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RifleDude View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote RifleDude Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July/20/2015 at 15:16
Originally posted by Marine24 Marine24 wrote:


I understand the wider field of view and limitations of getting close portrait shots using a 17mm or similar prime lense, but can't those limitations be address during post processing by cropping in close if you want a tight head shot?



No, because it isn't just a field of view consideration involved. There's also the issue of depth of field perspective. No matter what you do, a shot taken with a wide angle lens will never look like a shot taken with either a "normal" (around 50mm effective focal length) or a telephoto lens. When you get close to a subject with a wide angle lens, it distorts the subject considerably because the distance between objects and surfaces closer to the lens and those further from the lens is exaggerated. this can make a person's nose or head look proportionally too large in relation to their face or body (or whatever is closest to the lens), depending on your shot angle. In addition, wide angle lenses also typically have significant barrel distortion. Therefore, if you take a reasonably close-up portrait of someone or if your subject is very far from the center of the frame, their features can be significantly distorted much like one of those comical carnival mirrors. The barrel distortion gives a cool creative effect that can be very dramatic to some scenes, but is typically very undesirable for portraits of people.

The longer your lens focal length, the more it compresses depth of field perspective, the same as viewing objects further away with any other optic or with your eyes. Objects in the foreground and beyond the foreground thus appear to be closer together. Additionally, lens distortion tends to be less prominent to non-existent in the focal lengths normally used for dedicated portrait photography (50mm and greater). The greater perspective compression is more flattering to your subject because it doesn't distort their features, and the subject appears more like you typically see the person with normal human vision.
Ted


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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Marine24 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July/20/2015 at 15:50
Dang.  Didn't think it was that simple.  Explains why my Aunt didn't much care for the close up I cropped of her from a wide angle group photo.

I get the strange feeling that if I decide to get in to this hobby further, I'm going to have more lenses and camera bodies than I do scopes and holsters.

Thanks for the encouragement and help.  Order is in for the Olympus OM-D E-M1 Camera, along with the M Zuiko Digital ED 12-40mm f/2.8, couple of extra batteries and a couple SanDisk Extreme Pro 95MB/s 32GB SD cards.


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RifleDude View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote RifleDude Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July/20/2015 at 17:45
Originally posted by Marine24 Marine24 wrote:

DOrder is in for the Olympus OM-D E-M1 Camera, along with the M Zuiko Digital ED 12-40mm f/2.8, couple of extra batteries and a couple SanDisk Extreme Pro 95MB/s 32GB SD cards.




I think you made a good choice.

Excellent choice on your SD card too.
Ted


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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Marine24 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July/20/2015 at 17:58
Thanks Ted.  The build should look very familiar.

Olympus doesn't waste any time.  Received an offer to purchase a M.Zuiko ED 40-150mm f4.0-5.6 R for $99 off their website.  Sounds like an interesting kit lens even with the limitations on the variable f-number.

The M.Zuiko ED 40-150mm f2.8 PRO that you recommended is still on the radar, but I'll need a few more bake sales and car washes before I can buy that one.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote RifleDude Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July/20/2015 at 19:56
Originally posted by Marine24 Marine24 wrote:

Thanks Ted.  The build should look very familiar.

Olympus doesn't waste any time.  Received an offer to purchase a M.Zuiko ED 40-150mm f4.0-5.6 R for $99 off their website.  Sounds like an interesting kit lens even with the limitations on the variable f-number.

The M.Zuiko ED 40-150mm f2.8 PRO that you recommended is still on the radar, but I'll need a few more bake sales and car washes before I can buy that one.

Haha! Roger that on the bake sales!

You'll soon discover if you haven't already that this photography thing can get just as expensive as guns and optics. It's fun though, and that's the name of the game.

Please don't misunderstand on the variable max aperture thing. It's not necessarily a bad thing to have variable aperture on a lens, depending on how you plan to use it. If you typically lean toward deep DOF shots like landscapes and you shoot a lot on tripod, having that extra stop or 2 of light might not mean much when measured against the significant $ premium to get it, and you can still get good subject isolation with f/5.6 at long focal lengths, especially if you're much closer to the subject than the background detail. I thought it was best for you to have f/2.8 in your "all-purpose" lens if the budget allows so that as you progress in your photography skills, you have fast aperture available and can therefore "grow with the lens." It just gives you more options creatively.
Ted


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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Marine24 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July/20/2015 at 21:58
I'm tracking with you. It will be nice to have the zoom capability but understand the limitation of freezing action. Hard to argue at $99 as a gap filler until I can pick up something better.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote tejas Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July/20/2015 at 23:16
If you use a wide angle lens to shoot individual portraits, face shots, you will have to get right in your subjects face. Might be okay with your wife or kids to invade they're space but strangers won't like it. Even worse, Nobody will like the result. You will make they're nose appear huge, if it's athe center of your photo.

The best portrait lens I know of, though I don't own one...yet, is the Nikon 105 mm micro f2.8 VR. The G series, not the older F although it's a great lens too. I have a Tokina 100mm F2.8 micro. It's a great lens as well and a good bit less expensive than the Nikon. The micro (Nikon marketing) series of lenses were made to be able to focus at very close distances-inches, for close ups of bugs, flowers, and so forth. They are ultra sharp at all distances though and make good all around lenses.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Marine24 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July/21/2015 at 17:51
I saw three pictures of the same girl using  a 35mm, 75mm and 170mm lens and cropped accordingly.  I see what you and Ted mean.  You'd swear it was a before and after shot of someone who had lost weight, but they were all taken in the same session.

Need to tell my wife I don't need to go on a diet after all.  Just need to start using the appropriate lens.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote budperm Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July/22/2015 at 07:36
If it were only that simple.... Smile
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Marine24 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: August/05/2015 at 09:52
I've been able to get a few hundred shots with the Olympus E-M1 with the M Zuiko Digital ED 12-40mm f/2.8 and M.Zuiko ED 75-300mm f4.8-6.7 II lenses.

I've been shooting primary in aperture mode for shots where I want the blurred background and shutter mode when I was shooting while on a moving boat.

These are from Lake Powell, UT

Here is an interesting one that I should have switched to aperture mode


Shot this one and was surprised to see the plane in the background.  Obviously cropped:


Telephoto shot after rain and the waterfalls that followed.  I did some cropping and adjustments in Picasa.


I'm still learning what settings to use when, but open to comments/recommendations.



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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote sucker76 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: August/06/2015 at 01:26
Very nice pictures.  I especially like the bird and plane shot.

I found this thread too late to comment about the camera choice.  I am most familiar with Nikon and APS-C sensors. 

My first digital body was a Nikon D40.  I still have it and it still takes great photos with 6MP.  My only lens at the time was the 18-55mm kit lens.  I talked with a pro photographer a few years ago and said I wanted to get a newer camera.  At the time the D7000 was brand new and I was lusting after it but a tight budget kept me away.  He asked why?  I answered to take better pictures.  A better camera must equal better pictures.  The photographer told me to save money on the new body and spend it on the lens.  In other words, my lowly 6MP D40 with an expensive lens would arguably take better pictures than my 24MP D7100 with a cheapo kit lens. 

Have fun with it and experiment with settings.  Deleting a bad picture is a lot easier and cheaper than developing a bad picture.  
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Marine24 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: August/06/2015 at 06:49
Appreciate the advice on the lenses and know what you mean about deleting photos.  I have it set up to take multiple frames when I press the button.  On our trip to Lake Powell, I probably took over 600 pictures with a lot of oops's in the mix.  Expect the keepers will end up being around a couple dozen but SD cards are cheap.

I was a little concerned with the Olympus being able to handle fast action shots but did just fine photographing a water skier and caught the bird.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote sucker76 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: August/06/2015 at 20:16
I take pictures for a krewe at Mardi Gras in Galveston and take roughly 1200 pictures over 3 days.  I end up scraping about 200 for various reasons.  Lighting and white balance still give me trouble.  The drunk photobomb too.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Thehunterman Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October/19/2016 at 15:02
Did anyone tried using GoPro? Seems like it can replace many others, don't you think?
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote mike650 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October/19/2016 at 15:38
As a replacement for all the things a camera does, unfortunately no.
“A hunt based only on trophies taken falls far short of what the ultimate goal should be.” – Fred Bear
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote RifleDude Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October/19/2016 at 16:04
Originally posted by mike650 mike650 wrote:

As a replacement for all the things a camera does, unfortunately no.


Exactly.

Go Pros are nice, but they don't even remotely approach the capabilities of a good CSC or DSLR.
Ted


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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote budperm Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October/20/2016 at 06:17
But point and shoot is so mindlessly easy....
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote bemsg4c0l Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: November/30/2016 at 12:03
You warning.


Edited by Skylar McMahon - November/30/2016 at 12:14
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Skylar McMahon Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: November/30/2016 at 12:14
Originally posted by bemsg4c0l bemsg4c0l wrote:

You warning.


This is your only warning. Follow the rules that you aggreed to when opting to join Optics talk.

Originally posted by Chris Farris Chris Farris wrote:

3.  Do not advertise other retailers selling the same or similar products as SWFA, this includes posting links to other retailers for products sold by SWFA.  SWFA does not provide this forum as a vehicle to redirect customers to our competition.

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote tahqua Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: November/30/2016 at 15:49
Singapore, go figure.
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