Colors in Antelope Canyon

us trip 2007 017, originally uploaded by gugs.

This is a very classical shot taken in Antelope Canyon, Page, Arizona. The light is playing with the rocks and giving those gorgeous colors. Because of the lack of light in the canyon, you have to be a bit careful when taking such a picture. This example was a bit on the edge, because there is a part much better lit than the rest, giving a high contrast, very difficult to handle with a modern digital camera. This is due to limited dynamic range of the sensors. To get the proper exposure, it is mandatory to use a tripod. I have used a Nikon D200 camera with an excellent lens, the Tamron 17-50 2.8 closed down to f8, camera set to ISO100, matrix metering. This combination gave exposure times from 0.5 to 20 seconds, making the usage of a very stable tripod mandatory. I used a Manfrotto 055PROB here with a 486RC2 head. This head gives a very high accuracy and stability combined with speed, necessary here because you don't get much time to take a picture here because of all the visitors. I didn't work with a remote release. I just activated the timer set to 2 seconds and the results were very good. A very nice place to visit as a photographer.