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- Hi, this is Jay P Morgan. Today in "The Slanted Lens" we're going to look at
lenses. What lens do you buy after you bought your camera with that little kit
lens that came with it? What's the next step from there? What are the choices you
have and how do you spend your money wisely. I'm here with Deliana, we shot on
the bridge this morning, we show the different focal lengths and what they
do. We're going to show a little bit of that shoot and how we did it. But first
off let's talk about lenses. As a foundation for our conversation today,
we're going to take a look at our talent using different lens. I'm going to stand in
the same place, let's take a look on what those look like and how it changes the
scene as I don't change my position but we just simply change the focal length.
Here's the 16 mm lens, here's the 24 mm lens, here's the 35 mm lens, here's a 50
mm lens, here's a 70 mm lens, this is a 100 mm lens, now were looking at 135 mm
lens, last of all we have our 200 mm lens. The longer the focal length, the narrow
the angle of view. People come closer to us. Look at my lesson called How Lens Focal Length
Shapes a Face to see what happens when you move closer with the wide angle lens.
That gives you a good idea what lenses do as you move closer change their
perspective. My first pack, my Mark II, I bought three lenses. I bought 16 to 35,
24 to 70, a 70 to 200. I mean I feel like I had a range of about everything I could do with
those three lenses. So, those are my next purchases when after I bought my camera,
maybe you can't afford to buy all the three of those at the same time. So,
what's the one lens you wanna buy? It really comes down to what it is your
shooting. Let's look at this between fix focal length and zoom lenses. zoom lenses,
have the ability to zoom in and out, which means on this you go to 24 or 70 mm, it
gives you the ability to really work quikly. I use zoom lenses almost
exclusively, because I can just get in and shoot quickly, it give me reality to
change my focal length very fast and really frame my image. Keeps the flow
going for me. So, I loved. The prime lenses really fix focal length, which
means you get one focal length, you gotta walk in closer or walk back. You wanna
change the perspective. Fixed focal length lenses are sharper because there aren't
any moving elements, they're just a sharper lens. A zoom lens gives you the
option to be now look in closer and zoom in and out. But because the elements
moved, it's a little softer. But you know, zoom lenses come a long way, it's pretty
darn good. I start I have a 50 mm lens here. A 50 mm lens is very normal. If I
take a shot of her, it's good to see pretty much the way my eye does. I'm got a
very comfortable shot, feel very nice of her. This one actually a macro lens. So, I
get in really, really, close.
[click, click, click]
So, great shot of her eye.
[laughs]
Even closer. So, I base by just getting her eye and nothin' else. That's a
specially lens, it's not a normal 50 mm lens, it's a macro lens. If you use a fix
focal length lens then this is what the zoom is. A 24 mm lens, this is the only
way you can zoom, and zoom more. That's one of the reason I love zoom lenses, 'cause
I ain't just go in and out do a lot of options, I don't go in and out. With the
fix focal length lenses, as you walk in closer of further away from the servic it
changes the perspective. But with the zoom lens you can zoom in or out and it doesn't
change it's perspective at all. Well, zoom lenses you got a 2.8 that's
about as fast you're going to get but the prime lens you can get to 1.0, you... I
mean ou really get four to six times more light with the prime lens. A much
shallower dept of field, which means is you want that really nice
bokeh or really
want as focus to fall out the background. So much as you think to do with the prime
lens. A 50 mm prime lens at a 1.2 the background is gonna drop out from very
quickly. It's a great lens for doing children or people kinds of things. I
really like when you get into longer lenses. So, I really permit the 70 to 200
mm zoom is great for me and again it's a 2.8. I just love that 200 mm lens, it's
just so sweet. It's a highlight on the right side from the open sky and a little
sun the left side. And really, once takes you to second two eights, some wide open.
Let's everything kind of out of focus on the background. The next thing you face
is... can I get as she squish all time, what about image stabilization. You know,
is that worth the money? Absolutely, if your gonna hand hold lenses at all using
some kind of vibration control, which is canon has, the image stabilization that
canon has. You'll need that, if you gonna hand hold the 200 mm lens, you absolutely
has to have that. So, I think it's worth the money, I really do. If you gonna keep
on tripod and your gonna shoot nothing but your tripod, then your probably gonna be
okay. But I think it's worth the money to get the image stabilization the broad ways
you consider. So, wrap that up, primes, shapness and apertures so you get more
light. Zooms, ease and convenience, you can get in and out fast. Those are the
difference between those two lenses. So, lets talk about aperture because the most
important thing you're going to purchase when you buy lens is the aperture. It's
not just a focal length. So, it can also be help fast as the lens, that means how
wide and opens up. Your kit lens that came with your camera probably has a 3.5, 4.5,
for some vary in aperture. So, as you zoom in the aperture changes. That really is
inconvenient, your light changes, it's hard to work with.
It's really the sign of inexpensive lens. When you get a fix aperture of 2.8 that
means that your light is not going to change. But if it's a 2.8, it's going to
give the shallow depth of field, it really isn't. Can you get a 1.2 or a 1.8, that
really is going to be very shallow depth of field. Make us sure you get one of the
foca, it get's the background of drop up break quickly. So, aperture is worth the
money, but it does cost money. There was saying in the racing indusries, "Speed
cost money, how fast you wanna go?"
[laughs]
- So lenses cost money, how fast you wanna go? And I think it's absolutely worth it.
The quicker the lens, the shallower dept of field, the easier is to work. But
remember this, when you really get in to that really shallow dept of field kind of
work, you really need to know and help in experience to make that valuable to you.
Because if your gonna shoot at 1.2 there's not much in focus, especially, on 5D mark
3, there's not much in focus at all. So, it might not be the first lens your gonna
want to buy. You might wanna get something that really get a little easier, not spent
the money and get a 2.8 lens and that will help you get a work in A2. Help kind the
work in that world and you can progress with it. I don't know how much you spend
by do know this, the kit lens that came with your camera is got a good help. And
need to get something that;s got to be a little better to help with you to work in
A2. Okay, so we've talked about different focal lengths, we talked about zoom versus
fix focal length, we talked about apertures, we talked about vibration
control or image stabilization. Now, the question comes, you have your, you bought
a 50 mm lens what's the next lens you buy? Really for me, it's a 24 to 70 mm lens.
That's the best choice for me because it's a great background lens, it's a great
application, it's a fix aperture, really does a job I used to. But again I can't
answer that question because your going to apply this to what you do, a little
research about the kind of work that you wanna do and find the lens that's gonna
best suite the images that you wanna make. But I will guess that 24 to 70 is probably
your next purchase. For those of you whose little more advance, you maybe have some
zoom lenses, you wonder what the next purchase is. You know, it really become a
very surgical decision. You buy a certain lens to a very cetain
thing. I bought the 24 1.4 lens, I really going to use that on the Glidecam, I'm
going to use it to do time laspe. So that... that lens will solve that problem
for me. So, you start making decisions. Generally speaking, you start buying prime
lenses to do very specific things, they're sharper, they'll work a little better for
you and you kind the graduate to that next level. Let's look at out lighting set up
for today's lessons, we used a FlexFlash on a stand with a Dynalight XP-800 battery
pack. I have an octodome with a grid on it which will keep our light very defined and
just on the talent's face. This is place on that small alcobe just over to the side
of the bridge. That's the only place we could find, work a tucker light in. So we
move our shoot down to that area. We set that light of that left side, then as we
aim to our talent we've felt it a way at the wall and slightly down so it wasn't
line up too much on the wall and just stayed on her face. It's a little warm, so
when I go in to those raw images I can take the warm side of it, which can make
the background just a little bit cooler and get a nice look in the end. So, this
is the basic lighting set that we used. Remember, it isn't the equipment you buy
that takes great images. You use equipment to make great images but you gonna be all
take great pictures. You gotta' practice, you gotta' deal of used equipment you buy.
So make sure your using equipment to it's fullest, don't spend tons of money on
things you don't need. But buy the things you need to be able to progress to the
next level. So keep those cameras rollin' keep on clickin'. There's many different
ways you can answer to win one of this piece of equipment from Vanguard, so go to
theslantedlens. com. You have until midnight on the 20th of December and we'll
gonna give these all away for Christmas. So go to theslantedlens.com and enter
there win one of these great piece of equipment from Vanguard. Also, don't
forget to like us on Facebook and subscribe on Youtube channel. Keep those
cameras rollin' keep on clickin'.