Everybody is aware of what it means to have a 70-200mm lens, or a 18-105mm. These days, the emphasis always seems to turn to the zoom range when it comes to buying a lens.

But how about that other set of numbers… the ones after the “F”?

Those numbers refer to aperture. They measure the diameter of the opening inside the lens that allows light into the camera. The “f stop”, as it’s called, can enable you to use faster shutter speeds, help you take great pictures in low light conditions without using a flash, and  achieve beautiful depth of field.

Depth of field (DOF) refers to how much of the image from the foreground to background will be in focus. Wide apertures (represented by small f.stops) will give you shallower DOF. I’m sure you’ve seen portraits where the subject is sharply in focus and the background is out of focus.

Wide apertures combined with flattering light will likely lead to amazing photographs.

On another note, to properly freeze the movement when shooting sports or birds, for example, you’ll need fast shutter speeds. How fast your shutter speeds will need to be, will depend on the subject. In good daylight, fast shutter speeds can be achieved even without a wide aperture. But, in lower light, a wide, or “fast”, aperture will be essential.

Taking pictures in low light can be challenging, especially without a flash (in churches and museums, for instance, the use of flashes is often not possible). Consequently, slow shutter speeds are needed for sufficient light to enter the lens.

However, even when using high ISO settings, shutter speed limitations can result in blurred images. In low light, lenses with wide apertures guarantee faster shutter speeds for sharper images.

Wide apertures give you the option of shooting in the available light, even when use of a flash is possible. You can, with faster apertures, photograph in candlelight, which can be very flattering and create fantastic effects.

So when you consider your next lens, think about making it a fast one ─ it will take your photography to the next level.

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The BSA Rocket 3

I was commissioned by a collector to shoot a, now rare, 1969 motorcycle made by BSA (Birmingham Small Arms Motorcycles Ltd ).

The client, an avid motorcycle history buff, wrote a bit of background on the motorcycle: “The model was named the Rocket 3, due to the fact that it has a three cylinder engine of 750cc and was the quickest production motorcycle of its day. BSA owned Triumph, Ariel and Sunbeam motorcycle companies, amongst many other assets, at the time. Originally BSA had been Arms manufacturers and had turned to manufacturing bicycles in the late 1800s (due to a lack of military action, I assume), which eventually led to motorcycle manufacture in 1903. Many models were made over the following years culminating in BSA becoming the largest motorcycle manufacturer in the world. Unfortunately the BSA group of companies came to an abrupt end in 1972 with the onslaught of Japanese motorcycle manufactures taking market possession and the group was unable to adapt quickly to the changing situation.”

The client’s garage was so messy it was cool. So I turned off all the lights and used a little flashlight to paint the bike with light. Shots ranged between 75 seconds to 4 minute exposures.

www.kennysmithphotography.com

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1. In: Series – Emily R
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Heidi and Gordy model for the 20mm 2.8

Got a new lens recently. I found that with a lot of my lifestyle work I use wide angles a lot, and wanted one that was fast (wide aperture).

To that end I wound up getting a Canon EF 20mm 2.8 USM from my friends at Camerasdirect.com.au.

I gotta say it’s exactly what I wanted. In fact I don’t know why more people don’t have it.

We all hear about the 50mm 1.4 or 50mm 1.8. And they definitely are lenses you can’t do without.

But I’m gonna go out on a limb here and buck the trend and say if there was a fire, I’d take my 20mm over the 50mm. It suits my style better.

Don’t forget too that if you have a camera with  a crop sensor, 20mm becomes 32mm, which is a really good walk-around lens.

Anyway to try it out I grabbed the camera this afternoon when my wife Heidi and I walked our dog Gordy along the beachfront where we live in Currumbin on the Gold Coast of Australia.

Things, I like about it:

• Weight feels good, not too heavy but not too light, build quality seems excellent.

• USM focus which I need. Not everyone needs it but I find that, in commercial work with moving subjects, I have fewer throwaways with a lens that can focus fast. I’m willing to pay for it.

• Price seems pretty good — not the cheapest of lenses but for a good quality lens, I found it acceptable.

• Image quality seems real good to me. Maybe I just got a good copy, but I’m happy with it. On par with the other primes I’ve had.

Things I don’t like:

• No Lens Hood! CANON WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO TAKE THAT STICK OUT OF YOUR ASS AND PROVIDE A PLASTIC LENS HOOD WITH EVERY LENS? EVERYONE ELSE DOES, NIKON, SIGMA TOKINA EVERYONE!! I REFUSE TO PAY $80 FOR A PLASTIC HOOD AND WILL BUY MY HOODS OFF EBAY TILL YOU DO. SURE MY “L” SERIES LENSES CAME WITH THEM FOR FREE BUT THIS IS NOT ENOUGH!!! WE WANT LENS HOODS ON ALL LENSES IMMEDIATELY!!

• Vignetting, purple fringing, contrast and saturation performance seem a little weak for the price, but these can all be fixed in post so I’m OK with it.

Overall, I’m glad I got it.

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Men and technology… what is it that makes us so attracted to those shiny technical gadgets?

For me, I get drawn into gadget shops just so that I don’t need to go into the girly fashion shops when I’m out shopping with the Mrs.

When I’m online though, I just find it a perfect match using a Mac computer to surf the net and read about gadgets. It’s Man Heaven right?

Photography, for me, started out as a love for the gadget itself and I get the feeling there are many more men out there smitten with the technology.

So now I have my Nikon D70 (yes I know it’s an OLD DSLR now, but it is a classic) I spend my shopping/research time looking at lenses.

Though the camera body is revered as the pinnacle of digital camera technology, it is the lens that has the largest effect on image quality. Not only that, the good ones look really cool and make you look like you know what you are doing .

So what do I drool over?

Here is my wish list for Nikon and, just so I don’t upset all the Canon guys out there, I have included the Canon equivalents.

1: Nikkor 70-200mm f2.8 VR

Need I explain? OK I’ll explain:  This beauty is a workhorse. It is one lens found in most commercial photographers’ bags. Why? Because it is SHARP. Really sharp. And because it is f2.8 all the way through. This means the biggest aperture available at 70mm is f2.8 and the biggest aperture available at 200mm is also f2.8. You can shoot with fast shutter speeds, making it great for sport. You can also shoot great portraiture with nice blurred (bokeh is the correct name for the blur) background. Fast single aperture lenses (fast relates to the aperture) also give you the flexibility to extend the focal length. By adding a 1.5 times or 2 times extender, you can extend the lens’s focal range to 300mm and 400mm respectively. You cannot do this with lenses that have a slower aperture. VR (Vibration Reduction) helps steady the camera when taking shots, particularly at longer focal lengths. The VR can help keep the centre part of the image SHARP. In low light situations, VR will help you focus shots at slower shutter speeds that otherwise would record camera shake. NOTE: VR does not help you if the subject is moving.

• Canon alternative: Canon 70-200mm f2.8 IS

2: Nikkor AF-S 50mm f1.4

Prime Lenses are built to one focal length really well. Unlike zoom lenses, a prime lens is fixed at one focal length… in this case, it’s 50mm. Why 50mm? Because its perspective is close to what our eyes see. Why is that good? Because it will give you an image that makes you feel like you are there. For this reason, the 50mm is also known as a photo journalist’s lens. The f1.4 aperture is really fast, so low light shooting is no problem at all. The f1.4 also gives you a fantastic shallow depth of field which, in itself, can give an image a three-dimensional feel. Note: Despite the lens being listed as having a f1.4 aperture, you can still use the complete aperture range, usually right up to f22.

• Canon alternative: Canon 50mm f1.4 USM

My wife now knows what I want for Christmas.

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2. Surf Photography
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Jamie Mitchell for Kaenon Polarised

Someone recently wrote to me and asked me how this photo was taken, and whether Photoshop was used to achieve the dramatic effect.

Now, although some processing was done in Lightroom. The effect does not come about by processing at all. The dramatic tones are a result of the flash essentially overpowering the light from the sun.

This photo was taken for US eyewear manufacturer Kaenon Polarized who sponsor Australian Paddleboard Champion Jamie Mitchell. Jamie lives up the street from me and this was shot around the corner from where we both live just before sunset.

To give the shot the effect you see, I stopped down the aperture to about F9, which due to the time of day really underexposed the ambient light and essentially made the shot too way too dark. Then, to compensate, I used a speedlight held by a voice activated lightstand (Jamie’s girlfriend Jocelyn) and fired it at the model to bring him back into correct exposure. I put a stofen diffuser on the speedlight to soften it.

What makes the image “pop” is the rimlight on Jamie’s  side nearest to the sun which seperates him from the background and really brings him out.

You can overpower the sun at pretty much any time of the day, although to do so at midday you would need a lot more light than one speedlight can offer. Doing it when there is less ambient light is much easier if your lighting equipment is limited.

One final note, last week  Jamie went on and won the 57 kilometer Molokai to Oahu paddleboard race in Hawaii for the 8th consecutive time, putting him in among an elite group of atheletes who have dominated at the highest levels of there respsective sports. Congratulations Jamie!

I launched my website this week, check it out here

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Canon 70 - 200 2.8 L IS @ 5.6 = Sharp enough to cut your finger

In 1775, American revolutionary Patrick Henry once said “Give me critically sharp focus or give me death”. Ok, I in fact made that up, he didn’t say that at all, but had he been a photographer he would have. I am now able to tag this article with “American Revolution” thereby increasing the hits! Shameless I know.

In all seriousness though, with all that post processing can do for photos, one of the fundamental things that it cannot do is focus. If you are in the business of taking photos for print or publication, you might have experienced having a wonderful photo rejected due to “soft” focus. Now, this is not to say that great photos are always perfectly in focus, in fact some final edits are actually produced soft as an effect. However, having photos critically sharp in camera increases the ratio of how many keepers you will have and reduce throwaways.

Now there are a number of factors that go into having a photo critically sharp, and I’m just gonna touch on one of them today….aperture or F stop value. I am also not gonna bore you with charts with numbers on them, you can search for those on the internet specific for whatever lens you use.

I want to talk about the “sweet spot” that every lens has, similar to a tennis racket. The sweet spot is when the amount of light let in by the aperture setting optimizes the focus of the image. Typically this sweet spot occurs a couple stops above the maximum aperture setting of your lens. So if your lens begins at lets say, F4, your sweet spot will likely start around 5.6.

A common misconception is that buying a fast lens (i.e. f1.4) enables you to get critically sharp images at the maximum aperture. In reality a faster lens brings the sweet spot into a higher aperture value, so the sweet spot on a Canon 50mm f1.4 may start at F2. (Although you’d be surprised at how small the focal range is at F2, close to the size of a postage stamp)

Finding that “sweet spot” on your lens is a really good step toward taking control of the environment you shoot in. If you know you will get the best results at F5.6 at ISO 100, then you can go about arranging your shoot in order to allow you to shoot at this setting. It forces you to consider things like perhaps additional lighting in a form of strobes etc.

So get out there, find the range that is your lens’s sweet spot, and see if it turns you from taking photos into making photos.

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Photographic filters are akin to sunglasses. They shield your lens similarly to sunglasses protecting your eyes. They also modify light in much the same way as sunglasses do.

Here’s an overview of some of the types of photographic filters available.

UV Filters

UV filters are the Go To filters for most people. Other than a purpose-built protective filter, UV filters have the least impact on image quality. They can be left permanently mounted to your lens so that when the unexpected happens and your new-born projectile-vomits, you need only clean the filter.

They’re called UV filters because they eliminate the haze commonly seen on a summer’s day. Commonsense suggests that colour and sharpness remain untainted because a clear filter attuned to only ultra-violet lightwaves will ignore the slower wavelength colours.

But, as with many applications of commonsense, arguments abound. Detractors point out that anything between subject and lens glass will affect image quality. They also argue that your best defence to protect your lens is your plastic lens cap.

Whatever the argument, the upside is that your $3000 lens will be shielded from untoward debris and will never wear the visible evidence of subsequent scouring efforts. The downside is that a stickler will resort to a 400% image enlargement just so they can offer you a smug “told you so”.

If you who own top-shelf glass, such as Canon’s L lenses and the faster Nikon lenses, you will want nothing less than Hoya’s Pro1D filters to maintain high optical standards. This applies equally to the circular polarising filters described further on.

Circular Polarisers

Unlike UV filters, you’re hardly going to want to leave a circular polariser on your lens fulltime. They WILL have an affect on your images. But it’s an effect you will achieve by no other means.

Take, for example, a landscape shot featuring lots of blue sky and puffy white clouds. Without a filter, your exposure is correct for the trees and farm buildings but the blue sky looks washed out and the clouds have no definition.

Enter the circular polariser. These filters work like Polaroid sunglasses – they redirect, i.e. refract, the angle of light passing through. You will not only see more sky depth and detail, you’ll also be able to eliminate reflections off glass, water or foliage.

Polarisation is most effective at right angles to the sun. At 180 degrees – in other words with the sun directly behind you – polarisation is almost non-existent.

Due the directional nature of polarisers, it’s not a good idea to use them when you want to stitch together a panorama, as the sky in each panel will be at variance with the others.

Above left with a polariser; above right without a polariser.

Above left with a polariser; above right without a polariser.

Above: upper half with a polariser; lower half without a polariser.

Neutral Density Filters

Neutral Density (ND) filters reduce the amount of light through the lens. They’re designed to filter out all colours equally, therefore having no effect on the colours in your images, hence the term “neutral”.

All ND filters are grey in colour – the deeper the grey, the more light is reduced. These filters come in three strengths, giving 1, 2 and 3-stop reductions in light intensity. You can stack a number of ND filters to further reduce the intensity of light.

ND filters have ‘gradings” depending on the amount of light they cut. A higher grading means lower light.

There are two commonly used notations:

ND2 ND4 ND8:
The number designates the density of the filter based on binary numbers 2=21
i.e. 1 stop of light. 4=22 i.e. 2 stop of light, etc.

0.3 0.6 0.9 ND:
Another notation in which every 0.3 will make you lose one stop of light. So a 0.3ND will cut 1 stop of light 0.6 2 stops etc.

ND filters help in at least three situations:

1. reduce light intensity;
2. allow slower shutter speed use; and
3. allow larger aperture use.

If the shutter speed remains the same after adding an ND filter, you’ll use a larger aperture to obtain the same exposure. Likewise, if the aperture is retained after adding an ND filter, a slower shutter speed will achieve the same exposure.

Keep in mind that a larger aperture produces a shallower Depth of Field. So, for example, if you are shooting a portrait in broad daylight and the light conditions demand high shutter speeds, an ND filter will allow you to use bigger apertures to isolate your subject via shallow DOF.

On occasions where you cannot achieve correct exposure even with the smallest aperture and fastest shutter speed, ND filters provide a means. Reduced light intensity allows either a slower shutter speed or a larger aperture. A slower shutter speed can give moving objects a blurred result (i.e., motion blur) to create a sense of motion.

Shooting a waterfall through an ND filter is a revelation. The key to achieving that milky water effect is slow shutter speed.

Above, without an ND filter.

Above, with an ND filter.

You do not want to use ND filters when different objects are lit differently and you need to expose all of them correctly.

Should you buy a Neutral Density filter? If you shoot landscapes, you DEFINITELY need to have an ND or two in your kit. ND filters provide an effect you cannot reproduce in Photoshop.

Filters available from CamerasDirect

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Canon 5D & 50mm f1.4

I have had many conversations with photographers, both before departing on my trip, during the trip and since i returned. It seems to be a popular topic – “Travelling Light”. Each conversation though focused on the lens choice not the camera. Those who have used the 50mm f1.4 just seemed to nod knowingly as i praised the lens, those with no prime lens experience were fascinated by the fact that a non zoom lens had provided me with such versatility.

For me the first point of interest was the aperture that was available – f/1.4.
For those who don’t know f/1.4 is a large aperture hole that lets in a lot of light. They run on a scale something like this:
f/1.0  – f/1.4 -  f/2.0 -  f/2.8 -  f/4 -  f/5.6 -  f/8 -  f/11-  f/16 -  f/22 -  f/32

The smaller the number the larger the opening that allows light in. So as you can see a f/1.4 lens is towards the BIG end, or as photographers say; It’s a FAST lens.

Note: Only prime lenses offer aperture speeds faster than f/2.8 in the Nikon & Canon ranges.

So having a f/1.4 means two things:

f1.4 @ 1/125 sec

Example: Hand held at night, no flash. No one else that night could of got this image.

Here’s a quick bit of math to explain – just jump ahead if its too much.

Lets say you have a lens at f/5.6, that is 4 stops slower than f/1.4 – Each f-stop will half your shutter speed. So if the light is low and you are at f/5.6 and say 1/20sec exposure – you simply won’t get a photograph. With an f/1.4 the exposure would be 1/320 sec, no problem at all. Get it?

Canon 50mm f1.4

The choice of camera was an easy one, we had a spare 5D in the office.. Simple. If i could of picked anything off the shelf of course it would have been the 5D mark II but for the purpose of this exercise i just needed a “full-frame” camera to compliment the 50mm.

Note: The 50mm on a non full frame camera would have behaved differently, the focal length would have been closer to a 75mm and the nice depth of field would have been compromised.

The R-Strap was great – I recommend it. It wasn’t the be all and end all fantastic solution that i thought but still it was far far better than a neck strap.

- My favourite images from the trip that really show of the 50mm f1.4 can been seen here.

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2. All I want for Christmas…