Darren Smith Photography's photographic tutorials are aimed to teach anyone interested in photography the basics in how to operate their camera and what to consider when you move beyond taking "snaps".
This video is all about lenses, the types of lens and what they are used for.
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Hello and welcome to the Darren Smith photography tutorials.
This video is all about lenses, this video is going to show you a range of lens types that are available and what they are useful
okay so you may have a digital camera with the standard kit lens, modern kit lenses do a pretty good job already and a good image does not depend on expensive kit, it just makes it a little easier times.
A kit lens is perfectly capable of producing high quality images, it's how you make use of your camera that makes a good image rather than what you use to make it
So remember the quote "did Picasso have good brushes?"
We were often referred to the focal length of a lens to identify how it functions and how it is used
The focal length of a lens is based on traditional film photography, when standard was to use 35mm film, this standard is why different camera formats have a 35mm equivalent to illustrate how the lens functions standard zoom ranges are from 24 to 70mm are designed to be suitable for everyday photography.
It is a zoom range starting at moderate wide-angle and typically reaching moderate telephoto in a smaller crop sensor known as aps-c which is often found in many digital SLR cameras will have a standard zoom of 18 to 50 this has the same zoom range based on its actual size likewise a micro four-thirds camera will have a standard zoom of 12 to 42mm again with an equivalent zoom range based upon the size of its sensor
The aps-c equivalent is roughly 1.5 times smaller and the micro four-thirds is roughly 2 times smaller than their 35mm cousins
Wide-angle lenses have a shorter focal length typically between 18mm and 35mm, these are often used for landscape architectural and social photography in aps-c this has the equivalent of 12 to 24 and micro four-thirds is 9 to 18 to get the same proportions
Ultra wide-angle lenses are specialist lenses which are obviously ultra wide this starts with optic such as a 6mm fish eye lens which is so wide they makes an image look like you're looking through a fish bowl. Ultra wide-angle lenses also include focal lengths of 10-20mm as shown here in this Sigma ultra wide F 3.5 lens these are specifically used for landscape photography showing the expansiveness of any location they are also particularly useful on interiors and make an area seem much larger than it actually is a real estate or estate agents dream when using such lenses care must be taken as straight lines will appear distorted in the photograph and vignetting can occur if used on a camera body but the largest sensor or with the use of optical filters.
Lenses between 35 millimetres and 135mm are popular with portraiture and macro work as a photographer can give the subject a little more space these types of lenses are commonly used on crop sensors and on full frame cameras and come in a variety of different qualities and costs
faster lenses i.e. those that have a wider aperture often cost more than a standard lens due to their design and size of the glass used they are often much heavier to the focal length of this type of lens determines how the subject looks in a photograph as well wider lenses encourage the photographer to include some more of the environment your subject is in although they are not so good close-up as the lens will distort the subject.
Lenses around 50mm to 85mm or their cropped equivalent are a good middle ground for portrait work on the other end of the scale the larger the focal length the more flattering are the photographs of people and allowed the photographer to get really closer with minimal Distortion or give the chance to move away so not to create the subject
Lenses for the focal length between 80 and 300 millimetres are considered telephoto and anything above 300mm is regarded as super telephoto the higher focal lengths for this group are popular with wildlife and sports photography. Lenses of this type which are considered fast i.e. those for the small f number are very expensive and very heavy compared to the shorter focal length lenses if you regularly use the lens of this type you probably know the phone number for a good chiropractor.
Prime lenses lack the optical functions that are found in a zoom lens this means that the space can be taken up with glass specifically designed to optimize the light passing through in the case of this 50mm f1.4 lens, the design is focused on limiting distortion of the image and the amount of light that can pass through it. For this lens the amount of light available to the camera is well over twice that of a standard kit zoom lens the optics of this type of lens also give the optimal performance in low-light and much more control over depth of field.
We can add a multiplier to the focal length of our lens by using what's known as a teleconverter with a 1.5 x teleconverter a 300mm lens will become a 450mm lens and a times 2 converter will increase the focal length to 600mm this is achieved by adding the teleconverter which is essentially another glass magnifying element between the lens and the camera sensor it's not all that simple there is a trade off for this as there is a loss of light passing through to the sensor this results in the optics being considered slower where the aperture will be reduced and the exposure time will therefore increase a typical 1.5 times teleconverter will reduce the light by one step at a time to converter will by two steps this pushes the limits of most cameras focus on light metering as well as increase the chance of blurred and distorted images I hope you've enjoyed watching this video please feel free to check it
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