LENS CHOICE
Make the most of your DSLR’S lens arsenal and capture a variety of different viewing angles
Wide angle of view
the sun was shining and the skies were blue when we arrived in Aix-les-bains, situated next to a huge lake, Lac de Bourget, that’s filled with boats and surrounded by imposing mountains. It’s filled with photo ops – and nice cafés for lunch! It’s an ideal spot to shoot with the different lenses we packed in our carry-on luggage.
One of the big benefits of DSLRS, over basic compact cameras, is the ability to switch lenses to suit whatever you’re shooting. Both editor Peter and operations editor Adam use Canon’s trusty EF 24-105mm f/4l IS USM as their go-to standard zoom lenses, but switch to specialist wide-angle and telephoto zoom lenses as and when the situation demands it.
For a shot of boats in the harbour we reached for a wideangle zoom. Shooting on a fullframe 5D Mk III, the 16-35mm captures a broader view to include more in the frame.
If you’re using a crop-sensor DSLR, such as an 80D or 7D Mk II, then you’ll need a 10-20mm lens or similar for an equivalent focal length – 1.6 crop x 10mm = 16mm. Note that wide-angle lenses will capture greater depth of field (at equivalent apertures, compared to telephoto lenses), making them ideal for landscapes with front-toback sharpness.
Tight angle of view
there was lots of action on the water, so we reached for our telephoto zoom lens to capture the faraway sailing boats, backlit beautifully by the sunlight. Shooting at 200mm enabled us to zoom in and isolate a group of four boats from their surroundings. Note that telephoto lenses will produce a shallower depth of field (at equivalent apertures, compared to wide-angle lenses), so at wide apertures, such as f/4, they’re great for focusing on subjects to separate them from the background.
Perfect panos
one common mistake is trying to squeeze a sweeping vista into a single photo with a wide-angle lens; you’ll end up with oodles of sky and vast empty foregrounds, with the ‘impressive’ mountains reduced to an insignificant strip. The solution is to zoom in and take a series of overlapping shots, then merge them into a panorama. Use a tripod and ensure it’s level. Set an exposure for the most interesting part of the scene, then lock this in with Manual exposure as otherwise you’ll have a mishmash of differently exposed frames. Shoot at around 50mm focal length and overlap each image by 30 per cent. Then let Photoshop do all the really hard work by selecting File>automate>photomerge…