How to Buy Digital Camera Lenses

Do you get confused by the different types of lenses in the world of digital photography? I know I was when I started out in this field. We all need to learn about digital camera lenses because they are fundamental to good photography. However, how do you distinguish between the different kinds of lenses? Wide-angle or telephoto? What focal length and what speed? What brand of lens do you buy?

There are so many different lenses with varying specifications available that it can be quite overwhelming to find exactly what it is that you require from a lens, but that is where we step in to help.

Some digital camera lenses available to the consumer

This article acts as a guide to explain the jargon and to allow you make a better-informed purchase the next time you are shopping for a new digital camera lens.

Choosing a Suitable Focal Length

Focal length is probably the most important factor that should be considered when choosing a lens, and for good reason: focal lengths determine the field-of-view of the photos you will be able to take successfully with your camera.

The two main types of focal length are telephoto and wide-angle, and while telephoto lenses have a narrow field-of-view and are best suited for close-up shots and portraits, wide-angle lenses have a wider field-of-view which is perfect for indoor photography and landscapes.

Keep in mind that the performance of lenses can differ from camera to camera, with the magnification power behind a lens generally being greater on a digital camera than on a 35mm film-based camera.

The Need For Speed …

When you hear about fast and slow lenses, reference is being made to a lens's maximum aperture, which is the maximum amount of light that a lens can let in. A simple rule of thumb is that a fast lens lets in a lot of light, while a slow lens lets in less light, which defines how your photos will look.

Maximum apertures are measured in f/stop numbers, which are actually a ratio of the size of the lens aperture and focal length. The smaller the f/stop number, the more light is let in. An increment in the f/stop number doubles the amount of light let in, so f/1.4 lets more light than f/2.0.

This may seem quite confusing at first, so the easiest way to make sense of it is to remember the following: fast lenses are best suited towards successful photography in darker lighting conditions, and slow lenses are targeted towards photography in lighter conditions.

The Ins and Outs of a Zoom Lens

Unlike a fixed-focal-length lens, a zoom lens often gives you the diversity of a range of focal lengths all rolled into a single adjustable lens. This can be great if you often have to switch between various lenses for different shots, but it is important to remember that not all zoom lenses have a constant maximum aperture, and those that do are often larger and more expensive.

Although the maximum aperture may be reduced as you zoom in using a lens with a variable maximum aperture, this may not be as important to some photographers as the reduced cost and size of such lenses. Keep this in mind when purchasing a zoom lens.

Add-on Lenses

Add-on or accessory lenses are targeted towards compact digital cameras, and allow owners of such models to significantly lengthen or reduce the camera's built-in focal length while at the same time being able to automate camera functions including f/stop settings and focusing.

These lenses can be an excellent low-cost add-on to your digital camera, with telephoto add-on lenses being able to increase focal lengths by up to 300%, and wide-angle versions allowing for reduction in focal lengths of up to 30%.

Final Considerations

There are several other terms to take into consideration when buying a digital camera lens to make sure you are making the best purchase. If your lens utilizes aspheric lens elements, then you can rest happily with the knowledge that your lens will help produce sharper photographs and help keep lens weight to a minimum.

Lenses using internal and automatic focusing also keep lens weight down thanks to less moving parts, and of course allow for faster focusing. Low-dispersion glass leaves photos looking less hazy or fuzzy, while stabilization systems help to keep images sharp when taken using slow shutter speeds.

Conclusion

Hopefully this article has helped you to better understand what to look for in a digital camera lens. There are a lot of terms to remember here - so before shopping for your new lens it may be a good idea to take the time to make a list of what you want to do with your camera. Then you can double check your requirements against the features of different lenses. If you are still unsure if a lens will cater for your needs then by all means try to test it so that you can see some results before you buy!

From: Basic-Digital-Photography.com

6 Tips for Shooting Great Sunset Photos

Try these six tricks to capture powerful photos imbued with the beauty and positive feelings of sunsets.

1. Get a Full View:
Position yourself on a beach or a highpoint to allow an unrestricted view of the sun for maximum impact. An alternative is to capture the sun falling between trees, next to an attractive monument or reflecting off the water. Make sure your photo isn't too busy with other objects that distract attention.

2. Keep Shooting:
More attempts will increase your chances of getting the right results. As the sun gets lower, it tends to get redder as well, so your results should improve in the final moments of a sunset.

3. Look for Clouds:
Sunsets on cloudy evenings are more colorful and interesting than sunsets on clear evenings. While you may not actually capture the sun itself in these photos, capturing an amazing variety of colors and rich cloudy textures will make up for it.

4. Shoot Off-Center:
Bring more life to your sunset photos by positioning the horizon away from the center of your photo. Instead, keep it near the bottom of the shot to dramatically highlight the sky. In combination with this, leaving some foreground in the shot, such as a person or a tree, will give greater interest and give you a great opportunity to work on silhouette photographs.

5. Use Multiple Exposure Settings:
Your camera's light meter will often under-expose sunsets because there is still quite a bit of light, so bracketing (taking several shots at different exposures) may be needed to find the perfect exposure. A little under-exposure can help to make the colors of a sunset richer. If you want to include the details of a person in the foreground, try using fill flash and night mode. This will bring out their details while still allowing enough exposure to get rich colors – remember to use a tripod in this case to avoid camera shake.

6 Zoom In:
It is effective to use a long focal length for sunsets, because the sun will appear much larger and more impressive in the sky. Either choose the longest optical zoom lens setting on your camera or use a longer telephoto lens on your SLR.

Author: Gary Hendricks

10 Tips to Shoot Better Pictures with your Digital Camera

With the boom of the digital photography more pictures then ever are being shot everyday. The Digital Photography allows to increase significantly the picture production by lowering costs. But does the quality increase on the same ratio ? Probably not.

With few simple tips it is possible to take more advantage of your own equipment and increase the value of your own pictures.

1) Get closer to the Subject: 90% of the pictures are taking too far of the subject. Just step towards your subject and ensure that it fills completely your visor. It is never too close.

2) Use a tripod: take a light high quality tripod with you and use it! You will be able to capture more details of your subject and increase the sharpness, specially when taking scenics, arquitecture and landscapes.

3) Use the "Raw" mode of your digital camera: JPG pictures allows only 8 bit per channel, this means the information per channel is restricted and you may loose information when processing your picture later in your digital lab. RAW modes support the full range of your digital equipment and provides highly flexibility to re- process your pictures afterwards.

4) Use low ISO values: your digital camera is able to be setup to high ISO Values (ISO 500-1500), however the noise of the sensor will increase dramatically, needing also an intensive post-processing, i.e. using noise reduction filters. Use higher ISO values only when its unavoidable

5) Keep it simple: in photography less is more. Concentrate on the message you desire to capture and try to eliminate everything else. Keep your backgrounds simple and your main subject understandable without anything else that could disturbe your clear message.

6) Bring profundity in your pictures. The world has three dimensions, but your pictures only two. A subject that looks great to your eyes may appear flat in your pictures. Play with diagonal elements crossing the picture, but with simplicity of lines.

7) Either Fore or Background: a typical beginner error is to try to capture fore and background on the same picture. This is the typical "tourist" picture in front of some touristic attraction. Decide if you would like to capture the fore- or the background and concentrate on one subject. Only by using extreme wide-angle lens and a good composition you can have both.

8) Discover hidden details: The world is infinite complex and contains innumerable details that are waiting to be captured by your lenses. Use tele-photo lenses to bring to the audience what only you have discovered.

9) Don´t place your subject in the middle. Your pictures will be boring if everything is symetric and the subject is exact in the middle. Apply the "golden section" of the "rule of the thirds". Keep your composition balanced. Of course, extreme symmetry can be wonderful, if applied properly.

10) Unleash your creativity: once you have carefully applied the rules 1-9, forget them and start using creative photography. Don´t use tripod and move your camera intentionally in order to get blure pictures, play with high ISO values and extreme perspectives, extreme light situations and unusual subjects. You will be a great photographer.

Author: Alex Timaios