Choosing Lenses for your DSLR Camera

I've mentioned earlier if you're just getting started in photography, your kit lens is enough. Why? Because you don't know yet what kind of photography you're more interested into and the more often that you'll buy lenses or other equipments which you will not use for a long period of time. As you start learning photography there is gap between what you want to be; a portrait, landscape, commercial, band, editorial, sports or a wedding photographer. This gap will narrow as you start to learn more and progress being a photographer. There are variety of lenses to choose from; wide angle, zoom, telephoto, macro and prime lenses. Here are some guides on how to choose lenses for your DSLR camera:

1. What type of photography that you're more interested?

This is the most important question in choosing lenses. If you don't know the answer, spend more time shooting and learning. This will help you realize what type of photography you're more interested and keep you on the track. Also remember that you want to be a photographer not a lens collector and you should choose  the appropriate lenses for a certain type of photography. 

2. Focal Length

If you already know what type of photography you're into, the next consideration is the focal length for coverage of the scene. For landscape, architectural or group you may want to the focal length from 11mm - 35mm; for portraits you might consider shooting 50mm or more because you want to give space or distance to your client in shooting and avoid distortion or chromatic aberration. For sports, wildlife and bird photographers they use 200mm or more. While from macro varies 40mm, 60mm or 105mm which will allow you focusing as much as 6 inches to your subject like flowers, insects or smaller objects. There are also prime lenses (fixed focal length and aperture) which are lighter in construction than zoom lenses and offers sharper images.

3. Maximum Aperture

The aperture values on consumer zoom lenses varies; every time you change the range of focal length, the aperture change along. Again it falls on what type of photography you're into but also considers the stops of light it can add to your settings especially if you're shooting in low light conditions.

4. VR (Vibration Compensation), IS (Image Stabilization), VC (Vibration Compensation) or OS (Optical Stabilization)

If you have shaky hands and can't shoot steadily in lower shutter speed settings then you  should consider VR(Nikon), IS(Canon), OS (Sigma), VC(Tamron), it compensates the subtle movement of the camera so that you will not have blurry images.

5. Crop/ Full Frame Lenses
Do you have plans moving from crop to full frame DSLR camera? Then you should also consider investing to lenses which are compatible to full frame bodies. Crop lenses are not compatible to full frame bodies while full frame lenses works great for crop and full frame bodies.

6. Budget

Again, how much are willing to spend? If you're just an amateur not earning to compensate on what you're shooting then you should consider this as well. How about third party lenses? There are so many third party lenses and you should do a research about it. But you should keep in mind that you get what you paid for and it will not be as great as Nikon or Canon. Sometimes you'll read lot of positive comments from the users but it does not guarantee that you'll be happy using it.

7. Rent or Borrow from Friends

If you're unsure with lens that you're about to buy, the most inexpensive way is to rent or borrow from friends. In that way, you will have the freedom to choose before spending your money rather than buying the lens and selling it for a lower price if you're not using it anymore.

A little piece of advice, invest more on lenses than camera bodies. With so many advances in the DSLR camera industry, you'll find more camera bodies are coming out with cheaper prices. But with lenses, you'll see that it takes manufacturers years to replace it and the value doesn't go down that much.

Color Management

Getting consistent exposure with correct white balance, you may opt to print your images. But why my images are too dark, too light and it's not the same color from what I'm seeing on my monitor when I'm printing? Here's a video from another well-known photographer Karl Taylor on Monitor Color Calibration.

Monitor Color Calibration from Karl Taylor

After calibrating your monitor, you need to calibrate also your images. The image below which looks like a make-up or water coloring kit is a color checker passport which is used for color correcting your images. The tool creates a profile which you can use to achieve an accurate and consistent colors. Check out the video on how to use the color checker passport.

X-Rite Color Checker Passport

Using the Color Checker Passport from X-rite

The videos above are only the basic of color management, you may want to check other books, tutorials or references for an in-depth understanding.

sRGB and AdobeRGB

There are two main color spaces in digital photography; sRGB(IEC61966-2.1) and AdobeRGB. What's the difference and what should I use? Why my images seem to be different in Chrome, Internet Explorer or Safari? Here's a video of Peachpit presented by Matt Kloskowski to know better.

A video from Peachpit presented by Matt Kloskowski

If you're just beginning and haven't heard of this guy, he's the one you shouldn't miss when it comes to editing like Lightroom and Photoshop. To learn more about his tutorials you can visit http://lightroomkillertips.com/ and his work at http://www.mattkloskowski.com/. Just a reminder if you're shooting RAW, you can see that sRGB or Adobe RGB is not available in the color space option. Don't worry about it because all the information and data are already stored in the RAW format and you can choose what color space you will use in the editing stage.

A Day with Glen Navarra

Glen Navarra

Last year, Photoberx was very lucky to meet Glen Navarra, a humble and very talented photographer based in Philadelphia. Working currently as a Nurse, he considers photography as a hobby and shoots occasionally. Introduced by Mitzel delos Reyes (one of the pioneers of Photoberx), he was only in Bermuda for few days of vacation but spent most of his time sharing us his knowledge in photography. We were stunned and overfed by the information he's giving to us, we felt that there's more to learn and it's a long way to go for the world of photography. From actual shooting, technical information, color correction and printing, he shares all of these for free. 

Black and White Post Processing Tutorial from Glen

Glen explains how to use the reflector considering the light source

Glen lent me his Nikon 85mm f1.4 for Portrait Shooting

Glen explains how we can shoot in broad daylight using scrim to soften the light

The Final Product with a little enhancement in post processing

Q&A and explanation of color checker passport

Although Glen produces awesome images he shares that it was not easy for him. When he was shooting years ago, the resources are very few unlike today that you can search it through the internet, more books are there and workshops are being offered by artists. He said that there are ups and downs. There comes a time in his life that he's not happy with his images and want to quit photography. But his passion and desire pushed him to the limits. Asked why he's offering to share his knowledge for free, it was God a given talent and you have to share it. He mentioned that he doesn't care if you're gonna be a better photographer than him someday, he just want to share all of his knowledge without anything in return. Also, he said Photoshop is a secondary option and still best to produce great images straight from the camera. Before  leaving Bermuda, he was so anxious if we learned something from him. All we can say is: A LOT! The experience was overwhelming and it was our pleasure. Thanks Glen for the knowledge and inspiring us. For those who want to see more of his work, you can visit http://glennavarra.com and http://www.flickr.com/photos/glenox/sets/

Edgar and Uniz | Engagement Session

There's nothing like a sweet engagement session for friends over the weekend to brighten our day. 

We started shooting in some of the historical places of St. George's. The St. Peter's church which was constructed 400 years ago. Aboard the replica of the ship Deliverance. And headed to the unfinished church which began its construction work in 1870s but was not completed due to some reasons. Sadly it was already closed to public because the structure deteriorated causing safety risk to the visitors. Moving on, we headed to Church Bay, a small and rocky beach yet breathtaking location. 

I'm featuring the engagement session of Edgar and Uniz. Special thanks fo my wife, Charlotte and Fleur for assisting and proposing of poses and locations. (Click on the image for a larger view.)

Understanding RAW & JPEG

On your camera there is an option which you can choose the file format of the captured images, RAW (Canon CR2 - Canon RAW version 2 and Nikon NEF - Nikon Electornic Format), JPEG or even both. Here's a video from Mark Wallace for AdoramaTV, an in-depth explanation of RAW and JPEG files.

RAW vs. JPEG by Mark Wallace

In most cases, RAW offers flexibility to the shooters, in terms of exposure (2 stops overexposed and 2 stops underexposed), white balance, sharpening, etc. With affordable electronic storage space (memory card & hard drive) available in the market, file size will never be a problem. But will be bit expensive in terms of software to be used for editing. While JPEG offers portability which allows you to shoot thousand of  images without carrying dozens of memory card. RAW and JPEG have their advantages and disadvantages. Which is better? There is no definite answer to that question. But for beginners I would suggest to begin with JPEG, why? 

1. To focus more attention in shooting than sitting in the front of computer.

2. To understand what camera setting is required for a certain scenario.

3. To develop consistency/ instinct in shooting.

And just a piece of advice, if you're already shooting RAW there's no excuse to say that you'll make corrections (exposure and white balance) in the editing software when you can make them right away on the camera. 

Carmi | St. Catherine Beach

T'was raining for almost a week and I was worried that we can't make my first shoot over the weekend. Sunday came and we're lucky enough to have an overcast day. The clouds served as my gigantic softbox from the harsh sunlight creating diffused lighting.

I'm featuring our session with Carmi Hermosura, who works as an Auditor at one of the biggest audit firms in Bermuda. It was quite a challenge for me considering I don't have experience in directing for the poses but with the help of my wife we were able to pull it off. Here are the photos from last year's shoot. (Click on the image for a larger view.)