Practically any lens can be used to create fine art images. Indeed, the very concept of “fine art” is virtually impossible to pin down, and there are countless examples of portraits, figure studies, reportage, landscapes, architectural images, and abstract photographs that qualify as fine art. Exceptional sports, events, and advertising photography can also have that timeless, iconic quality and emotional intensity that is the hallmark of fine art.
Not surprisingly there’s no rigorous, ironclad definition of an “Art Lens”either. Sigma offers a range of high-performance Art Line lenses, and Zeiss has the premium Otus line, both aimed at photographers that place a high value on creative expression and capturing distinctive imagery. Other lenses are referred to as “art lenses” because so many fine art photographers use them. Examples: The old (pre-ASPH) 35mm f/2 Leica Summicronof the ‘50s and ‘60s, and the current 50mm f/0.95 Leica Noctilux-M, both prized for their outstanding bokeh.
Choosing a fine art lens
What do fine art photographers look for when choosing a lens? Here are some of the features and characteristics they hold in high esteem:
1. Wide apertures: Lenses with maximum apertures in the f/1.4-2.8 range allow greater depth of field control, and those with focal lengths of 50mm or longer deliver very shallow depth of field at wide apertures for creating beautiful pictorial effects as the sharp subject “pops” off the soft background.
2. Beautiful bokeh: This Japanese word refers to the quality of the out-of-focus areas of the image. A lens is said to have beautiful bokeh when it captures images with smooth, natural looking transitions from the sharpest to the softest areas of the image, and maintains the accurate shape of the object even when the image is out of focus. Bokeh varies with the optical design of the lens, but lenses with seven or more rounded blades in the diaphragm yield a more nearly circular aperture that also tends to enhance bokeh.
3. Sharpness plus “roundedness”: While fine art photographers occasionally use soft focus lenses, and optical filters such as Tiffen Diffusion Filters, for many fine art photographers, crisp imaging and high resolution are essential, so it’s a mistake to equate un-sharpness with “art.” However, the lenses favored by art photographers also have another quality that’s hared to describe—a“natural” look or “roundedness” in the way they render subjects, especially people. Back in the day, it was called “plasticity” but whatever you call it, it’s not quantifiable but you know it when you see it, and many of the lenses listed below have it.
4. Low distortion and evenness of illumination: Anything goes when it comes to fine art photography and that includes fisheye effects, weird perspective distortion caused by tilting the camera, radical foreshortening, etc. However most art photographers want to start from ground zero, a place of known image characteristics, before they go off into flights of fancy. That’s why they value high-quality lenses that have very low linear distortion, and even illumination from the center to the corners of the image field.
The A List: 12 Top Fine Art Photography Lenses
Sigma 50mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art lens: Redesigned with Special Low Dispersion (SLD) glass and by placing wide elements in the front optical groups for enhanced performance at large apertures, this 13-element, 6-group lens delivers outstanding image quality and beautiful bokeh. Other improvements:A floating element to reduce lens movement when focusing and optimized AF algorithms for smoother focusing down to 15.7 inches (max. mag. ratio: 1:5.6). Adorama price: $949.00.
Zeiss Otus 85mm f/1.4 Apo Planar ZF.2: Acclaimed for its superlative performance, this super-speed moderate telephoto is ideal for portraiture and available light photography. It employs special anomalous partial dispersion glass and aspheric elements to achieve apochromatic correction, eliminating color fringing even under unfavorable lighting conditions. It delivers extremely sharp images over its entire aperture and focusing range, and has a 9-rounded-blade diaphragm for enhanced bokeh. Adorama price: $4,490.00.
Canon ED 135mm f/2L USM AF: The fastest telephoto in its class, it’s ideal for shooting portraits with attractively soft backgrounds, indoor sports, and night photography. This 10-element, 8-group lens incorporates two UD-glass elements to deliver outstanding sharpness and color correction, and an 8-bladed diaphragm for beautiful bokeh. It focuses down to 3 feet (max. mag ratio: 1:5.3) for impressive close-ups. Adorama price: $999.00 (bundle).
Leica 50mm f/0.95 Noctiulux-M ASPH: This sensational super-speed M-Mount normal lens delivers extremely shallow depth of field at its maximum aperture for capturing unique esthetic effects in portraiture and general shooting. Its floating element design maintains high image quality at close focusing distances, it employs 2 aspheric surfaces to eliminate vignetting and distortion, and it delivers outstanding imaging performance even wide open. It can be adapted to a variety of mirrorless and video cameras. Adorama price: $9,675.00.
Sigma 24-35mm f/2 DG HSM Art Lens: This unique and exceptionally versatile full-frame, high-speed wide-angle zoom offers amazing depth-of-field control capabilities unique for a lens of its type, making it ideal for environmental portraiture, landscapes, and low-light photography. It incorporates 2 aspheric elements to deliver outstanding image quality, an HSM motor for swift, silent AF with instant manual-focus override, a thermally stable composite (TSC) barrel to maintain its high performance at all temperatures, and a 9-rounded-blade diaphragm for capturing exquisite bokeh. Adorama price: $999.00.
Tamron 15-30mm f/2.8 Di VC USD: Said to be the fastest ultra-wide-to wide-angle zoom in its class, this excellent full-frame 18-element 13-group lens incorporates an exclusive XGM molded aspheric element and several low dispersion (LD) elements to control aberrations and distortion and to provide outstanding image quality. It also includes VC image stabilization to minimize blur in handheld shooting, a 9-rounded-blade diaphragmfor enhanced bokeh, a water-repelling fluorine coating on the front element and an improved ISD drive for fast, silent AF plus easy manual override.Adorama price: $1,119.00 (bundle).
Lensbaby Velvet 56, 56mm f/1.6 Macro: This fascinating 56mm fast full-frame normal f/1.6 lens employs a unique 4-element, 3-group “single-doublet-singlet” optical design said to deliver a “velvety, glowing, ethereal look” at its widest apertures and “sharp but subtly unique” images as you stop it down. Featuring a classic form factor, an all-metal-body, a smooth well-damped manual focus mechanism that focuses down to 5 inches from the front element (max. mag. ratio: 1:2) it accepts 62mm filters and weighs in at 14.5 ounces. Adorama price: $499.95.
Leica 75mm f/2.0 Apo-Summicron-M ASPH: This superb wide-aperture medium telephoto is optimized for capturing compelling available light portraits with superb sharpness and beautiful bokeh, and for isolating picture elements in reportage. It incorporates anomalous dispersion, fluorite, and exclusive ultra-high-index glass in its advanced floating-element 7-element, 5-group construction to ensure extraordinary image quality at all distances and apertures, and it focuses down to 27 inches for tight headshots. Adorama price: $3,339.60.
Nikon 200mm f/2 IF-ED AF-S VR II: This ultra-fast telephoto is great for capturing exceptional moments in sports as well as outstanding portraits and images in low-light environments such as theaters. It yields extremely shallow depth of field and beautiful background blur at its widest apertures and incorporates one Super ED and 3 Extra-Low-Dispersion ED elements to provide superior sharpness and color correction throughout. Other features: Nikon VR II image stabilization, exclusive Silent Wave Motor (SWM) for ultra-quick, quiet AF, and a 90blade rounded diaphragm for enhanced bokeh: Adorama price: $5,996.95.
Sigma 35mm f/1.4 GD HSM Art lens: The very first lens in Sigma’s esteemed Art Line, this super-speed winde-angle prims is superb for environmental portraits that place the subject in context, as well as reportage, still life, and street photography. Its advanced optical design employs FLD (“F” Low Dispersion) and SLD (Special Low Dispersion) glass elements to achieve an extremely high level of correction and sharpness, and its large f/1.4 aperture yields gorgeous bokeh effects: Other features: A solid brass bayonet mount for accuracy and durability, and an HSM motor for ultra-fast, precise AF. Adorama price: $899.00.
Canon TS-E 90mm f/2.8 Tilt & Shift Manual Focus Lens: Combining the virtues of a fast medium telephoto for portraiture, and a tilt-shift function to control converging lines, and determine sharpest plane of focus, this versatile 6-element 5-group full-frame lens provides tilting to +/- 8 degrees and shifting up to +/- 8mm singly or in combination, and its mount can be rotated 90 degrees to the left or right to put the perspective correction where you want it. It focuses down to 19.2 inches (max. mag. ratio: 1:3) for dramatic close-ups, and has an 8-bladed diaphragm for enhanced bokeh. Adorama price $1.399.00 (bundle).
Leica 35mm f/2.5 Summarit-M: This exquisitely compact (7.8 ounce) lens is based on Leica’s classic spherical-element lens design that yield images of excellent quality with a very natural feel prized by fine art photographers. Ideal for portraiture and events photography it incorporates a 9-bladed rounded diaphragm for enhanced bokeh and its aperture is wide enough to deliver shallow depth of field for creating pictorial effects, especially at of near its minimum focusing distance of 2.6 feet. Adorama price: $1,715.12.
