learning

So today I had more of a play with the Canon 100mm f/2.8 L series Macro Lens, its basically a lens that can magnify objects close up and give you a view of something that the human eye might not necessarily be able to see. Now the lens RRP is around £900 which for a Canon L series Lens isn’t really too bad, its like of a mid price lens and something that I think every photographer should at least have access too, its a great lens to have a play with and is the perfect lens to just pull out the camera bag one day and mix your photography game up abit

For this review I decided to do it as fair as possible, so I set up some lights and created a kind of mini studio, with a black bounce board and a magic arm to hold up the object. My plan was then to tether my laptop to the camera and after each shot go through the image and work out if I was happy with the point of focus. I wanted an object that had different textures and something that no matter how close you could get you would always discover more and more detail, my object of choice was trimmings off the plants out the front of the office.

My idea was to shoot with both a high ISO and also bring the ISO right down and use the shutter speed to control the light, and because I was using a Tripod I could now minimise camera shake. for those that don’t know the ISO is basically something that you make higher for low light conditions and decrease for well lite shots, my idea was to use a high ISO and a fast shutter speed to see how that effected the shot, and I definitely lost detail when close up and in full Macro mode, it made the shots a lot more “grainy” but once I lowered both the ISO and shutter speed, I noticed that my photos were a lot smoother and the level of detail had gone up ten fold. I was now capturing light in even the darkest areas of each photo but because I was shooting with an amazing lens, I could pull focus on the areas I wanted too and blur completely out areas I didn’t think added anything to the photo.

I also have to agree with canon that an aperture of 2.8 is probably right and thing lower and the depth of field would become way to shallow. At the same time I wouldn’t mind seeing what a 100mm macro would look like with an aperture of f1.8, I know that would be very shallow but that mixed with something like a medium format camera would mean you could see even more than the human eye. Anyone out there heard of a f1.8 100mm macro?

All in all this is a great and lens and something that really mixes up not just my photography game but photography in general. Its a lens that I would love to add permanently to my lens collection and something that I think will help me to improve the overall look of my future photos.

B359-1-4 — – this is a photo I wanted to take and show the whole head of the leaf and show how the focal length handles a wider shot –

B359-1-2 — – close up, Im pretty happy with this but if I had a higher megapixel camera I would definitely would have cropped in further –

B359-1 — – shooting something thats been out in the rain means I get to see how the macro lens handles reflections and contrast, I really think this lens is worth £900! –

B359-1-5 — – This was my set up for this shot, probably the most effort Ive ever put into shooting a leaf –

A few days a go someone told me about this new technique people are using to add something else to their photos, its a preset that gives you the option to add a kind of vintage film look to their photos, im not sure what the app is called but I thought it looked sick. I’ve been thinking about giving it ago but instead of using a preset on my phone I wanted to give it a try on Photoshop, it might surprise you guys but I don’t actually know photoshop as well as I maybe should know it. This became the perfect way to improve my photoshop skills and pick up a new style for my photos.

Last night there was a gig at possibly one of my favourite east london pubs, The Shacklewell Arms in Dalston, its got to be one of the best free gig venues I know of in London, every week it has some kind of cool unknown band playing even on a Tuesday like last night. My goal was to get there for the start of The Leeches and then watch them and the next band The Dolce Vita, well I was kind of late to the party and only caught the end of The Leeches, which was really annoying, it was still good to catch the ending of them but next up at 10:10pm was The Dolce Vita, a band that ive heard a bit about the past few months, I would say they are just on the limit of rock music and kind of hitting those punk rock vibes in a way.

they’re both currently on tour with each other, ill link their tour dates below so if they are in an area near you, then it could be a fun evening.

Heres my photos from the gig and also the little new technique I picked up. I hope you like it.

tour dates: https://www.facebook.com/LEECHES/app/123966167614127/

B288_V2jpg — – trying technique one and my first time –

B288_V2_001 — – this style at first wasn’t really something I had liked but its kind of growing on me

B288_V2 — – it definitely adds something to a gig –

Tag: learning

B359 – THE CANON MACRO LENS, WORTH IT?

B288 – A NEW BAND AND A NEW STYLE