Beyond Phototips

Here’s a post that many long term subscribers will remember. This post here is statistically the most popular post from when BeyondPhototips.com was a blogger.com hosted website. I hope you find it interesting.

Photo: Slagheap

by JanneM

Most of you have already seen the lenses that photographers use at sports events. You see them all the time, sitting at the sidelines at every sports event (the photographers with the lenses that is… not the lenses alone), with massive lenses perched atop tripods or monopods in almost any kind of weather…

I’ll be dealing with those lenses and the real reasons why photographers choose, and need, to use these lenses over other – not so big – lenses in 3 sections. Focal Length, Prime Vs Zoom lenses, and Aperture. An additional section on Image stabilisation is included.

Focal Length

by elyuyu

Outdoor sports events usually call for telephoto or super-telephoto lenses, more often Super-telephoto than plain telephoto. Super-telephoto lenses are generally lenses with a focal length of more than 300mm.

If you’ve ever tried photographing a soccer event you’ll know why these photographers use these lenses. A moderate telephoto lens of 70mm or 135mm will give you a rather wide view when photographing a player at the other side of the field and almost nothing if you’re photographing from near the opposite goal post.

Additionally, its usually difficult and/or dangerous to get too close to some of the action. Imagine having to sit 10 feet away from a racetrack to get frame-filling pictures of Formula 1 cars with a medium length telephoto lens! Both dangerous and impractical… also, you’d never get permission from the organisers!

600mm and 800mm lenses help magnify the players/drivers so that they fill up the frame and bring all the gritty action right up into the photograph. Also, if you want to capture the speed of the cars you can use a relatively slow shutter speed and pan your camera to blur the background; Impossible if you are too close…

Zoom Vs Prime Lenses

Sports photographers have to deal with a constantly changing environment. Very often incidents occur so fast that its not possible to change a lens. Zoom lenses are invaluable at these times. Imagine being able to frame a race-car 200 feet away one moment and the next swivel around to take a photograph of a car crash happening 30 feet away and then a portrait of a distressed driver as he walks past you, all without having to change your lens once! Sigma’s 50-500mm f/4-6.3 EX DG HSM Lens could enable you to do just that!

However, do keep in mind that super telephoto lenses are very specialised lenses and their optical design is very complicated. This is why you will find more prime lenses than zoom lenses at this end of the focal length spectrum. Prime lenses offer superior image quality to zoom lenses because they are designed optimally for a particular focal length while zoom lenses strive to offer decent quality at all focal lengths. Many fail in comparison with prime lenses.

Aperture

by hirevimaging

Capturing movement means that many times photographers will need shutter speeds that are upwards of 1/1000 sec. Most sports events are held in relatively well lit areas in the day, but at night, even the brightest floodlights are a poor substitute for the sun.

However, even in bright sunlight, it helps to use a large aperture to blur out the audience or scenery in the background and to keep the action alone in focus. This separation of the sports action from a cluttered background is one of the defining features of these lenses.

Also, lenses with larger apertures generally perform better at two levels:

1. They focus faster and more accurately.
2. They have a higher level of sharpness at their intermediate apertures.

Large apertures are even more important when it comes to indoor or night photography. Light levels are bound to be lower while the action is still at the same pace. Of course, you can compensate by increasing your ISO settings, but not everyone is willing to pay for the trade-off with higher noise levels. In this situation, larger apertures offer the sports photographer an added advantage of a brighter image in the viewfinder, thus making it easier to get better framing and composition.

Image Stabilisation & Vibration Reduction

Image Stabilisation and Vibration Reduction are Canon’s and Nikon’s terms for their proprietary shake and movement reduction technologies. Many of their lenses are now equipped with these technologies, making it inevitable that we take a look at them. I’ll use the term ‘Shake Reduction’ to refer to these technologies though I prefer the term “Image Stabilisation”.

Shake Reduction technology can mean the difference between a razor sharp and blurred picture at the same shutter speeds or the difference between the ability to hand-hold a lens for a photograph that would otherwise have to be tripod-mounted. Some older lenses of this genre do not perform well on tripods and instead introduce shake where there is none. Others have a panning mode for tripod mounted use and corrects shake only on one axis.

Shake Reduction does not fix all your shake problems; rather, it helps you increase your efficiency. If used well, it can be used to really push the limits of hand-held photography.

Wide-Angle Lenses

by ElectrikCandyland

Wide angle lenses are not practical for most sports applications. However, if you’re photographing a relatively low-impact sport (where damage to the photographer is ‘relatively’ low in a worst case scenario), say skateboarding or roller-blading for instance, you could use these lenses for great effects.

Here are some lens recommendations for Canon & Nikon cameras with links to their specs pages.

Canon

1. EF 600mm f/4L IS USM(stats)
2. EF 500mm f/4L IS USM (stats)
3. EF 400mm f/2.8L IS USM (stats)
4. EF 300mm f/2.8L IS USM (stats)
5. EF 100-400mm f4.5-5.6L IS USM (stats)

Nikon

1. AF-S NIKKOR 600mm f/4G ED VR Replacing the AF-S Nikkor 600mm f/4D ED-IF II(stats)
2. AF-S Nikkor 500mm f4D ED-IF II (stats)
3. AF-S Nikkor 400mm f/2.8D ED-IF II (stats)
4. AF-S VR Nikkor 300mm f/2.8G IF-ED (stats)
5. AF Zoom Nikkor 80-200mm f/2.8D ED (stats)
6. AF VR Zoom Nikkor 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6D ED (stats)

You can also find out more about lenses for different kinds of photography at The Lens Resource index post.

This is part of the Beyond Phototips Birthday Special Series. Go here to see all the posts so far.

Three weeks ago, my MacBook Pro crashed. It had seen a year of good service, and because it was my first ever Mac, I’d just about set it up to workexactly the way I wanted it to; and it crashed. The Apple service provider in my city said that the logic board had died, and they would fix it in a jiffy. The “Jiffy” turned into a 3 week ordeal that I will not describe here, but the Mac is back, and Oh! What a joy it is to have it back.

Photo: Mitra Mirshahidi

Now, this is not a Mac Vs. PC thing. What I’m trying to push here is customisation and familiarity of your equipment and how that affects the ways in which you use it.

You see, in those three weeks, I had to go back to my PC, running windows; a computer that I’d not used much in the last year, except to play a game or two. Now, I was forced to re-set it to work the way I wanted it to. And it was a pain. The pain of re-familiarisation and customisation.

Almost everyone has faced a similar issue some time. So, now pause to consider this from the perspective of your camera usage. 

Do you shoot in Manual exposure mode? Do you have a favourite lens? and on that lens, do you have a favourite aperture that you move to more naturally than others? Yes? I know that I do.

I have a favourite aperture: f/2.8 and focal-length: 24mm (so far). I have a favourite lens: the Canon 24-70mm f/2.8 L which suits that preference (and it may have had a serious influence on me towards forming that preference). And I shoot most often with aperture priority though I do shift to manual exposure when things get rough.

I guess what I’m saying is…

It pays to know your equipment

1. It pays to know where your equipment is good, and where it’s not so good. 
2. It pays to know what you like best from it, and how to set it up to get what you want withough much thought.
3. It pays to try out all the settings on your camera. You’ll discover features and capabilities that you never knew existed.
4. It pays to read the manual so that you know the heart of your camera just as well as you know it’s body.
5. It pays to buy equipment that you’ll love and use frequently. Don’t buy it because it was available at a great price. Buy it because you’ll love using it.
6. It pays to work out how to best set up your equipment. Do you prefer a tripod, or a monopod, or even a bean-bag…? Try them all out, and choose the one (or ones) that suit you best.
7. It pays to be open minded… and that’s the biggest one of all.

A UV Filter is an important part of every photographer’s kit. This may seem like a no-brainer to any sufficiently advanced photographer reading this post, but to the beginners: take note: this is a very important part of your equipment. Or should be.

Why Should you ‘Always’ use a Ultra Violet filter on your lens?

Because they protect your Photographs, your Lens, and your Investment in Photographic Equipment. UV filters primarily filter out the invisible UltraViolet light that causes ‘haze’ on film (and some dSLR sensors), but their broader list of purposes includes:

• Protecting your lens from dust and flying sand
• Protecting your lens from scratches (I’ve seen some bad scratches avoided because of this filter)
• Protecting your filter mount from getting bent
• Saving your lens by sacrificing itself (filters are housed in aluminium frames, these are soft and absorb impact well even though they’re not meant for this purpose)
• Preventing Sea Spray (and salt) from getting into the lens (for this purpose alone, buy a UV filter)

Some people say that a UV filter reduces the quality of the image that you take. They’re referring to an extremely high level of quality that is not required by most people on this planet. If you want to ensure that your image quality does not deteriorate, simply get a good quality filter and keep it clean.

Remember to get one for each lens that you have. When you’re out taking pictures, don’t take them off unless you absolutely have to.

Has a UV filter saved your equipment? Let us know in the comments.

Aff: UV Filters on Amazon

Camera equipment is sensitive to moisture, and dust. I’m going to deal with a couple of ways in which you can keep your equipment safe from high levels of humidity that could damage your lenses and certain parts of your camera body. We’ll deal with dust in a subsequent post.

Photo: ~jjjohn~

Why High Humidity is bad for your equipment

Fungus grows in between lens elements and under the lens coatings. Once it gets started, it is a pain to get rid of, and causes soft spots in your photographs, being the equivalent of having a fingerprint on your lens. This is one case in which the ‘prevention’ keeps the lens doctors away.

Fungus or Mould thrive in dark, humid places where there is little, or no movement of air (sound familiar? look at where you store your camera equipment). Very often camera equipment ends up in drawers, cupboards, or basements; all of which are dubious places to store them. Remember that keeping your camera in storage for too long is also a recipe for fungal (and mechanical) disaster. Lenses and cameras need to be kept in use and exposed to light and fresh air from time to time. A camera or lens that is used well, and stored correctly is most likely to see many years of successful picture-taking.

Lenses and camera equipment are optimally stored at a relative humidity (RH) of around 35% to 45%. A good rule of thumb to figure the optimal RH to store your equipment at, is to look at it’s optimal operating humidity range, and half it. For example, the Canon EOS 5D’s operating humidity range is 85% RH or lower, so a good indicative range to store it would be between 35 and 45% RH.

Humidity Range – Why Low Humidity is bad for your equipment

Remember, that you could also run into problems from keeping your RH levels too low. All camera lenses and bodies have a number of moving parts – gears, sliding thingies, and rolling thingies – and they’re all lubricated with a light machine oil. Keeping your RH too low could dry up that oil quicker than usual, making these parts wear out sooner, and work sluggishly. I also think that the rubber on the camera tends to harden quicker in dry air.

There also seems to be another kind of mould that affects camera equipment at very low RH levels; I’ve only come across this in one place, so I don’t have much info on that. If you have some information that you could add, please do leave it in the comments.

Photo: dawn_perry

Solutions

So what’s the solution? The cheapest option is to use your camera as frequently as possible; The exposure to light, especially UV light kills the fungus. While this is not a problem for active enthusiasts, those who store their cameras for any length of time need an alternative.

Alternative 1 – Sunlight / UV Radiation

Put your camera out in the sun from time to time. Remove the lens (or you could end up with a hole burnt in your shutter or some other part), filter, body, etc, and put them all out in sunlight for a while. If you manage to work this into your monthly camera care routine, you should be fine.

You could also try what some photographers do: use a UV lamp in their storage area. Why? Because prolonged exposure to UV (Ultra-Violet) radiation kills or retards fungal growth. Do remember to take your UV filters off if you decide to try this method out, because they are designed to keep UV rays out of your lenses. The lens coating blocks UV light too, to an extent.

Ok, so you’re exposing it to light on a regular basis, but what if you live in a region that is perpetually humid? See alternative 2 for an answer.

Alternative 2 – Dessicants

As always, there are the cheap options, and the expensive options. In either case, you’ll most likely need a Hygrometer so that you know what the relative humidity is, at any given time.

Cheap Option – Silica Gel

Silica-Gel is the cheap way out. It is a dessicant (something that de-humidifies the air in the vicinity of your camera equipment).

You can buy Silica Gel either as crystals, or sometimes as tiny spheres. Most often you find them in porous sachets so that they don’t disperse among your equipment. If you decide to go with Silica Gel for your cabinet, remember that you should get the indicative variety
. They are blue when they’re fully absorbent, white-ish when they’re partially full of moisture, and pink when they’re fully saturated. You can “Re-charge” your Silica Gel at this point.

You’ll need a container like the Dry Storage Silica Gel Dehumidifier to store it, yet create enough air-flow through the crystals. You’ll also generally need lots of silica gel. But remember that it lasts a long time, and needs no further investment.

Remember, that keeping saturated silica-gel in your camera storage could do you more harm than good by actually releasing more moisture into your storage.

Expensive Option – DeHumidifiers

As with everything, there has always got to be an expensive option. De-Humidifiers usually use mechanical means to reduce the relative humidity of the air around it. De-Humidifiers are usually quite effective, and can reduce the time you spend on modifying your camera’s environment, but they generally draw significant amounts of electricity.

You could also use your Air Conditioner to reduce the ambient humidity to a safe level for your camera equipment. This is because Air Conditioners dehumidify as they chill the air, leaving a comfortable storage humidity for lenses and cameras.

Photo: Matthew Fang

Summary

To wrap up, remember that the best maintenance/fungus prevention plan for your camera involves your regular use of the equipment. Regular use keeps the lenses and camera body aerated and exposed to sunlight, thus killing fungus.

If you dont use your camera often, make sure that it is stored in a well ventilated area with an ambient humidity range of 35%-45% RH. Also remember to take it out often and expose it to sunlight.

If you live in a humid part of the world, you could try one of the other two options mentioned above: Chemical Dessicants or De-Humidifiers.

If you have had experience with fungus and humidity affecting your camera equipment, and have found an alternate solution to those mentioned above, please do leave a comment so that our readers may benefit from your experience.

EDIT: I recently came across these two very interesting articles on Amazon.com. I’m going to be investigating their potential use in photo equipment storage, but here you go anyway.

• Adorama VacuPac Dry Box, Small (3.5 lit.) with Built-in Hygrometer
• Adorama VacuPac Dry Box, Large (11.5 lit.) with Built-in Hygrometer

Have you experienced a Polarizing filter? If you have not, I seriously recommend trying one today.

Yesterday I was contemplating stuff … you know, looking through my memory bank of photographic experiences, when I suddenly stumbled upon a gem! The first time I looked through a telephoto lens with a polarizing filter at the other end … MAGIC! The world was different; the sky was a darker shade of blue, the leaves were a richer green and wonder of wonders, the lake surface I was looking at was clear! That was my first Pola-Magic moment.

Photo by: Aidan Wojtas

The second was a bit more ‘impersonal.’ It didn’t happen to me in person. But that didn’t take away any of the magic. It was on TV. Discovery channel, I believe, and I was watching a program about wildlife. The image on the screen was that of a dolphin (or maybe it was a shark or a killer-whale, I got lost in the magic and forgot what exactly they were following) and it seemed like it was being photographed by some new kind of underwater camera until suddenly it broke the surface to breathe and I noticed that splashes of white foam broke to the sides of the animal. It was magic!

Here I was, thinking for all this time that the animal was being followed by an under-water camera when in fact it was being shot by a cameraman in the air, suspended a couple of hundred feet above the animal (yes, I know its stupid not to recognise the angle of the shot, but did I mention Magic?). The photographers themselves were talking about the magic of the moment, and then the magic was revealed. They were using a polarizing filter on the camera. My second Pola-Magic moment.

Pola-Magic Secrets

Now, there’s something else that I have to mention about polarizing filters, but that involves a bit of a technical discussion about how polarising filters work in the first place. I assure you, it will be to the point and will help you with your experiments with Polarizing filters.

When light from the sun strikes an object, it is naturally polarized. All the rays come from the same source, and as a result the waves are oscillating along the same axis. Now, when they strike an object, the rays scatter, shifting the plane of the waves and scattering light. Polarizing filters work by allowing only light waves that are oscillating on one particular plane to pass through. This means that reflections are naturally removed, because reflections are formed by light rays reflecting off a different surface – and therefore, have a different light ’source’ – and most likely have a different axis of oscillation.

Photo by: neofob

How to use them

Polarizing filters come in two types… Linear and Circular. The linear kind was given up with the advent of auto-focus cameras because of the way that the AF in the cameras worked. The circular polarizer is designed to work with AF mechanisms and still let you have great Pola-Magic moments. They’re neutral filters in the sense that they don’t add any colouring to the image. When used correctly, they increase the saturation and vividness of the colours in your frame, clouds in the sky are better defined, leaves are a richer green and just about everything looks nicer.

Here are some tips to help you when using a polarizing filter:

1. A polarizing filter is a very interactive one. It’s not one that you just screw on and forget about. You need to keep adjusting it to get the best results.
2. Polarizing filters don’t work very well with wide-angle lenses. They tend to darken only certain parts of the sky and leave other parts bright. This could leave you with a patchy sky. Not a good thing, unless you like it that way.
3. Polarizing filters will not remove reflections from mirrors or reduce reflections on metallic surfaces.
4. A polarizing filter is made of two parts. A screw-in mount to attach it to your lens, and a filter housing that is firmly – yet freely turning – attached to the screw-in mount.
5. When using the polarizing filter, first compose the frame as you want it.
6. Turn the filter once you’ve composed the frame until you get the desired polarizing effect. It is most effective at 90 degree angle to the sun.
7. Remember that a polarizing filter typically reduces the amount of light that goes through it by around two f-stops. This makes it a bad idea to use it in dimly lit situations. It also means that if you’re using a camera that does not have Through The Lens metering (TTL), you’ll have to open up by roughly two f-stops. This is a number that you’ll have to arrive at by trial and error.

Find Polarizing filters on Amazon.com. Or, if you have one in your bag, get it out and start shooting!

Do you have some other tips about polarising filters that you would like to share? Do leave a comment or mail me.

The new Canon EOS 5D mkII

You can tell that I’m excited, can’t you? Canon’s gone on a rampage and released some cameras that are truly brilliant. The recent EOS 50D, and now this… The Canon EOS 5D mkII. To avoid looking like a Canon loony (which I’m sure I must look like to some), I’m just going to list some of the cool features, and link to the press release and an in-depth preview of the camera.

• 21 megapixel CMOS sensor (very similar to the sensor in the EOS-1Ds Mark III)
• ISO 100 – 6400 calibrated range, ISO 50 – 25600 expansion (1Ds Mark III & 5D max ISO 3200)
• 3.9 frames per second continuous shooting
• RAW and SRAW1 (10 MP) / SRAW2 (5 MP)
• AF microadjustment (up to 20 lenses individually)
• Three custom modes on command dial, Creative Auto mode
• 3.0” 920,000 dot LCD monitor with ‘Clear View’ cover / coatings, 170° viewing angle
• Automatic LCD brightness adjustment (ambient light sensor)
• Live view with three mode auto-focus
• Movie recording in live view (1080p H.264 up to 12 minutes, VGA H.264 up to 24 mins per clip)
• Full audio support
• New 1800 mAh battery with improved battery information
• New optional WFT-E4 WiFi / LAN / USB vertical grip
• Water resistance: 10 mm rain in 3 minutes

Pre-order the 5D Mark 2 on Amazon.com
Full Tech Specs – dpreview

Camera Preview – dpreview

Canon Press Release

Ok… Enough drool… We’ll be back with some photography posts real soon.