Photographing New York City presents unique challenges. As a photographer, you will have to contend with both cramped spaces indoors (such as inside bars, restaurants and the subway) and incredibly tall buildings outdoors.
The best way to deal with these disparate photographic challenges is to simply use a wide-angle lens all the time.
For our purposes, “wide-angle” means any field of view that is 35mm or wider. The 35mm field of view is great for capturing the city. 24mm is even better. My personal favorite field of view sits in between these two at 28mm.
Certainly, you can photograph the city with a “tighter” lens. You can use a 40mm or 50mm lens and get great images – I absolutely have. The problem, though, is that with these tighter fields of view you will find yourself needing to move back from where you are standing to get everything you want into a particular shot. And backing up is not always possible in crowded New York City. You may find yourself backing up into busy traffic.
So 28mm it is.
Achieving a 28mm field of view isn’t difficult, but things can get a bit complicated depending on your gear, so let me help to simplify.
If you’re a beginner just starting out with an APS-C Nikon or Canon DSLR, you can achieve a nearly 28mm field of view by using the zoom lens that probably came with your camera. Due to the 1.5x crop factor of your sensor, setting your zoom lens to 18mm will give you almost a 28mm field of view (18mm x 1.5 = 27mm). You have probably done this naturally already and didn’t need me to tell you to “zoom out”, but it’s good to begin to understand the math and mechanics behind what you are doing.
If you’re a Micro Four Thirds user as I am from time-to-time, you can set your zoom lens to 14mm, since your sensor has a 2x crop factor (14mm x 2 = 28mm). Or better yet, buy the 14mm f2.5 Lumix lens, which gives you much better images than any zoom lens and lets in a bit more light – useful for capturing night scenes. It’s also incredibly small, making it easy to carry around all day on the streets of New York.
If you’re using a full-frame camera then you are probably an expert and don’t need my advice on lenses – but I will give you advice anyway. A lens like the Sigma 24mm f1.4 will solve all of your problems, forever. It’s wide enough to capture everything, and the f1.4 aperture will help you keep your ISO speed lower at night or inside dark bars, giving you extremely clean and detailed images. For the beginners who have read this far, full-frame cameras have a 1x crop factor (or no crop factor), so a 24mm lens is always 24mm (24mm x 1 = 24mm).
Other options for wide-angle photography include action cameras such as the GoPro or Akaso Brave, which in their current iterations offer surprisingly good image quality and even RAW capture. These cameras will give you the absolute widest view (roughly 16mm) for the lowest cost.
And of course, your phone is always a great option. Your phone probably has a camera that, when fully zoomed out, offers either a 24mm or 35mm field of view. This is why it always feels so “comfortable” to capture images with your phone – everything fits onto the screen and everything is always in focus.
The only drawback is image quality – it will never be as good as your DSLR or mirrorless camera in less-than-ideal lighting situations, but things are improving with each new generation of smartphone camera.
A trip to NYC is an exciting adventure, and as a photographer it’s a fantastic opportunity to take some amazing photos. Hopefully this article helps you prepare for your upcoming vacation. Follow me on Twitter.
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