Lens Basics

Understanding Camera Lenses

The creative use of the lens gives photography its expressive qualities - they shape the way you “see” the world through the viewfinder. There is an inherent distorting quality to a camera lens, and you have to embrace that to get your vision properly captured on “film” or in the image sensor.

A

The Focal Length

A primary characteristic of a lens is the focal length. A lens’ focal length is defined as the distance between the lens’ optical center and the camera’s image sensor (or film plane) when focused at infinity. To understand this definition of focal length, we need to define “optical center” as well. A lens’ optical center is the point (usually though not always) within a lens, at which the rays of light from two different sources entering the lens are assumed to cross. Shorter focal length lenses provide a wider field of view, but offer less magnification. Conversely, longer focal lengths offer a shorter field of view, but provide greater magnification. On DSLRs, the interchangeable lens’ focal length is measured in millimeters. The focal length of a lens is usually displayed on the lens barrel, along with the size of the adaptor ring.

B

The Lens Ratio

When you look upon the front end of your lens barrel, you’ll see a ratio number (1:2.8, 1:2.8-4, 1:3.5-5.6, etc), which is the maximum aperture of the lens. The aperture determines how much light the lens transmits to the image sensor. The lower the maximum aperture value will indicate the quality of the lens in terms of brightness. High quality zoom lenses deliver a constant f-stop throughout the focal range (i.e. a f/2.8 at 35mm and a f/2.8 at 80mm); whereas on a lower quality lens, the f-stop varies as you travel up the focal range (i.e. a f/3.5 at 28mm, but a f/5.6 at 80mm); you are losing at least one stop of light as you zoom up the focal length from wide angle to telephoto. A lens with a low f-number (wide maximum aperture), is a better quality lens, and allows you to do more with it. For example, such a lens is "brighter", allowing you to take photos in low ambient light conditions, yet still register a quality exposure. In addition these bright lenses allow you to achieve a very shallow depth of field. It is to be noted that any lens that is f/2.8 or lower is considered to be a professional lens, and will have a correspondingly higher price tag.

1

Standard/Normal Lens

The standard lens has a fixed focal length (50mm, 85mm, 100mm), and reproduces fairly accurately what the human eye sees – in terms of perspective and angle of view. For a 35mm film camera or a full-frame DSLR, the 50mm lens is considered standard. At higher focal lengths (85mm or 100mm) you have an ideal lens for portraiture, because when coupled with a wide aperture they thoroughly soften any background detail, thus making it less likely to distract from the main subject.

2

Wide Angle Lens

A wide-angle has a shorter focal length (10 thru 42mm) when compared to a standard lens. This enables you to capture a comparatively wider angle of view. A wide-angle lens is a natural choice for capturing outdoor landscapes and group portraits. In fact, wide angle can be the only way to capture the complete setting without omitting any important elements in the image. In this manner, you can use wide-angle lenses to capture a deep DOF.

3

Telephoto Lens

Telephoto lenses (100mm - 800mm) can provide you with a narrow field of view. These long lenses enable you to compress a distance (and compress the sense of depth, as well) and pick out specific objects from far off. They have a strong resolving power and an inherent shallow DOF, where the slightest lateral moment can take a subject out of view. Telephoto lenses are great for wildlife, portrait, sports, and documentary types of photography. They enable you to capture subjects from hundreds of feet away.

4

Zoom Lens

Zoom lenses have variable focal lengths, and are extremely useful. Some can range between a wide-angle and a telephoto (i.e. 24 to 300mm) so you have extensive versatility for composition. The trade off with zoom lenses is the aperture. Because of the number of elements required in constructing these lenses, they have a limited ability to open up and allow in light. So unless you’re prepared to outlay a lot of money, you will give up lens speed.

5

Fisheye Lens

A fisheye lens is a specialized, wide-angle lens that provides extremely wide images by changing straight lines into curves. It can sometimes produce circular, convex, or oval images by distorting the perspective and creating a 180° image. The range of focal length varies between 7~16mm in a fish-eye lens.

6

Macro Lens

Macro lenses are used for close-up or “macro” photography. They range in focal lengths of between 50-200mm. These lenses obtain razor-sharp focus for subjects within the macro focus distance, but lose their ability for sharp focus at other distances. These lenses enable the photographer to obtain life-size or larger images of subjects like wasps, butterflies, and flowers.

7

Tilt-Shift Lens

The Tilt-Shift lens enables you to manipulate the vanishing points, so when you’re shooting buildings you can alter the perspective of an image so the parallel lines don’t converge, thus eliminating the distorting quality of the lens. The tilt-shift lens also enables you to selectively focus an image; where only specific portions of the image are in focus and out of focus within the same plane.

8

Image-Stabilization Lens

These lenses contain small gyro stabilizer sensors and servo-actuated lens elements, which purportedly correct for camera shake that occurs with longer focal length lens or in low-light conditions when you need to have slower shutter speeds to achieve an effective EV. It is claimed that these lenses enable the user to shoot handheld at 2 to 4 stop slower shutter speeds (exposure 4 to 16 times longer) than the minimum required for a sharp image.

C

Conclusion

There are many possible lens choices and all will give you a different and distinct image. Part of the creativity of the photographer is in selecting the right lens to capture the vision of the world the way she or he sees it, or wants to present it.

WORKSHOP KERALA

Aseem Komachi is a freelance Photographer,he started Photography career in  1995 to present. He is one of the popular photographer in Kerala State of India

 

PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP KERALA

Aseem Komachi is a freelance Photographer,he started Photography career in  1995 to present. He is one of the popular photographer in Kerala State of India

 

 

7 tips for low-light landscapes

The vast majority of landscape images are taken during the hours of daylight, with the ‘golden hour’ around dawn and sunset finding particularly favour amongst enthusiast and professional photographers.

However, the hours before dawn and after sunset can also be very productive with long exposures creating images that transform night into day.

We’ve put together a few tips that should set you on the right track if you fancy giving low-light or nighttime landscape a try.

1. Check the moon

You need some light for nighttime photography and this can be provided by the moon, or more correctly the light from the sun reflected by the moon.

It’s not essential that the moon is full, but it’s helpful if it’s fairly large in the sky, so check the phase of the moon and weather to decide the best dates for your shoot.

You can find information about the phase of the moon on the internet or, if you have an iPhone or Android phone, you might like to install MoonPhase (iOS) or the MoonPhase Widget (Android).

When you’re composing a long exposure image at night avoid including the moon in the frame as it will move while the shutter is open and be recorded as an oval.

Alternatively, you could shoot a couple of images, one long and one short and perform a little cloning to make a composite.

2. Set a low sensitivity value

In very low light it doesn’t matter how high you push the sensitivity value you still won’t be able to use a safe hand-holdable shutter speed.

In any case, you don’t want to introduce lots of noise by using a high setting, so it’s better to use a low value and put the camera on a good, solid tripod to keep it still.

Ideally keep the sensitivity to ISO 400 or lower.

3. Focus manually using live view

Ideally when shooting a low-light or night-time landscape, you should arrive early so that you can compose the image and focus the lens in decent light.

Once the scene is in focus, set the camera to manual focus so that it won’t adjust or hunt when you press the shutter release.

In the real world, you may not be able to arrive early, or you may want to photograph more than one composition during the same evening, in which case you will have to focus and compose in less than ideal conditions.

Unless the moon is very bright most AF systems will struggle to focus in very low light and it’s a good idea to focus manually.

This is tricky with an optical viewfinder, but if your camera has an electronic viewfinder the gain applied to the image should make the scene easier to see so that you can focus.

Alternatively, use Live View (which also applies gain) and compose the image on the main screen with a magnified view of the target area (ideally at the hyperfocal distance).

You may find it helps to shine a torch on the subject when focusing. If this fails, use the distance scale on your lens to focus.

4. Use a remote release

A remote release, either cable or wireless enables you to trip the shutter without actually touching the camera and setting it and/or the tripod wobbling.

Although it’s good practice to use mirror lock-up or exposure delay mode with a DSLR to give the vibrations set off by the mirror movement time to die down before the shutter opens, it’s not strictly necessary with exposures that are several seconds or more long.

It’s also not an issue with compact system cameras as they don’t have a mirror.

5. Use long exposure noise reduction

Most cameras have two types of exposure reduction, high sensitivity and long exposure.

This is because the noise that appears as a result of a long exposure tends not be random like high sensitivity noise, but occurs as a result of variations in the sensor and ‘hot pixels’.

In long exposure noise reduction mode the camera records two images in succession, the first is the actual image while the second is a ‘dark frame’.

This is taken with the same duration as the original image exposure, but with the shutter closed.

The camera then analyses the dark frame and extracts the noise that it finds from the normal image automatically.

This system usually works very well, but it can be frustrating having to wait for exposures that are effectively twice the length they would normally be.

If you prefer you can perform dark frame subtraction manually using specialist software or Adobe Photoshop to reduce the length of time each exposure takes.

However, the dark frames should be created periodically throughout the shoot as the sensor heats up during long exposures and this creates more noise.

Each dark frame should be the same length as the image exposures and are recorded with the lens cap on and the viewfinder covered.

6. Use graduated ND filters

Graduated filters can be just as useful for low-light landscape photography as they are in normal daylight as the sky.

They’re especially useful around sunrise or sunset when the sky can be significantly brighter than the ground beneath it.

It’s often tricky to position the graduation correctly in low light, so it may help to take an image or two at a high sensitivity setting (to allow a relatively short exposure) purely to check the position of the graduation on the back of the camera.

7. Don’t forget

Naturally it’s harder to find your kit in the dark, so don’t take anything that you don’t need to avoid expensive losses.

A torch is essential in most cases for helping you find stuff in your bag and it may come in handy for locating controls on your camera or providing light for focusing.

A head torch is a real bonus because it keeps your hands free and shines the light where you’re looking.

If you’re going to shoot in long grass or vegetation it’s a good idea to take along a picnic blanket or piece of old sheet that you can spread on the ground to place your bag on.

That way, if anything falls out of the bag it will be caught by the sheet and not disappear into the grass.

 

15 ways you can improve your photography in a day

You don’t have to be a technology expert to take better pictures. The art of photography lies just as much in how you ‘see’ the world as how much you know about camera settings. So here are our top 15 tips for better photography that almost anyone can use. The more advanced your camera, the more control you’ll have over the settings, but in the end it’s the eye behind the camera that makes the difference…

1. Change your viewpoint
Don’t just shoot everything from head height. Try lying on the ground to get a worm’s eye view or getting up high on a balcony or a rooftop to look down on your subject. It can make everyday subjects look new and different.

2. Fill the foreground
If your subject is far away it can leave the foreground looking empty, so look for some interesting objects to fill it, such as a bed of flowers or a cafe table in a city scene, rocks in a landscape or a boat in a seaside scene.

3. Look for frames
Trying using natural frames for your photos, such as archways, doorways or windows. They can act as a kind of natural enclosure for your subject, whether it’s a portrait, a landscape or a photo of a landmark. It stops your viewers’ eyes from wandering out of the frame and subtly focuses attention on your subject.

DON’T MISS: Discover how Canon’s free Project1709
platform can simplify your photo management

4. Shoot at night
The rule with digital camera is, if you can see it, you can photograph it! You can shoot city streets at night by bracing your camera against a wall or a table and using a high ISO, but it’s better still to get a tripod, set a low ISO for best quality and use the camera’s self-timer to fire the shutter so that you don’t jog it and blur the picture.

5. Move in closer
Don’t just take ‘long’ shots. Move in closer and fill the frame with your subjects. It doesn’t matter if you crop off the edges because this can give the picture even greater impact. Try this with patterns and textures, such as fruit on a market stall or brightly-coloured fabrics.

6. Change the exposure
Digital cameras can only estimate the correct exposure – they don’t know whether your subjects are intrinsically light or dark, or how you want the picture to look. So if your picture looks too light or too dark, use the EV compensation control to reduce or increase the exposure. You’re the one who knows what you want your pictures to look like, not the camera!

7. Watch your speed
Camera shake is the single biggest cause of failed photos, so watch your camera’s viewfinder or LCD for the shutter speed indication (you can switch on info displays on most cameras). A speed of 1/30sec or below is risky for hand-held shots, and with telephoto lenses you may need to shoot at 1/250sec or faster. If the light’s too dim for the camera to use these speeds, increase the ISO setting.

8. Capture movement
You can use shutter speeds creatively on cameras with shutter-priority or manual modes. Slow shutter speeds of around 1sec will blur moving water, and 10sec or more will blur pedestrians, and turn traffic at night into trails of light. All you need is a tripod and time to experiment.

9. Switch off the flash
If you’re taking pictures in sports stadiums, theatres or museums, turn off the flash! The only way to get well-lit, natural-looking shots is to increase the ISO setting and use whatever natural lighting there is. Besides, flash is annoying for other people – it’s why photography is banned in so many places.

10. Find your focus
You can’t always trust the camera to choose what to focus on. It might pick the object nearest the camera or whatever is in the centre of the frame, depending on the focus mode. Instead, on most models you can choose the focus point manually, moving it around the frame to position it over your subject.

11. Level it up
Nothing looks worse in landscape shots than a sloping horizon, but did you know keeping the camera level can also fix converging verticals in pictures of buildings? It’s tilting the camera upwards that makes the sides appear to lean in, so move further back, keep the camera level, and the problem is fixed!

12. Stand back for portraits
If you get too close to people when you take their pictures, you exaggerate the features closest to the camera – usually noses, but sometimes chins or foreheads! Instead, move further away and use a longer zoom setting. This produces a much more natural-looking perspective.

13. Choose your moment
If the sun’s gone behind a cloud, or some people are standing in the way of your picture, just wait. It sounds obvious, but a little patience can make all the difference between the perfect photo and a near miss. Photography isn’t just about choosing your subject – it’s about choosing your moment too.

14. Change the background
Don’t become so fixed on your subject that you overlook the background. It’s actually just as important, because it can either complement your subject perfectly, or ruin the picture. So take a few moments to change your position or zoom setting to find the perfect background before you press the shutter button.

15. Lock your settings
If the camera’s not focusing on the right thing or giving you the right exposure, reframe the shot until it does and half-press the shutter release – and keep it half-pressed – to lock the focus and exposure settings. Now reframe the picture how you want it and press the shutter button the rest of the way to take the picture. It’s a lot quicker than changing the focus or exposure settings manually!

Praveen Bhat

Praveen Bhat, fashion photographer, is more than somebody who takes good pictures; he has the Midas touch to make his models look their best artistically. Praveen's work with brand names like : 

Atlas, Conditions Apply, Ritu Wears, Femilla Fashions, Designer Jewellery by Ruhee Nanda, Lakhani Shoes, Gujranwala Jewellers, Designer Varsh Bajaj, KG collection by Designer Khushboo Gulati, Koga Collection by Designer Jenjum Gadi (WIFW), She n she, Bhanuni Collection by Designer jyoti verma (Dubai Fashion Week), Catu's Collection by Designer Navneet, Flu Jeans, Virsa Shervani, Roop Ji's, Anand Fashion's (Designer shoot for U.K), Kuvam, Adobe, Manhar, Kurta Palace, Yes Baby and many more..... Lakhani Shoes, Ritu Wears, Kuvam and also with some of the best designers in the industry is a reflection of his style, fashion and passion towards fashion photography.

Praveen's passion for photography goes back to his school days; though it was a hobby then he learnt manual processing and printing of black and white films from Mr. O.P. Sharma. In 2007, Praveen who by then had a promising career in the airlines industry, quit, and chose to take up photography professionally. Mr. Amitabh Bhattacharya (presently core faculty at APEX) trained him on the basics in photography.








Anyone who feels they are looking to learn more about the craft and science of photography should pay great attention to Praveen Bhat's work. His success comes from the fact he possesses the technical and artistic skills needed to create a valuable picture. Praveen is an extremely talented individual and has the tenacity to balance strategic thinking with effective tactical execution.

Praveen is very selective about the assignments he takes on; by demonstrating professionalism, simplicity and high integrity, he has established a lasting reputation along with respect toward his models and clients.

Praveen is now working on various international trends, techniques and lightings at his studio at Delhi (Noida). He strives towards making his mark in the international market considering the fact that fashion in India is growing rapidly with various international brands / designers coming to India.

What keeps Praveen going is the love and support he gets from his family and friends; they have been pillars of support as he strives towards his achieving his goal- 'to be the best in the fashion photography industry'.
FOR MORE
Praveen Bhat (Fashion & Advertising Photographer)www.praveenbhat.net http://www.pbase.com/praveenbhat

10 camera settings you don’t use (and which you probably should)

It’s easy to fall into a pattern when you take pictures, favouring some subjects and overlooking others, and sticking to the camera settings you know rather than experimenting with those you don’t. Sometimes it takes looking over your portfolio as a whole in your photo management software of choice to realise just what kind of a rut your photography is stuck in. But never fear – here are 10 shooting options you should explore in order to get the most from your camera and start breathing new life into your pictures…

1. Manual mode
Modern metering systems are so sophisticated you might imagine exposure is far too complicated to figure out manually. Not true! In fact it’s remarkably easy to estimate the exposure for any conditions manually – and you get to see the result on the LCD straight away, so it only takes a moment to tweak the settings and try again.

Switching to Manual mode has two big advantages:

1. You base your exposures on what you can see looks right, rather than what the camera’s exposure metering system imagines you want.
2. You can use a constant exposure for a series of shots taken in the same light, without the camera making unnecessary adjustments.

2. Daylight white balance
The camera’s auto white balance system tries to correct for different-coloured lighting to produce neutral-looking colours. Isn’t that what you want? Not always! Sometimes it’s the colour of the light that ‘makes’ the picture, especially with landscapes, and the last thing you want is for the camera to try to ‘fix’ it.

Instead, switch your camera to the Daylight preset. This fixes the colour correction values to match regular daylight, so that any changes in the light colour are recorded faithfully, such as the cool blue light of dawn or the warm golden tones of early evening.

3. Spot metering
Your camera’s Evaluative metering system does a good job of measuring the tones across the whole image and arriving at a good, compromise exposure. Often, though, it’s just one area of the frame that’s important, and that’swhere Spot metering mode comes into its own. It measures the light across a small area only and ignores the rest. This is often the only way to get the correct exposure with tricky subjects like spotlit performers on a stage, but it can be equally effective with everyday shots where your subject is in a different light to its surroundings.

4. Monochrome Picture Style
Picture Styles control the look of the picture saved by the camera, and almost all digital SLRs offer an equivalent. If you’re planning on making black and white photos, the Monochrome Picture Style is especially valuable because it enables you to see how your pictures are looking as you shoot them, and how to compose them more effectively when you’re working with shapes, light and shade rather than colour.

Shoot in your camera’s RAW+JPEG mode, and you’ll have one colour image (RAW) you can work on later, and a black and white shot (JPEG) that you can share straight away. On EOS digital SLRs, you can even apply ‘contrast’ filter effects using red, yellow or orange filters.

5. Use the self-timer for tripod shots
A tripod is great for keeping the camera still during long exposures, but that’s not much help if you jog it when you press the shutter button. The ideal solution is a remote release, but what if you don’t have one with you?

Simple – you just use the self-timer instead. 10 seconds, the usual self-timer delay, is rather a long time to wait, of course – but did you know you can change the delay to a shorter time, such as 2 seconds. That’s enough for any vibration to die down, but quick enough – hopefully – to catch your subject before it moves.

6. Program shift
In program AE mode, the camera selects the shutter speed and lens aperture combination automatically. If you want to choose either setting yourself, you’re usually advised to switch to the Shutter Priority or Aperture Priority modes instead.

But there’s a quicker way – your camera’s program shift function. If you don’t like the shutter/aperture combination, you use this to shift it in favour of smaller apertures or higher speeds. On Canon EOS cameras, you do this by turning the main control dial on program AE mode – simple!

7. Auto ISO
Auto ISO isn’t just for beginners. Normally you’d set the ISO manually to suit the conditions – low ISOs for best quality, for example, and high ISOs for hand-held shooting in poor light.

But this brings the risk of camera shake, if the ISO isn’t high enough, or excess noise if you’ve set it higher than it needs to be. This happens all too easily if you’re shooting in changing conditions and don’t have time to alter the settings.

This is where auto ISO comes into its own – the camera will use the lowest suitable ISO for the conditions and only increase it where necessary to avoid camera shake. You can usually set the maximum ISO you want the camera to use, if you’re concerned about quality.

8. AE lock button
On most cameras you can half-press the shutter button to lock the exposure, so that you can re-frame the shot and take the picture without the exposure changing. However, this also locks the focus, which isn’t always desirable.

So use the AE lock button on the back of the camera instead. This locks the exposure only. You can release the shutter button as you reframe the shot, then press it again when you’re ready to take the picture. The camera will re-focus on your subject, but keep the exposure you ‘locked’ – perfect for spot metering.

Learn More

for more updates like our Facebook page

Creating a Romantic Portrait on Location with Bobbi Lane

creative photography - portrait tutorial

Group Photos Tutorial: How to take family pictures with your digital camera

irista: Canon’s Project1709 platform gets its official launch

Pay Cash on Delivery

Get the widest range of Men footwear starting at the lowest prices. only at the freshest destination for footwear - Indiatimes Shopping

Shop Now

SHOPPING.INDIATIMES.COM

Canon has officially unveiled irista, its cloud-based image management platform designed as a central point for photographers to store, share and manage their photo collections.

Previously known in beta form as Project1709, irista is not strictly for Canon users. The platform is aimed at photographers regardless of which brand of camera they shoot with, or even which device it was shot on — i.e. camera or smartphone.

Chief among irista’s features is a tagging system that allows photographers to label their images anything they wish and filter them accordingly. You can also create as many different albums as you wish.

irista also enables you to edit your images’ EXIF data. The service also supports a wide range of file types, including raw format, and places no limitations on file size.

What’s more, you can also sync irista with your Facebook or Flickr accounts and share your images directly from irista.

Beta users who have already been using the platform can also expect a few new features.

Brand new features

Chief among them is Memento, a new viewing option designed for photographers who are storing large volumes of images. Memento determines your most important images, based on what you’ve shared and had comments on. When you then click on the Memento viewer it will pull all of your best work into view.

Search functionality is also improved, with users now able to search images that haven’t been tagged, as well as images you’ve shared to different social networks (or not shared), by lens type and a number of other options.

Canon has also added a batch download option for those who sign up to one of its storage options.

irista pricing

Canon has structured irista’s storage options into one free and two paid tiers. The ‘entry’ tier is free of charge and allows up to 10GB of cloud storage space.

Photographers who require more storage space can choose from a 50GB option, priced at £4.49 / €4.99 per month (or £45 / €49 annually), or a second option of 100GB priced at £9.99 / €10.99 (£99 / €109 annually).

What’s more, additional storage can be bought beyond the 100GB tier for photographers with larger collections. These ‘bolt-on’ packages include

• Bolt-on 20GB £2.49 / €2.99 (monthly) or £25 / €29 (annually)
• Bolt-on 50GB £4.99 / €5.49 (monthly) or £49 / €55 (annually)
• Bolt-on 100GB £8.99 / €9.99 (monthly) or £89 / €99 (annually)

READ MORE

To get new updates Like us on FACEBOOK