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09/01/2006 04:34:59 PM · #1 |
Two completely different things really.
Today being my birthday, I treated myself to a couple of lenses. Wonder if anyone has any tips and hints for getting good things from them, or creative ways of using them...
First, the EF-S 10-22mm wide angle.
What a lens this is! I can honestly say that picking the camera up and looking through the viewfinder with this lens fixed to the front is possibly one of the strangest experiences I've had whilst using a camera. I really don't expect to see so much looking as if it is so far away!
Second, the EF-S 60mm macro.
A completely different beast. My copy of this only seems to like manual focus. Is that normal? I also find that I'm going to have to use a tripod with this most of the time, because, despite it being a 2.8 lens, when I'm close up it's selecting around 2-3 second exposures. The image is waving up down and every which way because of the magnification. Seems pretty sharp when I can get it to stay still though.
So, any tips for either lens for things to try out etc will be appreciated :) |
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09/01/2006 05:12:56 PM · #2 |
As it happens, I have both these lenses :-)
10-22mm: The lens has astonishing DOF, especially at the 10mm end. In order to make use of it, you need to be careful NOT to let the camera focus on infinity, which means VERY carefully choosing your focus points for AF or using it in MF mode (my choice). If you shoot landscapes with a very near foreground (something I do a lot of) the foreground will NOT be in focus if you use the center AF point. YOU want to focus on something maybe 4-5 feet away for normal shots, even closer for extreme shots with very near foreground objects.
The following image was shot at f/11 and 30 seconds; the peppers are like an inch-and-a-half in size, and are about 20 inches from the front of the lens. I manually focused on the peppers. If I had focused at infinity, the peppers would NOT be sharp, but focused at 20 inches at f/11 infinity falls within the range of acceptable DOF.
You need to be REAL careful of spherical objects at the periphery of the field of view; they elongate like crazy. Especially important with people shots. You need to be REAL careful not to include your tripod legs in the bottom of the shot too, or even your feet for that matter.
You will often NOT be satisfied with how "sharp" your images from this lens look in DPC: details are resolved so tiny that they can't be reproduced at 640 pixels, even though it's VERY sharp at normal print sizes. So you'll tend to oversharpen the 640-pixel images to try to get them crisp looking, and if you go too far you'll get nailed for it; it's happened to me.
Still, it's by far my favorite lens.
60mm f/2.8: This is a really sweet lens, extremely sharp and easy to work with. Great portrait lens on the 1.6x sensor. Like any macro lens, you need to stop way down to get adequate DOF on extreme closeups, and this is gonna lead to slower-than-usual shutter speeds. As you've already noticed, it jumps around a LOT when you're hand-holding for extreme closeups.
You definitely want to use MF on your macro shots, although the AF works great on normal shots. If you don't have a tripod (or don't want to use it for the given shot), the best way to work is to prefocus, then move the camera in and out and shoot when the subject is in focus. It helps to use burst mode and rack off 3 exposures at once (one of them is usually sharper), and it helps to synchronize your breathing with your shutter actuation, so that the shutter is released at the end of an exhalation. Another thing that helps is to not hold the camera tightly; tension = shakiness, whereas a much lighter grip will remove some of same.
Have fun with your toys!
Robt.
Message edited by author 2006-09-01 17:13:47.
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09/01/2006 05:27:00 PM · #3 |
Originally posted by mist:
So, any tips for either lens for things to try out etc will be appreciated :) |
For the wide angle lens, I like to get in really close so that the perspective is such that as a viewer you can tell it was a close shot.
In this case, I was about 2 feet away. It looks very different than a shot from the same angle (in relation to the alligator) taken with a zoom lens from 20 or more feet away.
I also like to take shots that include 1) great foreground detail on the ground (or beach), 2) detail in the mid-ground, and 3) sky and clouds. I'll see if I can find a shot that illustrates this style and edit this post. |
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09/01/2006 05:29:51 PM · #4 |
Originally posted by yakatme:
I'll see if I can find a shot that illustrates this style and edit this post. |
You mean like this one?
Robt.
Message edited by author 2006-09-01 17:30:11.
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09/01/2006 05:32:59 PM · #5 |
| Some great info here folk, thanks :) |
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09/01/2006 05:34:29 PM · #6 |
Yeah, like that one. I like to emphasize the perspective a little more by allowing the viewer to look down also. I'll have to resize something for web and get it in here.
Back in a few... |
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09/01/2006 05:40:18 PM · #7 |
Here's what I was talking about...
I am starting to explore this technique a little more. I really like to show everything from the ground at your feet to the sky above the subject. I do this with my wide angle lens and am now starting to take pics in portrait orientation to get even more of this wide angle in a verticle way.
Here is the verticle type of shot. 
This one didn't come out quite like I wanted it to. The water is not as clear as I had hoped for. But it illustrates how you can get a lot more from the ground to the sky in the shot using a wide angle lens in portrait orientation.
Message edited by author 2006-09-01 17:50:05. |
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