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#but i wasn't sure how to do that without crowding the composition
arleniansdoodles · 1 year
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I’ve been reading this awesome Star Wars fanfic, The Protégé, written by @spell-cleaver, and it really inspired me to draw some fanart! This scene is from chapter 4, where Luke and Leia are having some bonding time XDD
If y’all are interested, the fanfic’s premise is that Luke is raised by the Naberries, becomes the Senator of Naboo, and is sent to work in the Senate while Padmé is Empress and Vader is her bodyguard. The political intrigue and character relationships are amazing! Thank you so much SpellCleaver for your work!! While I wait in anticipation for the next update, please accept this humble offering as a token of my appreciation <333
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jennibeultimate · 1 year
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Personal recap GP MK John Wilson Trophy 2022 - Women FS
This is going to include some SP impressions too...I am going with the starting order of the free skate...
Julia Sauter had a much better free than SP and I think that's the best she could hope for. Beautiful costume.
Alexia Paganini - I don't know why but Alexia seems to be on an downwards spiral. It wasn't particularly bad but she lacks her old technical content and she seems to struggle with the rotations of her jumps. Also program wise there isn't much happening. She changed coaches 3 times in 3 years now...I am sure Michael Huth is a good place for her because he knows how to work with adult skaters past 20. I hope she can change it for the better soon.
Bradie Tennell - Years ago you wouldn't expect her to fall at all it happened so rarely. You really can see what injuries and lack of training do to the consistency of a skater. I really liked the program composition of the SP. The FS overvoice of Greta Thunberg creeped me out though. Vivaldi' s 4 seasons are beautiful pieces of music, you don't need a voiceover and as much as I like programs with a message, this is really not it for me to include a few sentences that have nothing to do with the music. Climate change is an important topic, but not sure that would come across without explanation and the voiceover. I think her costume is one of the most beautiful costumes this season. She just needs time to train, then I am sure we see the old Bradie. 11th place is really not something you would expect for Bradie...
Natasha McKay definitely never expected to skate in a GP but she really lived up to the homecrowd expectations in the SP. I think her SP is a really fun one that gets the crowd going and has a different style than anyone else. Stand out program. Sadly her FS didn't work as well as her SP, if you don't have the most difficult elements you have to at least be clean, but I still think looking at her story and what she has achieved over the years she can be very proud.
Gabrielle Daleman - her story has some similarities with Bradie just a much longer history of training loss and Gabby was hardly ever the most consistent skater. I admire her for still trying after all the hardships and mental illnesses she suffers from. I was delighted for her at Skate Canada in the SP and so sad to see her struggle so much in the free. It unfortunately wasn't much better here. I wish her all the best! Don't give up Gabby!
Nicole Schott was wonderful 😍😍😍 Unique arrangement for Bohemian Rhapsody, cool program! Nicole is one of the skaters that constantly progressed in her technical content. She may never reach the heights in her technical content than the top skaters but give her a few more years and she will come close. It's nice to see the opposite of most skaters who regress with age in their technical content.
Young You sadly also suffers with injuries and isn't in her peak condition, you can see it with how hesitant she is. She lacks a bit of speed and expression that she definitely normally has. It was a very good skate for her. Happy for her. ❤️ I think she is always a bit of underscored especially on jumps, but I do think that her PCS not being super high is ok for her current state. Also beautiful costume 😍 (btw the more classical skating approach to Vivaldi's 4 seasons than Bradie's though it's not the original version either)
Gabriella Izzo - those popped jumps costed a lot of points...I am not really sure what to think of her. She has nice speed across the ice and also expression is there, just dunno I am not sold on her yet...it can change though.
Ekaterina Kurakova invented the sunshine on ice. Her energy and joy is extraordinary. Wonderful musicality. Wonderful program with wonderful music from UP! ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ And a clean skate!!! 🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳 The winner of the hearts! ❤️ (technically she's not on par with the top skaters but everything she lacks technically she makes up in performance, if someone deserves a 10 in performance it's her!)
Anastasiia Gubanova - this was a very good skate. Strong technical content, but some URs. She is very lovely to watch. Not sold on this program though...it would need more fiery instead of lovely imo...
Isabeau Levito - beautiful skater to watch. Especially the SP had many transitions but it's a bit too like obvious not woven into the program. I don't think the SP fits her at all. I think that despite a good knee bend she doesn't accelerate speed effortlessly. I like her FS much better than the SP. It suits her style better. I think for a 15 year old she is very good I just don't think her PCS match her skating yet...she is without a doubt deserving of a medal especially in this field.
MAI MAI MAI MAI ❤️❤️❤️❤️🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳
Mai Mihara is such a great skater. She emoted so well in the free skate. A free skate full of attack and a contrast to that wonderful beautiful fairy like SP. So thrilled for her! She was so often overlooked in the past, underscored, left off big teams for stupid reasons! I hope this is her season to shine! ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️
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wreckofawriter · 5 years
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Pencil Sketches
Pairing: Cedric Diggory x Reader
Warnings: Ummm none fluffy
Word Count: 2,738
Summary: You start receiving sketches of yourself and find out who the artist is in a very surprising way.
A/n: Hi this is my first Cedric fic. I dont exactly love it buuuut whatever.
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You remember when it all started. It was four months ago. You had just had a particularly hard day, you were late to Charms and got 5 points taken from your house, you spilled ink all over your positions essay, you got pumpkin juice on your blouse and forgot about a very difficult quiz in DADA. You were heading to the back of the library to choose a book when something fell out of the large amounts of papers you were holding. You groaned bending down to pick it up as you did you glance at the contents of the page and your heart stopped.
It took you only a second to figure out what was on the paper. It was you. You were glaring down at a notebook, your eyes appearing to shine as you clutched a quill in your right hand. Your hair hanging in front of your frustrated face, your lips drawn into a thin line. It was the best drawing you had ever seen, for a second you thought it was a photograph. But it was a drawing, a drawing of you, a drawing of you that looked so realistic it almost scared you. The pencil marks were flowing yet sharp, shading was done in just the right places to give your face depth. It was like looking in a black and white mirror.
    You stood in the middle of the hallway for what must have been a good five minutes just staring at the photo in amazement. You then realized what you were doing and continued to the library.
From there the drawings became a normal part of your life. You would usually receive five to six a week in your bag, waiting at your desk or even in your dorm room. You had no idea how they managed to swing that. Each one was more beautiful than the last and you swear that they made you look much prettier in the drawing than you really were. Most were done in pencil a few in quill and one in charcoal. Each one seemed to be a different mood, sometimes you would be scowling, sometimes smirking, sometimes smiling and one was even of you with your head down on a desk your eyes closed and your hair hanging in your face. The ones you received the most were ones of you laughing. Your lips split open in a smile and your eyes crinkled or just shut altogether.
Many times you had tried to find the artist who had drawn you without luck. They never left any notes or indications and it made it extremely difficult to find the culprit. You wished for nothing more than to meet and thank the person who had brought so much happiness into your life with their artwork. But they never revealed themselves even after four months, nothing. You began to worry, what if they never revealed themselves? It was your last year after all, you would be leaving in a few months. Eventually, you stopped looking and simply hoped they would reveal themselves.
“Ms. Y/l/n,” McGonagall called to you.
“Yes, Professor?” You asked your arms full of books as you made your way back to your common room.
“Could you please follow me? I have something we need to discuss.” She clipped, beckoning for you to follow her.
Your eyebrows scrunched together in momentary confusion before following the orders you had been given.
As you followed McGonagall through the castle you wracked your brain for what you could have possibly done wrong. Did they think you cheated on an exam? Did they find your stash of food in your dorm? Surely that wasn't that big of a deal. Then you remembered the bottle of firewhiskey under your bed and fear rose in your throat. What if they expelled you? What would you do? Your heart pounding you were lead into a room expecting all of hell to rain upon you, but when it opened you were greeted by Dumbledore's warm smile.
“Ahh Y/n, looks as if the last of you have arrived.”
You glanced around the room and easily recognized two-thirds of the famous fourth-year trio and a young girl you didn't recognize.
McGonagall went to talk to Dumbledore as you made your way over to Ron and Hermione.
“Umm do you guys know what going on?” You asked as you approached them.
“Not a clue,” Hermione responded with as she glanced around the room as if looking for clues on their current situation.
“Are we in trouble or something?” You inquired.
Ron snorted, “As if Hermione would ever get in trouble.” he jeered earning a glare from the bushy-haired girl.
“I think it has something to do with the next task.” Hermione guessed.
“Then why am I here?” you wondered.
Hermione opened her mouth to answer but she was cut off by Dumbledore.
“I assume all of you are wondering what is happening, well as Mrs. Granger pointed out it does have something to do with the task tomorrow.”
Everyone else seemed very excited you, on the other hand, were very confused, what did the next task have to do with you?
“Tomorrow morning your friends are going to have to rescue something of great importance to them from the bottom of the black lake. You, my friends, are those things.”
Hermione gasped. Ron raised both his eyebrows and the girl seemed a bit frightened.
“You will be put under a spell and not remember a thing until you break the surface again. I promise all of you will be fine. So if you could just take som-”
“Umm excuse me?” You asked cutting off your professor, “Why am I here?” His eyebrows raised in confusion. “I mean I get the whole rescuing someone that is important to them thing, I mean Hermione for Krum.” Hermione flashed red and Ron rolled his eyes. “Ron for Harry and I guessing she's Fleur’s little sister or something?” You said gesturing to the young girl, “I just don't get why I'm here.”
Now Dumbledore's face was filled with amusement, a small smile on his lips. “You don't know?” he asked.
“Know what?”
He started to laugh, “For such a bright girl I expected you had already found out.”
You were beginning to feel stupid, “Found out what?”
“Have you been receiving drawings for the past few months?” He mused glancing at Mcgonagall who also seemed amused.
“Y-yeah, wait how do you know about those?”
“It's impossible to miss,” Mcgonagall said sweetly, “Cedric is constantly pouring over as sketchbook in his classes, particularly the ones you are in, Ms. Y/l/n.”
You heard Hermione let out a giggle as your face flashed a brilliant red. Your head was spinning. Cedric was the one who was giving those to you? The golden boy of Hogwarts was spending his time sketching you?
“Cedric is the one drawing me?” You managed to get from your mouth, the sentence came out squeaker than you would have liked but at least you managed it.
“Yes Y/n, I'm quite surprised you hadn't noticed the boys admiration in you.” Dumbledore smiled as your eyes got impossibly bigger and your stomach began to fill with butterflies. “Now we don't want to waste much more time." He sighed, “Take some of this, it will put you straight to sleep, although I must warn you it tastes terrible.” He passed each of you a bottle full of a deep purple liquid.
You downed it quickly and almost immediately your world grew dark.
Cedric had grown exceedingly nervous as he stood on the docks in the middle of the lake. While the others around him seemed to be scared of what lurked in the dark of the lake he was concerned at where you were. He hadn’t seen you at breakfast, where he was planning to slip his newest drawing into your bag and now he couldn't find you here either. What if you were sick? Where you ok? Had you gotten hurt? He silently shamed himself for caring so much for a person who didn't even know he existed but he couldn't help it. He had tried to stop caring about you, but fate seemed to work against him as all he could do was see you no matter where he looked. It was as if you had been placed behind a glass case in a bakery, with a price tag much too high. So all he could do was look and wonder how your lips would taste against his own.
Finally, he gave up looking for you and looked at the challenge ahead of him. If you weren't here he wanted to make sure you heard from everyone else how he had won. Determination took over his features, he had a plan and he just hoped the others were less prepared than he. Just then the horn was blown and he dove into the water quickly casting a bubble charm around his head and begging to swim into the depths of the lake. He quickly located the singing he remembered form the terrible egg he had gotten and swum toward it. He almost choked when he saw what was waiting for him. You. Your ankles were tied with rope and your beautiful y/e/c eyes resting closed as your y/h/c hair floating in the water. The others tied around you suddenly meant nothing as he stared at you. He thought you resembled an angel floating in the water, all you were missing were wings. He then remembered he was in composition and swam towards you at a quickened rate. He thought for a minute, inspecting the rope holding you before muttering a spell. As the bounds broke he snatched you and began to swim upwards. He then saw Harry come into view, he nodded at him and continued upward.
Your eyes popped open and you found yourself gasping for air as you coughed up water. The first thing you noticed was how cold you were, everything thing was cold except an arm swimming you towards the dock. You looked up to see Cedric dragging you towards the dock his face full of worry. He glanced over at you and smiled and blushed.
“Are you alright?” He asked over the cheering of the crowd. You nodded still coughing.
When you reached the ladder you were helped up and quickly wrapped in a wool blanket as you continued coughing tiring to get the water out of your system, finally you were able to intake air and breathe normally and you saw that you were on a dock in the middle of the lake but you could hardly see anything over the crowd of people swarming you, well more swarming Cedric. You then realized that Cedric had his arm securely wrapped around you as he maneuvered you through the crowds and your face flushed red. Cedric led you to an empty bench overlooking the lake on the platform getting congratulated all the way. When you sat down he pulled you close to him in attempts to warm your shivering your form. You instantly leaned into his warm body, looking up at him to meet his grey eyes. He blushed bright red and looked away from you. Just then the crowd erupted into cheers and you looked up to see Krum emerge, Hermione, gasping for breath as she appeared to shriek a bit at his shark head before he quickly changed back.
    “I hope Harry’s alright.” You murmured as you peered into the water.
    “I'm sure he's fine, I saw him when I was getting you.” Cedric blushed a bit when he mentioned you.
    “Did you see Krum?”
    “Uhh no, I didn't,” Cedric answered.
    “Why is he up here before him?” You questioned worriedly, your eyes scanned for the young boy in the water. You didn't know Harry well but you wished for no harm to come to him.
    “I don't know.” Cedric seemed just as confused as you.
    You both waited for Harry to show up as the minutes ticked down. Then suddenly you gasped. In all the excitement you had completely forgotten that Cedric was revealed as the mysterious artist.
    “What is it?” The grey-eyed boy asked you.
    You turned and looked at him. There was no denying that he was absolutely stunning. He was beyond handsome with his sharp features and kind eyes. You saw him blush a bit as you took in his profile, which only made him more attractive. But not only was he gorgeous he was amazingly kind, talented and smart. You opened your mouth to confess your knowledge on the portraits he had drawn of you. But you were interrupted by shouting and yelling and you both turned away from each other to see Harry emerging from the water, with not only Ron, but the young blonde haired girl as well. You sighed in relief and looked back at Cedric who was already staring at you. He blushed for the 1000th time when you met his grey orbs and looked away again. Then he turned back to look at you with something new in his eyes, determination.
    “Hey Y/n I need to tell you something.” He said his voice a bit louder than it had been before.
    “Sure what's up?” You asked.
    “You probably have already realized this but clearly you mean a lot to me, I mean with the whole rescuing you think that was probably obvious but umm,” He paused then continued, “Imtheonewhosebeengivingyouthedrawings” He said quickly his face burning a deep shade of crimson.
    If you had not already known what he was going to say you would have been thoroughly confused, but because of your recent discoverings, you had managed to gather about what he said.
    “I know.” You answered simply.
    “Oh ok- wait, WHAT?” He said his eyes wide his face getting impossibly redder.
    You giggled rolling your eyes playfully.
“For how long?” he gasped.
“Umm, it's almost noon so about, I'll say 14 hours?” You guessed.
He blinked rapidly then smacked his forehead with his hand. “Of course you know, they probably told you before they put you in the lake.” He said clearly feeling very stupid.
“They're amazing by the way.” You complemented, “Although I'm pretty sure you make me look much better in the drawings than I am in person.” You giggled.
He looked at you and scoffed, “Are you kidding.” He murmured running his thumb along your jawline. “The most talented artist in the world couldn’t do your beauty justice.”
You flashed a deep red as you felt your stomach erupt with butterflies once more. You bit your lip, the exact place his eyes lingered.
He leaned in millimeters from your lips, “May I kiss you?” He asked his lips brushing against yours as he spoke.
You simply closed the space between the two of you in an answer. His lips were warm against your cool ones and your hands found your way to his damp hair. The kiss was sweet and passionate, his lips moved slowly against your own making you swoon. As you pulled away you were for the second time in the past hour gasping for air.
“I have something for you.” He whispered turning to grab a bag next to him. He pulled out a piece of paper and handed it to you.
You couldn't help the small smile on your face as he looked at his newest drawing. You had your head thrown back your eyes closed and a smile wide on your face, it was clear you were laughing.
“I always loved drawing you laughing.” He said shyly.
“I still don't understand how you are so good.” You said in amazement.
“Thanks.” He blushed
“No, thank you. Thank you so much for all of these. They made my day so much better.” You said, “Just looking at them made me happy.”
    Now as you looked at them you felt your world fall apart. Sobs wrecked your body as you stared at the drawings you had saved. You couldn't think, your head throbbed and you felt like you were falling into a deep dark pit but you could never hit the bottom. Your tears soaked the picture of you with your head thrown back in laughter and you were sure you would never laugh again.
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Autumn in Lima
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Chapter Two - Pour Some Sugar On Me
Pairing: Klaine Author: Sunshineoptimismandangels Word Count: 7148 Chapters: 2/? Continuation of this meet cute Summary: For this Tumblr prompt: “I’m stopped at a light and you’re singing with your windows rolled down and wow do you have an amazing voice” AU AO3 | FF.net
Blaine shifted nervously in his seat looking down at the time on his phone. He'd been waiting for nearly twenty minutes, but it was still ten minutes until the time they'd agreed to meet. Blaine groaned at himself, frustrated with his own nerves. He didn't usually get to places early; in fact, he was typically one of those people running just a few minutes behind… constantly. This evening was different.
This evening he had a date, a date with one of the single most attractive men Blaine had ever met in his life. So, he was early – really early. He hoped he didn't seem too eager, but he'd thought about Kurt Hummel all weekend. He thought about him during his mom's bachelorette party which both his brother and he had awkwardly attended at his mother's insistence. He thought about him at his mom's wedding and especially during the reception where Blaine had wished for someone to dance with. And he'd thought about Kurt every minute all day long and through the tedious effort of trying on and discarding half a dozen outfits before choosing his current look. He just wanted everything to be perfect. He couldn't remember ever being this excited for a first date.
He glanced up to the door of the bar for the hundredth time just as it swung open and a young man walked through. Blaine's breath caught in his throat. Scratch his previous thought. Kurt Hummel wasn't one of the most attractive men Blaine had ever met, he was by far the most beautiful man on earth.
Kurt was standing at the front of the bar looking around the crowded space, he was wearing a maroon velvet suit with a checkered shirt and matching pocket square, his hair was styled high enough that god herself could probably brush her fingers against it, and damn, his face. Angelic was the only word Blaine could think of, pink lips, stunning blue eyes, and cheekbones that could cut glass.
It was clear Kurt was looking for him, but for a moment Blaine couldn't even respond. He had to clear his throat and roll his shoulders a few times before he had the guts to stand from the table he'd snagged and wave at Kurt.
When Kurt's eye landed on him, they immediately lit up and a wide smile graced his face as he hurried over. Blaine wasn't sure he deserved such a response from an adnois like Kurt, but he was going to do everything he could to keep Kurt smiling all evening.
"Hi!" Kurt was nearly breathless as he stopped in front of Blaine. There was a brief awkward moment when they didn't know if they should clasp hands or hug… but Blaine just went for it giving Kurt a quick hug and peck on the cheek. If the color rising to Kurt's face was any indication, he'd made the right choice.
"I'm so glad you're here!" Blaine said as he pulled a chair out for Kurt and hoped that wasn't too old-fashioned or patriarchal.
Kurt sat down still wearing a smile and Blaine joined him.
"I was afraid I was early."
"Um…" Blaine rubbed the back of his neck nervously, "I was even earlier, I… was just so excited." Blaine confessed, and Kurt beamed at him.
"I've never been here," Kurt said looking around at the crowded bar and nodding at the woman up front singing karaoke, "It looks great though!"
"I hope you don't mind but I have our names on the schedule for a couple songs, the list fills up fast and I didn't want to miss our chance."
"Of course, I don't mind!" Kurt said bouncing a little in his sat, "What is the point of a karaoke place if you aren't going to sing? Besides, it's not fair that you've heard my singing voice and I haven't heard yours."
Blaine smiled and leaned forward, "Oh, we'll take care of that soon enough."
Kurt let out an excited little giggle before covering his mouth evidently embarrassed, Blaine just laughed and hailed a passing server. "Could we get a couple of menus?"
Soon they were chatting over margaritas and a shared appetizer of cheesy fries. "I can't believe we never met in high school," Kurt said arms crossed on the table as he leaned towards Blaine. We were both in show choir. I've even heard of the Warblers."
"Just the way the districts were drawn, we never competed."
"Lucky that we both ended up at the Lima Bean years later."
"God yes, I feel very lucky." Blaine gushed, he was hoping to come off cool and confident this evening but was veering towards lovestruck teenager, Kurt just made him feel that way he couldn't help it.
Kurt smiled coyly and glanced down at the table, "Um… me too." He glanced up with a sweet smile, "So tell me about your mom's wedding?"
They talked about the wedding and Blaine's brother and how he'd balled like a baby through the whole thing. Kurt described his father's wedding to his stepmom that he'd helped plan while still in high school. Blaine didn't even notice how the time was flying by until he heard his name called over the speaker.
"Oh! We're on deck." Blaine said standing from the table.
"Wait, what?" Kurt blinked as if just then realizing they were in a bar with other people.
"We're up next. To sing?"
Kurt stood too, smoothing down his suit, "I hope you’re ready, I take performing seriously."
They went to the side of the stage where an employee asked for their song choice.
"I… I don't even know," Blaine looked to Kurt, "We haven't talked about it."
"I know." Kurt shot Blaine a sly look and then leaned in to whisper in the woman's ear.
"Yeah, we have that." She nodded.
The singer performing finished their song and Kurt grabbed Blaine's hand tugging him up on stage.
"Wait! I don't even know what we're singing."
"Just follow my lead," Kurt said with a wink and Blaine all but melted on the spot.
As the opening notes of the song blasted through the speakers Blaine turned to Kurt in shock recognizing the tune. This was not what he'd been expecting.
Kurt smiled and started to sing the opening line, "I hopped off the plane at LAX With a dream and my cardigan." Blaine laughed as Kurt did a little shimmy and continued on, "Welcome to the land of fame excess. Whoa, am I gonna fit in?"
Blaine jumped in and joined him on the next line until they were both bouncing around the stage and playing to the crowd as they belted out the chorus, "So I put my hands up! They're playing my song. And the butterflies fly away!"
When the song was over the audience cheered as they laughed and ran off the stage hand in hand.
"Oh my god," Kurt said still catching his breath, "We sound good together."
Blaine couldn't help the huge grin on his face seeing Kurt's flushed cheeks and his sparkling eyes. "I don't think Party in the USA has ever sounded so great."
"Your voice is amazing." Kurt praised as they sat down at their table and Kurt took a deep drink of water. Blaine watched the muscles in his long pale neck move as he gulped it down.
"Well… you know." Blaine felt suddenly warm, but he was sure that was just adrenaline from singing with Kurt. "I'm majoring in composition, I better be able to carry a tune."
"Mmm, yes. Music Composition at NYU." Kurt said leaning his chin on his hand with a dreamy sigh, "You're living the dream. My dream in fact." Kurt's smile slipped a little.
"Hey," Blaine reached out to cover Kurt's hand on the table, "You'll be there next year, right?"
"Yeah, a whole year away." Kurt dropped the hand from his face but turned his other one over to hold on to Blaine's. Blaine looked at their clasped hands and his heart raced as Kurt continued. "I just feel stalled, waiting for New York. Plus, when I get there everyone will be ahead of me, use to the city, and use working with each other." Kurt shook his head not meeting Blaine's eyes.
"No. None of that. First of all, you won't be the only transfer student, and besides, with a voice like yours coming out of nowhere? The other students aren't going to know what hit them."
Kurt looked up with a small smile, "Are you just saying that to flirt?"
Blaine blushed and laughed, "No. Kurt, you're amazing. The Musical Theater department has no idea what is in store from them in just one short year from now. The time will fly by, Kurt."
"Hmm, I hope so."
"And when you get there, you'll already know someone who can show you around."
Kurt tilted his head and bunched his brows up, "Really? Who?"
"I… me. You'll know me."
Kurt's face broke into a smile.
"You're teasing me."
"Just a little," Kurt said laughing good-naturedly, the sound making Blaine's heart swell.
They ordered another round of drinks and continued easy conversation, Blaine found that somehow their seats had scooted very close to each other where they couldn't move without brushing arms. Blaine didn't mind at all, in fact, he felt like he was vibrating next to Kurt, feeling Kurt's warmth and intently watching Kurt's lovely eye sparkle as he spoke. He couldn't help but let his mind wander, hoping against hope that maybe Kurt might want to stop by his place before the evening was over. His mom was on her honeymoon and Cooper was out with friends…
"Um, they're calling your name again," Kurt said and Blaine realized he'd gotten lost looking at Kurt's lips.
"What? Oh, I put us down for two songs."
Kurt smiled his eyes also darting to Blaine's lips, was he thinking the same kind of thoughts Blaine was?  "I'm game."
"What?" Blaine asked his heart skipping a beat.
"I'm game to sing another song?"
"Right." Blaine huffed out a laugh, "Of course. My choice this time."
They got up to the side of the stage and Blaine told the organizer his song choice.
"Really, Blaine?" Kurt gave him a look, "Isn't that kind of cheesy?"
"Says the man who picked Party in the USA."
"Touché."
Blaine had picked the song without much thought because he knew the lyrics well, and Kurt joined in right away surprising Blaine with how raspy his voice could sound given the right song. At first, they started off silly and happy like they had before, singing and playfully getting in each other's space.
"Sometime, anytime, sugar me sweet, Little oh ah innocent sugar me."
It wasn't until they got to the chorus and Kurt started moving his body in ways that Blaine wasn't sure were stage appropriate (not that he minded) that the lyrics started getting to him.
Kurt took the lead, "Pour some sugar on me. Ooh, in the name of love. Pour some sugar on me." Kurt rolled his hips and Blaine found it hard to find breath for the next line.
"C'mon, fire me up. Pour your sugar on me."
God, Blaine never really thought of Def Leppard as sexy music, but these lyrics were conjuring vivid pictures in Blaine's mind.
They were dancing close now, eyes on each other, "I can't get enough," Kurt bit his lips between beats and Blaine entire body flushed, "I'm hot, sticky sweet, from my head to my feet, yeah!"
Had Blaine compared Kurt to an angel before? Because he was actually a devil, in that maroon suit smoothly moving his body and filling Blaine's head with dirty thoughts. When the song ended, they received cheers from the audience again, as well as some catcalls and one, "Get a room!" Blaine didn't even notice.
They got off the stage both panting and looking into each other's eyes.
"Wanna get out of here?" Kurt breathed, so close to he made the hair on the back of Blaine's neck stand on end.
"Yeah," Blaine nodded slowly, "Yes."
Blaine quickly paid the bill and he and Kurt hurried to the parking lot.
"My place is close," Blaine's heart pounded in his chest, "If you wanted to go there."
Kurt nodded quickly, "Um… we came in two cars. I'll follow you there?"
Blaine was a little disappointed, not wanting the distance that separate cars would enforce, but if Kurt felt more comfortable having his own vehicle then Blaine was fine with that.
The whole way home Blaine's stomach was full of butterflies and he kept letting out happy little burst of laughter as he looked in his rearview mirror to see Kurt following him. He just hoped the drive didn't cool Kurt off. Though if it did, Blaine was fine with making them some coffee and spending more time talking. He just wanted to be near Kurt for as long as possible. He couldn't remember a time he'd felt this giddy about someone.
He parked in the driveway, Kurt pulling his Escalade in behind him. Blaine had barely gotten out of the car before Kurt was on him, pressing their bodies together and trapping Blaine against the door of his Mazda. Kurt's lips were a fraction of an inch from Blaine's.
"Please, tell me no one's home."
"No one's home." Blaine inhaled and then Kurt's lips were on his, kissing him right there in the driveway lit by the safety light on the garage.
Blaine smiled into the kiss feeling it down to his toes as he surged forward to meet Kurt's eagerness. "Want... to see inside?" Blaine asked breathlessly.
Kurt pulled back with a laugh, his cheeks flushed and his eyes dark. "Yeah, that's a good idea."
Soon they were inside, arms around each other and lips locked as Blaine walked backward shrugging off his jacket and kicking off his shoes, almost tripping and falling to the ground save Kurt's strong arms around him.
"My… my bedroom's… up...stairs." Blaine said between heated kisses.
They stumbled into Blaine's room laughing and lips still chasing each other. Kurt let go and plopped down on the bed looking around. Blaine was suddenly very self-conscious about being in his childhood bedroom.
"My mom kept the room the way it was in high school," Blaine explained as Kurt's eyes drifted over pictures of the Warblers on a bulletin board, the collection of little metal windup robots on his bookshelf, and the model cars on his dresser.
"I love it." Kurt's with dancing eyes, "Very tasteful for a high school kid." His eyes weren't roaming the room anymore, instead, they were steadfastly locked on Blaine as Kurt shucked off his suit jacket and slowly started unbuttoning his shirt.
Blaine licked his lips, his throat suddenly dry, as with each button Kurt exposed more of his smooth, luminous chest. His shirt was unbuttoned, and fluttering opened when he stood from the bed and reached out for Blaine's hands pulling him back with him, "Are you going to join me?"
Blaine just nodded, and Kurt's brows furrowed, "We can stop. We don't have to do… anything. I'm really enjoying your company, and if I'm pressing too much we could just go back downstairs and-"
Blaine cut off the rest of Kurt's offer with a kiss, "I'd rather stay up here." He whispered into Kurt's skin as he smoothed his hands over Kurt's shoulders and down his arms until Kurt's shirt fell softly to the floor. He could feel Kurt trembling under his touch and quickly moved to undo his bowtie and pull off his cardigan, Kurt was smiling as he helped unbutton Blaine's shirt and soon, they were falling back onto Blaine's bed, both naked from the waist up with lips heated and roaming.
"I don't… normally… do-do this," Kurt panted, his hand cupping the back for Blaine's neck as Blaine kissed along his jaw to his ear.
"Do what?" Blaine breathed into his skin.
"Oh god." Kurt gulped down a deep breath, "Go home with someone on the first date. But you… you're so..." Kurt didn't finish that sentence, but Blaine understood, he was feeling the same way himself.
Blaine moved his lips over Kurt's neck and Kurt whimpered in response, Blaine continued to trail kisses down his body, his clavicle, to his shoulder, down to press a reverent kiss on one of his nipples.
"Blaine," Kurt moaned and Blaine was getting harder just knowing he was able to pull those noises from Kurt.
His lips kissed Kurt's stomach and the hovered, his breath ragged, he looked up to Kurt and waited until Kurt's dark blue eyes looked down at him. Blaine licked his lips and moved one of the hands holding Kurt's waist to his belt buckle, lifting his eyebrows in question.
Kurt whined closing his eyes for a moment and running a hand through his thick, no longer immaculately styled, hair. "Please." He begged, looking back to Blaine.
Blaine smiled and undid Kurt's belt before slowly pulling Kurt's pants and underwear off. He wanted to take his time, to tease Kurt a little, but he didn't have the willpower. As soon as Kurt's clothing was kicked off Blaine found himself attentively placing soft adoring kisses to Kurt's thighs. Kurt trashed a little under him, whimpering as Blaine placed his arm gently across Kurt's hips to hold him in place and then took just the tip of Kurt's length into his mouth.
Kurt moaned, and Blaine echoed him. He was feeling heady with desire at the weight of Kurt in his mouth. He took more of Kurt in, bobbing in time with Kurt's stuttered breath until Kurt called his name and started gently tugging at Blaine's curls to get his attention.
"Blaine," Kurt's voice was more breath than sound as he met Blaine's eyes. "I'm going to… I... too soon."
Blaine wiped his mouth with his arm and slowly crawled back up Kurt's body, "What do you want?"
Kurt took a moment to catch his breath before cupping the back of Blaine's head and pulling him down for a deep kiss, when he broke away, he smiled up at Blaine, "I want to not be the only one completely naked here."
Blaine grinned at Kurt before sitting up to undo his pants and slip them off, it was the first time he really had the chance to look at Kurt, spread out on the bed without a stitch on. Blaine froze in place, breath short and skin hot. Kurt Hummel was going to be the death of him. His eyes roamed up Kurt's body until he found Kurt's eyes eagerly taking in the sight of him straddled over Kurt his clothing tossed away.
"Wow," Kurt said and looked up at Blaine's face. He licked his lips his eyes wide, "Wow."
Blaine worked hard to keep in shape, he knew his arms were defined from boxing, his legs strong and his waist trim from running, but to have someone with Kurt's unearthly beauty look at him like that? Blaine couldn't do anything besides lower himself back down covering Kurt's body with his own and fervidly kiss him.
Blaine reached for the drawer in his nightstand pulling out some lube and enjoyed Kurt's low-pitched groan as he worked a hand between them to help things glide smoothly. He tried to take things slow, legs tangled with Kurt's and lips moving over every part of him he could reach. Kurt held him tight and guided their bodies until they were rolling against each other on the bed, nothing but soft moans and each other's whispered names between them.
Blaine was trembling, his skin hot against Kurt's, when he couldn't hold on any longer. With a deep moan, and Kurt's fingers pressing hard against his back, Blaine let go, burying his face in Kurt's neck. It didn't take long for Kurt who was bucking beneath him to join Blaine. Kurt let out a whimper and a gratified sigh, pressing a long deep kiss to Blaine's lips.
For a long time, they laid against each other on Blaine's childhood bed, pliant and happy, bodies tangled together and sharing soft kisses. Blaine was so strung out he barely remembered eventually getting up to find something to clean them off with and the toppling back into bed only to wrap Kurt up in his arms before falling into a deep and restful sleep.
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repwincostl4m0a2 · 7 years
Text
Wider than wide: A landscape photographer's thoughts on the Canon 11-24mm
The Canon EF 11-24mm F4L USM is a super wideangle zoom lens for Canon's full-frame DSLRs, which can also be adapted for use on Sony Alpha a7 and a9-series full-frame mirrorless cameras.
Even though I've been writing for DPReview for over 4 years, I've never written any equipment reviews. And why should I? There are far better equipment experts, technical fanatics, pixel-peepers (I mean that in a good way!) and gear enthusiasts out there than me. My fields of expertise are different, and my writing consists mostly of photographic vision, composition, the philosophical aspects of photography and so on. I intend to stick to this line of writing, and for the most part, I'm happy to leave the equipment reviews to the experts.
That said, after shooting with the Canon 11-24mm F4L for a few months, it has proven to be such a game-changer that it has altered how I think about composition. And in a more general sense, it has changed my ability to take control over what is included in an image, and how these elements are arranged.
Goðafoss, Iceland at 13mm. The extra width allowed me to get closer to the edge and get a wider view while keeping all the elements I needed in the image, framing the waterfall, with enough space around them to avoid a crowded feel.
Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, Canon 11-24mm F4L Nisi Filters 180mm ND + GND F14, 13sec, ISO100
This will not be your regular gear review. I won't be discussing sharpness (although trust me that this lens is very sharp), chromatic aberrations or barrel distortion. I will only be talking about composition, which is, in my opinion, the single most important ingredient to a successful photograph. I will present some images and explain what about the 11-24mm made them possible. I'll also talk a bit about the downsides of this lens and the solutions to the problems it presents. 
So why? Why does a landscape photographer need an 11-24mm? Isn't it just too darn wide? Is 11mm worth the size and the monstrous weight? Is it worth the hefty price tag? I have to admit that before shooting with it, I was in serious doubt. I was sure I'd leave it in the bag most of the time, taking it only on rare occasions when 16mm wasn't wide enough. I thought that 16mm would be wide enough for 90% of my images, after all, I've been producing satisfactory shots until now – what good could a wider lens be?
I knew that when going wider, background subjects shrink significantly in size, which can hurt the composition. Moreover, in cases where 16mm wasn't enough, I had a 14mm F2.8 which was excellent for night photography and for shooting in confined spaces. 
It turns out that I was wrong. The extra width proved to be extremely useful, much more than I had imagined. It allowed me to have much more control, to include more sky when I wanted to, to get closer to the foreground, to reveal more detail and create a greater sense of depth and more dramatic imagery. Let's look at some examples.
An ice cave in Breiðamerkurjökull glacier, Iceland. Getting this composition in one shot with a narrower lens would have been impossible. Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, Canon 11-24mm F4L Focus stacked from 3 images at 11mm, F13, 15sec, ISO800.
The ice cave pictured above was magnificent, but it was also very cramped. I couldn't walk upright in most of the spots I shot, and this stream was very small. The ice-crusted rock in the middle was tiny, and its details were so beautiful, I needed to get close in order to expose their intricacies. On the other hand, I needed to frame the different elements well, and in a balanced way that makes visual sense.
The cave's ceiling is extremely important, since it's the only subject of the frame which is part of the glacier, which basically IS the ice cave. It also contains wonderful melting patterns, and black, volcanic earth which gives extra texture and detail.  On the bottom of the frame, there are two important elements: the ice-crusted rock in the middle of the stream, which is most definitely the centerpiece, but equally importantly the ice crusted banks on the bottom right. These serve to create the frame to the blurred water and to compositionally counterbalance the rock and the left-running stream.
In addition to the compositional aspect, I strongly feel that including all these elements serves to give the viewer a better sense of being in this incredible cave. This might be the strongest advantage of utilizing such a wide angle of view.
Without a super wide lens, I could still have included all of these elements. I could have achieved this in one of several ways.
Firstly, I could have moved back a little. This would indeed allow me to include all the different desired elements in the frame, but going backward would change the perspective significantly, shrinking the most important elements in the process, namely the ice crusted rock and the stream itself. That would hurt the composition a great deal.
Alternatively, I could have shot a panorama, using a tilt/shift lens or by moving the camera and lens. This would make the job much, much harder, since (a) it would require multiple stitching in addition to the already-challenging focus stacking and (b) shooting so close to the stream meant I constantly needed to wipe the lens dry, and the extra shooting time would mean much more wiping, Photoshop work and general headache.
The 11-24mm allowed me to shoot this as close to the rock as I needed to, in order to include all the detail I wanted to show while still framing the shot as I desired, all with only three shots to focus stack. I simply wouldn't have been able to do that before I bought this lens. 
Let's see another example from my Arctic trip earlier this year.
The amazing black and white sand patterns of Skagsanden Beach, Lofoten, Arctic Norway. Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, Canon 11-24mm F4L Nisi Filters 180mm ND + GND Stacked from 4 images at 11mm, 0.8 sec, F13, ISO100
Again, this image would've been almost impossible without the 11-24mm, which allowed me to get very close and personal with the tree-like sand patterns, while being wide enough to shrink the background and include the whole mountain range in the frame. 
The Lofoten Islands are full of fjords with towering mountains rising out of them. Some mountains are so close to a water body, it's extremely hard to include the entire thing in the frame without a truly wide lens. This is even more so when trying to include reflections.
Mount Stortinden reflecting in the calm Flakstad Fjord, Lofoten. I was standing about 1 km from this 850m tall mountain. Being so close, I couldn't have included both the mountain and the reflection with a 16mm. It was easily done, however, with the 11-24mm.
Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, Canon 11-24mm F4L Nisi Filters 180mm ND + GND 11mm, F11, 0.5 sec, ISO100
Last but not least, the 11-24 is an almost perfect tool for night photography. The maximum aperture of F4 is a limit, but then again, it's easier having the foreground in focus at F4, plus the monstrous angle of view allows one to expose marginally longer without getting the stars or Northern Lights blurred.
Let's see an example from an incredible night of Aurora in Lofoten. The super wide angle allowed me to include a huge chunk of the sky, showing the wonderful patterns and lines in addition to the mountains and the moving waves. I could also expose for 8 seconds, which is considered a bit long for this kind of strong Auroral activity. To be honest, the lights blew up a few seconds before I took this shot, and I should've exposed for less time, but the amount of blur is not a big issue and the Aurora is still well defined.
Beautiful Aurora in Skagsanden Beach, Lofoten, Arctic Norway. Canon EOS 5D Mark IV Canon 11-24mm F4L 11mm, F4, 8sec, ISO1600
Here are a few more examples of Aurora shot with the 11-24mm.
Stacked from 2 images at 11mm, F4, 8sec, ISO3200 Stacked from 2 images at 11mm, F4, 13sec, ISO3200 11mm, F4, 5sec, ISO1600 11mm, F4, 8sec, ISO3200
I hope you're convinced of this lens' advantages. What about the downsides? For me, the greatest disadvantage is the inability to fit regular filters in front of the huge front element. I'm used to popping my 100mm system out of the bag and putting it in front of any lens. Not this one.
The only solution I currently know of which covers the whole width of this monster is the Nisi Filters 180mm system (proper disclosure: Nisi gave me the holder and some filters to try out). These filters are not cheap, but they are well made and have superb optical quality. The problem is that together with the mounting system, they are big and heavy, and don't allow a photographer to be as spontaneous as with a 100mm system. I still like the system very much and I've achieved good images with it. If you're into using filters with the 11-24, I highly recommend it.
As to the size, weight and price – simply put, it is what it is. If you need this type of lens, or if you can extract any type of value out of it, there is not much choice, is there? You need to weigh the advantages and the disadvantages and make up your own mind. You can also leave the lens at home if it's not really necessary or if the weight is too much for a specific project (for example, on my recent Patagonia hiking trip, I chose not to lug it around due to the weight, and opted for the lighter 16-35mm). In my opinion, the answer is clear: if you're an avid landscape photographer, don't wait – get this lens, you won't regret it.
Erez Marom is a professional nature photographer, photography guide and traveler based in Israel. You can follow Erez's work on Instagram, Facebook and 500px, and subscribe to his mailing list for updates.
If you'd like to experience and shoot some of the most fascinating landscapes on earth with Erez as your guide, you're welcome to take a look at his unique photography workshops around the world:
Land of Ice - Southern Iceland Winter Paradise - Northern Iceland Northern Spirits - The Lofoten Islands Giants of the Andes and Fitz Roy Hiking Annex - Patagonia Tales of Arctic Nights - Greenland Saga of the Seas and The Far Reaches Annex - The Faroe Islands Desert Storm - Namibia
Selected Articles by Erez Marom:
Parallelism in Landscape Photography
Behind the Shot: Dark Matter
Mountain Magic: Shooting in the Lofoten Islands
Behind the Shot: Nautilus
Behind the Shot: Lost in Space
Behind the Shot: Spot the Shark
Quick Look: The Art of the Unforeground
Whatever it Doesn't Take
Winds of Change: Shooting changing landscapes
On the Importance of Naming Images
On Causality in Landscape Photography
from DIYS http://ift.tt/2pLXG3E
0 notes
porchenclose10019 · 7 years
Text
Wider than wide: A landscape photographer's thoughts on the Canon 11-24mm
The Canon EF 11-24mm F4L USM is a super wideangle zoom lens for Canon's full-frame DSLRs, which can also be adapted for use on Sony Alpha a7 and a9-series full-frame mirrorless cameras.
Even though I've been writing for DPReview for over 4 years, I've never written any equipment reviews. And why should I? There are far better equipment experts, technical fanatics, pixel-peepers (I mean that in a good way!) and gear enthusiasts out there than me. My fields of expertise are different, and my writing consists mostly of photographic vision, composition, the philosophical aspects of photography and so on. I intend to stick to this line of writing, and for the most part, I'm happy to leave the equipment reviews to the experts.
That said, after shooting with the Canon 11-24mm F4L for a few months, it has proven to be such a game-changer that it has altered how I think about composition. And in a more general sense, it has changed my ability to take control over what is included in an image, and how these elements are arranged.
Goðafoss, Iceland at 13mm. The extra width allowed me to get closer to the edge and get a wider view while keeping all the elements I needed in the image, framing the waterfall, with enough space around them to avoid a crowded feel.
Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, Canon 11-24mm F4L Nisi Filters 180mm ND + GND F14, 13sec, ISO100
This will not be your regular gear review. I won't be discussing sharpness (although trust me that this lens is very sharp), chromatic aberrations or barrel distortion. I will only be talking about composition, which is, in my opinion, the single most important ingredient to a successful photograph. I will present some images and explain what about the 11-24mm made them possible. I'll also talk a bit about the downsides of this lens and the solutions to the problems it presents. 
So why? Why does a landscape photographer need an 11-24mm? Isn't it just too darn wide? Is 11mm worth the size and the monstrous weight? Is it worth the hefty price tag? I have to admit that before shooting with it, I was in serious doubt. I was sure I'd leave it in the bag most of the time, taking it only on rare occasions when 16mm wasn't wide enough. I thought that 16mm would be wide enough for 90% of my images, after all, I've been producing satisfactory shots until now – what good could a wider lens be?
I knew that when going wider, background subjects shrink significantly in size, which can hurt the composition. Moreover, in cases where 16mm wasn't enough, I had a 14mm F2.8 which was excellent for night photography and for shooting in confined spaces. 
It turns out that I was wrong. The extra width proved to be extremely useful, much more than I had imagined. It allowed me to have much more control, to include more sky when I wanted to, to get closer to the foreground, to reveal more detail and create a greater sense of depth and more dramatic imagery. Let's look at some examples.
An ice cave in Breiðamerkurjökull glacier, Iceland. Getting this composition in one shot with a narrower lens would have been impossible. Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, Canon 11-24mm F4L Focus stacked from 3 images at 11mm, F13, 15sec, ISO800.
The ice cave pictured above was magnificent, but it was also very cramped. I couldn't walk upright in most of the spots I shot, and this stream was very small. The ice-crusted rock in the middle was tiny, and its details were so beautiful, I needed to get close in order to expose their intricacies. On the other hand, I needed to frame the different elements well, and in a balanced way that makes visual sense.
The cave's ceiling is extremely important, since it's the only subject of the frame which is part of the glacier, which basically IS the ice cave. It also contains wonderful melting patterns, and black, volcanic earth which gives extra texture and detail.  On the bottom of the frame, there are two important elements: the ice-crusted rock in the middle of the stream, which is most definitely the centerpiece, but equally importantly the ice crusted banks on the bottom right. These serve to create the frame to the blurred water and to compositionally counterbalance the rock and the left-running stream.
In addition to the compositional aspect, I strongly feel that including all these elements serves to give the viewer a better sense of being in this incredible cave. This might be the strongest advantage of utilizing such a wide angle of view.
Without a super wide lens, I could still have included all of these elements. I could have achieved this in one of several ways.
Firstly, I could have moved back a little. This would indeed allow me to include all the different desired elements in the frame, but going backward would change the perspective significantly, shrinking the most important elements in the process, namely the ice crusted rock and the stream itself. That would hurt the composition a great deal.
Alternatively, I could have shot a panorama, using a tilt/shift lens or by moving the camera and lens. This would make the job much, much harder, since (a) it would require multiple stitching in addition to the already-challenging focus stacking and (b) shooting so close to the stream meant I constantly needed to wipe the lens dry, and the extra shooting time would mean much more wiping, Photoshop work and general headache.
The 11-24mm allowed me to shoot this as close to the rock as I needed to, in order to include all the detail I wanted to show while still framing the shot as I desired, all with only three shots to focus stack. I simply wouldn't have been able to do that before I bought this lens. 
Let's see another example from my Arctic trip earlier this year.
The amazing black and white sand patterns of Skagsanden Beach, Lofoten, Arctic Norway. Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, Canon 11-24mm F4L Nisi Filters 180mm ND + GND Stacked from 4 images at 11mm, 0.8 sec, F13, ISO100
Again, this image would've been almost impossible without the 11-24mm, which allowed me to get very close and personal with the tree-like sand patterns, while being wide enough to shrink the background and include the whole mountain range in the frame. 
The Lofoten Islands are full of fjords with towering mountains rising out of them. Some mountains are so close to a water body, it's extremely hard to include the entire thing in the frame without a truly wide lens. This is even more so when trying to include reflections.
Mount Stortinden reflecting in the calm Flakstad Fjord, Lofoten. I was standing about 1 km from this 850m tall mountain. Being so close, I couldn't have included both the mountain and the reflection with a 16mm. It was easily done, however, with the 11-24mm.
Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, Canon 11-24mm F4L Nisi Filters 180mm ND + GND 11mm, F11, 0.5 sec, ISO100
Last but not least, the 11-24 is an almost perfect tool for night photography. The maximum aperture of F4 is a limit, but then again, it's easier having the foreground in focus at F4, plus the monstrous angle of view allows one to expose marginally longer without getting the stars or Northern Lights blurred.
Let's see an example from an incredible night of Aurora in Lofoten. The super wide angle allowed me to include a huge chunk of the sky, showing the wonderful patterns and lines in addition to the mountains and the moving waves. I could also expose for 8 seconds, which is considered a bit long for this kind of strong Auroral activity. To be honest, the lights blew up a few seconds before I took this shot, and I should've exposed for less time, but the amount of blur is not a big issue and the Aurora is still well defined.
Beautiful Aurora in Skagsanden Beach, Lofoten, Arctic Norway. Canon EOS 5D Mark IV Canon 11-24mm F4L 11mm, F4, 8sec, ISO1600
Here are a few more examples of Aurora shot with the 11-24mm.
Stacked from 2 images at 11mm, F4, 8sec, ISO3200 Stacked from 2 images at 11mm, F4, 13sec, ISO3200 11mm, F4, 5sec, ISO1600 11mm, F4, 8sec, ISO3200
I hope you're convinced of this lens' advantages. What about the downsides? For me, the greatest disadvantage is the inability to fit regular filters in front of the huge front element. I'm used to popping my 100mm system out of the bag and putting it in front of any lens. Not this one.
The only solution I currently know of which covers the whole width of this monster is the Nisi Filters 180mm system (proper disclosure: Nisi gave me the holder and some filters to try out). These filters are not cheap, but they are well made and have superb optical quality. The problem is that together with the mounting system, they are big and heavy, and don't allow a photographer to be as spontaneous as with a 100mm system. I still like the system very much and I've achieved good images with it. If you're into using filters with the 11-24, I highly recommend it.
As to the size, weight and price – simply put, it is what it is. If you need this type of lens, or if you can extract any type of value out of it, there is not much choice, is there? You need to weigh the advantages and the disadvantages and make up your own mind. You can also leave the lens at home if it's not really necessary or if the weight is too much for a specific project (for example, on my recent Patagonia hiking trip, I chose not to lug it around due to the weight, and opted for the lighter 16-35mm). In my opinion, the answer is clear: if you're an avid landscape photographer, don't wait – get this lens, you won't regret it.
Erez Marom is a professional nature photographer, photography guide and traveler based in Israel. You can follow Erez's work on Instagram, Facebook and 500px, and subscribe to his mailing list for updates.
If you'd like to experience and shoot some of the most fascinating landscapes on earth with Erez as your guide, you're welcome to take a look at his unique photography workshops around the world:
Land of Ice - Southern Iceland Winter Paradise - Northern Iceland Northern Spirits - The Lofoten Islands Giants of the Andes and Fitz Roy Hiking Annex - Patagonia Tales of Arctic Nights - Greenland Saga of the Seas and The Far Reaches Annex - The Faroe Islands Desert Storm - Namibia
Selected Articles by Erez Marom:
Parallelism in Landscape Photography
Behind the Shot: Dark Matter
Mountain Magic: Shooting in the Lofoten Islands
Behind the Shot: Nautilus
Behind the Shot: Lost in Space
Behind the Shot: Spot the Shark
Quick Look: The Art of the Unforeground
Whatever it Doesn't Take
Winds of Change: Shooting changing landscapes
On the Importance of Naming Images
On Causality in Landscape Photography
from DIYS http://ift.tt/2pLXG3E
0 notes
grgedoors02142 · 7 years
Text
Wider than wide: A landscape photographer's thoughts on the Canon 11-24mm
The Canon EF 11-24mm F4L USM is a super wideangle zoom lens for Canon's full-frame DSLRs, which can also be adapted for use on Sony Alpha a7 and a9-series full-frame mirrorless cameras.
Even though I've been writing for DPReview for over 4 years, I've never written any equipment reviews. And why should I? There are far better equipment experts, technical fanatics, pixel-peepers (I mean that in a good way!) and gear enthusiasts out there than me. My fields of expertise are different, and my writing consists mostly of photographic vision, composition, the philosophical aspects of photography and so on. I intend to stick to this line of writing, and for the most part, I'm happy to leave the equipment reviews to the experts.
That said, after shooting with the Canon 11-24mm F4L for a few months, it has proven to be such a game-changer that it has altered how I think about composition. And in a more general sense, it has changed my ability to take control over what is included in an image, and how these elements are arranged.
Goðafoss, Iceland at 13mm. The extra width allowed me to get closer to the edge and get a wider view while keeping all the elements I needed in the image, framing the waterfall, with enough space around them to avoid a crowded feel.
Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, Canon 11-24mm F4L Nisi Filters 180mm ND + GND F14, 13sec, ISO100
This will not be your regular gear review. I won't be discussing sharpness (although trust me that this lens is very sharp), chromatic aberrations or barrel distortion. I will only be talking about composition, which is, in my opinion, the single most important ingredient to a successful photograph. I will present some images and explain what about the 11-24mm made them possible. I'll also talk a bit about the downsides of this lens and the solutions to the problems it presents. 
So why? Why does a landscape photographer need an 11-24mm? Isn't it just too darn wide? Is 11mm worth the size and the monstrous weight? Is it worth the hefty price tag? I have to admit that before shooting with it, I was in serious doubt. I was sure I'd leave it in the bag most of the time, taking it only on rare occasions when 16mm wasn't wide enough. I thought that 16mm would be wide enough for 90% of my images, after all, I've been producing satisfactory shots until now – what good could a wider lens be?
I knew that when going wider, background subjects shrink significantly in size, which can hurt the composition. Moreover, in cases where 16mm wasn't enough, I had a 14mm F2.8 which was excellent for night photography and for shooting in confined spaces. 
It turns out that I was wrong. The extra width proved to be extremely useful, much more than I had imagined. It allowed me to have much more control, to include more sky when I wanted to, to get closer to the foreground, to reveal more detail and create a greater sense of depth and more dramatic imagery. Let's look at some examples.
An ice cave in Breiðamerkurjökull glacier, Iceland. Getting this composition in one shot with a narrower lens would have been impossible. Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, Canon 11-24mm F4L Focus stacked from 3 images at 11mm, F13, 15sec, ISO800.
The ice cave pictured above was magnificent, but it was also very cramped. I couldn't walk upright in most of the spots I shot, and this stream was very small. The ice-crusted rock in the middle was tiny, and its details were so beautiful, I needed to get close in order to expose their intricacies. On the other hand, I needed to frame the different elements well, and in a balanced way that makes visual sense.
The cave's ceiling is extremely important, since it's the only subject of the frame which is part of the glacier, which basically IS the ice cave. It also contains wonderful melting patterns, and black, volcanic earth which gives extra texture and detail.  On the bottom of the frame, there are two important elements: the ice-crusted rock in the middle of the stream, which is most definitely the centerpiece, but equally importantly the ice crusted banks on the bottom right. These serve to create the frame to the blurred water and to compositionally counterbalance the rock and the left-running stream.
In addition to the compositional aspect, I strongly feel that including all these elements serves to give the viewer a better sense of being in this incredible cave. This might be the strongest advantage of utilizing such a wide angle of view.
Without a super wide lens, I could still have included all of these elements. I could have achieved this in one of several ways.
Firstly, I could have moved back a little. This would indeed allow me to include all the different desired elements in the frame, but going backward would change the perspective significantly, shrinking the most important elements in the process, namely the ice crusted rock and the stream itself. That would hurt the composition a great deal.
Alternatively, I could have shot a panorama, using a tilt/shift lens or by moving the camera and lens. This would make the job much, much harder, since (a) it would require multiple stitching in addition to the already-challenging focus stacking and (b) shooting so close to the stream meant I constantly needed to wipe the lens dry, and the extra shooting time would mean much more wiping, Photoshop work and general headache.
The 11-24mm allowed me to shoot this as close to the rock as I needed to, in order to include all the detail I wanted to show while still framing the shot as I desired, all with only three shots to focus stack. I simply wouldn't have been able to do that before I bought this lens. 
Let's see another example from my Arctic trip earlier this year.
The amazing black and white sand patterns of Skagsanden Beach, Lofoten, Arctic Norway. Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, Canon 11-24mm F4L Nisi Filters 180mm ND + GND Stacked from 4 images at 11mm, 0.8 sec, F13, ISO100
Again, this image would've been almost impossible without the 11-24mm, which allowed me to get very close and personal with the tree-like sand patterns, while being wide enough to shrink the background and include the whole mountain range in the frame. 
The Lofoten Islands are full of fjords with towering mountains rising out of them. Some mountains are so close to a water body, it's extremely hard to include the entire thing in the frame without a truly wide lens. This is even more so when trying to include reflections.
Mount Stortinden reflecting in the calm Flakstad Fjord, Lofoten. I was standing about 1 km from this 850m tall mountain. Being so close, I couldn't have included both the mountain and the reflection with a 16mm. It was easily done, however, with the 11-24mm.
Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, Canon 11-24mm F4L Nisi Filters 180mm ND + GND 11mm, F11, 0.5 sec, ISO100
Last but not least, the 11-24 is an almost perfect tool for night photography. The maximum aperture of F4 is a limit, but then again, it's easier having the foreground in focus at F4, plus the monstrous angle of view allows one to expose marginally longer without getting the stars or Northern Lights blurred.
Let's see an example from an incredible night of Aurora in Lofoten. The super wide angle allowed me to include a huge chunk of the sky, showing the wonderful patterns and lines in addition to the mountains and the moving waves. I could also expose for 8 seconds, which is considered a bit long for this kind of strong Auroral activity. To be honest, the lights blew up a few seconds before I took this shot, and I should've exposed for less time, but the amount of blur is not a big issue and the Aurora is still well defined.
Beautiful Aurora in Skagsanden Beach, Lofoten, Arctic Norway. Canon EOS 5D Mark IV Canon 11-24mm F4L 11mm, F4, 8sec, ISO1600
Here are a few more examples of Aurora shot with the 11-24mm.
Stacked from 2 images at 11mm, F4, 8sec, ISO3200 Stacked from 2 images at 11mm, F4, 13sec, ISO3200 11mm, F4, 5sec, ISO1600 11mm, F4, 8sec, ISO3200
I hope you're convinced of this lens' advantages. What about the downsides? For me, the greatest disadvantage is the inability to fit regular filters in front of the huge front element. I'm used to popping my 100mm system out of the bag and putting it in front of any lens. Not this one.
The only solution I currently know of which covers the whole width of this monster is the Nisi Filters 180mm system (proper disclosure: Nisi gave me the holder and some filters to try out). These filters are not cheap, but they are well made and have superb optical quality. The problem is that together with the mounting system, they are big and heavy, and don't allow a photographer to be as spontaneous as with a 100mm system. I still like the system very much and I've achieved good images with it. If you're into using filters with the 11-24, I highly recommend it.
As to the size, weight and price – simply put, it is what it is. If you need this type of lens, or if you can extract any type of value out of it, there is not much choice, is there? You need to weigh the advantages and the disadvantages and make up your own mind. You can also leave the lens at home if it's not really necessary or if the weight is too much for a specific project (for example, on my recent Patagonia hiking trip, I chose not to lug it around due to the weight, and opted for the lighter 16-35mm). In my opinion, the answer is clear: if you're an avid landscape photographer, don't wait – get this lens, you won't regret it.
Erez Marom is a professional nature photographer, photography guide and traveler based in Israel. You can follow Erez's work on Instagram, Facebook and 500px, and subscribe to his mailing list for updates.
If you'd like to experience and shoot some of the most fascinating landscapes on earth with Erez as your guide, you're welcome to take a look at his unique photography workshops around the world:
Land of Ice - Southern Iceland Winter Paradise - Northern Iceland Northern Spirits - The Lofoten Islands Giants of the Andes and Fitz Roy Hiking Annex - Patagonia Tales of Arctic Nights - Greenland Saga of the Seas and The Far Reaches Annex - The Faroe Islands Desert Storm - Namibia
Selected Articles by Erez Marom:
Parallelism in Landscape Photography
Behind the Shot: Dark Matter
Mountain Magic: Shooting in the Lofoten Islands
Behind the Shot: Nautilus
Behind the Shot: Lost in Space
Behind the Shot: Spot the Shark
Quick Look: The Art of the Unforeground
Whatever it Doesn't Take
Winds of Change: Shooting changing landscapes
On the Importance of Naming Images
On Causality in Landscape Photography
from DIYS http://ift.tt/2pLXG3E
0 notes
chpatdoorsl3z0a1 · 7 years
Text
Wider than wide: A landscape photographer's thoughts on the Canon 11-24mm
The Canon EF 11-24mm F4L USM is a super wideangle zoom lens for Canon's full-frame DSLRs, which can also be adapted for use on Sony Alpha a7 and a9-series full-frame mirrorless cameras.
Even though I've been writing for DPReview for over 4 years, I've never written any equipment reviews. And why should I? There are far better equipment experts, technical fanatics, pixel-peepers (I mean that in a good way!) and gear enthusiasts out there than me. My fields of expertise are different, and my writing consists mostly of photographic vision, composition, the philosophical aspects of photography and so on. I intend to stick to this line of writing, and for the most part, I'm happy to leave the equipment reviews to the experts.
That said, after shooting with the Canon 11-24mm F4L for a few months, it has proven to be such a game-changer that it has altered how I think about composition. And in a more general sense, it has changed my ability to take control over what is included in an image, and how these elements are arranged.
Goðafoss, Iceland at 13mm. The extra width allowed me to get closer to the edge and get a wider view while keeping all the elements I needed in the image, framing the waterfall, with enough space around them to avoid a crowded feel.
Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, Canon 11-24mm F4L Nisi Filters 180mm ND + GND F14, 13sec, ISO100
This will not be your regular gear review. I won't be discussing sharpness (although trust me that this lens is very sharp), chromatic aberrations or barrel distortion. I will only be talking about composition, which is, in my opinion, the single most important ingredient to a successful photograph. I will present some images and explain what about the 11-24mm made them possible. I'll also talk a bit about the downsides of this lens and the solutions to the problems it presents. 
So why? Why does a landscape photographer need an 11-24mm? Isn't it just too darn wide? Is 11mm worth the size and the monstrous weight? Is it worth the hefty price tag? I have to admit that before shooting with it, I was in serious doubt. I was sure I'd leave it in the bag most of the time, taking it only on rare occasions when 16mm wasn't wide enough. I thought that 16mm would be wide enough for 90% of my images, after all, I've been producing satisfactory shots until now – what good could a wider lens be?
I knew that when going wider, background subjects shrink significantly in size, which can hurt the composition. Moreover, in cases where 16mm wasn't enough, I had a 14mm F2.8 which was excellent for night photography and for shooting in confined spaces. 
It turns out that I was wrong. The extra width proved to be extremely useful, much more than I had imagined. It allowed me to have much more control, to include more sky when I wanted to, to get closer to the foreground, to reveal more detail and create a greater sense of depth and more dramatic imagery. Let's look at some examples.
An ice cave in Breiðamerkurjökull glacier, Iceland. Getting this composition in one shot with a narrower lens would have been impossible. Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, Canon 11-24mm F4L Focus stacked from 3 images at 11mm, F13, 15sec, ISO800.
The ice cave pictured above was magnificent, but it was also very cramped. I couldn't walk upright in most of the spots I shot, and this stream was very small. The ice-crusted rock in the middle was tiny, and its details were so beautiful, I needed to get close in order to expose their intricacies. On the other hand, I needed to frame the different elements well, and in a balanced way that makes visual sense.
The cave's ceiling is extremely important, since it's the only subject of the frame which is part of the glacier, which basically IS the ice cave. It also contains wonderful melting patterns, and black, volcanic earth which gives extra texture and detail.  On the bottom of the frame, there are two important elements: the ice-crusted rock in the middle of the stream, which is most definitely the centerpiece, but equally importantly the ice crusted banks on the bottom right. These serve to create the frame to the blurred water and to compositionally counterbalance the rock and the left-running stream.
In addition to the compositional aspect, I strongly feel that including all these elements serves to give the viewer a better sense of being in this incredible cave. This might be the strongest advantage of utilizing such a wide angle of view.
Without a super wide lens, I could still have included all of these elements. I could have achieved this in one of several ways.
Firstly, I could have moved back a little. This would indeed allow me to include all the different desired elements in the frame, but going backward would change the perspective significantly, shrinking the most important elements in the process, namely the ice crusted rock and the stream itself. That would hurt the composition a great deal.
Alternatively, I could have shot a panorama, using a tilt/shift lens or by moving the camera and lens. This would make the job much, much harder, since (a) it would require multiple stitching in addition to the already-challenging focus stacking and (b) shooting so close to the stream meant I constantly needed to wipe the lens dry, and the extra shooting time would mean much more wiping, Photoshop work and general headache.
The 11-24mm allowed me to shoot this as close to the rock as I needed to, in order to include all the detail I wanted to show while still framing the shot as I desired, all with only three shots to focus stack. I simply wouldn't have been able to do that before I bought this lens. 
Let's see another example from my Arctic trip earlier this year.
The amazing black and white sand patterns of Skagsanden Beach, Lofoten, Arctic Norway. Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, Canon 11-24mm F4L Nisi Filters 180mm ND + GND Stacked from 4 images at 11mm, 0.8 sec, F13, ISO100
Again, this image would've been almost impossible without the 11-24mm, which allowed me to get very close and personal with the tree-like sand patterns, while being wide enough to shrink the background and include the whole mountain range in the frame. 
The Lofoten Islands are full of fjords with towering mountains rising out of them. Some mountains are so close to a water body, it's extremely hard to include the entire thing in the frame without a truly wide lens. This is even more so when trying to include reflections.
Mount Stortinden reflecting in the calm Flakstad Fjord, Lofoten. I was standing about 1 km from this 850m tall mountain. Being so close, I couldn't have included both the mountain and the reflection with a 16mm. It was easily done, however, with the 11-24mm.
Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, Canon 11-24mm F4L Nisi Filters 180mm ND + GND 11mm, F11, 0.5 sec, ISO100
Last but not least, the 11-24 is an almost perfect tool for night photography. The maximum aperture of F4 is a limit, but then again, it's easier having the foreground in focus at F4, plus the monstrous angle of view allows one to expose marginally longer without getting the stars or Northern Lights blurred.
Let's see an example from an incredible night of Aurora in Lofoten. The super wide angle allowed me to include a huge chunk of the sky, showing the wonderful patterns and lines in addition to the mountains and the moving waves. I could also expose for 8 seconds, which is considered a bit long for this kind of strong Auroral activity. To be honest, the lights blew up a few seconds before I took this shot, and I should've exposed for less time, but the amount of blur is not a big issue and the Aurora is still well defined.
Beautiful Aurora in Skagsanden Beach, Lofoten, Arctic Norway. Canon EOS 5D Mark IV Canon 11-24mm F4L 11mm, F4, 8sec, ISO1600
Here are a few more examples of Aurora shot with the 11-24mm.
Stacked from 2 images at 11mm, F4, 8sec, ISO3200 Stacked from 2 images at 11mm, F4, 13sec, ISO3200 11mm, F4, 5sec, ISO1600 11mm, F4, 8sec, ISO3200
I hope you're convinced of this lens' advantages. What about the downsides? For me, the greatest disadvantage is the inability to fit regular filters in front of the huge front element. I'm used to popping my 100mm system out of the bag and putting it in front of any lens. Not this one.
The only solution I currently know of which covers the whole width of this monster is the Nisi Filters 180mm system (proper disclosure: Nisi gave me the holder and some filters to try out). These filters are not cheap, but they are well made and have superb optical quality. The problem is that together with the mounting system, they are big and heavy, and don't allow a photographer to be as spontaneous as with a 100mm system. I still like the system very much and I've achieved good images with it. If you're into using filters with the 11-24, I highly recommend it.
As to the size, weight and price – simply put, it is what it is. If you need this type of lens, or if you can extract any type of value out of it, there is not much choice, is there? You need to weigh the advantages and the disadvantages and make up your own mind. You can also leave the lens at home if it's not really necessary or if the weight is too much for a specific project (for example, on my recent Patagonia hiking trip, I chose not to lug it around due to the weight, and opted for the lighter 16-35mm). In my opinion, the answer is clear: if you're an avid landscape photographer, don't wait – get this lens, you won't regret it.
Erez Marom is a professional nature photographer, photography guide and traveler based in Israel. You can follow Erez's work on Instagram, Facebook and 500px, and subscribe to his mailing list for updates.
If you'd like to experience and shoot some of the most fascinating landscapes on earth with Erez as your guide, you're welcome to take a look at his unique photography workshops around the world:
Land of Ice - Southern Iceland Winter Paradise - Northern Iceland Northern Spirits - The Lofoten Islands Giants of the Andes and Fitz Roy Hiking Annex - Patagonia Tales of Arctic Nights - Greenland Saga of the Seas and The Far Reaches Annex - The Faroe Islands Desert Storm - Namibia
Selected Articles by Erez Marom:
Parallelism in Landscape Photography
Behind the Shot: Dark Matter
Mountain Magic: Shooting in the Lofoten Islands
Behind the Shot: Nautilus
Behind the Shot: Lost in Space
Behind the Shot: Spot the Shark
Quick Look: The Art of the Unforeground
Whatever it Doesn't Take
Winds of Change: Shooting changing landscapes
On the Importance of Naming Images
On Causality in Landscape Photography
from DIYS http://ift.tt/2pLXG3E
0 notes
stormdoors78476 · 7 years
Text
Wider than wide: A landscape photographer's thoughts on the Canon 11-24mm
The Canon EF 11-24mm F4L USM is a super wideangle zoom lens for Canon's full-frame DSLRs, which can also be adapted for use on Sony Alpha a7 and a9-series full-frame mirrorless cameras.
Even though I've been writing for DPReview for over 4 years, I've never written any equipment reviews. And why should I? There are far better equipment experts, technical fanatics, pixel-peepers (I mean that in a good way!) and gear enthusiasts out there than me. My fields of expertise are different, and my writing consists mostly of photographic vision, composition, the philosophical aspects of photography and so on. I intend to stick to this line of writing, and for the most part, I'm happy to leave the equipment reviews to the experts.
That said, after shooting with the Canon 11-24mm F4L for a few months, it has proven to be such a game-changer that it has altered how I think about composition. And in a more general sense, it has changed my ability to take control over what is included in an image, and how these elements are arranged.
Goðafoss, Iceland at 13mm. The extra width allowed me to get closer to the edge and get a wider view while keeping all the elements I needed in the image, framing the waterfall, with enough space around them to avoid a crowded feel.
Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, Canon 11-24mm F4L Nisi Filters 180mm ND + GND F14, 13sec, ISO100
This will not be your regular gear review. I won't be discussing sharpness (although trust me that this lens is very sharp), chromatic aberrations or barrel distortion. I will only be talking about composition, which is, in my opinion, the single most important ingredient to a successful photograph. I will present some images and explain what about the 11-24mm made them possible. I'll also talk a bit about the downsides of this lens and the solutions to the problems it presents. 
So why? Why does a landscape photographer need an 11-24mm? Isn't it just too darn wide? Is 11mm worth the size and the monstrous weight? Is it worth the hefty price tag? I have to admit that before shooting with it, I was in serious doubt. I was sure I'd leave it in the bag most of the time, taking it only on rare occasions when 16mm wasn't wide enough. I thought that 16mm would be wide enough for 90% of my images, after all, I've been producing satisfactory shots until now – what good could a wider lens be?
I knew that when going wider, background subjects shrink significantly in size, which can hurt the composition. Moreover, in cases where 16mm wasn't enough, I had a 14mm F2.8 which was excellent for night photography and for shooting in confined spaces. 
It turns out that I was wrong. The extra width proved to be extremely useful, much more than I had imagined. It allowed me to have much more control, to include more sky when I wanted to, to get closer to the foreground, to reveal more detail and create a greater sense of depth and more dramatic imagery. Let's look at some examples.
An ice cave in Breiðamerkurjökull glacier, Iceland. Getting this composition in one shot with a narrower lens would have been impossible. Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, Canon 11-24mm F4L Focus stacked from 3 images at 11mm, F13, 15sec, ISO800.
The ice cave pictured above was magnificent, but it was also very cramped. I couldn't walk upright in most of the spots I shot, and this stream was very small. The ice-crusted rock in the middle was tiny, and its details were so beautiful, I needed to get close in order to expose their intricacies. On the other hand, I needed to frame the different elements well, and in a balanced way that makes visual sense.
The cave's ceiling is extremely important, since it's the only subject of the frame which is part of the glacier, which basically IS the ice cave. It also contains wonderful melting patterns, and black, volcanic earth which gives extra texture and detail.  On the bottom of the frame, there are two important elements: the ice-crusted rock in the middle of the stream, which is most definitely the centerpiece, but equally importantly the ice crusted banks on the bottom right. These serve to create the frame to the blurred water and to compositionally counterbalance the rock and the left-running stream.
In addition to the compositional aspect, I strongly feel that including all these elements serves to give the viewer a better sense of being in this incredible cave. This might be the strongest advantage of utilizing such a wide angle of view.
Without a super wide lens, I could still have included all of these elements. I could have achieved this in one of several ways.
Firstly, I could have moved back a little. This would indeed allow me to include all the different desired elements in the frame, but going backward would change the perspective significantly, shrinking the most important elements in the process, namely the ice crusted rock and the stream itself. That would hurt the composition a great deal.
Alternatively, I could have shot a panorama, using a tilt/shift lens or by moving the camera and lens. This would make the job much, much harder, since (a) it would require multiple stitching in addition to the already-challenging focus stacking and (b) shooting so close to the stream meant I constantly needed to wipe the lens dry, and the extra shooting time would mean much more wiping, Photoshop work and general headache.
The 11-24mm allowed me to shoot this as close to the rock as I needed to, in order to include all the detail I wanted to show while still framing the shot as I desired, all with only three shots to focus stack. I simply wouldn't have been able to do that before I bought this lens. 
Let's see another example from my Arctic trip earlier this year.
The amazing black and white sand patterns of Skagsanden Beach, Lofoten, Arctic Norway. Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, Canon 11-24mm F4L Nisi Filters 180mm ND + GND Stacked from 4 images at 11mm, 0.8 sec, F13, ISO100
Again, this image would've been almost impossible without the 11-24mm, which allowed me to get very close and personal with the tree-like sand patterns, while being wide enough to shrink the background and include the whole mountain range in the frame. 
The Lofoten Islands are full of fjords with towering mountains rising out of them. Some mountains are so close to a water body, it's extremely hard to include the entire thing in the frame without a truly wide lens. This is even more so when trying to include reflections.
Mount Stortinden reflecting in the calm Flakstad Fjord, Lofoten. I was standing about 1 km from this 850m tall mountain. Being so close, I couldn't have included both the mountain and the reflection with a 16mm. It was easily done, however, with the 11-24mm.
Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, Canon 11-24mm F4L Nisi Filters 180mm ND + GND 11mm, F11, 0.5 sec, ISO100
Last but not least, the 11-24 is an almost perfect tool for night photography. The maximum aperture of F4 is a limit, but then again, it's easier having the foreground in focus at F4, plus the monstrous angle of view allows one to expose marginally longer without getting the stars or Northern Lights blurred.
Let's see an example from an incredible night of Aurora in Lofoten. The super wide angle allowed me to include a huge chunk of the sky, showing the wonderful patterns and lines in addition to the mountains and the moving waves. I could also expose for 8 seconds, which is considered a bit long for this kind of strong Auroral activity. To be honest, the lights blew up a few seconds before I took this shot, and I should've exposed for less time, but the amount of blur is not a big issue and the Aurora is still well defined.
Beautiful Aurora in Skagsanden Beach, Lofoten, Arctic Norway. Canon EOS 5D Mark IV Canon 11-24mm F4L 11mm, F4, 8sec, ISO1600
Here are a few more examples of Aurora shot with the 11-24mm.
Stacked from 2 images at 11mm, F4, 8sec, ISO3200 Stacked from 2 images at 11mm, F4, 13sec, ISO3200 11mm, F4, 5sec, ISO1600 11mm, F4, 8sec, ISO3200
I hope you're convinced of this lens' advantages. What about the downsides? For me, the greatest disadvantage is the inability to fit regular filters in front of the huge front element. I'm used to popping my 100mm system out of the bag and putting it in front of any lens. Not this one.
The only solution I currently know of which covers the whole width of this monster is the Nisi Filters 180mm system (proper disclosure: Nisi gave me the holder and some filters to try out). These filters are not cheap, but they are well made and have superb optical quality. The problem is that together with the mounting system, they are big and heavy, and don't allow a photographer to be as spontaneous as with a 100mm system. I still like the system very much and I've achieved good images with it. If you're into using filters with the 11-24, I highly recommend it.
As to the size, weight and price – simply put, it is what it is. If you need this type of lens, or if you can extract any type of value out of it, there is not much choice, is there? You need to weigh the advantages and the disadvantages and make up your own mind. You can also leave the lens at home if it's not really necessary or if the weight is too much for a specific project (for example, on my recent Patagonia hiking trip, I chose not to lug it around due to the weight, and opted for the lighter 16-35mm). In my opinion, the answer is clear: if you're an avid landscape photographer, don't wait – get this lens, you won't regret it.
Erez Marom is a professional nature photographer, photography guide and traveler based in Israel. You can follow Erez's work on Instagram, Facebook and 500px, and subscribe to his mailing list for updates.
If you'd like to experience and shoot some of the most fascinating landscapes on earth with Erez as your guide, you're welcome to take a look at his unique photography workshops around the world:
Land of Ice - Southern Iceland Winter Paradise - Northern Iceland Northern Spirits - The Lofoten Islands Giants of the Andes and Fitz Roy Hiking Annex - Patagonia Tales of Arctic Nights - Greenland Saga of the Seas and The Far Reaches Annex - The Faroe Islands Desert Storm - Namibia
Selected Articles by Erez Marom:
Parallelism in Landscape Photography
Behind the Shot: Dark Matter
Mountain Magic: Shooting in the Lofoten Islands
Behind the Shot: Nautilus
Behind the Shot: Lost in Space
Behind the Shot: Spot the Shark
Quick Look: The Art of the Unforeground
Whatever it Doesn't Take
Winds of Change: Shooting changing landscapes
On the Importance of Naming Images
On Causality in Landscape Photography
from DIYS http://ift.tt/2pLXG3E
0 notes
exfrenchdorsl4p0a1 · 7 years
Text
Wider than wide: A landscape photographer's thoughts on the Canon 11-24mm
The Canon EF 11-24mm F4L USM is a super wideangle zoom lens for Canon's full-frame DSLRs, which can also be adapted for use on Sony Alpha a7 and a9-series full-frame mirrorless cameras.
Even though I've been writing for DPReview for over 4 years, I've never written any equipment reviews. And why should I? There are far better equipment experts, technical fanatics, pixel-peepers (I mean that in a good way!) and gear enthusiasts out there than me. My fields of expertise are different, and my writing consists mostly of photographic vision, composition, the philosophical aspects of photography and so on. I intend to stick to this line of writing, and for the most part, I'm happy to leave the equipment reviews to the experts.
That said, after shooting with the Canon 11-24mm F4L for a few months, it has proven to be such a game-changer that it has altered how I think about composition. And in a more general sense, it has changed my ability to take control over what is included in an image, and how these elements are arranged.
Goðafoss, Iceland at 13mm. The extra width allowed me to get closer to the edge and get a wider view while keeping all the elements I needed in the image, framing the waterfall, with enough space around them to avoid a crowded feel.
Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, Canon 11-24mm F4L Nisi Filters 180mm ND + GND F14, 13sec, ISO100
This will not be your regular gear review. I won't be discussing sharpness (although trust me that this lens is very sharp), chromatic aberrations or barrel distortion. I will only be talking about composition, which is, in my opinion, the single most important ingredient to a successful photograph. I will present some images and explain what about the 11-24mm made them possible. I'll also talk a bit about the downsides of this lens and the solutions to the problems it presents. 
So why? Why does a landscape photographer need an 11-24mm? Isn't it just too darn wide? Is 11mm worth the size and the monstrous weight? Is it worth the hefty price tag? I have to admit that before shooting with it, I was in serious doubt. I was sure I'd leave it in the bag most of the time, taking it only on rare occasions when 16mm wasn't wide enough. I thought that 16mm would be wide enough for 90% of my images, after all, I've been producing satisfactory shots until now – what good could a wider lens be?
I knew that when going wider, background subjects shrink significantly in size, which can hurt the composition. Moreover, in cases where 16mm wasn't enough, I had a 14mm F2.8 which was excellent for night photography and for shooting in confined spaces. 
It turns out that I was wrong. The extra width proved to be extremely useful, much more than I had imagined. It allowed me to have much more control, to include more sky when I wanted to, to get closer to the foreground, to reveal more detail and create a greater sense of depth and more dramatic imagery. Let's look at some examples.
An ice cave in Breiðamerkurjökull glacier, Iceland. Getting this composition in one shot with a narrower lens would have been impossible. Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, Canon 11-24mm F4L Focus stacked from 3 images at 11mm, F13, 15sec, ISO800.
The ice cave pictured above was magnificent, but it was also very cramped. I couldn't walk upright in most of the spots I shot, and this stream was very small. The ice-crusted rock in the middle was tiny, and its details were so beautiful, I needed to get close in order to expose their intricacies. On the other hand, I needed to frame the different elements well, and in a balanced way that makes visual sense.
The cave's ceiling is extremely important, since it's the only subject of the frame which is part of the glacier, which basically IS the ice cave. It also contains wonderful melting patterns, and black, volcanic earth which gives extra texture and detail.  On the bottom of the frame, there are two important elements: the ice-crusted rock in the middle of the stream, which is most definitely the centerpiece, but equally importantly the ice crusted banks on the bottom right. These serve to create the frame to the blurred water and to compositionally counterbalance the rock and the left-running stream.
In addition to the compositional aspect, I strongly feel that including all these elements serves to give the viewer a better sense of being in this incredible cave. This might be the strongest advantage of utilizing such a wide angle of view.
Without a super wide lens, I could still have included all of these elements. I could have achieved this in one of several ways.
Firstly, I could have moved back a little. This would indeed allow me to include all the different desired elements in the frame, but going backward would change the perspective significantly, shrinking the most important elements in the process, namely the ice crusted rock and the stream itself. That would hurt the composition a great deal.
Alternatively, I could have shot a panorama, using a tilt/shift lens or by moving the camera and lens. This would make the job much, much harder, since (a) it would require multiple stitching in addition to the already-challenging focus stacking and (b) shooting so close to the stream meant I constantly needed to wipe the lens dry, and the extra shooting time would mean much more wiping, Photoshop work and general headache.
The 11-24mm allowed me to shoot this as close to the rock as I needed to, in order to include all the detail I wanted to show while still framing the shot as I desired, all with only three shots to focus stack. I simply wouldn't have been able to do that before I bought this lens. 
Let's see another example from my Arctic trip earlier this year.
The amazing black and white sand patterns of Skagsanden Beach, Lofoten, Arctic Norway. Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, Canon 11-24mm F4L Nisi Filters 180mm ND + GND Stacked from 4 images at 11mm, 0.8 sec, F13, ISO100
Again, this image would've been almost impossible without the 11-24mm, which allowed me to get very close and personal with the tree-like sand patterns, while being wide enough to shrink the background and include the whole mountain range in the frame. 
The Lofoten Islands are full of fjords with towering mountains rising out of them. Some mountains are so close to a water body, it's extremely hard to include the entire thing in the frame without a truly wide lens. This is even more so when trying to include reflections.
Mount Stortinden reflecting in the calm Flakstad Fjord, Lofoten. I was standing about 1 km from this 850m tall mountain. Being so close, I couldn't have included both the mountain and the reflection with a 16mm. It was easily done, however, with the 11-24mm.
Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, Canon 11-24mm F4L Nisi Filters 180mm ND + GND 11mm, F11, 0.5 sec, ISO100
Last but not least, the 11-24 is an almost perfect tool for night photography. The maximum aperture of F4 is a limit, but then again, it's easier having the foreground in focus at F4, plus the monstrous angle of view allows one to expose marginally longer without getting the stars or Northern Lights blurred.
Let's see an example from an incredible night of Aurora in Lofoten. The super wide angle allowed me to include a huge chunk of the sky, showing the wonderful patterns and lines in addition to the mountains and the moving waves. I could also expose for 8 seconds, which is considered a bit long for this kind of strong Auroral activity. To be honest, the lights blew up a few seconds before I took this shot, and I should've exposed for less time, but the amount of blur is not a big issue and the Aurora is still well defined.
Beautiful Aurora in Skagsanden Beach, Lofoten, Arctic Norway. Canon EOS 5D Mark IV Canon 11-24mm F4L 11mm, F4, 8sec, ISO1600
Here are a few more examples of Aurora shot with the 11-24mm.
Stacked from 2 images at 11mm, F4, 8sec, ISO3200 Stacked from 2 images at 11mm, F4, 13sec, ISO3200 11mm, F4, 5sec, ISO1600 11mm, F4, 8sec, ISO3200
I hope you're convinced of this lens' advantages. What about the downsides? For me, the greatest disadvantage is the inability to fit regular filters in front of the huge front element. I'm used to popping my 100mm system out of the bag and putting it in front of any lens. Not this one.
The only solution I currently know of which covers the whole width of this monster is the Nisi Filters 180mm system (proper disclosure: Nisi gave me the holder and some filters to try out). These filters are not cheap, but they are well made and have superb optical quality. The problem is that together with the mounting system, they are big and heavy, and don't allow a photographer to be as spontaneous as with a 100mm system. I still like the system very much and I've achieved good images with it. If you're into using filters with the 11-24, I highly recommend it.
As to the size, weight and price – simply put, it is what it is. If you need this type of lens, or if you can extract any type of value out of it, there is not much choice, is there? You need to weigh the advantages and the disadvantages and make up your own mind. You can also leave the lens at home if it's not really necessary or if the weight is too much for a specific project (for example, on my recent Patagonia hiking trip, I chose not to lug it around due to the weight, and opted for the lighter 16-35mm). In my opinion, the answer is clear: if you're an avid landscape photographer, don't wait – get this lens, you won't regret it.
Erez Marom is a professional nature photographer, photography guide and traveler based in Israel. You can follow Erez's work on Instagram, Facebook and 500px, and subscribe to his mailing list for updates.
If you'd like to experience and shoot some of the most fascinating landscapes on earth with Erez as your guide, you're welcome to take a look at his unique photography workshops around the world:
Land of Ice - Southern Iceland Winter Paradise - Northern Iceland Northern Spirits - The Lofoten Islands Giants of the Andes and Fitz Roy Hiking Annex - Patagonia Tales of Arctic Nights - Greenland Saga of the Seas and The Far Reaches Annex - The Faroe Islands Desert Storm - Namibia
Selected Articles by Erez Marom:
Parallelism in Landscape Photography
Behind the Shot: Dark Matter
Mountain Magic: Shooting in the Lofoten Islands
Behind the Shot: Nautilus
Behind the Shot: Lost in Space
Behind the Shot: Spot the Shark
Quick Look: The Art of the Unforeground
Whatever it Doesn't Take
Winds of Change: Shooting changing landscapes
On the Importance of Naming Images
On Causality in Landscape Photography
from DIYS http://ift.tt/2pLXG3E
0 notes
repwinpril9y0a1 · 7 years
Text
Wider than wide: A landscape photographer's thoughts on the Canon 11-24mm
The Canon EF 11-24mm F4L USM is a super wideangle zoom lens for Canon's full-frame DSLRs, which can also be adapted for use on Sony Alpha a7 and a9-series full-frame mirrorless cameras.
Even though I've been writing for DPReview for over 4 years, I've never written any equipment reviews. And why should I? There are far better equipment experts, technical fanatics, pixel-peepers (I mean that in a good way!) and gear enthusiasts out there than me. My fields of expertise are different, and my writing consists mostly of photographic vision, composition, the philosophical aspects of photography and so on. I intend to stick to this line of writing, and for the most part, I'm happy to leave the equipment reviews to the experts.
That said, after shooting with the Canon 11-24mm F4L for a few months, it has proven to be such a game-changer that it has altered how I think about composition. And in a more general sense, it has changed my ability to take control over what is included in an image, and how these elements are arranged.
Goðafoss, Iceland at 13mm. The extra width allowed me to get closer to the edge and get a wider view while keeping all the elements I needed in the image, framing the waterfall, with enough space around them to avoid a crowded feel.
Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, Canon 11-24mm F4L Nisi Filters 180mm ND + GND F14, 13sec, ISO100
This will not be your regular gear review. I won't be discussing sharpness (although trust me that this lens is very sharp), chromatic aberrations or barrel distortion. I will only be talking about composition, which is, in my opinion, the single most important ingredient to a successful photograph. I will present some images and explain what about the 11-24mm made them possible. I'll also talk a bit about the downsides of this lens and the solutions to the problems it presents. 
So why? Why does a landscape photographer need an 11-24mm? Isn't it just too darn wide? Is 11mm worth the size and the monstrous weight? Is it worth the hefty price tag? I have to admit that before shooting with it, I was in serious doubt. I was sure I'd leave it in the bag most of the time, taking it only on rare occasions when 16mm wasn't wide enough. I thought that 16mm would be wide enough for 90% of my images, after all, I've been producing satisfactory shots until now – what good could a wider lens be?
I knew that when going wider, background subjects shrink significantly in size, which can hurt the composition. Moreover, in cases where 16mm wasn't enough, I had a 14mm F2.8 which was excellent for night photography and for shooting in confined spaces. 
It turns out that I was wrong. The extra width proved to be extremely useful, much more than I had imagined. It allowed me to have much more control, to include more sky when I wanted to, to get closer to the foreground, to reveal more detail and create a greater sense of depth and more dramatic imagery. Let's look at some examples.
An ice cave in Breiðamerkurjökull glacier, Iceland. Getting this composition in one shot with a narrower lens would have been impossible. Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, Canon 11-24mm F4L Focus stacked from 3 images at 11mm, F13, 15sec, ISO800.
The ice cave pictured above was magnificent, but it was also very cramped. I couldn't walk upright in most of the spots I shot, and this stream was very small. The ice-crusted rock in the middle was tiny, and its details were so beautiful, I needed to get close in order to expose their intricacies. On the other hand, I needed to frame the different elements well, and in a balanced way that makes visual sense.
The cave's ceiling is extremely important, since it's the only subject of the frame which is part of the glacier, which basically IS the ice cave. It also contains wonderful melting patterns, and black, volcanic earth which gives extra texture and detail.  On the bottom of the frame, there are two important elements: the ice-crusted rock in the middle of the stream, which is most definitely the centerpiece, but equally importantly the ice crusted banks on the bottom right. These serve to create the frame to the blurred water and to compositionally counterbalance the rock and the left-running stream.
In addition to the compositional aspect, I strongly feel that including all these elements serves to give the viewer a better sense of being in this incredible cave. This might be the strongest advantage of utilizing such a wide angle of view.
Without a super wide lens, I could still have included all of these elements. I could have achieved this in one of several ways.
Firstly, I could have moved back a little. This would indeed allow me to include all the different desired elements in the frame, but going backward would change the perspective significantly, shrinking the most important elements in the process, namely the ice crusted rock and the stream itself. That would hurt the composition a great deal.
Alternatively, I could have shot a panorama, using a tilt/shift lens or by moving the camera and lens. This would make the job much, much harder, since (a) it would require multiple stitching in addition to the already-challenging focus stacking and (b) shooting so close to the stream meant I constantly needed to wipe the lens dry, and the extra shooting time would mean much more wiping, Photoshop work and general headache.
The 11-24mm allowed me to shoot this as close to the rock as I needed to, in order to include all the detail I wanted to show while still framing the shot as I desired, all with only three shots to focus stack. I simply wouldn't have been able to do that before I bought this lens. 
Let's see another example from my Arctic trip earlier this year.
The amazing black and white sand patterns of Skagsanden Beach, Lofoten, Arctic Norway. Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, Canon 11-24mm F4L Nisi Filters 180mm ND + GND Stacked from 4 images at 11mm, 0.8 sec, F13, ISO100
Again, this image would've been almost impossible without the 11-24mm, which allowed me to get very close and personal with the tree-like sand patterns, while being wide enough to shrink the background and include the whole mountain range in the frame. 
The Lofoten Islands are full of fjords with towering mountains rising out of them. Some mountains are so close to a water body, it's extremely hard to include the entire thing in the frame without a truly wide lens. This is even more so when trying to include reflections.
Mount Stortinden reflecting in the calm Flakstad Fjord, Lofoten. I was standing about 1 km from this 850m tall mountain. Being so close, I couldn't have included both the mountain and the reflection with a 16mm. It was easily done, however, with the 11-24mm.
Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, Canon 11-24mm F4L Nisi Filters 180mm ND + GND 11mm, F11, 0.5 sec, ISO100
Last but not least, the 11-24 is an almost perfect tool for night photography. The maximum aperture of F4 is a limit, but then again, it's easier having the foreground in focus at F4, plus the monstrous angle of view allows one to expose marginally longer without getting the stars or Northern Lights blurred.
Let's see an example from an incredible night of Aurora in Lofoten. The super wide angle allowed me to include a huge chunk of the sky, showing the wonderful patterns and lines in addition to the mountains and the moving waves. I could also expose for 8 seconds, which is considered a bit long for this kind of strong Auroral activity. To be honest, the lights blew up a few seconds before I took this shot, and I should've exposed for less time, but the amount of blur is not a big issue and the Aurora is still well defined.
Beautiful Aurora in Skagsanden Beach, Lofoten, Arctic Norway. Canon EOS 5D Mark IV Canon 11-24mm F4L 11mm, F4, 8sec, ISO1600
Here are a few more examples of Aurora shot with the 11-24mm.
Stacked from 2 images at 11mm, F4, 8sec, ISO3200 Stacked from 2 images at 11mm, F4, 13sec, ISO3200 11mm, F4, 5sec, ISO1600 11mm, F4, 8sec, ISO3200
I hope you're convinced of this lens' advantages. What about the downsides? For me, the greatest disadvantage is the inability to fit regular filters in front of the huge front element. I'm used to popping my 100mm system out of the bag and putting it in front of any lens. Not this one.
The only solution I currently know of which covers the whole width of this monster is the Nisi Filters 180mm system (proper disclosure: Nisi gave me the holder and some filters to try out). These filters are not cheap, but they are well made and have superb optical quality. The problem is that together with the mounting system, they are big and heavy, and don't allow a photographer to be as spontaneous as with a 100mm system. I still like the system very much and I've achieved good images with it. If you're into using filters with the 11-24, I highly recommend it.
As to the size, weight and price – simply put, it is what it is. If you need this type of lens, or if you can extract any type of value out of it, there is not much choice, is there? You need to weigh the advantages and the disadvantages and make up your own mind. You can also leave the lens at home if it's not really necessary or if the weight is too much for a specific project (for example, on my recent Patagonia hiking trip, I chose not to lug it around due to the weight, and opted for the lighter 16-35mm). In my opinion, the answer is clear: if you're an avid landscape photographer, don't wait – get this lens, you won't regret it.
Erez Marom is a professional nature photographer, photography guide and traveler based in Israel. You can follow Erez's work on Instagram, Facebook and 500px, and subscribe to his mailing list for updates.
If you'd like to experience and shoot some of the most fascinating landscapes on earth with Erez as your guide, you're welcome to take a look at his unique photography workshops around the world:
Land of Ice - Southern Iceland Winter Paradise - Northern Iceland Northern Spirits - The Lofoten Islands Giants of the Andes and Fitz Roy Hiking Annex - Patagonia Tales of Arctic Nights - Greenland Saga of the Seas and The Far Reaches Annex - The Faroe Islands Desert Storm - Namibia
Selected Articles by Erez Marom:
Parallelism in Landscape Photography
Behind the Shot: Dark Matter
Mountain Magic: Shooting in the Lofoten Islands
Behind the Shot: Nautilus
Behind the Shot: Lost in Space
Behind the Shot: Spot the Shark
Quick Look: The Art of the Unforeground
Whatever it Doesn't Take
Winds of Change: Shooting changing landscapes
On the Importance of Naming Images
On Causality in Landscape Photography
from DIYS http://ift.tt/2pLXG3E
0 notes
pat78701 · 7 years
Text
Wider than wide: A landscape photographer's thoughts on the Canon 11-24mm
The Canon EF 11-24mm F4L USM is a super wideangle zoom lens for Canon's full-frame DSLRs, which can also be adapted for use on Sony Alpha a7 and a9-series full-frame mirrorless cameras.
Even though I've been writing for DPReview for over 4 years, I've never written any equipment reviews. And why should I? There are far better equipment experts, technical fanatics, pixel-peepers (I mean that in a good way!) and gear enthusiasts out there than me. My fields of expertise are different, and my writing consists mostly of photographic vision, composition, the philosophical aspects of photography and so on. I intend to stick to this line of writing, and for the most part, I'm happy to leave the equipment reviews to the experts.
That said, after shooting with the Canon 11-24mm F4L for a few months, it has proven to be such a game-changer that it has altered how I think about composition. And in a more general sense, it has changed my ability to take control over what is included in an image, and how these elements are arranged.
Goðafoss, Iceland at 13mm. The extra width allowed me to get closer to the edge and get a wider view while keeping all the elements I needed in the image, framing the waterfall, with enough space around them to avoid a crowded feel.
Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, Canon 11-24mm F4L Nisi Filters 180mm ND + GND F14, 13sec, ISO100
This will not be your regular gear review. I won't be discussing sharpness (although trust me that this lens is very sharp), chromatic aberrations or barrel distortion. I will only be talking about composition, which is, in my opinion, the single most important ingredient to a successful photograph. I will present some images and explain what about the 11-24mm made them possible. I'll also talk a bit about the downsides of this lens and the solutions to the problems it presents. 
So why? Why does a landscape photographer need an 11-24mm? Isn't it just too darn wide? Is 11mm worth the size and the monstrous weight? Is it worth the hefty price tag? I have to admit that before shooting with it, I was in serious doubt. I was sure I'd leave it in the bag most of the time, taking it only on rare occasions when 16mm wasn't wide enough. I thought that 16mm would be wide enough for 90% of my images, after all, I've been producing satisfactory shots until now – what good could a wider lens be?
I knew that when going wider, background subjects shrink significantly in size, which can hurt the composition. Moreover, in cases where 16mm wasn't enough, I had a 14mm F2.8 which was excellent for night photography and for shooting in confined spaces. 
It turns out that I was wrong. The extra width proved to be extremely useful, much more than I had imagined. It allowed me to have much more control, to include more sky when I wanted to, to get closer to the foreground, to reveal more detail and create a greater sense of depth and more dramatic imagery. Let's look at some examples.
An ice cave in Breiðamerkurjökull glacier, Iceland. Getting this composition in one shot with a narrower lens would have been impossible. Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, Canon 11-24mm F4L Focus stacked from 3 images at 11mm, F13, 15sec, ISO800.
The ice cave pictured above was magnificent, but it was also very cramped. I couldn't walk upright in most of the spots I shot, and this stream was very small. The ice-crusted rock in the middle was tiny, and its details were so beautiful, I needed to get close in order to expose their intricacies. On the other hand, I needed to frame the different elements well, and in a balanced way that makes visual sense.
The cave's ceiling is extremely important, since it's the only subject of the frame which is part of the glacier, which basically IS the ice cave. It also contains wonderful melting patterns, and black, volcanic earth which gives extra texture and detail.  On the bottom of the frame, there are two important elements: the ice-crusted rock in the middle of the stream, which is most definitely the centerpiece, but equally importantly the ice crusted banks on the bottom right. These serve to create the frame to the blurred water and to compositionally counterbalance the rock and the left-running stream.
In addition to the compositional aspect, I strongly feel that including all these elements serves to give the viewer a better sense of being in this incredible cave. This might be the strongest advantage of utilizing such a wide angle of view.
Without a super wide lens, I could still have included all of these elements. I could have achieved this in one of several ways.
Firstly, I could have moved back a little. This would indeed allow me to include all the different desired elements in the frame, but going backward would change the perspective significantly, shrinking the most important elements in the process, namely the ice crusted rock and the stream itself. That would hurt the composition a great deal.
Alternatively, I could have shot a panorama, using a tilt/shift lens or by moving the camera and lens. This would make the job much, much harder, since (a) it would require multiple stitching in addition to the already-challenging focus stacking and (b) shooting so close to the stream meant I constantly needed to wipe the lens dry, and the extra shooting time would mean much more wiping, Photoshop work and general headache.
The 11-24mm allowed me to shoot this as close to the rock as I needed to, in order to include all the detail I wanted to show while still framing the shot as I desired, all with only three shots to focus stack. I simply wouldn't have been able to do that before I bought this lens. 
Let's see another example from my Arctic trip earlier this year.
The amazing black and white sand patterns of Skagsanden Beach, Lofoten, Arctic Norway. Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, Canon 11-24mm F4L Nisi Filters 180mm ND + GND Stacked from 4 images at 11mm, 0.8 sec, F13, ISO100
Again, this image would've been almost impossible without the 11-24mm, which allowed me to get very close and personal with the tree-like sand patterns, while being wide enough to shrink the background and include the whole mountain range in the frame. 
The Lofoten Islands are full of fjords with towering mountains rising out of them. Some mountains are so close to a water body, it's extremely hard to include the entire thing in the frame without a truly wide lens. This is even more so when trying to include reflections.
Mount Stortinden reflecting in the calm Flakstad Fjord, Lofoten. I was standing about 1 km from this 850m tall mountain. Being so close, I couldn't have included both the mountain and the reflection with a 16mm. It was easily done, however, with the 11-24mm.
Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, Canon 11-24mm F4L Nisi Filters 180mm ND + GND 11mm, F11, 0.5 sec, ISO100
Last but not least, the 11-24 is an almost perfect tool for night photography. The maximum aperture of F4 is a limit, but then again, it's easier having the foreground in focus at F4, plus the monstrous angle of view allows one to expose marginally longer without getting the stars or Northern Lights blurred.
Let's see an example from an incredible night of Aurora in Lofoten. The super wide angle allowed me to include a huge chunk of the sky, showing the wonderful patterns and lines in addition to the mountains and the moving waves. I could also expose for 8 seconds, which is considered a bit long for this kind of strong Auroral activity. To be honest, the lights blew up a few seconds before I took this shot, and I should've exposed for less time, but the amount of blur is not a big issue and the Aurora is still well defined.
Beautiful Aurora in Skagsanden Beach, Lofoten, Arctic Norway. Canon EOS 5D Mark IV Canon 11-24mm F4L 11mm, F4, 8sec, ISO1600
Here are a few more examples of Aurora shot with the 11-24mm.
Stacked from 2 images at 11mm, F4, 8sec, ISO3200 Stacked from 2 images at 11mm, F4, 13sec, ISO3200 11mm, F4, 5sec, ISO1600 11mm, F4, 8sec, ISO3200
I hope you're convinced of this lens' advantages. What about the downsides? For me, the greatest disadvantage is the inability to fit regular filters in front of the huge front element. I'm used to popping my 100mm system out of the bag and putting it in front of any lens. Not this one.
The only solution I currently know of which covers the whole width of this monster is the Nisi Filters 180mm system (proper disclosure: Nisi gave me the holder and some filters to try out). These filters are not cheap, but they are well made and have superb optical quality. The problem is that together with the mounting system, they are big and heavy, and don't allow a photographer to be as spontaneous as with a 100mm system. I still like the system very much and I've achieved good images with it. If you're into using filters with the 11-24, I highly recommend it.
As to the size, weight and price – simply put, it is what it is. If you need this type of lens, or if you can extract any type of value out of it, there is not much choice, is there? You need to weigh the advantages and the disadvantages and make up your own mind. You can also leave the lens at home if it's not really necessary or if the weight is too much for a specific project (for example, on my recent Patagonia hiking trip, I chose not to lug it around due to the weight, and opted for the lighter 16-35mm). In my opinion, the answer is clear: if you're an avid landscape photographer, don't wait – get this lens, you won't regret it.
Erez Marom is a professional nature photographer, photography guide and traveler based in Israel. You can follow Erez's work on Instagram, Facebook and 500px, and subscribe to his mailing list for updates.
If you'd like to experience and shoot some of the most fascinating landscapes on earth with Erez as your guide, you're welcome to take a look at his unique photography workshops around the world:
Land of Ice - Southern Iceland Winter Paradise - Northern Iceland Northern Spirits - The Lofoten Islands Giants of the Andes and Fitz Roy Hiking Annex - Patagonia Tales of Arctic Nights - Greenland Saga of the Seas and The Far Reaches Annex - The Faroe Islands Desert Storm - Namibia
Selected Articles by Erez Marom:
Parallelism in Landscape Photography
Behind the Shot: Dark Matter
Mountain Magic: Shooting in the Lofoten Islands
Behind the Shot: Nautilus
Behind the Shot: Lost in Space
Behind the Shot: Spot the Shark
Quick Look: The Art of the Unforeground
Whatever it Doesn't Take
Winds of Change: Shooting changing landscapes
On the Importance of Naming Images
On Causality in Landscape Photography
from DIYS http://ift.tt/2pLXG3E
0 notes
rtscrndr53704 · 7 years
Text
Wider than wide: A landscape photographer's thoughts on the Canon 11-24mm
The Canon EF 11-24mm F4L USM is a super wideangle zoom lens for Canon's full-frame DSLRs, which can also be adapted for use on Sony Alpha a7 and a9-series full-frame mirrorless cameras.
Even though I've been writing for DPReview for over 4 years, I've never written any equipment reviews. And why should I? There are far better equipment experts, technical fanatics, pixel-peepers (I mean that in a good way!) and gear enthusiasts out there than me. My fields of expertise are different, and my writing consists mostly of photographic vision, composition, the philosophical aspects of photography and so on. I intend to stick to this line of writing, and for the most part, I'm happy to leave the equipment reviews to the experts.
That said, after shooting with the Canon 11-24mm F4L for a few months, it has proven to be such a game-changer that it has altered how I think about composition. And in a more general sense, it has changed my ability to take control over what is included in an image, and how these elements are arranged.
Goðafoss, Iceland at 13mm. The extra width allowed me to get closer to the edge and get a wider view while keeping all the elements I needed in the image, framing the waterfall, with enough space around them to avoid a crowded feel.
Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, Canon 11-24mm F4L Nisi Filters 180mm ND + GND F14, 13sec, ISO100
This will not be your regular gear review. I won't be discussing sharpness (although trust me that this lens is very sharp), chromatic aberrations or barrel distortion. I will only be talking about composition, which is, in my opinion, the single most important ingredient to a successful photograph. I will present some images and explain what about the 11-24mm made them possible. I'll also talk a bit about the downsides of this lens and the solutions to the problems it presents. 
So why? Why does a landscape photographer need an 11-24mm? Isn't it just too darn wide? Is 11mm worth the size and the monstrous weight? Is it worth the hefty price tag? I have to admit that before shooting with it, I was in serious doubt. I was sure I'd leave it in the bag most of the time, taking it only on rare occasions when 16mm wasn't wide enough. I thought that 16mm would be wide enough for 90% of my images, after all, I've been producing satisfactory shots until now – what good could a wider lens be?
I knew that when going wider, background subjects shrink significantly in size, which can hurt the composition. Moreover, in cases where 16mm wasn't enough, I had a 14mm F2.8 which was excellent for night photography and for shooting in confined spaces. 
It turns out that I was wrong. The extra width proved to be extremely useful, much more than I had imagined. It allowed me to have much more control, to include more sky when I wanted to, to get closer to the foreground, to reveal more detail and create a greater sense of depth and more dramatic imagery. Let's look at some examples.
An ice cave in Breiðamerkurjökull glacier, Iceland. Getting this composition in one shot with a narrower lens would have been impossible. Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, Canon 11-24mm F4L Focus stacked from 3 images at 11mm, F13, 15sec, ISO800.
The ice cave pictured above was magnificent, but it was also very cramped. I couldn't walk upright in most of the spots I shot, and this stream was very small. The ice-crusted rock in the middle was tiny, and its details were so beautiful, I needed to get close in order to expose their intricacies. On the other hand, I needed to frame the different elements well, and in a balanced way that makes visual sense.
The cave's ceiling is extremely important, since it's the only subject of the frame which is part of the glacier, which basically IS the ice cave. It also contains wonderful melting patterns, and black, volcanic earth which gives extra texture and detail.  On the bottom of the frame, there are two important elements: the ice-crusted rock in the middle of the stream, which is most definitely the centerpiece, but equally importantly the ice crusted banks on the bottom right. These serve to create the frame to the blurred water and to compositionally counterbalance the rock and the left-running stream.
In addition to the compositional aspect, I strongly feel that including all these elements serves to give the viewer a better sense of being in this incredible cave. This might be the strongest advantage of utilizing such a wide angle of view.
Without a super wide lens, I could still have included all of these elements. I could have achieved this in one of several ways.
Firstly, I could have moved back a little. This would indeed allow me to include all the different desired elements in the frame, but going backward would change the perspective significantly, shrinking the most important elements in the process, namely the ice crusted rock and the stream itself. That would hurt the composition a great deal.
Alternatively, I could have shot a panorama, using a tilt/shift lens or by moving the camera and lens. This would make the job much, much harder, since (a) it would require multiple stitching in addition to the already-challenging focus stacking and (b) shooting so close to the stream meant I constantly needed to wipe the lens dry, and the extra shooting time would mean much more wiping, Photoshop work and general headache.
The 11-24mm allowed me to shoot this as close to the rock as I needed to, in order to include all the detail I wanted to show while still framing the shot as I desired, all with only three shots to focus stack. I simply wouldn't have been able to do that before I bought this lens. 
Let's see another example from my Arctic trip earlier this year.
The amazing black and white sand patterns of Skagsanden Beach, Lofoten, Arctic Norway. Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, Canon 11-24mm F4L Nisi Filters 180mm ND + GND Stacked from 4 images at 11mm, 0.8 sec, F13, ISO100
Again, this image would've been almost impossible without the 11-24mm, which allowed me to get very close and personal with the tree-like sand patterns, while being wide enough to shrink the background and include the whole mountain range in the frame. 
The Lofoten Islands are full of fjords with towering mountains rising out of them. Some mountains are so close to a water body, it's extremely hard to include the entire thing in the frame without a truly wide lens. This is even more so when trying to include reflections.
Mount Stortinden reflecting in the calm Flakstad Fjord, Lofoten. I was standing about 1 km from this 850m tall mountain. Being so close, I couldn't have included both the mountain and the reflection with a 16mm. It was easily done, however, with the 11-24mm.
Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, Canon 11-24mm F4L Nisi Filters 180mm ND + GND 11mm, F11, 0.5 sec, ISO100
Last but not least, the 11-24 is an almost perfect tool for night photography. The maximum aperture of F4 is a limit, but then again, it's easier having the foreground in focus at F4, plus the monstrous angle of view allows one to expose marginally longer without getting the stars or Northern Lights blurred.
Let's see an example from an incredible night of Aurora in Lofoten. The super wide angle allowed me to include a huge chunk of the sky, showing the wonderful patterns and lines in addition to the mountains and the moving waves. I could also expose for 8 seconds, which is considered a bit long for this kind of strong Auroral activity. To be honest, the lights blew up a few seconds before I took this shot, and I should've exposed for less time, but the amount of blur is not a big issue and the Aurora is still well defined.
Beautiful Aurora in Skagsanden Beach, Lofoten, Arctic Norway. Canon EOS 5D Mark IV Canon 11-24mm F4L 11mm, F4, 8sec, ISO1600
Here are a few more examples of Aurora shot with the 11-24mm.
Stacked from 2 images at 11mm, F4, 8sec, ISO3200 Stacked from 2 images at 11mm, F4, 13sec, ISO3200 11mm, F4, 5sec, ISO1600 11mm, F4, 8sec, ISO3200
I hope you're convinced of this lens' advantages. What about the downsides? For me, the greatest disadvantage is the inability to fit regular filters in front of the huge front element. I'm used to popping my 100mm system out of the bag and putting it in front of any lens. Not this one.
The only solution I currently know of which covers the whole width of this monster is the Nisi Filters 180mm system (proper disclosure: Nisi gave me the holder and some filters to try out). These filters are not cheap, but they are well made and have superb optical quality. The problem is that together with the mounting system, they are big and heavy, and don't allow a photographer to be as spontaneous as with a 100mm system. I still like the system very much and I've achieved good images with it. If you're into using filters with the 11-24, I highly recommend it.
As to the size, weight and price – simply put, it is what it is. If you need this type of lens, or if you can extract any type of value out of it, there is not much choice, is there? You need to weigh the advantages and the disadvantages and make up your own mind. You can also leave the lens at home if it's not really necessary or if the weight is too much for a specific project (for example, on my recent Patagonia hiking trip, I chose not to lug it around due to the weight, and opted for the lighter 16-35mm). In my opinion, the answer is clear: if you're an avid landscape photographer, don't wait – get this lens, you won't regret it.
Erez Marom is a professional nature photographer, photography guide and traveler based in Israel. You can follow Erez's work on Instagram, Facebook and 500px, and subscribe to his mailing list for updates.
If you'd like to experience and shoot some of the most fascinating landscapes on earth with Erez as your guide, you're welcome to take a look at his unique photography workshops around the world:
Land of Ice - Southern Iceland Winter Paradise - Northern Iceland Northern Spirits - The Lofoten Islands Giants of the Andes and Fitz Roy Hiking Annex - Patagonia Tales of Arctic Nights - Greenland Saga of the Seas and The Far Reaches Annex - The Faroe Islands Desert Storm - Namibia
Selected Articles by Erez Marom:
Parallelism in Landscape Photography
Behind the Shot: Dark Matter
Mountain Magic: Shooting in the Lofoten Islands
Behind the Shot: Nautilus
Behind the Shot: Lost in Space
Behind the Shot: Spot the Shark
Quick Look: The Art of the Unforeground
Whatever it Doesn't Take
Winds of Change: Shooting changing landscapes
On the Importance of Naming Images
On Causality in Landscape Photography
from DIYS http://ift.tt/2pLXG3E
0 notes
rtawngs20815 · 7 years
Text
Wider than wide: A landscape photographer's thoughts on the Canon 11-24mm
The Canon EF 11-24mm F4L USM is a super wideangle zoom lens for Canon's full-frame DSLRs, which can also be adapted for use on Sony Alpha a7 and a9-series full-frame mirrorless cameras.
Even though I've been writing for DPReview for over 4 years, I've never written any equipment reviews. And why should I? There are far better equipment experts, technical fanatics, pixel-peepers (I mean that in a good way!) and gear enthusiasts out there than me. My fields of expertise are different, and my writing consists mostly of photographic vision, composition, the philosophical aspects of photography and so on. I intend to stick to this line of writing, and for the most part, I'm happy to leave the equipment reviews to the experts.
That said, after shooting with the Canon 11-24mm F4L for a few months, it has proven to be such a game-changer that it has altered how I think about composition. And in a more general sense, it has changed my ability to take control over what is included in an image, and how these elements are arranged.
Goðafoss, Iceland at 13mm. The extra width allowed me to get closer to the edge and get a wider view while keeping all the elements I needed in the image, framing the waterfall, with enough space around them to avoid a crowded feel.
Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, Canon 11-24mm F4L Nisi Filters 180mm ND + GND F14, 13sec, ISO100
This will not be your regular gear review. I won't be discussing sharpness (although trust me that this lens is very sharp), chromatic aberrations or barrel distortion. I will only be talking about composition, which is, in my opinion, the single most important ingredient to a successful photograph. I will present some images and explain what about the 11-24mm made them possible. I'll also talk a bit about the downsides of this lens and the solutions to the problems it presents. 
So why? Why does a landscape photographer need an 11-24mm? Isn't it just too darn wide? Is 11mm worth the size and the monstrous weight? Is it worth the hefty price tag? I have to admit that before shooting with it, I was in serious doubt. I was sure I'd leave it in the bag most of the time, taking it only on rare occasions when 16mm wasn't wide enough. I thought that 16mm would be wide enough for 90% of my images, after all, I've been producing satisfactory shots until now – what good could a wider lens be?
I knew that when going wider, background subjects shrink significantly in size, which can hurt the composition. Moreover, in cases where 16mm wasn't enough, I had a 14mm F2.8 which was excellent for night photography and for shooting in confined spaces. 
It turns out that I was wrong. The extra width proved to be extremely useful, much more than I had imagined. It allowed me to have much more control, to include more sky when I wanted to, to get closer to the foreground, to reveal more detail and create a greater sense of depth and more dramatic imagery. Let's look at some examples.
An ice cave in Breiðamerkurjökull glacier, Iceland. Getting this composition in one shot with a narrower lens would have been impossible. Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, Canon 11-24mm F4L Focus stacked from 3 images at 11mm, F13, 15sec, ISO800.
The ice cave pictured above was magnificent, but it was also very cramped. I couldn't walk upright in most of the spots I shot, and this stream was very small. The ice-crusted rock in the middle was tiny, and its details were so beautiful, I needed to get close in order to expose their intricacies. On the other hand, I needed to frame the different elements well, and in a balanced way that makes visual sense.
The cave's ceiling is extremely important, since it's the only subject of the frame which is part of the glacier, which basically IS the ice cave. It also contains wonderful melting patterns, and black, volcanic earth which gives extra texture and detail.  On the bottom of the frame, there are two important elements: the ice-crusted rock in the middle of the stream, which is most definitely the centerpiece, but equally importantly the ice crusted banks on the bottom right. These serve to create the frame to the blurred water and to compositionally counterbalance the rock and the left-running stream.
In addition to the compositional aspect, I strongly feel that including all these elements serves to give the viewer a better sense of being in this incredible cave. This might be the strongest advantage of utilizing such a wide angle of view.
Without a super wide lens, I could still have included all of these elements. I could have achieved this in one of several ways.
Firstly, I could have moved back a little. This would indeed allow me to include all the different desired elements in the frame, but going backward would change the perspective significantly, shrinking the most important elements in the process, namely the ice crusted rock and the stream itself. That would hurt the composition a great deal.
Alternatively, I could have shot a panorama, using a tilt/shift lens or by moving the camera and lens. This would make the job much, much harder, since (a) it would require multiple stitching in addition to the already-challenging focus stacking and (b) shooting so close to the stream meant I constantly needed to wipe the lens dry, and the extra shooting time would mean much more wiping, Photoshop work and general headache.
The 11-24mm allowed me to shoot this as close to the rock as I needed to, in order to include all the detail I wanted to show while still framing the shot as I desired, all with only three shots to focus stack. I simply wouldn't have been able to do that before I bought this lens. 
Let's see another example from my Arctic trip earlier this year.
The amazing black and white sand patterns of Skagsanden Beach, Lofoten, Arctic Norway. Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, Canon 11-24mm F4L Nisi Filters 180mm ND + GND Stacked from 4 images at 11mm, 0.8 sec, F13, ISO100
Again, this image would've been almost impossible without the 11-24mm, which allowed me to get very close and personal with the tree-like sand patterns, while being wide enough to shrink the background and include the whole mountain range in the frame. 
The Lofoten Islands are full of fjords with towering mountains rising out of them. Some mountains are so close to a water body, it's extremely hard to include the entire thing in the frame without a truly wide lens. This is even more so when trying to include reflections.
Mount Stortinden reflecting in the calm Flakstad Fjord, Lofoten. I was standing about 1 km from this 850m tall mountain. Being so close, I couldn't have included both the mountain and the reflection with a 16mm. It was easily done, however, with the 11-24mm.
Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, Canon 11-24mm F4L Nisi Filters 180mm ND + GND 11mm, F11, 0.5 sec, ISO100
Last but not least, the 11-24 is an almost perfect tool for night photography. The maximum aperture of F4 is a limit, but then again, it's easier having the foreground in focus at F4, plus the monstrous angle of view allows one to expose marginally longer without getting the stars or Northern Lights blurred.
Let's see an example from an incredible night of Aurora in Lofoten. The super wide angle allowed me to include a huge chunk of the sky, showing the wonderful patterns and lines in addition to the mountains and the moving waves. I could also expose for 8 seconds, which is considered a bit long for this kind of strong Auroral activity. To be honest, the lights blew up a few seconds before I took this shot, and I should've exposed for less time, but the amount of blur is not a big issue and the Aurora is still well defined.
Beautiful Aurora in Skagsanden Beach, Lofoten, Arctic Norway. Canon EOS 5D Mark IV Canon 11-24mm F4L 11mm, F4, 8sec, ISO1600
Here are a few more examples of Aurora shot with the 11-24mm.
Stacked from 2 images at 11mm, F4, 8sec, ISO3200 Stacked from 2 images at 11mm, F4, 13sec, ISO3200 11mm, F4, 5sec, ISO1600 11mm, F4, 8sec, ISO3200
I hope you're convinced of this lens' advantages. What about the downsides? For me, the greatest disadvantage is the inability to fit regular filters in front of the huge front element. I'm used to popping my 100mm system out of the bag and putting it in front of any lens. Not this one.
The only solution I currently know of which covers the whole width of this monster is the Nisi Filters 180mm system (proper disclosure: Nisi gave me the holder and some filters to try out). These filters are not cheap, but they are well made and have superb optical quality. The problem is that together with the mounting system, they are big and heavy, and don't allow a photographer to be as spontaneous as with a 100mm system. I still like the system very much and I've achieved good images with it. If you're into using filters with the 11-24, I highly recommend it.
As to the size, weight and price – simply put, it is what it is. If you need this type of lens, or if you can extract any type of value out of it, there is not much choice, is there? You need to weigh the advantages and the disadvantages and make up your own mind. You can also leave the lens at home if it's not really necessary or if the weight is too much for a specific project (for example, on my recent Patagonia hiking trip, I chose not to lug it around due to the weight, and opted for the lighter 16-35mm). In my opinion, the answer is clear: if you're an avid landscape photographer, don't wait – get this lens, you won't regret it.
Erez Marom is a professional nature photographer, photography guide and traveler based in Israel. You can follow Erez's work on Instagram, Facebook and 500px, and subscribe to his mailing list for updates.
If you'd like to experience and shoot some of the most fascinating landscapes on earth with Erez as your guide, you're welcome to take a look at his unique photography workshops around the world:
Land of Ice - Southern Iceland Winter Paradise - Northern Iceland Northern Spirits - The Lofoten Islands Giants of the Andes and Fitz Roy Hiking Annex - Patagonia Tales of Arctic Nights - Greenland Saga of the Seas and The Far Reaches Annex - The Faroe Islands Desert Storm - Namibia
Selected Articles by Erez Marom:
Parallelism in Landscape Photography
Behind the Shot: Dark Matter
Mountain Magic: Shooting in the Lofoten Islands
Behind the Shot: Nautilus
Behind the Shot: Lost in Space
Behind the Shot: Spot the Shark
Quick Look: The Art of the Unforeground
Whatever it Doesn't Take
Winds of Change: Shooting changing landscapes
On the Importance of Naming Images
On Causality in Landscape Photography
from DIYS http://ift.tt/2pLXG3E
0 notes
repwincoml4a0a5 · 7 years
Text
Wider than wide: A landscape photographer's thoughts on the Canon 11-24mm
The Canon EF 11-24mm F4L USM is a super wideangle zoom lens for Canon's full-frame DSLRs, which can also be adapted for use on Sony Alpha a7 and a9-series full-frame mirrorless cameras.
Even though I've been writing for DPReview for over 4 years, I've never written any equipment reviews. And why should I? There are far better equipment experts, technical fanatics, pixel-peepers (I mean that in a good way!) and gear enthusiasts out there than me. My fields of expertise are different, and my writing consists mostly of photographic vision, composition, the philosophical aspects of photography and so on. I intend to stick to this line of writing, and for the most part, I'm happy to leave the equipment reviews to the experts.
That said, after shooting with the Canon 11-24mm F4L for a few months, it has proven to be such a game-changer that it has altered how I think about composition. And in a more general sense, it has changed my ability to take control over what is included in an image, and how these elements are arranged.
Goðafoss, Iceland at 13mm. The extra width allowed me to get closer to the edge and get a wider view while keeping all the elements I needed in the image, framing the waterfall, with enough space around them to avoid a crowded feel.
Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, Canon 11-24mm F4L Nisi Filters 180mm ND + GND F14, 13sec, ISO100
This will not be your regular gear review. I won't be discussing sharpness (although trust me that this lens is very sharp), chromatic aberrations or barrel distortion. I will only be talking about composition, which is, in my opinion, the single most important ingredient to a successful photograph. I will present some images and explain what about the 11-24mm made them possible. I'll also talk a bit about the downsides of this lens and the solutions to the problems it presents. 
So why? Why does a landscape photographer need an 11-24mm? Isn't it just too darn wide? Is 11mm worth the size and the monstrous weight? Is it worth the hefty price tag? I have to admit that before shooting with it, I was in serious doubt. I was sure I'd leave it in the bag most of the time, taking it only on rare occasions when 16mm wasn't wide enough. I thought that 16mm would be wide enough for 90% of my images, after all, I've been producing satisfactory shots until now – what good could a wider lens be?
I knew that when going wider, background subjects shrink significantly in size, which can hurt the composition. Moreover, in cases where 16mm wasn't enough, I had a 14mm F2.8 which was excellent for night photography and for shooting in confined spaces. 
It turns out that I was wrong. The extra width proved to be extremely useful, much more than I had imagined. It allowed me to have much more control, to include more sky when I wanted to, to get closer to the foreground, to reveal more detail and create a greater sense of depth and more dramatic imagery. Let's look at some examples.
An ice cave in Breiðamerkurjökull glacier, Iceland. Getting this composition in one shot with a narrower lens would have been impossible. Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, Canon 11-24mm F4L Focus stacked from 3 images at 11mm, F13, 15sec, ISO800.
The ice cave pictured above was magnificent, but it was also very cramped. I couldn't walk upright in most of the spots I shot, and this stream was very small. The ice-crusted rock in the middle was tiny, and its details were so beautiful, I needed to get close in order to expose their intricacies. On the other hand, I needed to frame the different elements well, and in a balanced way that makes visual sense.
The cave's ceiling is extremely important, since it's the only subject of the frame which is part of the glacier, which basically IS the ice cave. It also contains wonderful melting patterns, and black, volcanic earth which gives extra texture and detail.  On the bottom of the frame, there are two important elements: the ice-crusted rock in the middle of the stream, which is most definitely the centerpiece, but equally importantly the ice crusted banks on the bottom right. These serve to create the frame to the blurred water and to compositionally counterbalance the rock and the left-running stream.
In addition to the compositional aspect, I strongly feel that including all these elements serves to give the viewer a better sense of being in this incredible cave. This might be the strongest advantage of utilizing such a wide angle of view.
Without a super wide lens, I could still have included all of these elements. I could have achieved this in one of several ways.
Firstly, I could have moved back a little. This would indeed allow me to include all the different desired elements in the frame, but going backward would change the perspective significantly, shrinking the most important elements in the process, namely the ice crusted rock and the stream itself. That would hurt the composition a great deal.
Alternatively, I could have shot a panorama, using a tilt/shift lens or by moving the camera and lens. This would make the job much, much harder, since (a) it would require multiple stitching in addition to the already-challenging focus stacking and (b) shooting so close to the stream meant I constantly needed to wipe the lens dry, and the extra shooting time would mean much more wiping, Photoshop work and general headache.
The 11-24mm allowed me to shoot this as close to the rock as I needed to, in order to include all the detail I wanted to show while still framing the shot as I desired, all with only three shots to focus stack. I simply wouldn't have been able to do that before I bought this lens. 
Let's see another example from my Arctic trip earlier this year.
The amazing black and white sand patterns of Skagsanden Beach, Lofoten, Arctic Norway. Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, Canon 11-24mm F4L Nisi Filters 180mm ND + GND Stacked from 4 images at 11mm, 0.8 sec, F13, ISO100
Again, this image would've been almost impossible without the 11-24mm, which allowed me to get very close and personal with the tree-like sand patterns, while being wide enough to shrink the background and include the whole mountain range in the frame. 
The Lofoten Islands are full of fjords with towering mountains rising out of them. Some mountains are so close to a water body, it's extremely hard to include the entire thing in the frame without a truly wide lens. This is even more so when trying to include reflections.
Mount Stortinden reflecting in the calm Flakstad Fjord, Lofoten. I was standing about 1 km from this 850m tall mountain. Being so close, I couldn't have included both the mountain and the reflection with a 16mm. It was easily done, however, with the 11-24mm.
Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, Canon 11-24mm F4L Nisi Filters 180mm ND + GND 11mm, F11, 0.5 sec, ISO100
Last but not least, the 11-24 is an almost perfect tool for night photography. The maximum aperture of F4 is a limit, but then again, it's easier having the foreground in focus at F4, plus the monstrous angle of view allows one to expose marginally longer without getting the stars or Northern Lights blurred.
Let's see an example from an incredible night of Aurora in Lofoten. The super wide angle allowed me to include a huge chunk of the sky, showing the wonderful patterns and lines in addition to the mountains and the moving waves. I could also expose for 8 seconds, which is considered a bit long for this kind of strong Auroral activity. To be honest, the lights blew up a few seconds before I took this shot, and I should've exposed for less time, but the amount of blur is not a big issue and the Aurora is still well defined.
Beautiful Aurora in Skagsanden Beach, Lofoten, Arctic Norway. Canon EOS 5D Mark IV Canon 11-24mm F4L 11mm, F4, 8sec, ISO1600
Here are a few more examples of Aurora shot with the 11-24mm.
Stacked from 2 images at 11mm, F4, 8sec, ISO3200 Stacked from 2 images at 11mm, F4, 13sec, ISO3200 11mm, F4, 5sec, ISO1600 11mm, F4, 8sec, ISO3200
I hope you're convinced of this lens' advantages. What about the downsides? For me, the greatest disadvantage is the inability to fit regular filters in front of the huge front element. I'm used to popping my 100mm system out of the bag and putting it in front of any lens. Not this one.
The only solution I currently know of which covers the whole width of this monster is the Nisi Filters 180mm system (proper disclosure: Nisi gave me the holder and some filters to try out). These filters are not cheap, but they are well made and have superb optical quality. The problem is that together with the mounting system, they are big and heavy, and don't allow a photographer to be as spontaneous as with a 100mm system. I still like the system very much and I've achieved good images with it. If you're into using filters with the 11-24, I highly recommend it.
As to the size, weight and price – simply put, it is what it is. If you need this type of lens, or if you can extract any type of value out of it, there is not much choice, is there? You need to weigh the advantages and the disadvantages and make up your own mind. You can also leave the lens at home if it's not really necessary or if the weight is too much for a specific project (for example, on my recent Patagonia hiking trip, I chose not to lug it around due to the weight, and opted for the lighter 16-35mm). In my opinion, the answer is clear: if you're an avid landscape photographer, don't wait – get this lens, you won't regret it.
Erez Marom is a professional nature photographer, photography guide and traveler based in Israel. You can follow Erez's work on Instagram, Facebook and 500px, and subscribe to his mailing list for updates.
If you'd like to experience and shoot some of the most fascinating landscapes on earth with Erez as your guide, you're welcome to take a look at his unique photography workshops around the world:
Land of Ice - Southern Iceland Winter Paradise - Northern Iceland Northern Spirits - The Lofoten Islands Giants of the Andes and Fitz Roy Hiking Annex - Patagonia Tales of Arctic Nights - Greenland Saga of the Seas and The Far Reaches Annex - The Faroe Islands Desert Storm - Namibia
Selected Articles by Erez Marom:
Parallelism in Landscape Photography
Behind the Shot: Dark Matter
Mountain Magic: Shooting in the Lofoten Islands
Behind the Shot: Nautilus
Behind the Shot: Lost in Space
Behind the Shot: Spot the Shark
Quick Look: The Art of the Unforeground
Whatever it Doesn't Take
Winds of Change: Shooting changing landscapes
On the Importance of Naming Images
On Causality in Landscape Photography
from DIYS http://ift.tt/2pLXG3E
0 notes
darapnerd · 7 years
Text
G33k HQ Presents: MC Front-A-Lot Interview
Interview Questions From G33K-HQ & Darealwordsound (Wordy): Nerdcore Interview Collaboration Questions
MC Front: Thank you for bearing with me! So sorry to continually drop the ball on this. Here you go.
Wordy: What was your first creative outlet? MC Front: I seem to remember kindergarten involving a lot of drawing. First and second grade had poetry exercises sometimes. But the way we played D&D between 2nd and 6th grades was how my imagination really got fired up. We didn\'t like dice and maps that much. We\'d take turns DMing and just sort of freestyle the stories to each other at recess. Wordy:  What was the first rap album you ever purchased? MC Front: It was also my first CD. DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince, He\'s the DJ, I\'m the Rapper. Wordy: Who are your biggest music inspirations?
  MC Front: Tom Waits, Public Enemy, Bjork
Wordy: Describe your studio to us.
  MC Front: I have an Ikea desk that\'s been out of print for 10 years so I get fussy when anyone leans on it. Creaky, cheap old thing. It\'s the only one where you can bolt the rotating side shelves at any height. Perfect for the near-field monitors and re-aiming them for any version of the stereo field. I mix there in my bedroom which isn\'t treated, but I\'ve been in there so long that I can work around most of the room effects. I have a coat closet fully treated, very dead and dry, for vocals. I keep some buttons in there to engineer myself, but everything\'s still happening on the studio computer. My pre-amp and mics and monitors are satisfactory. I could use a better ADC/DAC.
  I will record occasional hand percussion, etc, in that closet booth, but very little fits in there. For other acoustic capture, I\'ll rent time at a real studio (any time I\'m tracking my drummers) or I\'ll go field-record strings at someone\'s apartment.
  A solid two thirds of the non-vocal sound on the albums is electronic, and I can get keyboard performances or work on drum machine material in the project studio without worrying about the ambient noises of Brooklyn.
  Wordy: Describe your ideal home studio if money wasn\'t a problem.
  MC Front: A proper treatment of the mixing room would be great. I guess I\'d have twenty of these Avalon pre-amps and a little drum room, as well as a booth big enough for upright bass or cello. There is almost unlimited fanciness available in the hardware market... I guess I\'d have to make a hobby out of shopping. I\'d still use Reaper as my DAW, though -- the least expensive version of that kind of software, and also the best. I could probably spend sixty grand on plugins.
Wordy: What is your creative process for writing and or producing a song?
MC Front: Baddd Spellah, my Canadian beatsmithing partner, has been kind enough to work on grooves with me for the last fifteen years. Usually I will start with something he\'s been kicking around, or he\'ll take a pass at some live drum that I\'ve been chopping up, and we\'ll add keyboard material from Gm7 (Gaby Alter), my longtime music co-writer. When there is a verse-appropriate groove that is in pretty good shape, I\'ll leave it on loop and write. Once in a while, I\'ll write a hook over a groove that feels like a chorus, and start from there. After I\'ve got most of a lyric, I\'ll put down a scratch vocal so that Spellah and I can build a full song arrangement. Then I\'ll record too many takes of the final vocal, and spend too many months dicking around with the comp, the mix, and all the instrumental details. Finally I\'ll listen to it on as many different devices as I can, fine-tune the mix, and stay up for a week and a half making increasingly bad decisions about everything on the album, leading up to the mastering appointment I foolishly committed to several months prior.
  Wordy: What is your happiest On-Stage Moment?
  MC Front: I think a PAX crowd demanded a second encore once. That makes you feel like a superstar.
Wordy: What was your favorite song to write or record?
  MC Front: Maybe Stoop Sale? But that might be because the video came out so well. For the most part, my happiness with the process relies entirely on the result: it makes me happy to listen to a track if I don\'t just hear a barrage of fuckups that it\'s too late to go back and fix. But there aren\'t very many of those. Of all my lyrics, I\'m probably proudest of Two Dreamers from the Question Bedtime album. I feel like I worked out every bit of the story and then obscured it just enough that the listener\'s careful attention is rewarded.
Wordy: What advice do you have for aspiring artists?
  MC Front: Practice a lot, develop your talent. Get the skills you need to properly communicate with whoever your creative partners are. Take the craft seriously but give yourself a break for not having mastered it -- that is a lifelong process with no actual end goal.
Wordy: What project do you feel best describes you as an artist?
  MC Front: The Nerdcore Rising documentary probably says more about me and the band than I\'d ever be able to, and in kinder words. Of my own projects, I like the Zero Day and Solved albums as a window into whatever it is I\'m trying to say about nerdcore.
Wordy: How do you feel about the disconnect between \"Nerdcore\" and \"HipHop\"?
  MC Front: Well, hip-hop is a cultural movement with very specific origins and elements. Rap is a formal music style that emerged from hip-hop. Any \'variation\' or \'new perspective\' that someone brings to rap is fine -- if meaningless. It might matter that you came up with a new thing to say, but the fact that you chose an unusual form for your expression should be the least interesting thing about it. You can write a march for your peace movement, even if marches come from military music, because the march itself is just a formal style of composition. You\'d be smart to note the ironic relationship there, or you\'d be dumb to suggest that there isn\'t one, or that your choice to use a march as an expression of pacifism somehow reaches backward and affects the origin of the form. Anyone who thinks they\'re \'expanding\' or \'liberating\' hip-hop from its roots by rapping about things that haven\'t been rapped about traditionally is probably an idiot. 
  My idea about hip-hop was only to observe that it was cool. Like, it was the coolest thing happening in American culture when I was a kid, and it probably still is. Breakdancers were the coolest kids on the playground. Graffiti kids were the coolest outlaws in fourth grade. And rappers were the coolest possible composers of verse.
  To want to compose and perform verse in that formal style without having any direct connection to hip-hop, and without being cool, is the sort of desire nerd kids might express by themselves, away from arbiters of hipness, and share only with other uncool kids. The idea of nerdcore went no deeper than that, originally. I\'m glad that a lot of other DIY rappers have found that resonant enough to expand upon.
  Wordy: Do you feel more \"Nerdcore\" rappers should know about its roots in \"HipHop\"?
  MC Front: Definitely. I remember trying to write a Villanelle in a college poetry class. First, we had to read and dissect a sheaf of them. The professor was of the opinion that we would all flounder in the assignment, because there had been only a handful of good Villanelles ever written. I\'m sure none of us wrote one of lasting value. The point was to learn how formal composition connects works, and to appreciate the complications. You can always just do it anyway. But knowing where it comes from and how it\'s been attempted before teaches you how to try to do it well. I think anyone who wants to compose lyrics within the rap genre should know all they can about how raps have been composed so far.
  That doesn\'t even begin to address the cultural issue. Some artists misidentify nerdcore as comedy music, and worse yet, think the joke is \"it\'s rap, but white kids are doing it.\" I think that outlook leads to the weakest possible songs, and is generally disrespectful of hip-hop in a way that concerns me and offends anyone who cares about American culture. Of course, not all of the nerdcore rappers are white, but all of the schticky ones are. I wonder if a delve into hip-hop\'s history would cure them of that impulse, or at least afford them the humility to hush it up.
Wordy: Are you involved in any philanthropy in your local communities or abroad?
  MC Front: I try to do something in support of Child\'s Play every year. I\'m going to contribute to the upcoming Worldbuilders album project.
Wordy: Can you freestyle? Meaning rap off the top of the head? If so, can we see you drop a few bars next time live?
  MC Front: I never do this! I think I\'ve conditioned myself into a certain kind of vanity. Almost everything on the albums is rapped in complete sentences, with rhymes that I\'ve never used previously. Freestyling doesn\'t work that way. I\'m too ashamed to let anyone see me freestyling about the frog, on a log, in a bog, who got sog-gy.
Wordy: Do you consider yourself a “GEEK”?
  MC Front: Of course.
Wordy: In your own words, describe what the word “GEEK” means to you?
MC Front: I decided at some point a long time ago that geeks are all direct descendants of the side-show geek, whose job was biting heads off of chickens. They weren\'t special in any way, except that they were willing and able to do that thing, and it was a fairly extreme thing to do. But because nobody else at the carnival was willing to go to that extreme, the geekery came to seem like a highly specialized skill.
  That\'s why you can be a geek about anything. You just need a topic where your knowledge or expertise is so specialized that it seems distastefully extreme to non-geeks. You can geek out about fantasy novels or about robot AIs. But you can also geek out about car engines or cooking. You don\'t have to be a nerd to geek out.
  Nerds are almost always geeks, and their subjects of geekery are often recognizably nerdy. But a nerd is something else, a person who was already too weird or too smart, and felt alienated, and embraced geekery as an alternative to whatever broader pursuits the cool kids enjoyed.
  Wordy: What is your earliest geek memory?
  MC Front: I was a Star Wars geek starting at age three and a half when the first one came out. It was the only thing I wanted to do. I made adults take me to see it 11 times before Empire came out (I kept careful count). I collected the Kenner figures obsessively until they stopped making new ones a year or two after Jedi.
  Wordy: What is your \"Geek\" hobby? Do you collect comic books? Anime? Video games?
  MC Front: I do still love comics, but I own too many. Video games take up less space. I spend more time gaming than I do working on music, occasionally 70 or 80 hours in a week. It\'s as much an emotional self-medication as it is a hobby.
Wordy: Who are your Top 5 emcees dead or alive?
  MC Front: In no order: Busdriver, MF Doom, Del, Q-Tip, Chuck D
Wordy: When is your next show or tour?
  MC Front: When I get the dang old album done! Maybe spring 2017 for tour. PAX South is the soonest lone show.
Wordy: Do you have a new album coming out?
  MC Front: It\'s called INTERNET SUCKS, and it is going to have a heavy \'get off my lawn\' vibe. Everyone will be mad at me, yet secretly agree with every word on the record. Watch for it to take your feeds by storm.
  http://frontalot.com
more at darealwordsound
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