PHOTOGRAPHY TIPS AND TECHNIQUES
Learning to See with a Lens: Just What the Heck is Bokeh? BY DENNIS A. LIVESEY
A LENS IS A LENS IS A LENS. I think any- one here knows that a lens is used by a camera to focus light and help con- trol exposure. But beyond that, what is there about a lens that can help you with your railroad picture taking? When starting out, the photo newbie will likely be all about the camera, and think little about the lens. After all, it is not as glamorous as the cool Can- iksonuji-Pro in their hands. A lens just focuses the picture, right? Wrong. It is the lens that creates the picture and the camera merely records it. They work as a team and one is no good without the other.
Perspective In my career as a motion picture cam-
era assistant, I daily worked with Pa- navision cameras costing $500,000 with lenses that cost over $100,000 each. In my own much more modest kit made of Canon 6D cameras and Canon L grade lenses, I have superb examples of cur- rent photographic technology. They are all junk. That is because nothing has ever come
close to the miracle that is the image system we walk around with every day, our brain and eyes. Nothing in our tech- nology so far can capture the sharp, yet rounded 3-D fluidity of our own image system. So far, all that our fancy cam- eras can do is create a pale imitation of
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seeing as we know it. This is where “Learning to See With a
Lens” comes in. What we all need to do when starting to use the camera is not to see the world as our brain and eyes do but as how the very limited camera lens can. Think about when you first went trackside with a camera and how excit- ed you were. You were thinking, “Now I can be just like those great shooters I see online or in my favorite rail photo book!” You shoot, you chimp, and by virtue of the digital camera, are instantly disap- pointed. “That doesn’t look any good at all!” That is because you haven’t learned to “see” yet. How do you do this? Like a football player, or a pianist, you start with learning the fundamentals. Take your camera, set it at its normal perspective, and learn how to make the perfect railroad wedgie. Congratula- tions! Now do that a few thousand times and you will begin to organically see with a camera lens. You will begin to feel the perspective and instinctively know how the camera can see a train and not how your eyes do.
Getting in Gear “While that artsy thinking is all well
and good, let’s get real and talk gear.” Fair enough. Finding out which is the “best” lens for you is a matter of match- ing the tool to the job. This means you
have to ask yourself what you need out of your lenses. Are you just looking to have some fun trackside, not carry a lot of gear, and come home with a memory? Then the camera’s 18-55mm “kit” lens or an “ev- erything” lens, such as the 18-200mm on your APS-C (cropped frame) camera is just the ticket. On sunny/cloudy days, their slow ƒ/5.6 maximum apertures will not be an issue. Their light weight will be easy on your back and the low cost will be easy on your wallet. Yes, camera snobs will turn up their noses, but do know that award-winning calen- dar-gracing photos have been made by “kit” or “everything” lenses. The snobs forget it is the photographer, not the camera, that makes a picture.
It’s the Glass “But what is it about the expensive
lenses? Are they worth it?” Once I was in a camera store getting ready to pull the trigger on my second Canon L grade lens. Another customer and his buddy were considering a similar lens. When the buddy heard the cost he was shocked and said, “Why would anybody spend over a $1,000 for a lens?” Well, shortly I did pay over $1,000, and when that lens’ first shots popped up on my screen, in all their edge-to-edge tack-sharpness and sensational color goodness, I was ecstatic. For me, once I went L, I never
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