mndbaker
newbie
Reged: 20/12/2005
Posts: 11
|
|
Hi. I am about to go on a ski weekend and I am very keen to take my camera for the first time upto the snowy slopes. I have a canon 40d and the following sigma lenses 10-20, 28-70, 70-200 and a 2x teleconverter (quite a bit to lug about on the slopes). I was thinking of taking my 10-20 and 28-70 with the 2x teleconverter - any thoughts ? Is it best to use partial metering when taking pictures of my subject and then add exposure compensation to make the snow look more natural ? Any other advice would be much appreciated and thankyou.
|
Lounge Lizard
Old Wrinkly
Reged: 17/01/2004
Posts: 17885
Loc: Cambridge, Cambridgeshire
|
|
You either go out with the kit to photograph other skiers and not ski yourself or you go out skiing and take a compact because if you do fall over, you've a lot of expensive kit to damage and you are more than likely to damage yourself if you fall on it. You will also need a secure racksack as you don't want a camera bag flopping about causing you to go off-balance.
--------------------
Lounge Lizard
(aka David Steel and owner of The Gallery)
Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.
Winston Churchill
|
zx9
old hand
Reged: 22/06/2007
Posts: 830
Loc: London
|
|
As David said above.
When we were in France at half term the weather was perfect sunshine and blue skys. When out sking I used a Canon G9, Raw, 80ISO, shutter priority 1000's sec and higher most of the time. I found that exposure compensation was not needed, looking at the histogram and flashing highlights. I took the DSLR as well but it only went up the mountain when I was on foot looking after our 5Yr old.
Have a look at My Chamonix Pics. if you like.
--------------------
Regards
ZX9 (Keith)  
My Flickr Pictures
|
stephentaylor
member
Reged: 02/07/2007
Posts: 109
|
|
David's right about doing one or the other. I went skiing over xmas/new year with a view to getting some good action shots of my brother. But everytime I went to take a shot I had to stop myself and him from skiing. I didn't ski properly for fear of falling back and damaging my gear.
Plus also by the time he'd gone past me once I had to go past him again and wait for him again.
Take a few hours out from skiing and find a decent spot on the slopes with all your gear, get settled in and shoot from there with the full range of lenses. Higher up the mountain the better, IMO.
A polariser is pretty useful, and converting some shots to black and white is a nice effect.
Steve
|
PhilW
Blue Peter Badge Winner
Reged: 14/03/2007
Posts: 893
Loc: Near Wakefield, Yorkshire
|
|
I was away skiing a few weeks ago. I took my 5D with my general purpose 28-135 lens. I caried it in a top loader slung round my shoulder like this:
It worked pretty well and didn't hinder my movement. It was so bright I didn't realy miss my fast lenses and the zoom range was just about right (that would be 18-85ish on your 40D).
Moving fast and not having too much time to think about exposure I left it on matrix metering and tweaked the exposure compensation if required. To be fair most of the time it did ok, but sometimes needed +1 or 2 stops.
You can see the pics I got here: Ski pics
--------------------
Phil Winterbourne
http://www.pbase.com/calis
|
Nod
Carpal \'Tunnel
Reged: 08/04/2006
Posts: 4063
Loc: Devon, UK.
|
|
Quote:
You either go out with the kit to photograph other skiers and not ski yourself or you go out skiing and take a compact because if you do fall over, you've a lot of expensive kit to damage and you are more than likely to damage yourself if you fall on it. You will also need a secure racksack as you don't want a camera bag flopping about causing you to go off-balance.
What David said but to add that broken gear will be a pain in the armse - a full kit bag could also cause pretty severe damage to your back if you fell onto it. I would take a compact for on the slope shooting (the Olympuse Mju 770 [among others] is waterproof, shockproof and works down to -10*C) rather than risk a DSLR (or my back).
--------------------
MATWSIJ.....
To avoid being offended, please insert apropriate smiley.
|
PhilW
Blue Peter Badge Winner
Reged: 14/03/2007
Posts: 893
Loc: Near Wakefield, Yorkshire
|
|
Quote:
Quote:
You either go out with the kit to photograph other skiers and not ski yourself or you go out skiing and take a compact because if you do fall over, you've a lot of expensive kit to damage and you are more than likely to damage yourself if you fall on it. You will also need a secure racksack as you don't want a camera bag flopping about causing you to go off-balance.
What David said but to add that broken gear will be a pain in the armse - a full kit bag could also cause pretty severe damage to your back if you fell onto it. I would take a compact for on the slope shooting (the Olympuse Mju 770 [among others] is waterproof, shockproof and works down to -10*C) rather than risk a DSLR (or my back).
I think this is a personal call really. My view is that I like to have my camera with me when I'm doing stuff - Mountain Biking, skiing, walking the dog, whatever. Yes I know that this has risks to my person and my equipment. But I accept that risk and get the pictures I want.
For the record I crash my bike regularly and came a cropper off-piste a few times skiing and neither my self or my gear was damaged (well not quite true, I've broken a few ribs and am still having physio on my shoulder from bike smashes - but these were nothing to do with my camera).
--------------------
Phil Winterbourne
http://www.pbase.com/calis
|
mndbaker
newbie
Reged: 20/12/2005
Posts: 11
|
|
Excellent, thankyou very much gents and the photos look fantastic. I'm just sorting my gear out now and still deciding what to take. I also have a canon g9 which I was going to take anyway - maybe I will just end up using that after lugging my gear over there!! One other question, when you took those pictures, did you set the white balance manually ie cloudy for overcast days and sunny for clear skies or did you use a custom white balance using the snow to set it ? I presume after that you adjust the exposure compensation using the histogram. I always use raw for my phtographs.
|
zx9
old hand
Reged: 22/06/2007
Posts: 830
Loc: London
|
|
As I understand it, shooting in RAW the WB is 'set' when 'processing' the raw file, so I did not bother with setting WB on camera. Just left it on AWB, the 'as shot' setting on processing (as per the camera's AWB) was on the whole a little too blue but easily sorted out.
I had intended to take more action shots with the DSLR at the board X / half pipe / rails, but there was not a lot happening.
Depending on the shots you are planning, take both cameras. My regret was not having anything very wide for the panoramic shots, but have material for at least one VERY BIG PS stitch which will take a bit of work to get right.
I hope hope you have good snow, be it a skiing holiday or a photographic holiday  , out of interest where are you going.
--------------------
Regards
ZX9 (Keith)
My Flickr Pictures
|
mndbaker
newbie
Reged: 20/12/2005
Posts: 11
|
|
Thankyou very much again. I will be going to Verbier (hopefully if Terminal 5 works properly tomorrow). I hear its a lively place by day and night so hopefully I'll have a few opportunities to get some decent shots unless I find myself in a few too many bars on the way back to the hotel!!!
|
Previous
Index
Next
Threaded
Edit
Reply
Quote
