Getting close

In the '70s and early '80s, zoom lenses were still a relatively new technology. There were basically two categories of zooms available: good and very expensive, or bad and still expensive. Today, there is a wide range of zoom lenses in every quality and price range.

During the last three decades, lens design technology has made things much easier for those who want to take close-up photographs but don't want to be, literally, in their subject's face. The quality of lenses has improved dramatically, and design improvements can now be introduced in a very short time. With a new zoom lens, you can stay at a comfortable distance, for you and your subject, and get as close as you want by turning a ring on the lens. It’s the best of both worlds.

If you take most of your photographs indoors or at relatively close range, you should probably have a "short" zoom in the35-70mm, 28-85mm, or even 28-105mm range. If you shoot primarily outdoors or at longer distances, get a "long" zoom in the 70-210mm – 80-200mm range and above.

Holiday pictures

If you're planning to shoot some pictures outside, bring a ziplock bag that is big enough to fit your camera and lens. Place your cold equipment in the bag before you come inside where it's warm, and you’ll avoid a potentially expensive problem by keeping moisture away from your camera. Leave them in the bag until they warm up, and then you're safe!

Here are a couple of things to remember when setting up two kinds of pictures that seem to prevail at the holidays: the "groupshot" and the "shot in front of the tree."

Flash range comes into play when you move back to ensure everyone is included in the group shot. A built-in type of flash has a maximum effective range of about 15 feet. Pay attention to the distance settings on your lens so that you don't exceed the range and end up with dark pictures. You might also try an accessory flash, as they can have two to three times the range of their smaller built-in counterparts.

The lens you choose will profoundly affect a photograph in front of the tree. A wide-angle lens will make the tree look smaller and push it into the background. Stepping back and using a short telephoto (70mm or so) lens will make the tree look larger and closer to your subject. Use the latter technique to fill the background with the tree.

In addition, lights on the tree and the color balance of print films pose problems. Using a flash of any kind tends to overpower the tree lights, making them appear to be off. But shooting without a flash will make your picture look yellow or orange due to the color balance mismatch between your film and the lights on the tree (a color temperature of 3200k for the lights and 5600k for the film). Fortunately, both of these problems can be solved with one remedy. Use an 80a filter and shoot fast film without a flash. Not using the flash lets the lights show through, and the 80a filter compensates for the color temperature difference.

Transporting equipment

Too often people leave their equipment at home because it's just so much easier. The camera feels heavy. The lenses, flashes, and assorted accessories are mixed together in your bag making it a hassle to change configurations.

To make the camera feel lighter, get a wide, springy strap made of neoprene. The weight of the camera will be better distributed and the material will reduce the shock to your shoulder. You'll notice the difference with every step.

Most likely you bought your camera bag with your camera, and many items have been added to the bag since then. Look for a new bag that has a dedicated spot for each of the things that you need to carry with you. You should also get a neoprene strap for your bag. These bag straps are a little wider and stronger than the camera straps.

Shutter speed

The slowest shutter speed that you can reasonably use varies based on the lens you are using. If you are using a long telephoto lens, even the slightest vibration is greatly magnified. A wide-angle lens is more forgiving.

As a rule of thumb for setting speed for a handheld photo, minimum speed should be whichever is greater, 1/60th of a second or the shutter speed which most closely matches the focal length of your lens. For example, if your focal length is 35mm, your minimum handheld shutter speed should be 1/60th. If your focal length is 200mm, your minimum speed should be 1/250th. A focal length of 500mm should have a shutter speed of 1/500th, etc. If you use a speed that is slower than these recommendations your image will not likely be as sharp as it could be.

Taking pictures in the snow

Since snow is bright white, the instinctive thing to do is reduce your exposure to compensate. However, you should actually increase your exposure. Here's why: bright white snow fools your camera into reducing the exposure. If you reduce it even more, you'll end up with a dark, muddy picture, gray snow, and a silhouetted subject. Reverse the camera's compensation by increasing your exposure by one, two, or three stops, and you'll get white snow and a well-exposed subject. It will take a little practice to get just the right amount of increased exposure, but if you live where it's cold and snowy, it's well worth it!

Shooting the Aurora Borealis

One of the most beautiful northern sights is the Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis). They are amazing veils of ever-changing colored light, shape shifting constantly… sometimes slowly, sometimes quickly. These beautiful attributes also make the Aurora Borealis a challenge to photograph. Here a few tips:

Your exposure times will be longer than you can handhold, so you will need a tripod. Use a cable release to reduce vibration as much as possible. Use your mirror lock-up (if you have one) or self-timer if it locks up the mirror to reduce vibration even more. When cameras are new, they come with a little lens-cap-like covering that goes over the viewfinder. This is the finder apron, and it is meant to be used whenever you are making exposures without your eye at the finder. It keeps extra light from entering the camera through the eyepiece. If you have lost yours, use a small piece of electrical tape. Focus at infinity. Make sure to manually set the focus of your autofocus camera to infinity, or it will be unable to focus on the Aurora Borealis by itself. Use a medium aperture. Since you’re focused at infinity, and your subject is at infinity, you won't need to maximize depth of field. Your lenses are sharpest at a moderate aperture like f/8 or f/11.

Bracket. Take a photo at 1 second, 2 seconds, 5 seconds, 10 seconds, 20 seconds, 40 seconds, 80 seconds, etc. Notice that the time increment doubles each jump, which is equal to one f/stop of difference. If you’re shooting at 80 seconds and want just a little bit more exposure, the jump should be to 160 seconds, not 85 seconds. Bracketing this way will make sure that you get a good exposure. Use a film with high color saturation and long reciprocity failure time. Long exposures cause a problem in most films' color balances. There are films that are particularly good at keeping reciprocity failure to a minimum. For example, Agfa's Professional 50 Ultra has very high color saturation and a long reciprocity time of 100 seconds.

At 10 seconds, you need to give it 1 f/stop extra exposure, and at 100 seconds, you will need to add 2 f/stops. This means that when you are bracketing and you need a 10-second exposure, you should actually expose for 20 seconds. At 100 seconds, you should really set 400 seconds. In between, let’s say 40 seconds, you should try adding 1.5 f/stops for an actual exposure of about 120 seconds).