Best Camera and Lens Photography Tips

Any camera and lens will take a photograph. I won’t go into detail on specific models and brands of cameras, just to say do your research. Find out what’s best for you as for price and features. The main decision when purchasing your camera is whether it is a fixed focus, variable focus, or interchangeable-lens camera and what lens will fit your needs. Buying the most expensive camera and lens won’t necessarily mean you’ll get great photos. Remember, your camera is only as good as your knowledge on how to use it.

Fixed focus cameras have a fixed lens. It is permanently in place on the camera and can not be moved, removed, or replaced. Most modern cameras are not of this type, they offer some kind of zoom capability. Which brings us to variable focus cameras. They have lenses that can be moved to focus at different distances. You can adjust the position of a variable focus lens to produce a sharp image in your photo from it’s minimum focusing distance to infinity. If the lens on the camera can be removed and replaced with another it is an interchangeable-lens camera. Most are also variable focus. This camera allows you to use different lenses to do different jobs, but cameras of this type are generally more expensive.

Two basic factors of camera lenses will determine what kind of lens to use. They are lens speed and focal length. Lens speed is the amount of light a lens transmits. The diaphragm in your lens allows you to vary the size of the opening that lets light enter the camera, this is called to aperture. Apertures are designated with f-numbers or f-stops (see Aperture and Depth of Field Photography Tips). The speed of a lens is determined by the f-number of its widest aperture. If the widest aperture is f/2.8, then it is considered an f/2.8 lenses. Remember, the lower the f-number, the more light transmitted and the faster the lens. A faster lens will allow you to take photos in lower light conditions.

I have three lenses for my 35mm SLR. Two of them are f/2.8 lenses and one is af/5.6 lens. Sometimes with the f/5.6 lens shooting landscape or sunset photos I have to shoot at lower shutter speeds than I would like because the lens speed is too slow for the light conditions. This is where a tripod comes in as a handy tool. But in normal daylight the f/5.6 lens is great for keeping everything in focus at f/16.

Focal length is the second factor of lens determination. The distance from the center of the lens to the sharp image on your film (or the semiconductor device in digital) is the lens focal length. The focal length determines the size of the image of your subject in the photo. The longer the focal length, the larger the image. For example, a 100mm focal length lens will give you an image twice the size as a 50mm focal length lens on the same camera. A 400mm lens will give an image four times larger than a 100mm lens. As you increase the focal length of a lens you naturally increase the size and weight also. With larger lenses you may need to use a tripod to steady the camera to avoid camera shake.

Of my two f/2.8 lenses one is a 50 mm normal lens and one is a 28mm macro lens. The f/5.6 is a telephoto lens. The 28mm lens is a wide-angle lens, it produced a wide photo area. The 50mm lens is a normal lens because it gives a view more like the way we normally view the world around us. My 100-200mm lens is a telephoto zoom lens. It focuses on a narrower field of view and brings images in closer. I use the 50mm lens to shoot most of my nature and landscape photos

There are disadvantages of a longer lens. The good ones are expensive. They are large and bulky. The longer the focal length of a lens the harder it is to keep the camera steady enough to avoid camera shake. The rule of thumb is that you can hand-hold your camera and lens when the shutter speed is at least equal to the focal length. For instance, a 100mm lens should not be hand-held below 1/100th of a second, a 500mm lens not below 1/500th of a second and so on. When photographing an object at a distance with a telephoto lens dust, haze, and heat refraction can reduce the sharpness of your photo’s image also.

A macro lens is good if you like shooting close-up photos of nature. With a normal lens you get a field of flowers, with a macro lens you can zero in on one particular flower. You can capture fine detail in your photo such as the pollen-coated hairs on a honey bee’s leg as it busily works on a brightly-colored sunflower. A macro lens can be different focal lengths. My 28mm is a short focal length macro so it lets in more light than a longer focal length macro lens. This sometimes requires the use of a lens hood to shade the lens from too much direct light.

If you are going to invest in a camera and lens to shoot more photos of nature and landscapes my best advice is to purchase one that suits you best. An expensive camera and lens with lots of gadgets you never use is a waste of money. Knowledge and lots of practice is the key to shooting more photos using your camera and lens.