Tools of the Trade- Lenses

Welcome to another Hohenfels Volks photography article. Today in Tools of the Trade, we’re going to discuss lenses. The lenses are like the eyes of the camera. Without them, your light is useless!

You may hear someone talking about their “glass.” Photographers like to refer to them that way, it’s a kind of insider speak. A fine example is the statement that for shooting pro-sports, you need “fast glass.”

Here are the basic parts of a lens;

The Focusing Ring - this allows you to focus your lens on your desired center of interest.
The Zoom Ring - this allows for changing your focal length on zoom lenses.
Front Optical Lens- the front-most element in a lens. This is where the light enters your lens for image recording.
Rear Element- the last element before the curtain or sensor. This is special because of back focus.
Lens Mount- this is where your lens connects to your camera body. It usually has electrical contacts for the camera to communicate with the lens.
Auto-focus On/Off selector- turns off the lenses auto-focus motor.
IS On/Off selector- if your lens is equipped with IS, this turns it on or off.
Diaphragm Blades- these are the blades used to adjust your aperture. they are sensitive and easily damaged. The more blades, the more circular your aperture.

Never try to mount a lens with a different mounting system than yours to your camera. Canon’s lenses cannot be used on a Nikon without a special adaptor, and vice versa. When mounting your lens, remember to align the mounting marks, and firmly seat the lens on the body. Once your lens is seated, you’re off to the races!

When shooting on a tripod or at higher speeds, turn your IS off. This saves battery life and prevents blurring caused by the IS looking for motion that doesn’t exist. A sufficiently high speed is no slower than 1 over your focal length in seconds. For a 300mm lens, you can safely handhold at no slower than 1/300 second.

Lens Care

When handling your lenses, never touch the glass!
Always keep the camera side of the lens facing down whenever the cover is removed to prevent dust settling on it.
When your lens is mounted, the best option is either a cheap UV filer or Circular polarizer. This will protect the glass of your lens from being scratched or broken.
Clean your lenses with either a cleaning kit or soft lint free microfiber cloth.
Always use a blower bulb to remove the dirt before wiping. Then wipe in a circular motion from inside to outside.
If it still needs cleaning, place a couple drops of lens cleaning solvent on the cloth and wipe again. Never put liquid on the lens.
Store your lenses in a clean dry place. Try to ensure it is free from dust, dirt, and moisture.
The case most lenses come with is a good place to store them.
Never subject your lenses to hard banging or jostling. This can damage the diaphragm blades used to adjust your aperture.
Take care of your lenses and they will provide a lifetime of great images and memories!

Not all lenses are created equal, some are better than others, but taking the time to learn about yours will make it more valuable and your images that much better!

Well, after that long-winded discussion, I’m sure your dying to get out and take some pics. Choose your lens and shoot away! There’s enough around Hohenfels to give all your lenses a workout! Make sure you post the pics to the Hohenfels Volks Facebook page and share the joy with all of us!

Remember; leave your comments and questions here and on our Facebook pages, also.

I'm looking forward to hearing from you!

Thanks to all of you, have a great day!

Center of Interest

Welcome to another Hohenfels Volks post.

Today we’re going to discuss CENTER OF INTEREST. A strong CENTER OF INTEREST is a major feature of great art including painting, writing, and photography. Painters like the Old Dutch masters were experts at it, as were the photographic greats like Ansel Adams and George Hurrell. Rembrandt used it to great effect, as did Michelangelo. They knew where and how to use it to greatest effect.

CENTER OF INTEREST is the main idea of the picture you’re about to shoot. As such, it requires some thought and visualization.

CENTER OF INTEREST is another tool of composition. By placing your CENTER OF INTEREST where it will have the maximum impact, you can lead the viewer into and through your image. One thing to remember is that the CENTER OF INTEREST DOES NOT mean the center of the image.

The main question today is “What is my CENTER OF INTEREST?” Where should I place it? How should I weight it? How should I light it? How does it relate to the story of the image?

If you remember, there are guidelines for composition. Knowing these is the first step in identifying and placing your CENTER OF INTEREST. Your main subject is usually thought of as your CENTER OF INTEREST, although you may be shooting more than one subject. There should only be one CENTER OF INTEREST, as more than that can be confusing. In addition, when people are included in an image where they are not the CENTER OF INTEREST, they should not look directly at the camera. By having them look at the camera, you leave the viewer with doubts about your CENTER OF INTEREST. For impact you can include them, but have them looking at your CENTER OF INTEREST. This can be a powerful way to direct your viewer into your photo. People have a way of wanting to look where others are looking, so this trick will improve your images!

Here around Hohenfels, so many things can become a CENTER OF INTEREST for you. Rivers, mountains, hills, fields, castles, and palaces all make for great CENTERS OF INTEREST. You can make anything your CENTER OF INTEREST; you just have to identify it. The way you identify your CENTER OF INTEREST is through compositional tools, like placement, focus, DOF, and lighting.

Here’s a pic that shows what we're talking about.


A photo showing the wife watching a line of cars passing by. The cars, with their colors make a nice CENTER OF INTEREST. Notice that the wife is not looking toward the camera. Their angle and placement combined with her viewing of the cool cars tends to draw your gaze there, also.

Knowing how to visualize and compose an image with a strong CENTER OF INTEREST is a valuable tool. I hope that this little post has helped someone out there! We’ll be covering more about composition, lighting, and other artistic aspects of photography soon.

Remember; leave your comments and questions here and on our Hohenfels Volks Facebook page. Your participation can make this a true gem!

Thanks to all of you, have a great day!

Around Hohenfels

Welcome to another Hohenfels Volks post.

“Location, location, location!” It’s something we hear all the time, in the movies, television, news, it’s an old saying that seems to be everywhere around us. In photography, the saying should be “Light, light, light!” Our medium requires light to work. However, like most things, just having light isn’t enough.

We’re going to talk about light in another post, which is why I led off with the location quote. Today, we’re talking about an excellent location for photographers! Hohenfels seems to be perfectly located for quick access to so many places. Bayreuth is no exception. Guess where we’re going.

Bayreuth is a city in Bavaria and is located north of Hohenfels and Amberg. It takes about 2 hours by train to get there. That includes a stop in Nuremberg. The city is home to quite a few historic sites and buildings, which provides an incredible array of photographic choices. Let’s mention a few and some of the challenges and nice things about shooting there.

First stop, the Opera House. It was built between 1744 and 1748 for Margravine Wilhelmine, sister of Frederick the Great. She composed music and created much of what is the beauty of Bayreuth. The details are incredible, the splendor and glory here just blow the mind! For the photographer to work here, an off camera flash or two, high ISOs, and wide apertures are very important. Shooting with one remotely triggered flash and an ISO of 1600 resulted in this image.


The Margravine's Opera Box
1/60 f/3.5 ISO 1600

Bayreuth is famous for its association with Wagner, the great German composer. They host a Wagner festival annually. His house is a lovely place for some photos, with great blocks, gardens, tomb, and ivy covered walls nearby! A great place for some truly nice outdoor shots at lower ISOs, and with some light cloud cover, you have a natural soft box to make for some pretty light!

The last place on this visit is the New Palace. Although the inside is incredible, photography isn’t allowed in the actual palace. The entry museums allow photography, though. The best shots here are to be had in the Palace Garden. With a lake through the middle, and rows of tree-covered paths, this is a place to recharge, and practice your shooting skills. The trees can make for challenging light, but knowing your settings and visualizing your shots can make for something great.


Placing the island just a touch higher than the middle of the frame, and allowing the lake shore to converge created a nice composition and created some depth. Turning my circular polarizer to allow the sky to reflect in the lake added a bit of light and balance.
1/60 f/8 ISO 400

There are more great places in Bayreuth. The king of them all is the Hermitage, but with all the photographic opportunities there, that’ll have wait for another post.

Bayreuth, definitely a place for the photographer in all of us! Give it a visit and you’ll be back for more!

Don't forget to leave a comment. Post your questions to our Hohenfels Volks Photo Club Facebook page.

Wishing you a great evening!

Intro to Composition

Today we’re going to talk about COMPOSITION.

Simply put, COMPOSITION is bringing the image you’ve just visualized to life in a pleasing and attractive fashion. Pretty straight forward, isn’t it? Like many things related to photography, it goes deeper than that, simple- yes, easy - no.

Diving into the subject on a basic level, we’re going to cover some basics today.

First, there is subject and object placement to consider. Then there are color, exposure, DOF, weight, balance, and various other considerations.

The tips I’m outlining are not hard and fast rules! While often called rules, you can break them anytime. The trick is to know when and why to break them. That takes some time and practice.

The most commonly discussed is the “rule of thirds.” This rule states that your subject, or subjects, should be placed along an imaginary line dividing the image into thirds. For a more powerful composition, intersections of horizontal and vertical thirds are used. I’ve included a chart showing this and a sample using it below.


This is just a basic chart to show where things line up.


This is an example using a photo I recently took. Notice how the right line runs through the middle of her eye and the bottom right intersection is right about on the corner of her smile. Also, notice the diagonal lines formed by her eyes, smile, and head.

Another rule is the “Golden Spiral.” This one seems to have several names. This is placing your subject near one of the points of intersection in the thirds, and using a nautilus type spiral to lead the eye through the image to the subject. There is some mathematics behind this using the Fibonacci sequence and the “Golden Ratio” of 1.618 to 1. This can be more appealing than a simple rule of thirds, as this more natural. It just takes some practice and patience. I’ve included a link to a site that shows an applet demonstrating this and several others.

Java Adjuster A cool applet that shows the effects and use of the rules regarding composition.
Golden Section and the Rule of Thirds An informative sight covering more about using these rules.

Place your subjects and objects according to how you visualized their importance to the scene. A subject that is important to the overall composition can be placed on one the intersections, or in the center of your “Golden Spiral,” while objects of lower importance can be placed along either a vertical or horizontal third only. Giving each object or subject a weight or ranking based on how you visualize the scene can help in using, and breaking, the rules.

Another important element in COMPOSITION is lines. By having lines in your image, you can lead your viewer through your vision and tell a story in your work.

Diagonal lines add a dynamic and powerful element to an image. C and S shaped lines create a sense of grace and harmony. Vertical and horizontal lines are static. Including a graceful element, like a river, and ensuring that is either C or S shaped, gives the viewer a sense of calm and grace. Use your leading lines, and you will see a change in how you look at a scene and how you start to visualize your images.

Here's a link to a nice little page about COMPOSITION. It's short, simple, and very helpful! 10 Top Photography Composition Rules

Well enough for today. We’ll dive more into COMPOSITION in another post.

Try this out and let me know how it works for you! There are a large number of places that will help you feel more at ease with your COMPOSITIONS around Hohenfels! I’d love to know if it helps! If you have a question, post it to our Facebook account. Also post it here as a comment on the related post, I’ll review it and get back to you! If you have a photo you’d like to share, add it to our wall on Facebook, and I’ll get it posted here.

Tools of the Trade

Today we’re going to talk about the tools used in photography. It doesn’t need to be expensive to get good images!

Camera

Let’s start with the camera. There are lots of options in this area. From the Canon ELPH and Powershot at the point and shoot category, through the Digital Rebel T3 and the EOS 1000d in the entry level DSLR, to the EOS 7d and the EOS 1d at the pro end, options abound. The important thing is to get one that allows you the option of manual control.

Canon’s S95 and PowerShot SX230HS make for great models in the point and shoot area, with manual modes. The 1000d and Rebel T3 are quite reasonably priced beginner DSLRs. Although they seem to have the features of higher priced cameras, you may outgrow most of the lower end DSLRs before too long.

The mid-range DSLRs, like the 50d and 60d, are something that will make your time behind the camera even more enjoyable!

The important thing to remember is that you can take shots that are breathtaking, even with a point and shoot. Don’t become trapped in the technology pitfall. So many people are fooled into thinking that a more expensive or higher level camera means better photos. The fact is, the higher-level cameras require more knowledge and experience to get it right. The higher end cameras usually don’t offer the automated modes, other than P, which is fully automatic.

The most important thing in the camera is the user’s manual. Read it, study it, and learn it! If you know your camera, you can make images that stand out.

Flash

The first piece of gear you should get, after a camera, is a flash. Even with a point and shoot, you can use a flash. Most of your lower priced flashes have a slave mode that will trigger the flash from your on camera flash. Getting your flash off camera is the first step to getting good light.

You can get a great flash from Yongnuo, for less than a cheap OEM flash, with most of the features. The YN-560 is a fully manual flash that costs around $70.00, and has the power of Canon’s 580EXII flash. It doesn’t offer TTL or HSS, but gives some great light to your image. Their YN-565 offers E-TTL and a modeling light for around $200.00, and it will work with the built in flash remote control on the 7D or as a slave to a canon 580EXII with full E-TTL.

Another good thing to get at the same time is a flash RF trigger. You can get a set of two receivers and one transmitter for around $50.00. This increases your range and allows you to use the flash in interesting places and ways. It’s also more reliable than using a trigger from a flash or your on camera flash.

Tripods

A good tripod is a requirement for long shutter speeds. Without one, your images will be blurry when handheld at slow speeds. The high end ones can run several hundreds of dollars, but even a $30.00 tripod will produce what you need.

You can also use your tripod for holding your flash, so a second one is a great investment.

One more thing to get is a remote shutter release. They come in wireless and wired varieties and are reasonably priced. When you set your camera on a tripod, it’s necessary to use one, as it will reduce camera shake quite visibly.

What I wrote above is just a basic intro to getting your kit together. Look for more articles on tools and accessories for photography in future posts. I’ll also try to provide some reliable reviews. If you have a favorite piece of gear and would like to write a review, let me know. We’ll get your review on here.

Should you have a question, post it to our Facebook account. Also post it here as a comment on the related post, I’ll review it and get back to you! If you have a photo you’d like to share, add it to our wall on Facebook, and we'll try to get it up here!

Have a great day!