Mishka's Studio - Selection of Lenses

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Hi Folks,

 

This month, I am going over the critical choice of camera lenses for those with interchangeable lenses on DSLRs.

With so many options nowdays for lens selection, I will not go over all options, just the ones I use the most.

Besides photos of Dolls, I also take pics of landscapes and scenery, and have a large lens for that. For scenery, I use either a 300mm or 200mm for practical purposes, but also use a 3200mm when I want to see that bird 40 miles away!

So, for Dolls, I use mostly a 28-75mm or a 175mm, with the former being my most valuable performer. I like zoom lenses, and being able to vary the zoom to make full use of the frame is essential. I hate cropping, because that's wasted mpix, so a great zoom lens and a tripod is best. I really feel a smaller wide-angle like 28mm is very good and provides great fast shutter speeds, but with some peripheral distortion.

What about those low F-stop lenses like 1.2 or F1 lenses?

Well, my take is for the limited depth of field (DoF), they will limit your pictures due to the limits of DoF and critical focus issues (as in very hard to get minimal DoF and eliimate blur), and in the real world, her face may be in focus, but her torso will be out of focus, and that can make an artistic picture, but not so good for doll photography where most of the torso needs to be in focus too. I use a F-stop around 5.6-16, that provides clear focus, unlike the low F-stop lenses (whose low F-stop "advantage" I never use) which you may miss the critical focus region and are otherwise very expensive.

Remember, these low F-stop lenses are very fast, but in the doll world, just use a tripod and you will get some super sharp pics.

So the best lens for me, is a F2.8 lens around 28mm and ~F4 for the 175mm zoom lenses. Be particularly concerned about sharpness for the lens you buy - this is paramount for those sharp portrait shots.

What about prime lenses?

I feel they are usefull, but in doll or static model shots, you need a dynamic approach to framing. Sometimes a 28mm works, othertimes a 200mm is better.

What about those Bokeh effects?

So this is a mark of a talented photographer, one who knows his filming, lenses and knows how to get his subject in focus, and get a great DoF and Bokeh. This takes practice for sure, but read up on this subject to get an idea of how it's done.

So in summary, look for a nice F2.8 Zoom lens with great sharpness all around. Don't get that Nikon F1.6 175mm for $2000 - unless you get paid for this - just get a nice F2.8 75mm and learn the art of focus!

In one year, I came a long way from the amateur with barely any idea of what I was doing to a photographer who now does commercial promos! It did take a better camera, but the lenses I found are critical for my work!

Here's a picture of some of my lens collection of the years.

For fun, I wanted to show the 3200mm lens I use when seeing what's going on the hood!

Some views from the kitchen window. Let's see how close we can see the mountain ahead

Some more views from the kitchen window. Let's see that mountain far away!

 

Anyway, here's some recent JMdoll pic for their promos. All were taken with the 28-75mm lens

Click image for gallery and full-size photos.

'Till next month.

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Comments

Love that 3200mm Lens! How much does that puppy cost!

Great blog!

This blog is as interesting as always. And the ladies are as beautiful as always too. smileyChris