MACRO Photography with attachments (post no.92)

 One of the most important part of photography is ''macro photography''...As there are lovers of different branch of photography such as portrait,travel,landscape,wildlife,flowers,nature,digital imaging,street photography, there are a genre of photographers, who love Macro Photography.Otherwise as a subject,anybody can do frequently.

2) In general macro photograph is the closeup of a small thing. In other words, it is the magnification of small object, which cannot be covered by wide,tele,prime or zoom lenses in a normal way. That is made possible by attaching other photography instruments, which are made to attach to the above lenses to get closure to shoot small objects. With these attachments, you will hv to go closure to subjects for shoot, which may, many times, distracts them...Therefore to do independent macro photography, lens and camera mfg companies have made special macro lenses, which are so constructed to keep distance from the subject without horrifying them. However, they are costlier and unless one's aim is to be dependent on macro photography, it is not worth spending 25k and above for good macro lenses..

3) At left are the attachments, I use to do since long...LEFT is the extension tube.with 4 small tubes,threaded into one. This is hallow and has the bayonet mount attachment at back to mount in camera body. In front, I fit the normal lens,small zoom to get closure to small objects, e.g. insects, flowers and its stamens, coins,watches,water drops (as above),and an assortment of object.The pieces can be fitted in one, two or,three or all four in the lens mount. This will need exposure more by one to two stops to compensate the light thru the hallow rings...In middle is Lens Reversal Ring, which fits into the camera mount and u can fit prime or zoom lens in reverse and screw it into the front threads....Next are supplementary lenses, which come in 5 pieces, 1 to 4 nos in 1,2,3,4 diaptres and a thick piece of macro lens...These can be fitted in front of normal or zoom lens with 52mm,55mm,58 or so lens threads and are easy to view the subject closely without any exposure compensation.

4) The camera mfg companies are more wise now offering macro settings in compacts, prosumer cameras so u can go as near as 1cm from the subject....The above pieces are for DSLRs.......Go to macro photography. .....to continue.

Zoom Lens,combination of Wide and Tele---(Post no.91).

In plain language, zoom lenses are a combination of Wide angle and Telephoto lens. You are more acquainted with zooms nowadays, rather than fixed focal length Wides, Normal or Teles, which are costly and used by highly enthusiasts/pros  to get the best in wildlife and other types of photography....Zooms have moving lens barrels for zooming in and out and fouusing ring and have more elements. Thus some quality suffers in comparison with independent/fixed focal length wides and teles, having single lens barrel with focusing grip only and have wide apertures for low light photography. They light in weight., making them costlier. However branded zooms are a good buy, though independent lens mfg companies are also producing better zooms..

2) The zoom lens has variable focal lengths; which makes it possible to have quick change in distance, without moving the camera or yourself, moving back and forward. The zoom lenses are coming in different focal lengths e.g. 10-22mm, 13-20mm etc in wide, 24-70,28-80,28-200 in mid,wide to tele, range, 70-200, 70-300, 100-400 in teles, to mention a few.

3) As the zoom lenses are heavy in weight, while shooting without tripods, there are chances of getting blurred or shaky pictures. To avoid this, the simple method is to use the shutter speed matching with that of the focal length. For example, if u use focal length of 200mm, better use the shutter speed of 1/250 or higher or at 300mm, 1/500/in case of 90mm use 1/125.....In low light, set higher ISO to be able to use higher shutter speeds.

4) In compact cameras, there is inbuilt zoom of 3x to 5x, which can be used conveniently on auto setting. In prosumer cameras there is tough competition to maximise focal lengths as 15x, 20x,26x, 30x, 42x...But in maximum focal length the image may be softer.....Anyhow all the best with zoom photography capturing children,pets,birds,street views, nature,wildlife and many more subjects you face or think of.............to continue

Normal,Standard Lens 50mm/Focus,Focal Length.(Post.no.90).

I have let u know about the wide angle and telephoto lenses. However these lenses came later in 35mm SLRs. The first interchangeable lens which was originally introduced with these cameras was a 50mm Lens i.e. Prime ,Normal or Standard lens, as it was called.....LET US SEE the 'focus' and 'focal length'.

ALL PARALLEL RAYS COMING THROUGH THE LENS MEET AT A POINT THAT IS CALLED 'FOCUS' AND THE DISTANCE FROM THE CENTRE OF THE LENS TO THE FOCUS IS CALLED 'FOCAL LENGTH'

Why 50mm lens is called a normal, prime or standard lens? Because the way it produces the perspective, which closely matches that of the human eye. Therefore, the images made with a 50mm lens have a natural and uncontrived look, that is better for available light photography with wide apertures, such as f1.4, f1.8. These lenses are useful because of:

Greater speed;

More Pro results;

Superior optical performance;

Greater compactness and light weight; &

Lower cost..

This lens is in contrast to wide angle lens which has shorter focal length and telephoto lens which has a longer focal length than 50mm, as mentioned in previous posts.....In all these three types lenses, you have to move back and forward to adjust the distance you would like to shoot by covering desired areas.

This picture was shot by a 50mm lens..

........................................................................to continue on next post.

GS Photography: Telephoto lenses.(post no.89).

TELEPHOTO LENS: In the last post, I discussed about the wide angle lens....The telephoto lens is opposite to that....I come to those lenses here. For example,even u shoot with a compact or a kit lens's wide angle effect of the scene....There is lurking a telephoto image in that picture...Yeaa..u can get that telephoto effect of ur photo by cropping the image to the desired portion....However, we do it but only if our camera has good MPs of 12 MP,14 MP etc. Despite getting the cropped telephoto image, if higher ISO was used by camera or u set for low light, the effect will not be satisfactory and noise(grain) may crop in, making image less sharp....Therefore, the companies have manufactured prime telephoto lenses from 85mm to 1200mm and above. As U must hv seen on the cricket matches on ur tv, a bunch of photographers are occupying a good angled venue with their telephoto lenses for the optimum good result...You say wow, when u see the closeup of the batsman, baller,fielder or the cricketer catching the ball in magazines, newspapers...These are the results of those great telephoto lenses....

A telephoto lens has a narrow depth of field and shows the object larger, i.e. more closer, making them useful for nature, candid, wildlife,sports, portrait and press photography.

As in the picture above, the cruise face come larger with 200mm focal length and the background of the hill,seen in the back, goes out of focus, because of the shallow DOF of the lens.