Ever captured that perfect shot only to get home and find there's a glaring problem with it? Rather than sending it to the recycle bin, you may be able to save it with these tips.

No matter how careful you are when shooting, you will undoubtedly find there are times when you are left with a photo which is less than perfect. The beauty of working with digital is that you can often salvage these images, turning a poor or mediocre picture into a great one. Use the techniques below to rescue 'ruined' photos.

 

Straighten the Horizon

When shooting a scene you often have so much to think about - zoom, focus, shutter speed, composition and so on - that it is easy to forget to hold your camera level as you take the photo. The result is a slanted horizon, which can be very distracting.
Of course the best way to eliminate a slanted horizon is to remember to hold your camera level in the first place, but if you only discover it later it's easy to fix.
Load the image in your favourite graphics program and use the rotate tool to re-align the scene so the horizon is straight. Then simply crop the picture to make it square again.

 

Crop to Improve Composition

The human brain is excellent at analysing the world, figuring out what's important, and ignoring the rest. When photographing a scene this has the effect of making the subject appear more prominent in our mind than it actually does in the final photo. This often leads to a poor shot where the main point of interest is lost among all the background 'clutter'.
By cropping our photo we can remove this background clutter, and re-focus the viewer's attention on the object of interest.
When cropping, remember that you don't have to produce a picture that is the traditional 6x4 ratio - feel free to crop your image to whatever shape emphasises your subject best, such as a square, an elongated rectangle or even a circle.

 

Use Blur to Focus Attention

Modern digital cameras do an excellent job of keeping the vast majority of a scene in focus. But this isn't always what we want, because it can draw attention away from the point of interest to unimportant objects in a scene.
Use a digital blur to lessen the impact of these unimportant features, leaving your main subject in sharp focus. Most graphics programs offer a range of blur types, a Gaussian blur usually gives the most natural look but feel free to experiment.

 

Remove Red-eye

Anyone who has taken a portrait photo has probably come across the curse of red-eye, a symptom of using a flash situated next to the lens, whereby the flash is reflected off the back of the eye, causing it to glow bright red.
Thankfully red-eye is very simple to fix - simply zoom in on the offending area and colour over the red pixels with black or dark grey. If that sounds too much like hard work, then most programs now offer a red-eye reduction tool which will automatically do the correction for you.

 

Remove Unwanted Objects With the Clone Tool

In an ideal world, all scenes would be perfectly picturesque and free from distractions. Unfortunately in the real world we are often faced with a situation where we have to include one or more ugly objects, such as lamp posts, road signs or rubbish bins, in an otherwise attractive photo.
Removing these objects used to be a task for a professional, but nowadays anybody with a decent graphics program and a willingness to learn can do it.
Most graphics programs now offer a 'clone tool', or more advanced equivalents such as Photoshop's Patch Tool and Healing Brush. These can be used to copy one area of a photo and place it over another area. For example, if your landscape shot is ruined by an electricity pylon, simply clone an area of unspoiled land and place it on top of the pylon. It can take some practice to seamlessly blend a cloned section but it really can rescue a photo which would otherwise be destined for the recycle bin.

 

Warm Up or Cool Down Your Scene With Digital Filters

The human eye has the natural ability to adjust the way it sees colours, so that white always appears white and all the other colours look 'right', no matter what the lighting conditions. Cameras attempt to replicate this but sadly cannot match 200,000 years of evolution.
Using your camera's built-in white balance settings can help, but often we can still be left with a photo whose colours don't appear anything like the way we perceived them at the time. A good example is a photo taken inside which comes out with an orange tint, or an outdoor photo with a blue tint (this effect is caused by something known as colour temperature).
We can correct for this tint by using digital filters to apply either a blue (cooling) or an orange (warming) filter to counteract the colour tint in our scene.

 

Adjust Brightness, Contrast, Levels, and Curves

Digital editing software programs offer four very useful tools for adjusting your photos' colours - brightness, contrast, levels and curves.
Brightness and contrast are fairly self explanatory - use brightness to lighten or darken an under- or over-exposed photo, and use contrast to adjust the difference in brightness between the lightest and darkest pixels.
The levels and curves tools essentially do the same thing, but they offer much more control over the output. They take a little more learning but you will find that it pays off in terms of the quality of your image improvements.

 

Remove Digital Noise

Noise is the digital equivalent of film grain. It especially affects photos taken with a long exposure time and those with a high ISO setting (digital equivalent of film speed). Night photos are one type of shot greatly affected by digital noise because they often use one or both of the above conditions.
There are several programs available to remove noise, and one of the best I have found is Neat Image, which is available as a Photoshop plugin or a standalone program. Simply load your image and let the program work its magic, and you'll be left with a smoother, more pleasing image.

 

Sharpen Your Photo

Sharpening is a technique often used in print media because it can make a photo appear crisper and better focussed. The best tool for sharpening your image is called the Unsharp Mask, or USM (Note: the word 'unsharp' refers to the technique it uses to sharpen your image, it will in fact make it more sharp).
When applying the Unsharp Mask, experiment with the settings until you get an effect which looks sharper but still natural - when in doubt, use less sharpening rather than more.

 

Add a Border to Your Image

A plain black or white border around an image can really help to enhance the photo's impact, and give it a more professional look. Avoid patterned or overly complicated borders at all costs; they just look tacky.

Depth of field can be a daunting term to get to grips with, but is actually a very simple concept to understand. Use it to take your photos to a new level.

Depth of field refers to the area of a scene which appears focussed. It is a product of three factors - the lens aperture, the focal length, and how far from the subject we are. This article covers these three factors and looks at how we can use them to control depth of field in our photography.

 

What is Depth of Field?

 

When we adjust our camera's lens to focus on a subject it will only achieve perfect focus at one particular distance; anything in front or behind this point will be blurred to a greater or lesser degree.

 

What Affects Depth of Field?

Depth of field is affected by three main factors:

• Lens aperture diameter
• Focal length
• Distance from the subject

 

Aperture and Depth of Field

The aperture determines the diameter of the beam of light that the lens admits. The wider the aperture, the wider the beam of light. A wider beam is more susceptible to depth of field effects than a narrower beam.
Using a wider aperture produces a shallower depth of field; using a narrower aperture gives a greater depth of field.

 

Focal Length and Depth of Field

Focal length is a measure of how much the lens magnifies a scene. The lens also magnifies differences in focus.
A longer focal length magnifies focus differences, resulting in a shallower depth of field.

 

Focus Distance and Depth of Field

The closer the subject is to the camera, the greater the relative distance from the front to the back of that object. A high relative distance gives a corresponding reduction in how much of the object appears in focus.

 

Controlling Depth of Field

However, this is usually unnecessary, and you can achieve the results you want much more easily by applying the following rules of thumb:

To Increase Depth of Field	To Decrease Depth of Field
Narrower aperture	Wider aperture
Shorter focal length	Longer focal length
Move away from subject	Move towards subject

Info: Pete Williams

A simple explanation of the daunting ISO speed setting. You'll be pleased to hear it's actually very simple, and can be extremely handy when shooting in low-light conditions.

Your camera's ISO setting determines how sensitive the camera's sensor is to the light that reaches it. A higher ISO setting makes your sensor more sensitive to light, meaning that you can take photos in darker conditions without the need to use a flash or tripod. However, a high ISO also creates more noise, reducing the image quality.

 

Where Does ISO Speed Come From?

ISO speed actually dates back to film cameras, where it is used to describe how sensitive a particular film is to light. Of course digital cameras don't use film, but they do use a sensor which works in a remarkably similar way. Because people were used to using ISO with their film cameras, the term was adopted in digital cameras too.
Digital cameras have a big advantage over film cameras when it comes to ISO - with film cameras, the ISO speed is a property of the film itself. This means that if you want to use a different ISO setting, you have to physically change the film. With digital, you can adjust the ISO setting at the touch of a button because it is controlled electronically.

 

ISO Values Explained

A typical digital camera will have ISO values of 100, 200, 400, 800, and 1600 as a minimum. The higher the number, the more sensitive the camera is to light. These values are relative to one another, so ISO200 is twice as sensitive as ISO100, and ISO800 is four times as sensitive as ISO200, and so on.

 

ISO and Exposure Time

Along with aperture diameter and shutter speed, ISO speed is another factor in determining the required exposure time for any given scene. Every time you double the ISO setting, you halve the required exposure time, and vice versa.
Let's say you're taking a photo of a church interior and have your ISO speed set at 100. In order to expose the scene correctly you might need an exposure time of 1/15th of a second - far too long to shoot hand-held without ending up with a blurry scene.
This is where ISO comes to the rescue. You could simply change your ISO setting from 100 to 400, making the sensor four times as sensitive. This means that you need an exposure time which is only a quarter of the previous value, in this case 1/60th of a second. This is fast enough to give us a sharply focussed scene without having to resort to using flash or a tripod.

 

ISO and Digital Noise

Sadly, increasing your camera's ISO speed comes at a cost - it also increases the amount of digital noise present in your photo. Noise is the digital equivalent of film grain, and it shows up as lots of tiny coloured dots, which are particularly noticeable in the darker areas of your photo.
If you do find that your photo has a lot of digital noise, you can use a program such as Neat Image to reduce it.

 

What ISO Setting Should I Use?

You should always aim to use the lowest ISO setting possible, because this will give you the best image quality. However, your first priority should be getting a fast enough shutter speed, because a blurry photo is a lot more distracting than one with a bit of digital noise.
Using a wider aperture or a tripod may be a better option than increasing ISO because both will help you to shoot in low-light conditions, but without deteriorating image quality. However, ISO speed is a setting that can rescue your photos in situations where neither of these is a realistic option.



 Info: Pete Williams

Depth of field (DOF) is the distance in front and beyond the object that is in focus. This tutorial will teach you about how to use Depth of Field in your own photography.
A short depth of field can be very useful when you want to isolate your object from the background, such as when taking portraits or macro photography. A large depth of field is great when you photograph landscapes and overall when you want every detail to be in focus.

 

Control the Depth of Field

There are three variables that affect DOF, the size of the Aperture, the distance to the object and what lens you’re using. (There is a fourth thing that affects the DOF, but that’s the size of the sensor and unless you have two cameras with different sensor sizes this isn’t something to take into account.)

As you can see in the illustration above, a lower f-number equals a shorter depth of field. A higher f-number will give you focus over a longer distance — when you’re having a hard time getting the correct focus it might be a good idea to extend your DOF by changing the aperture.

The distance between you and the object is also important, the closer you are to the object the shorter the DOF. If you’re photographing a person but needs to have a high f-number you can still get a very short DOF by keeping the distance between you and the person to a minimum.

The last thing you can do to affect your DOF is to change the lens. A wide-angle lens has a much greater DOF than a telephoto lens; the most extreme wide-angle and fish-eye lenses don’t even have to focus because they are so sharp on every aperture for the entire DOF (making for excellent scenic shots).
It’s important to know that the depth of field is greater behind the object than in front of it. If you want to photograph, let’s say 20 kids standing in a line, and you want as many of them as possible to be in focus, but you’re unable to have a small aperture, you should focus on the 6th-7th kid in line, which would balance the field of focus about right (depending on your distance to the kids). If you would focus on the 10th kid, that is the one in the middle, the first few kids would be more out of focus than the kids at the back of the line.
Unlike some other parts of photography, the depth of field works in your favor almost every time. If you want to photograph landscapes you usually have a wide-angle lens — the object is far away and you use a high f-number — all these things together gives you a depth to infinity. And if you’re photographing macro you’re close to the object, you have a telephoto lens and often a low f-number — all these things will give you a very short depth which will make your object stand out and make the background soft and non-distracting.

 

Bokeh

The word Bokeh derives from the Japanese word Boke which means “blur” or “fuzzy“, and that’s just what the term refers to in photography. The out of focus areas in the photograph look very different depending on the depth of field as well as the lens used, some lenses produces much better bokeh than other lenses. The shape of the aperture is one of the most important parts together with the quality of the optics when it comes to how the out of focus areas appear.

The photograph above is meant to illustrate what bokeh is. The lens used was the Canon 50mm f/1.8 which isn’t considered to be a good bokeh lens due to it’s 5 aperture blades.

Easy Depth of Field

What is “Depth of Field”? I’ll dodge the technical answer here and save you a lot of time. Basically, depth of field is what causes that blurry effect you see in photographs. It allows you to focus in on a part of scene, and keep other parts of the same seen unfocused.
It’s really easier to see than to explain:

In the photo above, you can see how the strawberry, the bottom of the spoon, and part of the edge of the bowl are all in focus, while parts of objects outside of this plane seem quite a bit more blurry. This is called depth of field… in a really simplified manner.
It’s pretty easy to simulate this effect in Photoshop. The two main factors that make Depth of Field effects possible in Photoshop are the emulation of Distance, and the perception of Focus.

 

Example #1 – Depth between Objects

In this example, we can see distance demonstrated by the layering and size of the cloud objects. Objects further back are smaller, and are behind the clouds which are closer up.
Focus is also emulated in this example by applying a small Gaussian Blur to clouds REALLY close up, or far away. This makes the clouds in the middle seem the most in focus.

 

Example #2 – Depth of Field on a Plane

Looking at the Top example in the image above, it would seem that both circular objects are the same distance away from the viewer on a make-believe plane. The Object on the left appears to be MUCH larger than the one on the right.
In order to add some depth, we must adjust the placement of the objects. As you can see in the lower example, the object on the right immediately appears further back when we move it just a small bit along our make-believe plane. Not only does it appear further back, but it also seems like both objects could both be the same size (things look smaller when they are further back).
To add a small focus effect, I’ve added a small Gaussian Blur to the right object. I’ve also enhanced the lighting of the Plane by adding a small gradient to it.

 

Trying out Easy Depth of Field

There are 4 layers in this document, respectively named Large, Medium, Small, and Background for the objects in the document. Using the Move Tool, drag each of the objects to a place in the document, so that the larger the object is, the closer it is to the viewer on the plane. Note: I’ve added some grid lines to help show our imaginary plane.

From this point, we just need to decide where on the plane we’d like to focus in on. See the darker horizontal lines in the image above? Try to choose two of those lines to focus in on (make sharper), and then proceed to blur the objects outside of those lines. The further from the area you’re focusing on, the stronger the blur should be.

I’ve highlighted my area of focus on the plane in green.

And there you have it! Simulated Depth of Field, in just a few easy steps that can be applied to nearly ANY situation!



Info: Fredrik Silverglimth

Take a look at what a RAW file is and how it compares to an ordinary JPEG file. Which one should you choose when taking photos and why?

 

What is RAW?

RAW is an image format that is used in many D-SLR cameras. There is no standard file extension, every camera developer (and some software tools) have their own extension — but the backbone is the same.
The RAW format captures what the camera sees and stores it together with the metadata information in the file. In fact, every camera shoots in “RAW”, but if not set up properly (or if not capable) will compress the RAW files to JPEG’s. In this article, I’ll show you the ups and downs to using RAW in photography.

The Positive Sides of Using RAW

Unlike JPEG files that are compressed, the RAW files remain uncompressed (or uses a lossless compression in some cases) which doesn’t affect the image quality.
In post-production, the photography has the ability to set the white balance without affecting the image quality, allowing for greater accuracy — such as being able to select a specific point to set the white balance at AFTER the photo is taken, instead of settling for a default setting like “indoors”. Even if you have your camera set to “Auto W/B” you will still have full control over it if you shoot in RAW during post-production.
The RAW format also gives you the ability to set color saturation, contrast and sharpness to greater extent than you can in other formats. If you shoot in JPEG these settings will be compressed into the file when photographing and changing then later will decrease the image quality. If you shoot in RAW you can decide whether you want to use the cameras settings or select your own.
The ability to bring back shadows and change highlights is greatly increased. This is mostly due to the fact that RAW is either 12 or 14 bits, while JPEGs are only 8 bits and are severely lacking the detail in shadows/highlights.

 

The Negative Sides of Using RAW

Unfortunately, this powerful set of tools that are RAW does come with some negative aspects as well.
RAW files are much larger in size than JPEG, but with the low prices on both hard drives and flash cards this issue is becoming less important. RAW files takes longer for the camera to write, which will decrease the frames per seconds or need to buffer longer — this can be a problem for sport photographers that want rapid series of shots.
RAW is for photographers that intend to do some sort of post-production, if you want to print/upload your photos directly from your camera this is not the format for you.
So far there is no standard RAW format, every developer have their own format; sometimes different formats for different cameras in the same series even. This has led to some uncertainty on what’s going to happen in the future, will there be a standard format or will this “madness” continue?
Due to these several different formats most post-production software needs to be updated to support the latest format/cameras.

 

Final thoughts

If you find yourself rarely doing any post-production work on your photographs you should probably not use the RAW format. The same thing goes for people that just photograph snapshots or the like, when the details aren’t visible.
For post-production use there are several different software solutions. Each camera company has their own software, and in most cases I would stay away from these simply because there are better tools out there. A commonly used software is the Camera Raw in Adobe Photoshop (CS and later versions), which gives you a great set of tools, although I find it a bit bulky.
Adobe also has a dedicated workspace for photographers called Lightroom that’s a good tool with great workflow. Capture One from Phase One is yet another alternative, with both pro and consumer versions. Last but not least is Apple’s Aperture, which is a Mac only software, provides great workflow and powerful tools, but is the most hardware demanding of the ones listed here.





Info: Fredrik Silverglimth 

Camera bags can be one of the most difficult pieces of equipment to choose. No camera bag is made to fit every occasion so I will here talk about some different types of bags and cover a few points to consider.
Choosing your next lens or camera is often quite easy, you often know what you want, but when it comes to choosing a new camera bag at least I can be confused and have a really hard time deciding. I will talk about different types of bags, and go into some more detail on a specific model in each category.

 

Shoulder bag — LowePro Nova 5 AW

Shoulder bags make accessing your gear easy and quick, often a good choice for urban photographers. They come in all different shapes and sizes, many of them have the great feature of not looking like a camera bag, which is often appreciated since it attracts less attention from ill-willing citizens. I would recommend brands like Domke and Crumpler if this is what you’re looking for.
The LowePro Nova 5 AW does not fit the above description, it’s a rather large bag and bulky. I personally dislike shoulder bags because I’m not an urban photographer. When I take a bag with me it’s often because I go on long hikes for several hours and shoulder bags tend to be tiresome and not the best solution for my style of shooting.
I use the Nova 5 as a storage bag and it’s a bag that I take with me when I’m going to be shooting on one location and not move around a lot. As you can see it can swallow quite a large amount of gear, in the picture above I have 6 lenses (1 large, 3 medium and 2 small lenses) as well as my Canon EOS 350D with attached grip. Also stored in the main compartment are a set of extension tubes and several filters, in the front compartment I have memory cards, spare batteries, an air blower and other assorted stuff.

 

Quick access backpack — LowePro Slingshot 200 AW

If you’re looking for a backpack with quick access, look no further, the LowePro Slingshot 200 AW is perfect for most situations. It’s small enough to not be in your way, and the “sling-feature” makes accessing your gear easy. How it works is that the bag only has one shoulder strap and you can flip it from your back to your waist with a single pull. LowePro also has a series of backpacks that have the same features but uses two shoulder straps called Fastback (the design is obviously a bit different but the idea is the same).
The Slingshot comes in different sizes, the 200 being the medium model and it is surprisingly roomy inside. It’s easy to rearrange the dividers and design your own interior, I have it arranged so that I can access all my gear fast and don’t need to open the zipper all the way. In the main compartment in the picture above I have 4 lenses (1 large, 1 medium attached to the camera and 2 small lenses), my 350D with grip and a set of extension tubes and memory cards. In the small front compartment I have spare batteries and some filters. In the top compartment I have a pocket book, a notebook, a flashlight and an air blower.
If you rearrange the dividers I’m sure you could be able to fit in 1 or 2 more lenses, but access might not be as easy that way — it’s all up to you to form your camera bag the way you want it. The bag also make use of LowePro’s Slip Lock system which means that you can attach extra lens cases on the outside of the bag.
I highly recommend this backpack.

 

Backpack — Kata R-103

A true backpack is a great choice if you go on long hikes or travel between photo sessions, as well as longer travels such as with airplanes. It’s not as accessible and quick as the other options above, but it’s far more comfortable and your gear is more safe with most backpacks (they often have better and more padding) and most backpacks have room for more equipment as well.
The company Kata that among other things make military armor also makes this backpack, the Kata R-103. This is a company that knows a thing or two about protection and how to keep your camera gear safe. And I must say, I trust that my camera gear is safe when it’s in this bag, the design is sturdy as a tank but still rather lightweight.



This is the most comfortable backpack I’ve ever used, non-photo related backpacks included. I have walked for hours with this bag and attached tripod on my back (total weight 24lbs/11kg) without actually feeling that I was carrying something. The design of the bag is amazing to say the least, you have a quick access zipper to be able to pick up the camera without opening the whole main compartment. Using this zipper you will also be able to access the storage pocket that is in the lid, this is where I keep my memory cards and spare batteries.
The main compartment is not as deep as many other backpacks, which means that most lenses will have to lay down in this bag, only smaller lenses will be able to stand up so to speak. This results in a bit smaller main compartment than most other backpacks, so this bag might not be the best choice if you have several larger lenses. In the picture above I have 5 lenses (1 large, 2 medium and 2 small), my 350D with grip as well as some filters. That is the content of my main compartment, in the lid I keep my batteries, memory cards, rain cover, remote control as well as some other assorted stuff. There are two smaller pockets on the front of the camera where I keep an air blower, extra quick release plate for my tripod as well as a flashlight and lens tissues.
On the backside of this bag there’s also a compartment for a laptop, up to 15″. This is a great feature that makes it easy to take your photo lab out on the field. When I’m not storing a laptop in this compartment I use it for documents or an extra sweater.
So all in all I think you will find that most, if not all, of your equipment will fit in this bag. And as I said earlier, it comes with a tripod mount to be attached on either the front or one of the sides. The R-103 uses Kata’s EPH system, which means that you can combine several Kata products and attach to each other to maximize your customizability and space. This bag is stated to be within the carry-on restrictions for airplanes, but if you plan on traveling with this bag, make sure about the size restrictions on your airport since they can vary quite a bit.
I highly recommend this backpack, it’s one of the best photo related purchases I’ve ever made.

 

Lens Case — Canon LZ1324

Lens cases are designed to carry just one lens, and they are a great option if you want to take an extra lens with you when you’re shooting. Another great usage for these cases are when they are attached to either a camera bag or a harness of some sort (more on this later). Lens cases are also a great way to keep your lenses safe during travels, but be sure to use a case that fits your lens. There are so many different sizes and it’s important to get the best possible fit to avoid having a lens that rattles around in there.

 

Camera Vest & Harness

A vest is a well-used alternative to a bag, it keeps all your equipment within arms reach. With its large and many pockets you can often fit the same amount of gear that you would in a small to medium backpack. Another alternative is the harness or belt on which you can attach several lens cases or smaller bags. This gives you more customizability than a vest and also keeps your equipment more protected, but a harness is often bulkier and more expensive.
Vests can be found in most photo stores (don’t know any good brand) and harnesses you should look into are LowePro’s and Think Tank’s.

 

Weather cover

For me weather cover is essential, as you can see in the picture above, all my camera bags comes with weather cover (lens case excluded). The two LowePro bags have their rain covers sewed into a compartment in the bag and can’t be removed. The Kata bag has a loose rain cover that can be taken off and left home if you like too, it even comes with an alternative silver side for reflecting sun, this side can also double as a light reflector which is a nice touch.
I would never buy a camera bag that didn’t have rain cover, but then again I live in a country where rain can come any day, anytime of the year. If I’m out hiking or taking a bike ride I don’t want to find myself hours from my home/car and nowhere to find cover, but if you’re not in these situations it might not be such an important factor for you. Choosing a camera bag is all about your needs, your equipment and photographing style.

 

Carrying a tripod

A tripod can be a real pain to carry with you, and this is the most common reason why so many photographers leave their tripods at home where they do no good. There are several good tripod cases and bags, but I myself find these a bit bulky or unnecessary. I do one of two things, either attach a shoulder strap to the tripod and carry it without a case or attach it to my backpack. Just remember, a tripod will not help you improve your photos if it’s left at home, so find the best solution for you to be able to have it with you every single time you might need it.



Info: Fredrik Silverglimth 

Filters can add special effects or abilities to your camera lens. Understanding how filters work will give you an extra arsenal of equipment to create that magical shot you’ve been looking for.

Most lenses have the ability to add filters, primarily by screwing them on in front of the lens while some lenses require the filters to be attached at the rear end of the lens. Filters are used for several different reasons: increasing contrast, changing the exposure, capturing invisible light or minimizing reflections are just a few to name.

The use of filters has gone downhill in this age of digital photography. These days it’s simply easier to make these changes in post-production instead of using a filter during the photo shoot.
While that might be true, there are still some things we can’t change in post-production, and filters can become a necessity.

 

UV Filters

UV stands for Ultraviolet, which is light that is invisible to the human eye. UV filters were used to cut down on haziness, such as in mountains and around coastal areas, but the digital sensor isn’t as sensitive to this as 35mm film was. However the UV filters are still around, mainly because these filters are used for lens protection.
Having a UV filter attached to the lens at all times makes the lens more protected from scratches, dust, weather and accidentally dropping the lens. There are debates among photographers about the use of UV filters; some argue that they visually affect the outcome of the photograph while others argue that they don’t affect it and that the filter is a great insurance.

 

ND Filters

ND filters, or Neutral Density filters, are a great way to take control over exposure time. These filters are used to reduce the amount of light that reaches the sensor, which makes it possible for the photographer to use a larger aperture for a longer period of time then what would be normal under given circumstances.
An example of this would be the ability to photograph a waterfall with a slow shutter speed during a bright day. Without a ND filter most lenses would not be able to use an aperture small enough for long exposures but with an ND filter attached the photographer can mix and match just how he wants it.

 

Graduated ND Filters

These filters have the same principle as the regular ND filters but with one important distinction, they do not have the ND effect on the whole glass. The ND effect is gradual and is perfect if you want to have the sky darkened but not the foreground for example. These filters have their limits, such as the gradual transition is a straight line, which might not always be the case with nature… oh, and they are also rather expensive. Most of these filters are rectangular and uses a special holder to place them in.

 

Polarizing Filters

These polarizing filters have many uses, and are one of my favorite filters to use. Most of them are circular, often called Pol-Cir or CPL filters, and you change the level of polarization by rotating the outer layer of the filter. The polarizer filter affects the photographs in such a way that cannot be reproduced in post-production, which makes it a very useful tool even today.
What it does is reduces reflections on non-metallic surfaces, such as water and glass. Removing reflections can be very useful in both urban and wild life situations and have the ability to totally alter the outcome of the photograph.

Another effect the polarizing filter has is that it increases contrast and color saturation while at the same time reducing haze. This effect can clearly be seen in skies, in which the sky can be darkened and more colorful but keeping the clouds white.

 

Macro Filters

Macro filters, close-up filters or diopters, are not ordinary filters — they are more like an extra lens you place in front of another lens. This makes close-ups possible even with normal or telephoto lenses, although the result is often not true 1:1 macro. Several filters can be stacked on top of each other to intensify the effect.
I personally would recommend people look into getting an extension tube instead. Extension tubes change the closest possible focus length, without affecting the image quality as badly as macro filters do. The best option is obviously a true macro lens, but an extension tube is much cheaper and might be a good first step into the world of macro photography, and the extension tube can be used together with a macro lens to enhance the magnification.

 

Color Filters

Color filters are rarely used anymore; they were primarily used for black & white photography to manipulate the contrast. An example is using a yellow, orange or red filter, which will increase the contrast between skies and clouds, making the clouds really stand out. These days the effects can quite easily be reproduced digitally with the help of levels and channels.

 

IR Filters

IR stands for Infrared, and these wavelengths are on the opposite side of the light spectrum from UV. To photograph in IR you need a filter that only lets through IR light, however there are some problems with modern cameras. The sensor is constructed to not record IR light, and unless you want to permanently modify your camera (or purchase specially designed cameras such as Canon’s 20Da) there are some restrictions. This technique is so unique and odd that I will dedicate an entire article about IR photography later on instead of writing how it all works in this one.

 

Got a stuck filter?

Filters can get stuck fairly easy sometimes, and a stuck filter can render a lens completely useless in some situations. Circular polarizing filters tend to get stuck more often due to the fact that half the filter rotates on its own which can make it difficult to take it off. I’ve found that the best solution to remove stuck filters is to use a filter wrench, which applies the pressure evenly around the filter and thus can make even the most stuck filter come off in a few seconds.
Filter wrenches come in two sizes, one for filter sizes up to 58mm and another for larger sizes. If you use filters this is definitely a piece of equipment that should be in your camera bag, they take no space and can really save your day!



Info: Fredrik Silverglimth 

In Photography, your lens is often your most important purchase. This photography tutorial outlines some important qualities of different lenses, and how each performs in identical situations.

Choosing a lens is often more difficult then choosing a camera when it comes to purchasing. One thing to remember is that a lens will last several times longer than digital cameras. A D-SLR has a limited lifespan of a couple of years, the prices on cameras just keeps on dropping and purchasing a new camera every 3-5 years is quite reasonable if you want good quality photographs & equipment. A lens on the other hand will (if handled correctly) last much longer then that, so a good lens will be an investment that you can use for a longer period of time.

Another thing to think about is the fact that all the light that reaches the sensor needs to pass through the lens. A low quality lens on a high quality camera will result in bad image quality, but a good lens on a low quality camera can still produce good results (and with low quality camera I mean the companies “entry level” D-SLR cameras).

It’s important to realize that different lenses distort and compress the view. A wide angle lens will distort the view and distances can seem greater than they really are, while in contrast, a telephoto lens will compress the view and make far away object seem closer than they are. To show this effect I have taken three photos with different lenses, the front object (a street sign) is kept at the same size but the background is drastically different.


Above: 18mm, Wide Angle


Above: 50mm, Normal


Above: 300mm, Telephoto

 

Normal lens

Normal lenses have a focal length of around 50mm; it resembles the view of the human eye and creates a natural view — unlike wide-angle that distort and telephoto that compresses the view. These lenses usually have a very low f-number, which makes them perfect for photographing in low light conditions.
Back in the days this was the standard lens everybody had, often a 50mm prime lens (more about prime lenses later in this article) with an aperture of f/1.2–f/1.8. The fact that they were so widely used might be one of the reasons why they have now been left behind for most beginners and amateurs — they are just seen as too boring.

 

Wide-angle lens

Lenses with a wide angle of view have become standard as kit-lenses on most low-end D-SLR cameras on the market, always as zoom lenses. These lenses are great for landscapes, architecture and indoor photography — but be aware of the distortion they create. The closer you are to your object the more distorted it will become, and the distortion is most predominant in the corners.

With such short focal length they can be useful in low-light situations, both because they take in light from a wider angle and because a little camera shake is not as visible as it is on longer focal lengths.

 

Telephoto lens

These lenses have a narrow view field and a long focal length. Telephoto lenses are great for wildlife and sport photography, and can be good to use for portrait when you want to isolate the model from the background. Telephoto lenses compresses the view which can be both positive and negative depending on the situation.
Telephoto lenses with their longer focal length require better light conditions or the use of a tripod. There are fast telephoto lenses, like a 400mm f/2.8, but these are often very expensive and out of reach when it comes to most amateurs — and most of these lenses are too heavy to be handheld.

The last decade most companies have started to produce these high end telephoto lenses with Image Stabilizer (different companies have different names for it, but the effect is the same) to make them more usable without tripods. Lately this feature has been implanted in more and more low-end lenses as well.

 

Macro lens

Macro photography is close-up photography. Macro is a word that has been severely abused lately, every photograph of an insect or flower is not macro, and many people seems to have missed the point of what macro is supposed to be. True macro photography is at the scale of 1:1 or greater — this means that the object you’re photographing should be the same size or larger on the sensor.

Most macro lenses have a focal length between 50mm and 200mm, and they usually have a large maximum aperture (low f-number) that gives them both the ability to be fast as well as totally isolate the subject. The background and shallow depth-of-field is a very important part of macro photography and can take quite a lot of time to master.

There are several ways to achieve macro or a macro-effect without a true macro lens; I will go into detail about this in a later part of this series.

 

Special lenses

FISHEYE LENS

Fisheye lenses are extreme wide-angle lenses, having a 180° horizontal angle of view. There are both Circular and Full-frame fisheye lenses, the circular will create a round image in the center with unexposed (black) edges and the full-frame lens will fill the entire sensor but will only have 180° horizontal and not vertical.

Fisheye lenses are widely used photographing and filming skateboarding, since the entire scene is always in focus and you can easily capture the entire trick without too much movement.


TILT-SHIFT LENS

Tilt-shift lenses are common in architectural photography to avoid the distortion a regular wide-angle lens creates while keeping the entire building in focus. Tilt-shift lenses have more features than just correcting the distortion, they also gives the photographer total control over the focus and depth of field. The lens can create rather odd looking photographs where the field of depth looks “unnatural” and the entire scene looks like it’s a photograph of a miniature.

 

Prime lenses vs. Zoom lenses

There are two types of lenses, prime and zoom. A prime lens is a lens that has a fixed focal length, these lenses comes in all shapes and price classes. Zoom lenses have taken over the market almost completely on the lower-end; this is mostly because zooms are more versatile. A zoom lens can be a wide-angle lens, a normal lens and a telephoto lens — all in one — where as a prime can only be what it is. High-end telephoto lenses as well as macro lenses are almost always primes.

So why choose a prime instead of a zoom lens then?
Most prime lenses are considerably sharper than the zooms in the same price class, even when you go to the very high-end lenses the primes are sharper but the difference is not as distinct. Not only are primes sharper but they often have a larger maximum aperture which makes them faster and ideal in low-light situations. However, the technology is moving forward at a great speed right now and the noise levels at high ISO isn’t as visible as it was before which makes zoom lenses able to be faster as well.

All in all I would recommend that people have at least one prime in their camera bag, preferably a normal lens, which is the perfect lens for many situations — sharp, fast and light-weight.

 

Some quick advice on buying a new lens

When it comes to purchasing a new lens there are a few things to consider.

• Who much are you willing to spend
• What do you need it for (sport, landscape, portraits etc)
• What lenses do you already own
• Prime or Zoom
• Image Stabilizer or not
• Filter size

The budget question is rather obvious, don’t buy lenses you can’t afford, period. What you need your lens for is another very important factor, both when it comes to focal length and speed. Previously in this article I explained what the different focal lengths were used for, but I didn’t go into the different lenses in each of the focal length categories. For instance, there are many telephoto zoom lenses on the market but many of them are not suitable for sport due to the fact that they are too slow — and with slow I mean that their largest aperture isn’t letting enough light through to freeze action. Many sport situations require a lens that has an aperture of f/2.8 or larger (consumer telephoto lenses are often f/5.6). For situations with low light, especially weddings and such, requires even faster lenses, often between f/1.2 and f/1.8.

It’s also important to consider what lenses you already have in your collection and what a new lens will add. Sometimes you purchase a new lens as an upgrade from your previous lens, sometimes it’s for a focal length that you do not already have. Don’t worry to much about small gaps in the focal length in your collection. For example it’s no problem to have a 16-35mm wide angle, a 50mm prime and a 70-200mm telephoto lens — sure you don’t have lenses that covers 36-49mm or 51-69mm, but those are not big gaps and buying extra lenses to fill such gaps is not something I advice you do.

My personal opinion is that upgrading should add more than just better image quality, for a worth upgrade you should get a faster lens, or a feature such as image stabilizing (article on Image stabilizing coming later). The choice between prime and zoom lenses was described earlier in this article and there’s no right or wrong here, just personal preferences and also depending on the situation.

Last but not least, an aspect that is overlooked most of the time, the filter size. If you don’t use filters you can skip this part. If you’re like me and use several different filters it’s more economical to have the same filter size on all your lenses as well as more convenient. Let’s say you have several lenses with a filter size of 77mm and your looking for a new lens, you can either buy a cheaper 67mm or a more expensive 77mm lens (remember, I’m talking about filter size here). It might actually be more expensive to buy the cheaper lens since you need to buy an extra set of filters. Using step-up rings are an alternative, but they often prevent you from using a lens hood.

So after decided on your next lens purchase, where to buy? The only non-Swedish photo store I can personally recommend is B&H Photo. Great service, good prices and a useful website, I recommend B&H to everyone that ask, it’s a great store. There are other stores, but be careful, there are a lot of fake/bad photography stores online.



Info: Fredrik Silverglimth