This book boasts on the cover that readers will be able to “take 10 times better pictures in 48 hours or less”. While it hasn’t been 48 hours since I’ve read this book yet, I definitely feel more knowledgeable about camera settings, lenses, composition, and camera focus.
I was really happy to see many concepts in the book that I have already covered here on my website. Some are listed with their links below:
Black put exceptional detail in what lenses to buy and things photographers should know about each lens. As I only have a zoom lens and a normal lens, I would like to show you the other lenses Black talked about in his book.
Telephoto
“A telephoto lens is one that magnifies the image seen. … A telephoto lens is used for shooting subjects that are far away when the photographer either can’t get close to the subject or would prefer not to.” – Brian Black
Using this lens would be best for wildlife or sports photography. You don’t exactly want to get close to sports players during a game or a wild bear in the forest, so using the telephoto lens would be best.
Wide-angle
“A wide-angle lens is in some ways the opposite of a telephoto lens. … The magnification with a wide-angle lens is often somewhat negative, i.e. objects appear smaller or more distant in the photo than they are in reality.” – Brian Black
I could’ve used this wide-angle lens when I talked about panoramas in a previous post. They’re also great for architecture when you want to capture a whole scene instead of a single subject.
Macro
“Macro photography is used to capture close views of very small things such as flowers and insects. The lens does not have to be extremely close to the subject to take the picture, allowing close-ups to be taken of subjects that might otherwise by scared away.” – Brian Black
With its combination of low depth of field and sharp focus, Black recommends the macro lens be used in nature photography or portraiture.
Fish-Eye
“A fish-eye lens is an extreme wide-angle lens that deliberately adds a spatial distortion to the picture. … the distortion with a fish-eye lens is deliberate.” – Brian Black
The fish-eye lens allows photographers to be creative with their shots. The distortion creates a new way of looking at things, and is commonly used in landscape or building photography.
This book has many more concepts that I would like to touch upon in later posts, so stay tuned!
Hannah Matt 