"Understanding the lenses"

Today, I’d like to talk about camera lenses.

When you take a picture, or purchase a camera or its lens, understanding camera lens can help add more creativity and diversity to one’s picture. Using the right lens provides advantage in getting better pictures too.

There are three basic types of camera lenses: standard, wide angle and telephoto. "The power of a camera lens is measured in millimeters and is known as the focal length of a lens."(from wiki) The standard/normal lens is generally 18 – 55mm focal length for a normal 35mm camera. Any camera lens with a shorter focal length than this is considered to be a wide angle lens and any lens with a longer focal length is considered a telephoto lens.



Standard lens(google image)



·       Normal/Standard Lens: A normal lens shows most accurately what a normal human eye will see. 50mm is a typical normal focal length. It is not that expensive (around $200-400). And easy to carry these kind of lenses, because they are small and light. You can use it any kind of situation.



Wide lens(google image)

·         Wide Lens: A wide lens captures a wider area so it can be use for talking landscape photos and large group pictures. It is shorter-than-normal/standard focal lengths. The most common focal length for a wide angled lens are 24mm and 28mm.

Telephto lens(google imgage)

·         Telephoto Lens: This lens is the opposite of the wide lens. It is great for taking far away objects pictures.(Like sports pictures or taking pictures of UFO) Any way, these lens are longer than standard focal lengths around 70mm-300mm.

Other lens type:

Most people will have heard of a Macro Lens. These lenses are used for close up photography. They are able to focus a lot closer to the subject. Common focal lengths are 50/55mm to 90/100/105mm. The optical quality of a macro lens is normally very high.

Fisheye lens are use to take 180 degree view angle pictures. It looks exactly like a fisheye. The angle distorts the photograph so the four sides appear to be farther away.

There are so many different types of camera lens, so when you buy a new camera lens, think about what you want to take and what you need. Variety of lens can provide more fun and more different types of pictures as well.

"Compact Camera and DSLR"

Who loves to take pictures? Do you have a camera? And do you know what kind of camera you are using?

     If someone goes to an outlet to buy a digital camera, it can be disorienting. There are hundreds of cameras available and there are so many different types of camera

    Digital cameras, both compact and DSLR, are made in a wide range of sizes, prices and capabilities. Professional photographers use larger, more expensive digital single-lens reflex cameras (DSLR) for their greater versatility and many amateurs use compact cameras for the simplicity.

     Compact cameras are designed to be taking causal and simple snapshots. They are really tiny and portable. They are easy to be used and the quality of the picture is more compact and simple because the compression of the picture can be only stored by JPEG.  Most compact cameras have a built-in flash.  And because of that, it limits the motion picture capability. This camera has zoom lenses but the range is less than DSLR cameras.

     Generally, a contrast-detect autofocus system, using the image data from the live preview feed of the main imager, focuses the lens.Typically, these cameras incorporate a nearly silent leaf shutter into their lenses.

     Digital single-lens reflex cameras (DSLRs) are digital cameras based on film single-lens reflex cameras (SLRs).  With an DSLR camera, you see what the lens sees, which means the

 

"Light passing through the lens is reflected by a mirror and brought to focus on a ground glass. The mirror causes a reversal of the image seen on the ground glass, but the addition of a pentaprism mounted over the ground glass allows the camera to be used at eye level, with the image seen upright and in proper left/right orientation. An instant before the exposure is made, the mirror swings upward, and the shutter is activated. A single control cocks the shutter for the next exposure, advances the film, and returns the mirror to focusing position."(from The Digital SLR guide)

     You can change the lens for different occasions. There is a variety of the lens and this makes it produce high quality photos with large image sensors and there are no limitations for action photography.

     Knowing your camera is the first step  to take pictures but do you remember what I said at the end of my post last time?  I met Dave Labelle and asked him about what kind of camera is good?

     And here is what he said. “People look at my camera and say, ‘ah, that’s a great camera, I bet it take good pictures.’ And I say, ‘No it does not. I take good picture.’ The kind of camera that you use is not nearly important as the subject matter that you choose take and your motivation.”

     Like he said, you are the one who is taking pictures. If you are a good photographer and nevertheless follow your heart and not your lens, you do not have to worry about what camera you are using. Know your camera, but know your purpose and reason to take pictures too.

"Take picture with your heart"

I mentioned in a previous post that “photojournalism is a particular form of journalism that crates images in order to tell a story.”

Today, I want to introduce someone who inspired me to have that thought.

Dave LaBelle, a photographer, writer, and professor at Western Kentucky University, has had such great influence on many young photojournalists, including myself when I was starting out.  I met him at the 2009 Journalism Education Association convention in Phoenix, Arizona.

            His session was about the importance of the photo story. The title was “You are part of the story.”

It was my freshman year so I do not remember a lot, but one thing I can clearly remember was what he told the young photographers during the session.

He said “There are a lot of photographers who can compose well. They know light and can organize, but there is no emotion. It breaks my heart.”  

At that time I was starting to get more into photography. The only thing that I’ve practiced and thought about was how I can get better at taking picture technically and skillfully. I wanted to take good pictures that can be published and achieve awards. I never wanted to take a picture to capture the story telling of a moment or an emotion. I realized at that moment, photojournalism is people, their emotions and self-sacrifice of who they represent in an image.

After that session, I went in front of the room and told him thank you…



Dave Labelle (Image from google)



Next day after the session I met him again at the bookstore. He was carrying his old Nikon. So I asked him, “I am looking for a good camera to buy. What would you suggest?”

And this is what he said…

Ben, you might want to check my next post for sure! It is going to be about the camera.

Oh If you have a time check this one out about Dave LaBelle’s lesson

http://vimeo.com/7866068

"Life will teach you to be a good teacher. If you care, life will show you many, many examples. It will lay all the lessons right before you and all you have to do is bend over and collect these lessons and put them in some order and fashion and you can teach anybody." - Dave LaBelle

"What is an ISO?"

     Today, I’d like to share some tips of photojournalism. I am pretty sure many people already know this, but I want to go over it again.

     First, try to avoid posed pictures. Posed pictures are boring. Second, try to capture emotion. Get faces, not backs. Get up close, let your pictures tell a story. Use different angles/levels, use the rule of thirds and be prepared.

     Most importantly, in my opinion, is knowing your camera well. You need to learn how to use the settings on the camera such as ISO, shutter speed, focus, and aperture.

     ISO is the indication of how sensitive a film is to light. It is measured in numbers. The lower the number the lower the sensitivity of the film and the finer the grain in the shots you’re taking.

     When I go skate with my friends and brother, I take pictures. I started with the lowest ISO, because I am outside and I don’t need to use such a high ISO at outside. However, the pictures didn’t come out very well and the weather was partly cloudy.

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Photos: Yun Shik Park

       So I tried a higher ISO. Higher ISO settings are generally used in darker situations to get faster shutter speeds. I only changed the ISO from 250 to 600, but the pictures look clearer and it was easier to get fast actions.

     Unlike day pictures, taking pictures at night is pretty tough, because you don’t have enough light. If you don’t focus or wait for the perfect moment, you will get blurry pictures.

     From my experience, I prefer to use 1600 ISO and 1/60 shutter speed, because a faster shutter speed creates better pictures.

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Photo: Yun Shik Park

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Photo: Yun Shik Park

    
     Light is always good for photography.  You need to practice in the light.  Pay particular attention to the position of sun. If you don’t realize where you are sitting and the sun is against you, sometimes the good light can fail you.

Photo: Morgan Hydinger