Grand Canyon Photos - Need Help

I am going to Grand Canyon on a visit. Can you please share some tip & tricks for shooting? Like places I should be for good photo ops. Some restrictions apply like, I would be targetting evenings because I would be staying in a resort/ spa around 6 hours drive away (I wasn't specifically targetting Grand Canyon this time, but decided to give the drive a try). It wouldn't be possible for me to hike/ raft as I have a kid. I don't plan to invest in a new tripod, as the cheapo I got serves me well (most of the time)

The lens I plan to carry include Tokina 12-24, Canon 50 prime, Canon 60 prime macro and Canon 70-200 f4L. I have a circular polarizer on one lens, a grad-nd on another and uv skylight for all. I intend to buy a warming CP for 67mm or 77mm depending on which lens I should be using more. Any help appreciated.

And also places I would get good photographs of flora in Sonoran Desert and Phoenix, AZ.

Tahnks all.

I have no experience of the Grand Canyon - having never set foot in the United States at all.


I'd skip the warming circular polariser, and go for a standard circular polariser. If you auto white balance, the warming effect will be cancelled out, and if you shoot RAW, you can adjust the white balance to taste in the RAW converter once you're at your computer. If you shoot JPEG, you can still warm the photo in post-processing, but it's harder to make this sort of adjustment with a JPEG.

You can probably get away with using a 77mm polariser on a 67mm lens with a 67mm-77mm step up ring, which will cost you less than $20. You won't be able to fit the stock hood on your 67mm lens if you go for this option, as it won't fit around the ring and filter - though you could use a 77mm screw-on hood. If the 67mm lens is the Tokina, you may get vignetting from the combination, though whether you want a polariser on an ultra-wide is open to debate anyway (the effect can be very uneven).

Good quality 77mm polarisers are, unfortunately, not cheap. Of your lenses, the only one I'm not familiar with is the Tokina; I guess that may be the 77mm lens. I have a B+W 77mm Kasemann circular polariser MRC - around US$165. Multicoated filters really are the best option.


Bracket your shots - not least as it leaves open the possibility of HDR. That will mean using your tripod, which needs to be steady. If you don't own a remote release, it's worth getting one, so as not to knock the tripod when pressing the shutter button. If you don't have a remote, you can always use the timer.

A good tripod will leave open the option of shooting panoramas. You really do want some kind of separate panning facility on your head if you're going to shoot panoramas, though.

David

you dont like autofocus/TTL?

Thanks for your comments David.

Why is that? If I use a colored glass in front of my lens and use auto WB, the image will come out colored. Right? So, if I use a 81C I should be getting some warming effect. Please correct me if I am wrong

I intend to shoot RAW, but I am so bad at post-processing, I would like to do most of the stuff on camera

The 67mm is Canon 70-200 f/4 L. You are right. I forgot all about that. I have used step-up rings between 52 and 58mm. I can always afford one of those. Will it produce vignetting?

The 77mm is Tokina (12-24). I saw the prices. Pretty steep. Actually I was looking at Heliopan and they were in the range of $300. Maybe I would look for cheaper options. What is the advantage of using multi-coated and will that increase the thickness of the filter?

I will remember this. I will try to bracket so that at least one shot is usable. But with my limited capabilities on PS work, HDR is just another term for me

I do - I was talking about the difference between a warming circular polariser and a standard circular polariser. I didn't mention linear polarisers anywhere in this.


David

Auto white balance makes an assessment of the image. If you put a warming filter on the camera, the camera will cool the white balance more than it would otherwise, so you finish up at the same point.

If you want to warm an image that you shot in RAW, simply drag the colour temperature down a bit (warmer is a lower colour temperature, cooler is a higher colour temperature). There's other ways to warm an image, such as the Photo Filter in Photoshop CS2.


I can't think using a 77mm polariser with a 67-77mm step up ring will vignette on your EF 70-200mm f/4. Vignetting problems usually happen with wide angle lenses and are unlikely with a telephoto lens. If you have a 1.6x body (as most Canon DSLRs are), it's very unlikely you'd see any vignetting anyway. However I can't provide an absolute guarantee that the combination won't vignette - you want the thinnest possible step up ring to try to avoid vignetting.

Multicoating doesn't add to the thickness of the filter mount - it adds microns to the thickness of the glass. The coating cuts down reflections, which can prevent flare and loss of contrast. It also helps protect the filter against scratches (the coatings are often harder than glass) and in the case of B+W MRC and possibly other manufacturer's equivalents, it's also water and dirt resisting.


Cheap polarisers are less than ideal. Skimping on any filter is a bad idea - it's silly to buy decent lenses and put rubbish glass or plastic in front of them. However, cheap polarisers can cause all sorts of image quality problems. Unfortunately quality polarisers cost.

You must buy a circular polariser for an SLR camera, not a linear polariser.

David

Thanks David. That is very helpful.