Antelope canyon: Would appreciate some assistance and suggestions with camera settings. Will be going to Antelope Canyon upper canyon photography tour in late May. Equipment is D7100...

corpsol Loc: Cape Cod

Would appreciate some assistance and suggestions with camera settings. Will be going to Antelope Canyon upper canyon photography tour in late May. Equipment is D7100, Tokina 11-16 2.8 lens. With everything I've read on this forum and online it appears that the camera should be preset and totally wrapped to prevent any dust from getting to the camera. Also it seems the consensus is that a tripod in mandatory, regardless of close operating space.

D7100, Tokina 11-16 2.8. Tour time 2:30 PM, Upper Canyon

Questions are:

What are the recommendations for camera settings?
Is the timer recommended?
Thoughts on a monopod.
Thoughts on camera wrap

Your. Advice is truly appreciated.

tradio Loc: Oxford, Ohio

First, take a look at Bryon Peterson's "Understanding Exposure" , your questions suggest that you fully do not understand exposure.
Tripods are always an advantage but with plenty of light, you can do without them. Less weight to lug around.
Take a large sandwich bag with a hole cut for the front lens element, use rubber bands to secure it and you will be able to control the camera from the outside of the bag.
Take a look at youtube for camera protection.
Hope this helps.

windshoppe Loc: Arizona

I did both the upper and lower canyons on photo tours (which actually required a tripod). I found no need to wrap the camera, just cleaned it after the tours. I think wrapping the camera would be unduly cumbersome. A set list of camera settings would be of little use, as the light changes constantly as you go through the canyons. I used a 24-105 lens on a full frame camera for both tours and felt no need for anything wider, although the majority of shots were at or near 24mm. Definitely don't want to have to change lenses in the canyons. Given the crowded conditions and the need to shoot rather quickly at times I would suggest aperture priority and, if you're shooting RAW, auto white balance. When possible I used the 2" timer on the camera as opposed to a remote (the less equipment the better in these conditions.) I used 400 ISO throughout with very pleasing results, but here again auto ISO might serve you well. Hope some of this is helpful. Wishing you a wonderful trip.

corpsol Loc: Cape Cod

windshoppe wrote:

I did both the upper and lower canyons on photo to... (show quote)

Thanks for the advice. The reason I asked for presets is that many of the posts that I have read suggest that the camera be wrapped, which obviously presents issues when trying to make adjustments. Good to know that you did not feel the need to be overly protective of the dust getting into the camera.

Mac Loc: Pittsburgh, Philadelphia now Hernando Co. Fl.

I agree with tradio, especially about Bryan Peterson's "Understanding Exposure". Exposure settings depend on on the available light, and that can only be determined at the time of shooting.

Wandering Loc: Sea Wa

Along with all of the above, listen to your guide. They have been there before.

GAS496 Loc: Arizona

It is my understanding that just two weeks ago both the Upper and Lower Antelope Canyons are no longer offering photo tours. Double check with whomever you booked the tour with but I am sure that I am right about this. I just came back from a week long photography trip on the Navajo Nation and photographed at Canyon X where they still welcome photographers. Our Navajo guide explained that the crowds are so massive at the more well known Upper and Lower Canyons that it was much more profitable just to herd through the people then take photographers. And the practice of throwing sand in the light beams has been discontinued also. Seems like the popularity of Antelope Canyon has caused its demise for us photographers with tripods. The Horseshoe is super crowded also, there had to be a thousand people there midday in the middle of the week. Not even worth walking the half mile in the sand.

I am just happy I was able to photograph and enjoy these places a few years ago before they became a world destination. Page has eight more hotels under construction if that gives you any indication of how popular things are around there. My suggestion would be to hire a Navajo guide to take you to some of the lesser known locations on the Reservation that are beautiful, you need a guide to stop on Navajo land, and contact the family that owns Canyon X to book your photo tour, or have your guide do it. It is as photogenic as the Antelope Canyons but not as big.

pikemon

I agree with windshoppe. I also have been thru the upper and lower canyons. No need to wrap. Most of my pics were taken around 24mm.
I would definitely use a tripod and the 2 sec. timer. When you say you will be on a tour, is it a professional photography tour? Rules now
are that if you are on such a tour, you may use a tripod. If you go on your own and just buy a ticket to tour, you are not allowed to use a
tripod. I find a tripod to be a must. Depending on your tour status, you may want to contact the canyon and ask about their restrictions.

dgingerich Loc: Cape Coral, FL

By reading these comments, I'm not sure about photo tours now but in 2014, I did the photo tour in the upper Antelope and it was wonderful. But regular tour would have been impossible to capture any good shots because it was very crowded then. The photo tour leader just took us to the furtherest end to start and then we came the opposite way of the regular tours so we had uninterrupted shooting but we had to keep moving. Sounds much worse now. No need to wrap camera. I advise you to NOT change lenses. Your 11-16 should be great! Tripod is a must! If they don't do the photo tours at Antelope any longer, definitely do the photo tour a Canyon X if you want to capture something great! Otherwise, you will have just snapshots and most of them will have people in them.

Gerylee Loc: Ontario, Canada

corpsol wrote:

Would appreciate some assistance and suggestions w... (show quote)

I was at Antelope Canyon about 1 month ago. Photo tours were available. The cost of a photo tour was $130.00 US, about double a regular tour. The canyon was crowded. But the photo tour guides get you to the best spots, tell you get your settings the way you want for that area, then they hold back the crowd for 2 minutes, exactly 2 minutes. Our guide would literally do a 15 second count down, which was helpful to us photographers because we knew time was running out. And it was good for the non photographer tourist who knew the clock was ticking on them waiting. Everyone was happy.

No recommendations for settings, since the light changes, sometimes fast, and different areas have different lighting.
You could use a timer. I used a cable release. It worked like a charm.
You won't have enough hands with a monopod. They require you to have a solid and function tripod. They will check it when you arrive.
No need to wrap the camera. But DO NOT change lenses in the canyon.

One last thing. There are different tour operators. Make sure you arrive at the correct one that you bought the tour from. We arrived early, which was good, because our tour was actually further out of town than where I thought we were going. Fortunately we got to the right place in plenty of time.

Have fun.

corpsol Loc: Cape Cod

Gerylee wrote:

I was at Antelope Canyon about 1 month ago. Photo ... (show quote)

Dds82

I did group tour and too many people and tripod not permitted so I returned next day to Take private photographer tour,with tripod, wide angle, changing lenses was easy, depends on wind, light changes so use aperture mode. Place cam close to walls at up to f22 ( u need deep depth of field because everything is close) using tripod, no crowds for most of private tour. Great results.

corpsol Loc: Cape Cod

Dds82 wrote:

I did group tour and too many people and tripod not permitted so I returned next day to Take private photographer tour,with tripod, wide angle, changing lenses was easy, depends on wind, light changes so use aperture mode. Place cam close to walls at up to f22 ( u need deep depth of field because everything is close) using tripod, no crowds for most of private tour. Great results.

Great shots. Thanks for your input.......hope I can do as well.

wotsmith Loc: Nashville TN

Don't know who you are hearing from. When you tour the canyon you have a choice of two tours. Regular one and a special for photographers. Both can be arranged in advance. I took the regular one with about 50 persons;
No tripod/monopod allowed or necessary. Handholding allowed quickly shooting in weird directions. With wide angle, movement should not be an issue
Use your camera with the widest lens you have - I shoot Canon and used an 11 - 24 with excellent results
It was not hard to either go ahead of the crowd or lag behind to get photos without bodies
There was no dust, never changed lens anyway
It was hot - take water, it took longer than I thought
learn how to use luminosity masking for your post processing
have fun!
Bill

Dds82

wotsmith wrote:

Don't know who you are hearing from. When you tou... (show quote)

Tripods permitted on photo shoot.
Tripod highly recommended. Photos I posted were at f4 ISO 640 1/20 th sec without tripod. When I returned the next day with photo tour guide, I used f11, f22 and exposure times were 1 sec to 8 secs.....it's not as bright down in canyon as one would think.......impossible without tripod.