Paul J. Svetlik wrote:
Hi Bozsik, I just wish to have your gear/exposure information?
Thank you for sharing!
Your shots demonstrate nicely the beauty of the back country with many of us walking by, hardly to noticing it.
Good morning Paul,
I am pleased by your interest in how the images were captured. Here is a synopsis of the shots. When you are shooting, don't be as concerned with the brand of gear. The list of my gear is always provided at the bottom of each post. I have two full frame camera bodies, and a cropped frame for backup. Having time to set up and compose shots, as well as waiting for subjects, is almost as important as having the proper equipment.
The first shot was taken with the 28-70 lens on a tripod. The last shot was taken with my 16-35 lens. All of the remaining posted shots were taken with the 80-400.
Each individual has their own techniques for capturing images, and I have simplified mine for my usage in the field. Almost all my shots are exposed at f11 or f8. I attempt to use the lowest ISO I can procure provided objects are not moving and the closeness of the subject(if it is moving). I have found that stopping down further while providing more DOF, it does render slightly softer images. I would rather stack the images to procure better depth, than stop the lens down.
I am another one who doesn't follow the crowd when shooting wildlife either. I almost always shoot in automatic. Most argue you have to shoot in manual mode to get the best images. Maybe so, but I find my images to be of acceptable quality for what I need.
The aperture is usually at f8, and the minimum shutter speed is usually 1000sec or 1600sec. I set the camera's auto to adjust the ISO to get the capture. I have spent a great deal of money on the camera bodies, so it is silly to not let the metering in the camera do what it is suppose to do. If the lighting of the scene is of high contrast, and the subject is moving in and out of the conflicting lighting, I will switch to manual for the subject's exposure, and switch back afterward.
A real important part of any capture is the post processing. Shoot RAW if you want to spend time post processing images with greater flexibility. If you haven't spent a lot of time in Post, you will probably find it fun and very remarkable how your images can be much better than straight of the camera(even if you shoot manually).
When I was shooing studio and advertising for JC Penney's, we would spend a long time on some shots getting everything "just right". But in the darkroom after the shoot, there were still things that could be done to make the image a finished product. Just remember, even A. Adams spent a great amount of time manipulating his images in the darkroom.