Ask The Pros!

Q. Is photography as fun as people say it is?
—Katrina

A. Katrina,
Absolutely! I get to travel to some of the most breathtaking places the world has to offer and see and capture images of extraordinary wildlife, landscapes and plants. The travels create tall tales that can be told to anyone willing to listen in any bar in any part of the world. I get to meet people from all walks of life and interact with them about a common passion that many people never get to feel, and I get to witness what Mother Nature provides every morning and every evening. With that said, there’s an incredible amount of work involved in becoming a professional photographer, and even more to stay in the eyes of your clients. However, if photography is what you truly love to do, then it’s not really work at all. It’s like waking up as a kid, and getting ready to go out and play with your friends—every day for the rest of your life.
—Jay Goodrich

Q. I was wondering if you knew of anything to protect my Canon Rebel XSi while outside in a storm from rain and maybe dirt or hail? Is there anything that would provide me flexibility and wouldn’t get in the way too much? Thanks!
—Nathan Edmiston

A. Nathan,
If you’re trying to shoot in heavy-rain conditions, only an underwater housing could really protect the camera sufficiently. There’s still going to be rainwater on the housing in front of your lens causing distortion, so I don’t know how well this would work. My strategy is simple, put the camera in my weatherproof backpack and wait it out. For intermittent showers, I carry a couple of motel shower caps that I quickly put on the lens to protect it. Exposing a camera to hail and a lot of blowing dirt is just not a good idea. My Canon EOS Mark III has a very tight construction to prevent water and dirt from entering. If shooting in this type of weather is important to you, you might consider one of those bodies.
—Tom Till

Q. I am off to Mt. Rushmore and Yellowstone this fall! Which two lenses would be best?
—Arthur Sullivan

A. Arthur,
Twenty years ago, I heard well-respected pro Boyd Norton answer a similar question. "If you can only carry three lenses" he said, "go for impact. Bring a 16mm fisheye, a 500mm telephoto and a 50mm macro." Fast-forward through 20 years of zoom-lens improvements, and my answer is slightly different. I’d bring my Canon 16-35mm ƒ/2.8L II, my Canon 70-200mm ƒ/4L IS and my Canon 50mm ƒ/2.5 compact macro. If forced to drop one, I’d reluctantly lose the 50mm macro, although it weighs only 10 ounces. Bear in mind I’m primarily a landscape shooter, and my lens choices reflect that fact. Photographing Yellowstone’s abundant wildlife probably will call for the longest telephoto you own. At Mt. Rushmore, you’ll probably put a variety of focal lengths to work: wider lenses for establishing shots, longer lenses for details.
—Glenn Randall

The view out of the tent from 20,000 feet on Aconcagua in Argentina. The temperature was -35° F and didn’t seem to hinder the camera at all.

Q. I'm looking for information or recomendations on cameras and equipment that can handle below-freezing or below-zero temperatures.
—James Chilcote

A. James,
In my experience shooting ice climbing, skiing and mountaineering in frigid conditions, all the way down to -40° F, I’ve found that modern digital SLRs do quite well, especially the pro models. When the temps are above 0º F, you’ll have no problems with most D-SLRs, save for the batteries not lasting as long as normal. Keep a spare battery with you in a warm pocket and trade them out every half-hour or so. The main problems you’ll run into below 0° F are keeping the batteries warm and the LCD from freezing, which can happen.

To overcome these issues, I usually tape a chemical hand warmer over the battery compartment—either on the bottom of the camera or on the grip. I try to keep it as far away from the back of the camera as possible since heat will increase the amount of noise produced by your imaging sensor. In super-cold environments (e.g., -20º and below), this is less of a concern. To keep the LCD from freezing, I occasionally warm it up by holding a hand warmer on the LCD. I don’t tape it onto the LCD because it would start to heat up the CMOS or CCD sensor. I’d also suggest going with one of the top-tier cameras from any manufacturer because they have better weather sealing, which should help in the cold.
—Michael Clark

Q. What would be the downside of using stacked circular polarizers for a poor man’s variable neutral-density filter? To my eye, it looks like it would work great! Any thoughts before I invest?
—George N. Koerber

A. George,
Yes, stacking the polarizers will work, but at a significant loss of clarity. The more layers of glass and coated surfaces you shoot through, the greater the degradation of the image. Whatever time and expense you’ve put into selecting a high-quality lens will be undone by this action. Your expensive lens is only as good as the glass you place in front of it. The variable neutral-density filters available today are very thin and of very high optical quality—hence, the high cost. A less expensive option is to buy two reasonably priced neutral-density filters (I suggest a 3-stop and a 5-stop) and use them one at a time. In a pinch, you could stack these two, but you’ll likely lose some quality.
—George Lepp

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18 Comments

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bucky mccamy makes this comment

Wednesday, 14 October 2009

without using a ladder how could i stand on the ground and take a picture 15 or so feet above ground.Like taking pictures of statues.Accessories like a stand to hold the camera and a way to snap the lens.
Melissa makes this comment

Friday, 04 September 2009

I am getting ready to buy a Canon 50d and a lense. I have a tight budget and can really only afford one lense for now. I am considering the 18-200mm although I have learned that the wider range reduces quality. Would I be better off to wait and save up the money to by multiple lenses? or would the 18-200 be fine for now? Is the quality with this lense good enough to produce marketable photos for magazines, calenders, ect?
picky makes this comment

Friday, 14 August 2009

So, the explanation of the cover photo of Delicate Arch in Arches National Park neglects to say that it was a double exposure. It mentions that it was shot with a 17-35mm lens, on film. However, with a wide-angle lens the moon would not even be remotely close to the size that it appears in the photo. A longer lens, at least a 300mm, was obviously used to shoot the moon. Also, the time of day is all wrong for the moon to appear in that position. It's the old full moon, double exposure on film technique. To achieve this, an entire roll of film is used up to shoot the full moon against the black night sky. Then, the film is re-loaded in the camera and the other photo is made. I'm rather disappointed that this publication has passed that photo off as a single exposure.
sean gleeson makes this comment

Monday, 27 July 2009

can you adjust the apeture for depth of field on a casio exilums880 camera thanks
Terry Bloom makes this comment

Wednesday, 22 July 2009

I went on vacation and shot everything in raw format. When I got home I am having trouble getting my pictures to download. Some of them seems to have been converted to jpeg and others are raw or thm files. Do I have to have special software to download the raw and thm files?
Michael Leitao makes this comment

Sunday, 12 July 2009

Hi, I am beginner and would like to study photography, i would like to purchase a profesional camera but need help in buying one. for the moment i dont have a big budget so would like to buy a camera which i could use for atleast 3-4 years to go. but at the same time would like to have the option in adding lens in order to upgrade my camera. I need help, please guide me through. Michael Leitao.
R. Nuport makes this comment

Wednesday, 08 July 2009

Greetings: Seeking expert opnion. 1. Technically, which is better... a. Lens IS ...Canon, Nikon ... or b. Sensor shift IS... Sony, Pentax ... 2. Is there a way to estimate approximate correlation of distance between full wide angle shot, and full zoom shot, to achieve at least one half full size shot with fully zoomed lens. Good example is the Ad Shot on inside cover of OP, of Tamron Lens at 18mm and 270mm. The zoomed shot pretty much what may be obtained at 10 feet or so. Thank you for your time and help in every particular. R. Nuport.
Christian Egeland makes this comment

Monday, 29 June 2009

I have made numerous trips to Alaska and cannot believe how blue the icebergs are. I understand they absorb all the colors except blue. Anyway, I have used everything from my old Pentax K1000, camcorders and most recently my Sony DSC-H2 digital camera with the same results. The pictures always lack the beautiful blue in the icebergs that the naked eye sees. What do the pros do to capture the blue and not just get almost all white?
Wayne makes this comment

Saturday, 27 June 2009

Hi, I have a EOS 40D with a variety of lenses. I no longer have a standard zoom as I gave it away with my rebel xt. I wanted advice on choices for replacement. I gravitate towards landscapes, city scapes and street portraiture and i wanted to upgrade to a fast lens. My choices as i see them are the EF-S 17-55, 17-40L, and the sigma and tamron equivalents. My challenge is I'm concerned As to whether the cost of the canon 17-55 is worth it considering it's apc format or should I get the 17-40L or even the sigma or tamron equivalents. Which do you recommend?
Brian makes this comment

Thursday, 25 June 2009

I am new to digital cameras. I have one question. How does one know when to use the right aperture settings in certain condition in daylight, hazy in the background, moving objects at night. I generally use f4 when there is low light & set the iso to 1000 depending on the conditions. In a setting my f stop f5.6, f11 & beyond in what situations would I use these higher f stop??. Would this be for getting more depth of field when shooting wildlife?. Thanks in adv.
blaze831 makes this comment

Tuesday, 23 June 2009

How do I downsize a 30MB image file to something less than 1MB for online submissions to photo contests without the image becoming totally pixelated? Thanks! Mark
captian roger makes this comment

Tuesday, 23 June 2009

what would be the best online photography class to take to become a pro ???
Stephen Ross makes this comment

Saturday, 20 June 2009

I use a Nikon D-200 with a Sigma 150mm macro, Nikkor 80-400 zoom and 24-80mm zoom. All three lenses have their smallest aperture at f-22. However, I have noticed numerous times that the camera display will often register f-stops from f-29 through even f-45 when I am scrolling the f-stop dial in Aperture mode. Am I actually getting those smaller f-stops registered by the camera when the shutter is activated or is the camera only registering f-22 set by the lens?
Maureen makes this comment

Thursday, 18 June 2009

Really good article. I enjoyed reading what the pros had to say.
Melissa makes this comment

Monday, 15 June 2009

I have Lightroom and ACDsee on my computer, I would like to know what applications to use to create a black/white photo with color accents. I cannot figure out how to layer and erase on this program. Is there a different program that would be better for this? Could someone give me step by step instructions on how to do this technique? Thanks in advance for the help.
Luther makes this comment

Sunday, 14 June 2009

Hi. I've been an Outdoor Photogpraher subscriber since 1987. I'm astonished by the problems I am having trying to locate a USGS topographical map of the Joshua Tree National Park. I get tons of commercial trail maps, "attraction" maps, etc, but cannot locate what I need: a USGS topographical map of the Joshua Tree National Monument, recently promoted to Joshua Tree National Park. Has greed really completely displaced service on the Web...? Any reasonable tips would be appreciated. I will be in the Joshua Tree park area July 3 for a couple of days, and would really like to nail a dynamite sunrise or sunset shot. Thanks for your help. By the way, I live about 1.5 miles from Art Wolfe. Thanks, Luther Martin
SilverWolf4445 makes this comment

Sunday, 14 June 2009

I want to start photographing the outdoors,but I need a camera that's low cost,good pictures,and great relability for landscapes.So what camera would best fit me?
gompfer makes this comment

Friday, 12 June 2009

Is post processing a necessity or an option. Can you shoot digital and get the shot you want without any post processing? I never hear anyone saying they don't post process. The challenge in slide film was to get the shot because you couldn't manipulate it. How much of that has gone to the way side because of the ability to post process? John

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