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Different Quality Lenses

Lesson 9 from: SLR Lounge Live Q and A and Image Critique

Pye Jirsa

Different Quality Lenses

Lesson 9 from: SLR Lounge Live Q and A and Image Critique

Pye Jirsa

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Lesson Info

9. Different Quality Lenses

Lesson Info

Different Quality Lenses

people often have questions around. Say, you have a 50 millimeter lens. What's the difference between the different qualities? And how important is it in terms of being a professional? And what kind of millimeter you have, for example, so glad you asked that or whoever on the Internets asked that. Okay, so let's have Daniel actually come in. I wanted to do a tiny bit of natural light shaping in this, too, because we do a lot of that in photo one on one. But what we do now is so we have three different like, Well, there's several different price points for these lenses. Right? So you've got the 50 millimeter, the nifty 50 which is 100 bucks. Holy cow. I can't even do numbers. Okay, you've got the 51.4, which is like something like 350 or bucks, something around that range. And you've got the 51.2 l, which is like, 2000 bucks, and you've got the Sigma 51.4 art, which is about 1000 bucks. See, it's not that I can't spell. It's just that my mind's going so fast. I just leave things out. ...

All right? So what are the differences between all of these things? Well, surprisingly, not that much. People always say, like, I can't do that shot because I don't have this piece of glass or I can't do this because I don't have that gear. It's not really about that. Now you're your lenses. They're gonna eke out a little bit of extra quality out of your images, right? You might get a little bit extra dynamic. Are sorry, a little bit extra light, because this is a one point and I forgot to put up here 1.8. I'm sorry I had to come up here and just like, hang with me. You can point with me. Okay, So the 1.8, obviously this lets in a little bit less light than the 1.4, and that lets in a little bit less light than the 1.2 right. That's a small difference there. But in terms of quality, I want to show you guys that it's not necessarily as big as you think. Especially if let's say we generally shoot at F two. Okay, so, Daniel, let's do this. Let's have you stand? What have you stand in front of windows? We're gonna go for something that's kind of blowing out a little bit. There you go. And check this out. We're going to a little bit like shaping, but this lovely little wall, my model if it can actually be a little light shaper tool, Right. Just gonna bring this like this and we have, like, can you get see on her face like we're getting a nice little bounce that comes off of this, and it's like, right on her right here. So we get a nice directional light now. Great. Okay, So let's bring up our camera. I'm gonna go ahead and go in a live. You I do this a lot because I like to cheat on. And so what I'll do is I'll I'll look at my image and I'll dial everything in, so I'm gonna go up to 1 200 a second. I'm gonna go to F two and I So 400 we're at 5500 degrees Kelvin, which is totally fine. And your step a little bit, actually. Let's go this way so we can see the I want to see the lenses You guys can see, like, kind of the difference in the background, too. Perfect. And bring the chin just a little bit towards that wall. Okay? This is your pose for all of our shots. Okay? All right. I'm gonna shoot these a bit on the bright side, too, so that they come in bright on the screen over here, too. Now, let's grab the 51.2. Your fault, Steve. Okay, let me take a look at my field of view. Same settings. Lens cap would be awesome to take off. Can you take a tiny step to your right? There? Right there. Perfect. Chin down a little bit right there. Great. Don't take off the lens, and then go find your other one. My cameras. Guys, if I ever put cameras or gear on sale, don't buy it. Just going to say that now, like I'm gonna be your friend and say that it didn't. We do generally get it service before we sell. I don't not shady like that. All right. Okay. Now I have a crap ton of lenses over here. We put these back over. Thank you, Daniel. That was perfect. you can have a seat. So the whole point doing this was to show you You see that big of a difference here? Can you even tell me which one was which? Anybody at the question? It's not rhetorical. Probably not. Yes, I was just going to say what happens when you zoom in? Okay, so we'll zoom in. I have to go to, Ah, survey of you actually have to go to compare view. Now, you have to keep in mind that when you're comparing this, I took one shot of each so you might not have a tack sharp photo on one of the sides like this. This looks a little bit soft. Well, what is the mass movement all crazy like that? Probably cause this looks like actually hit the focus. This looks like it's a tiny bit off my my signal is there needing recalibration of the moment. Okay, so let's turn the lights on. Let's actually look at which images there, which So the cannon 1.4. That's this guy. Okay, Looks pretty lovely. This is the cannon 1.2. This is the Sigma 1.4. Now there's a tooth. There's $1000 difference between these two lenses. Why don't we take a look at that? I hope we actually got them real to be sharp. So what you're gonna notice when you zoom into these images, you're gonna see certain things you're gonna see when you actually nail your focus, you're gonna see differences in sharpness. But the big thing that that your lenses give you in your artistic toolkit one of the most cool things about a lens is contrast in color. Okay, generally lenses their designs that when you get up into the higher professional and lenses, they're gonna give you more contrast and more color. But they do also other cool things, like when you're shooting wide open on a 1.4. I know it gives me a lot of been getting, especially on my signal art. It gives me a lot of vignette ing where the edges are dark. So couldn't I use that compositionally in my images, right. If you know what your gear is doing, you can totally use it as part your composition, how it kind of darkens in and brings everything in. And that's the cool part about these letters, because there is a So let's just go back to you. So yeah, on his ice. You are going to see this This lenses 1000. This is too. I believe this lens was designed, I think, like, 10 15 years ago. I mean, this old 51 to l. The Cannon one is a fantastic lands, but it was designed a long, long time ago. This came out just a couple years ago, so you should see a little bit more sharpness, a little more contrast, a little more everything on that lens because it's new. Now Canon is designing a new 50 and when that comes out, it's probably gonna be a little bit better than this guy. But even when we compare them all to the $300 Lenz, they all look pretty good, right? I mean, that's not that should never be a dictator in kind of what kind of shots they're going out and getting or an excuse for not going out and taking pictures. So use what you've got this kind of understand what these different lenses do, you'll notice a little bit. I believe that this is the 1.2 because of the lens element itself. There's certain qualities that it gives you because that element is so large it allows a certain type of flair to come in. So the way that your flares are manipulated are gonna be based on the lens. So some people love certain lenses because it renders a certain type of a flare. Some people love lenses because of the contrast in the color or because of the vignette ing. I love things like this, right? Like the old busted 50 millimeter lenses that we just took and opened up. So there's free lenses. These will allow light leaks and bleeds and all that kind of stuff. So it's just part of the artistic toolkit. Is that kind of revealing to see that cool? And by the way, this bouquet looks a little bit different. Do you know why? Um, the number of abs Oblates. That's one huge factor. Yes, number of after actually wasn't to say that Yes, you're after plaids, plaids, plaids, your aperture blades. Meaning like when you look inside and you actually stopped down. You can see how many blades Aaron the after that will dictate the shape and quality of the Boca Also the where you're standing. So I was a tiny bit closer to her. And so you see that the book is a little more exaggerated because my distance to her

Ratings and Reviews

a Creativelive Student
 

Pye is an awesome instructor! He explains everything in a way that you understand it. He is a wealth of information. Love all of his classes!! I love Creativelive and SLR Lounge! Continue doing the great work that you do!!

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Pye is an amazing teacher! I've learned so much from him over the years - both in person and through his tutorials. What's even more amazing is that he is able to do it LIVE! He is able to clearly explain complicated concepts through easy to understand lessons. I highly recommend his courses to learn everything from the basics to advanced topics!

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Wow! Pye is an awesome instructor! I've learned SO many things - nuggets of gold!

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