Aaron is a Chicago-based photographer and retoucher who combines elements of reality and fantasy to create his images. Aaron has taught Photoshop and photography to over 100,000 people, and his images have been viewed over 15 million times on Flickr alone.

He is also the founder and president of Phlearn.com, which offers daily videos, advanced tutorials, featured photographers and more. Aaron is one creative, hard-working guy, and we’re thankful he has the time to show you guys some of the magic behind his work!

The Canon 16-35mm f/2.8L II is what I call a “superlative lens.” It is very different from anything you can get from a point-and-shoot or an iPhone. It is at an extreme, and the images that it produces reflect that extreme, bringing the viewer into another world.

“Superlative” lenses really have to stretch the extremes, so not many lenses fit in this category. The Canon 85mm f/1.2L II is a superlative in that it allows you to photograph with an extremely shallow depth of field. Anything longer than 200mm at f/2.8 I would also consider superlative, as it compresses an image far more than the human eye does. Using one of these superlative lenses will make your photography stand out.

Include More

Using the 16-35 on a full-frame body like the Canon EOS 5D Mark III will allow you to get extremely close to your subject while also capturing the entire environment. If you are shooting in an amazing environment this is a plus. If your location leaves a lot to be desired, you may choose to shoot at a longer focal length in order to crop some of it out. Sometimes your environment may not be great on its own but can be enhanced with lighting. In this example you can see how the original photo includes too much.

The back door is in view, and light is spilling into the scene from many directions. Instead of trying to change the environment physically, you can alter its appearance with light. Also a slight change of camera angle will avoid distracting elements like the back door.

In the final shot, I used a large softbox, camera left, to light the scene. A fast shutter speed allowed the light from the outdoors to go to black. Doing this made the water and the subject the focal point of the image.

Adding Drama

The wide angle lens shows off the environment and pulls you into the image. It is as though the water really is rushing towards you. Just in case you are curious, minimal Photoshop was done to the final image—we really did pour hundreds of gallons of water down these steps.

Floor to Ceiling

Using a wide angle lens will allow you to capture the floor and the ceiling of a small room at the same time. If you use this to your advantage, you can include a lot of great detail. One thing I have learned from shooting wide is that most ceilings are bare and boring.   In order to avoid the lack of detail present in the ceiling, I added a flurry of leaves to the room. Two leaf blowers were used just outside of the room, stirring up a tornado and allowing leaves to go everywhere.

These shots were composited together with the final images of the model to create a dramatic photo with detail from floor to ceiling.

Converging Lines

Straight lines made by walls and ceilings will converge more dramatically when photographed with a wide angle lens. If you can, place your subject where these lines come together, and they will help to lead the viewer’s eyes straight to the subject.

Lighting

One problem many photographers face when shooting wide is getting too much in their scene. If you are using lighting such as a softbox or beauty dish, it may be very hard to keep this equipment out of the image. At the same time, not using lights may cause your image to be underexposed in key areas.   If you expose for the outdoors, the subject of this image would be dramatically underexposed. In order to expose both, a softbox was necessary.

The subject and the background are now exposed well for the final image, but the softbox is visible to the viewer. This is where Photoshop comes in. If you do have to include lighting in the shot, be sure to take a photo in the same place with the lighting moved. Then you can simply replace that part of the image. As you can see, the final shot does not contain any of those elements, allowing the viewer to focus on the subject.

Center Your Subject

If you are shooting a person, be sure to keep them near the center of your frame when shooting with a wide angle lens. These lenses cause a bit of perspective distortion, and if your subject’s face is near the edges, it will come out looking like you printed their face on a fruit rollup and then pulled it apart.

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Thanks again, Aaron!

To learn more about photography, lighting, and how to Photoshop together images like these, check out Phlearn.com. They make five free videos a week and offer the most in-depth Photoshop tutorials on the internet. Pretty sweet deal if you ask us!

 Hope you enjoyed!

Caroline Bishop

Lensrentals.com

June, 2012

This time of year, we get tons of phone calls asking for gear recommendations for the big summer vacation. Sadly, we also get a few post-vacation phone calls from customers, where they tell us what they wish they had known before heading out for their trips.

We’ve gotten Tim and Roger to pool their collective knowledge on what they feel are some things you really should consider before your next trip. The items they are recommending today are not all the most popular items to rent, in fact most of these items are often overlooked for vacation use.

So before you board that cruise ship, safari tour jeep, or station wagon for the wildest 17-hour drive of your life to visit the Corn Palace, let us help you pick the right gear!

The Griswold Family, National Lampoon's Vacation. Photo Credit: bearseatpeople.com.

Second Camera Body

First off, there are two very different types of vacations in this world: civilized and wilderness (or uncivilized, as Roger likes to say). And they each can require very different types of preparation and equipment.

We’ve had almost 20 customers who have gone on African safaris and come home with no pictures because their own camera broke on day one or two. That’s why we say have a small, light back-up camera body (that’s not your cell phone).

Don't be this guy. Photo credit: Break.com

If you are a Canon user, try a Canon EOS 60D or a T-Series camera (like the Canon EOS T3i or brand new T4i). If you are a Nikon user, try a Nikon D7000 (Roger’s pick) or a Nikon D3200 (Tim’s pick).

Make sure you get a back-up body that is compatible with your existing lenses (and, hey, if you’re not sure about this part, just let us know which lenses you want to take on your vacation with your rented camera body, and we’ll make sure everything will work together.).

Vacation “Everything” Zoom Lens

Most people want to travel fairly light. As far as lightweight vacation lenses go, the Canon 24-105mm f/4L IS is both Tim’s and Roger’s personal favorite. Roger pretty well doesn’t leave home without it—or rather, when he does leave home, he doesn’t leave without it. It’s just so useful, and it’s so nice to have one lens that does most things.

Many people have a tough time choosing between this lens and the Canon 24-70mm f/2.8L. It’s true, they’re both great lenses!  But when it comes to vacations, Roger always goes with the  Canon 24-105 f/4L IS. Just look at the advantages—smaller size, greater range and image stabilization—all of which make it perfect for walking around or taking on vacation.

If you plan on renting this lens, though, consider this: it’s pretty wide on a full-frame camera. But if you are shooting with a crop-frame camera, this is not a very wide lens. You should think about taking a Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/2.5-4.5 to go with it. Or, as Tim suggests, you could rent the Canon EF-S 15-85mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM by itself, since it’s a wide lens that is better suited for a crop-frame camera.

If you’re shooting with a full-frame Nikon, try the Nikon 24-120mm f/4G AF-S VR (Nikon’s version of the Canon 24-105mm f/4L IS). And for the crop-frame cameras, the Nikon 16-85mm  f/3.5-5.6G VR DX  is Nikon’s equivalent to the Canon EF-S 15-85mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM.

Lightweight Prime Lens

On every vacation there are going to be times that you are inside, where the lighting is poor. This is when you need a wide aperture lens. And again, you’ll want something lightweight like the Canon 50mm f/1.4 or Nikon 50mm f/1.4G AF-S. These are both great lenses for vacation since they’ve got faster apertures for indoor shots and night shots of the city.

Tim throws in the option of the Nikon 50mm f/1.8G AF-S, which is pretty much the same lens as its f/1.4 brother except that the f/1.8 is half the weight!

Canon 50mm f/1.4 and Nikon 50mm f/1.4G AF-S

Handy Telephoto Lens

Ahhh, the Canon 70-300mm f/4-5.6L IS —nice sharp lens, very good range, not too heavy, excellent image stabilization—all things that are very useful on vacation trips. It’s also a fair amount smaller than any of the Canon 70-200mm f/2.8 lenses or Canon 100-400mm 5.4-5.6L IS.

Canon 70-300 f/4-5.6L IS

On the Nikon side, it’s more difficult to find an equal. Roger says their 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G ED AF-S VR is just OK; their 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6 ED AF VR is very weak. With a Nikon he often says take a 70-200mm f/2.8 AF-S VR II plus a teleconverter or a Sigma 50-500mm HSM OS for Nikon.

If you are thinking safari this summer, then go with Sigma 50-500mm HSM OS (for Canon, Nikon, or Sony). It is a great range, nice and sharp, and with optical stabilization can be handheld . . . for a while anyway.

Another note on safaris: Roger will tell you that there is nothing like having one lens-camera combination around your neck and another at your side if you need it. So if that giraffe you are shooting half a mile away is one thing and suddenly there’s a lion 50 yards away, you can change lenses real quick. That’s a really cool thing to have (or, if you are going somewhere that your tripod rig might get eaten by a bear, you’ll have the second camera around your neck to take pictures of the carnage).

It’s also a really cool thing to have on “civilized” vacations, like when you are taking pictures of your family making sand castles and then see the most ridiculous tan line/swimsuit combo on the other end of the beach (and you don’t want to get caught lookin’).

Good Walking-Around Camera

Tim emphasizes this the most. He’s done the whole mega-backpack loaded down with equipment on vacations. But nowadays he just wants the lightest, most convenient way to go (not the highest quality). After all, he says the majority of the pictures he takes on vacation aren’t meant for blowing up on the wall—most of the time it’s just a 8×10 frame or going on Facebook.

The Fuji X10 and Canon Powershot G1 X (like their Canon Powershot G12 but fancier) are both good walk around city/wilderness cameras. Both are fairly small in size and even have zoom lenses! The Nikon 1 V1 or Nikon 1 J1 are somewhere between a Canon Rebel camera and a point-and-shoot. Image quality-wise, they are closer to a Canon Rebel, but you have about the same control as a point-and-shoot. Bottom line: they’re easy to use and easy to print a quality 8×10 phot0.

Underwater (and Worry-Free) Camera

The Canon Powershot D20 Underwater Camera is a fun alternative if you are going to be near water. If you have never taken your SLR to the beach, you don’t realize what an incredible pain it is trying to change lenses and keep your camera dry and sand-free. It’s worrisome.

Still take an SLR on vacation, but on the beach itself take the Canon Powershot D20 Underwater Camera. Jump in the pool with it, take underwater pictures of the kids playing, go out on a boat, go snorkeling—you can do all of that without having to fuss with an SLR. It’s still not going to have nearly the image quality of an SLR, but it’s great for JPEGs online or a 4×6 print for a little frame.

Canon Powershot D20 Underwater Camera

Another wonderful thing is that it fits in your pocket. Roger says there have been many times he and the family have gone out to a restaurant and taken the D20 because nobody wanted to carry the big cameras.

Tim thinks this is a strange idea. He says leave the underwater camera for well, the water, not the restaurant. Take the good walking-around camera for that instead.

Listen up though, divers: if you are diving and are trying to get really good pictures, it’s worth bringing out the big guns like the Sea&Sea DX-1G or DX-2G Underwater Kit (consider them interchangeable) and a Sea&Sea YS-110 Underwater Strobe Kit.  Flash underwater doesn’t work the same way that it does above water, and the little bitty flash on cameras like the Canon Powershot D20 would only be enough to light up to three feet in front of you.

And, no, we don’t rent underwater housing: their failure rate is low but it’s real, and there is no hope for your camera if the housing does so happen to leak on you. Not to mention there’s really not a good way for us to test the housings at 200 feet to see if they’re working properly. So, unless you can afford to replace the camera you’ll put in it, please don’t do it. Roger tears up just thinking about it—all those beautiful SLRs that were never even given a chance.

A Flash

There are two really opposite reasons you will want a flash on your vacation:

1. On vacation you do tend to do a lot of stuff at night, and you’ll need a flash to give proper lighting to the campfire roast or the amusement park off the beach or your cruise-ship-dance-off-winning Worm move.
2. The sun is so strong during the day. You’ll get really stark pictures with the sun glaring on one side of a person’s face and the other side totally dark and shadow unless you have a fill flash. It makes a huge difference.

Ultra-Wide Angle Lens

The lens people usually forget is ultra-wide angle. When you go on vacation, there is usually beautiful, huge scenery that you can’t capture with a regular lens, and you need something really wide. Roger says if you take one, it will only be 10 percent of the pictures you bring home, but it will probably be your favorite 10 percent.

For Tim, it’s simple: the Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 (for Canon or Nikon) is the ultra-wide angle of choice. Roger, of course, rambles on this subject.

Tokin11-16mm f/2.8

If shooting with a crop-frame camera, Roger says they’re all good: Sigma 10-20mm EX DC HSM (for Canon or Nikon), the aforementioned Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 or the Nikon 10-24mmf/3.5-4.5G DX.

If shooting with a full-frame camera, it’s a different story; there just isn’t as good of a selection of ultra-wide angle lenses. For Canon, there’s the Canon 16-35mm f/2.8L II. For Nikon, the 14-24mm f/2.8 ED is the best, but the 16-35mm f/4 VR is what Roger usually takes. It’s nearly as good, a lot smaller and has vibration reduction.

Ultralight Tripod

Small enough to tuck anywhere. Great for landscapes. It’ll let you get sunsets, the night sky, the lights of the city, and self-portraits. One year, Roger even set up a  tripod in the corner of a room and set the camera to take a picture every 30 seconds. They’d play games, sit around and talk, eat, so on. Those were some of everyone’s favorite photos of the trip because of how candid they were.

Roger says you only need a tripod if one of the main purposes of the trip is to take photographs. If you are looking to just document a vacation, a tripod isn’t necessary.

You also don't need a tripod if you're this guy. Photo credit: Juzaphoto.com.

As far as picking which one, the Benro Ultra Light is the best choice. It’s super cheap and (of course) lightweight. The Gitzo Traveler Ultralight is awesome, but it’s twice as expensive and only a half pound lighter. The Giottos Compact Tripod/Monopod is another great, much more cost effective choice than the Gitzo.

When you need the stability of a tripod, but you don’t want to carry the thing around, a Gorillapod is a fun, convenient alternative. They’re much smaller, lightweight, more compact and can fix on to pretty much anything with their bendable legs. Just make sure to get the right size: for point-and-shoot cameras you’ll need a large, and for SLR-size cameras you’ll need an extra-large. Roger LOVES Gorillapods.

Large Gorillapod

Spares

Extra batteries and memory cards are always a great idea for vacation. And you should always always take something to back up your photos. Whether it’s your laptop/ iPad and a card reader or several smaller memory cards (like four 8G, instead of one 32G), you will thank yourself later.

And don’t be that person who gets all this sweet gear and then leaves it in your hotel room the entire trip because it’s “too much” to walk around with. If you are really going to carry camera equipment around all day, a backpack makes that much easier.

Roger advises to take the backpack that fits your spouse, not you, so he/she has to carry all the stuff. Roger has a backpack that is slightly too small for him, and he travels (well his wife, Erin, travels) with that all the time.

Video

Our last recommendation is the GoPro HD HERO2 Action Cam!

GoPro HD HERO2 Action Cam

There are all sorts of mounts for whatever adventure you want to take this baby on from chest harnesses to handlebar mounts.

If you are going somewhere cool and you are going to be doing active things, the Go Pro is a great idea. If you’re going on a cruise, you don’t need a Go Pro. Well, we guess it depends on what you are going on the cruise for, but there are probably some cruises that we don’t really want to know about…

We advise that this item is mostly for vacationers under 30, who think heli-snowboarding and mountain climbing are relaxing. Once you get over 30, and your ideal vacation consists of sitting, sleeping, eating, and muttering the simple command “beer!” video documentation isn’t all that important :)

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Whatever you do with your summer, enjoy it! And if you need anymore help figuring out what to take on your trips, just let us know. We are always more than happy to help you out!

Caroline Bishop

Lensrentals.com

June, 2012

Hey Everyone! We’re so glad to be able to share on the Lensrentals blog! We love this company, and it is by FAR our favorite rental company to use. Let’s get started on today’s Tuesday Tips & Tricks!

Lens choice is so much more than just getting a different look on an image. Using the right lens for the job can make—or break—the story that you are trying to tell. It can bring attention to—or completely distract—your viewer from what should and should not be seen in an image. So instead of talking about tons of lens choices and tons of options, we are going to talk about just one of our favorite lenses that we use for photographing weddings and the perspective that this particular lens gives us. Without further ado, let us introduce you to one of the greatest lenses ever produced, the Canon 85mm f/1.2L II.

This lens is considered a “portrait” length lens, and let’s first talk about what that means. Portrait length lenses are usually between 85mm and 105mm (depending on who you ask), and the reason a shorter lens (like say the Canon 50mm f/1.2L) is not considered a portrait lens is due to the perspective that it gives.

A 50mm lens (on a full frame censor camera like the Canon EOS 5D Mark III that we use) gives a “normal” perspective, meaning that things through that lens look similar to what your naked eye sees. Things look average and normal on a 50mm. So if you want an image to look like you were standing right there when it was shot, then a 50mm would be a good choice!

If, however, you want to start altering reality, you can go wider than 50mm, or longer than 50mm. An 85mm lens actually compresses reality in a tight, neat little box. It makes everything look closer together, and it gives the viewer the feeling that someone was peering into a moment rather than standing right there in it.

This is a great lens for shooting many parts of a wedding because as a wedding photographer, when shooting the moments that are happening during the day, we want the feel of the images to seem as though we were not there at all. We want it to feel like someone happened to be looking in on a private moment, and this lens does that for us!

If we had used shorter lenses or wide angle lenses like a 24mm or 16mm, the images would not have the feeling of intimacy like they do in the above shots. We also love using it for portraits for a few reasons.

1. For portraits, this lens gives us that compression that we talked about earlier. It also helps us as the photographers to not seem as though we were there but rather that someone just happened to see a great moment between two people.

2. Longer lenses help throw the background out of focus which helps put the focus on our client and not what’s going on around them.

3. It helps eliminate distracting elements by pushing out elements around our client through compression. When you use a longer lens, you can make an area of a few small parts come together as one by compressing reality and getting rid of things you don’t want to see. Take for example, the two images below. The first was shot using our Canon 24mm f/2.8.

And then, look at the difference! How a different look is created by simply shooting with a longer lens (the Canon 85mm f/1.2L II) and framing the distracting background out.

We were recently demonstrating this idea at one of our IN-CAMERA workshops that we host around the country. At the workshop, we were taking a simple portrait of a model we had hired for the day. We had this building about 150 feet away from where we were standing that made for a super cool background. So we shot it with two different lenses to show what the perspective could really do and what impact using the right lens at the right time can have.

Long lenses will make distant objects in the background look larger than they really are and can play to your advantage in the right situation when you need to include some things and get rid of other distracting elements. In the below image (taken at 30mm), you can see how small the building in the background appears to look and how distracting all the elements around our subject are.

Now, in the final images you can see what a huge difference using the 85 to compress the sides and top/bottom of the image did and how big the background now looks in comparison. Also, using the lines of the railing adds further enhancement to the overall composition and style of the shot.

So to give you some perspective on our shooting style, we take most of the portraits and moments that happen throughout the wedding day on the longest lenses we can to give them an intimate feel and look. We make boring and even bad locations look great by including what works and cutting out what doesn’t. We do shoot wide images—and we love the Canon 24-70mm f/2.8L to show the story of what is happening—but our go-to lenses for portraits are the longer lenses.

If you don’t have any (and before you spend a bundle of money) rent the lenses you’re interested in. See how you like them and get a feel for them before you invest your hard-earned money! And what a coincidence, Lensrentals just happens to rent whatever gear you need.

Thanks so much for checking out this blog post, and let us know in the comments what YOUR favorite lens is and why you love it!! Feel free to join us every Tuesday on our own blog for more free photography tips & tricks!

ZachandJody.com/blog

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Thanks Zach & Jody!

In case this is your first time exposed to Zach and Jody Gray, they have been aiding photographers for the last 4 years with free tips and tricks on their blog and newsletter. Zach & Jody go beyond just teaching you the photography, but teach you how to nurture, develop and grow your business. They have just launched their brand new business DVD “Harvest”. This DVD is NOT about photography—it’s about your business. It teaches you the tools to make serious money in your business and how to attract, court and keep your clients re-selling your services through word-of-mouth and word-of-mouse marketing. To check out more info and to purchase the DVD, go to www.HarvestDVD.com.