VERY exciting day today, Nikon announced some great new tools highlighting the D5 & D500, 360, flash and accessories. I’ve personally not had any of this in my hands but you can head here for the D5 page and here for D5, D4s comparison PDF and here for D5 Brochure. D500 page is here with more on it. New Key Mission 360 is here and SB-5000 is here. Lots of reading to do now!
A real common question this time of year is “What gloves do you use? Back in the day, I would haunt every outdoor store I ventured by and gleaned the glove display trying to find the glove that kept my hands warm and permited me to shoot. Then our sons got into xcross skiing and I found the Swix gloves and fell in love. From past experience, I bought 3 pairs of gloves for different temps. Last year I had to replace two sets of my gloves and amazingly, they are still on the market this year. A & B got replaced and this is what I got and love A, Manzella Men’s Silkweight Windstopper Glove. This first pair is when it’s just starting to get cold. This next pair is what I wear probably the most of all of these. The B, Swix Star XC 100 Glove simply rock, lots of warm and flexibility. They have a special material on the top to cut the wind. These are the gloves I always have in my jacket and take care of my hands the majority of my shooting. When going to extremes like when the air temp hovers around zero of lower, I turn to ice climber gloves. These seem to change every other day, they are updated and outdated almost monthly. The pair I got last year are now gone, the closest are the C, Black Diamond Torrent Cold Weather Gloves. They do look bulky but I found them to work really well. They keep the digits warm, permit basic operation and ability to push some buttons. You can push all the buttons on the D4s for example. You can run a video camera with them.
My favorite though are ones my family gave me years ago for ultimate in cold weather protection. These gloves mittens I love to shoot with! Actually, they are custom made trapper mittens that are strictly for cold weather use.
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How cold? Well, at 12degrees my hands were almost uncomfortably warm, not perspiring but almost too much warmth. Working in places like Yellowstone or the Arctic in the winter, these mittens are so perfect. Yeah, I can squeeze off the shutter, no, can’t work any other feature on the body. No, can’t buy these at REI. They are a two layer mitten, a heavy wool removable liner and outer Beaver fur. I just can’t wait to get out in the cold and put them to use! Thanks family!
Snow’s white, right? It most certainly is on a bright, clear, beautiful day. You remove that bright sun though and snow takes on many magnificent and moody shades. My personal favorite is snow in shade. It’s a magical pearl blue-gray makes a stunning background for any subject. The color of snow since we all “think” it’s white can be a powerful tool to communicate so many different things. The easiest to understand is when snow has a bluish tint. The mind’s eye sees that color and it instantly thinks, cold!
My favorite use of snow is to use its ability to take on another color and then use that color to accent other elements in the photo. This lower photo is a perfect example of how I like to do this. Keep in mind that in this process, the color of the light is directly influenced by White Balance, first by the WB of the light itself and then the WB you use in the camera. All of this will directly effect your photo, your snow. Because while the mind says snow is white, what’s really the color of snow.
“Which AF mode should I use?” This is a real common question and one that I wrestled with when the new AF modes (or correctly stated, sensor patterns) came about years ago. The AF system in our Nikons is really good, really sophisticated and can be real confusing. I RELY on the AF system in my photography because it permits my mind to concentrate on more important things like storytelling since I KNOW the AF system will get the subject sharp. I have no illusions, that AF is why my photography is successful. So, which AF Mode do I use? Here’s how I think of it, how I compartmentalize the AF mode’s jobs in my photography. Moving = Auto Area AF, Non-moving = Group Area AF (or D21 if Grp not available) in AF-C. Let me explain.
In both of these visual examples, the subject is very much moving. That’s not what I’m talking about in how I determine which AF mode to use. In the top photographic example of the Cub going by, the CAMERA is moving as its pans to keep pace with the Cub as it flies by. When the camera is moving, I’m in Auto Area AF or what I call AAA. In the bottom photo, while that T6 is very much flying, flying right down the lens barrel, the CAMERA is NOT moving! Not moving I’m in Group Area AF. The camera is pointing straight ahead, could have been planted on a tripod because it’s not moving. This is the very simplistic but very fast way I know which AF mode I will select prior to the action to get the element of the subject sharp that needs to be sharp.
Is there more to it than this? There is if you explore the technical aspects of these two modes. For example, AAA the entire viewfinder is one big AF sensor where with Group Area AF, there are Five AF sensors working for you. AAA you have Closest Subject Priority that you don’t have with Group Area AF. But with both, it is essential one remembers that the AF system requires, no matter the mode you select, Contrast AND a STRONG diagonal/vertical line to work its best and fastest. How did I come to using just two AF modes and these two? One helluva lot of shooting and what I found works for me day in and day out. And yes, I use Manual Focus when it’s called for. I can still go “old school.” This is a real common question and hopefully these thoughts will help you when if comes to answering which AF mode.
I just love the Osmo! This very simplistic but amazingly functional 4K stabilized gimbal handheld video camera is simply ingenious. I’m nowhere near a master of it but I keep working with it. I created a simple video to give you an idea of just a tad of its abilities. You will see in the video the Osmo along with the RodeMic Me (which does a great job!). But it’s real simple, the iPhone is your monitor and control, the video camera spins and stabilizes, you point and have fun. Brilliant!
Ever since I posted about my favorite B&W technique of late, folks have been reaching out. Lots of good questions so I created this short video to explain the technique. Hope it helps.