When I was about to get my first Nikon, an older friend of mine suggested foregoing the 50mm lens that came with most cameras at that time and instead getting 35mm and 85mm lenses.  His point was that having to choose between a wider view or a tighter crop forced you to make decisions about your photo as opposed to just accepting the middle ground – one that was a fairly common look at the time.  I thought it was great advice, but given that I was only fourteen at the time and couldn’t afford that option, I stuck with a 50mm 1.4 with my new Nikkormat.  It worked just fine, but I came to appreciate his advice over time.  When I could finally afford an option similar to what he prepared, I made the jump and loved it.  For many years, my normal set of lenses included a 35mm 1.4 and an 85 or 105mm, often supplemented with a 20 or 24mm and a 180mm.   This was in the mid-eighties through mid-nineties, and I generally used those lenses with either an F2 or F3.  Good stuff in the days before digital (still good in many ways).

What did skipping the middle ground do for me?  It made me consciously think about whether or not subject isolation was important, how much I wanted to pull the viewer into the image (easier with a wide angle), and I came to find that those were more natural focal lengths for me.  When I take a look at my images from a shoot, it’s amazing how despite the fact that I have a set of fairly wide ranging lenses, the most successful images usually skip that middle range of 50mm or so.

Fixed focal length prime lenses make this exercise the easiest, and these days I like to pair my D700 (which is my more portable camera) with  24mm 1.4, 35mm 1.4 and 85mm 1.4 AF-S lenses for urban photography.  They’re fast, sharp and fun to use.  You can isolate subjects well or get plenty of depth of field.  Less expensive FX solutions could include a 24mm 2.8, 35mm 2.0 and an 85mm 1.8.  Those are still very good lenses, and they cost and weigh dramatically less.  There’s also the option of used lenses, including the still superb 85mm 1.4 AF-D.  For a DX body, the choices are a bit more awkward in the wide-angle realm, but a 24mm and 50mm work pretty well in the other ranges, and an 85mm can work well for tighter compositions.

If you’re using zooms and don’t want to invest in primes, no problem.  Just try to consciously avoid that middle ground in your shots as an experiment.  You can always come back to it when you want (after all, many great shots have been made with 50mm lenses), but stirring things up a bit might give your shots some added punch.  Give it a try!