Online Photography Course: Choose the Right Lens for Your Situation!
Most photographers consider their lens to be their most important piece of equipment. It is used for vital aspects of taking a great photo. These include the focus of the subject, the amount of the scene captured, and the delivery of light to the camera sensor. Since it is so dependent on the lens, choosing the right one for the type of image you are going to take is crucial if you want your final image to be the best it can be. Lenses are generally divided into groups, based on the field of vision they offer. If you’re taking an online photography course, it helps to know which lens to use for each situation or task.
Wide-angle lenses cover a field of view that ranges from 110 to 60 degrees. You can get some distortion when using wide-angle lenses, which is noticeable around the edges of the frame. Any lens that is 35mm or less would be considered wide angle. Wide-angle lenses typically display a large depth of field, which keeps the foreground and background in focus. This is ideal for landscape photography. They also work well indoors, if space is tight, as the lens will be able to capture more of the scene. Wide angles work well for large group shots, but aren’t recommended for close-up portraits.
A normal lens has a field of vision of about 45 degrees, about the same as the human eye. The normal lens for full frame or 35mm cameras is 50mm. Normal lenses are ideal for photographing people, architecture; in fact, most of the general needs of an online photography course. There is minimal distortion and mid-range depth of field.
Longer focal range lenses are known as telephoto lenses. They vary in length from 135mm to 800mm plus. Your field of view is 35mm or less. These lenses allow you to capture distant objects in detail, although the angle of view is reduced by enlarging the scene. You’ll get a much narrower depth of field. Telephoto lenses are useful for sports photography or a situation where you need to get closer to your subject.
A zoom lens can be a good compromise, saving you the need to carry a collection of fixed focal length lenses (also known as prime lenses). They cover a wide range of lenses, due to the configuration of their optics. This setting can compromise image sharpness as the light has to pass through more glass before reaching the image sensor. However, this may be barely noticeable to the naked eye. Zoom lenses also typically have smaller maximum apertures than prime lenses. This influences the amount of depth of field possible in low light settings, although many zooms have ‘image stabilization’ built in to counteract this.
A digital SLR will normally be available to buy with a kit lens; the most popular include 28-135mm, 17-85mm and 18-200mm. I currently use a Canon50D SLR and although I have a variety of prime lenses, I find the 18-200mm covers most situations. I found this particularly useful when I was on the go completing my own online photography course, negating the need to carry a wide variety of lenses.