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The ability to compose in close quarters, stellar resolution, and fast focusing capabilities have made the Tamron 18-200mm Di II lens an irreplaceable add-on to Emily Wilson’s gear bag. |
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| AF18-200mm
F/3.5-6.3 XR Di II by Jennifer Gidman Zumpano |
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| Model: A014 | Angle of View: 75°-7° | Minimum Focus: 17.7 " | Macro Mag. Ratio: 1:3.7 | ||
| Filter Diameter: Ø62 | Weight: 14 oz. | Diameter
x Length: Ø2.9 x 3.3 in |
Mount: Canon-D, Konica Minolta-D, Nikon-D, Pentax | ||
Whether she’s shooting an offbeat country-rock
group, a field of surly bovine beasts, or a frame full of feet
(yes, feet), advertising and editorial photographer Emily Wilson
strives to accomplish her vision by getting her subjects as comfortable
as possible. “I really like ‘real-person portraits,’ nothing
too staged,” she explains. “It’s really important to get people
comfortable about the whole process. When people understand I’m
being real with them, then they can do the same.” |
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Also helping her achieve her often poignant (and sometimes quirky) photos: the Tamron 18-200mm XR Di II lens. “I started using this lens on assignment in January, and it’s a great lens,” she says. “I’ve always used fixed-focal-length lenses, so the 18-200 has really opened up a whole new way of seeing things for me.” |
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| The sharpness and image quality of the lens is one major factor that has propelled the 18-200 to the top of Wilson’s capture choices. “This lens is really spot-on,” she says. “If it’s not catching the focus I want, especially when it’s dark, I just can easily switch it to manual.” | |||||
Wilson put this quality to the test when an old friend commissioned her to shoot an unusual type of family portrait: a panorama of the whole clan’s feet. “She had called me with this idea while she was still pregnant, and then again about a year-and-half later,
Wilson says. “We planned it so everyone, even the baby, was wearing cuffed jeans, and I sat them all on a twin bed with a white sheet underneath them. We did a few different setups, and it was a little tough, because all the legs were different lengths!”
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But it was final result that most impressed Wilson. “The end image was really beautiful,” she says. “I cropped the top and bottom just a bit to get that panoramic feel, and then blew it up to about 30x40 and framed it so they could hang it over their bed. I was amazed at the quality—there were barely any pixels. It was great to see this idea we had talked about and envisioned finally come to life.”
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When Space Is an Issue… |
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The flexibility of the 18-200 helps Wilson hone her compositions without having to disrupt her station or her subjects. “This lens is so versatile,” she says. “If I don’t have a lot of room to move back in a set, I can still be in one place and change my composition really well without having to move back or ask people to change what they’re doing.” |
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| This versatility proved invaluable on the day that Wilson was tailing German pop star Jasmin Wagner around the Big Apple. “I was doing an assignment for a German magazine, a day of shopping with Jasmin,” says Wilson. “She just had this great energy about New York and was so happy to be there. We had a few minutes of free time, so I told her to walk on the curb—I’ll do that a lot, direct people and show them exactly what I mean! The 18-200 lens just put me right where I wanted to be compositionally. I came in a little bit, then pulled back, until I got what I felt was the perfect balance between her and her surroundings. She wasn’t overwhelmed by the buildings—the image was concentrating on her and her energy. To color that image, I used a plug-in for Photoshop called Alien Skin. I’m a big fan of the cool brown effect, it’s much nicer than a straight sepia.” |
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That
same zoom effect came in handy when Wilson photographed Venezuelan
culinary creator and mixologist Yvan Lemoine for Food Arts magazine. “Yvan was making a flaming drink, smoking mesquite wood chips and infusing it with Maker’s Mark,” she says. “I was fairly limited in space, so having that lens versatility to pull back was great. I was able to do a technique sequence of him making the drink, and I was able to pull out to get him making the drink and then zoom in to get just a shot of the glass itself, all without having to recomposition and reset. I don’t
know how the drink actually tasted, but it looked cool!” |
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Spur-of-the-moment
shots while on the road are no problem for the 18-200, either,
as Wilson determined while driving along the country roads outside
Athens, Georgia. “I was driving by when I saw this field of cows on the other side of the fence,” she says. “I was really drawn in by the mistiness of the day and the greenery. I did a series of shots, all to varying degrees using the zoom. The lens was what made them look like they were really close, but I was at a very safe distance. I was really happy I had the 18-200 with me, because any kind of fixed lens wouldn’t
have gotten that shot for me.” |
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All Together Now |
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Wilson
often is commissioned to shoot groups, and the Tamron 18-200 helps
her keep the focus on the players at hand while cutting out the
extraneous details. While shooting Oakley Hall, a country-rock
outfit from (of all places) Brooklyn, Wilson found that the 18-200
allowed her to get the whole group in the shot with minimal aggravation. “The lens really helped me in terms of spaces,” he says. “For that shot, I just had a medium softbox. I always drag the shutter just a little bit and get some other light sources in there. I actually did a version with just the window light. I bumped the ISO up and took the flash out of the camera to see what it would look like. For one ‘outtake,’ one of the guys picked up the plastic owl we had been using and spun it, and I quickly took the picture. I love photographs where everything seems perfect but there’s something that’s
just a little off!” |
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She
used the 18-200 to similar effect when shooting rock/electro-pop
group Supersystem “This was another example of me asking people to be in their environment, but doing something maybe they wouldn’t ordinarily do,” she explains. “I checked out the space the day before the shoot, and when I saw that weird wallpaper, I knew that was definitely the spot where I’d be shooting. The lens was great, because the whole scene around that backdrop was a really messy, lived-in loft—everything else around the shoot was chaos. You can’t
tell, though, because I was able to contain all that.”
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| For more information on Emily Wilson’s work, go to www.emilywilsonphotography.com. | |||||
Tip Box Keeping It Sharp “The 18-200 is very fast—it even keeps up with the kids I shoot!” says Wilson. “To keep pictures sharp, however, I think people need to use the focus area better in their digital cameras. When you don’t use it effectively, it cuts the focus off. You may think it’s too technical, but those red squares are there for a reason, so experiment with that focus area. The lens will keep up with you if you simply know how to use that function.” |
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