cowboydid2 Loc: The highways and byways of America

Drove in last night, staying at a BLM campground, taking the kids to the caverns today. Any advise on camera settings? 12 yr old son is shooting Nikon D3000, 10 yr old, D60, both have kit lenses, I'm using my D750 w/28-300. Sunrise is gorgeous, by the way.

fourlocks Loc: Londonderry, NH

I just got back from a visit to Luray Caverns in Virginia. Not as big as Carlsbad but pretty impressive. They would only allow you to be in a group which had to keep moving so I didn't have the time to set up my tripod and shoot on manual and a flash would only make harsh shadows. I set my ISO to automatic and gravitated between Aperture priority and, believe it or not, full automatic...maybe the first time this was the best mode to use. The camera pushed the ISO up as needed and took care of the rest of the settings. I also set a maximum ISO and minimum shutter speed but the camera was able to work with those limitations.

(Download)

jwinberg1

NICE image acquired under tricky conditions!!

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

They allow tripods if you have one. But, the path is narrow and you need to be conscious of the crowd and willing to work very slow if you try for the tripod. Maybe not a good approach with kids in tow. There are some subjects that are almost well lit. Use your VR enabled lens(es) and the slowest shutter speed and widest aperture you can get away while handholding. If you go with shutter priority and AUTO ISO, the camera will likely open the aperture to the max for the focal length and raise ISO as needed. Just pick / match your shutterspeed to the focal length or 1-stop slower, if you can.

So for your 28-300, if you were at 28mm and 1/20 on the shutter, the camera will give you an aperture of f/3.5 and maybe an ISO around ISO-1000 for an image like below:

(consider your onboard flash as well, if one of the candidate bodies has one)

Carlsbad Caverns National Park by Paul Sager, on Flickr

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Nice shot. All those caves are amazing. Did you see pictures of the one in Mexico with the giant crystals?
https://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/earth/geology/mexico-giant-crystal-cave.htm

larryepage Loc: North Texas area

I've been communicating with a well-known cave photography instructor, trying to learn if he will be doing more of his excellent workshops in the caverns. He said not soon, but did offer some tips. First...be prepared to decontaminate all equipment carried into the cavern. White Nose Syndrome (WNS) is a very serious fungal condition decimating bat populations in numerous US caverns, including those in southeastern New Mexico. Serious steps are being taken to try to control or at least manage it. He also reported that the new LED lighting that has been installed in the caverns is very imbalanced, with a color temperature in most locations around 2500K or even lower (note the bright yellow spot in Paul's photograph). Because of that, he suggests using flash, because there is just not enough light in the blue part of the spectrum to allow anything close to natural color capture, and the "hot spots" are unavoidable. Auto White Balance will not adequately correct for this, so set accordingly. And this is so biased that correction in post processing will likely be difficult.

Have a great time and don't forget to just stop and look around.

SteveR Loc: Michigan

Stand vewwy vewwy still.

SteveR Loc: Michigan

Stand wewwy wewwy still.

ncribble Loc: Albuquerque, NM

By all means go back in the evening and observe the bats leaving the caverns. Spectacular!!

paulrph1 Loc: Washington, Utah

I would opt for a monopod. Might not be as good as a tripod but better than hand-held.

AzPicLady Loc: Behind the camera!

When I was there, I used a tripod with no problems. But you do need to be aware of your surroundings and let people pass. Most (nearly all) or my shots were taken at 30 seconds. I did experiment some. Their lighting is superb. If you use flash, you destroy their lighting. I did some light painting of one place that didn't have lights. (With the help of a ranger, I might add.) I think my pics are quite good. It took me hours to go through the caverns - and I went back a few days later. During the week, my cousin and I were about the only ones in there!

wds0410 Loc: Nunya

I had to use a tripod and some of my exposures were 30 seconds long at iso 125 f11. Without a tripod you probably are going to have bump that ISO up a lot at the expense of noise unfortunately.

We were there in November and there were hardly any other folks around so using a tripod wasn't a problem. Good luck. Some of those caverns are absolutely huge and gorgeous.

Leitz Loc: Solms

The rules must have changed. It's been awhile, but when I was there tripods were allowed whether you had one or not.

xt2 Loc: British Columbia, Canada

Auto, auto, auto in such diverse and challenging situations unless you are allowed and have the time for a tripod.

Cheers!

fstoprookie Loc: Central Valley of California

Was there in 2010. Used my D3 & a 24-70. Have fun there are lot's of photo opportunities. Just a thought, If you have a mono pod I'd take it