5 tips on buying a camera lens (contd..)

Tip 1 (Prime lens vs. zoom lens): If you want better optical quality, then a prime lens would be more suitable for you; but there is an inconvenience involved in terms of not having the convenience of being able to get distant objects easily (as is possible through a zoom lens)

Tip 2 (Do you need a lens in which the motor does not make a sound): For specialistic needs such as wildlife, you sometimes need a lens that makes almost zero sound when focusing or shooting, else you will scare away the animals.

Tip 3 (Are you worried about distortion): Many zooms, unless they are of a very high quality, can have distortion in the photos produced (this may be unacceptable if you are photographing architecture, or producing designs). You need to check the lens beforehand to determine whether it will be acceptable.

Tip 4 (Compare the cost of camera and lens): If you are able to afford a really good quality camera, then you should also budget for some great lenses. After all, the quality of the photo is also dependent on the lens. On the other hand, if you are learning, then a cheaper lens should be fine.

Tip 5 (Differentiate between manual and automatic focus): Manual focus gives you a lot of control, while in automatic focus, the camera does the focusing for you. In some situations such as where there are multiple objects in the photo, or when you are focusing in a crowd, or in bad light conditions, you should go in for a manual focus. Accordingly, ensure that your lens has both manual and automatic focus.

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5 tips on buying a camera lens (contd..)

Tip 331 (Low budget lens): Typically lens from third party providers are cheaper than those from the camera manufacturers such as Nikon, Canon, etc. These third party manufacturers are names such as Tamaron, Sigma; they are good to start with, but make sure that you have studied them before you go in for the purchase.

Tip 332 (Lens from the manufacturers): These lens tend to be more expensive than a third party lens for the same type of specification. Once you enter this area, a lens could keep on going higher in price depending on the specification; for example a zoom lens with a constant aperture (constant maximum aperture) value would be more expensive than that with a variable aperture (at some points in the zoom range, the aperture could go down, limiting the amount of light you can capture)

Tip 333 (Evaluate a lens before buying another): So you have money to spend, and another lens is also looking very attractive; however, make sure that your current lens is unable to meet your complete requirement before you go ahead and purchase another.

Tip 334 (Look at the weight of the lens and carrying needs): It is a matter of regret that some of the lens with superior capabilities (such as the constant aperture zoom lens) are much more heavy. The lens may look great, but it is you who will have to carry it everywhere, so take that into account as well.

Tip 335 (Large aperture needs): So, you look at a lens with a large aperture (a f number of f/2.8 or even f/1.4), and it looks like a great lens to you. However, a lens with such an aperture is ideally meant for conditions where the light is not so great, or where you want a very shallow depth of field (where only the desired object is in focus, and everything else is blurred / out of focus). If you don't have such needs, then do not go for such a lens. These lenses are much more expensive, are heavier, and need more care (because of the large lens area).

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5 tips on buying a camera lens (contd..)

Tip 1 (Consider your use): Lenses have their own specific uses. Don't go in for a lens before taking a detailed look at what your needs are. Consider the case of a friend of mine who always hankered for a zoom lens, and then bought a 80-200 zoom lens. After buying it, a few months later he realized that he had not utilized the lens significantly, and then realized that there were few situations where this lens is required. So, evaluate your need, and then go ahead for the purchase.

Tip 2 (Do an intensive study of your needs): There are a whole host of questions you should ask yourself before you go in for a lens. Some of these questions are:
- Do you need them for specialized work such as wildlife or sports photography: This would mean that you need zoom lens, but with a good constant aperture. The lens is likley to be more expensive
- Are you more interested in portraits or wedding events: Less need of a zoom lens, and more to get a prime lens or a normal high aperture lens
- Interested in macro photograhy: Take lens that are more suited to macro photography
- Interested in normal city life / urban life, along with capturing street level views: Might want to consider a wide angle lens, since that will give you a greater coverage. Would need to explore to buy a lens that give you a good quality in such shooting
- Interested more in night and low light photography: There are lens that work fast in such a situation
- Interested in shooting for stock purposes: Carefully review and evaluate the lens so that the quality of the lens is high, else the photos will have defects or will not be totally sound

Tip 3 (Set a budget): Once you set a budget, it helps in making your mind up more easily. Else you may get tempted by the technical specifications of a lens and spend more money that you really wanted to

Tip 4 (Ask around, friends and forum): If you have friends who are avid photographers, or somebody who is in a business related to photography, or you are a member of a photography club or forum, there is nothing wrong in outlining your needs and asking for a recommendation. It will be far easier for you to come close to a specific lens decision this way.

Tip 5 (Read and learn more about the lens): The internet is a wonderful resource for learning more about a lens you may have selected. There will be a large number of reviews, and it might help you in confirming your selection, or learning that there are serious deficiencies because of which you dropped your current lens selection.

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5 tips on buying a camera lens

Tip 1 (Zoom lens and apertures): A zoom lens may seem great, since you can get different focal lengths in the same lens. So, if you have a lens that covers say from 70-300, that lens should supposedly be great. Unfortunately, there are some problems that start coming up. For example, most zoom lens don't have a constant maximum aperture, and you may find that you are not able to shoot at the maximum largest aperture, and hence start finding inadequate light in some cases. For zoom lens that have constant maximum aperture, the cost can be much higher.

Tip 2 (Difference in magnification power between digital camera and film camera): If you have a film camera, or a digital camera, the magnification power varies, and is generally higher on the same lens fitted digital camera.

Tip 3 (Aperture and maximum apertures): You would have heard of aperture many times, so what is it ? Aperture essentially defines the size of the opening on top of a lens that lets in the light, and as you might imagine, a larger opening lets in more light. Apertures are defined in terms of f-stops, and confusingly, is in reverse, so a larger opening has a smaller value, and hence f/1.4 lets in much more light than f/2.8, which lets in much more light than f/22.

Tip 4 (Fast lens and slow lens): Sometimes you hear about fast lens, and slow lens, and you must be wondering about these terms. A fast lens lets in much more light than a slow lens, and is essentially related to the aperture of the lens. A fast lens allows for better photography when the light is less.

Tip 5 (Keeping a grip on prices): Lens can increasingly get very expensive, so super-zoom lens are very expensive, and also fairly heavy, needing their own tripod support. Further, fixed aperture zoom lens are much more expensive than lens on which the aperture is not constant, and you should evaluate as to whether the need for constant aperture is important to you.

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5 tips on buying a camera lens

Tip 1 (Learn about the different kinds of lens): There are many different kinds of lens such as zoom, ultra zoom, macro, wide angle, prime, fish eye, standard lens, tilt, etc. You should read up, and be sure what each of these terms means before you go ahead and decide to buy a lens. This will help you determine which type of lens you want to buy.

Tip 2 (zoom lens): A zoom lens is, simply speaking, a lens which allows you to view distant objects more closely, similar to a telescope. More technically, a zoom lens is a combination of different lens elements that allow the variation of the focal length. Zoom lens are suitable for shooting wildlife, sporting activities, and objects at a distance.

Tip 3 (Superzoom lens): Superzoom lens are those lens that have large focal length factors, normally more than 4X, going upto 20x. For example, a lens that has the specification of 18-270 mm has a zoom ration of 15x, qualifying to be called a superzoom lens. However, these lens typically has a problem in terms of distortion of the image at both ends.

Tip 4 (Prime lens): A prime lens is normally much superior to a zoom lens in terms of optics, image quality, and smaller size and weight. However, a prime lens does not have the ability of a zoom lens of variable focal length, being a fixed focal length lens. A prime lens can have a much larger maximum aperture than a zoom lens, and hence better ability to handle low light conditions.

Tip 5 (Wide angle lens): A wide angle lens is one that allows you to take photographs with a much wider perspective than zoom lens, in the sense that you can get in more of the surrounding. The focal length of a wide angle lens is shorter than the focal lenght of a normal zoom or prime lens. However, the images generated through using a wide angle lens are more suspectible to perspective distortion.

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5 tips on evaluating your lens before buying

Tip 1 (Check that the lens works on the body): This may seem a very obvious tip, but I have seen a couple of people get very impressed over a lens; they went ahead to buy it after doing a cursory check with their camera specs. Later they found that there was a mismatch because of which they were not able to use the lens to its full potential. Before drooling over that lens and whipping out the money, be sure to check whether it works with your camera.

Tip 2 (When buying ultra zoom lenses, check for color blurring): For telescopic lens, there is a problem known as color blurring that happens as the lens is beig used at its maximum focal length. This problem can be corrected inside the lens itself through the various lens elements, but you should check to make sure that the lens you are buying has this reduced to the maximum possible.

Tip 3 (Evaluate the need for silent): Some lens make sounds when they are being used, such as the sounds of the focusing motor being clearly audible. This is a huge impediment when you are a photo-journalist, or shooting wildlife. Be sure to check out the sound levels of your lens, rather than be stuck with an advance warning signal that scares off animals.

Tip 4 (Check for lens ruggedness): For people who travel a lot, or who take shots in conditions that are not controlled, it is important that your lens have a proper tripod mount, be packed well in a case that reduces shock, and the lens itself is rugged and water prood (depends on the usage).

Tip 5 (Try out a lens before buying): You are getting a great deal on a lens bargain (either from a friend or a sale on the internet), but you have not used the lens yourself, not even held it and tried to use it. Avoid such situations; you need to have tried out the lens before buying it so that you know that the lens options, feel on the hand, and hefting is all comfortable to you. Being able to take quick snap shots depends on how comfortable you are with your camera and lens.

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5 Photo Tips for shooting photos in the sun

Tip 1 (Look for reflected light): One of the problems with harsh sunlight is that the side facing light gets a sharp glare, while a face or profile in shadow is far more reduced. You can either set up reflectors, or look for a place such as a parking lot or in front of buildings, where there is far more reflected light. This ensures that the images don't have unseemly shadows in some parts.

Tip 2 (Use ND Filters): Using filters can really create some interesting photos with different light affects. These filters help in giving a much bluer look to the photos, with a greater contrast in the photos. You can use a graduated ND filter such as this one - Cokin CH250 P-Series ND Grad Kit

Tip 3 (Use the light to good effect in creating silhouette): The strong light may not help in creating soft portraits, but it sure does help in creating some interesting effects such as silhouettes, when you allow the light to be behind the person. The light creates a great outline of the person, and with some creativity around exposure, you can use multiple people to get some stick like effects.

Tip 4 (Shoot in black and white): With the temptation to get good color contrast, and achieve a high color tonality being difficult in harsh light, the strong light actually aids in achieving a good effect in black and white photos. These black and white photographs are great to emphasize structures, shapes, especially when you are shooting something less curvy, and more stark and sharp.

Tip 5 (Shooting indoors or in areas that typically get less light): There are some advantages to having all that light. There are many places such as small alleys, between tall buildings, and indoors, where the amount of light required for good photos is available only when the sun is overhead, and the light is hard.

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5 photo tips for taking photos in the sun

Tip 1 (Underexpose your photos): If you get too much light in your photo, then you lose detail. It is always slightly better to have a slightly under-exposed photo rather than a over-exposed photo; since you can recover from a slightly under-exposed photo; if you lose detail in a photo, then you cannot recover those details.

Tip 2 (Use polarizing filters): Using polarizing filters can help reduce the amount of light in the photo, and also removing the harsh glare caused by the sun. Tiffen 58MM Circular Polarizer Glass Filter and HOYA 72mm Circularizing Polarizing Filter are two such filters you can use.

Tip 3 (Get your models to look up): In order to avoid the shadow under the eyes caused by the light of the sun, you can be on a higher point than the model. This way this forced the model / person to look up and avoids the shadow. Make sure that you the person is facing away from the sun, else they will have to squint, and this will spoil the photo.

Tip 4 (Don't uner-expose, do light metering): A tip above had mentioned that it is better to under-expose rather than over-expose. This remains correct, but you do need to be a bit careful that you don't under-expose too much. This can cause noise in the photo, so do light metering before you go in for under-exposure.

Tip 5 (Use HDR): Shoot at different levels of exposure, and then combine in a HDR to get an image that has enough detail. Make sure that people in your photos are following the rules about not looking towards the sun, and are not squinting.

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5 photo tips for taking photos at noon

Tip 1 (Look for the shade): Even on a bright sunny day, you will always find places that are in the shade. Being in the shade allows you to be much more comfortable while taking the photo, and there is normally ample light available in the shade.

Tip 2 (Get closer): If you can get closer to the object that you are taking a photo of (obviously, this does not apply if you taking landscape photos), you reduce the probability of getting those unwanted shadows into the photo. As the object of your photo grows larger in your photo, you start to eliminate the sky from the photo.

Tip 3 (Use passing clouds): If you are trying to take a photo at high noon or in broad daylight, keep an eye out for the passage of clouds overhead. For objects such as flowers, nature, and even for elements such as buildings, the passing of clouds reduces the effect of sharp light.

Tip 4 (Use fill flash for portraits): Sounds very strange, with so much bright light, to use the flash of the camera (Fill flash - Fill flash is a photographic technique used to brighten deep shadow areas, typically outdoors on sunny days. To use fill flash, the aperture and shutter speed are adjusted to correctly expose the background, and the flash is fired to lighten the foreground). However, harsh daylight can cause faces and other details to become less clear, and a fill flash enhances those details.

Tip 5 (Avoid pointing the camera to the sun): This is a very important rule. If the sun comes into the photo, then the bright light overshadows everything else, so you will need to plan the light levels properly if you want to have the sun in the photo. The sun in the photo also means that there is a chance of getting a sun flare that can look ugly.

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5 photo tips for taking photos at noon

Tip 1 (Learn about the characteristics of shooting at noon): Shooting at noon is normally avoided since the light is harsh and getting the tonal details is difficult, getting facial photos is difficult because of the shadows of the eyes and nose. However, if you learn more about the characteristics of light at noon, you will be better equipped to shoot at such times.

Tip 2 (Get down to avoid the shadows): In some cases, you should literally take the low perspective. Takes photos by going much lower to the ground, and gettting more of the blue sky in the photos. Doing this ensures that the colors of the photo seem richer.

Tip 3 (Keep the sun behind you): Contrary to opinion, the sun is actually overhead at noon only if you are at the equator. Hence, when shooting, try and keep the sun behind you, since that enables a better coloring of the sky.

Tip 4 (Embrace the harsh light and shadows): Sometimes the harsh light and shadows can enhance the look of a photo. If you are taking a photo of a rugged terrain, then the harsh light and consequent shadows can actually make the photo look better, and convey the impression that you are trying to project.

Tip 5 (Watch for colors): Lighter colors tend to get washed out in the harsh light of noon, but deeper colors such as red and blue tend to look more saturated in this light. You should embrace these colors more, since they will give your photos a richer look, if you need to shoot at noon or when there is harsh light.

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5 Photo tips for morning / sunrise photos

Tip 1 (Shoot beaches in the morning): Getting good shots of beaches, especially the play of water over the sand, is fun. However, in the harsh light, the whole scene tends to get a bit flattened. Shooting at the beach in the morning enhances the effect of the play of water and sand, and you can capture the texture of the sand particles much better. Plus, there is less chance of their being garbage being thrown by people, and less crowds.

Tip 2 (Dew laden plants): In the morning, plants look fresher, and the presence of dew on the leaves, and on the tips of the petals of flowers can give a great look. If you use a macro lens, the dew at certain angles combined with the slanting rays of the sun can shine.

Tip 3 (Inspiring photos): Photos of people exercising are always inspiring. Capturing the photos of people working out, jogging, or other such exercise when the sun is just coming up gives you a good collection of such photos. In addition, if you collect stock photos, the light can help hide the face while enhancing the outline of the human body.

Tip 4 (Shooting from a low height): Given that shadows in the morning are longer, and the contrast between the shadow and light is not as stark or sharp as it is in the daytime, you can get some great photos where there is a low height sun on the horizon, and long shadows on the ground.

Tip 5 (Take photos from inside): Consider yourself inside a room where the sun is just starting to enter throug the window. Go close to the window and look at what you see. If you do this on a regular basis, you will start to see some great scenes to photo. If you are near a garden or park, you will be able to see some potentially great bird photos, or you can see people going about a routine that you would not be able to see during the daytime, or you can get photos of the play of the sun over neighboring buildings or similar structures. Even a simple photo of the comparative darkness of the area around the window compared to emerging light outside can come out great.

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5 Photo tips (centered around the morning and daybreak)

Tip 1 (Think differently): Sunrise does not always mean shots of the sun rising, or shining over water, through clouds or over mountains. Look for other photos; look at people sitting on the beach with the sun rising, people going about their work (early morning), people having breakfast, or even more interesting shots such as steam (whether from natural sources, or from hot tea and coffee)

Tip 2 (Check White Balances): The white balances needs to be checked when shooting around sunrise. The light can have a orange-color tint to it, with a hint of red (although this changes rapidly as time passes). Even though you may have never have set the color profile to 'incandescent', this is a good time to change the white balance. Experiment with making this change, to see whether you start getting a slight blue tinge to your photos.

Tip 3 (Experiment with focus changes): For landscape views, you should normally have a small aperture (from f/8 to f/22 and higher), since you get more objects in focus (from close to the camera to objects much further away). However, for sunrise, you should experiment with having shallower focus by having larger exposures. This gets you more light, and shows you some interesting photos with some objects out of focus.

Tip 4 (Shooting water scenes early in the morning): Shooting early in the morning, especially over water, gives a bluish tinge to the entire scene. The cast of the photo changes to having a bluish tinge, and if you set a long exposure, you get more of the water flow (can give a very smooth look).

Tip 5 (Sun is pretty small): If you are looking to get a good photo of the sun at sunrise, the sun will show up as a small section of the photo. If you do want to get the sun being a much bigger part of the photo, then you will need to use a zoom lens (and the bigger the better). You might need to use a tripod as you move to a bigger zoom.

5 Photo tips (centered around the morning and daybreak)

Tip 1 (Filters): Explore what camera equipment can do for you. For example, filters such as this Tiffen 62mm Graduated Sunrise Filter can help in making some beautiful sunrise photo.

Tip 2 (Use software): This may seem a bit odd, but if you are not able to get the required effect in a natural sunrise, then try going in for using software such as Photoshop CS4 or Photoshop Elements 7. You will be able to tweak your images to get the exact effect you want.

Tip 3 (Sometimes failure is best): It is pretty hard to expect that you will get the exact result every time. What you need to do is to have a feel for the settings (also, the photo captures the camera settings), and review the settings against the photo that you got. This sort of comparison and review helps you get the feel for which settings work to get you the best results.

Tip 4 (Atmospheric pollution): Sounds bad, but sometimes when you have an extra element of pollution in the atmosphere and it is not gone by sunrise, the photos you get have some additional colors in them, or rather, more shades of colors in the same photo. Not necessary to happen every time, and your photo may not have the clarity with distance, but the colors may be better (or atleast different).

Tip 5 (Keep the sun away from the center): Once I was at a beautiful vantage point on a cliff with valleys in the distance. A lot of photos had no detail beacuse the camera was focused on the sun, and settings for exposure were geared on the sun, sometimes involuntarily. Try and take some photos where the sun is peripheral in the photo.

5 Photo tips (centered around the morning and daybreak)

Tip 1 (Use weather reports): There is nothing more frustrating than getting up early in the morning for some good sunrise photos, and then getting thwarted by clouds or bad weather. Even while developing patience is a good thing, you should read up about local weather, to make sure that you know what the weather is going to be like.

Tip 2 (Getting a good sunrise photo): Related to the above point, clouds are not bad altogether. If you don't have totally overcast conditions, with some cloud cover, then you can get some great photos. The clouds, tinged with color from the rising sun, as well as the sun playing hide-and-seek among clouds can give some great photos.

Tip 3 (Look for morning shadows): The shadows tend to be much longer at sunrise and sunset, and there are some pretty amazing looking photos you can get if you try and get the play of light and shadows in your photos.

Tip 4 (Look for a body of water): If you are near a lake, river, or other water body such as sea / ocean, the photos you get of the rising sun (or setting sun) over the water looks superb. Even if you can see a huge number of photos of the similar subject, they are still great photos to take to improve your collection.

Tip 5 (Taking light readings): If you are sufficiently professional enough to take light readings when you shoot, don't do so directly for a location with the rays of the rising sun. Take light readings of nearby areas (such as water that is starting to get lit by the sun, or of the sky, or buildings where the sun is not directly lighting up the outside wall). And then, take a number of photos to check which reading gives you the best photo.

5 Photo tips (centered around the morning and daybreak)

Tip 1 (Dream like quality of structures): Try this out. For a few days, go before daybreak near some structures that you like and admire, and then take shots before sunrise. What you will find is that many of these structures look very beautiful in the morning, since the soft light makes these structures seem more beautiful; if you are into poetry, you could feel that they feel floating, light, in the morning sunrise.

Tip 2 (Morning time and birds): If you are an early riser, you would tend to see that birds tend to be most active either in the time just before sunrise, or around sunset. You can get some great bird movement shots (including of larger groups, and those species whom you normally do not get to see) if you do this shooting early.

Tip 3 (Make an HDR): In the morning time, you get rapid changes in light levels within a short period of time. This is ideal if you want to make some great HDR shots in the least possible time period; as long as you shoot often, and adjust your camera for the changed light conditions.

Tip 4 (Sun and moon): You must have seen those shots, whereby the sun and moon can be seen in the same photo, without the moon or the sun being much brighter than each other. This is only possible soon after the sunrise, since the brilliance of the sun rapidly increases, and the moon will soon get lost in this extra light.

Tip 5 (Low levels of pollution in the morning): Morning time is when the pollution levels in the atmosphere and water bodies seem to be minimal, since the whole night with its slightly colder setting helps to bring down the levels of pollution. Combine this with much harsher light in the morning, and you can get great levels of detail in your photos, something that will not be apparent later in the day.

5 Photo tips (centered around the morning and daybreak)

Tip 1 (Camera can see what we can't): It is believed that if we can't see anything, then it is difficult to capture that on camera. However, people with experience in the photography business know that using the shutter speed, ISO and aperture options in the camera can be of great help in capturing images even at low light. So, if you are up before daybreak, and there is a faint light, do not worry that you cannot get some great images. Bump up the ISO, increase the aperture opening, decrease shutter speed (along with using a tripod), and you will be surprised at the clarity of images you get.

Tip 2 (Be attentive just around sunrise): Nature shows a wide variety of colors (including switching from one sky color to another) just before sunrise. Be attentive and ready, try again and again, and you will get some pretty swatches of colors lighting up your photos.

Tip 3 (Softness of light at dawn): When you admire panoramas, look closely. Many of them are shot such that the light looks a bit soft, and the structures or scenery do not appear washed out. This effect can be achieved by shooting panoramas near dawn. One advantage of this is that you are less likely to have to remove people from your photos.

Tip 4 (Shooting long exposures at dawn): As mentioned above, the color can change rapidly near sunrise. Using a tripod, try capturing this movement of colors through taking long exposure photos. You should get some great colored photos. It makes it even more remarkable if there is some structure that is getting highlighted in the different colors. A bridge over a water body would look incredible.

Tip 5 (Shooting structures in silhouette): As the sun starts to rise, use a building to cover the sun in such a way that you get a silhouette. You need to do this when the sun has not risen too much, and the sun rays are still soft. Experiment with different exposures while doing this, and then start to see that some of the photos will look real great. The ideal shot would be when the light is not very bright, and you get some detail of the front of the building, with light peeking from the corners of the building.

5 Photo tips (centered around the morning and daybreak)

Tip 1 (Daybreak and pre-sunrise photos): Even though for most of us, getting up early in the morning before sunrise can be painful, you can get some pretty good shots of sunrise. During daybreak / sunrise, the colors change pretty quickly, and you can get some very interesting colors.

Tip 2 (Daybreak photos, RAW, and White Balance): When you consider the time of daybreak (the time when you can start to see light, but not yet start seeing the sun on the horizon), try and capture multiple photos on RAW. With this, you can experiment with varying the White Balance to get some pretty interesting shots (many cameras also allow you to set the white balance, so you can experiment with those as well)

Tip 3 (Tripod for morning photos): When taking morning photos, if you want to get sufficient exposure, a tripod is almost necessary. Carry a tripod along; anyhow, if you are into photography as a hobby, you should get adjusted to the idea of carrying a tripod.

Tip 4 (Serene atmosphere at dawn): The climate and the environment at dawn is probably the time when you feel best about nature. The slight light, the cleanliness that seemingly surrounds everything, few people around, the peace, the good weather, all these will put you in a much better frame of mind, one with nature, and should translate into some great photos.

Tip 5 (Shooting in hilly areas at dawn): If you are in a hilly area, you must get up early to capture the situation at dawn. If you are positioned right, and you have got your timing right, the sight of the sunlight starting to come through far off mountains (through the gaps between the mountains / hills) can be an incredible sight.