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Monday, October 1, 2001 LENSES AND PERSPECTIVE Different focal length lenses change the angle of view or cropping of a scene, but they do not change the perspective of a scene (the size relationships of foreground and background). Perspective is changed by moving the camera. We looked at examples of photos take from one place with different focal length lenses (with changes in cropping but not perspective) and then we looked at a subject that was kept the same size but the background was changed by moving the camera and changing lenses. LENS TESTS We looked at lenses tests and drew some conclusions about buying lenses. When buying telephoto lenses (such as 80-200 mm or 100-300 mm), the mid-priced lens is often much better than an inexpensive lens, but still close in quality to a very high priced lens. What the high dollar lens gives you is a faster maximum aperture. For mid-focal length lenses (such as 35-70 mm or 28-80 mm), an inexpensive lens can be very good in quality. It does pay to check out lens tests for a specific lens you might have in mind. There are lens test results on this site. LENS CHOICES Lens choices are a matter of personal taste and intended use, but for general nature photography I recommend lenses that range from 28 to 200 mm in focal length, or better yet, 24 to 300mm. You can do this with a combination of single focal length and zoom lenses. I began with a 24 mm wide angle lens, a 50 mm "normal" lens, and an 80-200 mm zoom lens. Over time I replaced the 24 mm with a 20-35 zoom, the 50 mm with a 28-105 zoom, and the 80-200 with a 100-300 zoom. Used with good technique, zoom lenses can give very good results. SPECIALTY LENSES We spent some time talking about perspective control lenses (tilt-shift) and how they work. These are expensive. We spent just a little time talking about macro lenses. FLOWER PHOTOGRAPHY We discussed several techniques for doing flower photography and then looked at a number of examples. A few of the highlights: Shoot flowers from their eye level, not yours. Most flowers look best in soft light. Isolate flowers by using long lenses and small apertures. If you have a good scenic background, get close to the flowers with a wide angle lens and stop down using the hyperfocal distance to keep everything sharp. To compress flowers, get back a ways and use a long lens with a small aperture. Try backlit flowers on sunny days. Get in close. Then get even closer. Put your lens right in the flower with a wide angle lens and an extension tube (more on this when we get to clasp photography). Be very careful about the quality of the background. Look for a flower with no flaws. Flaws that aren't important to the eye really jump out at you on film. MULTIPLE EXPOSURES Read your camera manual to see how to do multiple exposures with your camera. There are two ways to figure the exposure when doing multiple exposures on one frame of film. The simple way is to multiply the film speed by the number of exposures on one frame of film. If you are doing two exposures on one frame of film with 100 speed film, set the film speed to 200 (2x100). If you are doing 4 exposures with 200 speed film, set the film speed to 800 (4x200). Don't forget to reset the camera back to the right film speed when you are done. The other way to do multiple exposures is to compensate for each exposure depending on the number of exposures on each frame of film as follows: Number of exposures on one frame Compensation Examples: If you are doing 2 exposures on one frame of film and you meter the subject at f/8 at 1/125 second, then subtract one stop of light for each of the two exposures, that is shoot each at f/8 at 1/250 second. If you are doing four exposures on one frame and you meter the subject at f/11 at 1 second, then subtract 2 stops for each of the four exposures, giving you f/11 at 1/4 second. STUDENT WORK We spent some time reviewing student work. Keep shooting and bring in some of your work for us to look at. ASSIGNMENT Go out and shoot some flowers using the techniques we discussed in class. Try some multiple exposures of different kinds of subjects. NEXT CLASS IS OCTOBER 15 There will not be class on October 8. FIELD TRIP October 12 The weather does not look too promising for Friday, Oct 12 with rain predicted. However, look outside Friday at 6 PM. If it has stopped raining and there is sky visible between the clouds, we will meet at Wolf Lake Fish Hatchery at 6:30 PM to photograph the sunset, and hopefully swans, geese, or ducks. Dress warm and bring a flashlight. If it is raining or totally overcaste at 6 PM, we will not meet. Wolf Lake Fish Hatchery is 6 miles west of US 131 on M-43 (Main Street). Go west on M-43 and turn left on Fish Hatchery road (going south). Pull in to the second driveway on your right which goes in to the visitors center parking lot. |
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October 2, 2001 |
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Copyright © Jim Doty, Jr. All rights reserved. |
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