Thank you for your kind comment. Its a RAW photo with a bit of luminance masking to bring out the shadows.
I did a course once with a professional photographer, practically the first thing he said was that a tripod was the single most important accessory in photography. I agree, if you are photographing something static you can look through the viewfinder and see your image in a totally deliberate way, you see the shapes in your image and you can design with total control. IS is great for some kinds of photography, but it does a totally different job to a tripod.
I don't buy photography mags anymore, you get more varied and experienced advice free of charge on the web!
I just spent a whole bunch of money on primes, a Gitzo 2542L and a RRS BH-40 figuring that they would be worth a heck of a lot more on my 5D than the 21 megapixels of the 5D mkII and my kit until now hasn't exactly been basic. Anyone want a 70-200 f4L IS?
I would like to see a link to that article instead of taking his comment out of contex. On his website he shows extremely sharp pictures of night scenics with a "pod" at 8 and 30 seconds. He also uses a view camera which obviously needs a tripod. I think he might be referring to the fact that with IS technology a tripod is not used as much as it used to, but certainly not to the exclusion of it.
"Tripods are no longer required, and actually often degrade sharpness, because shutter speeds have climbed and IS and VR lenses reduced the need for slower speeds."
From Ken's article that show just how stupid he can be. Tripods degrade sharpness. Wow. Shutter speeds have climbed. Wow again (I thought 1/200s was still 1/200s). Reduce the need for slower speeds. Wow yet again (what about slow speed being an artistic choice? what about moving subjects?)
"Hang onto your tripod if you're shooting a real camera like a Hasselblad, Gandolfi, Linhof, Silvestri, Horseman, Tachihara, Gilde, Seitz, Sinar or even a Wisner, Wista or Mamiya, but toss it if you're shooting a popular digital SLR. Also hang on to your pod if you don't have IS or VR on your telephoto yet, and for very long time exposures."
He uses the argument that anything beyond f8 will degrade the image which is somewhat true (probably f11 would be closer) with a DSLR crop cameras (more DOF). The Catch 22 is that his three article photos are with an extremely wide zoom (12-24) @ f4 at 1/4, 1/8, 1/15th second. This is actually possible since the focal length of 12mm is close to the 1/15 and 1/8th rule of thumb exposure focal length/time exposure guidelines. He also bumps up the ISO to meet conditions which is possible with a lot of high end digital cameras. He increases the odds of sharp pictures at night by continous shooting like 3FPS and beyond. Then just chooses which one work best, or doesn't show you the ones that didn't.
So yes, it is possible to shoot a lot of pictures without a tripod using the same equipment and techniques. Beyond that, he really stretching a point and sort of misleads newbies (who else reads Pop Photo) into thinking that if Rockwell can do it, then so can you.
Exactly. The guy is misleading in the extreme and presents no real reasons to support what he says. Yes, I can do what he did with really, really wide lenses on really fast bodies with crop sensors with IS lenses. Now is that a real world example? Not even close.
I always get sucked into this with the articles he writes. I ought to be smarter and just not read threads where his name shows up. I just can't help myself though, it's like telling yourself you won't look at the car wreck after you've waited 30 minutes in the traffic jam.
You're probably right. Cynical approach - write garbage to create controversy. Wouldn't surprise me in the slightest. Reinforces my already low opinion of him.
I like the guy but you better have your BS glasses on when reading most anything he writes. This is from his "About" page:
"This site is purely my personal speech and opinion, and a way for me to goof around.
While often inspired by actual products and events, just like any other good news organization, I like to make things up and stretch the truth if they make an article more fun. In the case of new products, rumors and just plain silly stuff, it's all pretend. If you lack a good BS detector, please treat this entire site as a work of fiction.
This site is provided only for the entertainment of my personal friends, dogs, family and myself. I've never promoted this site. If you're reading this, you got here on your own.
Read this site at your own risk. I make a lot of mistakes. I have no proof-reader and there are plenty of pages, like this one, which have been around since the 1990s and may no longer apply or be correct. I'm just one guy. No mater how stupid something may be, if I don't catch it, it gets out there anyway and stays wrong for years until someone points it out. I can't track everything; I've written thousand of pages and write a few more every day."
