Samyang 135mm f/2 lens

The 135mm focal length is excellent for a wide range of applications regardless of the brand of camera one uses, so when I read that Samyang produced one in a E mount and seeing a great offer on one an order was placed.

After having read some reviews and seen some examples of what the Samyang 135mm f/2 lens could produce, I was eager to attach one to my Sony A7ll.

Although the lens is manual focus only, using focus peaking and the focus magnify feature on the A7ll is a breeze, so nailing focus is a lot easier than on a DSLR. After taking a few images outside in the garden and in the street, it did not take long to see just how sharp this lens is, even at f/2, the backgrounds just melted away when shooting wide open and created the look I was after. I had to wait a few weeks before I had the chance to use it, but when a musician offered to bring along a few musical instruments to a local park on a late Sunday evening I got thinking about how I could use the lens and some of the images I might be able to create.

A have two Cactus RF60 flash’s and a few Cactus V6 triggers and a selection of various other flash’s, so I decided to pack these into the camera bag, together with a soft silver Westcott Umbrella.

I knew I wanted to shoot at f/2, so I took a few ambient light meter readings and then matched the flash power to f/2, I then just played around with the shutter speed to control the ambient light.

Anyway here is one of the images I produced with the Samyang 135mm lens and using two flash’s off camera balancing the ambient with flash.

RAW Image converted in Lightroom, with some highlight and shadow adjustments made, together with HSL slider adjustments. Some basic image processes then edited in Photoshop.

the body of the Samyang 135mm f/2 is plastic. However, it’s an extremely sturdy and has a good feel to it, but if you are looking for Zeiss quality, you will need to pay Zeiss prices, although optically the Samyang 135mm is far from budget in terms of the images it can produce.

Being a manual focus lens only, the focusing ring is huge, pleasingly grippy, and rotates with a good level of smoothness. The images this lens can produce in relation to its price are remarkable, so if you are looking for a great portrait prime lens on a budget, the Samyang is clearly unique in how it performs in relation to its price.

A Little Photography Tip About Exposure & EV Compensation.

A Little Photography Tip About Exposure & EV Compensation.

If you think your photography is poor due to not having a good enough camera, you might be surprised to learn that if you take the time to try this basic tip, I guarantee your images will improve.

Light is the most important factor to consider when taking photographs. Learn to look at light in relation to exposure in terms of Shadows, Midtones & Highlights and your photography will improve regardless of what brand or model of camera you have.

Most DSLR cameras have a built in light meter with a scale that you can see in the viewfinder, if you think of your light meter as a Seesaw, the central marker is the balance point (The Midtones)

“What’s a midtone? Cameras basically measure the different tones of white and black and 18% Grey is in the middle of these tones.  Your camera uses these tones when it tries to make an exposure in relation to the tones within the scene.

However, if you take control of the exposure by putting your camera in to manual mode you will gain a better understanding of basic exposure, you may get it wrong at first, but the best way to learn about tones and light in relation to exposure is to play around and experiment.

OK, try this. Put your camera in Manual mode, now set your aperture to f5.6. Now look around for what you think might be a mid tone colour. Often green grass is very close to a mid tone, as is the colour post office red. Now by altering your shutter speed, get the hash marker on your cameras light meter so that it is in the middle of the scale. (Zeroing out the Meter) Take a picture and take a look at the image and look at the histogram. You should find that the exposure is well balanced, if the histogram clips to the far right or the far left, this indicates that the image is either over or under exposed.

As a general rule of thumb images with the majority of the colour white in the image need to be over exposed by two stops. Black is the reverse; you need to under expose by two stops. This is often referred to as EV compensation.

EV compensation can be added in most camera modes regardless of camera model or brand (check your manual of how to do this)

The point I am trying to raise is that if you learn to think about colours and their shades in relation to Shadows (very dark colours) and Highlights (very Bright colours) and how they can effect exposure, you will then understand how and why your camera meters a scene and can get it wrong. you can then take control of how the scene should be exposed by adding or subtracting EV and this will then help improve your images in terms of their exposure.

If you would like more in depth info in relation to the above, search the web for The Zone System, EV compensation,  How to read your cameras histogram, Metering on the midtones and checking the highlights.

Overcoming The First Hurdle, My First Blog

There are plenty of photography sites and blogs that promote the work of photographers with outstanding images, but have you ever wondered what and where their starting point was? My blog is about my photography journey, the highs and the lows of developing and perfecting my knowledge and skills of the craft and sharing my experiences. When I discover something I will share it and right from the start I don’t shoot Nikon or Canon so I guess I am a little different.