The Best Camera Lenses Books of All Time

The Language of the Lens explores the expressive power of the camera lens and the storytelling contributions that this critical tool can make to a film project. This book offers a unique approach to learning how lenses can produce aesthetically and narratively compelling images in movies, through a close examination of the various ways lens techniques control the look of space, movement, focus, flares, distortion, and the "optical personality" of your story’s visual landscape.

Loaded with vivid examples from commercial, independent, and world cinema, The Language of the Lens presents dozens of insightful case studies examining their conceptual, narrative, and technical approaches to reveal how master filmmakers have harnessed the power of lenses to express the entire range of emotions, themes, tone, atmosphere, subtexts, moods, and abstract concepts. The Language of the Lens provides filmmakers, at any level or experience, with a wealth of knowledge to unleash the full expressive power of any lens at their disposal, whether they are shooting with state-of-the-art cinema lenses or a smartphone, and everything in between.

Tilt and shift lenses offer tremendous creative possibilities for users of digital SLR and mirrorless cameras. This practical book explains the techniques that will help you take better photos - photos that don't distort or lose focus. Assessing the benefits and pitfalls of a range of lenses, adapters, software and editing techniques, it guides you through the practicalities of working with these lenses and gives you the skills to use them to best effect.

With stunning examples throughout, this book gives an overview of the different lenses available, and tips on how adapters can give tilt-shift options when using old medium-format lenses. It gives advice on how simple lens shift can change the entire look of your photos, and techniques for using lens tilt for focus control and close-up working. Stunning examples show the use of tilt and shift lenses across a range of available focal lengths, both tripod-mounted and handheld.

The very thing that makes wide-angle photography so compelling also makes it a challenge: While you’re sure to capture a vast scene using a wide-angle lens, it can be difficult to direct the viewer’s attention when so many elements are included in an image. For many photographers, the results of their wide-angle attempts are a disappointment and they just can’t seem to achieve that “Wow” they are hoping for in their images. Whether you’re new to wide-angle lenses or you’ve been frustrated by them for a long time, expert photographer, teacher, and author Chris Marquardt is here to help.

Wide-Angle Photography is packed with information—as well as beautiful and inspiring photography—that will help you take your wide-angle image making to the next level. In a friendly, accessible manner Chris walks you through in-depth discussions of both the advantages and the pitfalls of wide-angle photography, the fundamentals you need to know, composition and design principles, and the specific genres in which wide-angle lenses can be used to create outstanding images—not only for landscape photography, but for portrait, street, architectural, and interior photography, as well. Throughout the book, Chris offers hands-on exercises that drive home the concepts being taught so you can learn by doing. Chris also dedicates two full chapters to tilt-shift lenses for those who are interested in exploring and maximizing the fascinating capabilities these kinds of lenses offer. Topics include:. Types of lenses and filtersUnderstanding depth of fieldAngles of view, crop factors, and focal lengthsHandling distortion and aberrationsComposition, design, and contextPoint of view and perspectiveWide-angle for various genresPanoramas and stitching imagesTilt-shift lensesHands-on exercisesAnd much more….