Essential Lenses on a Budget
Scott Robert Lim
Lessons
Course Introduction
21:51 2What Photographers Should Know
21:13 3Lighting Gear Box
17:16 4My Camera Gear
20:10 5Understanding the Magic of Flash
37:36 6Shoot: Essential Skill #1 - Lighting Positions
23:55 7Essential Skill #2 - Bright Light Situations
37:25Essential Skill #2 - Continued
37:15 9Essential Skill #3 - Low Contrast Lighting
31:38 10Essential Skill #3 - Continued
23:49 11Shoot: Essential Skill #3 - Low Contrast Lighting
28:59 12Essential Skills Overview
21:12 13Essential Skill #4: Low Light Techniques
31:02 14Shoot: Low Light Techniques
29:30 15Shoot: Flash & Color Gels
13:25 16Essential Skill #5: No Light Techniques
25:41 17Shoot: No Light Techniques
31:40 18Essential Skill #6: Composition - Rule 1
37:57 19Essential Skill #6: Composition - Rule 2 - 4
27:00 20Essential Skill #6: Composition - Rule 5 - 7
21:15 21Reception and Event Lighting: Auto Flash
28:06 22Shoot: Auto and Manual Flash
17:58 23Reception and Event Lighting: Dance Floor Demo
25:41 24Reception Lighting Q & A
11:45 25Image Critique
42:14 26Image Critique Continued
43:44 275 Essential Lenses
21:19 28Essential Lenses on a Budget
45:13 29Final Exam: Twinkle Lights
13:40 30Final Exam: Jumping Shot
13:34 31Final Exam: Long Exposure and Gel Color
19:53 32Final Exam: Silhouette and Hollywood Glamour
24:33 33General Q & A - Quick Critique
13:57 34Making your First Million: Perfect Job
34:34 35Making your First Million: Mentoring
30:09 36Making your First Million: Expanding
18:24Lesson Info
Essential Lenses on a Budget
Let's say you want to go super cheap right let's say you don't even have two hundred bucks sometimes that happens to us right car breaks down radiator breaks and like oh man she short this month whatever fight like takes over sometimes okay, you can get maybe like a thirty five millimetre two point eight or something like that for this range but you khun by emmanuel lends completely all manual ok, now if you let's see if I have one here thirty five to fifty five even bring the thirty five. This is a very popular ok, check this out when you go to a uh when you go to emanuel ends okay, look how small they are. This is a thirty five millimeter. This is a three point five thirty five millimetre lens thing is dinky why is it so small? Because it doesn't have any clout of focusing motors in it they're small, but the quality that what about when I go with manual ends is my favorite brand is this tack amar the japanese made I put this in this hand you're going to go man, this is well built. Th...
ese things are probably like forty years old, but people are still using them today that this is one of the lenses that its most popular and this is probably one of the most popular lenses but its daily could still grab these for under two hundred bucks maybe even sometimes under one hundred but you can still get him so if you just needed something what you got to look for on the mount there's a lot of manual lenses out there on the mount you need to look for and do a search on m forty two ok, that is actually the original pen text now out penn tex was the first to come out with an slr camera and they used what they call a screw mount lens okay, so what you do is you get it m forty to mount and then you buy the eight dollars adapter on ebay or amazon that fits your camera okay so I have adapters this is a particular adapter that's m forty two that attach is too that there's a little bit more expensive but this is converts it to my a seven so I could use any m forty two lens and I can adapt it to my uh a seven I could give you that same land I could give you this lens and you can use it on your camera because if you get a who has a canon here right so now if you get a m forty two to cannes on zeos adapter you could screw this right on this lens and you could use it to anybody could use it now what's great about this and this is amazing for eight dollars or whatever these adapters focus confirmation on it you know that isthe they put the pin on these so with say you don't have sony camera and you have to you have it uh let's do it let's put this on anybody having candid camera here you contrite okay whatever okay, so we could start later okay, so you put this on and you make sure it's in the manual position here for him okay, now this can go right on tio canon camera and what happens is this u turn the land it's okay? And you get your focus point and you're turning it and you're looking at it oh yeah getting more more, more, more, more in focus and then when it's in focus you hear peop or you see that green light go on so you know your focus it helps you focus too because of this little chip that's back here so it's not that difficult to do it because you still can use your focus points but you just have to manually turn it yeah that's a pain in the butt yeah that's not you know that's it's harder and faster but you know what? For some of us photography is like I don't know it's like I don't know I get emotional about this but it's like it's a in art form, right and it's something cool about doing it the old style way that's why some people still love film right? And you put this old thirty forty dollars lands on your camera and you start using it so reasons you start to feel like a really freaking photographer right because you, um you're going you say you know what you're saying to the world is like I don't need technology I am going back old school and I'm doing this the way it was done one hundred years before me or whatever right? And I'm learning my craft because you know what I remember I was so proud of this first getting into wedding photography because because they didn't even have digital uh well they did but they were like thirty thousand dollars or whatever back then and I was so proud sometimes I would come back from a wedding and I said I did everything manually I focused manually I cameras on manual and I shot film and I was so proud of myself that I could do it and then as I was doing it I was realizing you know what sometimes manuals faster especially was when I was in low light right and and I could just focus the lens and I could keep it in that range and then you know I'm a kind of focus and composed person but then when I mused emanuel lands I could just keep it in the composition that I want and then look and see it that it's in focus and use it and it was great you can do it yes it's a little bit more cumbersome but you can do it millions of photographers have done it before you that way so there's no reason why you can't do it too and yes question for maria I have someone alter lenses that used to belong to my father cannot find adapters for cannon ah possibly yeah, I think but I think that's called m seamount tio get the look for it it depend wasn't a manually focusing yes ok, so if it's manual cannon I mean if it's like emanuel minolta then you're going to have to look for I can't remember if it's m c or m d so it's a different mountain what? You have to look for it maybe a little bit more expensive but the cheapest adapter is fine and finding it m forty two lands ok, screw mouth but you probably could because they actually have a couple of lenses now but I had them just on display I'm gonna see if I can mount them. Yeah yeah is because you get a piece of your dad yeah and I got a meeting with the peace your dad was just pull right and then all the history of like who touched this lands I don't know it's cool it's a little gate it's small it's so small and so uh and you control the f stop here right and I'm going to hand this to you right you can feel how well built it is just pass it around okay all right so that's that range ok and so you can find some really cool manual it and you know what there's millions of them out there of all different types all different brands and you might stumble upon one that nobody even knows about you buy it for ten bucks or twenty bucks and you get and go wow I really like this this is cool all right and it's and it's kind of like treasure hunting right so this is kind of getting into the point where photography can be kind of like a hobby too I mean yes it's functional but it's kind of cool to get into that kind of genre and some people use photography is collectors they just get it because they like the collecting ok, so but and so that's what I kind of am I kind of like getting into the history of it it's like I want to have some old stuff maybe it won't be around anymore but it's pretty cool. Okay, but it's useful stills very useful. Okay uh medium range okay, now this is the cool lands to get okay so cannon had a kit lands a long time ago when they sold film cameras it was their f three five to four five twenty eight tow one o five lands is this is considered when a cannons top ten lenses in the world that it's ever produced it's really well made this was a if I put this in your hand right metal mountain and you go this was the kit lens that came with the camera you'd be like you're kidding me have you seen have you felt the kid lands that come now they're literally plastic right I mean you put this this's the kit lands whoa this is amazing so this is the twenty eight to one o five and it looks like this style here okay supposed to hold it still for everybody to see okay and it's really well built and it's a very sharp lens now it's a three five two four five is that such a big deal right I know there's an element that's a four all the way across right the twenty four to one o five I used to use that lands a lot I used to live with that lens and that's only for this only goes toe f four five that's not a big deal to me how much is that lens that ellen's twenty four one o five l eight hundred bucks this gives her a couple hundred bucks are hunter and look out small it is! This is a really good quality linds now they made two brands of this the u s m one in a u s m two I mean it's not that it's a big deal you probably could get a better value and in u s m one because people don't want those like the collectors of whatever they don't want that one but they want the u s m two why? Because there's more aperture blades on it what is so I started looking into aperture blames why don't why do I care if there's more at aperture blades well it's the type of bouquet pattern it leaves so the more blades they are your big blur be dots in the back they look more like circles and sometimes you'll see but if not then you'll start to see like the five blades as the bulk a dot in the back okay, but if you have more blades than it looks more like a circle, right? So that's why in general they like more blades so there's one that's seven and they're ones there's five and if you don't know this stuff you won't they look exactly they're identical. So how do you know? Well, the one key feature is if it the box doesn't say or whatever or doesn't say it right on the lens, but if the one key feature you've got to see if it says the word macro on it okay natural if it's not fly blades it will have a picture of a flower here ok it's still a good lands don't get me wrong it's still a great land but you know if you're going to spend that much just get the seven blade anyways because resale value on it will be higher because that's the one everybody wants so get the one that says macro and not the flour ok s so this is a great lens, right? And I have ah, I have a three I can in three I or whatever and I just keep this lens on it you know I have to have all the brands because I have to test my equipment on all of them so I have all the cameras and so I have fun getting testing out then so that's why I was able to test out all these lenses too because I have all the brands not everybody's stupid enough to have all the camera brands but uh I do ok so that's that one lands there then the auto focus well, sorry, I just hope sorry I neglected cannon users what do you do cannon in that range they also make I didn't bring it I have a picture of it they also make one of their best lenses ever because you've got to realize that cannon a nikon aren't they a little bit competitive with each other so if canan is producing a kick butt lands you better be sure that nikon is going to do the same thing right so usually when you find a really good popular lens they will have the other brand will also haven't equally amazing lens in that range too so if you're nikon user they also have a twenty eight to one o five lens ok and it's a d uh that's really well built and it's a really nice lends to it's probably one of nightgowns top lenses too because they have they remember they had to compete against each other right you're going to buy a camera and the word out is oh man that kit lands on the cannons and amazing when you think nikon is going to go we gotta make ours amazing to us we can get out sold here so they had to compete with each other okay so uh then you're going into the long it lands and they can inside omon ultimate this's the cool thing about madonna lta minolta did one better than cannon instead of twenty eight to one o five this is twenty eight to one o five cannon says I'm still minolta says you know what their lenses kicking but we got to do something a little bit better than that so what did they make? They made a twenty four to one o five lands at three, five, four five so it's even wider. And you know that girl that shot of that girl in the bathing suit with the sunglasses on that always show about bright light that was shot with that lens one time I went to the I think, the last thousand male workshop I just took that one. As I said, you know what? We're gonna work shopping just use this twenty four to one or five and did the whole workshop the balance it was so smoky I have the twenty four to seventy carl zeiss two point eight that thing is happy I got man, I'm just going to go I'm shooting mostly flash I'm going to be shooting girls and keys out and I'm just high f stop! I'll just use this twenty four one of five and I use that he and entire workshop maybe I had one little light lands with me did a good job was great, right? That's like that's, probably less than two hundred. Sometimes they go up to fifty those but that's right in that range with that lands there so that's a great lands. Okay, now, let's, go to the long lands this seventy oh, I'm gonna love to tell you about this next one oh, great seventy two to ten zoo they cannon cannon makes a lot of two one two of these lenses one the very popular one that came out was an f four all the way across the range from seventy two to ten don't buy that one I got a bunch if you want them for cheap you can have it but I bought some then I stumbled across the lens cannon doesn't want you to know about it seventy two to ten three five four five the word on the street is is that the l lens was patterned after this lens yes maria kid I don't know if it was a kit lands but it matched this one look how small this is I think I may have that yeah for you it has this little pattern on it. I also pictures in the I have pictures of all of this so if you're buying the class you're going to get all of this and you get to get all the pictures and you know what it is okay this thing focuses fast may I love this leads uh you put this on your right and then I was sort of trying to find some more information on it and guess what? Every single one of cannons lenses they have these u p c codes manufacturing codes for it right? So you can identify it later and I couldn't find one on this for some reason and I even wrote I can and I go well why don't you have the manufacturing code on this lends well well no we're not supporting that lends anymore it's like why would they like having it for all the other lens but then they don't have this one right? This one is great if you're carrying user get this one I use this one a lot it's it's banned damn damn focus is really nice and so I think they pattern to the seventy two, two hundred f four l ends after this one because it's really good so this is a great body so that's what man you got to make it look how small they are you got to lands is right here just you know, sometimes maybe you're not the seventy two, two hundred shooter but this is so small you could thought in your bag just in case right just in case or maybe you're seventy two to ten shooter you don't want to bring your twenty four to seventy and just in case throw that in there great just the case lenses because we only have limited room in our back okay, so good uh we've got that covered if you want okay remember I said if one company makes a great lands the other one's going to make another great one so nikon also has the seventy two to ten but theirs is four to five, six so it's a little bit slower lands but it's really, really, really good the one that you probably want to get is the de but if you want to pay half the price, don't get a d uh the only thing different with it is that I think the d stand on another night gun like super guy don't know everything, but I think the d stands for distance, so if you're using a flash with it, it can calculate the distance better for t t l or whatever. Who cares about that? And maybe I think it's supposed to focus a tad fast the faster but the quality is the same, so if you want to pay half the price, who cares about the d on your show? You picture they are identical, they look exactly like a like ok, so that's the one you get for that in the manual lenses if you won't even go cheaper now now we're going way uh cheaper. I just stumbled across this awesome find I don't know if you can find him anymore, but in the m forty two mountain I found a three point o, which is close to two point eight, right? This is a three point oh two hundred millimeter lands okay, I got this one hundred two hundred dollars it's three point oh it's extremely fast two hundred millimeters for under I think you can get him now for about one hundred seventy dollars if you can find them they on ly show up very rarely these are very rare lands and people hold on to it three point oh that's fast right and what I love about it is these older vivid tarr's they have the built in hood so it's just built into its which is really nice and feel this thing that this is a nice this is a nice lands and I shot what that is pretty cool you know it goes down a three point oh it's manual but here touch it feel it right it's heavy but look it it's so small so if you need a fast situation and you need to get like two point eight instead of bringing your seventy two hundred two point was like that that's only that big so again just in case you can have it throw it in your bag okay uh then there's the, uh talk omar this is a very popular lens here. This one here let's say you can't afford an eighty five so what people do there's always a substitute okay, so if you can't afford the eighty five the next one to get in a manual ends and I recommend this tack amar because people collectors want this one okay, this one in a prime condition can sometimes lead to three hundred dollars right now so this is a collector's landscape people like this one because it's very versatile this is one hundred five millimeters at two point eight look how small it is. This is one hundred five two point eight right here tak amar ok, so if you can't afford an eighty five where if you don't use it that much or whatever or if you have focused speaking or whatever and you liked doing manual this is a great little guy to have right here, okay on and then they have the one thirty five three point five in the tackle are also I didn't bring that one but that's only slightly bigger than this one so let's say you need some long range right and let's say you have a crop sensor camera you can buy a one thirty five which is the equivalent of two hundred millimeters is that that's correct and you can go down to three point five f stop with it and the lands is literally this big it's amazing just pop it in your pop it in your bag just in case you have it or you have a second or whatever and they want to use a certain range it's definitely usable, so this is great, okay, so that that one there um forty two okay now for your portrait lands a fifty millimeter you know just by one hundred dollars one I don't you know if you're going to really beat that price but if you're a minolta user s only user you can buy the minolta fifty millimeter one point seven but that's what I've been using this week which is this one right here this is the one right here okay uh and you can get that one for less than one hundred bucks no problem ok so that's that one and they also have the manual lenses for that they do make these one point four's but go well why do we really need to shoot at one point for anymore because we could put the high I sew up um I don't think you know I think people used to like the one point four because they needed the fast lens and little light but nowadays s o sixty four hundred why should we make thing when I am focused on the other I not like let's just keep it in focus so I don't know one point is good enough you can find those lenses for twenty bucks seriously they're all over the place and there's tons of brands there's different ones tackle our is the best the window far talking mars good so important to mount okay mackerel lands um you can use several things you can use something like in an extension tube have you heard of those all they are are like it's a setup for probably twelve dollars what they do is you they extend the lens out so it comes out longer like this and so little magnified your little magnify and turn it into a macro lens okay so the more farther out you put the tube then the mauritz going toe closer it's going to get but the issue with that is if you buy one of those is just seats of metal with amount so it's not going to relate any information into your camera you can buy in a more expensive one that will but if you want to buy the cheap one then you need to use a man so how you going to control your f stop if it doesn't it's not relaying the information and if that lands not auto focus or anything like that how's it going toe control that so that's why you get the extension tube and then you get the cheap manual lands because I couldn't control my f stop white on the lands that's very important for macro photography anybody shoot macro photography here is you usually have to shoot at least five point six or eight to keep everything in focus okay so it doesn't matter if you have two point oh but if you're using it as a mackerel lands then you're shooting most like for me I started five point six when I see macro because I want to keep everything in focus ok, so you've got to get a manual lends to put on your extension two to put on your camera and do it that way another way to do it is to get a manual lands preferably if you're using a full frame camera or crop sensor get a fifty five get a fifty millimeter or forty anywhere from forty miller minute forty millimeters fifty five millimeters and I think I talked about in this in my wedding show is you get a reverse mt okay, so what it is is it reverses the lens on the camera and it turns it into a mackerel lands so for ten dollars you buy the same threat. Now if you get a lot of tak amar lenses a lot of almost all the tack amar manu amounts are forty nine millimeters so you get a forty might nine millimeter thread you threaded on there but on the other and it has amount to mount into your camera whatever you have okay now if you were in my paris workshop, of course were eating dinner and we're bored and then some one of the photographers uh I think he's was from what was it from costa rica anyway? Singles? Yeah, I do that I just turned my lens around and shoot it so you can do that too right you can literally just turn the lens or out hold it and you can even let let's um lens flare in by letting some light leaks into it which is kind of cool effect so you just turn around and you can use it as a mackerel lands but you have to learn how to hold the exposure if you want a lock in the f stop and whatever because it will default to whatever it is but if you have uh you can control it and you like night kind cameras are great and that kind of lenses are great because a lot of the night comments is still have the f stop control on it right anybody an icon user here right a lot of your lands is still have that f stop right here I don't know what camera you have but some of some of them still make that so you can control that depth of field there but just simply turning it around like this and messing with it it is in an emergency you can do that too so that's just something to do an emergency um okay so that's a macro lens for you now let's kind of uh get into the actual pictures of these lenses and what they looked like for online this is takina nineteen to thirty five three five four five they actually make two versions of this lens and one time I bought one and it said takina three, five, four five it wass but I go this is not the same thing so I don't know what the deal is with it but make sure you get this one and the way you um comptel is the pattern of this here is big and chunky the one that's no good it has a finer grip uh little bumps there get the thick chunky one and that works makes all another thing with all these lenses let's all mention later make sure it says made in japan they made the best lenses, so make sure because they make a version of this I don't know if it's made in japan, but make sure it says made in japan because of this twenty eight one o five it was made in other countries but it's not as nice as this one are you all bottle this stuff for your guy and made all these mistakes right? And, you know I had it, I tested it and I know all right, so just make sure it says made in japan and then you're getting a good one, ok? That's that's an important thing, especially in that twenty very, very popular lens is there going to be made in other countries, but the best ones are always made in japan is we're going to get an older lands get the made in japan lenses because they're really good some of them made some of them come in like the tack amar they used to make lenses for sears gets remember sears do we still have serious a system I think they do yeah my batteries there right ok so they made him for sears a long time ago so sometimes you can get at lens it says sears on it but still actually it's attack amar but ok so that's that lands there okay, this is the one uh can in twenty eight one o five it looks like that macro means the seven blade aperture ok, get that one this is the nikon one is the twenty eight looks like this twenty eight to one o five three five two four five and sometimes this might be slightly over two hundred dollars it's a little bit more what's great about this land if you get a reverse mount on it and you turn it around guess luck it controls your aperture right here so you can easily turn this lends also into your macro lens at the same time by just getting a ring there. Okay? Another thing with the night con lenses they used two types of lenses I think they call won the f s well, I don't know what it is but on your camera on your these if you're a nikon use or these lenses that I've been suggesting how you tell that these will work because I don't know all the models but there's one thing you need to know these lenses don't have a focusing motor in them okay, so you need to find a camp make sure just take the lens off your your camera and make sure has that turning meccas it mechanism to focus your lens and its assistance little pin here that turns and that's what focuses your so the motor is built into the camera okay, so if you have a camera that doesn't have this motor in it and usually usually bills are the cameras that are not considered professional what they do is they build the motor inside the lenses that's why they're bigger but these cameras the more professional cameras that nightgown has it has a motor right here built into it so if you take off your lands, look at it and if you have that then you're good to go with these lenses you still can use them and you can still mount him but you'll have to manual focus everything okay so they will still work. Um then we have that the minolta twenty four to one o five maybe a little bit over two hundred dollars but look how small that issue that goes from twenty four to one o five they could even do wide angle shots with that which is cool um and there's that one that's that's the one the seventy two two hundred that's a beautiful lens it's a really nice for that it does a great job in that price point and the height of your cannon user I think you don't have the money to buy the big old two point eight get that one okay um is that it? Okay, here is the nikon seventy two c this is a difference between the d and the non de exactly the same. Okay, so he wants fifty percent up to fifty percent less just by the non d one and that will work for you here's my adult version they used what they call the very popular lands that everybody love which is the standard it's called the beer can lens minolta was the first lens that was auto focus and they pattern a lot of their design was after I think it was like carl zeiss or maybe even carl zeiss did they pattern there worked by them and they were very, very, very good and everybody was going after those a lot of the old timers who first got into our mon el to users because their lands way in the beginning were really, really, really good okay and so they had this one lands that looked really clean and was called the beer cannon it's f foreign at seventy two, two hundred and it's bigger right? And everybody kind of buys that one, but what I found is I like this one. I think it focuses faster and it's a sleeper like you could probably find a less than one hundred dollars right now. So it's pretty cool and I use this and some of the shots that you saw um they brought this one to the new york workshops of those manhattan bridge ones that you saw just I just used this lens with it. Okay. Um so fifty millimeter right is the nikon one that you get for one hundred twenty five bucks or whatever that's the one there cannon that's the one the model to e f lends one hundred twenty five bucks or whatever great it's plastic don't worry about it. You break it by another one. No big deal, right? You have that in your bag? This is the minolta one that you can get for probably under her bucks right now. It's a one point seven. See the beer can had the similar design, which was the seventy two, two hundred it looked like this exactly, but longer so it's all within that family um that's a sleeper lands right now for cheap it's like it's great, but and that also had the built in landslides he's just pull it out, which is cool, okay looking so if your cannon user this is your setup right you could have the fifty millimeter four hundred bucks to get the tochinohana there then you get the twenty eight one o five and then you get the seventy two to ten okay you can see the whole wedding with that no worries ok then if you're a nikon you get the fifty millimeter nikon and say get the takina you get the twenty eight to one o five d or whatever on your good twenty eight to twenty five d you're good to go and get the seventy two hundred on this end bam there you go full range for you if you're sony user get the fifty millimeter one point seven then you get the tow kina then you can try getting the twenty four one o five so it could get even wider and then try that seventy two two hundred three point five ok so you get any of that stuff is only seven hundred dollars probably at the most for all four lenses okay then you get yourself a full frame camera right now the sony a seven which is an amazing cameras only fifteen one hundred dollars full frame and it is this big this is full front this is a seven ok so it's this big right here fifteen hundred dollars full frame right here with all the live you and all that kind of stuff great video to it now you will have to buy an adapter for it to go from a elin's email to, which is this, which is about three hundred bucks, but it allows you to use as but nikon, this is probably sony's most popular selling camera right now is a seven, so you bet they're going to start to build lenses for this, and they're coming out with more mohr lenses, but until that time, you can always use the came out lenses, which are cheap. Uh, and you can just get this adapter for it, and I think for the eighty seven, this actually makes it focus faster, too. Uh, it'll work for that. Ok, now you can get all the a mouse, but everybody has. Doesn't nikon have a two thousand dollars a full frame now? Doesn't cannon have a sixty or whatever it is, right? They all have to stay within the same price range. They all have to be similar quality, and they're all about a couple thousand dollars for full frame with whatever I still you want to put it out, so literally for less than three thousand dollars, in some cases, a lot less than that you could give full frayed you can have a whole range of lenses that you actually could go out and do a job. I recommend getting that one pay a lot of money for that one last that you used the most and then filling to get with these I actually prefer the toe tina I'm using that I do have the two thousand dollars one I don't use it I actually prefer that one it's much lighter and better and I use it uh but use those other lenses to fill in those holes and then you can and then I I kind of encourage you maybe to buy some manual lenses because sometimes you find it for twenty thirty bucks and experiment with them because you might find a range that you might really like you might never this is a great thing about it is let's say you're not really eighty five millimeter guy but you're tempted to say well, should I get that eighty five millimeter lens? Holy crap that's two thousand dollars or about el them I'm not sure if I like that what you just buy one of these cheaper ones for less than one hundred put it on try it once in a while see if you like it it allows you to experiment and maybe through a different lens that you find that you can that you use and you stumble along and say hey, you know what I really like thirty five millimeter I've never tried it before but I did this one job I had that manual and my bag I popped it up I start shooting it and I really liked it and maybe your vision is tied to a particular lens but you just don't have it so you don't know this allows you to it kind of play with things and experiment and to find who you are so I kind of see this you know how I came in with crazy stupid light and I showed people listen this is about light here you don't need to buy these five hundred dollars flashes you can use the straight manual flashes you want to and it works that's what I'm trying to say with these lenses it's like you know what you don't you have him here you could you could do things with them there of use and it's kind of sad because a lot of times nobody wants these things anymore they're just discarded or whatever right but they're of use and they were great quality and it's a a piece of history too which is really great all right, so I think that's about it yeah, I just want to mention if you want to always be in contact with me I have a mobile app that you can download it our android or iphone it doesn't matter right and it's basically it's a sticky album if you're the united states just text scott robert two two four five eight seven and you can immediately download that or if you you can subscribe to me at scott robert limb through facebook I just used my personal account all the time but just subscribed to me get my feeds and then you can message me and I could get that link to you you could also join the scott robert limb and creative life group that I have uh and if my instagram is scott robert limb and if you want me teo if you like the critique I don't know I I have no idea I thought it was pretty cool but I'm going to start doing that mohr because I think people can learn a lot from it and I and so I'm going to start doing that if you don't mind me critiquing one of your images like I kind of did here after this to just tash tag scott robert critique on instagram photo and then if I use it I'll let you know and I'll send you something for you too so anyways uh that's it for this section I actually have a couple questions that I would love to hit if you don't know let's go we have one from terry five four three two one and two other people and I believe that you talked a little bit about this but do you find f four lenses are adequate for weddings with modern cameras or do you still prefer two point eight or faster lenses for what range did you know didn't specify what rangy yeah uh for white angle no I don't hesitate at all because mostly for wide angle I don't want to be it I want to be in a little bit higher up stop everything is in focus so wide angle that's not a problem ok if I have one or two men's is in my bag that are more than four if I have something I need some portrait lens that is fast. Okay, so whether you have the flu fifty millimetre one point eight or whatever if I need to get below f one point for then I have a lens that will do it. Okay, so I do have tohave that range in there but look at this if you are using a five point six lengths and you zoom out to two hundred that's still going to blur out the background very nice for you and it's going to take an amazing portrait because it's going to compress the image so you could just shoot longer like this twenty five just go online take a look at that lens and see sample pictures of it okay if you take this twenty eight one o five yeah it goes to three five to four five but if you zoom it out all the way to one o five and then shoot a portrait that background is blurred ok, so that's another trick of you if the wide going to that reason because obviously you don't have to worry about, um, camera speed of the lens, because now we could do I sl sixty four hundred. Who cares? People ask that reason is because they want the blurry background. Ok, so how do you get the blurry black brown? Just shoot a longer lands that's a work around. Okay, so that's his work around to it, uh, and pose of iata says and to other people anyway, scott could address issues of using adapters and lenses not traditionally made for the camera body. Is there any additional maintenance and the additional upkeep? Are there any like potential issues of breakage that happened when you, when you work with the adaptors, can't talk just briefly about that? Um, yeah there's a ton of adapters out that I just go what? Just go on amazon there's like tons of reviews of that once I intended just by the ones that have, like, a lot of room zoos for star. Okay, that's the way oh, it's three dollars more than the other one. What's the big deal, right, that's more of a safer play. So that's what I tend to do on the adaptors because there's there's a ton of them, but I just look at the one ones that are kind of reputable or even if you are e day, if they have that, how many soul if I c nine hundred sixty five souls ok, I'm getting that one, right? So what is fifty cents more? No big deal. Take that one, right. Good question. And maybe the final one from g k wilke and two other people wanted to know how often you actually use these rare lenses that are kind of more like specialized, a little bit different. I use them for fun, okay, yeah, right, because I do have all the other lenses, and fortunately for me, I've been in the business long enough when I I can afford those other lenses, right? And so I have the expensive lenses s o I just wanted to give options for people who can't afford it, right and so but I do use them. I like using them. I put him on, I have on my collective and they keep appreciating the good ones just keep going up. They don't. They don't lose its value.
Class Materials
Ratings and Reviews
Dan Frumkin
I read several reviews on this site which gave me hesitation to buy this course. Nonetheless, I pressed on. Now I have a suggestion for those considering parting with their cash. Before you buy, go to any of Scott’s galleries online. If you can shoot at Scott’s level move on. If you cannot see the artistry in Scott’s work, move on. If you cannot conceive of the technical proficiency Scott has with flash, move on. But if you are mortal photographer that desires to improve your work, compare your personal portfolio to Scott’s. He wins awards for good reasons. Invest the time and money. You will be amply rewarded. Real World Lighting: Advanced Techniques is worth every penny. So is Crazy, Stupid, Light. I purchased both and now use Scott’s advice and techniques daily. Plus, he provides a good dose of inspiration and humor. Scott is an awesome professional, fantastic photographer and a wonderful teacher.
user-f9ff5e
I already own Lim's class, "Crazy, Stupid Light" as well as two of his Strobie 230 flashes with transmitter (in addition to my Canon speedlight). I appreciate being able to get into lighting with flashes and equipment that costs much less than Profoto lights etc. that I couldn't afford yet. Lim has a very organized and energetic teaching style. He is a great speaker in that he is excited about what he is doing and seems to love to help others learn how to be successful with their lighting. He is very animated and funny and has the right blend of being confident yet self-effacing and admits his mess-ups during class. I find him very engaging and interesting. If you have less than $500 or $600 to spend on lights, but want to start adding lighting to your photo shoots, he is a great place to start.
a Creativelive Student
This class was fantastic! I've always opted for the easy way out when it came to lighting my subjects, usually resorting to using just natural light and a reflector even though I always have my lighting kit with me. I learned in this class how creating my own light can be the easiest way to get the results I want. It's much easier than trying to make the natural light do what I want it to do. Scott's passion for photography and teaching are evident, and his commitment to the success of his students is amazing. I definitely recommend this course for photographers at any level. I came away with many ideas on how to build upon the lighting tips presented here to make it my own. Thanks Scott Robert Lim!
Student Work
Related Classes
Lighting