Gear Used in Slot Shots

I had a number of emails, and posts here in the blog, asking about the equipment I used in the shots posted last week from the Antelope Canyon Slots.

The camera was a 12-megapixel Nikon D2X. I used two different lenses: a Nikon 70mm-200mm VR 2.8 and a Nikon 24-120mm VR (which I used for most of the shots---it's seen in the photo here, courtesy of Bill Fortney).

Down in the slots it's a very "low light" situation, so I mounted the camera on a Slik Carbon-Fiber tripod with a "Really Right Stuff" ball head (which I love), and used a cable release (and mirror lockup) to get the maximum sharpness. I didn't use any filters in the field. I set my white balance to "Daylight" but at -3 to give it a warmer look.

In Photoshop I processed the Raw photos (just adjusting exposure and shadows), then I did any color correction using Curves in Lab mode, or the Apply Image Lab move (using the exact same techniques outlined in my Channels book), then I finished up by applying an Unsharp Mask to the Lightness Channnel. Because the shots are so colorful, there wasn't much color correction you could do without taking things too far, so the edits were fairly simple.

Thanks to everyone who posted such nice comments about the shots (or who sent me emails). We had a blast shooting out there, and a special thanks to the amazing Bill Fortney of Nikon Professional Services for his expertise out in the field. He's the best! :-)