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Photography Tips, Tutorials & Techniques

The photography section includes posts and articles that cover tips, tutorials and best practices for various areas of photography and photographic manipulation. Discussion includes camera fundamentals, composition, lighting, macro and close-up images, lenses and gear, low light and more. Additional topics include traveling as a photographer, developing the "eye" and special effects.

What’s the Slowest Shutter Speed For Handheld Photography?

I was having a conversation about photography last night with someone and I said something like, “I think it would help people a lot if they focused on the fact that photography is all about light.” And it really is. Without light, no one is taking any photos. Too much light can blow out or overexpose an image and too little light can create dark images or blur. The perfect amount of light can create a stunning photograph.

Photograph Taken with Fast Shutter Speed

If you aren’t well versed in photography, please allow me to fill you in quickly with the basics. The aperture of your lens allows a certain amount of light into your camera by shrinking and enlarging itself. It’s a hole that gets bigger and smaller, depending on either what your camera thinks it should do or what you set it to. Your shutter is a piece of material that hides and exposes your camera’s sensor. Again, it allows a certain amount of light in, depending on, again, your camera or you. And finally, the ISO setting of your camera controls your camera sensor’s sensitivity to light. These three things are the most popular settings to fool around with on your camera. Aperture primarily controls depth of field, shutter speed primarily controls blur and ISO primarily controls an in between area. It sort of fills in the gaps and gives you some leeway with the other two areas. It’s oftentimes thought of as the “thing that dictates how much grain you’ll see in your images.”

Boy, as I write this, I’m realizing how I could easily go down a rabbit hole with this stuff. “Aperture controls depth of field…although…” I’m not even going to get into everything else all these settings can do for you because I’m trying to keep things simple here.

Okay, this post is about shutter speed and camera shake. Camera shake is what your camera experiences every time you hold it in your hands and take a photo. No one on earth stays completely still while taking photos and there’s always the possibility that a small amount of blur will be introduced into your images because of this movement. The trick is to reduce or eliminate the blur that’s caused by our “shaking.”

Let me give you a quick scenario. Let’s say you’re throwing a birthday party for a child and it’s held inside during the evening. It’s time to blow the candles out and right before that happens, you pull out your fancy DSLR camera and snap a few photos in “Auto” mode. After the party, you review the photos on your computer and realize that they’re all blurry. Not because anyone was quickly walking by or because the scene was out of focus, but because your shutter speed was too slow.

As you review your camera settings, you realize that your lens’s aperture was opened up all the way, so that was fine. It was letting as much light in as possible. You also realize that you had set your ISO to a maximum of 800 a few days earlier. You didn’t want any grain introduced into your photos, so you thought that would be a good idea. Because of these two settings, your camera had to do something to allow your birthday party images to be exposed correctly. Yep, you guessed it. Your camera slowed the shutter speed down to allow the proper amount of light in. Unfortunately, it slowed it down too much. So much, in fact, that the shutter was open long enough to allow the movement of your hands to blur the image. This happens a lot. Most of the time though, the shutter speed won’t slow down all that much. Your ISO value will simply pop up an extraordinary amount instead and you’ll get grain.

More experienced photographers know that using a lens with a huge aperture is great for low light photography, but that’s not what this post is about. Let me get to that.

When hand holding a camera, there’s a general shutter speed that you can’t go past when you’re looking for sharp images. For most folks, this shutter speed lies anywhere between 1/50 and 1/80 of a second. Obviously, if you’re using a tripod and a remote shutter button, you can use any shutter speed you want, but when you’ve got the camera in your hands, you’ve got to play by the rules. And speaking of rules, here’s one for you: when using a full frame camera, don’t allow your shutter speed to fall lower than your focal length. So, if you’re shooting with a 50mm prime lens, don’t shoot any slower than 1/50 of a second. A 200mm lens, no slower than 1/200 of a second. As you probably already know, longer focal lengths exaggerate any movement your hands my introduce, so it’s critical to quicken your shutter speed to compensate for that exaggeration. Also, the reason I said “a full frame camera” is because I was trying to keep things straightforward here. If you’re using a cropped sensor, you’ll need to do the math to figure out your true focal length.

The rule above also applies to zoom lenses. When shooting, look at your lens to determine your focal length and act accordingly. Also, when you get down in the focal length numbers, this rule may fail. So if you’re shooting with a 10mm wide angle lens, you most likely won’t have the liberty of setting your shutter speed to 1/10 of a second. It just won’t work. You’ll either need to increase the shutter speed or use a tripod. If you don’t have a tripod at hand, you can always try to brace your camera as best as possible. Check out these posts for more on that.

Simple Tips & Tools That Can Help Stabilize Your Camera

5 Tips To Hold Your Camera Steady For Clear Pictures

Although I can write about this topic all night long, I think I’ll stop there. I gave you a quick rundown of photography basics and then offered a fast rule to help you with your shutter speed to all but eliminate camera shake. If you’ve got any questions regarding this post, please ask down below. You can ask in the photography discussion forum as well. I’m always here to help. Thanks for reading!


How to Set the White Balance on a Canon Rebel DSLR Camera

White balance is something that you’re probably not going to have to touch too often. Canon Rebel DSLR cameras are set to auto white balance (AWB) out of the box and for most of your photography, this setting is all you’ll need. Your camera will detect which temperature the light is in which you’re shooting and it’ll set itself to handle that temperature. What will it do? Well, your camera will attempt to make whites in your scene actually appear white. That’s the goal.

In today’s post, I’d like to quickly discuss a few areas of white balance. I’ll first cover how to set your Canon camera’s auto white balance and then I’ll move into changing that setting to one of the available white balance presets. Finally, I’ll explain how to manually set your camera’s custom white balance. After all, there are some instances that can confuse a camera and make it difficult for it to detect the proper necessary white balance on its own. I’ll talk about that down below as well.

Canon Rebel T6i Camera

How to Set Auto White Balance

Setting auto white balance (AWB) on a Canon camera is extremely simple. All that needs to be done is for you to press the Q button that’s located on the back of your camera. Once that button is pressed, you’ll need to use the arrow keys on the rear of the camera as well to navigate to the white balance selection. Once that’s highlighted, you can press the SET button to enter the White Balance menu area.

Q Button & Canon Rebel Camera Options

White Balance Menu Area For Canon Rebel DSLR Cameras

Once in that menu area, simply press the left or right arrow keys or use the dial that’s on the top of the camera to scroll to the left and right. When you highlight the AWB selection, press the SET buttons again to accept the change. When the change has been accepted and you return to the menu screen again, press the Q button to return to the active camera mode. It’s that easy.

By the way, for this post, I’m using the Canon Rebel T6i, but all of the cameras in the Rebel line are very similar in this regard.

Setting a White Balance Preset

If, for some reason, your camera isn’t detecting the proper light temperature for the scene you’d like to shoot, you can manually tell it which temperature to choose based on one of its built in presets. In most of the cases when your camera is having an issue with detecting temperature, it’s because of a mixed lighting scenario, such as you being in the shade or in an area where there are two different temperature lighting sources at once. Think of using a warm flashlight in an office building that uses only florescent lights to light the room you’re in. This type of situation might cause an issue and your resulting photos might come out oddly colored if the wrong white balance setting is selected by your camera.

To select a preset, you’ll need to navigate back into the menu area I described above. Press the Q button and then highlight and select the white balance option. When you’re in the White Balance area, again, use the arrow keys or the dial at the top of the camera to make your selection.

Here are the options you’ll have to choose from:

Auto: Ambience Priority
Daylight: 5200k
Shade: 7000k
Cloudy: 6000k
Tungsten Light: 3200k
White Florescent Light: 4000k
Flash
Custom

Shade White Balance Option

To make your selection, you can either press the SET button like I described above or you can just roll over which one you want and do nothing. If you let the camera sit for a few seconds, it’ll accept whichever option is highlighted and return to the menu that preceded the one you’re on.

Setting a Manual White Balance

When your camera can’t figure out what white is, you’ll need to tell it what it is. Setting a manual white balance with Canon cameras is fairly straightforward. The process is a step by step approach to taking a photo of something white and then pressing a few buttons on the camera. It’s really not much more than that. Let me what you though the process.

Okay, the first step for setting a manual white balance is to take a photo of something that’s white in your scene. It’s important that whatever it is you’re taking a photo of is actually white and that it’s in the same lighting as the lighting in the scene. This photo will be used for calibration in just a moment. For this step, a white board or white card is perfect.

After the photo is taken, you’ll need to press the MENU button that’s located on the back of your camera. Then, once the menu area has appeared, you’ll use the left and right arrows to navigate to the screen that contains the Custom White Balance option.

Custom White Balance Menu Option

The next step is to select the white image that you just took from your scene. It should appear as soon as you press the SET button to enter the Custom White Balance area in your camera.

White Image Selection For Custom White Balance Setting

When you see your white image, press the SET button again. Then, when the menu appears, navigate to the OK option and press SET once more. After that is all done, exit out of the menu area and then press the Q button that’s on the back of your camera again. Head into the White Balance area and then scroll your way to the Custom option and press SET to accept that.

Custom White Balance Option

And that’s it! Essentially, you just told your camera what white is in your scene and then set your white balance to use that for your upcoming shots. The camera will take that information and adjust the temperature accordingly. Just be sure to set your camera back to AWB when you’re finished shooting or else any future shots will be discolored.

I hope I clearly explained how to set the white balance on you Canon Rebel DSLR camera. If you have any questions, please let me know down below in the comment section. You may also ask any question you’d like in the Canon Camera discussion board. Thanks for reading!


How to Set Back Button Auto Focus on Canon DSLR Cameras

How to set up and operate auto focus on today’s DSLR cameras remains a mystery for many budding photographers around the world. If you’ve ever struggled with all the various settings and little white and green boxes these camera’s have to offer, let me tell you that you’re not alone. I swear, I was just getting the hang of focusing with my old Canon Rebel T3i when I upgraded to the Canon T7i. Now, I’ve got white boxes and face tracking brackets all over the place. I don’t know what to do with any of them. It seems as though the more Canon tries to simplify my life, the more complicated it becomes.

Here’s what I want. I want one button to focus on something that’s in the middle of either my viewfinder or the Live View screen. Then, after I have that object in focus, I don’t want anything to change. I don’t need any extra help after that. I don’t need facial recognition software with moving targets and all that. All I need is the ability to focus on something and for that object to stay in focus.

After that, I need another button to press to actually take the photo. If I want to focus on an object at the center of the screen and then move the camera a few inches over in any direction so the once focused on object is off to the side, I don’t want the camera to start thinking for me and to refocus on another object. For instance, if I want to take advantage of the rule of thirds and focus on something in my scene and then move to the left slightly so that object is off to the side, I don’t want to lose that focus. Is that too much to ask for? I think not. The best part is, there’s an option out there for people who are just like me. It’s called back button auto focus and it’s a wonderful thing.

Taking Photograph of Butterfly

What the Shutter Button Does

When you buy a camera, take it out of the box and start shooting with it, you’ll find that the shutter button does many things. First of all, if you point the camera at something and press the shutter button down half way, you’ll notice that the camera is metered and whatever it is you’re pointing at is focused on. And when I say “metered,” I mean that the camera takes notice of the surrounding lighting and scene and sets the aperture, shutter speed, ISO value and white balance. After all that is done, if you continue pressing the shutter button all the way, the photo is taken. If you think about it, that’s a lot to ask of one button. It sort of makes me nervous. It’s like asking a car to start, drive itself and park, all by pressing the gas peddle. In my world, I like to have a bit more control over things.

Now don’t get me wrong. I don’t mind having the shutter button meter the scene and take the photo, but I’d like to separate out the auto focusing part so I could do that myself.

Reframing with Back Button Auto Focus

If you aren’t aware, I’ll tell you that most cameras have a method for removing the focusing feature from the shutter button and assigning that command to a different button. I’ll explain how to go about doing this for Canon Rebel DSLR cameras below, but let me first give you the reason setting your camera up like this is so important. It’s all about reframing.

Let’s pretend that your child is standing in your front yard smiling at you. You want to take a photo of her, so you focus directly on her face. She is standing still and there’s a beautiful flower garden right next to her. Because you’d like both the garden and your child in the photo, you shift your camera slightly so your child is off to the side, but still the primary subject of the photo. Out of the box, when you focus on your child’s face and then move the camera over so your child is off to the side, after metering the new scene, the camera will refocus on whatever is in front of it. I know there have been many advancements made when it comes to all different type of options for this type of situation, but they can get complicated when you’re trying to move fast. The ideal situation would be for you to focus on your child’s face and then have the option to point the camera at anything in the world, re-meter and have that original focus locked in. That’s what back button auto focus is all about. It locks the original focus in, so you can get creative with your camera. All that will be left is the metering of the scene and the taking of the photo.

Back button auto focus uses the Canon camera’s Custom Function menu item to reassign what the AE Lock button does. The AE Lock button is located at the top right portion of the rear of the camera and for many photographers, it isn’t used all that much. By the way, the AE Lock selects and locks in the camera’s exposure settings. Since it’s not too popular, it’s often reassigned to do the job of auto focusing.

Once the task of focusing has been handed off to the AE Lock button, the shutter button will no longer focus at all. It will only meter and take the photo. If you want to focus the camera, you’ll need to press the AE Lock button on the rear of the camera, which will take some getting used to. Let me tell you though, professional photographers all over the world swear by it, so it must truly help out.

Setting Back Button Auto Focus

Changing this setting is a breeze. All that needs to be done is to have one small menu item changed. To start, turn your camera on and press the MENU button on the back of it.

Canon REbel T6i Menu Button

In the above image, I circled both the MENU button and the AE Lock button in red.

Then, press the left or right arrow on the back of the camera until you reach the Custom Functions (C.Fn) menu item.

Custom Function Menu Item

Next, to access that menu area, press the SET button that sits at the center of the arrow buttons. You should see a whole bunch of options. For the Canon Rebel T7i, the options you’re looking for are located at the number 12. For the T4i, T5i, T6i and T6s, the options are located at number 6 and 10. You’ll need to scroll to find there this is. Simply press the left or right arrow buttons again to reach those areas.

AE Lock / AF Option

Finally, to change the auto focus button from the shutter button to the AE Lock button, select the 1: AE Lock/AF option, which is option number 2. Press SET to accept the change and then exit out of the menu and begin shooting your photos.

And that’s it! Now you can do all your focusing with the rear button and leave the metering and the actual shutter to the shutter button.

I hope I clearly explained the benefits of back button auto focus as well as how to go about setting your camera to make use of this option. If you have any questions regarding this post, please let me know in the comment section down below. Also, you may ask any question you wish on the photography discussion board at any time. Thanks for reading!


Lighting Tips For Better Portrait Photography

Studio portrait photography is much different than the type of photography most amateur photographers engage in. It requires a certain skill set, some equipment and, of course, a studio. Or a room that’s equipped for this type of photography. Although many beginning photographers enjoy learning about nature and landscape shooting, studio and portrait work can be highly rewarding. Subjects are encapsulated in a “set.” They listen to direction. You can generally dictate what you’d like to happen and you can test, adjust and take your photos.

Studio Portrait

In today’s post, I’d like to offer a few quick and easy tips that might just help you out when it comes to lighting and portrait work. Oftentimes, it’s the initial setup that beginners aren’t sure of and that’s where this post can help. I’ll describe a very simple lighting configuration and then I’ll talk about how you can move things around in an effort to make your subject look either flattering or fierce. Lighting is a huge factor when it comes to portrait photography and it should be treated as a primary one.

What Gear Do I Need For Simple Portraits?

I remember back when I first began experimenting with indoor photography. I really had no idea what I was looking for. I’d see videos online of professional studios with all their lights and cameras and I was totally intimidated. I remember not even wanting to try that type of photography out anymore. I figured that I’d just stay outside and shoot flowers and things. The truth of the matter is, you don’t need much to take incredible looking portrait shots inside.

Here’s what you need to start out with: one light, a stand and a diffuser with some sort of a stand to hold the diffuser in place. You could always use another person to hold it, but that’s a real pain. If you want to get fancy, you could also use a reflector to illuminate the shadowed areas, but that’s not a necessity. What is a necessity is the light and the stand and the diffuser. The stand holds up the light and the diffuser softens the light so it’s not harsh on your model.

Do you want to hear something really cool? You can get a light kit right now on Amazon for $64 that has the diffuser built right into what’s called a “soft box.” And they come with the stands. Yes, stands (that’s plural). There are two lights in this kit. Click here to see what I’m referring to. I bought these a long time ago for my food photography and I still use them today. They are simple and just perfect for my uses. Of course, the stands aren’t twelve feet tall or anything and they’re pretty lightweight, but the lights certainly get the job done. It’s honestly one of the least expensive ways to get into portrait work. They’re effective and won’ break the bank.

As you get better with your photography, you can always upgrade your equipment. There’s no shortage of very expensive and very high quality lighting gear out there.

What Are the Best Portrait Lighting Angles?

As you first experiment with your portrait photography, you’re going to take a lot of very ugly pictures of people. Everyone goes through this. The most likely reason for this is the lighting angle you’re working with. If you were to place the light directly over someone’s head, facing downward, they would end up looking horrible. If you placed the light directly underneath them, facing upward, the same thing would happen. Terrible shot. Angles matter and they make all the difference in the world.

Take a look at this next photo. You can clearly tell where the light is for this shot. It’s almost directly in front of the girl in the photo.

Woman in Portrait

The center light position is one of the most flattering positions for portrait work. That’s why you see this type of setup with school pictures. The kids want to look good. And again, all that’s needed is one light, a stand and a diffuser. With one light facing directly at the person, head on, many wrinkles and irregularities on someone’s face won’t show at all. If you used sharp angles for your lighting, any irregularities would actually be accentuated. That’s not a good thing, unless that’s what you’re going for.

I want you to take a look at the first photo in this post. This photo was taken with a single light that was placed off to the side as opposed to directly in front of the model. While I think this image looks very good, many folks will think it’s dramatic and that the lighting angle isn’t good for everyday use. I’d agree with them because it’s not for everyday use. Or for every photographer. This is a bold lighting angle that’s meant to evoke some sort of a feeling. You certainly wouldn’t want to do a family portrait with this lighting angle. Can you imagine?

So to recap, one light facing head on is flattering and one light off directly to the side creates drama. And your models will need to match the angle. Look at the two different types of people in the photos above. They both match the lighting setup and the feeling the photo gives.

Using a Reflector

Reflectors look just like diffusers and you can get a diffuser/reflector kit for not much money on Amazon as well. Here’s a kit for $20. You can’t beat that!

The reason I like reflectors so much is because they only reflect a portion of radiance that the light gives off, which not only fills in the shadows, but keeps the lighting soft as well. You’ll need either another stand to hold the reflector or a person standing there with it in their hand, but as you’re finding out, this photography gear is really inexpensive these days.

What’s very handy about the reflector is that they’re so easy to move around for the perfect look. You won’t get what you want right off the bat, but with some trial and error, I’m sure you’ll fall in love with your lighting soon enough.

Have a Light, but Not a Diffuser?

Sometimes people haven’t gotten around to picking up a diffuser yet, but need to take a portrait photo. I’m here to tell you that a good substitute for a diffuser is a white bed sheet or a tablecloth. As long as both of these things aren’t too thick, they’ll do a great job at scattering the harsh rays a direct light can give off. Again, you’ll need a stand to hang these things over or for someone to hold them, but that’s easy enough to figure out.

Experimenting & Moving the Model

Trust me when I say this; you’re not likely to get the perfect shot as soon as someone enters the area you’re planning on taking your photos. Unless, of course, you’ve done this a zillion times and know the exact spot in which they should stand. Because we’re not experts here, you’ll need to do a lot of experimentation with your diffusing and your lighting angles. The easiest thing to do, as opposed to moving your light, is to move the model. Have the person turn slightly so you can get an idea of what they look like at different angles. You might be surprised how lighting affects different people. Some angles make people look very attractive and some angle make even the best looking of us look not so great.

Experimenting & Moving the Camera

I just wrote about experimentation with moving the model and now I’m going to write about trying things out by moving the camera. This is one of the most powerful changes you can make with portrait photography. As you change camera position around your model, you’ll see entirely new appearances open up. For this technique, you’ll ask your model to stay completely still while you hand hold your camera to gauge what looks best. You’ll walk your camera around the model and once you find the best look, keep your model where they are and set your camera up on the tripod in its new position. Then, have at it and take your photos.

When working with lighting, the key is experimentation. It’s not a very difficult skill to pick up and learn, but you will need to practice and get used to what’s necessary to accomplish your goals. As I mentioned above, the equipment isn’t expensive, so what’s truly important here is that you set things up, pick up your camera and start shooting. If you don’t have people to experiment on, use a doll or an object of some sort. Or just go over and ask a neighbor. I’m sure there’s someone who would be will to help out a friend.

I hope I gave you some good pointers on how to get started with portrait photography. If you have any questions around this post, please let me know in the comment section down below. Or, you can ask any question you wish in the photography discussion forum. Thanks for reading!


Why Are Some Camera Lenses Called “Fast”?

Have you ever heard of a “fast” lens? I have. I hear it all the time, usually when I’m reading reviews for lenses online. I also read about these types of lenses in discussion forums a lot. They’re all over the place.

The problem with photography lingo like this is that no one ever actually tells you what any of these words mean. You have to go look them up yourself. This “fast” word is an example of such lingo. What could this possibly mean?

In today’s post, I’m going to discuss lenses and what makes them fast. I’ll do my best at explaining things in such a way as to help you finally understand what everyone is talking about. By the end of this post, you’ll be the talk of the town, or at least the talk of the photography shop in your town.

Canon Zoom Lens 18-135mm

What Makes a Lens Fast?

Simply put, fast lenses have large maximum apertures. The aperture is the part of the lens that lets light in. The larger the aperture opening, the more light is allowed in, thus reducing the need for the shutter to be open for very long. If you remember the relationship between aperture and shutter speed, you know that a large aperture allows for a faster shutter speed and a small aperture allows for a slower shutter speed. And that’s what the “fast” means in the photography world.

Examples of fast lenses might be those with maximum aperture sizes of f/1.2, f/1.8 and f/2. These are really fast. When these types of lenses are used in low light situations, they help out tremendously. Think about covering your eyes with your hand while in a dark room and letting only a small crack of light through. You won’t be able to see at all. Now, think about the same situation but with a huge crack of light coming through. You’ll be able to see much better. Everything slows down when you’re only letting a small amount of light through.

Who Uses Fast Lenses

In general, photographers who take pictures in either low light or high movement scenarios use fast lenses. I just gave you the low light example above, so let’s talk about sports and wildlife photography for a moment here.

We all know that, in general, low ISO values are better when it comes to photography because the lower the ISO value, the less grain there will be in the resulting photographs, in general. I say “in general” here because there’s more than ISO when it comes to noise and grain, but we’ll leave this here for the time being. So, if we keep the ISO value relatively low in our camera, we’re left with aperture and shutter speed to deal with. Now, let’s say you’re out there taking pictures of your son at his soccer game one afternoon. He’s wild out on the field and he’s running all over the place. If you kept your ISO value low and increased your shutter speed to 1/500 of the second because you want all your shots to be crisp and clear, what do you think your camera is going to do with the aperture? That’s right, it’s going to try to open it all the way. The question is, what if you have a slow lens, or more specifically, a lens that doesn’t have a large maximum aperture? I’ll tell you what’s going to happen. Your camera is going to take the shots, but your photos are going to come out dark because of the lack of light getting through to your camera’s sensor. Something has got to give in situations like this. In your situation, because you’re bound by your camera’s restrictions, you either have to slow down your shutter speed, which you don’t want to do because you’ll have photos full of motion blur, or increase your ISO value to make your camera’s sensor more sensitive to light. I’m betting you’ll turn your ISO value to “Auto” and you’ll let your camera do its thing. That’s probably the smartest move.

Now let’s pretend that you have a fast lens. A lens with a huge maximum aperture of f/1.2. In this case, you’ll most likely be able to keep both the low ISO value and the fast shutter speed because of all the light the lens is letting through. Just remember, large apertures cause shallower depths of field. If you use one of these types of lenses, you’re going to get some blur in the foreground and background of your shots. This isn’t a bad thing. It’s actually a good thing because it can effectively isolate your subject.

Oh yeah, one last point. Have you ever tried to use auto focus in dimly lit scenes? Has all the hunting of the focus driven you nearly mad? I’d say that’s some slow focusing under those conditions. Fast lenses can make focusing faster too. Keep that in mind. They let more light through, which the focus mechanism just loves.

I hope I effectively explained what fast lenses are when it comes to photography. If you have any questions regarding this post, please let me know down below. You can also ask any related question you wish in the camera lens discussion forum. Thanks for reading!


What I Like About Prime Camera Lenses

I’ve got camera lenses on the mind. I’m on the hunt for a new lens and I’ve decided it’s going to be a prime lens. I’ve had a few of these in the past, but I’ve sold them all off. Currently, all I have are zoom lenses. I go back and forth between which is better because they both have their good points as well as their bad points. I’ll tell you though, I think I’m ready for another prime and below, I’ll tell you why.

In today’s post, I’d like to discuss a few different points that led me to the decision of wanting to purchase a prime lens. I won’t go into any “cons” because I’ve already done that in another post. You can read all about the differences between zoom lenses and prime lenses there. As for today, I think I’m just going to walk through my thought process more than anything else. I’d like to discuss what’s important to me when it comes to this type of thing.

Canon Prime Lens

This is what I’m looking for – a good walk around lens. I’m not looking to sell my photographs to National Geographic or anything, but I do want as high a quality as I can get. I’m looking for simplicity and clarity. And some other things that I’ll list down below.

Simplicity is Key

What I think I’d like is the opposite of a zoom lens. With zoom lenses, I’m so used to reaching into my bag and pulling out a big thing that I have to attach to my camera. During that attachment, I often twist the lens and it actually zooms in my hand. I’m at a place where I don’t want that to happen anymore. Prime lenses also have less overall glass inside of the lens tube than zooms do. Because of that, they oftentimes offer sharper photographs. I also find myself taking the same focal length shots over and over again, so the zoom on my current lenses sometimes isn’t necessary. It just has more moving parts to deal with.

Prime Lenses Are Faster

Have you even heard the term “fast” when it comes to photography? Such as, “Boy, that’s a really fast lens!” This “fast” refers to the largest available aperture size for a lens. If you want to know how they came up with this term, go ahead and set your camera’s aperture to F/29 and then try to take a photo. Take notice of how fast the shutter speed is. Most likely, it’s going to be terribly slow. Fast lenses have larger apertures, which translates into fast shutter speeds. They’re great for action.

So what I want is a fast lens. My current zoom offers a maximum of an F/3.5 aperture setting and I’d like to get much bigger than that. I’m thinking either an F/1.2 or an F/1.8. That would do me well. I’d like action and agility and tons of light. I want a lens with a huge aperture so I can enjoy more night time photography and all that comes with it.

Size & Weight

Prime lenses are oftentimes much smaller and lighter than zoom lenses. This makes a huge difference when trying to fit all my gear in my camera bag as well as the total weight of my camera when shooting subjects. I also do a lot of video work where I mount my camera to the inside of the windshield of my car. Trust me when I say this, my window camera mount doesn’t like my big heavy lens that’s currently attached to my camera. It bounces around and creates tons of camera shake. I think a lighter lens will help cure that. And since I don’t zoom in and out while I’m driving, a fixed lens should be perfect for something like this.

I Want to Move Around

I think I’m getting tired of relying on my zoom lens to do the work of photography for me. With prime lenses, I’m required to move around to get the shot I want. With zoom lenses, I don’t have to do that nearly as much and I’m telling you, every time I sit still and simply zoom into something, I feel like I’m cheating. I would like to get more involved with photography again. I want to become part of the shot. Now don’t get me wrong, I obviously can’t use a prime lens everywhere, but for the situations I can use one, I’d like to.

A Fixed Aperture

Do you have a zoom lens? Have you noticed your scene’s lighting change as you zoom in and out with your lens? This is because aperture size often changes as the lens barrel extends and shrinks. This can get confusing to photographers and because of that, many of them choose to deal with prime lenses on a regular basis. With prime lens, there is no barrel extension. There is no zoom, so the aperture size stays the same until you tell it otherwise. This is huge for those who use Aperture Priority mode a lot or for those who would like to get into that.

Popular Prime Lens Sizes

As I look around for my next lens, I think about what my most popular focal lengths are. I’m usually in one of three places, 35mm, 50mm and 85mm or there about (for a full frame sensor). I do zoom in closer than that and when I do, I’m happy to use a zoom lens. Ultimately though, I think I’d like to pick up three prime lenses of these sizes. These are pretty much what people out there are using. For my first prime though, I think I’ll go with the 35mm because with my cropped sensor, that will give me a 56mm focal length. I’ll deal with the other two sizes later on. For now, a middle of the road, very popular lens will do me just fine.

Well there you have it. A small glimpse of what’s going through my mind today. I hope I shared some good information with you today and if you have any questions about this post or lenses in general, please feel free to ask down below or in the lens section of the discussion board. Thanks for reading!


How to Preview Depth-of-Field with a Canon DSLR Camera

I’d like to continue on with the theme of “depth of field” for just a little while longer. If you haven’t seen my previous post on the topic, you can click through to read up on things here:

The Basics of Depth of Field For Photography

I didn’t go nuts in that post and try to explain the universe, but I did cover enough to get familiarized with what depth of field is when it comes to photography. In today’s post, I’d like to take things a step farther and talk about depth of field in the real world. Or, at least how we can preview it with our DSLR cameras. Most modern cameras have the capability to preview what exactly will and won’t be blurred or sharp in an image and I’ll discuss how we can see all that in real time below. For this post though, I’ll be using a Canon Rebel T6i. But really, many cameras are very similar when it comes to this function.

Canon Rebel T6i

F/5, 1/100 second, ISO 4000, 18-135mm @ 67mm

What’s the Problem?

I can remember a long time ago when I first began playing around with my new DSLR camera. I read all about the various settings and was super excited to try them out. One particular setting, Aperture Priority mode, was especially interesting to me because I thought it would give me the ultimate creative control when it came to blurring and keeping things sharp in my photographs. While I was eventually able to harness that power, I wasn’t able to immediately. I’ll explain what I mean below.

This was the situation; I would take my camera outside, change the mode to Aperture Priority and then start shooting subjects, such as flowers and other stationary objects. I would change the aperture size every now and then to see what types of shots I could get. It didn’t take me long to realize that as I was taking these photographs, the resulting images didn’t look anything like what I saw though the viewfinder or the live view screen on the back of the camera. I was purposefully going for a specific type of blurry look in the foreground and background sometimes and a much more sharp one other times. What I noticed was that the camera showed me the same exact preview through its two preview methods with every single photo I took. I thought something was broken.

The Reason Cameras Do This

When previewing a photograph, you need to be able to see things bright and crisp and as easily viewable as possible. If you’ve got the aperture set to its smallest size, not much light is going to come through the lens. That’s going to darken the scene down quite a bit as you’re looking through your camera or at the rear screen. When you have the aperture set to something quite small, such as F/22, the camera’s shutter speed is going to need to compensate for that lack of light by staying open much longer than it normally would as it’s taking the photo. Because you can’t preview shutter speed, you’re left with just the aperture size preview, which might be too dark to do you any good. I hope I’m being clear here. If I’m not, simply ask me to clarify.

Anyway, because camera manufacturers think it’s more important to have a nice bright preview before a photographer takes a photograph, they’ve chosen to show that preview while the aperture is wide open. That way, as much light as possible will come through the lens and everything will be great. Well, except for those occasions that you actually want to see what an Aperture Priority shot will look like after it’s taken. In those cases, you’ll need to take an extra step.

Previewing Depth of Field

If you’d like to preview the depth of field of your photograph before actually taking the photo, you can. It’s not a problem at all. Do me a favor and take a look at this next photo I share below.

Depth of Field Preview Button on Canon DSLR Camera

In this photo, there are a few buttons. The large one located in the center top area is the one that you would push if you wanted to remove the lens. Do you see the smaller button right beneath it? This one is called the Depth of Field Preview button. If you were to press this button after setting up a shot and then look through one of the preview methods on your camera, you’d see the scene’s depth of field change to what it would actually look like after the shot was taken. This button allows the scene to be displayed through the actual aperture setting in the lens. Now, as a word of warning, it may not appear as you intent and I’ll explain that next.

What Will You See?

If you already have the aperture setting set to its largest size and then press the Depth of Field preview button, you’re in good shape. You won’t see much of a change at all. It’s only when you begin increasing the aperture number (shrinking the actual aperture size) that things get a bit difficult to see. As I mentioned above, we can’t preview shutter speed and that’s what’s required to compensate for a small aperture. So as you shrink your lens’s aperture down, your preview will get darker and darker. The scene will become more sharp, but it probably won’t do you much good if you can’t see it. If you’re in a very bright area, you may have a chance, but if you’re in a low light setting, this feature might not do you any good. You may need to use another method which is called trial and error. This is just a “take a shot and review it” approach. I’m sure you’re used to this one already. Overall though, this is a handy feature to have and I think you’ll find it useful if you ever need it. Just keep it in mind.

I hope I clearly explained how to use the depth of field preview button on your DSLR camera and I hope I gave you some good background information as well. If you have any questions, please let me know in the comment section down below. You may also ask any related questions in the photo discussion board any time you’d like. Thanks for reading!


The Basics of Depth of Field For Photography

It seems like I’ve been hearing about depth of field forever. Even before I was into photography, I heard about depth of field. Depth of field this and depth of field that. It was and is all over the place. And do you want to know the truth about it? I don’t think I ever actually knew a definition for this phrase. I mean, I knew what it was, but I don’t think I could have ever explained it to anyone in any coherent way.

Let me change all that today. I’m going to do my best to alter the trajectory of your life so you don’t fall into the same trap that I fell into. You know, practicing your photography and having all sorts of fun out there with your camera, all the while having no idea what “depth of field” means.

In today’s post, I’ll try to explain the basics of depth of field, when it comes to photography. I’ll give you my very own definition, I’ll talk about what effects the “depth” of the “field” and how you can use the tools at your disposal to add your own creative flair to your photos by way of blurring things out or keeping things sharp. Once you’re finished with this post, you should have the knowledge to rub elbows with the best of them at dinner parties, all the while, explaining the basics of depth of field. You’ll get the “wows,” trust me.

What Is Depth of Field?

Through the ages, there have been many technical definitions for this concept and through the ages, men and women have heard or read those definitions and have forgotten them about 30 seconds later. That’s the shame of technical things. They’re boring and people shy away from them. With this in mind, I’m going to break the concept down for you so can remember these ideas forever.

Photographers talk about a “range that’s in focus when we shoot a picture” when they discuss this topic. That’s fine, but let’s go one step further by tearing the phrase “depth of field” apart. We’ll do this my way.

Okay, let’s pretend you’re looking through the viewfinder on your camera. It can be any camera, it doesn’t matter. They all operate similarly when it comes to this. What you see when you look through that viewfinder we’ll consider the field. The field in depth of field is the scene you see when you’re looking through your camera. Easy enough.

Now, the way cameras work is a bit tricky. Certain things happen in the lens that can alter what is actually in focus when you look through that viewfinder. I’m sure you’ve seen those photos out there that display the foreground as blurry, the center very clear and in focus and the area to the rear blurry again. This is a prime example of how camera lenses affect the depth of field of a scene. To keep things simple, we’ll consider the in-focus area the depth part of the phrase. How “deep” is the in-focus area of your photo? What’s the sharp area’s “depth”? Let me give you an example photo to show you exactly what I’m talking about. I took this photo last night as I was trying to think of something clear to show you today. Something that would help me explain my points. Puzzle pieces are perfect for this type of thing.

Shallow Depth of Field

F/4.5, 1/50 second, ISO 6400, 18-135mm @ 42mm

If you’ll notice the above photo, the blur, sharp and then blur again follows what I was saying above. Because of a few different factors, the camera lens can only really focus on one very shallow area of the scene. In this case, we’d consider this a shallow depth of field. The in-focus area is shallow, while the rest of the scene is left out of focus. So again, depth of field identifies the area of the scene that’s in focus. To have a shallow depth of field means that a relatively thin or narrow band that travels across the scene is in focus and to have a deep depth of field means that the in-focus band that travels across the scene is much fatter or wider. You can choose the terminology you’d like to use for this.

The example photo up above wasn’t the only example I took. I took many, but definitely won’t need them all here. I do want to give you another example though, this time, of a photo that has a deep depth of field. Notice the difference between this shot below and then one above.

Deep Depth of Field

F/29, .80 second, ISO 6400, 18-135mm @ 42mm

In this latest photo, almost everything is in focus. That’s interesting because I didn’t move the camera at all or zoom in or out. All I did was make one small change. Would you like to know what that change was? Read on.

But first, take a look at this nifty comparison shot I just put together.

Shallow & Deep Depth of Field Comparison Photo

Factors that Affect Depth of Field

I have these magnifying filters that I screw onto the end of my lens when I want to take really close up photos of things. When I first began using them, I noticed that the depth of field was extremely shallow. When I say shallow, I mean, one nostril hair on a cricket was in focus and all the other ones were out of focus. I wondered why that was and then I remembered that a few different conditions cause changes in the depth of field of a scene. I’ll explain those conditions here.

Focal Length: Have you ever seen those long telephoto lenses out there? Or perhaps you have a lens that you can zoom in really far. Focal length is the capability of a lens to magnify an object that’s far away. In general, lenses that have greater focal lengths also offer shallower depths of field. This happens for a variety of reasons, which I won’t discuss here. I’m trying to stay “focused” on the topic and hand.

Conversely, lenses with shorter focal lengths, such as wide angle lenses, offer deeper depths of field. Again, this happens for a variety of reasons.

Distance of the Camera From the Subject: If you go ahead and begin experimenting with your camera, you’ll find that where you position it in relation to your subject will alter the depth of field you see through your lens and in your photos. You may not change one setting on the camera all day long, but when you go ahead and review your photos at the end of the day, you’ll find that you’ll have a wide variety when it comes to blur and sharpness. In general, the closer your camera is to a subject, the narrower the depth of field will be. Conversely, the farther away from the subject you are, the wider the depth of field will be, all other things being equal.

When I spoke about my magnifying filters above, this is the factor I was referring to. Because the magnifying filters allow me to bring my camera much closer to the subject than I would normally be able to, I experienced a narrower depth of field than I would normally experience. This was all because of the distance of the camera from the subject.

Aperture Size: This is the big one. This is the one everyone knows. When you switch your camera over to use its Aperture Priority mode, you’re essentially telling the camera what you’d like your scene’s depth of field to be, within reason. If you’re going for a creative shot where you’d like some blur in front and behind the subject with the subject itself being sharp, you’ll want a larger aperture. Larger apertures use lower numbers. You can read all about aperture here. By the way, for the first demo photo I showed up above (the one with the blur), you can see that I used a large aperture. That setting was F/4.5.

Now, if you would like to have as much clarity in your shot as possible, you’d want to shrink down the size of the aperture. Shrinking the aperture means increasing the number. In the second photo I displayed (the sharper one), I used an aperture of 29. That’s pretty small, but you see the results.

When to Use Certain Depths of Field

Of course, you can do anything you’d like with your camera and your photography, but there are some pretty simple rules to follow when it comes to setting your own depth of field. When you’re going for a creative look with blur, use a more shallow depth of field. When you’re taking a photo of something that you would like isolated in your shot, such as a person sitting for a portrait or a bird in a tree, use a more shallow depth of field. Doing this will soften the subject’s surroundings and will keep the subject clearly in focus. If you’re looking for as much clarity and sharpness as possible in the entire scene, then use a deeper depth of field. This is usually the case when it comes to landscape photography, but not always. Sometimes I like to frame a landscape in some branches and I want those branches soft. But in general, landscape shots use a deep depth of field. Really though, the sky’s the limit with this type of thing and it’s your own desires and creativity that matters.

I hope I clearly explained the basics of depth of field when it comes to photography. If you have any questions, please let me know in the comment section down below. You can also always ask anything in the photography discussion forum.


Do I Really Need to Use a Camera Lens Hood When Photographing?

This is a follow up post from yesterday’s post. After I wrote that post, I began thinking about protecting camera lenses and about lens hoods in general. As I mentioned in my previous post, the consensus is to use a lens hood to help avoid bumping the actual camera lens into things when you’re in the studio, field or where ever you take your photos. Personally, I probably do the most damage to my camera and lens while taking them out of the bag and replacing them later on. I fumble a lot and things get bumped around. Lens hoods are perfect for this type of thing. They help avoid smudges, scratches and breakage. For the few dollars they cost, they’re definitely worth it.

In today’s post, I primarily want to talk about light and how lens hoods can help with that light. There are a few key topics I’d like to address, but I’ll try to keep this as brief as possible.

Camera with Lens Hood Attached

What Is a Lens Hood?

I’m sure you’ve seen them. Lens hoods are plastic rings that attach to the end of a camera lens. I’ve had hoods that you need to push, twist and turn to attach to the lens and I’ve had hoods that you need to screw on. I think I like the screw on ones more. They’re elegant and they’re easy to deal with.

In general, lens hoods come in two different styles. For fixed (prime) lenses, they’re generally round and they look like tubes. Some have felt coating the inside to stop as much ambient light as possible. For zoom lenses, hoods are shaped like a flower. They’re sometimes called “tulip” lens hoods. By the way, hoods are also called light shields. There are multiple names for many pieces of equipment in photography.

What’s the Primary Purpose of a Lens Hood?

There is one primary purpose of a lens hood. That’s to block light that’s coming from funky angles and making its way into your camera. This light is unpredictable and can cause all sorts of problems. The light can cause flares, can lower the contrast of the resulting photo and can cause ghosting. Attaching and using a lens hood can block that light. It’s sort of like lowering the visor in your car on a sunny day. Without that visor, you can hardly see anything through the windshield. With the visor in place, all of the sudden things become clear again.

Don’t concern yourself with cutting out light that’s coming from the sides of your camera. You don’t need it. Cameras get all the light they need from right in front of them. Which brings up my next point. While light shields can stop unwanted light from coming in through the side angles of the lens, they can’t stop if from coming in from straight ahead. If you’re shooting into the sun, like I love to do, you’re most likely going to get those flares and ghosting in all their glory. Shields are great for when you’re not shooing into the light.

Lens Hoods Are Great at Night

I clearly remember my favorite photo shoot of all time. I was photographing the East Haddam Bridge in Connecticut from the Eagle Landing State Park. The bridge was lit up wonderfully and I was taking terrific shots of the Gelston House, across the Connecticut River. Things were working out great, until I noticed that the illumination from a nearby streetlight was washing out many of my photos. Once I attached my trusted lens hood, much of that ambient light disappeared from my shots. Again, well worth the few dollars it cost to purchase that hood.

Lens Hood Protect Your Lens

I don’t want to beat a dead horse here, but I do want to mention on thing. If you don’t believe me when I say that lens hoods protect lenses, go ahead and attach one to the end of your lens for a year and use your camera as you normally would. At the end of the year, take a good look at that hood. Take notice of any scratches and gouges. I’m sure you’ll see them. Then, imagine how many times the glass on your lens wasn’t struck or scratched. I think that’ll make a believer out of you. If you’d like to read more about how to protect a lens in general, you can click through and read my previous post.

I hope I clearly explained some of the more general reasons why photographers use lens hoods, light shields or whatever you want to call them. If you have any questions, please let me know in the comment section below or in the photography discussion board. Thanks for reading!


Tips For Protecting Your Camera Lens

The truth of the matter is that camera lenses are expensive. Not all of them are really expensive, but some of them are. And even for the ones that aren’t, it’s not like any of us want to go out and purchase another one because something terrible happened to the one we have.

In today’s post, I’d like to talk about something so simple that it’s not really discussed all that often. I’d like to talk about different ways we can protect our camera lenses. While protecting something that’s used so much in so many different types of environments can be challenging, there are some clever ideas we can take advantage of. I’ll do my best at laying them out below.

Photographer Taking Picture

Camera Gear Insurance

For the amateur photographer, I shouldn’t even be talking about this. For the professional photographer though, this may be something worth looking into. Through the years, I’ve heard a lot about photographers insuring their cameras and gear. I mean, think about it. If photography is your livelihood and your gear is one of the most expensive investments that can easily amount to tens of thousands of dollars or more, isn’t it wise to insure that gear? I know this doesn’t really have to do with just lenses per se, but since camera lenses are so expensive and can take up the majority of what a camera setup costs, you would need to do everything in your power to not lose your investment. Think about checking camera gear for plane travel. Think about it bouncing around in the back of a jeep as you’re driving through the jungle. Anything can happen.

By the way, I just did a quick Google search to see if camera gear insurance is easy to find and it’s all over the place. There were lots of smaller agents on page one with Nationwide Insurance as the largest vendor.

The Way You Carry Your Camera

I want you to do me a favor and take a look at this photo.

Woman Carrying Camera

Do you see anything wrong with it? Do you see how long that lens sticks out from the camera? Imagine someone called this person and said, “Hey, quick, take a look at this!” And the person holding the camera swung around to the right to look. If there was something in the way, the big ol’ lens would smack right into that object. That’s not good for lenses.

The girl in the photo most likely has the camera strap over her shoulder in such a way as to make the camera and lens face outward. If she were to turn that strap around so the camera faced inward, the lens would be much more protected. This is such a simple idea.

A UV Lens Filter

The longer you stay with photography, the more you’ll hear about screwing UV filters onto the ends of your lenses as protection. You’ll hear things like, “I don’t think UV filters actually do anything, but they’re cheap enough to buy and to keep on the end of my lens, you know, just for protection.” You’ll hear stories about falling down and having the UV filter crack, but the lens staying safe. You’ll hear it all. And guess what; it’s all true. Adding a UV filter to the end of your lens can keep the lens glass out of harms way in so many different ways. Not only from falling down and having your camera lens crack into something, but from scratches and bumps and fingerprints and everything else. It’s like adding one of those clear plastic protective coatings to your smart phone. Those are to keep the real surface squeaky clean.

Camera Lens UV Filter

The only issue with UV filters is that they can, at times, create a ricochet of light which can create an artifact on the camera’s sensor, which can result in an imperfect photo. I don’t think this is very prevalent out there, so tons an tons of photographers swear by the UV filter solution.

The Lens Hood

I’m sure you’ve seen these things before. They’re cheap and they’re all over the place. A lens hood is a piece of gear that you either pop or screw onto the end of your lens. It’s primarily used to keep various angles of light off your sensor and flares out of your photos, but they’re become increasingly popular for lens protection in and of itself.

Camera Lens Hood

Think about what a lens hood does. It keep errant light from reaching your camera’s sensor. It also keeps your lens glass from bumping into something, unless, of course, that something is pointed in such a way as to make it past the distance of the hood. Lens hoods also keep dirty, oily fingers off the lens glass itself. So even if you use a UV filter as protection against bumping, you may still be smudging the filter glass. With a lens hood added as well, those smudges won’t be there. They won’t make it into the interior area, which is a good thing.

In my opinion, a lens hood combined with a UV filter is a great way to go. Getting rid of the UV filter altogether is also an option. I know how much photographers like a pure lens to look through, so cheap UV filters are out of the question. I suppose you could always go the expensive route and get a really high quality filter, but that would be up to you.

I hope I offered some helpful suggestions for how to keep the glass at the end of your camera lens safe. If you have any questions regarding this post, please let me know in the comment section down below or in the photography discussion forum. Thanks for reading!