Photographer’s Creative Vision

Camera lenses
How a tube and some glass combine to resolve a photographer’s creative vision Inside a camera lens The parts that produce the ideal picture The lens is one of the most important components of any
camera. In its simplest terms, a lens is a tube containing a set of glass elements (or lenses), each of which is positioned precisely to channel light through the tube, focusing it onto your camera’s sensor or film plane, and resolving an image of the outside world as a result.


Knowing which lens to use for which shot is the key to achieving the perfect photograph

Standard

A standard or ‘normal’ lens typically has a focal length equal to the diagonal of the focal plane, which is around 35 mm on a ‘cropped’ (APS-C) sensor DSLR or 50 mm on a full frame camera. The front element of a standard lens is fairly fl at, so light is not significantly bent internally, and the image projected onto the sensor should roughly fill it, without any overlap. The standard lens is considered ideal for portraits as – when engineered correctly – they generate little, if any, distortion and tend to perform well in low light. 

USE LENS IF/WHEN… … trying to capture flattering portraits with minimal distortion

Wide angle                                                                                                                                          

Wide-angle lenses have a short focal length (roughly less than 35mm on a full frame camera) and have curved front elements, which give them a wide angle of view. The fact that the glass at the front of the lens is curved outwards means the light rays enter the front element at a sharper angle, spreading light across a smaller area of the camera’s sensor and therefore producing a wider angle of view in your fi nal image. This has the effect of allowing the lens to ‘see’               more around it and exaggerating the wide perspective of a scene.                                                             

USE LENS IF/WHEN… … photographing groups of people, tall buildings or sweeping landscapes

Telephoto                                                                                                                                               

A telephoto lens covers the longer end of the focal ranges – with around 200- 300mm being the most popular among enthusiasts, but professionals often use much longer optics. The front group of elements in a telephoto lens gather and project light onto a rear group of elements, which magnify the image transmitted and spread it across a wider area of the image sensor, creating a magnifi ed version of your distant subject. This                                                                                                design allows the lens elements to be closer together, helping to keep the physical length of the lens barrel compact in relation to its focal length. 

USE LENS IF/WHEN… … you have to shoot from a distance, such as at sporting events or when photographing wildlife and candid portraits

Macro                                                                                                                                                      

Macro optics are highly specialised lenses with powerful magnification capabilities. They feature a flat image plane and, usually, very high-grade glass elements which are highly corrected to minimise any distortion. Most produce a 1:1 (life- size) reproduction of a subject, although some can magnify by up to five times.

USE LENS IF/WHEN… … you want to make small things look big 

Fisheye                                                                                                                                               

 A fish eye lens is an extreme version of a wide-angle lens. The front element is bulbous, literally like fish eye,  which diverges light.These lenses produce a great deal of distortion, with objects being‘pulled’ away from the center of the frame, but give a very wide angle of view – often around 180-degrees or more.  

USE LENS IF/WHEN… … you want everything in your shot, or for comic effect in portraits

                                                          Teleconverter 

 Teleconverters are basically tubes       that contain predominantly diverging lens elements. These are attached to your existing lens and increase its magnification power, allowing you to zoom further with a telephoto lens or magnify your subject more with a macro optic, for example. The downside is they reduce the lens’s maximum aperture and can reduce image quality. 

USE LENS IF/WHEN… … your telephoto lens isn’t quite long enough to fill the frame with your subject