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This simple sillhouette, showing the Snowdon Horseshoe at dusk, was actually photographed from about 50 miles away.
Liz and I were standing on the slopes of Moel Famau having watched a beautiful sunset a few minutes previously.
It's quite rare to get a clear sky at the horizon in this part of the world, so it was a privilege to be able to take this photo with the sky glowing orange and the peaks picked out so clearly.
I used the long end of my 100-400mm zoom for this shot, which is always tricky if you want to get a sharp shot as the minutest camera movement will be amplified horribly at this focal length.
So what can you do to get the long lens shot without any movement blur? Here are a few handy tips.
1. Use a sturdy tripod. There's no way you can handhold a lens this long (and heavy) and take a low light shot.
2. Use the tripod mounting collar on the lens. This balances the camera/lens combination on the tripod much better than the usual camera base mounting thread, especially if you're shooting in portrait format.
3. Avoid wind. Even the sturdiest tripod will move in a gust of wind, so find a sheltered spot to take your photo from. At 400mm focal length you won't be worried about foreground interest so you can pick your spot to avoid the breeze.
4. Screw everything down tight. A heavy lens requires a firm mounting, and will slowly rotate if the tripod head, legs and mounting plate attachments aren't fully tight.
5. Switch off image stabilisation. This will actually add blur to your shot when the camera is fixed to a tripod.
6. Use a remote shutter release. Any touch on the camera will cause it to wobble for a few seconds.
7. Use mirror lock up. The vibration caused by the movement of the reflex mirror will blur at shot at this focal length. Also, allow at least five seconds between locking up the mirror and opening the shutter. It really does take this long for the camera to settle down after the mirror moves.
8. Use a mid-range aperture. Most lenses are at their sharpest around f8-f11. I used f11 with a 4 second exposure for this shot.
So there you go - nothing to it really!
Filename - mountain 08.jpg
Camera - Canon 5D
Lens - 100-400mm zoom @400mm
Exposure - 4secs @ f11, ISO100
Location - Snowdonia
This image - 800x393px JPEG
Conversion - ACR & PS-CS2
Comments - Tripod, mirror lockup and cable release use to prevent camera movement.
All content copyright © Howard Litherland 2009-2024 unless otherwise stated.