My lens has a sweet WHAT?!?

So the discussion came up in my photography class this past weekend about the "sweet spot" of a lens. I guess I take for granted sometimes that aperture and depth of field are photography concepts that take a while to fully understand. It wasn't that long ago that I didn't know my aperture from a hole in the wall (bad pun intended).

An aperture is literally "a hole or an opening through which light travels." Nothing more, nothing less. The amount of light let through the opening in a lens is defined by aperture stops or f/stops. Each f/stop down allows exactly 50% less light to pass through the lens onto the camera film or sensor.

A basic understanding of aperture is required to understand why a lens has a sweet spot. Basically all lenses are different in terms of quality and build but a good rule of thumb is that the sweet spot, or sharpest aperture, of any lens is typically one to two f/stops down from the lens's maximum aperture. This doesn't mean that you can't shoot at the maximum aperture but the image will be noticeably sharper stopped down. The more expensive a lens is, the closer the sweet spot is to its maximum aperture.

Here are some resources on the subject:
B&H Insights
Digital Photography School
Digital Shot

See a need, Fill a need

This is a true story. Only the names have been changed to protect the innocent. 

A little history: About a year ago, I went on a search around Bangor to find advanced training on photography. My search came up with a possible course that was geared toward intermediate shooters so I plunked down some money and figured I'd give it a try. The images shown are from that class.

To give you a little background, the only "formal" training I've ever received was an introductory photography course at UMaine. That laid a great foundation but it wasn't enough. At the time I was searching, I was ready to take my skill to the next level and I now realize that what I really was looking for some guidance. So back to the class. It took place at a local photography establishment and lasted a couple of hours. My biggest frustration with the class was that it wasn't practical use information. Not to mention that their definition of intermediate was quite different from mine. The worst part about the class is that I was shot down several times from asking questions since it was beyond the scope of the material.

I left that day disappointed but I spoke with the employees at the store and asked if they knew of any professionals in the area that would be interested in mentoring or tutoring. I indeed received the contact info of a well known photography studio in the area. After contacting this person and waiting several weeks for a reply, I finally got a response. I received an e-mail from a secretary at Mr. So-and-So's studio that in fact he does offer classes at a $$$$$ price. Long story short, I felt my money would be better spent on books and equipment and that was that.

Fast forward to present day: I get so many questions from clients and new parents that I know that have recently purchased a DSLR and are struggling to get great pictures. It takes me back to my frustrations with trying to find someone that will speak to me at my skill level and really help me learn what I want to learn in a practical way.

Lightbulb! Wait a minute. No one around is offering mentoring/tutoring at a reasonable price so why can't I? After giving the whole idea some thought, I realized that I enjoy mentoring almost as much as I enjoy shooting. Just ask my protege Jay who now has a budding photography business of his own, Jay Preston Photography.

So here is what I'm offering, one or two hour on location sessions to show you once and for all, what the heck all those settings mean, why your images are blurry, why are they out of focus, what aperture REALLY means, what is raw and is it safe to eat......?

Best of all, it's learning photography in your environment, on your terms and about the things you want to photograph. You set the starting point and the pace so each session is truly customized and unique.

Who put the fast in the fast glass?

I often get the question from aspiring photographers, "Which lens should I buy?" This post is for you. If you never could quite understand why in the world I would ever recommend a lens that doesn't zoom, here it is. The fastest most expensive zooms have f/2.8 as their widest aperture. The fastest primes in production go down to f/1.2 What does aperture mean and why is it important? 

Well in layman's terms, it's the amount of light a lens allows into the sensor to capture an image. The best way I've ever heard it explained is picture a bucket and a faucet. The larger the faucet, the less amount of time it's going to take to fill the bucket. In the example below, the exposures are all the same but the amount of light required to properly expose the f/1.2 image is actually over 5 stops lower than the amount of light required to expose the f/8.0 image. That's 5 times less light at f/1.2!  Have you ever wondered why your images are blurry inside when you don't use a flash? This is why. It takes 5 times as long to get the same image. 

Do you notice anything else about the images? Does that f/1.2 image look strange? That's because of the VERY shallow depth of field. I'll let you judge for yourself which one you find most appealing and I'll leave that topic for another day! : )