Digital Photography Digital Field Guide

Chapter 5. Using Accessories and Filters

In This Chapter

• Lenses

• Using optical filters

• Filters in the digital darkroom

• Tripods

• Getting good close-ups

You can take lots of wonderful photographs with your digital camera alone and no additional accessories. But sometimes you need additional equipment to solve a specific photographic problem. In addition, using accessories with your camera can be just plain fun.

Filters, whether they are optical and added to the front of your camera lens, or digital (and invoked postproduction) are great fun and add pizzazz to your work.

This chapter explains the kinds of situations in which you are likely to need accessory equipment, and how to use the equipment. For example, it is hard to take good macro pictures without using a tripod. This chapter also gives you some ideas about how to creatively use filters and other accessories to have more fun with digital photography in the field.

Lenses

Lenses are among the most significant accessories you can add to really change the way your photographs look, and to increase the capabilities of your digital repertoire. However, additional lenses can be extremely expensive, and many digital cameras simply do not accept interchangeable lenses. The good news is that your camera's original lens (or only lens if it is not an interchangeable-lens camera) provides plenty of functionality for most situations with a nice range of focal lengths and good macro facilities.

Interchangeable lenses are one of the best reasons to use ...