Search results for: photography buying guide a guide to prime lenses
About 76 filtered results
by Bjorn Petersen · Posted
When assembling a kit of lenses for photographing a wedding, one should take into consideration the location in which the wedding is taking place, the number of guests and, of course, the type of imagery you are seeking to create. To best represent a wedding in a dynamic manner, it is often preferable to have a range of lenses to achieve different perspectives of the event, rather than maintaining a constant perspective of your subject matter. A wide-angle lens, specifically, is a highly effective tool for capturing many of the scenes that
by Todd Vorenkamp · Posted
If you are stranded on a desert island and can only have one camera lens with you, which lens would you choose? That may depend on your specific area of expertise, but for the average photographer, the 50mm focal length is an essential tool to have in your kit. The 50mm prime lens, or “Nifty Fifty,” features a field of view close to that of the human eye, and delivers exceptional image quality, subject isolation, and background rendering, all in a compact package.
The Origin of the “Nifty Fifty”
In the bygone era of film SLR photography, many
by Luke Rollins · Posted
Many hobbyists reach a turning point in their craft when they decide to pursue wedding photography seriously. With the transition to pro comes the task of updating your lens kit accordingly, and most photographers would agree that investing in quality glass is essential. Unlike the rapid turnover of camera bodies, lenses will last for years and can make all the difference in creating quality images. Understanding what some of the best available options are will help you invest appropriately.
What to Consider
Weddings are long affairs, often
by Mathew Malwitz · Posted
Wedding and portrait photographers looking for a lightweight, compact system with exceptional performance need look no further than the FUJIFILM X cameras and lenses. While the size and weight advantage of mirrorless cameras spans from Micro Four Thirds to full frame, the APS-C sensors in the FUJIFILM X system allow the cameras and lenses to be relatively small and light. Full-frame mirrorless is attractive to many, but the portability advantage of APS-C sized lenses is not to be understated.
For those looking to one-up the full-frame shooters
by Todd Vorenkamp · Posted
The Micro Four Thirds system is becoming popular among a passionate group of wedding photographers. The compact size of the cameras and lens system, as well as the sheer number of available lenses from, OM System, Panasonic, and other manufacturers, not to mention the nearly limitless option of adapted lenses, means that the wedding photographer has many options for capturing the action.
It’s worth noting that OM System, formerly known as Olympus, has lenses with both branding. As lenses are updated, they’ll adopt the OM system name, but as
by Mathew Malwitz · Posted
Lens selection is a highly personal choice for the professional photographer. Your shooting style, client needs, and cost all factor into how you choose to build your kit. Wedding photographers require a greater variety of lenses as they must cover a diverse assortment of compositions in various environments and lighting conditions. As working professionals, it’s only natural to begin investing in high-quality professional glass. For Canon users, this is the L series.
Easily identified by a thin red line circling the lens barrel, L glass is
by Bjorn Petersen · Posted
As a student, much of your life is about making choices and sacrifices. “Should I skip this class and sleep in?” or “Should I go to class even though I’m too tired to pay attention?” There are a lot of hard decisions to make as a student, especially if you’re a burgeoning photographer looking to attain professional status.
But, as a student, means are often limited and you need to be more conscious about what gear to add to your kit. What gear is critical and worth the investment versus what are some of the things you can ignore for now and
by Bjorn Petersen · Posted
Not all fathers are photographers, but for those who are, I’d argue that a point-and-shoot camera is essential tech for the dads in the world. Even for those with the latest smartphone, point-and-shoots are dedicated, purpose-built tools that excel in areas where phones can’t quite keep up. And, besides, dads love tools, right?
OM SYSTEM TG-7 Digital Camera
If Indiana Jones had a point-and-shoot digital camera, it would be the
by Bjorn Petersen · Posted
With medium format shedding many of its niche associations and becoming a more viable and mainstream format, now might just be the time to begin incorporating this larger format into your working repertoire. When film was still king among working photographers, medium format cameras, particularly 645, was seen as an ideal balance between image quality, weight, speed, and number of frames per roll. Once the shift to digital occurred, weight and speed became the primary differentiators in which cameras and systems were being considered for the
by Todd Vorenkamp · Posted
Leave it to the world of photography to confuse size and speed. In lens-speak, the term “fast glass” refers to lenses with large apertures. In this article we take a look at the lenses with the largest-opening apertures. The aperture is the opening of a lens. The aperture’s size is expressed as a number that shows the ratio of the opening to the lens’s focal length. This number is referred to as an f/number, f/stop, focal
by Todd Vorenkamp · Posted
The camera bag starts as an afterthought—something you get after you buy a camera and/or lenses, and for many, just about any camera bag will do the trick for them. But, when you get deeper into photography and expand your kit, the camera bag becomes an essential part of your everyday carry. There are many parallels between shopping for a camera bag and shopping for something like a pair of shoes—hundreds (maybe thousands?) of options,
by Jill Waterman · Posted
Bristling along the sidelines of practically every professional sporting event, super-telephoto lenses are known for their ability to reach out and capture distant subjects with exceptional clarity and speed. They feel incredible in the hand, with top-of-the-line build quality and a heft that gives shooters confidence in their equipment. Many feature a variety of switches and buttons that allow users to set up the lens for optimal performance in any situation.
In addition to length, these lenses feature all of the latest technology, such as
by Bjorn Petersen · Posted
While film photography tends to take a back seat to digital photography nowadays, many photography programs still teach film photography to help you gain a better understanding of how the basic photographic process works. Without computers and an LCD screen to fall back on, shooting with film helps to reinforce technique and make you learn, understand, and trust yourself while shooting.
Film
The most obvious thing someone needs to begin his or her education in film photography is
by Todd Vorenkamp · Posted
What is the best lens focal length for photographing the total solar eclipse? Well, there really isn’t a correct answer to that question. There are many factors involved, so let’s outline some options for different types of cameras and budgets.
Above: The Hinode satellite X-ray telescope mission captures the January 6, 2011 solar eclipse. © JAXA/NASA.
Expedition 43 Flight Engineer Samantha Cristoforetti took a series of photographs
by Bjorn Petersen · Posted
Just like any other genre of photography, portraiture is a creative field that knows no bounds. There are no rules dictating how a portrait needs to be made, how it needs to look, or more specifically, how it was shot. On the other hand, photographers love to categorize and label things based on “best” and “typical” usage situations (and I’m certainly guilty of doing this). One of the labels that bothers me is the term, “portrait lens.” I think most photographers would have a decent sense of what kind of lens I’d be referring to if I wrote “