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André Costantini journeys to Japan with Tamron’s 17-50mm F/2.8 Di-II and 18-250mm F/3.5-6.3 Di-II Macro zoom lenses.
AF18-250mm F/3.5-6.3 Di-II / AF17-50mm F/2.8
by Andrew Darlow

New York-based photographer and artist André Costantini recently returned from a vacation trip to Japan. But the images he brought back are not your average travel snapshots. By looking at the work, it’s clear that Costantini treated this trip like any assignment that he has undertaken across the globe as a commercial shooter and photography instructor over the last decade. “Japan blends the old and new in fascinating ways, and it’s an ideal place to make pictures,” says Costantini.
Costantini’s trip brought him to the capital and business center of Japan–Tokyo, as well as to Kyoto, which contains a blend of cosmopolitan city life with the serenity of countless Buddhist Temples and Shinto Shrines. Along for the ride were his Nikon D200, as well as a number of Tamron lenses, including the Tamron 17-50mm F/2.8 XR Di-II and the Tamron 18-250mm F/3.5-6.3 AF Di-II Macro zoom. “With just the 18-250mm I was able to easily cover everything from wide angle festival shots to colorful close-ups of detailed objects without ever having to change a lens,” explains Costantini. “The 17-50mm, with its fast F/2.8 aperture expanded my options by allowing me to work handheld in low light without a tripod at ISO speeds of 200-400.”
He continues: “The 17-50mm, when used “wide open” (for example, at F/2.8) can capture very sharp detail and produce dramatic depth of field effects when focusing on specific areas of a scene. Similarly, the 18-250mm, when zoomed in to about 200mm at wider apertures, allows me to compress the scene and capture selectively focused images with a range of depth of field effects.”
One example of Costantini’s use of this technique with the Tamron 18-250mm is his photo of two schoolgirls framed with a Zen garden in Kyoto. It was shot at 220mm, F/6.3 at 1/200, and ISO 800. Another is the cat one below, photographed at Tokyo’s Asasuka Shrine. “Notice the cat selected has no whiskers,” Costantini comments. That image was captured at 250mm, F/6.3 at 1/80 and ISO 400. A third example of some letters, was shot at the lenses’ widest setting. It was shot at 18mm, F.4.5 and 1/125.

© André Costantini

 

© André Costantini

 

© André Costantini
You may be surprised that Costantini chose relatively high ISO settings for outdoor photography, but he explains how this can be a useful technique: “I generally recommend setting your digital camera to ISO 100 or 200, but many of today’s DSLR cameras can produce images with very low noise, even at ISO settings of 800 or 1600. You can use this to your advantage day or night because higher ISO levels allow more light into your camera, and this allows you to shoot at higher shutter speeds. And higher shutter speeds generally means sharper photos (especially when shooting hand held).”
Costantini highlights some of the other reasons why he brought the Tamron 18-250mm on his trip. "It’s very light and compact (just under a pound and 3.3 inches long in the closed position). I can walk around all day with it on my camera without having to change lenses, and without feeling weighed down. It also allows me to blend into the crowd because the lens is not very bulky.”
With regard to both lenses’ performance in bright light, Costantini had this to say: “Even when shooting into bright sun with both lenses, flare was very well controlled, and chromatic aberrations were virtually nonexistent. A good example of this was shot during the Asakusa Sanja Festival in Tokyo with the 18-250mm. In order to retain detail in the lantern and people, I allowed the background to blow out to pure white in many areas, yet I experienced no problems with flare or chromatic aberrations (even when not using the included lens hood). That being said, I recommend using the lens hood because it is very effective at reducing flare and improving contrast in your images. That festival image also demonstrates the edge-to-edge sharpness that the lens can produce, even at a very wide aperture. It was shot at F/4.5 at 1/60 and ISO 400.”
© André Costantini
André Costantini has returned from his journey to Japan, but Japan will stay with him for many years to come. “Japan is one of my favorite places in the world, and I look forward to ‘festival-hopping’ with my camera and lenses in other regions of the country in the not-too-distant future.”
About the writer: Andrew Darlow is the Editor of The Imaging Buffet online magazine and podcast. For more tips, interviews and reviews, visit his web site at www.imagingbuffet.com. His forthcoming new book, 301 Inkjet Tips and Techniques (published by Thomson/Course Technology), covers a wide range of printing topics.


Tip Box

Tip 1:
Improvise to get sharp images. In cases when you are not permitted to use a tripod, or if you just didn’t bring a tripod on your trip, I recommend using any surface that’s available to stabilize your camera. During this trip to Japan, I often used my camera bag as a support for my camera. Tables, chairs and cars can also work well. This enabled me to get a captivating angle of view because the bag was so close to the ground. I also recommend using your camera’s self timer mode to avoid the vibrations created by depressing the shutter release. Some cameras have two different durations before the shutter will activate (for example, three seconds and ten seconds). Using this approach, I was able to capture many tack-sharp images even at shutter speeds around two seconds.

Tip 2:
Adjust your ISO for the situation. Many of today’s DSLR cameras can produce quality, low-noise images at ISO settings of 400-1600 (in some cases, even 3200). This can be very helpful when shooting at longer focal lengths, such as 250mm because as you extend the lens barrel, you will almost always reduce stability when hand holding a lens. An example of a shot in this series with a relatively high ISO was photographed at Tokyo’s Asasuka shrine during the Sanja Festival. It was shot at 250mm, F/6.3 at 1/800, and ISO 800.

© André Costantini

Tip 3:
Find a spot and wait for the action to happen. It’s amazing how much variety and different emotions you can capture in a scene by setting up your camera on a tripod (or just holding it to your eye) and waiting for things to happen. This could be as simple as the light changing while shooting a landscape. An example of how waiting made a difference can be seen in the image below. I came across a brilliant red background that was set up for the Sanja festival at Asakusa Shrine in Tokyo, and stood in the same location for 10 minutes, shooting what came into my frame. The lens is the Tamron 18-250mm, shot at 78mm and F/5.6 at 1/320 and ISO 400.

© André Costantini

Tip 4:
Learn to control flare. If the sun is hitting your lens in a direct way, you generally won't get flare, and the two lenses I described throughout the article produce very little flare under the vast majority of shooting conditions. If the sun hits your lens at an angle, you will get more flare, and by intentionally keeping the lens hood off, you can increase flare effects, which can add a dramatic feel to your images.

Tip 5:
Compress the scene with a long lens focal length. By zooming into a scene with a fixed focal length long lens, or a zoom lens such as the Tamron 18-250mm, you can create a compressed look that can make your images look painterly and different from what our eyes normally see. I recommend trying this approach when shooting fields of flowers, and you can see this effect demonstrated in the image below, shot with the Tamron 18-250mm at 250mm and F/8 at 1/640 and ISO 320.

© André Costantini