 35mm scene. Equally, it’s easier to zoom in on your subject rather than get closer. So after a few months of this approach, all my photos started looking identical and boring.

Try to avoid the habit of automatically zooming into 70mm and think about what you’re trying to show. Are you establishing the scene? Then maybe 28-35mm is what you need.

The beauty of a 24-70mm is having all these options to tell your story, so don’t just limit yourself to one.

Move around

The last piece of advice is to not forget to move around. When we shoot with primes, moving around is often a requirement. However, with zooms, I think laziness can creep in and result in us standing in one place while changing the focal length.

There’s nothing wrong with that, but while you’re changing the focal length, you’re not changing your perspective, which in my opinion is more powerful. Keep moving around and look for different perspectives, not just different focal lengths.



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