Helpline

About a year ago, you helped me decide on an SLR camera, and I love it. I've taken a short camera class only to learn there's so much more to learn. Now I want a versatile lens, so I can carry just one lens with me. I'll need a zoom (150mm to 300mm?) as I'm sure to be far away when I want to take pictures of tennis players and capture action shots. I know from friends that the lens can't be too long or you can't take it into sporting events, and I need a lens with stabilization. Also, I teach first-grade speakers of other languages, and I enjoy taking their pictures, too.

               
Capturing talent
Q) I want to start shooting photos of local bands and some other bigger acts that come through my area on a regular basis. I'm new to the D-SLR game and still learning all the things I can do with my camera. So I'm looking for some advice on what settings to use while in this type of situation. Of course, it's low-light and fast-moving action, along with light changing all the time. I'm in the market to buy a new lens specifically for this task, but would love to also use it in the field for the nature photography I'm starting to enjoy. I'll have access to the sides of the stage and the front of the stage on the calm side of the barrier, so I'd think that my shooting distances could range from about six to 25 feet.
 

Q) A lot has been written about the amazing things that can be done with plug-ins. PCPhoto has given me a lot of great tips as I've been learning more and more about using layers in order to fine-tune my digital images. I've become fascinated by what I can do with filters when editing my images. So now I'm wondering about whether I even need any filters when I take my digital photographs.

Q) I'm trying to figure out how the exposure compensation works on my digital SLR. It doesn't seem to affect the metering. Am I using it the right way, or is there a problem with my camera?

Step Up To A Larger Filter

Q) I'm about to purchase a 28-75mm lens for use with my digital SLR. It has a 67mm diameter lens; however, I have a 77mm circular polarizer that I would like to use with the new lens. I also plan to purchase a 67-77mm step-up adapter so that I can use these larger filters on the smaller lens. My question is, how will the quality of the image be affected by not using the exact size filter required, i.e., a 67mm polarizer on a 67mm lens?

Q) I just bought my first digital SLR; actually, it's my first SLR, too. I've been spending nights and weekends trying to learn all of the various features, but there's one feature that I'm just not getting. Depth-of-field preview doesn't seem to work-all it does is make the viewfinder darker.

Q) On my camera, I have the option of erasing my images, formatting my memory card and doing a low-level format of my memory card. Which should I be doing?

Q) Red-eye has been a problem that I thought might go away with my new camera. I talked to someone and they were talking about red-eye reduction and red-eye correction. When I took a picture, they said that my camera didn't have red-eye reduction because the flash only fired once, but my manual says it does. What's going on?

Q) I read your HelpLine column a few months back about photographing fireworks. Thanks for the tips. I really like the shots I got, but I'm wondering about overexposure. Also, the center of many of the fireworks seemed to be just plain white with no color. Was I exposing wrong?

Switching Hard Drives

Q) I had to replace my C drive and, as a result, reload all my software. This meant resetting preferences in my programs, etc. I had spent considerable time in Adobe Bridge classifying my pictures in various categories. Now that I reloaded CS2 and Bridge from scratch, those categories are "lost." I have the old C drive set up so I can access some of the information on it. Is there a file I can copy from the old drive onto the new drive that would restore my categories in Bridge?