Understanding the Value of Wide Angle Lenses

Saturday, August 14th, 2010 at 8:02 pm

by etrusia_uk (sad at loss of scripts on flickr)

Understanding the Value of Wide Angle Lenses

Wide angle lenses are, in my opinion, the most overlooked “next step” for amateur photographers. Everyone has the “kit” lens that was packaged with their camera and then they go buy the 75-300mm zoom and then they are done. I knew I wanted the 18-200mm when I purchased my camera, but was on a waiting list, so the first lens I bought was the 10-20mm Sigma wide-angle. Wow. It gave me the opportunity to see the awesome potential of wide angle lenses (and their limitations).

Why Do I Need One?

If you are trying to capture landscape shots or just the “size” of a scene, then wide angle lenses will help you. Think of the angle of how light enters the camera lens. As this widens, it allows more detail to be focused on the film/sensor.

Ask yourself this. Have you ever been in a room taking a group photo or photo of something in the room, but you could not zoom out enough and you could not back up enough without leaving the room? This is where wide angle lenses come in. They will distort the image slightly, but it still lets you take a photo that is otherwise impossible.

One of the neat features is composing a picture with a subject close up with a wide swath of detail in the background. When you first look through these lenses, everything seems far away though. The trick is getting your main subject as close as possible to the camera (sometimes you can be inches away from it) and the rest of the background will fill the frame.

The main article has some photo examples.I created them myself. For one, I pointed my camera in the mirror. I zoomed in at 20mm first. I then zoomed out to 10mm, but I made sure the camera lens still maintained the same size in each photo. Look at how much more background was included because of the angle light was allowed in at. Also notice how much farther away even my head looks, though I am looking through the viewfinder just as I was in the first photo. My hands are also distorted in a cool way.

The author maintains a website called Thoughts From My Life with a number of articles on photography. You can view the main article there.

A quick show & tell concerning the lens cap of the Sigma 12-24mm ultrawide zoom lens, and how filters can be attached to the lens. I wouldn’t recommend using a polarizer on this lens, because they don’t work very well with wide-angle lenses – you tend to get banding in the sky.
Video Rating: 5 / 5

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Understanding Nikon SLR Digital Cameras

Thursday, July 1st, 2010 at 5:26 pm

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There are quite a lot of Nikon SLR digital cameras in the market that make for worthy investments. One of these is the Nikon D90. The Nikon D90 is one of the Nikon SLR digital cameras that are suitable for beginners and casual users. Because of they are not concerned about the kit lens.

However, the Nikon D90 gets plus points for having the brand’s famous intuitive layout and video capabilities. I was already thinking of getting the Nikon D90 even though what I really wanted was the D300, because of its sturdy magnesium body and weatherproof features.

The D300 and D90 have the same sensor and ISO capability range. Various reviews on Nikon SLR digital cameras say that the D300 pales in comparison to D90 in terms of noise reduction. The Nikon D90 also has a superb control layout; single button choices are available on the left side of the screen which allows you to easily access image quality, white balance, ISO, and view previous shots.

The D90 also has video capabilities, but unhappily the video feature fails to meet expectations because of its lack of autofocus and sound. It is makes for a good extra feature, but it’s lacking in essential features that would’ve made it a good video camera.

Although many users like the kit lens that comes with the D90, but I think you can get better zooms from Nikon that falls within the same price range of the D90. Reportedly $400 is the selling price for the 18-105mm Vibration Reduction (VR). Nikon 70-300mm VR for around $485 has a far better build with a metal mount and rubber gasket.

But the kit lens that comes with the D90 has no rubber gasket and plastic mount, which makes it feel a bit cheap compared to the 70-300mm VR. If all you need is basic lens and you are a casual or average user, then the Nikon D90 kit lens would probably do.

But you can buy Nikon 70-300 VR if you are aspiring to go semi pro or pro. In a word, as a part of Nikon SLR Digital Cameras, the Nikon D90 is a great camera even though it does lack in the weather proofing department.

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Understanding Digital Photography: A Newbie’s Guide To Taking Great Photos!

Tuesday, May 4th, 2010 at 1:10 pm

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Product Description
Do you know the difference between a Gigabyte and a Mega-Pixel? How about Red Eye Reduction or Macro mode? This guide will demystify the technical mumbo jumbo and explain it in plain English. Have you ever wondered, “What does this button do?” This this book was made for you!… More >>

Understanding Digital Photography: A Newbie’s Guide To Taking Great Photos!

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Understanding Digital Photography: A Newbie’s Guide To Taking Great Photos!

Tuesday, May 4th, 2010 at 1:10 pm

Comments (1)

Product Description
Do you know the difference between a Gigabyte and a Mega-Pixel? How about Red Eye Reduction or Macro mode? This guide will demystify the technical mumbo jumbo and explain it in plain English. Have you ever wondered, “What does this button do?” This this book was made for you!… More >>

Understanding Digital Photography: A Newbie’s Guide To Taking Great Photos!

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Understanding The Basics Of Adobe Photoshop And How To Make A Collage Using Photoshop

Sunday, May 2nd, 2010 at 11:05 pm

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A friend of mine had been saving up for some time to buy the legendary Photoshop. The editing software of choice by graphic designers, soulless tabloid journalists and artists around the world, he knew he was making a great choice. He imagined his life would be complete when he bought Photoshop. Life would be breezy, he would glide around his laptop making outstanding images whenever he wanted. But when he eventually bought the Photoshop package, he was completely lost and really needed to begin understanding the basics of Adobe Photoshop that very day.

You shouldn\’t have to go through this tragedy. You deserve better. Photoshop may be expensive, but anyone who knows how to properly use it will tell you it\’s worth every cent. Like anything else you will have to make mistakes and learn by yourself, exploring the interface of the software. One way to help is to go to \’Preferences\’. Here you can improve the performance of your Photoshop.

Here is some advice to get you started. Search for the \’History Log\’ on the screen. This is where you can save your progress while you edit your image. The are a number of options to personalize your session. For example select \’Sessions Only\’ to make the log remember the time and date that you start each session. Choose \’Concise\’ to recall more information about your work. And you can pick \’Detailed\’ for the most information, recording details about every edit you do to the image.

Find the \’History Log\’. Here you can save every step you take when making your picture. You can choose how much information it saves. For example choose the \’Sessions Only\’ to remember the time and date that you start each Photoshop session. \’Concise\’ records more information on all the editing sessions. You can also choose \’Detailed\’ which does the same job as \’Concise\’, but also notes the file path and details about every edit to the file.

The only real way to learn Photoshop is to play around with things. Keep exploring and discover what you can do. For more specific learning read about Photoshop online and try out the many available video tutorials. After a while, you\’ll be making superb pictures just like my nephew wanted to! He also wanted to know how to make a collage using Photoshop, and he found this excellent video – http://www.learnphotoshopnow.com/blog/2009/08/how-to-make-collage-using-photoshop.html

LearnPhotoshopNow is a great place to start learning the basics of Adobe Photoshop and offer a step by step video tutorial program that will help you to really understand the basics of Adobe Photoshop in less than 2 hours, as my friend did.

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