Learn to use the perfect travel photography lens in big cities
The lens you have on hand is undoubtedly the best one for trip photography. However, there is no reason why you shouldn’t bring a wide-angle lens along with you while taking pictures when traveling. When visiting large cities, it will often fulfill all of your needs. Cities bring everything closer to you than suburbs and rural places do, which is a significant difference. So you’ll need a wide-angle lens, like the Tamron 17-28mm f2.8 Di III RXD, to take it all in. We’ll go through a lot of guidelines for anybody purchasing their first brand-new lens and taking it on a vacation!
This article was created in collaboration with TAMRON.
Summary of Contents
Why a Wide Angle Lens Is Necessary
Take drugs and go low
How to Fix Lines With Two Distinct White Balances
Use the Water Cities Have Different Lighting Conditions
Nighttime shooting in large cities
WHY A WIDE ANGLE LENS IS NECESSARY
A wide-angle lens and a high-megapixel camera body are capable of almost anything. We’ve used the Tamron 17-28mm f2.8 Di III RXD quite a bit throughout the years. It’s undoubtedly one of the greatest wide-angle lenses you can find if you photograph with a Sony camera. Here are a few reasons why the Tamron 17-28mm f2.8 Di III RXD is so amazing because we won’t spend the whole post extolling its virtues:
It is little, measuring around 3 by 4 inches.
It isn’t much heavier than a typical American Coke can.
Weatherproofing: Over the years, we’ve used this lens in both dusty and wet environments, and it has never stopped functioning.
Autofocus: The RXD motor from Tamron is quick, quiet, and accurate.
Image quality: Each Tamron lens has a good personality thanks to some rather unusual colors that have always been used.
At the time this article was being written, it was just $799 after a $100 Holiday Instant Savings.
The Tamron 17-28mm f2.8 Di III RXD is excellent for cityscapes because of all of these factors. It’s quite likely to be the best lens for traveling photographers.
Oh, and it also does a good job at controlling distortion and other common faults. But more importantly—and this is the focus of this section—cities are enormous, expansive territories. When you glance about, you often see something unique in every single direction. A wide-angle lens can capture all of it and help you understand it better. You may also get a nearly normal angle of view at 28mm on the long end of a zoom lens like this Tamron one.
Here are a few justifications for why Wide Angle lenses are so excellent for city and vacation photography:
Because they are so adaptable, they may be the only lens you need.
They are able to absorb whole sights.
They provide an entirely novel viewpoint.
Wide-angle lenses are among of the most enjoyable for our employees to use.
They are excellent day-to-night lenses since you can photograph with a slower shutter speed because to their wide aperture. This is how the reciprocal law of shutter speeds works. Add image stabilization, which is a feature of Sony cameras, to the equation.
Inclement weather presents some truly amazing photographic opportunities in cities. (Remember all the lovely pictures you’ve seen of New York covered in snow!) If your wide-angle lens is weather-sealed, it will enable you capture large, snow-covered regions extremely effectively.
Let’s now go further into some further advice!
GET LOW, AND THEN GET HIGH
Cities come in different levels. Landscapes are difficult to go high or low in unless you’re in the mountains or have a drone. With cities, however, it’s a different story. You may simply ascend to a higher structure for a fantastic perspective! Another justification for why wide-angle lenses are ideal for travel photography is this. You can capture a lot in one picture. That is impossible with a telephoto lens. Additionally, you may enlarge the details in post-production if you wish to!
Pro Tip: If all else fails, take a low angle photo and slooow down the shutter speed. If you’re surrounded by plenty of people, you’ll get a sense of the hectic pace of city life.
Having saying that, remember your angles. Observe the sky! To utilize the LCD screen, squat down. Lean back and extend your arms. Additionally, avoid just taking pictures at eye level. Hold the camera at your hips and try taking photos from there.
HOW TO CONTROL LINES
Many photographers believe that there must always be straight lines in their images, but I disagree. A extremely entertaining shot may be created by using curves and distorted perspectives. Additionally, the distorted appearance is really in right now! Shoot wider and straighten the results in post-production if you absolutely want straight lines. Otherwise, you may still reposition yourself or close up on an area to acquire the ideal viewpoint. Colors may sometimes take center stage. The ideal lens for trip photography should significantly improve the color quality of your photographs. Ideally, you would want to perform as little post-production as possible while on vacation or even after.
You may zoom in to 28mm with a lens like the Tamron 17-28mm f2.8 Di III RXD and then make adjustments from there.
TWO DISTINGUISHABLE WHITE BALANCES
Let’s keep to the colors! One of the reasons cities are so ideal is because of this! Although you can set your camera to auto white balance, you may not always be satisfied with the results. Instead, you may obtain all you need by sticking to two white balances: tungsten (3200k) or daylight (5500k). Cities often go back and forth between the two lighting conditions. Want to appear like a Blade Runner? Use white lighting with a 3200K setting. You may take some images that seem highly cinematic by using a wide-angle lens. The Tamron 17-28mm f2.8 Di III RXD is the ideal lens for vacation photography for these and other reasons.
This section’s opening image was taken using tungsten lighting and a daylight white balance. That is how we get the really warm appearance. The second image was taken with tungsten illumination and tungsten film. It seems more neutralized in that way. A wide-angle lens like the Tamron 17-28mm f2.8 Di III RXD would particularly accentuate this as wide-angle lenses have a tendency to have more vibrant colors.
UTILIZE THE WATER
You may take some extremely entertaining shots by using the nearby water in cities. This is particularly true at night when vessels sometimes illuminate the nearby waterways. Here, high ISO images and long exposures both have their advantages! Consider the water as a layer while taking pictures of it. Consider this in relation to how you might see sceneries. Don’t, for instance, center your horizon. Have the water (the sky, the city, etc.) take up the majority of the picture while using your wide-angle lens, Also, go down by the water! For this reason, a lens like the Tamron 17-28mm f2.8 Di III RXD may be ideal for trip photography.
Advice: The golden hour and golden light persist longer in the winter, especially towards sunset.
Sunset is still just a few minutes long. However, you may experience golden light for an hour or two before to the real sunset in any major city I’ve visited. This takes us to our next piece of advice.
In cities, sunlight strikes differently.
Because of how cities operate, sunlight is unusual in large cities. Cities have plenty of reflecting windows, which turn everything into a mirror. There are several chances for spotlights and other effects because of the way the light bounces off those surfaces. It will disperse lovely light in little spots everywhere. In general, ISO 400 and a wide-angle lens are the best chance in a major city when you’re on the ground and on the sidewalks. Simply use wide-scene autofocus and aperture priority settings after that. When there are clouds present, the light is quite soft everywhere. It’s often jokingly referred to as the “Softbox look.” When you capture a scene down the street, the diffused light bounces off the buildings as well, creating some really wonderful shadow fill.
NIGHT TIME SHOOTING IN LARGE CITIES
Cities have an entirely distinct life and atmosphere at night. Cities are often well lit by many lights. so that you may move about without feeling annoyed. The ideal conditions? begin with an ISO setting between 1600 and 6400. You should be able to get an aperture priority shutter speed with that alone. Then simply start shooting after combining this with a locked white balance setting. Try varied angles, keep an eye out for leading lines, and most importantly, avoid shooting at eye level. You’ll understand why the Tamron 17-28mm f2.8 Di III RXD is the ideal lens for vacation photography if you do this.
Cheers to the gun!
