Photo Art from Science

The Hoya Pro ND1000 is a 10-stop neutral density filter. If you like those shots with rivers that look like mist, this is what you use to make them. Ocean breakers that transform into blankets of fog become possible with this filter. If you need to reduce crowds around...

If you’re curious about how fast a lens can focus, a great way to measure it is to use slow-motion video. I previously used my smartphone video to do this job, but now I can use my Nikon D850.

The D850 is capable of 120 fps video in DX crop-mode. This will allow you to...

You can see wildly-varying lens resolution measurements for the exact same lens model out there on the internet. Do manufacturers really make lenses with that much variation? I think not.

Many (most) internet sites that show lens resolution measurement results don’t div...

I have always read that you must turn off your lens vibration reduction when shooting on a tripod. So what happens if you don’t? Are your shots hopelessly blurred? Do all lenses behave equally badly if you forget to turn VR off?

Is Vibration OFF mandatory for tripod use...

If you have a lens that generates that dreaded hotspot in the middle of your photos when you try infrared photography, you may want to try this trick.  LightRoom offers the “radial filter”, which you can use to make that hotspot disappear.

Most modern lenses are quite p...

If you have to deal in using long exposures or image stacking, here’s a gizmo you might be interested in. The Flashpoint Wave Commander can control taking a long series of photographs. You get to specify how long to wait before taking the shots, the shot duration, how...

There’s been a lot of talk about using crop sensor cameras for subjects that need that “effective focal length” increase, for distant subjects like birds. For example, a 600mm lens has an effective focal length of (600 X 1.5) or 900mm. This may be close to the truth if...

Competitor #1: Sony XQD

I tried to look up the D850 camera shot buffer numbers on the internet. All over the map. Either terrible or stunning, depending on who you ask. Nikon claims it should have a 51 shot buffer with the settings I shoot with.

I felt compelled to condu...

Sigma lets you program their “global vision” series of lenses with their USB dock. This includes the Sport, Art, and Contemporary lenses. One of the things you can program is which autofocus algorithm to use. You get three algorithms to choose from: “Fast AF Priority”,...

Sigma TC-1401 Teleconverter on their 70-200 f/2.8 Sport lens

You can see how tiny the Sigma TC-1401 teleconverter is. It’s only compatible with a few Sigma lenses, so be careful to do some research first to see if it will work for you. It won’t work on Nikkor lenses. Si...