Helpful tips for telephoto lens photography.

Learn how to take pictures from far away with telephoto lenses.

Telephoto lenses are lenses with very long focal length — typically more than 200mm. In other words they can zoom in to a significant degree. If you want to take pictures of subjects far away, this is the lens you need.

When you’re zoomed in that far, however, it can be difficult to take clear pictures. Here are a few tips to help.

Use a tripod.

Using such a long focal length magnifies every little movement of the camera. If you take telephoto pictures by hand, even small amounts of camera shake will make your image come out blurry.

Whenever you use a telephoto lens, a tripod is almost a necessity. It’ll help make sure that your camera stays perfectly still when you take the shot.

Other equipment and settings like remote triggers and timers can also help reduce camera shake. Since you don’t have to physically push the shutter button, your camera won’t move as you take the picture.

Focus on details.

Since telephoto lenses have such a narrow field of view, they’re great at picking out small parts of a wider landscape. Use that to your advantage and focus on the little details that make the shot so interesting. Sometimes, one detail can be more interesting than the entire scene.

These lenses are great for animal photography because you can take crisp images of tiny subjects (like birds or other small animals) from far away without scaring them off.

Use photo editing software.

When you shoot with a telephoto lens, there’s always a chance your shot won’t come out as crisp as you hoped. Processing your pictures in a photo editing software like Adobe Photoshop or Lightroom can help you fix some of the minor issues and transform your “okay” images into something spectacular.

Looking for more helpful tips?

Learn more about what you can do with Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom to enhance your telephoto lens photography.