Tag:lenses
While a camera bag is a vital accessory for photographers, its contents can vary based on their unique needs and photography style. However, here are some everyday items that often belong in every photographer’s camera bag.
Camera Body: Your camera body is obviously the most crucial item. Ensure it’s securely stored in your bag with a protective cover or case.
Lenses
Depending on your photography style, you may need multiple lenses, such as a wide-angle, standard zoom, prime, or telephoto lens. Each lens has a unique function and can help you capture different shots. Good lenses to have are;
- Landscape Lens: 70 – 200mm
- Wildlife and Birds: 300 -600mm
- Macro: 60 – 120mm
- Travel: 18-400mm
- Street: 35 or 50mm
Lens Cleaning Kit: A lens cleaning kit with a microfibre cloth, lens cleaning solution, and lens pen is essential to maintain image quality and prevent dust and smudges.
Essential Supplies
Extra Batteries: Keep extra camera batteries charged to avoid running out of power during a shoot.
Memory Cards: Don’t run out of memory during a shoot; bring several high-capacity and fast memory cards to ensure you have enough storage space.
Tripod: A tripod is essential for stabilising your camera, particularly in low-light conditions or when taking long exposure shots. Considering the tripod’s size and weight is crucial based on your needs. For travel, consider a carbon fibre tripod. They are lighter than the aluminium ones.
Camera Rain Cover: If your camera isn’t waterproof, a rain cover can protect your camera from moisture and rain if you’re shooting in inclement weather.
External Flash and Accessories: When using external flash units, ensure you have spare batteries, diffusers, and flash triggers if necessary.
Lens Filters: Filters like UV filters, polarisers, and ND filters can help improve image quality and control light in various situations.
Remote Shutter Release: A remote shutter release or intervalometer can prevent camera shake in long exposures.
Lens Hood: Using lens hoods can help lessen the occurrence of lens flare and shield your lens from potential harm.
Lens Pouches or Lens Cases: These items are useful for transporting and safeguarding individual camera lenses within your camera bag. I have one on each lens in my bag. The pouches protect them from rain when the bag is open on a wet day and if a lens falls out of the bag.
Accessories
Multi-Tool or Allen Key: If you need to make quick adjustments or tighten tripod screws.
First Aid Kit: It can be helpful to have a compact first aid kit on hand for any minor injuries or accidents that may occur during outdoor photography sessions. Include a box of matches in case of leeches.
Smartphone and Charger: Your smartphone is valuable for location scouting, GPS, and reference. Ensure it’s charged and has the relevant apps.
Business Cards: If you’re a professional photographer, carrying business cards can help you network and gain potential clients.
Gear Links (Amazon Associates)
- Memory Cards: https://amzn.to/44FMplN
- 36 Pc Camera Cleaning Kit: https://amzn.to/44Gqhb0
- 4 Pack Lens Pouch: https://amzn.to/3P93iQ5
- First Aid Kit: https://amzn.to/3sGghkF
- Sirui Carbon Fibre Tripod: https://amzn.to/3sOnGyi
Bringing a small torch, snacks, and water when venturing into the bush is also a good idea. Additionally, carrying a whistle can come in handy in case you become lost or separated from your group and need to signal your location. A garbage bag is also helpful so you can take your rubbish home with you (and collect any you may find along the way)
Remember that the contents of your camera bag may vary depending on your photography style and the equipment you own. Organising your gear effectively is crucial to access what you need and protect it from damage quickly.
Wide angle lenses can make for powerful images, with a field of view significantly wider than a regular lens or even the human eye. If you have had your camera a while, you have probably considered buying one. But do you really need one? How do they work, and when do you use them? Or maybe you already have one but aren’t happy with your shots?
What is a wide angle lens?
The commonly accepted norm is any lens wider than the human field of vision is a wide-angle. Lenses in the 24mm – 16mm range are considered a wide-angle lens, and less than 16mm is deemed to be ultra-wide. Fisheye lenses are those less than 8mm. The most popular range is 16-35mm.
So What’s a “normal” lens?
A standard lens is one that, on a full-frame camera, has a focal length of 35mm or more. This is multiplied by 1.6 for canon and 1.5 for Nikon on a crop sensor. This makes the “normal” lens for a crop sensor 24mm, as this equates to 36mm on a full-frame camera.
When to use a wide angle
Wide angle lenses are used for capturing as much of the scene in front of you as possible. Therefore, they are convenient for interiors in real estate photography. Landscapes, cityscapes, seascapes and architecture are the other main categories that shine. However, as they include so much, you need to be especially mindful of not having distractions or negative space in your image.
How to use a wide angle
The most common mistake people make when using wide angles lenses for landscapes is to use them for every big vista or a standard lens. i.e. straight horizontal or vertical. This, however, creates a scene with the horizon across the centre. However, if you angle the lens down, the horizon becomes the top third of the image, and the foreground becomes the star.
It becomes more important to find a foreground subject because your background being pushed further to the back. Otherwise, everything in the frame will be too small to be of interest. So get as close or low as you can to your foreground and have a definite subject, preferably in the midground (to avoid distortion) in the image. My subject was the lake with autumn trees leading the eye in the picture below. I was on a sloping hill and couldn’t get closer to them than about 8ft – but the ‘trees’ in the lower edge of the frame were really only low shrubs though they look like small trees.
Not for every landscape shot
Bear in mind; the wide-angle lens won’t be the right lens for every big vista. A wide-angle will make everything in the scene look further away. Unless you are shooting close to the ground, in which case the foreground becomes much more significant. While you will fit everything in, you need to be mindful that the background will appear further away and smaller. So if you are going for dramatic tall mountains, then the wide-angle may not be the right lens for the shot. However, if you have an interesting foreground leading to an interesting distant element, the image retains its impact.
drawbacks of wide angle
The two drawbacks of a wide-angle are barrel distortion and lens flare. All wide angles distort the image, especially at the edges of an image, the cheaper ones more than others. You have to be especially mindful of what is in the edges of your images. Anything at the edges will bend inwards and require straightening in your editing. It follows then that you should never have a person on the outer edges of your image. You can minimise distortion by moving further back and zooming in slightly or later in post-processing.
Lens flare – you may like it in images – sometimes it helps, sometimes not. Apart from trying to remove in PS or the like – you can get around this by adjusting your angle, using a lens hood or (my favourite method) blocking it with your hand.
They do take some getting used to, if you have never used a wide-angle before. Like a macro, they aren’t a lens you can just put on and shoot with, which was the mistake I made when I got my first one. I’m not a read the manual kinda girl. You need to understand HOW they work to use them to their best advantage.
Practice makes perfect
When I first bought one, I went out all excited, got some shots, downloaded them at home and was disappointed. The images were uninteresting and had distortion. It then didn’t leave the bag much as I regretted buying it. Shortly before a big overseas trip, I changed camera systems and bought a wide-angle as well as a zoom and walkaround. I knew I wanted to get interiors of churches and views from the Eiffel tower, so a wide-angle was going to be needed. Lots of youtube and practice before I left gave me a basic understanding; though I still made mistakes, these were ones I could correct in post. Having said that, it’s not a huge learning curve – and once you have nutted it out, you will be able to capture more interesting and powerful images.