24mm was one of the most commonly used focal lengths that I used when I first started street photography in order to capture high-rise buildings. The 24mm focal length is a great wide angle lens to capture cinematic landscapes and cityscapes.
A focal length like 85mm is useful to capture details of a certain subject like a building or a pier, while 24mm focal length captures the entire scene.
In this blog post, I’ll be sharing some of my favorite cinematic travel photos captured with a 24mm focal length.
As a quick note: these photos were taken with the Sony 24-70mm f/2.8 G-Master zoom lens and not a 24mm prime lens, but all photos were taken at the 24mm focal length on the full frame camera body: the Sony a7R III.
Architectural Photography
The 24mm lens does a great job at capturing large architectural structures - especially when you might be limited in how much you’re able to move. If you’re on a narrow pedestrian walkway or you’re taking photos in a crowded location, this is a great focal length to get a nice wide shot of architecture that you’re not able to get close to.
Another benefit when it comes to architectural photography with a 24mm lens is that you have a bit more opportunity to choose how you want to compose the final image by cropping. As a general rule, I try to avoid cropping in order to save as much resolution in the final photo as possible, but it can be useful if you get a lot of sky or ground and want to choose between the two.
Long Exposure Photography
The photos below were taken at 24mm with the Sony zoom lens. For the photo on the left, I didn’t have a tripod on my trip to London so I held the camera still while bracing the railing. I waited for cats to pass by and shot a long exposure to get light trails. With a 24mm focal length, I can keep a slower shutter speed and not worry too much about getting a blurry shot when I don’t have a tripod.
For the photo on the right, I left the Sony camera on a surface and put it on a timer to get a great long exposure shot. Wide focal length allows me to capture the top of some of these high-rise buildings that I wouldn’t be able to with a closer-up focal length.
Los Angeles Highways
Certain overpasses in Los Angeles don’t have a lot of walking space. With a wide angle focal length like 24mm, I can capture entire highway scenes without having to take up too much space. Using a wide angle makes the scene look a lot more cinematic because you can see just how expansive the highway is: capturing the zooming cars, the high-rise buildings, and the beautiful sky.
LOS ANGELES TRAVEL PHOTOGRAPHER BRIAN BROWN
24mm is currently the widest focal length that I have in my camera bag for my Sony camera. Even though I moved to mainly prime lenses for my photography, it’s still important for me to have a wide focal length in my bag to capture landscapes in a way that even a 35mm would be able to capture.
Thanks for reading and until next time.
Feel free to explore more about focal lengths in these blog posts:
Sigma 85mm f/1.4 DG DN ART Lens Review
Sigma 35mm f/1.4 DG DN ART Lens Review
Sony 24-70mm f2.8 G-Master Lens Review
Is the Sony 70-200mm GM OSS II Lens Good for Portraits?
If you like travel, feel free to browse my travel photography gallery across different cities:
