Digital Photography For What It's Worth

Checklists—staying out of trouble with my Oly C-series rangefinders

On this page—

• The Devil's in the Details

• Baseline Shooting

• External Flash Work

• Hyperfocal Work

• Infrared and UV Work

• Low-light Work

• Travel

• References and Links

Always under construction...

Last updated October 30, 2004

The Devil's in the Details

Too much stuff to keep track of

When details count, as they nearly always do in photography, my memory becomes a immanent threat to success.

I compiled the checklists below to keep myself out of trouble. To keep the lists simple, accurate and experience-based, I've cast them strictly in terms of my own current cameras (the Oly C-5050Z and C-2020Z), my own accessories and my own style. To keep them short, I've cross-linked them heavily to pertinent details presented elsewhere on dpFWIW.

Perhaps you'll find them a helpful starting point for your own lists.  I'll be adding more as time and experience permit. Your mileage will probably vary.

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Baseline Shooting

Painted Wall, north rim, Black Canyon of the Gunnison, Colorado

This baseline list reflects the fact that I do most of my shooting outdoors. My main camera is now an Oly C-5050Z. My older C-2020Z is used almost exclusively for IR and UV photography these days.

I set my C-2020Z to retain settings from power-down to the next power-up. Most of the time, that works just fine, but occasionally it's been disastrous — like the time I shot San Francisco Bay from atop the Marin Headlands on an absolutely gorgeous day with manual focus set at 1 m — a hold-over from a hyperfocal test the day before! The C-5050Z allows me to set up a custom power-up profile, which pretty much obviates the need for a baseline settings checklist.

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External Flash Work

Dennis tearing up the piano again; external bounced flash

There are lots of ways to screw up with external flash. I've tried them all. Explicitly listed items represent absolute requirements or departures from the baseline list.

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Hyperfocal Work

Looking north from the crest of the Lyons hogback at Roxborough State Park long the Rocky Mountain front southwest of Denver, Colorado

Remembering to zoom all the way out first has been my biggest pitfall with hyperfocal work. Accurate manual focus using the LCD remains a challenge. Digital zoom isn't good for much, but it does help to confirm good manual focus. BTW, the photo at right has nothing to do with hyperfocal technique.

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Infrared and UV Work

Looking south from the crest of the Dakota Hogback along the Rocky Mountain front west of Denver, Colorado; R72 IR filter

Infrared (IR) digital photography is tons of fun. Ultraviolet (UV) digital photography is an aquired taste, and by far the more challenging out-of-spectrum experience of the two. Since multisecond exposures are common in UV work, even in bright sunlight, consult the low-light checklist as well. Since the C-2020Z beats the socks off the C-5050Z at IR and UV work, the latter's hardly worth bothering with here.

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Low-Light Work

Still bewildered after all these years

dvance planning is key in low-light work of any kind, including IR and especially UV work, particularly when dark-field subtraction and imaging averaging are in the offing. This list supercedes the IR and UV checklist when multisecond exposures come into play. My C-5050Z will perform an in-camera dark field subtraction for exposures greater than or equal to 1 second when noise reduction is enabled; for this purpose, it stores a pixel map which can be remapped from time to time by the user as the CCD ages.

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Travel

September color at Mount Sopris, central Colorado Rockies

This list derives in large part from the dpFWIW article Backcountry digital photography. My main travel camera is now a 5MP Oly C-5050Z. At full 2560x1920 resolution and minimum (SHQ) JPEG compression, its image files run 3-5MB each. That means carrying every byte of memory I own:

• 5 x 256MB CF cards

• 1 x 128MB SM card

• 4 x 32MB SM cards

• 1 x 32MB xD card (came with camera; used as an emergency reserve hidden in camera bag)

The C-5050Z's ability to use CF, SM and xD cards and to move images among them without a fuss is a great boon. Thankfully, it's amazingly easy on batteries, even with the LCD on most of the time. One fresh set of 2300 mAh AAs will cover even the most shutter-happy of days.

When the C-2020Z comes along, it does so as an IR or UV ,camera, at which point the IR/UV checklist comes into play.

How much memory and battery capacity to take along are recurring questions, but with two fast chargers and several extra AA battery sets along, I no longer carry an AC adapter for the camera, even for TV slide shows.

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Medium Camera Bag Checklist

Besides the gear listed explicitly above, my medium bag carries the items listed below.

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References and Links

(Please see the home page links.)

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Unless explicitly attributed to another contributor, all content on this site © Jeremy McCreary

Comments and corrections to Jeremy McCreary at dpFWIW@cliffshade.com, but please see here first.

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