Photography Foundations: Specialty Lenses

Course details

Join photographer, author, and teacher Ben Long on location in San Francisco as he explores the creative options provided by the kinds of lenses and lens accessories that don't always make it into most camera bags.

The course begins with a look at several common and inexpensive lens attachments, from polarizers to neutral density filters. The course then explores ultra-wide angle and fisheye lenses as well as ultra-long telephoto and macro lenses. The course concludes with a look at tilt-shift lenses, which are useful for architectural photography and special effects, and at offbeat lenses, such as Lensbaby and Holga attachments.

The course also contains Photoshop postproduction advice and examples that illustrate the creative possibilities that an expanded lens collection provides. And because some specialty lenses are extremely expensive, the course also contains advice on renting gear.

Concepts

0. Introduction

01 - Beyond the ordinary lens
02 - Roadmap of the course

1. Understanding Specialty Lenses

03 - Words about focal length
04 - Understanding camera position

2. Working with Lens Attachments

05 - What filters are for
06 - Shopping for filters
07 - Understanding neutral density filters
08 - Applying neutral density filters
09 - Polarizing filters
10 - Some shooting tips for working with a polarizing filter
11 - Using infrared filters
12 - Processing infrared images
13 - Handling stuck filters

3. Working with Wide Angle

14 - Working with ultra-wide lenses
15 - Using a wide-angle lens
16 - Understanding fisheye lenses
17 - Working with fisheye lenses
18 - Understanding fisheye exposure
19 - Taking fisheye further
20 - Processing fisheye and wide-angle images
21 - Correcting tone in fisheye images

4. Shooting Super Telephoto

22 - Understanding super telephoto
23 - Shooting distant subjects
24 - Compressing the sense of depth
25 - Working with shallow depth of field
26 - Working with teleconverters
27 - Editing telephoto images

5. Understanding Macro

28 - Understanding macro basics
29 - Shooting close
30 - Shooting macro
31 - Working with a point-and-shoot for macro
32 - Using a two-lens strategy

6. Using Tilt-Shift Lenses

33 - Understanding tilt shift
34 - Correcting perspective
35 - Creating the toy effect
36 - Deepening depth of field

7. Exploring Specialized Lenses

37 - Working with specialty lenses
38 - Using the Lensbaby
39 - Working with the Lensbaby Macro attachment
40 - Shooting with a Holga attachment
41 - Using an alternative mount lens
42 - Using super-fast lenses
43 - Correcting Lensbaby images

8. Creating Lens Effects Digitally

44 - Correcting perspective in post
45 - Creating the toy effect in post
46 - Adding grain to your photos
47 - Cropping and enlarging images
48 - Getting specialty lens effects using your phone

Conclusion

49 - Choosing whether to borrow or buy
50 - Goodbye