Author: Tim Grey

Tim Grey is regarded as one of the top educators in digital photography and imaging, offering clear guidance on complex subjects through his writing, speaking, and training.
Posted on

Focal Length Distribution Around the World

A reader of my Ask Tim Grey eNewsletter had watched my webinar presentation where I talked about the lessons I learned while traveling around the world on an extended trip, using only a single lens for the full trip. They send an inquiry, curious about what the “histogram” distribution of lens focal length used during trip looked like.

I should hasten to point out that the single lens I used during this trip was the Tamron 18-400mm lens (https://bhpho.to/2DPkI3C) on a camera with a 1.6X cropping factor. That translates to a range of about 29mm to 640mm in 35mm (full frame) equivalent focal lengths. So I wasn’t exactly making a big compromise when it came to available focal lengths for my photography by using a single lens.

Below is a histogram chart showing the distribution of focal lengths used, but the chart is admittedly not the easiest to read because of the scale of the data.  So I’ll start with some stats that help illustrate how the lens was put to use.

During the trip I captured a total of 8,342 photos with my digital SLR and single-lens combination. Of those, 2,253 (17%) were captured all the way at the maximum focal length of 400mm. Another 648 (almost 8%) were captured at the minimum focal length of 18mm. So just about one-quarter of all photos captured during my travels made use of the minimum or maximum focal length.

Beyond that the range was somewhat evenly distributed, with a bit more representation at the shorter focal length range compared to middle to long focal lengths.

The distribution is interesting to me, but in retrospect it makes sense. As much as an all-in-one lens such as the 18-400mm lens I was using provides a wide range of focal length options, very often I found myself at the limit. It seems when it comes to lens focal length, we always want either as much zoom as possible or as wide a field of view as possible.

Here’s the histogram chart, which you can click on the chart to see it in a bit more detail:

The presentation that inspired the question was on the subject of “Lessons Learned Around the World with One Lens” after an extended trip in 2019. You can view a recording of that presentation on my Tim Grey TV channel on YouTube here:

https://youtu.be/dOHcN1fzvw4

Posted on

Webinar Recording: Tracking Photo Locations in Lightroom Classic

In my latest presentation as part of the GreyLearning Webinar Series I shared tips for keeping track of the location where you captured your photos using a variety of options in Adobe Lightroom Classic. The recording of the  “Tracking Photo Locations in Lightroom Classic“ presentation has now been published on my “Tim Grey TV” channel on YouTube, and you can view the recording here:

https://youtu.be/4Xdl0Goa4dA

Posted on

New Course: “Organizing Photos in Lightroom Classic 10”

I have just published a comprehensive new video course on “Organizing Photos in Lightroom Classic 10“, which includes more than 100 lessons totaling more than six hours of informative content.

This is the first in a series of courses on Adobe Lightroom Classic 10, and you can save by pre-ordering the full bundle of courses covering all aspects of Lightroom Classic.

The next course is in production, and will focus on “Optimizing Photos in Lightroom Classic 10”. After that, I will be publishing courses on configuring Lightroom Classic, sharing photos with Lightroom Classic, and more.

You can get details of the full bundle of courses covering Lightroom Classic 10 on the Greylearning website here:

https://www.greylearning.com/bundles/lightroom-classic-10

 

Posted on

Online Workshop in December 2020

In early December I will be teaching another online workshop for photographers, this time focused on “Organizing Photos in Lightroom Classic“.

During the live online sessions, I’ll share tips for defining your workflow for organizing photos, and demonstrate how to use the many organizational features of Adobe Lightroom Classic. Workshop participants will gain confidence in their ability to keep their photos organized, and will be able to get answers to their specific questions along the way.

This online workshop includes four live online sessions of two hours each, along with the opportunity to ask questions during the live sessions or by follow-up email.

If you’d like to learn to streamline your organizational workflow in Lightroom Classic, you can get all of the details of this online workshop here:

https://www.greylearning.com/courses/online-workshop-organizing-photos-in-lightroom-classic

Posted on

19 Years of “Ask Tim Grey”!

Today marks 19 years since I sent out the first Ask Tim Grey eNewsletter, though it was called “Digital Darkroom Questions” back then.

That has added up to 4,307 (and counting!) editions of the email newsletter, with an answer to at least one question from a photographer in each of those emails.

I’m astounded that this email newsletter has continued for so long, and I am tremendously grateful to all of the photographers who invite me into their email inbox each weekday morning. If you’d like to help support the Ask Tim Grey eNewsletter, take a look at the Ask Tim Grey Membership here:

https://www.greylearning.com/courses/ask-tim-grey-membership

Also, if you’re not yet receiving the Ask Tim Grey eNewsletter, you can sign up  here:

http://timgrey.me/atg

Posted on

New Course: “Photo Planning with PhotoPills”

I am pleased to announce that I have published a new GreyLearning course focused on helping you plan many aspects of your photography using the powerful PhotoPills app for mobile devices (iOS and Android).

To celebrate the launch of the new “Photo Planning with PhotoPills” course, for a limited time you can get $10 off. You can get all of the details with the “pillslaunch” coupon code applied automatically by using this link to get started:

https://www.greylearning.com/courses/photopills?coupon=pillslaunch

The “Photo Planning with PhotoPills” course features almost four hours of in-depth lessons to help you master the many powerful tools of this app. From basic details like the timing of sunrise and sunset, to specific planning such as determining when the sunset will align with a specific subject, you’ll be amazed at how much the PhotoPills app can help in your photography.

For example, I use PhotoPills to plan where and when I need to be in order to capture photos that include the sun and moon. PhotoPills can also be used to calculate exposure settings, determine depth of field, find out when you can view and photograph the Milky Way and meteor showers, and much more.

Posted on

Online Workshops for November 2020

In November I will be leading two online workshops in my “virtual classroom”, with one focused on optimizing photos in Lightroom Classic and the other on creating composite images in Adobe Photoshop.

Each of the online workshops features four live online sessions of two hours each, for a total of eight hours of live online learning for each of the workshops. The topics for these online workshops will be:

Optimizing Photos in Lightroom Classic

and:

Creating Composite Images in Photoshop

You can learn more about the individual online workshops with the links above. If you’re interested in joining me for both of these online workshops, you can save by signing up for the bundle of both workshops here:

https://www.greylearning.com/bundles/online-workshops-november-2020

Posted on

Discount on GoodSync Backup Software

I use GoodSync software to backup my photos and other important data. This software makes it easy to maintain a backup that is an exact match of the source data. Among other things that makes it incredibly easy to recover from a hard drive failure, because the synchronized backup can easily be put to use in place of the original drive.

If you’re interested in using GoodSync in your own backup workflow, you can now get a discount off a subscription to GoodSync (through December 31, 2020) by using this link to get started:

https://timgrey.me/goodsyncoffer