Having Fun with Lenses

Bouncer71, Sep 16, 2018 :

Hello..
I'm Bouncer71...

...and welcome to premier of Bouncer71 presents "Fun with Lenses".


Over the next 52 weeks, you and I are going to explore the dynamic world of LensoLOLogie....
What is LensoLOLogie …?
Erm..?
I have no idea...
Sorry, got carried away right from the start...
Okay, let me begin again... ;D

Lenses and Filters covered in this thread:
Macro, Circular Polarizer, Fish Eye, Neutral Density.

Hi everyone,

you all know those Clip-On Lenses, you´ve seen plenty of macro shots in the Monthly Threads, been mentioned in various other threads like one of my favorites by @BobbyVK [Let's Talk Response]

But what are they for and how to practically use em?
Whats Neutral Density? Do Star Filters filter stars...?
Stay with me and see how to manipulate Light, bend space and travel in Time...


*All photos shot with OnePlus 3, Oneplus Camera v2.5.33, Edits: Lightroom CC Desktop


Get your Lenses

I Don't Like Clip-On Lenses...




If you're fine with them, great..!
To me it's kinda annoying to position them over and over again at the center of the camera lens to avoid distortion and vignette.
Since I still have some 37mm filters from my Travel-zoom camera…




I went DIY and ordered a Clip-On Macro Lens with the mount size. Cut off the clamp and put it on a wooden case with some double sided tape centered over the camera.



No more fiddling around from now on...This might also be a solution for all you OP6 users out there. Position it over the main camera… No more Portrait Mode with that case...


So, I´m all set and done, let's look at them lenses…


Oops...
Totally forgotten…
You have to get yours…
Thanks for the suggestion @NeVeR_SeTTLe ;D
I can't give you the perfect recommendation which Brand to buy. It all depends on the budget you want to spend. You can get an almost complete sets for a couple of bugs or you can pay over a hundred Euros for a single filter.

E.g.: 6 Filters ( 3x ND / CPL / FLD / UV) for 25 Euro, one Haida ND 3.0 for 35 Euro or one B+W ND 3.0 for 100 Euro.

My credo is “Never buy cheap if the Lens or Filter extends exposure but don't spend the extra if it suits the purpose”
The longer the exposure the more obvious the shortcomings will be in the photo, means harder to correct in post-edit or sometimes even impossible…
Waste Time and Money..?
Nope…
A lens/filter that gives you good results will stay, and probably be used more often....
And I want to go out, and use em´….
Like Haida ND is a good compromise for me...


So let´s get to it…!


Macro Lens

Yep...
Just gotta love Macro…
Probably the most popular add-on lens.


ZOMEI 12.5 x


Used for magnification and you can get closer than the usual ca. 10 cm. In the description a lot a times magnification is called diopter. But how much is 8 diopter...?

There's a formula for that.

Magnification = (Diopter/4) + 1

or vise versa

Diopter = (Magnification - 1) x 4

So 8 diopter is 3x magnification.

But wait, before we´re going to take a photo. Have you ever seen this...?


It´s a Macro Focusing Rail...

I don't want to say to shoot your macros necessarily with a tripod, but we can learn something from this tool..
The depth of field is pretty narrow, a couple of mm at most. Using autofocus can be troublesome or constantly manually focusing causing a thumb spasm...
Set the manual focus once and change the distance to the object till in focus, just like moving the camera on the rail back and forward.

too far…



just a bit closer and

perfect…
Way more comfortable..

For Focus-stacking I´d recommend a tripod and the rail cause of uncontrollable camera movement. The lens-distortion and different object size is already hard enough to cope with.
And use a remote trigger to prevent camera shake caused by tabbing the trigger on screen.



Probably gonna do a separate thread about Focus-Stacking if I find a practical easy way to do it with a smartphone and the perfect apps… ;D
But I still got a long way to go...
Have you got a solution…? Please tell me…!!! 8D


CPL – Circular Polarizing Filter

Works just like polarized sunglasses, it suppresses reflections.
Don´t ge me wrong. Reflections are great in Photography...


Photo by @jacstrong

But sometimes it's just distracting...
When light is reflected of a surface it changes it´s polarization. By turning the filter you can manipulate what part of the light travels through it and hits the sensor.

Shooting through a window or reflections on water that don't fit the picture...

Turn the lens until satisfied with what you see...


Delmax CPL

The pic gets a little darker so you might want to exposure compensate a bit or brighten it in post.


Fish Eye Lens

This is Lens-distortion at its best... Cool effect...


Hama Fish Eye Lens

I don't really like the vignette and haven't found a good use for it personally...
Someone got a more enthusiastic approach out there...?
Would be appreciated with full credits... ;D


ND – Neutral Density Filter

This is one of my favorites. You become “The Master of Time and Light”...
But it doesn't come with just a click…

Also called Neutral Gray Filter they are like really dark sunglasses for your camera. As you know if it gets darker, exposure time has to be longer or ISO will go higher, or both...
What if you want to extend the time to capture motion instead of just freezing a tiny fraction in time…?
Okay, you can do a long exposure at night. But what about in bright daylight at ISO 100...?
With the right ND-Filter even light-painting at noon is possible...


The Basics:
There´s different stages of neutral density. The higher the ND number the higher the exposure extending factor.

ND / Factor / Light transmittance
1.8 / x64 / 1.8%
2.0 / x100 / 1.0%
3.0 / x1,000 / 0.1%
…
8.0 / x100,000,000 / 0.000001%
( One Hundred Million that is... 8O )

There are also variable ND-Filters with a max. factor of x400 available but it's harder to determine the exact exposure. Cheaper ones are not really neutral and have uneven transitions.
Manufacturers label the filters with the factor. But mind the point…! Filters label with ND 8 have just a factor of x8. ND 64 would then be ND 1.8 or ND 1000 = ND 3.0.
So always have a look at the description...

I recommend to use a tool to calculate the needed shutter-speed settings like Foto-Tool
Also features some other interesting calculators...

A tripod, remote trigger and to shoot in RAW cause post-process is unavoidable to keep as much details as possible.


Preparation:

Setup your camera on the tripod without the ND filter. Select Pro-Mode, frame the scene, manually set ISO 100 and the focus, tab to exposure on the brightest part of the scene (the sky between the trees) and shoot a photo…

JPG untouched


Take a look at the exif info.



Use the app to calculate the exposure for the used ND filter..



Set the exposure accordingly or close to the calculated values in Pro-Mode and apply the filter.
Click and wait...

Haida ND 1.8 slim / ⅛ sec. / Untouched / JPG

Haida ND 3.0 slim / 2.0 sec. / Untouched / JPG


You can clearly see the difference. The water surface and the fountain gets kinda fuzzy and the effect is stronger the longer the exposure...

And another one before we're going post...

JPG without ND Filter / 1/280 sec. / Untouched


RAW with Haida ND 3.0 slim / 4.0 sec. / Untouched


Going Post

Now, as I like to say, the fun ( erm... work) begins.
As you see in the examples even the JPG look a little dull. Lost saturation, highlights and shadows are a bit overblown. That is why I always shoot RAW using ND filters.

Edit with your favorite photo manipulation app.
Saturation, dynamic, clarity, highlights, shadows ,contrast etc. need some tweaking to give it the right looks...

Lightroom CC Desktop

And done…

Not bad for a smartphone camera, not bad at all…
Btw, notice the turtles…?

This is why I got them ND Filters 2 years ago..

Lumix DMC-TZ61, Krka Waterfalls Croatia
Haida ND 3.0 slim / F8.0 / ISO 100 / 4.0 sec


Just love the dynamic of these long exposures…!

Wide Angle Lens (added 03.10.18)



There´s a lot of users wanting a secondary wide-angle lens. Though it's nice to have a wider field of view it comes with a downside. Just like the fisheye lens it distorts the picture.
Well, more information has to be fitted in the same format. Squeezing it all in plus optically bending the photo towards the edges.
I'm using a 140° Super Wide Angle lens by ZaKitane.

Without…


With wide angle at the same position...

Clearly far more field of view. In this scene you probably only notice the distortion if you take a close look. The squares are a bit off the equilateral and bend…


Using Lens Correction in Lightroom can help to even it out but it will also cause cropping the picture.I actually don´t mind the distortion. But what always hits my eye is the changed proportions of objects. I use a pretty simple method to milden the effect by resizing the pics width…

Hight = 100%, Width = 107%


You could also step back a couple of meters and get a similar result without an wide angle lens…

meh….
Should have added another step… ;D
But i think you get my point… It doesn't make much sense to use a wide angle just to cram more stuff in the picture…
For situations you can´t step back, like standing in first line in front of the Trevi Fountain/ Rome and a couple of thousand other tourist like you standing in line to take your place that might be ok… But even then a Panorama is the better solution...

Why to use the wide angle lense then…?

Something completely different…
Drawing attention, enhancing the illusion of depth and space and having more crop options..
It's more or less and artistic lens imo…

E.g. Straight out of camera...


Wide angle lens applied
See the red stone in the bottom left corner it's almost at the same place but the field of view drastically changed...

After post, crop and lens correction...

This crop would not be possible without wide angle…

Another example
Without...

With wide angle cropped and lens corrected

And I really like the lens flare it causes… 8D


We´re done...

This concludes today's episode and I think I showed, though it's not always simple to use add-on lenses and filters, it's easier than expected.

Thank you for staying with me and I hope you didn't fall asleep while reading…
This all, is just to get you going. There´s more comprehensive Tutorials out in the Web.
As always any comment is appreciated and now…

Go out there and use some Lenses….!!! 8D

To be continued…?

P.S.:
You want to use your phone like a DSLR…?
Just do it…!
Go Pro-Mode… ;D