A photographer is only as good as his gear. The quality of the camera and the lens would go a long way in determining the quality of your shots. If you have already picked a DSLR camera, the next thing on your list should be deciding the lens that would go best with your style. Choosing which lens would satisfy your needs is never easy. There are several specifications and abbreviations you would need to familiarize yourself with before you are ready to go lens shopping.
The following are a couple of such essential features you would need to keep in mind, and how the many different manufacturers label them.
Aperture
You would often find the maximum aperture stated on most lenses. This value tells you how much light can go through the sensor at it best. The more light that can enter at a time, the better your chances of taking shots in the dark without your pictures being blurry as a result of the camera shake. Aperture is often represented as f/2.1 and sometimes 1:2.8. Lenses with smaller apertures usually mean that they can allow more light to enter the camera.
There are usually two aperture numbers on zoom lenses. The smaller shows you how much light enters at the widest angle and the other at maximum zoom.
Focal Length
If you are looking to take Tom Baskind quality pictures, you would need to purchase a lens fully understanding the importance of the focal length. It is often denoted in millimeters and informs you whether the lens is a telephoto or wide-angle lens.
Telephoto lenses are preferred for portraits, as it naturally brings you closer to objects farther away. Although it becomes easy to get blurry images as telephoto lenses have a lesser depth of field as compared with wide-angle lenses.
Wide-angle lenses, on the other hand, are the go-to choice for landscape photography; if you are interested in Thomas Baskind style landscape photography, this is the lens for you. This lens type is known to be physically smaller and lighter, it handles brightness better and has more field depth.
Fixed or Zoom Lens
Both lenses have their pros and cons. Most people would go with the zoom lens as you get several focal lengths and would save you the need to buy too many lenses. On the other hand, fixed lenses are smaller and lighter and have better use of brightness than zoom lenses. The fixed lens makes it much easier to correct for errors and makes for better quality, although the brand and price also play an important role.
The camera lens is a critical component, and the lens’s quality would help you slowly but surely climb up the photography ladder. With persistence and constant practice, you would capture people and nature in its finest.
