Posts Tagged ‘Camera sensor size’

If you have an interchangeable lens camera and you're interested in capturing photos that are more than simple snapshots, then there will likely come a time when you want to purchase a new lens for your camera. Although some photographers seem to always be obsessed with the latest and greatest camera bodies, in most cases a new lens will do much more for your photography than a camera body will.

The problem can come in choosing a lens - there are so many different lenses to choose from. Different focal lengths, zooms, and fixed focal length lenses, with and without image stabilization, and at many different price points. In this article I'll look at the different features you should consider when looking at a lens, and how to decide which lens is best for you.

Macro and close-up photography provide a way to make the unseen visible. It can highlight details and show us beauty we would otherwise have missed. Essentially macro photography is taking photos that magnify these small items and details so that they can be seen easily.

Macro by Hachi Gatsu on flickr (licensed CC-BY)

If you want to learn more about macro photography, there are some common terms used when discussing it, which it can be helpful to understand what they mean. In articles about macro and close-up photography, and in online discussion forums, you will often come across terms such as:

• true macro
• magnification ratio
• life size
• ratios such as 1:1 and 1:2

In this article I want to explain what these terms mean how they relate to actual photographic practice.

Most digital cameras offer a range of shooting modes, going from M (Manual), through A or Av (Aperture priority), S or Tv (Shutter priority), to P (Program mode - automatic). In this article we'll look at the Aperture priority mode, and why you might want to use this mode on your camera.