If you want to take professional photos, is it okay to have only one camera lens? How to shoot?

Many photographers want to change one lens after playing for a short time, but as everyone knows, the lens in their hands has not played its best role. What's more, frequent lens changes will only make you step by step into the abyss of equipment and gradually drift away from the essence of photography. Today, this article will talk to you about how to make good use of the lens in your hand and play photography well.

1, turn eyes into lenses

Anyone who has played photography must feel this way. What the human eye sees is different from what it sees through the lens. Even the 35mm lens, which claims to be the closest to human visual experience, can clearly see that the visual angle of the picture is very different from the scene seen by human eyes.

The reason is that the camera is monocular imaging, while the eyes are binocular imaging, plus the visual correction of the human brain. Therefore, what the eyes see is a square cabinet on the plane. In the lens, because of the relationship between the near and the far, what they see in the lens is a barrel trapezoid.

The so-called "turning your eyes into a lens" means that when you see a scene, you automatically form the scene in your mind. If this can be done, the human eye becomes a lens, which is equivalent to observing from the viewfinder all the time when shooting, and it is easier to find some imperceptible beauty. This ability is also called "photographic eye" by many people.

In order to get a photographic eye, you need to take a long shot. In the process of continuous shooting, remember the perspective it shows, and remember how far you can shoot what kind of scenery.

Often when shooting a scene, you will see many fans take two steps to take a look at the camera, and then take two steps to take a look at the camera. This is an unfamiliar performance of the camera, and in the process of "taking two steps", it is likely that the good shooting position and angle will be mistaken.

Therefore, before changing the lens, think about whether you have printed the visual feeling of this lens in your mind. If not, then pick it up and keep shooting, and you will certainly be able to shoot more beautiful pictures that you have not paid attention to before.

2. Tips for tapping the imaging ability of the lens

Some photographers change their lenses because they think the images are not clear enough. Let's not discuss the influence of sharpness on the quality of a photo for the time being. If you want to improve the imaging quality of the existing lens, please try to use the maximum aperture to increase two steps, and the aperture used should not be less than the penultimate step.

For example, if I have a 50mm lens with F 1.4, then its optimal imaging aperture is around F2.8; Its minimum aperture is F22, so the aperture used cannot be less than F 1 1.

Of course, this is in sunny conditions, and there is no high requirement for depth of field. If the light is not good, of course, you don't have to worry about using F2.8. After all, improving ISO has a far greater impact on image quality than the optimal aperture. This method is suitable for most lenses.

If you are an extreme photographer, you can test the "best imaging aperture" of the lens you use yourself. You can fix the camera, shoot the same scene with different aperture values, and then compare the imaging clarity horizontally.

In order to improve contrast recognition, we can look for colors and light edges with high contrast as reference objects. As shown below, by observing the projection of branches on the ground, we can clearly get the comparison results:

As shown above, by comparing the projection of branches with the edge of sunlight, we can clearly conclude that f/9 is sharper than f/22.

If it is too much trouble to find the edge with high contrast, you can also take some special patterns (such as the scale of a ruler or dense straight lines, etc.). ), and then enlarge the contrast on the computer screen. As shown in the figure below, it can be clearly seen that the imaging of f/9 is sharper than that of f/22 by enlarging the contrast details.

Using this method, you can compare several groups of aperture value imaging one by one, find out the "best aperture", and maximize the hard power of your lens.

3. Did you use the zoom head correctly?

It is said that the imaging quality of the zoom head is not good. Want to change the lens? In fact, the zoom head also has tips to improve the image quality as much as possible. Most importantly, never screw the zoom ring on your head to shoot. Even a little recycling will improve the image quality.

So when you use the wide-angle end and telephoto end, once you screw it to the end, you will habitually recycle it, and the zoom head in your hand will appreciate again. This technology is suitable for all zoom heads.

Like the previous point, if you are an extreme photographer, you can test the imaging ability of the zoom lens you use. You'd better "split" them into several most commonly used focal segments, and then make a "full aperture imaging contrast" similar to a fixed focus lens.

For example, if you buy a ferrule of 18-55mm, then your most commonly used focal lengths should be four: wide-angle end, telephoto end, 24 or 35mm (generally wide angle) and 50mm (portrait). Then, take these four "common focal lengths" as four fixed-focus lenses, and do "full-aperture imaging contrast" one by one, and then write down the results ~

Use the four most commonly used focal lengths as the four fixed-focus lenses. However, the performance of zoom lens in fixed focal length is not always comparable to that of fixed-focus lens of the same grade, so it is not necessary to be so detailed in "full aperture imaging contrast", just take a few key values.

4. Highlight the characteristics of the lens.

Many photographers don't give full play to the characteristics of the lens and want to try other lens effects. For example, holding a wide angle in your hand envies the feeling of someone else's telephoto lens; Holding a standard mirror in his hand, I envy the atmosphere of others' super wide-angle shooting. In fact, lenses with different focal lengths have their own characteristics, and each lens is absolutely beautiful.

For example, a wide-angle lens is characterized by a wide field of vision, but it also has exaggerated near-large and far-small distortions, which can be used to shoot many pictures with strong impact. This feature is fully displayed when the subject is brought closer to the camera.

Another example is telephoto lens, which is very good at shooting close-ups, can show local aesthetic feeling, and it is easy to create a clean and concise picture effect. Shooting portraits or animals can easily produce blurred effects.

For standard lenses, don't look at the word "standard" and think that this kind of lens has no characteristics. Standard lens is very suitable for expressing the formal beauty of the scene, such as environmental portraits, street shooting, documentaries and other topics are very suitable for shooting with standard lens.

The beauty that each focal segment can shoot is different, so when you want to change the lens, do you really shoot the unique beauty that this focal segment can see? If not, keep shooting with it!