Review Digital Camera World 04-21-2013

Digital Camera World

A layman's luide to close-up lenses: common questions and answers Apr 21st 2013, 01:00 What are close-up lenses? In our latest Layman’s Guide we answer the common questions about these budget alternatives to macro lenses and show the effects they can produce. What are close-up lenses? A relatively cheap alternative to proper macro lenses, close-up lenses mount onto the front of a regular lens. They shorten the effective focus distance and give a magnifying effect. How do they work? Close-up lenses are often supplied in kits with, for example, +1, +2 and +4 dioptre lenses. The higher the dioptre value of a lens, the greater the resulting magnifying effect will be. It's like putting varying strengths of reading glasses in front of your camera's lens. Without a close-up lens, the minimum focus distance won't usually enable you to fill the frame with small objects. Who makes them? Popular makes include Cokin, Hoya, Kood, SRB Griturn and Tiffen. Prices range from around £20 for individual lenses and inexpensive kits of lenses, up to about £100 for top-quality kits. Reasonably inexpensive yet high-magnification +10 dioptre lenses are available from Hoya and SRB Griturn. When should I use them? They're useful when you want to take close-up shots of objects, so you can fill most of the frame with something that's quite small. However, only close-range focusing will be available. Giving greater magnifying power, either stacked or used individually, close-up lenses offer a macro-like view. How do I attach them to my DSLR? The Cokin close-up lens is square and fits into a holder. Most other close-up lenses are circular and screw into the attachment thread of the host lens, like regular screw-in filters. You can stack them for greater magnification, but image quality may suffer. READ MORE How to set your autofocus for macro photography 25 flower photography tips for beginners Best graduated neutral density filters: 6 models tested and rated Try this reverse lens technique for extreme macro photography How to take pictures through a window and avoid reflections Apr 20th 2013, 13:00 When traveling, it’s common to take pictures through a window in your hotel or museum… or anywhere you may find yourself. But too often reflections are visible in your images. If you can’t open a window, here is a quick way to minimise reflections when you take pictures through a window. You don’t want pictures like this! Ideally, you need the inside of the room to be as dark as possible, compared with outdoors. A natural reaction is to draw the curtains, leaving only a small opening for the camera. However, most curtains have a light-coloured lining, so they'll bounce light from outside back onto the glass. You'll have more success draping a dark T-shirt around the lens. Shoot from as close as possible to the window but, if you're using an SLR, don't allow the end of the lens to touch the glass. This can blur the results by exaggerating mirror-bounce. Try to avoid ultra-wide-angle focal lengths, too, because these further increase the risk of reflections. You want pictures like this! Final Tip Some modern high-rise hotels use polarising glass in their windows. Beware of using a circular polarising filter in these conditions, as you'll probably get unwanted and pronounced colour shifts across different areas of your images. READ MORE 79 travel photography tips you shouldn’t leave home without Photos from airplane windows: tips for getting killer shots every time you fly What to pack: 8 essential travel photography accessories

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