50mm was pretty much the only lens I used for ages when I was shooting film. I had an old Pentax KX SLR (like the K1000 but with a few more bells & whistles), a

50mm was pretty much the only lens I used for ages when I was shooting film. I had an old Pentax KX SLR (like the K1000 but with a few more bells & whistles), and a regular f/1.7 50mm manual focus lens -- and I loved it. Shot rolls and rolls of film. I highly recommend shooting old-school like this, as practice. After a while, you stop needing to meter, even, because you understand the light conditions and can pre-emptively configure the camera to do exactly what you want. Then, focus and shoot. The other thing shooting on film taught me is that one perfect photo is better than 100 bad ones. I find that digital photography natives tend to rely on burst features in an attempt to capture the right moment. But in my experience, especially with portraiture, waiting and then grabbing the precise moment can produce better results.