Finding Your Focal Length: A Street Photography Guide Based on the Masters (50mm, 35mm, 28mm)
Choosing a focal length is one of the first big decisions in street photography — and it quietly defines how you see the world. The lens you use shapes your distance from your subject, the way you move through space, and even your relationship to the people you photograph.
For decades, the 28mm, 35mm, and 50mm lenses have been the backbone of classic street photography. They’re the focal lengths used by the masters — each one carrying a distinct personality and philosophy.
Understanding Focal Length For Beginners
If you’re just starting out, here’s a quick breakdown:
50mm: Feels natural — similar to how your eyes see. Great for portraits or scenes that need clean composition and minimal distortion.
35mm: A little wider — helps include more of the environment while keeping subjects prominent.
28mm: Much wider — exaggerates perspective and pulls the viewer into the action, but requires getting physically closer to your subject.
In short:
The shorter the focal length, the closer you’ll need to be — and the more dynamic the photo becomes.
50mm – The Natural, Classical Eye
The 50mm lens closely matches the human eye, producing realistic proportions and a balanced frame. It’s ideal for intimate but composed street scenes — a favorite of photographers who value precision and restraint. It’s a fantastic lens for isolating a single person in the crowded, complex geometry of a Shinjuku street or capturing a quiet, composed moment in a Yanesen temple.
Henri Cartier-Bresson – The Decisive Moment
Cartier-Bresson built his entire philosophy around the 50mm. With it, he captured what he called the decisive moment — when geometry, emotion, and timing align.
📷 Example: Behind the Gare Saint-Lazare (1932)
Saul Leiter – Isolation and Abstraction
Leiter used a 50mm for an entirely different purpose — to compress and simplify his chaotic surroundings. Shooting through fogged glass and reflections, he turned New York into abstract color paintings.
📷 Example: “Snow” (1958)
Why It Works:
The 50mm lets you observe without interfering. It’s about seeing clearly, not loudly.
35mm – The Versatile Storyteller
The 35mm is a perfect middle ground. It’s wide enough to include environment and context, but not so wide that it distorts faces or space. It’s the lens of narrative — used by photographers who see stories in layers. This is the lens for storytelling—perfect for capturing a chef and their stall at Tsukiji Outer Market, or showing a fashionable subject within the full context of a Harajuku side street.
Robert Frank – The Environmental Narrator
In The Americans, Frank carried a Leica with a 35mm lens across 1950s America, capturing its contradictions — pride, loneliness, and disillusionment — all in a single frame. The book is considered one of the greatest photobooks ever made. If you are looking to explore what can be done with a 35mm lens, this is a great place to start.
📷 Example: “Trolley—New Orleans” (1955)
Why It Works:
The 35mm lens sits at that sweet spot between subject and setting — ideal for storytelling through context. It lets you see where people exist, not just who they are.
28mm – The Immersive and In-Your-Face Lens
The 28mm lens is bold. It demands proximity — the kind that can’t be faked. You have to move in close, often just feet away, to fill the frame. That closeness changes everything: perspective, tension, even the energy between you and your subject. This is the lens of energy, perfect for diving into the controlled chaos of the Shibuya Scramble or capturing the raw, close-quarters energy of an izakaya in Omoide Yokocho.
Garry Winogrand – Layered Reality
Winogrand’s 28mm frames were full of chaos — tilted horizons, layered crowds, and endless movement. His work captured not just moments, but the feeling of being there.
📷 Example: “World’s Fair, New York” (1964)
William Klein – Controlled Chaos
Klein took the wide angle even further. He shot close, confrontational, sometimes inches from people’s faces, embracing blur and distortion to match the energy of post-war New York and Paris.
📷 Example: “Gun 1, New York” (1954)
Bruce Gilden Flash and Confrontation
Gilden used 28mm lenses with flash to capture the streets. His photos feel like explosions — sharp, intrusive, full of adrenaline.
📷 Example: Bruce Gilden’s “Yakuza (1998)”
Why It Works:
The 28mm exaggerates perspective and brings the viewer into the chaos — perfect for energy, movement, and confrontation.
Which Focal Length Fits You?
At the end of the day, there’s no single “best” lens for street photography. Each focal length carries a distinct way of seeing:
50mm: Classic and observational — the lens of patience and precision.
35mm: Balanced and narrative — the lens of storytelling and emotion.
28mm: Immersive and raw — the lens of proximity and energy.
Study the Masters and Find Your Eye
The best way to understand focal length isn’t through specs — it’s through studying photographs that feel right.
William Klein (National Gallery of Art) - While sources suggest he experimented, Klein's iconic, confrontational style was often achieved with wide-angle lenses, typically in the 21mm to 28mm range. He stated that he used the wide-angle to "get as much as possible in the frame" and to get "up-and-close to the action."
Look through their contact sheets and sequences if you can. Study distance, framing, rhythm — then go out and shoot, not to copy but to discover what feels honest to you.
If you’d like to explore these techniques in person, join one of my Tokyo Street Photo Walks — we’ll shoot with intention, study how focal length shapes perspective, and learn directly from the masters who defined it.