How to protect your lens

Your camera and lens combo worths probably more than an average man in Hungary earns in two months; bearing this in mind, taking care of your equipment is vital in order to keep it as your loyal companion. It is said, however, that the lens itself is even more important than the camera itself, so there are some steps you need to take first.

Wiping off the dust from the front lens is usually not enough. You always need to be prepared for the worst that can ever happen to your precious lens, dropping it. The most significant step is to protect the front glass element. There are two ways to do so; either you buy a screw-in filter or purchase a lenshood that prevents the front elment from being exposed to sudden landings.

Screw-in filters, usually UV filters for protection, are said to decrease image quality; but it's barely noticeable with today's 18-20-megapixel sensors. One great advantage of using a filter is that it protects the front lens from smudge marks, fingerprints, dust, waterdrops. Another reason that must be considered when buying one is that it absorbs the force of the impact when the lens is dropped, and it's way more cheaper to replace a broken filter than a whole glass unit!

Some others, on the other hand, prefer using a lenshood for the sake of protection. Lenshoods also absorb the force that's generated by accidental droppings, but they don't protect the lens from fingerprints, smudge marks, and other impacts. What's more, it doesn't reduce the sharpness of the image, while it prevents your image from getting unwanted flares.

Apart from protecting it from having its front lens element crashed, there are other things to keep in mind. For instance, avoid keeping your lens in humid environment. Humidity can make fungus grow inside the lens, which may apparently destroy the coating on the glass elements. If you swap lenses, be sure to put both the front and the rear cap on the lens body to avoid dust gathered inside it.

A good spot for fashion photography in Budapest

Have you ever wondered where to do your fashion photoshoot in Budapest? I was asked to help a friend of mine, who studies to be a fashion designer, do a photoshoot for her assignment. She was given the task to have a series of photos that complies with the topic "Mixed Patterns." I instantly said yes, but I was quite nervous when I had to find a great place where we could take the photos. The weather was awful, rainy and cold, but we insisted on doing it outdoors.

I finally came up with the idea of doing the photoshoot under the arcades of an old building near Deak Ferenc ter, in Jozsef Attila utca. As it was overcast, light filtered through the clouds and gave us some nice diffused lights. As for the equipment, I wanted to make it as simple as possible, so I didn't take my strobes whatsoever; I took my Canon eos 60D and a Canon EF 50mm f1.8 lens to get some nice background blur and sharp images. 

You can check some photos below:

How to get started?

Doing street photography doesn't consist of taking photos of literally everything you see in the streets. Communicating a message and telling a story through your photos is what street photography means. Photographers should hunt for the decisive moment and capture it.

1, Choosing the camera

Missing that decisive moment is the biggest mistake one could ever make. In order to capture unique moments, a proper photography equipment is a must. Although it's said that it's not the camera that counts, but the photographer; however, the limitations of cheapo point-and-shoot cameras can indeed set you back from getting the best out of your own imagination and creativity. One of the most well-known disadvantages of point-and-shoot cameras is their slow autofocus system that may let you down in many situations. Consequently, choosing a DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex) would actually be a much more viable idea if you decide to do street photography, since DSLR cameras have extremely fast autofocus system that won't disappoint you for sure. Let's not mention now rangefinder cameras that are meant to be used for specifically for this purpose, for street use. They usually have price tags of $4k-5k, which is quite expensive for most people.

Another tremendous difference between compact cameras and dslrs is that image sensors in compacts are pretty tiny and this small size highly reduces their overall image quality and low-light noise performance making these small cameras quite unusable in most situations after dark.

2, Deciding on what lens to get

Once you got the camera, choosing the suitable lens is the next step. It is good to know that fix focal length lenses perform way better in most situations than their zoom counterparts, since fix (a.k.a. normal lens) have fewer lens elements inside the lens barrel, thus reducing the chance to get flare, chromatic abberation, and other failures concerning image quality.

What's more, fix lens have better sharpness, contrast, colour rendering, and bigger aperture which enables you to reach shallower depth of field and get the most out of your night photos. Another great advantage of using a fix lens is that it stimulates your creativity and makes you think about how to frame a photo and how to compose it.

The most popular focal lengths that are suitable for street photography are as follows: 35mm, 50mm, 85mm. These are usually great low-light performers and portrait lens with minimal amount of distortion.

3, How to carry around all these stuff?

Well, avoid being vivid and noticeable in order to be part of the moment you're to capture. Obviously, choosing a pink or magenta bag for your stuff and a fancy strassed camera strap for your camera is the worst idea to come up with when considering getting involved in street photography. A black camera bag that doesn't look like a camera bag would certainly do. Be sure that it protects your gear properly and has plenty of space inside.

These are the first 3 steps towards street photography. Bearing all these things in mind might be a great help for you all before becoming a huge enthusiast in this field of art. In my next post, I'll explain all the technical terms that appeared in this entry.