Do you know what distinguishes a true "great photographer" from one who is not? It is not the possibility of traveling to hidden corners that few photographers have trodden before, nor is it having beautiful models to portray. You will tell me it is the camera, but neither. The camera is a necessary part to capture the photo, there are better and worse, but a photo after all all cameras can take.
One of the aspects that most distinguishes a good photographer is his objective. You get a good photo with a good camera, but a spectacular photo only comes from a spectacular perspective as well.
If the photos you get with your SLR camera do not completely fill you, if you think you have a good camera but the results are not as you imagine before shooting, read on. In this article I bring you 3 tips that will allow you to choose the objective you need to take the big leap in your SLR photography.
WHY THE LENS ... AND NOT THE CAMERA?
Don't get me wrong I don't want to put objective confrontation against camera. Both are key pieces to capture the photo. However, in my opinion any DSLR camera today can take decent photos. I do not know of any SLR camera that produces horrible results photographically speaking. I have my favorite SLR cameras , to be sure, but I think any camera is worth taking a decent shot. From there, if what you want is not a simple decent photo but a spectacularly good , creative, overwhelming, different, revolutionary and captivating, the best of the cameras alone falls short. The key is in the prism, in the optics with which you see and capture that scene.THE JOURNEY OF LIGHT
You already know that photography is light. The moment you press the shutter button on your camera, the light from the scene travels through the lens, passing through each and every one of the crystals inside the lens. On that journey through the interior of the lens, the light undergoes a transformation that prepares it to be the photograph that you will later see on the screen of your camera or once already printed. All the creative charge in terms of optics and light is involved in that journey. The moment the light comes out the other end of the lens and begins to pass through the camera body, everything is already decided there. Much of the image is already practically defined, the rest of the process is done by the camera, and although there still exists a certain "creative margin", the most important thing is already done.DO YOU WANT MORE PROOF? WATCH THIS
In photography there is no better test than that seen by your own eyes, the visual Here you have examples of impressive photographs, taken with very affordable cameras, considered "amateur" or beginner, but to which lenses have been attached that we they would drool many. I leave you below examples of real photographs taken with 3 very specific objectives:PHOTOGRAPHS TAKEN WITH THE 50MM F / 1.4 LENS ( FOR CANON | FOR NIKON | FOR PENTAX )
PHOTOGRAPHS TAKEN WITH THE TOKINA 11-16MM F / 2.8 LENS ( FOR NIKON | FOR SONY | FOR CANON ).
PHOTOGRAPHS TAKEN WITH THE SIGMA 105MM F / 2.8 ( FOR CANON | FOR NIKON | FOR SONY )
Have I convinced you? Let's talk about your next goal because3 TIPS FOR CHOOSING A GOOD LENS FOR YOUR SLR CAMERA
Choosing a good target is not an easy task. In the market you will find thousands of options, there are expensive, cheap lenses, dozens of brands, hundreds of models, with manual, automatic focus, with extra options, etc. I am not going to go into all the nuances and small details because I would make this article too long, and because in my online photography course I dedicate entire unit 13 to the topic of choosing a good lens . What I now propose is a series of tips or tricks that will help you make a very successful purchase of that lens that your camera longs for.TIP 1) INVEST IN LARGE APERTURE TARGETS
All lenses have a certain maximum aperture, the best ones are those with a very wide maximum aperture. If you wonder what this opening is, I will also explain this in the course with details and exercises, but to give you an idea, the opening symbol is usually f /, and the smaller the accompanying number, the wider the opening will be. Imagine two lenses that are the same in everything but the aperture, one has an f / 5 aperture and the other is f / 1.4. Without a doubt, the one with the largest aperture is the f / 1.4, and it is the best. Why is investing in a large lens aperture so essential? Among other things, it is due to the fact that a large aperture gives you a lot of flexibility when working with light, you can capture photos of scenes with low light, and where you would normally get a dark photo, with a wide aperture you could get a decently lit photo, no lights or flashes or stories. The simple lens optics allows you that. MagicTIP 2) DO NOT BUY ANYTHING WITHOUT FIRST CHECKING WITH EXAMPLES OF PHOTOGRAPHS TAKEN BY OTHER PHOTOGRAPHERS WITH THE OBJECTIVE THAT INTERESTS YOU
Although the brand of the objective and the fame it may have is important, the results it offers are even more important. Do a search on Flickr or any other photographic social network with the name of the target, observe and study the results you see. That will help you make a good decision.TIP 3) BE SUSPICIOUS OF THE SUV
An "all-terrain" lens is one with a wide focal length range. For example, a lens with a focal length of 18-300 mm is an off-road vehicle, in the sense that it works for you both at short focal lengths of 18mm and 300mm, and everything that goes between these two extremes. At first glance it may seem useful , practical. You think that with a wide focal length you will be able to photograph many frames at different focal lengths. Unfortunately, what they don't tell you is that, for the lens to take photos at different focal lengths, its optical quality has to be lower than that of a lens with a lower focal range or fixed focal length. This is like the saying, the one that encompasses a lot, little presses. The same happens in objectives. A fixed focal length lens (for example, the King of Lenses ) seems to have the limitation of being able to photograph only at that specific distance (50 mm), however, precisely because of this it is the lens that offers the best optical quality below that focal length.BONUS TIP: TELL ME WITH WHAT OBJECTIVE PHOTOGRAPHS…
... and I'll tell you who you are. I mean, the ideal lens for a photographer is a lens designed for the type of photography the photographer likes. Many photography fans do not know which lens to choose, there are so many to choose from, and my answer always begins the same way, "What kind of photography do you like?" Do landscapes appeal to you, or are you more of a portrait? Or is yours rather macro photography? The choice of your next objective has to start from yourself as a photographer and from the type of photography that most attracts you. What defines you as a photographer will also define the type of lens with which you will be most comfortable. And I already stop writing so as not to make this too extensive. Remember that in the course you have a whole unit dedicated to the topic of choosing objectives. Believe me, you may not like SLR photography and you simply use the lens that comes standard with your camera, which offers very limited possibilities. Remember that a spectacular photograph needs a spectacular lens.