Rekindling the Romance of Black and White Photography

By: Herb Paynter

There is a renewed interest in the romance of black and white photography for several good reasons. First, hyped color is becoming boringly predictable. Second, automated software presets and templates deliver a predictable variety of pre-digested looks that can be applied to any image and deliver similar results.
Just as Hollywood movies have fallen into the same predictable themes and plots, color digital photography has lost some of its originality to over-processing. As you noticed, the common theme here is predictability. Serious photographers want to do unique and serious work and that all points to a resurgence of black and white images.

In the Beginning

There was a certain warmth and personality to black and white prints in the days of film and darkrooms. Photographers got involved with this medium for more than a technical exercise, it became a conduit for personal expression and emotional input. It was a way for the photographer to be involved in every aspect of the process.
Black and white prints were produced in a more personal way than color prints. While color prints were cranked-out mechanically by drugstore photo labs, black and white prints were produced one at a time by photo-artisans, many times in makeshift darkrooms.
These darkrooms didn’t have to be state-of-the-art facilities; any room large enough to house a small enlarger, four 8×10 trays, and a clothesline would do. Many times bathrooms were taken over for the evening simply because they had running water, a countertop, and electricity; the three necessities of a well-equipped darkroom.
Taping off the small window with a bath towel and duct tape was simple, and a hand towel stuffed under the door sealed the deal. A nightlight wrapped in Rubylith made a perfect safelight.

You can make a stronger statement with black and white than you can with color. 

Nothing “pops” like good black and white.

Black and white was a labor of love

The lure of black and white was personal expression more than technical achievement. The drugstore produced stacks of little glossy snapshots in an envelope, but YOU were creating one-of-a-kind masterpieces worthy of wall placement. The wannabe artists weren’t really in a bathroom, they were in a custom photo lab.
Creativity was the mystical elixir that compelled us all to work in hot, cramped little rooms without proper ventilation, dipping and dripping various chemicals on clothing, tables, and floors. The acidic smell of stop bath and fixer lingered in the air and on hands and clothing for hours.

The RGB image above provided over 4 billion colors that could be pushed and shaped. This 

monochrome shot provided only 256 tones to do the same job. With film, this would be nearly 

impossible but with digital…

Sometimes entire 25-sheet packs of photo paper were needed to produce a single perfect print. But all the expense and inconvenience was willingly paid for the sake of the prize and the pride of the print. In the end, the masterpiece was paraded around for all to appreciate.

This original RGB capture of the lava pools in Hawaii presented a challenge. How to capture and 

delineate detail in the extreme shadows and highlights. Tough enough for color but almost 

impossible for monochrome.

Those were indeed magical escapades, but ones that can still be replicated (to some extent) today in the digital world. The stifling air, low light, and acrid aroma may be a thing of the past, but the personal expression and purity of purpose are all waiting to be relived.

The Romance

Black and white photography quietly transports your mind into a playground of creative thought; a semi-guided tour into your imagination. Black and white photography doesn’t enclose your mind inside the bookends of a specific color scheme. It sets your imagination free to discover a place filled with emotion and open to interpretation. Black and white photos deliver moods, not just pictures.
Color can totally capture your mind, but not always in a good way. Here’s what I mean. Once you see a color picture, mental blinders close the deal. You can no longer imagine the scene your way. Before you know it, you find yourself subconsciously critiquing the color rather than interpreting the subject. Color captivates your mind but black and white enables you to dream.

The Reality

Both film and digital cameras capture color information and transpose that color into black and white images. But there’s a significant difference in the way it’s done. Black and white film in the hands of an old-school darkroom artist can produce a print that captures the imagination, though a straight RGB-to-B/W conversion from even a good color photo can deliver ho-hum results. Here’s why.
Black and white film is composed of silver-halide particles that are uniquely sensitive to specific colors but this spectral fingerprint doesn’t automatically carry over to digital image sensors. A scene’s colors captured with panchromatic film will produce different values than the same scene captured by digital sensors.
This means that YOU must get involved shaping the luminance (brightness/contrast) values, and adjusting the chrominance (spectral / color) values of the RGB image. Color frequencies influence the tonal values when converted from color to black and white. Fortunately, both the chrominance and the luminance are controlled in virtually all RAW Interpreter software.
Digital cameras follow a purely statistical recording process and thus, don’t emphasize the strength of one color over another. Different film manufacturers (Agfa, Kodak, Ilford, and others) parsed these color values slightly differently. The photosites in your digital camera’s image sensor simply count photons (the atomic level of light measurement) and use electrical current to set the gray levels.
These values vary based on the camera’s current ISO, white balance, and color mode settings. Just as both black and white and color images captured with film cameras were influenced by various colored filters, these color settings affect both color and tonality values in digital captures.

This is the original RGB image shot in San Juan Puerto Rico.

The Problem

When a digital image is captured in monochrome (Black and White) mode in JPEG format, the camera discards all RGB information and retains only a very sparse number of gray tones. While this sounds like a logical way to arrive at black and white values, it’s not!
Monochrome negates the nuances of spectrally-weighted color transformation. Quite simply, the process removes the emotion and personality of the image. Each camera’s engineering team determines the way each color is parsed as a gray value, and we know how emotional engineers are. There’s a reason we tend to avoid guys with pocket protectors at parties.

This is a simple conversion from RGB to B/W with no adjustments, as your camera would do.

When you capture images in black and white (Monochrome) mode, you are literally at the mercy of the engineers who wrote your camera’s algorithms. But while some very interesting color/monochrome translations are provided by camera manufacturers, you are still locked into someone else’s interpretation. So what to do?

This is the conversion from RGB to Grayscale using Camera Raw’s HSL Grayscale tools. The intensity and saturation of eight different colors determine the internal contrast of the gray tones.

The Solution

There are several ways to address this problem.

1. Record all images in both B/W JPEG and RAW formats.
2. Investigate the interesting results that can be achieved when monochrome images are captured in one of your camera’s “scene” presets. Experiment with your camera’s settings to get a fair sampling.
3. When digital images are captured in RAW format, all spectral (color) information can be accessed (see below) and used to influence the tonal values.

To add a little sparkle to your monochrome, try the Colorize option in Photoshop’s Hue/Saturation 

dialog box.

The Two-Stage RAW Approach

When these controls (provided by Camera Raw and a number of other RAW Interpreter software apps) are involved in shaping the spectral information into B/W, some absolutely magical results take place.
Remember, both the luminance and the chrominance need to be optimized for the best results in RGB-to-Monochrome conversions. I suggest that the chrominance be addressed first and the luminance second. This combination of controls provides all the tools you’ll need to take total control of your black and white images.

The chrominance settings reside in the Black & White Mix panel.

The luminance is adjusted in the Basic – Black & White panel.

In Camera Raw, toggle back and forth between the original RGB image and the current settings using the P-key, noting the colors in the original and the influence that each color slider has on the final product.

When either of these processes is put to work, you become creatively involved in converting colors into gray tones and the magic of silver halide interpretation gets replicated in the digital process. And here’s the kicker… using digital controls, you can surpass the mile markers established by the black and white masters of the past.
This is scary good stuff, and Ansel would have loved it.

Share this article.

Four Signs it’s NOT Time to Upgrade Your Camera

By: Adam Welch

I’m reminded about a conversation between Ansel Adams and Ernest Hemingway that went something like this:

Hemingway: You take the most amazing photographs I’ve ever seen! What sort of camera do you use?
Adams: You write the most amazing stories. What sort of typewriter do you use?

Even though I know this chance encounter between two of my favorite Masters never actually occurred (though I secretly hope it did), the weighty implications of this fictional exchange are obvious.

The power of a photograph is no more coupled to the superiority of one’s camera than are the words of a good story which move us to emotion. While it’s true that cameras are indeed the tools of our trade, and those tools vary in terms of capability, there seems today to be a sort of “cart before the horse” mentality. It looms heavy over the majority of the photographic community; a mentality which implies that if your photographs aren’t up to your expectations, the quickest remedy is to buy a better camera.
Upgrade, upgrade, UPGRADE! That’s the song often heard. Upgrading your camera is a natural facet of the evolution of any photographer. I’m not in disagreement with that notion. However, what if I told you that getting a new (or new to you) camera should be more of a last resort than a first idea?
Today, we’re going to talk about four signs that it’s NOT time to upgrade your camera.

You’re still “figuring out” what you want to do with your photography

About 300 years ago (it seems), when digital cameras were becoming relatively cost-effective for the average shooter, I began thinking about switching from my film SLR to a DSLR. I searched around and was advised on a camera that would be “magic” for the work I was trying to do. The problem was that I had no real idea of what that work actually would be.

Much like a certain popular character from a certain popular TV show…”I knew nothing.” I went with the camera others told me I should have and went after the sort of photography jobs (wedding, portraits, events) that were available in my area. I had upgraded my camera – not for any true physical or technical need – but rather because I thought that a new camera was necessary for the task at hand.
In fact, I hadn’t stopped to think about what I wanted to do and how I should go about doing it before I took the plunge. It was like buying brushes before knowing how to paint.
If you’re still wondering what kind of photography is “right” for you, a good starting point would be to continue working with whatever camera you have right now. Shoot everything and anything with it: people, events, landscapes, nature, street, and still life.
Only after you see yourself leaning to one side should you begin thinking about upgrading the tools you need to accomplish a better outcome.

You’re stilling using the “kit lens” that came with your camera

Your brain is an amazingly complex, incredibly capable bio-computer which we’ve only begun to understand. Yet without input and feedback from our senses, the brain is just – well – a brain. It only knows it’s environment based on the information allowed to pass along to its consciousness.
The same is true for our cameras.
A digital camera can sport the most beautifully huge sensor that somehow produces no noise even at 4 billion ISO. Or, has enough megapixels to make enlargements larger than the Earth and still it would be reliant on the information passed to it by its lens. In the end, it is the lens that dictates the quality of the raw informational light the camera will use to build an image.
So why do so many of us put more emphasis on the camera instead of the lens?

Especially today, the lenses which come with bundled camera kits are generally much sharper and faster than previous packages offered ten or fifteen years ago. This is likely due to the higher expectations of the “average photographer” – if there is such a thing.
Still, if the reason you’re considering upgrading your camera is wholly due to a lack of sharpness or low-light performance, then I urge you to first invest in a higher quality lens. Please note that higher-quality does not translate into high prices. Many prime (non-zoom) lenses with maximum apertures of f/2.8 and larger offer excellent optics for under $300 with slightly used models going for even less.
Always remember that an inferior camera with a superior lens will almost always perform better than a superior camera with an inferior lens. To that end, consider upgrading your lens before the camera body.

You’ve never gone fully manual

The functional operations of producing a photograph are surprisingly simple. In terms of image-making settings for our camera/lens, there are only three things we can directly control, which determine the overall outcome of our exposures; shutter speed, aperture, and ISO. These are essentially all we have to select to produce a digital image.
However, choosing those three parameters can instantly fill us with terror. Instead of taking full control of our photographs, we often choose to rely on aperture or shutter priority modes (which are usually quite good these days). Alternatively, we release the reigns entirely and allow our cameras to make the big decisions for our exposures by choosing Auto Mode.

I’ll admit this subject is a slippery slope. I’ve said many modern cameras perform beautifully when operating in these semi-automated shooting modes. Still, without the conscious and deliberate control of the user, a camera is, well, just a camera.
For whatever reason, if you find yourself never determining the “big three” settings of your camera and notice your photos lacking in their technical or creative merits, I urge you to begin shooting in manual mode.  Entirely new doors will open up to you when you begin to understand the relationships between motion and shutter speed, or depth of field and aperture. Not to mention the brilliant nuances of working with ISO settings. Once you’ve discovered these possibilities, it will likely become clear that it doesn’t make sense to upgrade your camera in the hopes for a better automatic shooting experience.
First, try to assume a more dynamic role in determining the technical aspects of your photographic experience. Then decide if it truly is time to upgrade your camera.

You think your photography isn’t as good as someone else

This is the big one. It is the number one reason why you shouldn’t run out and upgrade your camera without first doing some serious self-inventory. You’ve seen someone else’s body of work, and instantly it registers in your mind “if only I had the camera they use,” or “no wonder their pictures are so good, look at that camera!”
In this situation, I default back to that epic fictional meeting between Ansel and Ernest. The obviously secondary nature of the tool of choice becomes readily apparent next to the prowess of its owner. I doubt few of us could pen another “The Old Man and the Sea” if supplied with the stationary and typewriter of Hemingway. It’s unlikely we might reproduce “Moon over Hernandez” if gifted the same camera and film as Ansel Adams used on that fateful evening in New Mexico.
The point is that it’s not the camera that makes the photograph. A camera is merely a conduit for the expression of skill and emotion of the user.

If you find yourself in pure envy of a certain photograph, an easy misstep is to wonder what type of camera or lens they used. The more difficult aspect to understand is that a person made the image; a person who was feeling a certain way at the time of capture – someone who was empowered by their knowledge and skill to produce a photograph.
The camera may have been the method to transform light into a photograph, but the power and the emotion conveyed through that photograph was born elsewhere.
I can assure you, upgrading your camera will not instantly make you a better photographer; only learning can do that. A camera doesn’t make a photograph; only a person can do that.

Some final words on cameras…

We’ve dipped into some heavy ideas in this article when it comes to all the reasons you should think twice before upgrading your camera. However, with anything that involves “art” and self-expression, these ideas are far from being absolutes.
In the end, only you can decide whether or not a new or different camera will nudge you along the path to fulfilling your potential as a photographer. It’s not a process you should enter into lightly or without solid reasoning.

Socrates said, “Know thyself.” That’s good wisdom.
If you find yourself looking at your current camera with a growing sense of disgust, ask yourself whether the performance you find lacking stems from the tool or the craftsman? In both cases, you can remedy the problem easily. You can obtain new cameras and acquire new knowledge. The trick is knowing which one you need more.

Share this article.

Godox TT350 Flash Review – the Little Flash that Can

By: Sean McCormack

Godox – the mighty Chinese brand that’s sweeping the lighting world, bringing fear to long-established premium brands. And their quality has reached the point where they can now be trusted.

One thing they’ve done well to push the brand forward is their system integration. Any of their X-series triggers will fire any light in the system. Not only that, their TTL speedlights can also act as masters for other lights in the system, from the mighty AD600Pro right through to the humble TT350.
That’s what we’re looking at today – the TT350.
This compact and pocketable unit is the smallest flash in the Godox range. It really is small – requiring noting more than two AA batteries.

The Specs

• A Guide Number of 36 (rather than the typical 52 of most larger flashes).
• Recycle time of 2.2 seconds at full power
• 210 full-power flashes available from two 2500maH AA batteries
• TTL, Manual, Optical Slave, Optical Slave with Preflash, and Multiflash modes available
• Coverage from 24–105mm in full-frame 35mm terms
• High-speed sync up to 1/8000 sec
• Built in 2.4G radio transmitter and receiver to act as either radio master or slave
• Wide-angle diffuser and bounce card

On-Camera

The small size and weight of the TT350 make it the perfect on-camera flash for any camera system, particularly mirrorless systems. While I’m using them with a Fuji, they’re also available for Canon, Nikon, Sony, Olympus/Panasonic and even Pentax.
As with any on-camera flash aimed directly at the subject, the light is hard and not particularly flattering.

While the flash does have a bounce card, I prefer using reverse bounce for on-camera situations to create a larger light source coming from behind me.

On-camera, the TT350 can be used as a master for other off-camera flashes.
Now let’s look at off-camera flash.

Off-Camera

The benefits of using a flash off-camera are many. You get better placement to control shadows, and by extension the shape of the features in the shot. You also can use a larger range of modifiers to soften or shape the light itself. To go off-camera, you need a flash, a trigger and a stand (with a modifier being an additional option). In this case, our flash is the TT350.

Triggers

The TT350 can be powered from:

• the X-16 for manual power
• the X1T or XPro trigger for TTL and Manual.

It can also be triggered from:

• another TT350 (and its lithium battery brother the V350)
• the TT685 and V860II speedlights.

The trigger sits on-camera and relays information from the camera to the remote flash.

Stands

Any stand will do, even the cheap Photo-R stands . I find Neewer to be great value for money, although in the studio I prefer using C-Stands even with speedlights.

Master and Slave

To use the radio features, hold down the Sync button and then twist the dial when the antennae icon flashes.
The first option that appears is M, making your flash the Master.

A second twist brings you to S, which enables the Slave mode.
To change between TTL, Manual and Multi modes, press the Mode button.

In Master mode, press the Slave button to alternate between the Master group (M) and the A, B or C groups.
In Slave mode, pressing Slave chooses the group the flash is on (A, B or C).

The M group in Master dictates what the flash does on-camera. Press Mode to switch between flash off, TTL and Manual.
Here’s a video that takes you through the entire process.
<span data-mce-type="bookmark" style="display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;" class="mce_SELRES_start">?</span>
Make sure all your flashes or triggers are on the same channel. To set the channel:

1. Hold down the Slave button until the CH number flashes
2. Use the dial to change channel
3. Press Set to make the change.

You’re now ready for off-camera flash.

Using the TT350 with modifiers

Moving the flash off-camera doesn’t automatically make it look better. But you do get to position the shadows better, as you can see in my article on lighting. I also have a list of cheap modifiers that won’t break the bank. The 120cm Octa is a good investment.

One light

With the TT350 inside a 120cm Octa (with the diffuser on), you’re ready to get some big light from a small flash. With the Octa between you and the subject, you’ll get flattering light in the ‘Butterfly’ position.

You can improve this further by adding a reflector underneath, such as the Lastolite Halo Compact.

High-Speed Sync

To get really shallow depth of field with flash (especially outside), you need to use High-Speed Sync to overcome the limitation of the camera sync speed. To engage it, tap the Sync button once.
Here’s a shot at 1/2000sec and f/1.4, ISO400 with HSS on. (You’ll find bumping the ISO helps save battery life, which is why I’m using ISO400 here).

Two lights

Another way to help battery life (and the recycle time) is to use two flashes in the modifier.

Set both flashes to the same channel and group. This allows them to automatically match power when you make a change.

You can get double flash brackets and aim them into the center with them positioned either close together or further out.

Here’s a portrait with this dual-light Octa box setup on the left (facing across the shot) and a white reflector on the right.

This is what the setup looks like.

Removing one of the lights and putting it on a stand behind our subject gives a good cross-light setup.

Should you get a TT350?

Clearly, a flash you have with you is better than one you leave behind because of the weight. So for general flash applications the TT350 is great. But, it’s never going to overpower the sun, and and its compact size makes it the lowest-power flash in the range (excluding their mobile phone flash unit).
However, you can buy two TT350s for the price of a V860II. And while they don’t have built-in batteries, combined they can provide more power for less weight.
Me? I bought two so I can use them in the configurations I’ve shown here, and as a master-slave setup if I have an issue with a trigger.
Overall, they’re great tools to have in the bag.
Have you used this flash? What are your thoughts? Please share in the comments below.

Share this article.

Setting up the Godox TT350 for Radio Master/Slave

Massive Decline in Digital Camera Sales, Plus Nikon Sees Market Share Decrease

By: Jaymes Dempsey

 Nikkei revealed the latest digital camera market trends.
And for camera manufacturers, things are looking dismal.

The market share breakdown

First, let’s take a look at the market share breakdown:

• Canon: 40.5% (an increase of 3.9% from 2017)
• Nikon: 19.1% (a decrease of 2.7%)
• Sony: 17.7% (a decrease of 0.7%)
• Fujifilm: 5.1% (an increase of 1.3%)
• Olympus: 2.8% (an increase of 0.1%)

Notice that Canon had the biggest gains, followed by Fujifilm and Olympus. Nikon’s market share took the biggest hit, with Sony seeing a decrease, as well.
For Nikon, these numbers are not encouraging. The 2.7% drop in market share suggests the company’s latest big move – its leap into the full-frame mirrorless market – hasn’t held up well against the competition.

In some ways, this might be expected. Nikon is a small company compared to competitors such as Canon and Sony, and this puts a clear cap on its resources for innovation. On the other hand, Nikon has remained a dominant player in the digital camera market for decades.
Which begs the question:

Are we about to see Nikon losing its footing?

Unfortunately for Nikon and the other camera manufacturers, the bigger problem has little to do with reshuffled market shares, and everything to do with surging smartphone camera technology.

This may come as a surprise to some, who see mirrorless cameras representing the future of photography. After all, mirrorless camera innovation is at an all-time high, with Canon and Nikon just recently joining the fray.
But here’s the issue:
As impressive as mirrorless cameras have become, smartphone cameras are still far more attractive – at least for the casual photographer. They’re smaller than the smallest mirrorless body. You always have them with you. And the simple camera interface, bolstered by features such as ‘swipe to change the exposure,’ make smartphone photography an extremely enticing option.
So in the wake of smartphone camera improvements, would-be DSLR and mirrorless photographers are consistently turning to companies like Google and Apple to satisfy their photography needs.
And it’s a trend we’re likely to see into the future.
So now I’d love your input:

• Do you think that smartphones will completely replace hobbyist digital cameras?
• Could you see yourself using a smartphone camera instead of a DSLR or mirrorless body?
• What do you think about Nikon’s decline and Canon’s rise?

POLL

What camera brand have you purchased in the past year?

• Canon
• Nikon
• Sony
• Fujifilm
• Panasonic/Lumix
• Olympus
• Pentax
• Leica
• Phase One
• Hasselblad
• Sigma
• Casio
• Mamiya

View Results

Share this article.

"A great place to start for absolute beginners!"

Level: Beginners
Date: Saturday 20 July 2019
Duration: 10.00am - 1.00pm
Cost: $165
Instructors: Erica Serena and Seng Mah
Location: Paper Bird, 42 Henry Street, Fremantle
Maximum participants: 10.
Have you recently purchased a digital camera with a lot of great manual controls, or have had one for some time, but never found the courage to take it off "Auto" mode because you're not sure how to properly use your camera?
"Beginners Digital Photography" is a great mini-workshop that will show you how to get off that "Auto" mode and start using your camera to get the shots you want. It's the perfect starting point if you are brand new to digital photography!

What you will learn:

• Great tips for camera operation.
• White balance: How to get the colours right in your photos.
• ISO: Configuring your camera to shoot in different lighting conditions.
• Depth of field: Shooting for soft vs sharp backgrounds.
• Focus control: How to nail your focus each and every shot.
• Compositions that work.
• Getting sharp images in low light.
• The best lenses for different styles of photography.
• Shooting movement: How to get sharp images of moving subjects.
• Why image stabilisation is important and how to use it.
• Exposure control: How to get brighter or darker images when you shoot.

It's a jam-packed with fun and learning, filled with activities and exercises to help you gain confidence in using your camera!

What you'll need:

• Your camera
• Your lens/es
• The manual for your camera
• Notebook and a pen

You don't need to bring a tripod to this workshop.
This workshop is suitable for digital cameras with manual controls (P, A/Av, S/Tv and M modes) including DSLRs, Micro Four Third cameras, mirrorless cameras and advanced compact cameras. Workshop notes are provided.

RESERVE YOUR PLACE

Bookings for this mini-workshop are managed through Eventbrite. To book your place in this workshop, click the button below.

BOOK ME IN!

Upcoming Workshops/Seminars

Beginner's Digital Photography

Intermediate Digital Photography

Beyond 30 Seconds: Mastering Ultra Long Exposures

Prime Portraits

Streets of Winter: Natural Light Portraits in Fremantle

Mini Macro Workshop

One Light Portraits

Street Photography Perspectives - Seminar

Fujifilm X Seminars

2018 AIPP WESTERN AUSTRALIAN DOCUMENTARY PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR

RECENT POSTS

• Lightroom Tip: Adjusting Colours using the Tone Curve
• Photographing Karijini: Red rocks, deep gorges
• WA Professional Photography Awards 2019
• Photographing the Landscapes of Tasmania
• A lens (or four) on India – Part 2
• Is the Fujifilm X-T100 the Perfect Beginner’s Travel Camera?
• A lens (or four) on India – Part 1
• Finding your voice, discovering your vision

Receive our Newsletter

Subscribe to our newsletter

* indicates required

Email Address *

First Name

Last Name

How to Make Brilliant Photos With a Short Telephoto Lens

By: Andrew S. Gibson

Short telephoto lenses are one of the most versatile and useful types of lens you can buy. But before we get into why that is, let’s define the term short telephoto lens. It is a lens which is slightly longer than “normal”, which depends on the camera format you are using, see below.
On a full-frame camera, lenses with a focal length between 85mm and 135mm are considered short telephoto lenses. For APS-C cameras, lenses with focal lengths between 50mm are 100mm are short telephotos. On a Micro Four-thirds camera, lenses with focal lengths of 40mm to 70mm are short telephotos.

Prime versus zoom lenses

Of all the lenses that cover these focal lengths, primes are the most exciting. They tend to be smaller than zoom lenses and have the additional benefit of a wide maximum aperture, allowing you to experiment with bokeh and shoot in low light conditions. They are also less expensive than common telephotos like a 70-200mm zoom.
If you have a full-frame camera, you can’t go wrong with an 85mm prime lens – one of my favorite focal lengths for full-frame. If you have an APS-C camera, a 50mm prime lens, or the 55mm end of an 18-55mm kit lens, is a short telephoto. 50mm primes are great value for money and go well with APS-C cameras.
If you have a Micro Four-thirds camera there is a choice of prime lenses with focal lengths of 42.5mm and 45mm you can buy.

How to use a short telephoto lens

Now you know what a short telephoto lens is, let’s take a look at how you can use one to make good photos.

Short telephoto lenses and portrait photography

Short telephoto lenses are ideal for portraiture. I’m quite happy to take one camera and one lens – a short telephoto – on a portrait shoot. This simple approach helps me concentrate on communicating with the model and building rapport, essential for creating good portraits.
I’ve used two short telephotos for portraits – an 85mm f/1.8 lens on a full-frame camera and a 56mm f/1.2 lens on an APS-C camera. Both are great lenses, super-versatile for portraiture. You can get close to your model and fill the frame with her face, or stand further back and fit her entire body within the frame.
Even at the distance required for this, you are still close enough to talk to your model and direct her. Try doing that with a 200mm lens from a distance – it’s much harder.
Short telephotos help bring a sense of intimacy to your portraits that is harder to obtain with longer focal lengths. I made both these portraits with a 56mm f/1.2 short telephoto lens on an APS-C Fuji camera.

I made this one using a 50mm lens on an APS-C camera. The aperture was set to its widest setting of f/1.8 to make the background go out of focus.

A technique you can try when making portraits with short telephoto lenses is to find something to shoot through, such as grass, flowers or the leaves of a tree, while using a wide aperture to throw it out of focus.

Short telephoto lenses and close-up photography

If you don’t have a macro lens, short telephotos are also ideal for close-up photography. Use them either with extension tubes, or a close-up lens that screws onto the front of the lens like a filter. Both tools reduce the minimum focusing distance of your lens and let you take interesting close-up photos of subjects like flowers.

Short telephoto lenses and landscape photography

Short telephotos also have their place in landscape photography. They come in useful for isolating part of the landscape and creating compositions that are flatter and more minimal than what you can create with a wide-angle lens.
I used a 56mm short telephoto to create the following landscape photo, with a neutral density filter to obtain a shutter speed (exposure time) of 180 seconds. As a result, the sea and clouds are transformed into a smooth blur. The figures on the distant pier are also blurred.

Short telephoto lenses for street and travel photography

Short telephoto lenses are also good for street and travel photography. They let you keep a little distance from the subject, and help you create simpler compositions by including more of the background.
If you ask somebody you see on the street whether you can take their photo, then a short telephoto lens lets you do so without getting too close and intruding on their personal space.

Vintage lenses

Finally, there is another type of short telephoto prime lens for you to consider. Vintage manual focus lenses are available on Ebay and can be used on your camera with an adapter. These lenses are easiest to use on cameras with electronic viewfinders which have tools like focus peaking to help you focus accurately.
I made this portrait with a Helios 58mm f/2 lens. This lens is known for the swirly bokeh effect you can see in the background.

Short telephoto lenses are versatile and relatively inexpensive. They help you create beautiful photos, especially portraits.
What lenses do you prefer to use for portraits and other subjects? Let us know in the comments!

Share this article.

Photoshoot with 30-Year-Old HELIOS 44M-4 58mm f/2 Lens

By: Kunal Malhotra

Helios 44M-4 58mm f/2 lens is probably one of the most mass-produced camera lenses in the world. I was lucky enough to find the M42 screw-mount version of this Helios lens in a nearby camera store. Using an ‘M42 to EF’ adapter I was able to use this 58mm f/2 lens on my Canon APS-C camera body.


After using this manual lens for more than 3 months now, I envy its build quality. The Helios 58mm f/2 lens is built like a tank and you can literally smash an onion with it. But that is not the reason I bought this lens. Its swirly bokeh effect is the only reason I have been scouting this lens for the past few months.
This lens has always been famous for the swirly bokeh effect that it produces as you move towards the edges of the image. So if you position your subject at the center, the lens produces what is also known as a ‘Cat Eye’ Bokeh effect. I hope the photos shown will help you understand this better.

Optical Performance

This is not one of those sharp lenses you would get nowadays, but it is not that bad either. Being an f/2 manual lens and at 58mm on an APS-C sensor, means that you will have to be patient while focusing. The depth of field is narrow, but once you have the subject in focus, you get magical photos. The swirly bokeh if used properly, can completely transform the look of your images.
The highlights are a bit on a higher side, but again it has its own charm if it suits your taste of photography. I had to boost the contrast and saturation during the editing process to suit my style of photos.
However, if you are buying this lens, it has to be for its swirly bokeh superpower and not to achieve the sharpest or punchy images. Thanks to Photoshop and Lightroom, we can later adjust the sliders as per the need.


Thanks to mirrorless camera technology, using the ‘focus assist’ feature, I can easily focus on a manual focus lens. Trust me – it saves a lot of time. And if you are short tempered, then you must make use of this feature if possible. The photos that you see in this article are all clicked using a Canon M50 mirrorless camera. Thank god, someone invented this technology.

Aperture Ring

As you must be aware that the aperture value of the manual focus lenses is adjusted using the physical ring on the lens. One of the few issues I had with this lens was the ring being too smooth. The slightest touch on the ring can make it rotate to a different aperture value. During this shoot, I was unaware of the fact that my aperture value had moved from f/2 to f/4, and I shot around 20 images until I realized.

As a digital photographer, being able to capture such dreamy images with a $30 lens is in itself unbelievable. The Helios 58mm f/2 lens was ideally mass produced for Zenit cameras, but the fact that you can still use it on a modern digital camera is amazing. I am very impressed with the results and the bokeh effect this lens allowed me to capture at f/2. Though this lens is not easily available online, you can check a few websites to find one in used mint condition.

Share this article.