Posted on July 27, 2012, 6:19 pm, by QT Luong, under
Books.
Using his technical mastery in the darkroom to create distinctively beautiful prints, Ansel Adams considered print quality to be the hallmark of his work. However, Adams also developed early in his career a great familiarity with other forms of photographic reproductions, working diligently with publishers to create books that would meet his standards. Not only […]
Posted on January 12, 2012, 2:39 pm, by QT Luong, under
Gear.
The short 70-200 tele-zoom is one of the most popular professional lenses. It covers a useful focal length range, good from portrait work to sports shooting and also for distant landscapes as well as details. Canon makes four of such lenses. All of them use a ring USM motor which offers fast, silent focus plus […]
Posted on August 4, 2011, 11:30 am, by QT Luong, under
Books.
William Neill‘s exquisite portfolio of Yosemite photographs, “Yosemite: The Promise of Wildness” became my favorite Yosemite picture book upon publication in 1994, one year after my arrival in California. It has remained so until today (even though I have my own) to the point that the spine has begun to separate. There are many scenes […]
Posted on January 18, 2011, 10:25 pm, by QT Luong, under
Books.
I had first noticed Michael Frye (see his photographs here) for his pioneering light painting nature photographs. I then greatly appreciated his excellent book The Photographer’s Guide to Yosemite (2000). The only thing I wished was that it been available a decade earlier. Priced at a bargain $9.95, the book, published by the Yosemite Association, […]
Posted on August 17, 2010, 10:07 am, by QT Luong, under
Gear.
Canon makes two wide-angle zooms for full-frame cameras. Both are L-lenses, reasonably well-built, with fast USM autofocusing, a non-rotating front element, and an environmental rubber seal. The 17-40/f4L was introduced in 2003. The 16-35/f2.8 L II, released in 2007, replaced the 16-35/f2.8L of 2001, which itself replaced the 17-35/f2.8L of 1996. I have not used […]
Posted on June 29, 2010, 1:23 am, by QT Luong, under
Gear.
About a decade ago, I switched from Nikon to Canon. I was attracted, among other things, by the availability of a 24mm tilt and shift (T/S) lens, which brings to 35mm some of the controls available to the large format camera photographer. While it has served me well, its T/S functions making it possible to […]
Posted on November 11, 2009, 1:23 pm, by QT Luong, under
Gear.
I am often asked for lens recommendations (although I have already wrote a page of technical comments). For those wishing to make photographs similar to mine, and using a Canon full frame camera, I always suggest the Canon 25-105/4 L IS as an all-purpose lens. I consider this lens to be the best zoom ever […]
Posted on September 15, 2009, 1:41 pm, by QT Luong, under
Books.
I have seen many of my images reproduced on a variety of mass media (editorial publishers usually send a copy), sometimes in a somewhat unsatisfactory way. I understood that the limitation of reproductions are due to the problem of having to render continuous varying tones with discrete dots of inks, and that the primary mass […]
