Renting Lenses- a great way to try out lenses

As a relatively new photographer, at least with a digital SLR, I do not have very many lenses for my camera. Choosing that next lenses can be a challenge because there are so many different lenses on the market and because good lenses are expensive you don't want to buy one that you will not use because it does not suit how you shoot.

Sometimes you know from what you like to shoot what lens you want/need. I knew that I needed a Macro lens because I love to shoot flowers and insects up close. I researched which lens would suit my needs and budget. The budget is always a factor because I know very few people who do not have to worry about the expense of lenses. This does not mean that cheaper is better, no often you have to seriously consider which level lens will meet your needs. Sometimes only the top level lenses will meet your needs and sometimes you can go a level below because you do not need everything on the top level lenses.

This was the case with my Macro lens. I knew that I needed a Macro lens because I loved shooting flowers and insects up close and this would take a macro lens. I choose a Canon 100mm f/2.8 Macro instead of the L version of this lens. The reason is that while I would love to have image stabilizing on the lens most of my close up work is on a tripod and the non L lens was about half the cost of the L lens and is an excellent lens.

For my next lens I know that I want a telephoto zoom that is longer and sharper than my walk around lens. I have not been sure which lens would fit my needs. In order to make sure that I buy the lens that I will use I decided to rent lenses to try them out.

Another reason to rent lenses is when you need a specialty lens but will not use it enough to justify the cost of the lens. This can be very true with super telephoto lens.

There are several companies that rent lenses. I asked several photographers about renting lens and they said that both lens rentals and borrow lenses are good companies to work with, but that they liked Lens Rentals a little bit better because if you reserve a lens you are guaranteed the lens even if they have to buy one. I have used Lens Rentals and have been very pleased with them.

I was looking at the zoom starting at 70mm and zooming longer.

I was thinking that I might want a zoom that zoomed up to 300mm. I rented several 70-300mm lenses and discovered that I did not care for the lens.

I first rented the Canon 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS. I did not like this lens. It felt like it was jerky and the lens rotated to focus which meant that I could not use a circular polarizing filter. I like to use a circular polarizing filter outside especially on sunny days so not being able to use one would not suit me. I will admit that the lens was sharper that my regular and was not too heavy to use but still I could tell that if I bought this lens I would not be happy with it and probably would not use it often.

I rented next the Canon 70-300mm f/4-5.6L IS. I didn't care for this lens either. It was smooth in using and I could use the same filters that were on my regular lens, but it was heavy and felt it had to big of a diameter for me to hold comfortably. I also found that if felt awkward on my camera to me. The images I took with this lens were sharper that the non L lens. I could tell that I could see owning at some point in the future a 300mm or longer telephoto lens to use on my tripod for some occasions but I will wait a while before I consider buying it.

I decided not to rent any other 70-300mm telephoto zooms. I could tell that this was a just a bit long for regular use for me. I try another lens of this length by borrowing it from a friend and still did not care for that lens.

I recently rented a Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II. I loved this lens. On a recently trip to Wyoming this lens was often on my camera. It fit my hand well and while it was heavy I could still use it all day without a problem. It is a very versatile lens. I wish that I had a circular polarizing filter that fit it but it is a different size that my regular lens. I could easily see using it a lot. The big downside to this lens is the cost. I will also consider the 70-200mm f/2.8L IS, the model just before this one, because it is an extremely sharp lens but it a little less expensive.

I am planning on renting wide angle lenses and other telephoto lenses.

I wish that I had a wide angle lenses with me on our trip to Wyoming but I know that this is a lenses that I probably will not ever own because I do not see using it enough to justify the costs.

I also plan to rent more telephoto lens so I can see which length that I feel comfortable working with enough to justify owning. I do want to do more astrophotography so a longer lens will be needed.

I think that renting lenses is a great way to try out lenses to see if the lenses will work with the way you shoot or if it is a lenses that you will not use enough to justify the cost of the lens. The cost to rent lenses has seemed reasonable to me, rental lengths range from a little as 4 days to as long as 90 days. You do have a choice with both of the companies, I have mentioned, of adding insurance or not. I added insurance when I knew that I was flying, even though I was carrying my photography equipment, I still wanted to peace of mind. I did not add the insurance on a road trip because I felt comfortable about keeping the lens safe.

Panoramas

Recently we went to  Western Wyoming for my nephew's graduation. We took this opportunity to also do a bit of sightseeing as well. On the way out we went through the Snowy Mountain area of the Medicine Bow Mountains and on the way home we went through Grand Tetons National Park, Yellowstone National Park and other parks.

The land is just beautiful and vast. It is just too much for a regular photograph, it needs panoramas to do it justice. To try to capture the vast beauty I took a series of photographs that I was able to stitch together with my software to form panoramas. I use several programs depending on what I am doing. I tend to use Adobe Photoshop Elements and the second most is Adobe Lightroom. I have found that these programs while similar do things differently so I use the one that will do what I want the easiest.

The downside to these stitched together panoramas can be very large file size. Sometimes the camera will see colors a bit differently in each image so you sometimes it is very noticeable where the different images were stitched together. This means that you either have to do a lot of work to correct this in the merged image of before you merge.

Here are some of the panorama that I took in Wyoming. All of these were taken with my 18-135mm lens because I have a polarizing filter for it.

This one is was take in the Snowy Mountain area of Medicine Bow it is comprised of 9 images. The settings were 400iso, f/8, 1/800sec

The next one was taken in Grand Tetons National Park, Wyoming it is comprised of 5 images. It was hazy that day so the mountains are not sharp and crisp. The settings were 400iso, f/4.5, 1/4000sec

Panorama can be more than grand vistas such as mountains but also things like lakes, ponds even waterfalls. They can be horizontal or vertical. Both of these were taken at Yellowstone. The first one is one of the prismatic hot springs in the park this picture is comprised of 4 images. This is not the Grand Prismatic Spring but a small one that was near by.  The settings were 400iso, f/11, 1/200sec. Yes, the colors were this vibrant.

The next picture is a vertical picture of Kepler Cascade and is comprised of 4 images. The settings were 400iso, f/11, 1/800sec. I did take more photos to try to merge for this waterfall but they didn't line up nicely so I decided not to use them in the panorama.

Merged Panoramas are a lot of fun and a great way to get the pictures that are too large for a single shot with your camera. Sometimes though the camera will see each photo with a slightly different color. I had this happen. I was using a 70-200mm lens that I was renting and did not have a polarizing filter for it, while this can also happen with a polarizing filter. The setting were 400iso, f/11, 1/400sec. This was taken just outside Laramie, WY. It is comprised of 10 images and it needs a lot of work on blending the colors before I would be able to use for anything.

HDR

HDR, High Dynamic Range, is becoming a very popular technic of processing photographs. It is a process of allowing a greater dynamic range from the very light highlights to the very dark shadows. This is usually done by taking several shots at different f stops, this is called bracketing, then stacking them and adjusting the composite image with special software. The image resulting can look more like the eye sees to be something totally abstract or anything in between depending on the images and the photographer.

I have played with this technic a little bit with varying success. I think that my most successful HDR is of the inside of San Fernando Cathedral in San Antonio. The photograph was taken about 2pm on a very sunny day so the light coming through the stained glass windows washed out most of the colors. I still need to reedit this photo and add the window with all its colors back into it.

It is comprised of 3 sections, right middle and left each with 3 brackets so a total of 9 photos were used. The method I used in processing this photograph was to process each section as an HDR then merge them together. This allowed me to work on keeping the halos down around the windows. I think I did a pretty good job on managing the halos and keeping it natural looking.

When I tried merging the sections together and then merge the brackets together as an HDR I was not happy with the results. It did not look right to me.

That is the nice thing about computers. You can try working with the photos in different ways and if you are not happy you do not have to save it while keeping your original files safe.

Does HDR work for all images. No, it is just another tool in the photographers toolbox to use when needed. I have seen HDR photographs by other photographers and while some have been amazing others have been awful. It really depends on the image and the photographer if this technic adds or subtracts from the photograph.

I hope that by next week I will have edited the photos I took on a recent trip so I can share them.

Orchids

Reccently I went to a local greenhouse during the week and was able to take pictures of some of their flowers. I usually like to be able to move the flowers around a little so I can get the best angle for the picture but this time I was not allowed to touch at all. So I had to try to get a good angle.

This Orchid photo was one of several that I took. I like how one bloom was in focus with the others less so and the background as totally out of focus. It has to me a peaceful garden look. I had a couple of people suggest that I should have tried a vertical photo. Maybe next time.

The settings for this photo was iso 400, f/5.6. 1/400sec

This next photo is of a Dragon Orchid. I am not as happy with this photo because I could not get futher away from it or an angle that I was happy with. This was one if I could have turned the pot a bit I could have moved a bit and gotten a better photo. Sometimes this is how life goes.

The settings for the Dragon Orchid photo was iso 400, f/11. 1/160sec