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 2024-08-04 09:09:02

This month, letâs focus on shooting into the light and explore some unexpected and creative approaches to incorporating backlighting in the frame.

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In contrast to focal lengths, focal distances are related not to the principal planes but rather to the vertex points of lenses (not caring about a housing, which may be further extended). The front focal distance is thus the distance between front focal point and the entrance surface of the optics, while the back focal distance is the distance between the back surface and the back focal point.

Laserton offers various types of lenses, including plano-convex, plano-concave, double convex, double concave, meniscus, ball, achromatic and cylindrical lenses.

Unfortunately, the terms are also used differently by other authors. For example, it happens that a focal distance is assumed to be the same as a focal length. Therefore, some product catalogs specify focal lengths, which should actually be called focal distances, and in addition the effective focal length.

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Our spherical lenses are widely used in a variety of industrial and detection cameras, microscopic objectives, spectral imaging, machine vision, infrared night vision and sensing, thermal imaging, environmental protection and biology. Lenses can be equipped with anti-reflective coatings, HR coatings and metallic mirror coatings, dielectric films and spectroscopic films.

A common (but not universally used) approach for the definition of focal lengths of extended systems is based on geometrical optics. For finding the front focal point, one calculates rays which are horizontal on the back side (see Figure 2), using the paraxial approximation. The optical system is considered as a “black box”, where one does not care about the actual ray paths; instead, one works with internal rays which are extrapolated from the outer rays. Based on those extrapolated rays, one can define the front principal plane (or first principal plane). The front focal length is then the distance between the front focal point (in the front focal plane) and the front principal plane (see Figure 2). Some authors define the focal length to be negative in the situation of Figure 2 because the focal point is located before the front principal plane; others take the absolute value.

AMS Technologies offers a wide range of optical lenses manufactured from high-quality optical glass, but also crystals and other optical materials:

where it is assumed that the beam radius at the focus is much smaller than the initial beam radius <$w_0$>. (This condition is violated for beams with a too small incident radius; the focus is then larger than according to the given equation.) Also, it is assumed that the beam radius is significantly larger than the wavelength <$\lambda$>, so that the paraxial approximation is valid.

For an optical system, which may consist of multiple lenses and other optical elements, the above definition of the focal length cannot be used, as it is not clear a priori for an extended system where to measure the distance to the focus: from the entrance into the optical system, from the exit, the middle, or some other position? In principle, an arbitrary definition of a reference point (e.g. the entrance or the middle) could be used, but that would in general mean that some common rules can not be applied, which e.g. hold for the radius of the beam waist at a focus behind some lens with a given focal length (see below), or the possible magnification of a telescope containing that optical system.

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One may eliminate chromatic aberrations altogether by using optical systems with mirrors only. A curved mirror with radius of curvature <$R$> has a focal length <$f = R / 2$> (for normal incidence), determined only by the geometry and thus independent of the wavelength. On the other hand, for non-normal incidence the focal length in the tangential direction is decreased by the cosine of the angle of incidence, and increased by the inverse cosine of that angle in the sagittal direction. Therefore, such mirrors can introduce astigmatism.

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The curvature radii are taken as positive values for convex surfaces and negative for concave surfaces. Positive results are obtained for focusing lenses, negative results for defocusing lenses. The last term is relevant only for thick lenses with substantial curvature on both sides. The formula delivers the focal length within the paraxial approximation, not considering spherical aberrations, for example.

Different sign conventions for focal lengths are used in the literature. For example, one may have a negative front focal length if the front focal point lies before the front principal plane. Obviously, any equations involving focal lengths should be used with the assumed sign conventions.

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We typically think of backlighting as coming in at an angle roughly perpendicular to the ground — that is, at eye-level. Remember, however, that backlighting by definition occurs whenever there is a subject between you and your light source. By working your angles, you can find backlighting virtually anywhere and at any time of day. Think about where you need to position yourself to shoot directly into the light, then place (or look for) a subject between yourself and that light source. Is your light source directly overhead? Then get down low and shoot up into it. For example, you might lay beneath a tree at high noon and shoot upward as the light penetrates the leaves and sets the vibrant fall foliage ablaze with color. Sometimes, of course, the best perspective is just a matter of crouching down and/or shooting at slight upward angle.

Translucence is a quality somewhere in between opaque and transparent, which means that some light can penetrate and pass through the subject. When you place a subject with translucent qualities between your light source and yourself, the object positively glows, and colors become very bright and richly saturated. Stained glass, colored plastics, thin textiles (such as cloth and paper), liquids, and gemstones are all highly translucent. Foliage, flowers, and many foods also have translucent qualities; think of the way a peeled orange, thin slice of cheese, or leaf of lettuce would be set vibrantly aglow if placed on a light box. Even skin has translucence, as we can see in the way ears glow crimson when backlit or nostrils glow when lit from beneath.

Low-loss ion-beam-sputtered anti-reflection (AR) coatings with reflectivity less than 0.1% per surface and low-absorption high reflector mirror coatings are available on PPD lenses or can be applied to customer supplied substrates. PPD uses only IBS thin film deposition technology because it is a repeatable process which results in coatings that are durable, stable and easy to clean.

When you shoot into the light, your perspective may permit light to wash over the plane of your lens and significantly reduce image clarity. You can mitigate this haze — also known as veiling flare — by putting on a lens hood, cupping your hand around the lens, or adjusting your angle; often you need only to slightly change your position or tilt the plane of your lens. Instead of avoiding it, however, incorporate the light spill over deliberately. How can you use the reduced contrast and sunwashed obscurity? Does it lend a dreaminess, nostalgia, or even mystery that might enhance the story youâre shooting?

Documentary photography examples

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For some applications, in particular for focusing of imaging systems, it is essential than the focal length of an optical system can be fine adjusted. The following physical principles can be used:

A lens with a given focal length <$f$> (taken as positive in the case of a focusing lens) creates a radially varying phase delay for a laser beam according to the following equation:

The explained definition delivers a focal length which can also be used in equations for the size of the focus (see below), for example.

Sarah Wilkerson is the CEO of Click & Company and also provides mentoring services, teaches advanced Click Photo School courses on composition & creativity, and authors the âWhy It Worksâ series in CLICK magazine. She specializes in low light photography, everyday documentary, and tilt-shift work. A former attorney and Duke graduate, Sarah resides in northern Virginia with her Army JAG husband, four children, and three dogs.

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NOTE: For this exercise, you’ll want to set your camera to spot metering and manual exposure (or use exposure compensation).

The focal distance should also not be confused with the working distance, which is the distance between a specimen and the lens housing. Note that a specimen is not necessarily placed in the focal plane, e.g. when the input light to an objective is not collimated.

Silhouettes showcase only the outline of the selected element, with little to no interior detail apparent. As a result, subjects are rendered in anonymity, and human figures often all look similar. Add further visual interest to your silhouetted subjects by identifying elements whose silhouettes are unusual but still recognizable, seeking out striking patterns, or watching for opportunities to incorporate compelling body language: the way limbs are held, bodies lean, or heads are oriented. An additional, particularly powerful way to utilize silhouettes is to incorporate them in the context of an environment or supporting elements that do have some dimension and interior detail,s such as illuminated foreground or background elements; this brings layers of depth to an otherwise two-dimensional within the frame.

EKSMA Optics offers standard plano-convex, plano-concave, biconvex, biconcave, cylindrical lenses and lens kits made of BK7, UVFS or CaF2 optical materials. EKSMA Optics also has an extensive experience in manufacturing of custom optical lenses from a variety of other optical materials. Lenses of custom design can be produced in our CNC lens polishing facility and later coated for your application.

The Model 02-014-1 is an air spaced, computer designed multi-element lens that is diffraction-limited when used with fibers having core diameters as large as 1200 microns. Operational wavelength is 1064 nm. The 02-014 reimages the emitting surface of the fiber with a 0.67× demagnification. Focused spot sizes are significantly smaller than those achievable with single-element lenses used in a similar collimating/focusing configuration. All optical elements are fabricated from high laser-damage resistant glasses and are anti-reflection coated to reduce reflectance per surface to 0.13%. The working distance between the lens and the target is sufficiently large to allow use of a gas nozzle to enhance the cutting or welding process and to prevent debris from depositing on the lens surface.

Ordinary lenses, working on the basis of refraction, have a focal length which is slightly wavelength-dependent due to the wavelength dependence of the refractive index (–> chromatic dispersion). This effect leads to chromatic aberrations of imaging systems and similar problems in other applications where an optical system is used for a wide range of optical wavelengths. Lens combinations (e.g., objectives for photographic cameras) can be designed such that chromatic aberrations are minimized. Most common is the use of achromatic doublets, i.e., lenses consisting of two different glass materials chosen such that the overall chromatic aberrations are largely canceled.

While shooting into the light typically involves placing a subject between the light source and the camera, you can also obtain interesting and beautiful results by allowing the light to be your subject altogether. Examples might including shooting closed down for a starburst, shooting wide open or out of focus for beautiful bokeh, photographing rays of light or sunbeams scattering through fog or haze, or simply shooting interesting light sources themselves, such as a lamp, streetlight, or illuminated sign.

A mirror with a curvature radius <$R$> of the surface has a focal length <$f = R / 2$>, if the beam axis is normal to the mirror surface. (We take positive signs for concave curvatures and focusing mirrors.) If there is some non-zero angle <$\theta$> between the beam axis and the normal direction, the focal length is <$f_{\tan} = (R / 2) \cdot \cos \theta$> in the tangential direction (i.e., within the plane of incidence) and <$f_{sag} = (R / 2) / \cos \theta$> in the sagittal direction.

Haze can also appear in the atmosphere itself, a phenomenon irrespective of lens angle. In this scenario, light becomes diffused as it is scattered on particles of dust, sand, smog, smoke, or fog. Shooting into light shining through atmospheric haze can add rich mood and depth to your scene as the light recedes behind the subject.

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For a focusing lens, this means a reduced phase delay for increasing <$r$> coordinate. Note that there are different sign conventions in wave optics, where a phase delay can correspond to a positive or negative change of a phasor (complex amplitude).

OPTOMAN's AR-coated lenses are optimized for high laser power applications. These lenses can be used for intracavity, multi-kW CW, and ultrafast pulse applications. Sputtered anti-reflective coatings feature reflectance per surface down to R < 0.01%.

Curved laser mirrors usually have a curvature radius somewhere between 10 mm and 5 m. The fabrication of dielectric mirror coatings can be more difficult for very strongly curved mirror substrates, but with refined techniques it is possible to reach focal lengths of only a few millimeters, as required for some miniature lasers.

Rim, or edge, lighting appears as a very bright highlight that wraps around the outer contours of a subject. You can achieve the most dramatic rim lighting when the light source is very strong and your subject is set against a very dark background. Your perspective makes all the difference here as you move left, right, up, or down to find a viewpoint in which the area directly behind the subject is dark. This typically involves shooting from a position in which the subject is just below or adjacent to the direct stream of strong backlighting; a tree trunk, wall, deep shade, background building / treeline, or simply shooting from an angle that places the subject below the horizon line can do the trick here. Unlike photographing silhouettes, the key is simply to avoid shooting the subject against an overwhelmingly bright background (such as the sky). Because of the high contrast between the dark background and intense rim lighting, these particular images tend to convert beautifully to black and white as well.

When you begin your photography journey, a common and effective piece of advice is to keep the light at your back when shooting.By keeping your camera between your subject and the light source, you are shooting in the same direction the light is shining, and if your subject is facing you, the light illuminates the subject from the front. If, however, you turn around and shoot a subject that is between you and the light source, now you are shooting INTO the light; if your subject is facing you in this scenario, the light illuminates the subject from the back. This is backlighting, and while it can be a little tricky for beginners (and your cameraâs auto settings!), itâs a favorite technique of many photographers because of the magical halo it produces as the light wraps around the subject from behind.

Note that the lens equation applies for rays, assuming that the paraxial approximation is valid, i.e., all angles relative to the beam axis remain small.

where <$a$> is the distance from the original focus to the lens. This shows that <$b \approx f$> if <$a \gg f$>, but <$b > f$> otherwise. That relation can be intuitively understood: a focusing power <$1 / a$> would be required to collimate the incident beam (i.e. to remove its beam divergence), so that only a focusing power <$1 / f - 1 / a$> is left for focusing.

Fill lightexample

Edmund Optics offers the world’s largest inventory of off-the-shelf optical components, which includes an extensive selection of stock optical lenses such as achromatic lenses or aspheric lenses. Many of Edmund Optics’ lenses are offered with a variety of coating options for the ultraviolet (UV), visible, or infrared (IR) spectrum.

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What’s the best way to improve your photography? Shoot thoughtfully and frequently! Try new things and embrace creative and technical challenges.

Similarly, one can define the back focal plane (or second focal plane) and back principal plane (or second principal plane), where horizontal rays occur on the left side, while on the right side one has converging rays for a focusing system and diverging rays for a defocusing system. If the refractive index is the same on the input and output side (e.g. ≈1 for air), the front focal length and back focal length are identical (apart from possible sign differences used by some authors) and can thus simply called the focal length. The two principal planes, however, generally do not coincide for thick lenses, and they can even lie outside a lens.

Artifex Engineering offers customised optical lenses such as achromatic or cylindrical lenses for almost any application in the UV to IR spectrum. Special requirements such as segmenting and black painted edges can be made on request. Visit our product page for more information. We look forward to your inquiry.

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Side lighting examples

Whether this rule can also be applied to an extended optical system with focal length <$f$> depends on the applied definition of <$f$>. It is useful to specify an effective focal length which is valid for such relations.

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Examplesof backlightingin film

For a defocusing system, the front focal plane can be located on the output side; it contains a virtual focal point. Again, the focal length is the distance between principal plane and focal plane.

Knight Optical has an extensive lens portfolio which are suitable for a variety of applications. Our stock lenses included aspheric, achromatic doublet, ball & half ball, biconvex, cylindrical, condenser, Fresnel, planoconcave/convex, plastic and rod lenses. Knight Optical also offers custom lenses if our stock optics do not meet our customer’s requirements.

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Considerable confusion arises from the fact that in the context of photo cameras the term effective focal length is also used with an entirely different meaning, as explained in the following.

Note that the locations of the left and right edges of the optical system (e.g. positions of outer lens surfaces, optical windows etc.) or its housing are not relevant for those definitions.

Curved mirrors are often used for focusing or defocusing light. For example, within laser resonators curved laser mirrors with dielectric coatings are more commonly used than lenses, mainly because they introduce lower losses.

If a divergent (rather than collimated) beam hits a focusing lens, the distance <$b$> from the lens to the focus becomes larger than <$f$> (Figure 2). The lens equation states that

The equation shows that what determines the minimum possible beam radius is not the focal length <$f$> alone, but rather the ratio of <$f$> to the radius of the open aperture of the lens, which sets a maximum to the input beam radius <$w_0$>. For a focusing or collimation lens, that ratio is essentially the numerical aperture of the lens.

The angle of view of the camera is determined by the ratio of the image size on the film and the focal length. Film-based cameras have for a long time mostly used 35-mm film (also called 135 film according to ISO Standard 1007), where the image size on the film is typically 36 mm × 24 mm. (The width of the film spool is 35 mm, somewhat larger than 24 mm, as the picture does not extend to the edges of the spool.) A standard objective then has a focal length of 50 mm. However, modern digital cameras (particularly the more compact ones) often contain image sensors which are smaller than 36 mm × 24 mm, so that an objective lens with a correspondingly smaller focal length (e.g. 32 mm instead of 50 mm) is required for obtaining the same field of view. As many photographers are still used to the previously valid relation between focal length and angle of view, it has become common to specify the effective focal length of an objective of a digital camera as that focal length which would give the same angle of view in combination with ordinary 35-mm film. For example, an objective with a true focal length of 32 mm may then be said to have an effective focal length of 50 mm and thus function as a standard objective, rather than e.g. a macro or tele objective.

Experiment with shooting into the light, trying with the tips above to produce images that take you beyond the way you might normally seek out or shoot backlit subjects and backlighting itself.

When the sun is low in the sky, the light rakes across the landscape and presents warm directional lighting that evenly illuminates the subject, shining directly on the face or wrapping around the back of the body. However, the Golden Hour is not your only opportunity to work with backlighting. Think about other sources of light that, like sunlight at dusk and dawn, come in around eye level. Window and doorway light, for example, provide backlighting opportunities anytime the light is streaming through them. And donât limit yourself to shooting only natural light streaming indoors through a window; you can also work with door and window backlighting at night, shooting from a dark position into an illuminated interior. Similarly, you might try working with nontraditional illumination, shooting directly into the light as a subject stands in front of car headlights, an open fridge, or computer monitor.

Backlightingphotography

PPD manufactures custom, high precision optical components including spherical lenses, lens assemblies and spherical mirror substrates for imaging, machine vision and high energy laser applications from the ultraviolet (UV) through the near-infrared (NIR). Coated and uncoated optics are available from 2 mm to 8” in diameter and in a wide range of materials including fused silica, infrasil, N-BK7, YAG, SF11 and other high index glasses. If your radius of curvature is not yet determined, contact us for information on existing fabrication tooling and test plates, or send us your design specifications for a fully custom lens or mirror quotation.

The formula ignores the constant part of the optical phase change as well as optical aberrations. Note that depending on the function of the lens – for example, focusing collimated input beams or refocusing divergent light –, higher-order terms in the phase profile may be required to avoid optical aberrations.

The following equation allows one to calculate the dioptric power and thus the focal length of lens made of a material with refractive index <$n$> and with curvature radii <$R_1$> and <$R_2$> on the two surfaces:

Front lighting examples

If a collimated Gaussian beam with beam radius <$w_0$> hits a focusing lens with focal length <$f$>, the beam radius of the beam waist (focus) after the lens can be calculated with the equation

The dioptric power (also called focusing power) of a lens is defined as the inverse of the effective focal length (which is the same is the front and back focal length if the median on both sides of the optics is the same). This means that a strongly focusing lens has a small focal length, but a large dioptric power. For prescription glasses, it is common the specify the dioptric power, whereas the focal length is specified for standard lenses, microscope objectives, and photographic objectives.

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Ecoptik produces a wide range of spherical lenses of different types (including meniscus lenses, half ball lenses, custom hyper-hemisphere lenses and achromatic lenses). We are happy to produce custom lenses of many types.

Various types of optical systems (e.g. microscope objectives and curved laser mirrors) can focus or defocus light, and the focal length is used for quantifying such effects. The simplest case is that of a thin focusing lens (Figure 1a). If a sufficiently large collimated beam of light is incident on the lens, the beam will be focused, and the focal length is the distance from the lens to that focus (assuming that the lens is surrounded by vacuum or air, not by some dense substance with a significant refractive index). For a defocusing lens (Figure 1b), the focal length is the distance from the lens to the virtual focus (indicated by the dashed lines), taken as a negative value. Some authors use different sign conventions, however, in particularly concerning the front and back focal length (see below).

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