A couple days ago we shared the views of a Dutch pro, insisting that a telephoto lens is often a better choice for landscape photography than a wide-angle lens. Today we’re going to dig a bit deeper, with the following tutorial on how to choose the best focal length when photographing the great outdoors.
When it’s time to upgrade one’s gear, many savvy photographers begin by buying better lenses, rather than investing in a new camera. After all, it’s the quality off the glass that ultimately determines the quality of the images.
Shooting landscapes with a telephoto lens is a challenging yet rewarding experience. On the one hand, telephotos allow you to reimagine a landscape photograph by zeroing in on a few specific details to create an artistic composition. On the other hand, if you make a mistake in composing a scene with a long lens, it can ruin the image.
Telephoto lenses can come in handy for landscape photography when you want to add some variety to your standard wide-angle scenic shots. Using a telephoto correctly for landscapes, however, can be tricky for some beginner photographers.
The Sigma Corporation just unveiled the new the Sigma 85mm F1.4 DG DN Art lens, which the company says is "a completely new design for full-frame mirrorless cameras, as the 'DN' designation indicates." This fast aperture Sigma portrait prime lens, which has a compact, dust-and splash-proof design, comes in both L-Mount and Sony E-Mount versions for mirrorless cameras.
How do you decide which lens to use for a particular shot? For outdoor photographer Mark Denney, who only owns two lenses, the choice would seem to be relatively easy. He still has to determine though, which one to pick.
Tamron recently released a fast, super-compact 28-200mm f/2.8-5.6 zoom lens for Sony mirrorless full-frame E-mount cameras. Unique among all-in-one type zooms because the maximum aperture is f/2.8 (at the wideangle 28mm setting) the lens has other attractive features that we evaluate in this review.
Nikon has officially launched the new 24.3MP Nikon Z5, an entry-level FX-format (full frame) mirrorless camera designed for photo enthusiast photographers and "emerging creators." Nikon also announced it has expanded its NIKKOR Z lens lineup with the addition of the new compact and versatile NIKKOR Z 24-50mm f/4-6.3 lens as well as two new Z TELECONVERTERS: TC-2.0X and TC-1.4X.
Tamron recently released a fast, compact 70-180mm f/2.8 zoom lens for Sony mirrorless full-frame E-mount cameras. It’s billed as the most compact and lightest f/2.8 telephoto zoom lens in its class. We had a chance to test this lens on a Sony Alpha a7RII camera. Here is what we found.
Some people think you need a lot of expensive gear for photography, but landscape photographer Mark Denney begs to differ. In fact, he believes there are only two essential lenses you need for shooting landscapes.
Portraits, close-ups and numerous other creative compositions—the Lensbaby Velvet 85 does it all. Here’s a thorough review and several examples shot with this exciting lens.
Making a lens sharp and acceptably free of aberrations is hard. Very hard. Making a lens that can be both tack-sharp and intentionally soft, pleasantly unsharp and able to exploit the native beauty of certain optical aberrations is even harder. Then there’s Lensbaby.
(Editor’s Note: Exploring Light is a monthly Shutterbug column featuring tips, tricks, and photo advice from professional photographers in Canon's Explorers of Light education program. This month's column is by Joel Grimes on how to shoot portraits with a tilt-shift lens.)