I'm looking for a lens for fashion street photography which covers all the body in the pic. Do you recommend the Nikon 50mm 1.8d or Nikon 35mm f / 1.8G for my D3300 camera body? (I don't have the budget for anything more expensive.)

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    Welcome to the site! Do you have a kit lens already? What focal length do you find yourself using on that lens for this type of photography? Have you used the search function of this site to read about street photography lenses? What did you learn? What did those questions not answer for you? Note that this is not a shopping site(see help for more). See this if you haven't already - What is a good focal length for street photography? – dpollitt Jun 5 '16 at 13:50
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    Curious why you're willing to spring for the better 35mm G but not for the 50mm G? The 50mm D has no focus motor in the lens and won't AF on your D3300, The 50mm G does have a focus motor and will AF on your D3300. – Michael C Jun 5 '16 at 13:51
  • People's lens choices are often very subjective. Any time you have questions about whether an expensive lens is "right for you", consider borrowing one from a friend or renting one for a day or two. It's a hassle, but you'll thank yourself later if you avoid an expensive but unhappy purchase. – JS. Jun 8 '16 at 20:38
  • Wouldn't that depend entirely on how far away you are from your subject? – Blrfl Jun 8 '16 at 21:31

The 35 mm will include more background. Decide if you prefer more context in the image or more isolation. There will be a bit more distortion with the wider lens. It will be more apparent in head shots than full body shots though. Otherwise, 35mm and 50mm are close and it is a matter of personal style and preference.

Also, when you buy a lens, think about what your next lens purchase should be. For example, if you plan to purchase a 60mm macro or an 85mm portrait lens in foreseeable future, it probably makes more sense to get a 35 now, because 50 is too close and you might find the two lenses overlapping...

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Get the 35mm. Assuming "fashion street photography" means that you're relatively close to your subject, the wider lens will do a better job covering a person-sized subject. The 50mm would work too, but you'll need to stand farther away.

Using this dimensional field of view calculator, you can see that on a body with a 1.5x crop factor like your D3300, at a distance of 10 feet, a 35mm lens will cover a distance of 6 feet 10 inches in the longer dimension. At the same distance, a 50mm lens covers about 4 feet 10 inches, and needs a distance of about 14 feet to get the same 6' 10" coverage.

I haven't considered lens quality at all here, so that's something else that you should of course look at in making your decision.

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Whether or not you'll get as much coverage as you want depends entirely on your working distance and framing choices. Nobody can absolutely tell you what focal length to use, because everybody tends to frame differently and to have varying degrees of comfort in terms of how close they are to their subjects. Street, to some shooters, can mean anything from in-your-face shooting from a few feet/inches away to sniping with a telephoto from across the street.

I'd recommend starting with an 18-55 kit lens, assuming you already have one, and then seeing what focal lengths yield the coverage you want, and then going for a lens. Chances are good that the 35/1.8 might still not be wide enough, if you like or are forced to work in close, and you might be better off with a 24mm lens. On the other hand, if you tend to use your 18-55 zoomed all the way in, then the 50/1.8 might be a better choice. Understand, too, that the chances of distortion increase the shorter the lens gets.

But overall, I'd also say if you really want a good lens for what you want to do, consider saving up enough to buy a good lens before going shopping. Being "forced" to buy a lens because it's all you can afford is one way to end up with a lens that doesn't manage to do what you want. And it's not like a kit lens turns every photo you take butt ugly simply because you used it.

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