Garry Black Photography

ASK GARRY!

Thanks a lot for all of your advice. I appreciate it a lot and yes, your site is very helpful.

Up until a week or so ago, I was planning to get the newer (non AFS) version of the f2.8 I changed my mind though, because I hate to feel limited (optically). I'd rather get a few really good quality primes, than a zoom lens that is slightly worse, even though it would make composition and cropping easier.

I don't know, I guess I read so many things that said even the best zooms aren't as good as primes yet. I didn't want to put out much money, and find out I'd get much better (optically) images with a prime. I suppose that's stupid though. I don't know. I'm sure you don't fell like listening to another "prime vs. zooms" thing.

I guess my main goal right now is just to get some equipment that I know will take pictures just as good as anybody else's 35mm equipment as long as I'm doing what I should.

I'll be leaving for Japan on August 4th, so now I'm trying to find the right film too. I'm thinking of Velvia, but it might not be the best thing to use in bright daylight, which I'm sure there will be plenty of in August. I want great colors, and fine grain, if you have a favorite film, I'd love to hear what it is, or what you used on the pictures you told me about.

Thank you very much, and if you are busy, don't worry about replying this e-mail.

Thanks so much.

Answer:

Most of the working pros use zoom lenses, the only reason that they would use a prime lens is for the faster F-stop, this is more likely to be the case in long telephotos. That is why I have a straight 300mm and a 400mm. As for the wide angle prime lenses they as less susceptible to lens flare and also have a closer minimum focusing distance than do the zooms. Of all the images that are on my web site, I would say that at least 90%, if not more were taken with zoom lenses. The most important thing about sharpness is to use a good tripod for all of your shots as well as a cable release.

Question:

When I sharpen an image in Photoshop using the Unsharp filter, I find sometimes that there is too much noise (grain) appearing in order to get the image looking sharp enough. What should you do to get better results?

Answer:

Here is a tip for sharpening with the unsharp mask filter. Once you have determined the "amount" setting value (lets say it's 100), go to the channels palette and activate only the Red and Green channels, do not select the Blue channel as it tends to produce more noise than the other channels after sharpening. When you open the Unsharp Mask dialogue box do not enter 100 as the amount. Instead divide 100 (or whatever other value amount you wish to use) by 4 use this amount (25 in this case) and apply the filter four times. That's all, give it a try, and let me know what you think.

Another tip is if you have a blue sky in your image, de-select the sky from your selection to sharpen. In other words don't sharpen the sky!

Question:

I only have a small portable flash, but I would like to use it for "still life" studio work. My problem is, that I would like to get a greater depth of field than is possible with the flash's maximum output, is there anything that I can do to achieve this, I remember hearing something about multiple flashes.

Answer:

You're right, multiple flash is the solution to your problem. Take a meter reading of your set up, if you want to increase your depth of field you will have to fire your flash manually while your shutter stays open. Each time you want to achieve another increase in an F-stop you must double the number of flashes. Here's an example: Your trusty flash meter gives you a reading of F4.0 but for your shot you want F22 for the greater depth of field. Use the following chart to determine the number of flashes required.

As you can see to get F22 will take a considerable amount of time and battery power. I wouldn't worry too much about any compensation at first, but if you find that your pictures are too light or dark then adjustments will have to be made. There is no upper limit to the number of flashes that you can use, but just make sure that you are in a totally darkened room, or the ambient light will affect your exposure. The only problem that I can see, about so many flashes, is overheating the circuits in the flash. Just give it time to cool down between flashes.

TIPS & TECHNIQUES | HOME | BACK TO ASK GARRY