5 EASY LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHY TIPS THAT WILL TAKE YOUR PHOTOS TO THE NEXT LEVEL!

If you’ve hit a roadblock in your landscape photography and need some inspiration, I have five tips that are essential to landscape photography and will help take your photos to the next level.

Landscape Photography Tip #1

Landscape Photography Tip number one. Shoot during the golden hour. The golden hour is a term coined by photographers referencing the time of day shortly after sunrise and right before sunset. When the sun is low in the horizon, the light needs to travel through more atmosphere, physically changing the color temperature to a yellow or cast. Hence the name, golden. The warm soft diffused light gives subjects more perceived edge definition, clarity, separation, and character, making the picture look better. The sun at lower angles is also more directional, producing longer shadows, which can add drama to a photo and of course, waiting until sunset may result in a fiery explosion in the sky. While not all landscape shots need to be made during the golden hour or at sunset, the kind of light emitted during the golden hour, will improve the perceived quality of your photos, and could add interest to an otherwise boring landscape.

Landscape Photography Tip #2

Landscape Photography Tip number two, use filters. Polarizing at neutral density filters are essential items in any landscape photographers kit. The effect of a polarizing filter increases blue hues in the sky, cuts through the reflection in the water and makes green foliage more vibrant. Neutral density filters act like sunglasses for your camera, purposely reducing the light that can enter the lens. This will allow you to use longer shutter speeds, capturing silky smooth water or blurring moving subjects like people or cars in the daytime. Polarizing in neutral density filters can be found for relatively cheap, and they can open the door to so many opportunities.

Landscape Photography Tip #3

Tip number three, always consider composition. The composition is a key part of any photograph, whether it be architectural, orature or landscape. So many artistic elements like foreground interest, negative space, balance, and movement, need to be considered when determining what composition will work best in a scene. Landscape photography is a very deliberate process. So take the time to find a composition you think is striking.

Landscape Photography Tip #4

Tip number four, use longer focal length. While you may have heard that you need a wide angled lens for landscape photography, telephoto lenses are a unique way to capture the beauty of individual features in a scene. Longer focal lengths will allow you to isolate small, distant portions of a landscape, providing a clear focal point to viewers, and eliminating distracting elements. Using a telephoto in the field may even make you a better photographer, forcing you to think hard about subject and composition and the drastically different perspective created by longer focal lengths is refreshing in a genre dominated by the same boring wide angle field of view.

Landscape Photography Tip #5

Tip number five, the final tip in this video is to just go outside. This may seem pointless. But too often, We have seen photographers refuse to take photos in bad weather because they didn’t have the right gear or because they don’t think they will get a good photo. My advice is to do it anyway, and even if you don’t like the photo, regret is the landscape photographers worst enemy. Weather can discourage landscape photography, but the inbrasing bad weather will train your eye to find striking compositions and make the best of a bad situation. Good gear is not necessary either, because if you produce an amazing image, no one is going to scoff if it came from a phone rather than a DSLR. A good photo is a good photo.

Landscape Photography Tip Summary

Finally, confidence is key. Even if you think your photos are bad, each photo you take will add to your pool of experience, that is vital in photography. You can only really learn how to use good photos by actually taking them. So don’t give up. Now that you know these five tips, you should be on your way to taking amazing landscape photos.

We hope this easy to understand landscape photography tip article has given you the inspiration and confidence to go out and try these tips right away. Practice is the key. Commit to trying one of these tips every day this week, or if you are feeling ambitious try them all today.  The point is we are often our worst critics, and that is good if it helps us raise our photography games, but not if it keeps us from actually taking the photos in the first place.  Get out there and capture the next great of landscape photography art. It’s a big world, and we need you to help commemorate a piece of it.

Reminder this article contains affiliate links and if you click on them and make a purchase we may receive a small commission from the vendor.  If you are comfortable with that great! We appreciate it if not no worries we still love you. We appreciate you reading our content and hope it helped! Please come back real soon.

If you want some other great pieces of training around photography make sure to read some of our other great content.

Like our Lesson on Aperture

or our 10 Amazing Wildlife Photography Tips for beginners

or our EASY to Understand Shutter Speed Tutorial

The point is feel free to browse around and find some other great training.  Thanks for reading! and Keep Shooting!

The post 5 Easy Landscape Photography Tips That Will Take Your Photos To the Next Level appeared first on The Trainer At Heart .

Welcome to our Easy to Understand Guide to Understanding Focal Length Definition in Camera Lenses

What is Focal Length?

In previous articles, we explained 3 critical principles of photography: Aperture, ISO, and Shutter speed , make sure to read those articles if you haven’t done so yet, to fully understand how these key principles of photography affect your images.  In this article, we will take a look at Focal Length. By the time you finish this article you will have a full grasp on exactly what it means and how to manipulate it like a master to improve your photography.

So what is the definition focal length?

Focal length usually represented in millimeters and is a basic description of a photographic lens. The measurement is not the length of the lens of itself, but actually a calculation of the optical distance from where all light rays converge inside the lens to the image sensor of the camera.

Below you can see a visual representation of the Focal Length Definition

Let’s take the Focal Length Definition and explain it in plain English

The focal length of a lens is determined when the lens is focused at infinity. The focal length tells us the angle of view—how much of the scene will be captured—and the magnification—how large individual elements will be.

• The longer the focal length, the narrower the angle of view and the higher the magnification.
• The shorter the focal length, the wider the angle of view and the lower the magnification.

Here is a visual example of varying focal lengths and the images they produce:

So as you can see above the further or longer the focal length used the more narrow the angle of view and the more magnified the image will be.

• So Use shorter focal length to capture a wider angle of view & and Longer focal length to capture a more narrow angle of view with greater maginfication

A lens with a focal length of 24 millimeters, for example, would have light range coverage 24 millimeters above the image sensor. The focal length number tells us the angle of view, how much of the scene will be captured, and the magnification, how large a subject will appear.

The lower the number, the wider the field of view, and lower the magnification increasing the amount of the scene that our camera can see. The larger the number, the narrower the field of view and greater the magnification decreasing the amount of the scene our camera can see.

It’s also worth noting that often times photographers will refer to larger focal lengths as longer and smaller focal lengths as shorter.

While the lens you attach to your camera comes with the focal length depending on the type of camera you attach to it, its focal length can actually vary.

Back in the days of film, the 35-millimeter film was the standard sensor size for all types of photography. Once film cameras left the scene, digital cameras replaced them with many different sized sensors. The majority of them smaller. 50-millimeter lens regarded as a standard focal length for film became a short telephoto on the new smaller sensor cameras. This is due to something called, crop factor. Full frame cameras do not have any crop factor since they operate on a standard 35-millimeter format used in the days of film. APS-C sensors, however, have a crop factor of 1.5 for Nikon or 1.6 for Cannon. What this means is any lens attached to an APS-C camera will need to have its focal length multiplied by either 1.5 or 1.6 to get its effective focal length. The actual focal length of the lens remains unchanged but switching camera bodies that have different sensor sizes will change what the picture will look like.

For example, if you have a 50-millimeter lens on a full frame camera its effective focal length will be 50 millimeters, but if I swap it to a crop sensor camera with a crop factor of 1.5 the effective focal length suddenly becomes 75 millimeters. There are other camera form factors as well, but full frame APSC cameras are most common. When considering a lens, there are a number of categories defined by ranges of focal lengths.

• The widest lens are the fisheye or ultra wide lens. These lens have focal ranges from 8 to 24 millimeters. They are limited in use and typically used for landscape or architecture. They create such a wide angle of view that images can sometimes appear distorted. They are not suitable for all portraits since they make facial features look distorted.
• Next comes, regular wide angle lenses with focal lengths typically between 24 millimeters to 35 millimeters. This is where distortion stops appearing unnatural.
• Standard lens with focal lengths between 35 millimeters to 70 millimeters produce images that most closely reproduce what our eyes see. They are great walkaround lens and very popular.
• Telephoto lenses typically start around 70 millimeters and end around 300 millimeters. Portrait lenses fall in this range. As you increase focal length telephoto compression will cause foreground and background objects to appear close together.

Extreme telephoto lens round out the bunch with focal lengths exceeding 300 millimeters. These lenses are used for wildlife and situations where extreme magnification is required.

Within these categories lie prime and zoom lens. Prime lenses are lenses that have a fixed focal length. They are often simpler lens making them easier to manufacture and in return costs less and are usually are of higher quality than the zoom.  Zoom lenses, on the other hand, cover a range of focal lengths and because of their versatility allow you to carry, say, one lens instead of two or three to cover the same focal range. The only drawbacks are the increased cost and slightly reduced quality of manufacturing something so complex.

CONCLUSION OF OUR FOCAL LENGTH DEFINITION GUIDE

Focal length is a simple concept, but an important one. By the end of this article, you will have learned the principles of focal length and the various categories of lenses that together will help you make an informed decision on which lens to purchase, and how focal length will affect your picture.

Reminder if you want to read about other important photography concepts – read our guides on Aperture, ISO, and Shutter speed . 

If you want even more information on the different types of camera lenses then you have to read our epic post here.

or our Guide to the best lens to learn photography post.

Also, Some of the links in this article and on this site are affiliate links, which means if you purchase something through these links the store will send us a small commission. The price of your item is never increased due to this commission and we greatly appreciate it if you purchase something using one of them, it’s how we try to keep the lights on, but if you don’t, no worries, we still love you and thank you for stopping by, we hope you do it again real soon!

The post Understanding Focal Length Definition of a Camera Lens appeared first on The Trainer At Heart .

Welcome to our Guide on the First DSLR Lenses to Buy for Beginner Photographers

Today, we will go over how to choose the First DSLR lens to Buy beyond the initial kit Lens that comes with most DSLR camera packages. And the reason we are going to help you with that is, it’s a really hard decision. If you want to make great photos or shoot great videos, you need some quality glass to help you with that. And, it’s a tough decision to make with all of the information out there. So, in this article, we are going to make that decision a lot easier for you.

One of the things I will say is that sometimes you do need to try these lenses before you buy them. That’s why I always recommend that instead of just picking Canon or Nikon or Sony because a pro tells you. I think that you should pick a camera system that a lot of your friends and family members are shooting on. That way you can borrow lenses and borrow other gear and accessories from them and so you can try it out, learn how to use it, and learn what fits you as a creator. I think that’s so important and I think that that’s a good way to decide what camera system you want to buy. So if you have a friend or family member that is a bit ahead of you in accumulating their camera gear, start there and think of it as an extended try before you buy campaign, that is the easiest way to make sure you won’t regret whatever camera lens you choose to buy.

But, if that’s not an option for you though, you can rent lenses before you buy them and it’s not that expensive, honestly. You can rent Lenses over at Lumoid. Let’s say you were thinking of getting an 85mm f1.8 portrait lens  It could cost you around $400, but you don’t know if you are sold on it or not and that’s why you decide to rent it. So, you get to play with it for a couple of days and make an informed buying decision. If you want to do that, you can use this link to, so that you can try stuff out before you buy it, if you don’t have the luxury of going to a friend or a family member.

Big Tip #1: Try Before You Buy, and make a better choice on the first DSLR Lens to Buy

Ask to borrow the lens from a friend or family member and take them out for a drink as a thank you. It’s a win-win

Rent the lens and use it for a couple of days, then you will get a feel for the equipment and feel that much better about your purchase, which is exactly what we want with any expensive purchase isn’t it.

PRO’s Say it’s all about the Glass when buying a DSLR lens.

You have probably heard all the big pros out there tell you that it’s all about glass. One is really famous for saying, “glass, glass, glass, glass, glass”. The truth is, he’s not wrong, it’s just that when you’re just starting out, budgets can be a real thing. You don’t know if you’re going to stick with this and what’s good for somebody else, may not be good for you. You may not need to buy an expensive 70-200mm lens. A lot of people actually do that early on because that’s what pros said to do. But it could end up being a lens that you don’t use immediately and now you had to come out of pocket for all that money anyway. Granted, if you stick with photography long-term and turn it into a career it will most likely make you much more money than you spent on it over the years, but initially, it may not have been the best investment. What you might have been better off doing with that same like $2000 plus investment, is getting some really great glass that was within a much tighter budget, where you could have either spent half as much or gotten a variety of glass. So, let’s talk a little bit about that.

One of the first pieces that I want to talk about is from Nikon, is an 85mm f1.8. Now, that may not mean a lot to you, so let’s go ahead and talk about it. 85mm is a tremendous piece of glass. It’s a great focal length. F1.8 isn’t that heavy, so it’s something that’s not going to be a burden to you in the way that a bigger piece of glass, like a 24-70 or 70-100 might be. If you’re a small bodied person, you’re just getting used to shooting and your mostly shooting portraits of people, you’re shooting headshots, this is a great piece of starter glass for you. And, you won’t get distortion in your portrait images. It’s great for compression and making sure that people stand out of the background very well. And, it handles low light situations. It’s also good for you filmmakers for exactly those same reasons and you’ll be able to get great film work.

PROs to the 85 MM f1.8 DSLR Lens

• Affordable price tag- see the most recent price on AMAZON
• Lighter than bigger pieces of glass
• Great for portrait images, specifically headshots
• Handles low light well
• Easy to handle

I really like this lens. But, a lot of people will have an issue with it because you can’t get close up to a subject. It can be good because, you know, maybe you’re subject will be intimidated by that and it’s too much intimacy, but if you want an alternative to that, you can go with what’s called the nifty 50. A 50mm lens usually at f1.8, you can also get them at f1.4 or 1.2 and if you are still wondering what those numbers mean, We have an article explaining how aperture works, so make sure you check that out. But, basically the smaller that number is, the more light will come into the lens, you’ll be able to shoot in low light situations, you’ll also get more depth of field, that’s that shallow blurry background where subjects pop in off the background and it’s not very busy. So, that’s something to think about.

The 50mm will let you get up a lot closer and you can still shoot from far away if you want to. So, you have a lot more options. It’s probably the most versatile of all the prime lenses. Those are lenses that don’t zoom, so really think about that. I think you should have at least one good prime lens in your bag. I think you should have either an 85mm or a 50mm or both. The 50mm f1.8 from Nikon costs about $220 but you can check latest prices from Amazon, so it’s a really great option for you. The 85mm f.18 costs around $400. So you could get these two lenses and still have money left over instead of that 70-200 that the pros talk about.

Buying your first Lens if Wide Angle is something you need

If zoom is something you need, let’s go ahead and talk about that. You do have some very great options here. If you’re somebody who’s going to shoot things that are going to be more landscape, music videos, street photography, you might want to get something like a 14-24 or a 10-24 lens. You can get these either from a third party, like Tokina or Sigma or Tamron. Or you can buy them for the camera system that you have. But, that’s a great wide angle lens and it can be tremendous for you, for what you’re trying to do. Especially as a video maker. If you’re doing Indie films or something like that, music videos, a 14-24 is usually ideal for you, as one of the lenses in your kit. If you’re doing more general stuff, then maybe you just get a 17-55 f2.8. these aren’t the cheapest but they arent the most expensive either. They usually range between $400 and $900, so that’s not really a bad option for you. You’ll be able to get shallow depth of field, so you get a blurry background, but then you also have some flexibility.

So, for in that $500 sweet spot, that’s actually a really good lens for you. If you throw that in with something like either the 50mm or this 85mm as a prime, you’re pretty solid. And again, you’d still be within $1000 if you get that. If you bought all of those together, you still might even be close to $1500 yet, so I think that that could be a really good combination for you to have. The 14-24, I’ll be honest with you. It is a little bit more expensive. It’s going to be pricey, but if you’re doing paying work, it’s absolutely worth it.

Great Beginner Glass for Casual Use-aka not professionally.

Now, if you’re an absolute beginner and you just really want to learn this stuff, your kit lens is fine, but maybe it doesn’t’ zoom enough for you. You can get a 50-200 or a 70-300 for just a few hundred dollars. Maybe it’s going to cost you somewhere between $200 and $400 to get either of these. In some cases, if you buy them used, you can get both for that price, if that’s something you’re interested in. I don’t necessarily think you need both, but it is on the table if that’s what you want to do and I think that having that extra zoom capability will help you understand how zoom lenses work in the future, so you can try and make up your mind as to whether that’s something you need to make a bigger investment in.

If you’re really not going to do this professionally, there’s no reason for you to spend a lot of money. You can get those zoom lenses and just deal with the fact that you have to adjust the aperture for the lighting conditions, et cetera and the fact that they won’t be able to shoot low light situations that great. But, if you’re not doing that, it doesn’t really matter. If you’re someone who’s not shooting indoors a lot, you’re not shooting sports, you’re shooting more stuff that’s like family or vacations or you’re doing this as a hobby, these are still great lenses for you and they’re super affordable. Also, if you’re a beginner and you’re learning and you’re not making a ton of money back on this stuff yet, but you’re doing a few, you know, weddings for like one-off family members, cousins, relatives, something like that, then you can make your money back on this investment really easily and you can start to build up toward better glass later.

Let’s Talk Pro Options to Selecting your first DSLR Lens

So, let’s go ahead and talk about some of this pro glass. I’ve used the 24-70  and the 70-200 a couple of times. These are great pieces of glass, but they are heavy. So, you really have to think about it. I do recommend you try them before you buy them and just see if you’re even comfortable shooting with them. See if they can produce the kind of shots you’re looking for and give you the abilities that you need. Again, if you’re not shooting sports, you’re not shooting aerial photography, maybe you don’t need a 70-200 lens. If you’re shooting headshots, the 24-70 is fine. And, like I said, I think that the 85mm is actually great for portraits and it might be the best portrait lens out there. The 24-70s are usually f2.8, which means you’ll be able to get shallow depth of field, they have great optics in them, and the image quality is superb. I’m not going to lie. But, you can still get great image quality at the less expensive primes, especially when you’re just learning.

This is, after all, an article for you buying your first lenses, so I really want you to keep that in mind. If you’re doing video, the 24-70 could be very advantageous for you, especially if you’re a filmmaker. It gives you a lot of flexibility, because of that zoom range and the fact that you can control the lighting conditions because you have a fixed aperture and make sure that your shots look consistent. That’s going to be very important to you. So, if you’re going to do videography, you’re going to film events, then I would really consider investing in this lens. If you’re going to shoot stuff that’s, you know, a conference and you’re going to shoot stuff that’s pretty far away, you’re going to shoot concerts, consider getting the 28-70 and the 70-200 for those situations, even if you’re a new photographer, but you know that that’s what you want to shoot. That’s probably the best overall glass for you.

Conclusion of our Buying your first DSLR Lens Guide

Remember, buying your first lens is a huge commitment beyond the kit lens and you have to get what’s right for you. So, like I said, if you can borrow something, that’s great. But, if you can’t borrow it, try and rent it so you can get a feel for it and see what it can do for you. Again, you can rent from Lumoid, and it will help you make a decision whether you’re going to make the $400 commitment to the 85mm or whether you’re going to go ahead and get something like the 17-55 that I mentioned earlier. So, if you want to try before you buy, you can go ahead and use the link up here. (affiliate link)

If you want to buy any of the lenses that I mentioned outright, you can use the Amazon affiliate links throughout this article and they will send us a small commission. Speaking of help, I hope you guys found this article informative and easy to understand. If you still have questions about buying lenses and you still can’t make up your mind, read our more in-depth guide to buying lenses and their uses.

Thank you for visiting and reading out blog, we appreciate it! and that goes double if you choose to buy something using one our affiliate links! Thank you.

If you want other great information to help you learn photography better, and help you make the most out of that great first lens, then check out some of our other easy to understand guides:

• Understanding ISO Photography Definition
• Understanding Aperture Definition 
• Understanding Lens Shutter Speed

The post First DSLR Lenses to Buy Guide appeared first on The Trainer At Heart .

Welcome to Our Easy to Understand Shutter Speed Definition Training in Photography

What is Shutter Speed?

Well it may seem like the answer is obvious, there’s more to shutter speed than meets the eye. Let’s take a closer look. Shutter speed is one of the three pillars of photography. The other two being ISO and aperture. Also known as exposure time, shutter speed is defined as the length of time the image sensor in a camera is exposed to incoming light. As we mentioned before the 3 pillars of photography are a combination of ISO, Aperture, and Shutter Speed, so to learn more about either one of the other pillars read our guide on definitions of Aperture and ISO here.

In case you missed it there was an answer to a common question in our opening paragraph, Are Shutter Speed and Exposure time the same thing?

In photography, shutter speed or exposure time is the length of time when the film or digital sensor inside the camera is exposed to light.

Often exposure time can be used intertangably with exposure, this is not entirely correct as you can manipulate Shutter Speed, ISO, and Aperture and each have an effect on overall exposure.

Before we go more in-depth, however, let’s take a look at the different parts of the camera that contribute to taking a photo.

In a standard DSLR, when you press the shutter button, a mirror flips up allowing light to pass into the camera instead of the viewfinder. Once the mirror is flipped upwards, a small door will move from top to bottom exposing the sensor beneath. After that, another door will fall down covering up the entire sensor. After the second door closes your mirror will fall back into place. The doors will then reset to their original positions underneath. The longer the shutter is kept open, the more light will enter the camera.

To create Freeze Motion of a moving object Fast Shutter Speeds are needed. Slower Shutter Speeds are used to give the semblance of movement. Below you will see an example of an image of a WindFlower moving with the wind and a side by side example of how a photo of that windflower is changed by speeding up or slowing down the Shutter Speed of the Camera.

How to change shutter Speed of your camera?

• You can set your camera to Auto Mode. In auto mode, cameras will meter the scene and determine an adequate shutter speed to keep the picture from becoming either over or underexposed.
• You can manually change the shutter speed by either putting the camera in shutter priority mode, which will let you change shutter speed, letting the camera calculate ISO and aperture.
•  Full manual mode gives you full control over all your camera settings.

How is Shutter Speed Measured?

Shutter speeds are measured in fractions of a second when under one second. For example, one over 4 displayed on the camera, means the shutter speed is one fourth a second. Whereas, one over 250 means the shutter speed is one 250th of a second. Most cameras can handle shutter speeds as fast as one four-thousandth of a second. Or sometimes even as high as fast as one eight-thousandth of a second. And shutter speeds as long as 30 seconds.

Longer shutter speeds can be achieved using a function known as bulb mode where the shutter speed is determined by the length of time the shutter button is activated either manually or through a remote trigger.

What kind of Photography is Short Shutter Speed Used For?

It’s good to know what affects different shutter speeds have as it can affect the type of picture produced.

Short shutter speeds, often quicker than one one-thousandth of a second are fast enough to capture the fast movement of wildlife and sports and freeze water droplets and small particles.

So if you are trying to shoot wildlife photography or live action sports, you will want a camera that has a fast or short shutter speed to be able and capture crisp clear images that appear frozen in time.

What kind of shutter speeds are necessary for everyday photography?

For everyday photography, shutter speeds around one one-hundredth of a second are fast enough to keep subjects from blurring. If you’re shooting handheld, longer shutters speeds may also cause your shaky hands to blur the photo. Newer lenses from most manufacturers have attempted to solve this problem by introducing vibration reduction technology into lenses to correct for minor shakes.

Night Photography and Shutter Speed Considerations

Night photography will often utilize longer shutter speeds to capture as much light as possible. Shutter speeds as long as 20 or 30 seconds may even be used to take pictures of the milky way. Knowing the principles of shutter speed will allow you to make better decisions about how you want your picture to look, whether you’re freezing the action, creating a time warp effect, letting in little light or as much as you can. Though it’s a very basic concept of photography, shutter speed is no less important in making a fantastic photo.

Quick recap of the common questions asked about Shutter Speed

What shutter speed to use?

That depends on a host of factors and should be taken into consideration with the two other pillars of photography, aperture, and ISO.  But remember the faster the shutter speed the short the exposure time, the longer the shutter speed the longer the exposure time.

What shutter speed for sports?

In general, for sports, you will want to you a very fast shutter speed or short exposure time to freeze those live action shots. Think shutter speeds over one one-thousandth of second and higher.

What shutter speed to freeze motion?

Again to freeze motion like trying to capture a bird flying in mid-air you will want to use a very fast shutter speed. Again, think at least one one-thousandth of a second, this is the same shutter speed you can use to freeze a drop of water.

Conclusion of our Shutter Speed Definition Training Guide

We hope you feel more comfortable understanding shutter speed and how this effects your photography choices. Remember learning never ends and you should continue to seek out training until you are 100% comfortable with the subject matter at hand.  We hope you found this guide thorough and easy to understand, as these are some of our guiding principles behind the content we create. REMEMBER some of the links you find in this article and across our site are affiliate links, which means if you purchase anything at that store after clicking a link, the store will pay us a small commission. This is how we keep our lights on and continue to provide great content, so if you choose to do this we THANK YOU! It’s very much appreciated. If you are uncomfortable with us getting a small commission from the vendor, no worries we still love you and hope you come back soon!

• IF YOU WANT TO LEARN MORE ABOUT DIFFERENT TYPES OF  CAMERA LENSES READ THIS
• IF YOU WANT TO LEARN MORE ABOUT APERTURE READ THIS
• IF YOU WANT TO LEARN MORE ABOUT ISO READ THIS

The post Easy to Understand Shutter Speed Definition for Photography appeared first on The Trainer At Heart .

Welcome to Our Easy to Understand Aperture Definition Guide for Beginner Photography

What is the Definition of Aperture?

Like many concepts in beginner photography, understanding Aperture can be challenging so our goal is to really make it easy to understand in this Aperture Photography Guide. At it’s simplest definition,  Aperture refers to the opening of a lens’s diaphragm through which light passes.  

What is the lens diaphragm and how does it control how much light passes through the lens aperture?

The Diaphragm 

Whether in an eye or photography camera lense the role of the diaphragm is to stop the passage of light, except for the light passing through the aperture. Thus it is also called a stop (an aperture stop, if it limits the brightness of light reaching the focal plane, or a field stop or flare stop for other uses of diaphragms in lenses), calibrated by f/stops. The diaphragm is placed in the light path of a lens or objective, and the size of the aperture regulates the amount of light that passes through the lens.

So as you can see the smaller the diaphragm size in a lens, the larger the remaining aperture, meaning greater exposure to light. Conversely, the larger the size of the diaphragm is opened in the lens, the smaller the remaining opening or aperture is, so there is less light exposure. Remember the diaphragm is literally used to STOP the light enters the lens, what’s left open is the APERTURE.

Aperture is Measured in F/Stop (which can be thought of as the size of lens diaphragm)

That’s why on a Camera Lens, the Aperture is referred to by the F/Stop number. The F/stop has a lot of different ranges but sometimes people get confused because the smaller f-stop number equals the larger aperture. But if you remember that the F/Stop number literally refers to the size of the Diaphragm in the lense that is meant to block the amount of light that is let through, then it will make a lot more sense and be easier to remember that the smaller F-stop number refers to a smaller diaphragm and larger aperture.  Here is a visual representation of the various lenses and apertures.

Why Aperture so Important in Photography & Comparison to Human Eye

Aperture is perhaps the most influential parameter of photography, aperture plays an important role in the composition and setting up a shot. Let’s take a closer look. Simply put, the aperture is the hole in the lens through which light travels into the camera body and onto the camera sensor. To understand, let’s look at the human eye.

All cameras are designed like human eyes. The cornea of our eye is similar to the front element of the lens, gathering light and bending it inward toward the iris. The iris can expand or shrink to control the size of the pupil, which passes light into the inner eye. The pupil is what we refer to as the aperture in photography. The amount of light that falls onto the retina is determined by the size of the pupil. The larger the pupil, the more light falls on to the retina. The larger the aperture of the lens, the more light enters the camera. The iris of the lens controls the size of the aperture and is called the diaphragm. The diaphragm’s function is to block all light, with the exception of light that goes through the aperture.

A closer look at F/Stops in Photography Aperture

As we mentioned before in photography the aperture is expressed in F numbers, also known as F stops. F stops are a way of describing how open or closed the aperture is. The smaller the F-stop means a larger aperture, while a larger F stop means a smaller aperture. For most this can be tricky to remember, but not you since you are reading this j/k,  since large F stops mean small aperture sizes. An Aperture F-stop of F/1.4 is larger than F/2.8 and much larger than F 8 or F 11.

Aperture Impact of Depth of Field

Aside from controlling the amount of light passing through the lens and into the camera, the aperture has a direct impact on the depth of field, the area of the image that appears sharp. A large F number such as F 16 will bring all foreground and background objects into focus, while a small F-number such as F 1.4 will isolate either the foreground or background objects and make everything else blurry.

Here is an example of Aperture impact on Depth of Field, comparing F-stop number of F/2.8 and F/32

Guidance on Aperture and Photography Lenses

Every lens has a limit on how large or small the aperture can get. If you take a look at the specifications of your lens, it should indicate the maximum apertures, lowest F numbers, and minimum apertures, highest F numbers. The maximum aperture of the lens is much more important than the minimum aperture because it shows the speed of the lens. Lenses with apertures of F 1.4 or F 2.8 are considered fast lenses because they can pass more light into the camera than for example a lens with a maximum aperture of F 4 or F 5.6. That’s the reason night photography usually requires fast lenses.

The minimum aperture of a lens is usually not important and should rarely be used, as de-fraction will cause the image to lose clarity.

It is also worth noting the two types of lenses, primes and zooms. Primes have a fixed focal length, meaning they cannot zoom without physically moving closer or further away from the subject. Zoom lenses give you the flexibility for you to zoom in or out of an object while remaining stationary. While prime lenses will have a fixed maximum aperture, the maximum aperture of a zoom lens will often get smaller as the focal length increases. These lenses are called variable-aperture lenses. This is important, because, for a zoom lens with a focal length of 70 to 200 millimeters, the aperture may increase from F 3.5 to F 5.6, decreasing the amount of light entering the camera.

For more information read our complete beginners guide to different types of Camera Lenses.

How does Aperture affect ISO and Shutter Speed?

Because aperture controls the amount of light entering the camera, it also affects other parameters, such as ISO and shutter speed. A larger aperture, or smaller the F-number, will let more light into the camera, allowing you to use a faster shutter speed or lower ISO value. This is beneficial to eliminate motion blur and reduce the amount of noise that your camera will produce if it’s ISO gets bumped up.

Faster shutter speeds can be essential in scenes with lots of motion, like sports and wildlife photography. A fast lens can help increase your shutter speed, or decrease your ISO value if your shutter speed is set to a specific value. Fast lenses are also imperative for any kind of nighttime photography. Whether you’re taking pictures of the Milky Way or dong a moonlit photo shoot, large apertures will let as much light in as possible. Small apertures can be useful as well. Shooting landscape scenes require everything in crisp focus, so smaller apertures will sharpen any out-of-focus areas that may come about.

To enable manual adjustment of aperture values, set your camera to either aperture priority or manual mode. Aperture priority will let you change aperture values manually while leaving shutter speed and ISO up to the camera’s internal metering system. Manual mode lets you control every aspect of the camera, allowing you to change ISO, aperture, and shutter speed. I personally leave my camera in aperture priority mode 99% of the time for most types of photography. With all this information, you should be able to start using your lenses and cameras to the best of their ability. Aperture is probably the most stylistic setting you can change on your camera, allowing for unique effects that can take your images to the next level.

Conclusion to our Aperture Definition Photography Training

We hope you enjoyed this training on Aperture and now feel like you better understand its definition, how to manipulate it with your camera lens, and the effect it will have your photography. We hope you enjoyed this article and want to thank you for reading! A Reminder some of the links in this article and across our site are affiliate links and if you purchase something through one of those links we will get a small commission, it’s how we keep the lights on and continue to provide helpful training for free, also they never increase the price you pay for an item. If you decide to use one of these links we want to THANK YOU! its much appreciated, but if you are uncomfortable with that, no worries at all we are still glad you stopped by and hope you will again! Remember learning never ends and while we try to make all our training thorough and easy to understand, never stop learning!

The post Easy to Understand Aperture Definition in Photography appeared first on The Trainer At Heart .

Welcome to the Ultimate Beginners Guide to Understanding Different Types of Camera Lenses and their Potential Uses

If you are starting to get involved in photography or simply decided it’s finally time to graduate from your camera phone or point and shoot camera to a DSLR then your head is probably swimming with a lot of questions, especially around all the different types of camera lenses these potential fancy cameras come with. If you are like us then you are probably feeling a bit overwhelmed trying to understand exactly what each lens does and which one to use in for different types of photography.

DON’T WORRY AFTER YOU READ THIS, CAMERA LENS OPTIONS WILL TOTALLY MAKE SENSE.

Understanding the Two Categories of Camera Lenses

There are two categories of lenses, prime lenses and zoom lenses.

• A zoom lens has a range of focal length and you can zoom in and out. Very convenient.
• A prime lens only has one focal length. It’s fixed, does not zoom in and out, not as convenient.

As I mentioned before, prime lenses are fixed. They only have one focal length. They do not zoom, but there are advantages to using a prime lens:

• 1. prime lenses tend to be smaller in size and lighter, which makes them more portable. Their construction is not as complicated as a zoom lens. They have far less glass, and they are also faster, which means they can open up to wider apertures taking in more light. It makes it a little bit easier shooting in places with low light.
• 2. prime lenses tend to produce sharper images than zoom lenses. This is one of the reasons why filmmakers prefer to work with primes.
• 3. because primes open up to larger apertures you can get a really shallow depth of field. Four, they’re generally cheaper.
• 4. A really nice, expensive prime is not going to be as expensive as a really nice zoom. Again, the zooms have all that added complexity, all those moving parts, and optics.

Prime lenses are definitely not as convenient as zoom lenses, so if you want to get closer to your actor or your subject you’ve literally got to get up and move closer to your subject.

Understanding the information written on your lens.

THE LENS MANUFACTURER

One of the first things that you’ll see on the lens on the front or somewhere on it is the manufacturer’s name.

FOCAL LENGTH

Each lens has what’s called a focal length. The focal length is usually marked on the lens. You’ll see a number with two Ms behind it for millimeters (MM). This one has a 20 Millimeter Focal Length.

If it’s a zoom lens, there will be a number range indicating the zoom range. This one goes from 10 to 18 millimeters.

Understanding Lens Focal Length Further

Technically focal length is the distance between where the lens focuses incoming light in the camera’s digital sensor.

It’s a lot easier to think of focal length as a magnification of the image. A higher focal length means higher magnification, and a lower focal length means lower magnification.

EXAMPLE OF HOW CHANGING FOCAL LENGTH AFFECTS THE PHOTO IMAGE

If we took a camera, stuck it on a tripod, and photographed a subject changing only the focal length, not moving the camera, it would look something like this. Again, the tripod is not moving. We’re just changing the lens and the focal length.

Longer focal length lenses are also great for isolating a subject in a frame as well because you see a lot less of the background due to the narrow field of view, and they have a smaller depth of field, which is how you end up with that creamy out of focus background. Our eyes are naturally going to be drawn to the only thing in focus, which is the actor or the subject.

WHAT DOES APERTURE MEAN AND DO?

What you need to know about Aperture. There’s an opening in the back of the lens that opens and closes. This is called the aperture. The next few numbers on the lens refer to the aperture. The aperture is a ratio of one and another number. The other number is the maximum aperture or the widest the aperture can open up.

The lower this number, the more light the lens can take in. It might get confusing when you see two numbers here, which is the maximum aperture, 4.5 or 5.6. Well, it’s both. This means that the lens has a variable aperture, so when you zoom all of the optics inside are shifting. Because of this shifting, the lens takes in less light toward the end of the zoom range, resulting in the aperture changing and your images getting a bit darker.

You can see it in camera as well. Notice how when you zoom in the image darkens slightly. Again, that’s because the aperture’s changing.

You mostly see this with cheaper variable aperture zoom lenses. Not necessarily a bad thing. It’s just it is what it is. It’s something to be aware of.

If you want to learn more about Aperture definition and what it’s so critical in your photography read out complete Aperture guide here

All about Fixed Aperture Lenses

What is Fixed Aperture? They are complex mechanisms inside that allows the camera lens to maintain the max aperture regardless of the zoom range. 

Your more expensive zoom lenses have what’s called a fixed aperture. They are complex mechanisms inside that allow you to maintain the max aperture throughout the entire zoom range. Like the Canon 70 to 200 millimeter [L series lens.) At 70 millimeters, the max aperture is 2.8, and at the end of the zoom range, 200 millimeters, the max aperture is still 2.8.

The pricier lenses tend to perform a lot better in low-light shooting conditions because their apertures can open up wider too, like, 2.8, 1.4. they’re considered fast lenses. A kit lens would not be great for shooting in low light conditions because the widest this aperture can open up to is 3.5. this would be considered a slower lens, or a slow lens.

Here’s a shot with a lens that could only open up to 5.6 and here is another shot with a lens that could open all the way up to 1.8. See the difference? We get so much more light.

What does Field of View mean when it comes to lenses?

The field of view or the angle of view is a fancy way of saying how much stuff you can see in the frame. If I take a shot of this toy on a 10-millimeter lens we have a very large field of view, which means we can see a lot more of the environment around the toy.

If you take another shot of that same toy at 200 millimeters you’ll notice that the field of view is very different. It’s so narrow that we don’t see much of the environment at all.

• Lenses that provide a field of view that’s about what the human eye can see are considered standard or normal lenses. These range from about 35 millimeters to 70 millimeters.
• Lenses that provide a wider field of view than what the human eye can see are considered wide angle lenses. These are pretty much anything that’s less than 35 millimeters.
•  Lenses that provide a narrower field of view than what the human eye can see are considered telephoto lenses. These are pretty much anything above 70 millimeters.

What is Lens Perspective?

Different focal lengths will alter the perspective as well.

• Wide angle lenses exaggerate the size of anything closer to the camera, making it appear larger.  They also expand or exaggerate distance, making anything that’s farther away from camera appear even further away.
• Let’s see what happens if I place these two toy figures five inches apart from each other and take pictures of them with different focal lengths. If we look at the first photo on a wide angle lens, the toy on the right looks a lot smaller than the toy on the left. It also looks further than five inches away.

  

  

• Wide angle lenses exaggerate distance. Wide angle lenses are great for making smaller objects appear much bigger to draw more attention to them.
• Wide angles also allow us to feel much closer to the actors or subjects because we can see more of their environment with the wider field of view and we’re literally closer to them in terms of perspective. The lower the focal length, the more of the environment you pull into the frame.
• Wide angle lenses are 24 to 35 millimeters.
• Ultra wide angle lenses are 16 to 23 millimeters,
• Fisheye lenses are pretty much anything less than 16 millimeters.

Really wide angle lenses bend light more strongly than regular lenses, which gives you a really deep depth of field. Everything is in focus.

Understanding Lens Distortion

What is Lens distortion? Wide angle lenses tend to produce lens distortion because they bend light very differently than normal or telephoto lenses. You can get barrel distortion. Another name for it is bowing or arcing, where straight lines appear to curve slightly, or extremely, depending on how wide the lens is. Also, things closer to camera at the edges of the field of view can get warped or distorted.

•  Here’s a ball shot at 100 millimeters. Notice there is no distortion because it’s pretty much telephoto.
• At 50 millimeters, it’s still pretty clean. No visible distortion.
• At 24 millimeters we’re considered wide angle. Definitely starting to see some distortion and warping around the edges.
• At 15 millimeters we’re in the ultra wide territory. The ball loses its shape around the edges of the frame.
• At 10 millimeters the ball takes on more of a pill shape around the edges.  

Compared to an earlier shot at 100 millimeters the distortion is pretty severe.

What is Lens Compression?

What is Lens compression? Longer focal lenses, lenses 70 millimeters and above, compress distance, so background objects and foreground objects look way closer than they actually are. Remember that pic that I took earlier at 10 millimeters? Let’s take another pic of the same toys going telephoto on a longer focal length. Remember the position of this tripod and how it looks in the background here for the next shot.

Here’s a pic of the toys at 200 millimeters.

The toy on the right looks much closer to the toy on the left now. A lot closer than five inches. The toy on the right even appears to be the same size as the toy on the left. If we look closely, even the tripod in the back is way bigger and appears much, much closer to both the toys in the foreground.

Essentially the background and the foreground are compressed. Everything has been flattened. Because of the flattening effect that longer lenses have, it tends to be more flattering to facial features. When you’re shooting supermodels or very stylistic, glossy commercials everything tends to look better on a longer lens.

CHOOSING FOCAL LENGTH ON ZOOM LENSES

If you’re using a zoom lens you’ll see the focal length indicator marked on the side of the lens or it could be on the top of the lens. This one goes from 10 to 18 millimeters.

You can zoom between the various focal lengths by turning the zoom ring. You might also notice that the lens gets longer. You usually see this with lower end zoom lenses. The pricier zoom lenses have what’s called an internal zoom, where the lens doesn’t visibly move in and out.

You’ve got your focus ring. Here we can focus on anything from .25 meters to 1 meter away, or .82 to three feet away.

You’ll also see a figure eight looking symbol lying on its side. This marking means infinity. What does that mean? Well, the simple version. If you’re trying to focus on something that’s too far away to focus on, like the mountains, if you move this to the infinity mark they’ll be in focus. You’ll also see a switch that says AF and MF, for autofocus and manual focus.

What does this Stabilized Switch Do?

You might also see a switch that says stabilizer. It is a built-in feature in the lense to take away shaking or movement in the shot. There are better ways to stabilize the image than the built-in stabilizer on the lens when shooting video because you might get some funky things when you’re using it while you’re shooting video, but some filmmakers use it.

Overall there are much better ways to stabilize the image, like using tripods, dollies, shoulder rigs, and steady cams.

Lens Filters

The next number you’ll see on the lens is the diameter. You’ll see a circle with a slash through it and a number next to it. If you want to use any filters or lens caps you will need this number to get the correct size.

 Macro. If you have a lens that is capable of macro photography it’ll say the word macro on the lens somewhere. You’ll be able to focus on subjects or objects from a really short distance away and achieve close-ups with more detail than the human eye can see. You can think of macro photography as the cinematic equivalent of a magnifying glass.

There are different variations on a macro lens. With macro photography the longer the focal length, the greater the magnification. If you’ve got a 60-millimeter macro capable lens then you might be able to use that for product photography, but if you’re trying to catch all the details on, like, a fly’s face then you’re probably going to want to go to 100 millimeters or more.

One thing to remember about shooting macro is you’ll end up with a really shallow depth of field, so if you want whatever you’re shooting to be completely in focus and not just a small piece of it then you’re going to have to pour more light on it and close that aperture down so that you can get more in focus.

How to make sure you are mounting the lens on the Camera Correctly?

On the back of your lens, you’ll see a colored dot. This is the mounting marker. It lines up with the identical dot on your camera so you can mount the lens on to the camera correctly. You should never have to force a lens onto a camera. If it’s not lining up then you’re probably doing something wrong.

More about Lens Mounts

All about Lens mounts. Digital cameras that can use interchangeable lenses have different mounting systems or connection points. These different mounting systems ensure that the lens connects to the camera the way it was designed to so that light passing through the lens will fall onto the sensor correctly.

Most lenses and cameras have contacts, which allow the lens and the camera to communicate information like autofocus, aperture, various settings back and forth. When you change the settings in the camera this connection allows the lens to know what settings to use.

Some of the most common mounting systems are the [PL 00:11:40] mount, the Canon [EF 00:11:41] mount, the Nikon [F 00:11:42] mount, the Sony [E 00:11:45] mount. There are plenty of others.

Sometimes this can get a little tricky because manufacturers make various types of mounts, so you can get a lens that, say, is like a Canon [EFS 00:11:54] mount and it won’t fit on a Canon camera that just has an [EF 00:11:57] mount.

The moral of the story, if you’re buying or borrowing a lens make sure you get the lens with the correct mount. If you do run into a situation where you have a lens and a camera and they’re two different mounting systems there are adapters that you can get on Amazon.

Which are better Prime or Zoom lenses by different Video shooting scenarios?

If you’re doing lots of videography or documentary-style shooting where you don’t have much control over your environment then you’re probably going to want to work with some zooms.

If you’re recording live events you do not have time to be constantly swapping lenses, or else you’re probably going to miss … The range of focal lengths allows you to zoom right in on the action. Also, if you’re going to be in really dusty, sandy, dirty places you don’t want to be swapping lenses in these environments, as you’re going to get dust and stuff all over your sensor.

If you’re literally just starting out and you got no money, just use the kit lens. Use what you got.

Cinema lenses.  Cinema lenses are designed specifically for filmmaking, whereas photography lenses are designed for photography, but you can do both with them.

There are a few differences between cinema lenses and photography lenses. The focus throw on a cinema lens is a lot longer than a photography lens. With a bigger focus ring and longer throw, it’s much smoother and easier to rack focus, especially when you’re opened up to a wider aperture.

With the cinema lens, finding focus and racking with the subject is a breeze because you’ve got the nice range. You can rack nice and slow and smooth. With photography lenses, the focus ring is so small it’s easy to blow the focus or miss the mark. The smallest adjustment shifts the focus so much that it’s hard to rack.

The markings on the side of cinema lenses are more in-depth. There are no autofocus motors inside of cinema lenses, meaning there’s no autofocus. You shouldn’t be using that anyway. Filmmakers don’t use autofocus since they tend to take a lot of pride in deciding what is focused on in each shot. They have dedicated rings to control the aperture. Photo lenses usually don’t have aperture rings. You can only control the aperture through camera settings. Cinema lenses typically have much sturdier construction and offer a sharper image with more contrast.

Are you experiencing Lens breathing? Photography lenses were never designed for filmmaking. They were designed for photography, so when you rack or pull focus with a photography lens while you’re shooting video you can get what’s called lens breathing. Essentially lens breathing is when the focal length changes slightly as you rack or pull focus.

You don’t see lens breathing as much with the pricier cinema lenses because they’re designed now to do that. You can rack focus all day long and you’re not really going to see too much of a change in composition.

Cinema lenses can get really pricey. Canon [Cine Primes 00:16:29] like this one run up to $5,000. However, check Amazon as sometimes you see them quite cheaper. The benchmark [Cook S4s 00:16:34] go for $20,000 and higher. That’s a lot of money. Do I really need that? That really depends on what you’re shooting and what you’re using them for. If you’re shooting documentaries you probably don’t want to use [cine 00:16:46] lenses. They’re very bulky. They’re very big. They’re very cumbersome. If you’re working on a narrative film or a commercial, and you’ve got a budget, a film crew, and a focus puller than they are great. Rent yourself a few and they’ll make your life a whole lot easier.

Help Cleaning Different Types of Camera Lenses

Cleaning lenses. Start with a blower to blow off any dust. You’ve got any stubborn particles or smudges you can put some lens cleaning solution onto a microfiber cloth and then clean the lens. Don’t ever put the solution directly on the lens. You can also use a lens cleaning pen to really work those smudges out, but make sure there’s no dust on the lens first or you’ll scratch the coating on the lens.

You can also get a complete lens cleaning kit on Amazon and save some money on getting everything together.

The last option is breathing on the lens and rubbing it in with a shirt if it’s soft enough. Now, I know you didn’t just say what I think you said. On a professional level, this is an absolute no-no, and it can probably get you fired, but if you’re new and you’re young and you just got your filmmaking stuff and you don’t have lens cleaning materials yet, you’ll be fine. I’ve been in a pinch. I’ve done it before. It’s not the end of the world.

You should definitely never, ever, ever, ever, ever really do that with your, like, really expensive lenses, though. Like, ever.

Protect your investment with proper Lens Protection.

Lens protection. There are two ways to protect your lenses. One is screwing a UV filter on the end of the lens, so if anything hits the lens it’s going to crack the filter instead. It actually works and its a few dollars on Amazon for some extra piece of mind. A lot of people don’t care for this method because if you spent some serious cash on some good glass the last thing you want to do is degrade your image quality by putting cheap glass or cheap plastic in front of it.The second is using a lens hood. Aside from flagging unwanted lens flares, it also acts as a bumper for your lens.

Conclusion on our Understanding Different Types of Camera Lenses Guide

We really hope you enjoyed this guide as much as we enjoyed putting it together for you. We hope you feel more confident navigating the world of Camera lenses and making a decision when it comes to deciding between the different types of camera lenses. As a reminder, the links to some of the products in this article are affiliate links from Amazon, and if you decide to purchase something through one of those links 24hrs after clicking we get a small commission from Amazon. If you do that – THANK YOU, if not, no worries come back and check out some of our other hopefully help blog articles soon! thanks For reading!

If you want to know more about anyone Photography concept – please read some of our other helpful training guides:

• ISO Definition Photography Training Guide
• Aperture Definition Photography Training Guide

The post Different Types of Camera Lenses and Their Uses appeared first on The Trainer At Heart .