• Women skiers, this is the place for you -- an online community without the male-orientation you'll find in conventional ski magazines and internet ski forums. At TheSkiDiva.com, you can connect with other women to talk about skiing in a way that you can relate to, about things that you find of interest. Be sure to join our community to participate (women only, please!). Registration is fast and simple. Just be sure to add [email protected] to your address book so your registration activation emails won't be routed as spam. And please give careful consideration to your user name -- it will not be changed once your registration is confirmed.

Cameras when skiing

MissySki

Angel Diva
Creative Live classes are good but they are ridiculously long. I guess they're trying to cover every possible piece of info, but that can cause some of the key basics to get lost in the shuffle. To me, the most important basic technical concept every photographer needs to understand, in order to make the image they want, is the exposure triangle. Exposure is how you control your capture of light, and this is the basis for all photography. Once you understand this, and how to adjust these settings on your camera, you can shift focus to the art of the image. The three camera settings you use to control light are Aperture, Shutter Speed, and ISO. As in life, each has a benefit and a drawback so these choices affect your final image. The good news is, the way you leverage each trade-off is part of your artistic vision ;)

In a nutshell:

Aperture – the hole in your lens that lets light through to the sensor while the shutter is open
Bigger hole = more light, but fewer things in focus (ie. a shallow depth of field)
Smaller hole = less light, but more things in focus (ie. bigger depth of field)
The annoying thing about aperture is the smaller the number, the bigger the hole. This, apparently, makes sense to advanced mathematicians ;)
Simplify this choice to how much of your image you want in focus (ie. depth of field)

Shutter Speed – how long your camera opens to expose the sensor to light
Slower shutter = more light, but blurs more motion (including the motion generated by your hands as you operate the camera)
Faster shutter = less light, but freezes more motion
Simplify this choice to how sharp you want your subject to be

ISO – how much light your sensor can detect and capture
More sensitive = more light, but grainier image
Less sensitive = less light, but sharper image
Simplify this choice to overall image graininess. This is usually where I make my sacrifice because, in my opinion, it does the least damage to the intent of the image.

Clear as mud, right?

Here's a handy diagram, visuals are our friend:

View attachment 12896


That's an awesome visual, thank you!! I've seen the exposure triangle, and watched a quick tutorial on it recently. However, also having the little pictures showing what is meant on each side from more to less etc. is really great for someone as new as me to all of this. Very helpful and print worthy!
 

Christy

Angel Diva
For a while I've been wanting one of the really good compact point and shoots that are out now. I have a DSLR, and a my Samsung Galaxy has a good camera, but the Galaxy is too big for my backpack hipbelt pocket, which means it's hard to have my phone/camera handy when I hike (and of course no phone has optical zoom, or lots of other features a real camera has). And while I might take my DSLR day hiking, it is not coming backpacking. But these little cameras aren't cheap, and it was hard to think about spending $1000+ for a little point and shoot!

And then voila, B & H had a new but open box Sony RX100 vi. Normally $1100, marked down to $599. How could I not buy it? I'm very excited to take it backpacking next week. There is 200mm zoom on this little thing, though the quality on that remains to be seen.
 

UtahDesert

Certified Ski Diva
I may have to take a look at that one just for the fun of it! I've used both the i (lost it) and the iii (still have it). There have been so many trade-offs with each different model, and there's always the hope that they'll figure out how to put all of the best features into one model.
 

Christy

Angel Diva
I've used both the i (lost it)

I had a ii some years ago and lost it! I famously misplace multiple items a day but never truly lose anything...except this camera, which I took on a work trip, and left on the floor of a rental car in Vegas (I think it was on top of my tote and it tipped out).
 

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
26,235
Messages
497,609
Members
8,503
Latest member
MermaidKelly
Top