Cory Photography with Tom and Pat Cory

Newfoundland, 2009

Newsletter, August 2009 Continued

As a reminder, focal length specifications for lenses can be a bit confusing.  With a 35mm (millimeter)  film camera, when you buy a lens with a fixed focal length or several focal lengths (a zoom lens) a specific focal length will give you an image that basically looks the same no matter what 35mm camera you use. This is because the film is always the same size, 35mm. In the 35mm world, a lens somewhere around 50mm is considered a normal lens because it records an image which looks like the scene looked to your eye. A lens that is more than approximately 50mm, for example 100mm, is a telephoto lens and makes an image that is magnified, like looking through a telescope. A lens that is less than approximately 50mm, for example 28mm, is a wide angle lens and makes an image that looks further away than it looked to your eye. All that is pretty easy. And if you have a relatively expensive ‘full frame’ digital camera, the numbers are still the same. But many of us have digital cameras with sensors that are smaller than 35mm film is so enter what is called the ‘magnification factor’. The magnification factor simply means that a 50mm lens now becomes magnified a bit compared to the way it looked before. The amount it is magnified depends on the camera’s sensor size, but it is typically something around 1.5 times so the 50mm lens suddenly becomes something around 75mm, or a short telephoto lens and a 28mm lens is not very wide angle any more. The magnification factor can come about two ways. If a conventional 35mm lens is used (which can be done on many digital cameras), the image that is collected by the lens is larger than the sensor so the image is cropped and only the center portion of the image is recorded on the sensor, thus increasing its magnification just as if you cropped a picture after the fact. If a digital lens is used, it only collects what will fit on the sensor.

In an effort to simplify and standardize these focal length numbers, there is one more term we must become familiar with, that is the ‘35mm equivalent’ numbers that are used to describe the lens. This number converts the stated focal length of the lens back to the way it would look on a 35mm film camera. Let’s take the new Sigma 18-250mm lens mentioned above. Its 35mm equivalent it actually 28mm-375mm. This becomes important in making sure that the lens you are buying will give you the images with the look you want. One other thing to remember is if you buy a digital lens and intend to eventually use it on a full frame digital camera, it will not use the full frame because it only collects digital data that fits on the less-than-full-frame sensor. For more info on how lenses work, check out this website:  cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/camera-lenses.htm

 

Great Tutorial Website

I stumbled into this website.  It’s not exactly where I would go if I were really new to digital, but if you’d like to know how a lot of the digital technology works, it’s a great source of technical information.  cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials.htm

 

Photographing in the Rain

If you have never tried photographing in the rain, you might want to try it.  Some of our favorite images have been made in the rain when the quality of light can be beautiful. Images made in rain can have a watercolor quality to them. The important thing to remember is that unless you have a digital camera that is somewhat waterproof, you really do need to keep it as dry as possible. (Also, water drops on the end of your lens will spoil your images.)  To keep the water out of your camera it’s best not to change lenses or memory cards when your hands are wet or the wind is blowing. If you are fortunate to have a rather calm day, it is fairly simple to keep your camera and lens dry. If you have a large umbrella and are photographing with a friend you can take turns holding the umbrella for each other. One of our clients came to a workshop with a child’s Radio Flier umbrella which clipped onto his tripod, the only issue being you don’t want to do this if the wind is blowing at all—you don’t want a tripod to sail over. You can purchase a ‘raincoat’ for your camera and lens or you can use a plastic bag or the rainwear your hotel thoughtfully leaves for you although they do tend to call these shower caps. There are several great accessories that you can find in the auto section of your favorite store.  Chamois cloths are a wonderful item to quickly dry your camera if it should get wet. We have also purchased less expensive Microfiber Towels which work well too.  Then there’s always a ShamWow that soaks up water in a hurry. To make the experience more enjoyable, keeping yourself warm and dry is helpful too. 

                            

Odds and Ends

When buying a carbon fiber tripod, you might want to consider a 4 segment rather than a 3 segment tripod.  Since many folks who buy the carbon fiber tripods want them for travel, the 4 segment one packs better in your suitcases.

If you make the switch from JPEG to RAW files, you might want to consider the option which allows you to record both. If you go on a trip and return with 1000 images, it’s a lot faster to go through and make your initial selections with the JPEG files and then go back and spend time on the RAW files that you want to work with.