I’ve spent the last year shooting portraits almost exclusively with a 35mm + 85mm combo, and this video is basically my attempt to clear up why it’s so misunderstood. Most people swap between 35 and 85 like they’re using a zoom—same spot, same framing—so the images just look like a crop. That’s when the 35 becomes the “get everything in” lens and the 85 becomes the “blur everything out” lens, and you never actually get the real benefit of having two primes. My big takeaway is simple: 35mm isn’t a wide lens, it’s a close lens—and 85mm isn’t a tight lens, it’s a distance lens. I show practical ways to use each lens from multiple distances (wide, medium, tight) so you get a new perspective, not just a different crop. With 35mm, I lean into organized chaos and story, but I’m careful to keep the subject dominant—and I don’t rely on shallow depth of field as a cheat code. With 85mm, I use compression and layering to simplify the scene while still keeping meaningful elements, especially when there’s open space (like the beach).