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General Climbing Discussion

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climbing photo tips 20-Aug-2003 At 2:56:37 PM Onsight

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That’s cool Tim, I’m happy to share some of my thoughts on photography. I’m kinda swamped at the moment but here's something anyway. By the way, Mike has sent me some interview questions, which I hope answer in the next few weeks, so maybe some more will come from that.

Anyways, you’ve touched on three of the most important things that contribute to the quality of a photo: lens, film, and exposure. Lighting and composition are other major considerations. First of all though I think you need to ask yourself what you ultimately want to use the photos for, because if you are after top-notch publishable quality results, then that’ll influence some of these factors…

Here’s some comments on what you’ve said: I’ve stopped using zooms altogether because, no matter what the manufactures tell you, they are still not as sharp as fixed prime lenses, and often they are not as “fast” either (they let in less light). So I carry a wide range of fixed lens — weighs a ton, cost a fortune, and it’s about then you have to ask how serious you are about your photography. If you stick with that lens you’ve already got, then stopping down to about F8 or smaller will help give sharper results. I hardly ever use a 50mm lens. 20 is my favourite in wide angles (35 and 16 are the others I use). In telephotos 135mm is my favourite (and I also usually carry a 85 and 180).

Don’t get trapped into thinking that just because you’re shooting climbing it means that you have to shoot from abseil – often you need to but it can actually be a real trap to think you HAVE to do that. Some of my best pics have been taken from the ground, cliff-top, ledge or across a gully — like you said. Whatever you do, think laterally; think about the angle you’re using, and the background, as well as what’ll give you the best perspective on the action.

You are on the right track with exposure. I use spot metering nearly all the time and also use the camera in manual nearly all the time. It’s the only way you have complete control and won’t get thrown by tricky lighting (like large areas of sky etc). I point the spot meter around at different parts of the scene and check that it all makes sense (compared to an exposure I’d set). After a while you’ll learn that a particular shade of rock should be, say, 2/3 of a stop over-exposed, so you only have to set the exposure so that that part of the scene will actually be 2/3 of a stop over-exposed, and BINGO, perfect exposures every time!

For film, try giving Fuji Velvia a go, because if you think Ektachrome is super saturated, then this’ll knock your socks off!!! I use it nearly all the time. It’s super slow (I rate it at 40 ASA) and expensive, but worth it! Makes it harder to work with a slower lens though (another reason I don’t us slower lens — like zooms). If it’s not fast enough I often rate it as 80 ASA and get it push processed one stop. I’ve heard they are about to release a 100 ASA version of Velvia soon, so that’ll help a hugely. About the only time I don’t use Velvia is when shooting on say, Taipan, late in the evening, when everything is super orangey anyway, because in that case with Velvia it can go over the top sicko orange. Apart from that, it’s the ticket.

Hope that all helps. By the way, I know this is off topic as it’s not Vic climbing related but, since it’s not often rock climbing gets into the mainstream news, I thought some of you might be interested to see that we got some news about Monique climbing that 32 recently in today’s Daily Telegraph paper. I know you don’t get that paper in Vic, but they’ve also put it on their web site. Since it’s a newspaper the link might only work today, I’m not sure. Here’s the link:

http://www.dailytelegraph.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,7004042%255E21302,00.html

It’s back to the light-box for me…

Simon