So many critics here, so many closed minds. He is obviously successful. His pictures are fantastic. His perspective is unique. You people are so busy worrying about the path that you missed the view. In the end it is ALWAYS about the customer. My golden rule? Never seek the approval of other photographers.
I laugh at all of the amateur guys who criticize this PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER :D ... Gene Ho is showing all of us some of his secrets... and what do the limited narrow minded amateurs do? they criticize him haha as if they know better .. laughable.
+adrian alonso There's no rule that says you can't use a fisheye lens for astrophotography. It would give a fun and unique appearance to the image compared to images captured with more conventional focals. I would still consider having a non-fisheye type super-wide lens to use for flexibility in the composition, for the instances where you may realize the fisheye isn't right for the shot though. - Yossi
This is still one of my favorites of B and H's presentations. I appreciate you covering the fish eye as much as you do here Gene Ho. No matter what the YT "critics" say the shots you show are unique and your own. Its not as if you're ONLY using fisheyes for a whole wedding shoot, but I can see where they do add value.
I shot my first wedding a couple of months ago. After watching this video, I broke out my 8mm fisheye and got some really cool shots! Just shows that it's OK to buck the trends and think outside the box! Thanks Gene!
I think he has discovered something new & interesting! I mainly shoot concerts, so surprises constantly come up as light changes every few seconds! Some of these comments are too critical in my opinion. Sure one shot in a studio with perfect lighting is easy, but spray & pray is practiced amongst the most professional people in the business. National Geographic photographers shoot thousands & thousands of images, only to have 2 or 3 shots for a magazine! Get over yourselves people!!!
Whats not to love here, Mr Ho an experienced very talented photographer, and he shares his knowledge without fine print... Love your class Mr Ho, we need more like you....
Internet has empowered those little guys who used to be hidden in their bedrooms secretly hating other talented guys. Gene Ho is teaching us a good technique that he uses at weddings and what do these haters do? just criticize haha laughable uh?
haters gonna hate. this guy is using and trusting his gear in different ways then other people. with today auto focus system and image resolution, there is nothing wrong with his spray and pray technique; you can always crop in post for the best composition but you can't go back in time to get the best moment. thank you for the video, i learnt something out of it.
Very creative art form. I don't find fish eye extremely useful for 90% of my work but the shots that it works with are FANTASTIC and add a ton of value to my overall journal or portfolio.
WOW!! The knowledge that Gene Ho has and freely shares to everyone...even me as a beginner....IS APPRECIATED!!!! We are all trying to INVENT something special!
Funny how people talk about "spray and pray"... there is no such thing... frame your shot and get as much good moments as you can. This whole thing of getting one shot is just ridiculous. .. Henri-Cartier Bresson himself took about 30-40 shots of one scene. He would frame the scene and wait for events to happen til he got something really fantastic. That's one roll of film for a single scene. And sport photographers spray and pray?! What did you smoked people. You gotta know the sport being played, frame the shot perfectly, get your AF on spot-on, burst-mode set, speed-lite flash synchronized (if you need one), you must be super-steady if you don't use a tripod etc... I shoot manual because I'm into street photography. Even do most of the work is not pressing the shutter. Funny how most people who call this guy a "button pusher" try to put their eye to a viewfinder and get a great picture by magic. 90% of it is what's in the frame, 9% preparation (choosing the right focal lense, balancing ISO, aperture, shutter speed - which also impact how much light gets in - WB, flash and AF settings), 1% pressing the shutter. That's why you see pro photographers taking a ton of shots when the moment finally happen. Most of the time in a shoot is spending making the camera ever-ready and looking around you. Only critic I have is, B&H, please use a proper camera!! The fuck is going on with a shitty cellphone or something that blurs the presenter's movements when you get REDs in stock?!!!
The first couple of mins was kinda wishy-washy and I have no idea where he was going with it, but wow, when he started talking about specific scenarios. And the samples.
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For Macro I would recommend the Nikon 40mm 2.8G AF-S Micro-Nikkor lens. For the landscape shots the 18mm on your lens will be pretty wide. If you need wider, I would recommend the Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6D EX DC HSM Autofocus Zoom Lens for Nikon DSLRs. Dana G askbh{at}bandh{dot}com
Fisheye's like the Sigma 15mm are called full frame as they do not make circular images. The Sigma is the least expensive lens in this class. C h u c k askbh{at}bandh{dot}com
Note that keeping the shot level with a fisheye and line up the centre of the frame level (or horizon), you can minimise the distortion and the distortion becomes symmetrical - this means with a number of shots you get the width and inclusiveness etc of a fisheye, but without much of overt distortion - but it only works in some cases and not others. So I agree, you shouldn't use a fisheye because it has distortion - that just limits this type of lens. Some good examples here. Also, if you need to highlight part of the shot and need a flash (sundown for example) use a Snoot and direct the light only where you want it. I have used Gary Fong's Power Snoot to great effect. Thanks for an interesting video and discussion of developing a personal technique too.
WOW, this is incredibly kind of you to share so many tips with us, complete strangers, for free. I am so motivated now and I can't wait for my fisheye lens to arrive and try out your techniques. :))
@drbubble33, @THEORYZ1,@Brainstick ,@CGScammell,@ lano1956,@2PsPhoto Glad you enjoyed and found value in this presentation. We are please that we can be of help.Many thanks for the feedback.
Yes, you can employ the same style as Gene Ho shooting with your Canon Rebel XSI and Sigma Fish Eye lenses for Canon. Regarding flash, you can use a Canon ST-E2 Transmitter with your camera to wirelessly fire multiple 580, 550 EX's or 430EXII's.
I bought my first fisheye lens a little under a year ago, but it didn't take long before I was using my mind's eye to compose shots instead of the viewfinder. It's nice to see that someone else favors this approach as well, and that I'm not as crazy as people keep telling me I am. ;) Over all I've had pretty good luck, and have able to get the shots that I wanted within one or two tries (shoot, check, adjust). My approach developed organically, and it is still pretty unorganized. I've found a lot of useful tips here, and I'm really intrigued by how methodically you seem to work. and I'm definitely going to try to incorporate that into my own method. Thanks Gene.
The Sigma 15mm f2.8 fisheye lens is not of the HSM type, but it still focuses quickly on applicable cameras. Keep in mind with fisheye lenses, your field of view is so wide, that you are more or less relatively in focus at most apertures and focus settings. The amount of time the camera would need to get into focus when in AF mode is very little, and the lens would have no problems quickly coming into focus. - Yossi
@Donnierome Thank you so much for watching the B&H Photo RU-vid Channel and for your participation. We are very pleased that you derive value from and find our presentations useful and informative.
Thanks for a very good tutorial on fisheye photography. Question: at the beginning, you stated that you put the camera on M and set exposure. If you're 'spraying' how do you maintain focus while shooting as targets are moving?
I watched this video when you guys posted it back in March. My friend asked me to help shoot a wedding with him and asked me to use his fisheye lens even though I have no experience using the fisheye. Thank you so much for posting this video B&H the timing could not have been any better! 2 weeks later I shot with the fisheye like a boss. :D He was really happy with the shots I got. Next week were are doing another wedding...I am now the designated fisheye-guy. Thanks again!
I used to be an amauter wedding photographer, I remember I shot a whole role of film in my T90 camera and only to find the film was not loaded properly but I never told anyone until now! Gene you take wedding photography to another level, repect!
Very interesting. Not sure you really need a fisheye with auto focus though! I did enjoy the two camera approach a lot. That gave me some great ideas. Thanks.
bradley strong , for me this applies to more than photography. In my own life I experience this through family, friends, employers etc. who are unable to see your greatness because of their close association to you. Sometimes their response feels like " Oh it's just John, what does he know?" Or, It's just John, must have been a lucky shot..." etc. It also shows up in my own critique of my own work. I'm too emotionally or intellectually bonded to it to view it without my own personal baggage. Have you ever done something and thought little of it, only to revisit it with the distance of time and see it in better light?
I really enjoyed this lecture and found it hugely inspirational, not just for the actual creative fisheye photography but for the ideas like taking your camera everywhere 😁 thanks!
Photographer1: Conventional-Rule-Abiding-Commoner with Trinity lens + 3 cameras and took 1 picture at a time.. (other photographers be like - "oh that's a good shot right there") Photographer2: Breaks all rules and didn't follow Banana1,2,3 and all other Bananas before them.. (ERR'BODY LOSES THEIR MINDS!!!) :D
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How do you process all that photos taken ninja style? Click, click, click, turn around, click, click...camera behind the back, click, click, click...change the angle, click, click!! Don't you end up with 500 pictures every ten minutes? How does that work? Do you deliver images in jpeg out of cam to your customers?
You can't see much from this video, even on 1080p. Unless he is shooting wide open these lenses have huge DOF; something like 1ft to infinity. Everything in most of these shots looks to be in focus from the little you can see. Please get your glasses checked and stop wearing flannel.
Oh Yeah. I forgot. Because having a huge DOF means that you don't have to focus properly. Thank you. I've used shoots, shoot at 14mm, FX, F2.8 that I could clearly see had missed focus. But I would never showcase them like this to other potential photographers. Missing focus by 0.5 meter is less an issue shooting UWA or fish eye, I know. But more than a few times, he clearly missed focus by way more than that.
Everything tends to be in focus at 15mm even at F2.8..... I shoot skateboarding with the Nikon 16mm 2.8 and I literally leave it on manual focus pushed to infinity just because everything is in focus (I shoot with flash so I never need to open up my lens more then F4..
Did you actually watch the video? / read my comment? I get that you have a huge dof. I get that MF'ing is perfectly fine, if your subject distance is not changing that much, and is a 2-10 meters. But even then, wether or not you nail focus is still visible. If you use Multi point AF-C and a point finds hard contrast in the background, and uses that as a focus point, your subject will be at the edge of your DOF, and WILL be out of focus. I realise that sharpness fall off as a function of distance from focus plane will change from lens to lens. Do you? Live shoot low light, 14mm FX F2.8, manual focus. Subject distances 1-10 meters, and I've dumped pictures because the focus was wrong on the small stage. on the drums instead of on the subject.
Man, I believed him in the first place, but then... I saw his pictures on his page... They're a solid 2/10... Totally noisy, out of focus, terrible chromatic aberration... And the composition isn't even good... Can't believe this guy has clients
hai man exilent demonstration i own the d800 and sigma 15mm 2.8 fisheye i love it it is wide, Sharp, fast and Extreme creative, what iso do you use on Your camera when using fisheye in lowlight sorrey for my bad inglish im norwegian
Practice first time I heard anyone say this...... I found until I know what I am going to get I could be wasting not only my time but others.....Practice makes perfect !!!!! cheers
It's all well and good to do the "fisheye 5" but when you aren't looking through the viewfinder, you can't cast your eye over the edge of the frame and as you can see with some of the photos at 17:00 minutes or so, the leading lines aren't symmetrical (like on the warf, if he just moved an inch to the right the hand rail of the warf would be at the exact corners of the fame and it would make the already great picture even better)
at 29:22, the guy stepped on her dress... after the kiss, she steps back, loses her balance and falls down and a few more unique shots are produced. but overall it was very interesting tutorial albeit old, thank you.
When he is on the floor, you can't see what he's doing with the camera. I think that is the most important thing we should know from his presentation. And it was omitted by shoddy recording.
If you are using a crop frame camera you really don't have the perspective of a fisheye. A 10mm on a crop gives the perspective of approximately a 15mm on a full frame. A 15mm on a crop gives the perspective of approximately 21mm on a full frame. Therefore, a 24mm on a FF would be close. Also, the 50mm on a crop gives the perspective of approximately 75 to 80mm lens on a FF. Interesting approach, however.
have the same fisheye lens that you talk about in the video 15mm sigma. My argument to you is that since you are using a crop sensor DSLR is the reason why your pictures are not as distorted as if the lens was used on a full frame body as it was actually meant for. Your suggestion that the fisheye is great for creativity you are giving a misconception to your audience about lens distortion on a fisheye. Had you actually used a full frame body your photos would have more obvious distortion.
I have the same fisheye lens that you talk about in the video 15mm sigma. My argument to you is that since you are using a crop sensor DSLR is the reason why your pictures are not as distorted as if the lens was used on a full frame body as it was actually meant for. Your suggestion that the fisheye is great for creativity you are giving a misconception to your audience about lens distortion on a fisheye. Had you actually used a full frame body your photos would have more obvious distortion.
I didn't like his approach i saw in the first minutes of his demonstration, so i just went through his website and there was not a single picture i really liked. As a matter of fact many of his photographs show an obvious lack of technique. I think he's really missing the point of good photography where you amaze people with the emotions YOU see through your lens instead of simply trying to capture EVERYTHING that happens around you.
why don't you try a helmet with google car cameras on it? then you'll certanly have all the possible angles and everything covered!! this is hideous, hilarious, despicable. especially when you browse ho's website and you find just a couple shots taken with fisheyes, and all the rest with "boring" ordinary lenses. i hate fisheye. so easy to amaze the watcher with a lens that shows itself the world in a way that's out of the normality. reason being noob gigs photogs love it! now you can hate me.
I recently picked up a used Nikkor 16mm fisheye. I shoot mostly musicians and I thought it would be something they would request a lot. Usually see people in my circle shoot regular lenses and add the "fisheye effect" later and I do not like it. This video will surely make me add my fisheye to my camera bag for regular shooting and not just "tricks." Question is, Do you ever use any correction programs, such as I have seen from Ken Rockwell, to correct the distortion?
