Photography Foundations: Lenses

Shows how to understand, choose, and properly use lenses.

1. Introduction

• Welcome
• Who is this course for?
• Why does the lens matter?
• Changing lenses
• A word about camera brands

2. What Is a Lens?

• What is a lens?
• Field of view
• Image sensors and field of view
• Focal length multipliers
• Primes and zooms

3. Focal Length, Camera Position, and Composition

• Focal length, camera position, and composition
• Exercise: Taking ugly self-portraits
• Shooting wide
• Shooting telephoto
• Focal length applications

4. Depth of Field

• Depth of field (DOF)
• DOF and sensor size
• DOF and background size
• Deep DOF and diffraction artifacts

5. Choosing a Lens

• Choosing a lens
• Lenses for crop sensor cameras
• Image quality
• Lens features
• Size and weight
• Lens notes for Micro Four Thirds
• Specialty lenses
• Where to buy
• Lens caps

6. Advanced Autofocus

• Focus point selection
• Center-point auto-focus
• Servo focus
• Focus troubleshooting: What to do when your auto-focus doesn't
• Filters
• Auto-focus and live view

7. Conclusion

• Maintenance
• Micro-focus adjustments
• Goodbye