Canon EF 70-200mm f/4L IS USM Lens Sample Pictures

The silhouette of two girls standing on top of a stone mountain.

This was nearly the last shot fired in an AI Servo burst sequence - before the puppy attacked me (playing of course). Photographing dogs running is very challenging. First, get down to their level (I was flat in the grass) use AI Servo AF mode to track the fast-approaching dog. A fast shutter speed is required to stop the action which means good light (this shot was taken in late afternoon on a sunny day) or a high ISO setting. Shooting with a narrow aperture will give you a higher focus-hit-rate as depth of field will be deeper. Shoot lots of shots and only keep the best.

A row of very large Maple Trees are backlit by a rising sun. A tripod was used for this shot.

Getting three young girls to get into a reasonable position for their group portrait is not easy. Studio lighting is provided by Elinchrom Digital Style RX Monolights.

Field grass plumes make easy photo subjects. The dark background is provided by a shaded mountainside.

Because keeping the site going consumes such a huge amount of time, I'm very frequently including work with family - and family outings. On this day, we were going "mountain biking" (testing the Zeiss 21mm ZE Distagon Lens actually) on the Rails-to-Trails near Weikert, PA.
 
As we pulled into the parking area, I suggested we hike a short distance into the open woods to scout photo ops - I mean ... to scout Penn's Creek for swimming opportunities. As we entered the woods, I reminded the kids that they HAD to be able to see where they were walking as rattlesnakes were known to be in the area. Within 3 minutes, my middle daughter let out an excited/panic "RATTLESNAKE".
 
Of course, I had the 70-200mm f/4 L IS nearby in the SUV and quickly went to work. The pit viper was high on my list of wanted photographs and this one was very cooperative.
 
The snake was initially under a large tree branch, so I took a set of shots prior to potentially disrupting the situation. I then carefully removed the branch and took some more shots (more insurance shots). I then (using a stick) removed a leaf partly blocking the snake near its head. More good news - the 4' Timber Rattlesnake posed very nicely.
 
Acting fast (didn't know how long the snake would remain in a good photo position), I opted to shoot handheld in this full shade location. Image stabilization allowed me to shoot at a still-high-quality ISO 400 while having a decent f/8 aperture (for DOF) - while standing on unstable rocks.
 
Once again, the kids had a great experience learning about nature (yes, they know what a rattlesnake sounds like now) and I got my shot. And we had a great bike ride through a beautiful part of this state. A win/win day as usual.

Fog over Upper Hadlock Pond in Acadia National Park near Northeast Harbor (Mt Dessert Island, Maine) catches light from the bright sky not included in the frame. The large, calm pond provides reflections of the fall foliage colors.

The rising sun touches the tip of Grand Teton. This shot was taken at Schwabacher Landing in Grand Teton National Park.

A cute little girl in the studio can make any photographer look good.

A row of Bleeding Hearts blooms line the curving stem of this plant. The even lighting is from a cloudy sky.

Well, the mountain happens to be short, but it is fun to play on for the little girl crouched on top.

Undine Falls is one of many beautiful waterfalls in Yellowstone National Park. To create the motion blur, I selected a time of the day when the falls and gorge would be evenly lit (mid day with cloud cover) and used a 6-stop neutral density filter and ISO 50 to reduce my shutter speed. A casual photographer can be seen at the top of the falls, giving scale to the scene.

Telephoto lenses are able to isolate many compositions from a single waterfall. For this image, I zoomed into the base of the falls using a portion of the pool of water for the base of the image.
 
A B+W XS-Pro circular polarizer filter was used for this picture.

A sunrise lights the light fog in the valleys and casts shadows from the Hickory Trees in this picture.

A Golden Retriever puppy running as fast as it can go - ears flopping in the wind.

A Japanese Maple Tree in full fall color lights up this yard's landscape.

This Bryce Canyon National Park Panaroma was shot handheld from a location near Sunrise Point - at sunset. I was having trouble deciding which specific framing I liked best at this site, so, after shooting a lot of frames, blanketed the area with shots (using identical camera and lens settings). I later pieced the images together in Photoshop and cropped this shot from them.

Only three flowers on this mum retain their color. No tripod was used for this shot.

Near the North entrance to Yellowstone park is a small parking lot. A trail from this lot leads to hot spring flow from Mammoth Hot Springs. Swimming is permitted here (as of summer 2007 at least). The water temperature ranges from hotter than one can stand to cold. Move around until you find the temperature right for you. Montana mountains can be seen in the distance.

This picture clearly represents what this little girl felt like doing at the moment.

These mountaintops are located near Mammouth Hot Springs and the North entrance of Yellowstone National Park. The very large clouds are the result of heat from an also-very-large forest fire beyond Jardine. This shot was taken from the banks of the Yellowstone River.

The Giant Seqouia trees are the big attraction at Sequoia National Park. I was attempting to include a layer of green in front of and behind the Giant Sequoia in this picture. Keeping the layers sharp (to keep enough DOF) at this focal length required a narrower aperture than I normally like to use.

There was no fog on the north end of Eagle Lake (Acadia National Park) this morning, but the fall colors reflected very nicely.

A full body portrait with a big smile.

These mountains are located just outside the North entrance to Yellowstone National Park in the Western town of Gardiner.

Well, about as close-up as you want to get to a working track loader at least. Dangerous equipment is a good reason to use a telephoto lens.

A small girl stands in the alpine glow (a stretch of the term on this small scale mountain). Note that this picture and the two additional linked shots were carefully focused, framed and shot within 13 seconds of the first shot - representing the value of a zoom lens. These shots also represent the focal length range of this lens.

A little girl hugs her foal.

Actually, the horse is being stubborn with regards to going down the hill.

The blue, the white and the various-colored sandstone are signatures to a Lake Powell photo. This photo was shot near sunset from a location near the Lake Powell Resort.

Still-shaded trees frame the beautiful Grand Teton mountains as the sun touches their tops. Interesting is that the clouds are also shaded.

You've probably seen many of the product images I create on this site, but ... did you ever wonder what lens I used to capture them? No, it was not with the Canon EF 35mm f/1.4L II USM Lens shown in this photo.
 
I take a lot of photographs of products and, somewhat uniquely, my most-frequently photographed products are cameras and lenses. Taking pictures of a camera and lens of course requires a ... camera and lens.
 
The standardized product images found in the site's comparison tool have been captured by a Canon EF 180mm f/3.5L USM Macro Lens. Off topic, but in case you were also wondering, this lens is semi-permanently locked onto a Manfrotto 400 Deluxe Geared Head on a slightly customized (wheels removed) Manfrotto O800 Static Camera Stand. The head is great and the stand is sturdy and compact, though it permits a significant amount of vibration. As long as I use mirror lockup along with the self-timer to release the shutter, vibrations stabilize and, they wouldn't matter anyway as my studio lights have a very short duration that would freeze any movement.
 
While I use this setup for a significant percentage of the product images I create, The 180 L is not my most-used product photography lens. That honor goes to the Canon EF 70-200mm f/4L IS USM Lens. Why use this telephoto zoom for camera and lens product photography?
 
The focal lengths in the 70-200mm range create a reasonable (slightly compressed) perspective that works well on camera gear. The focal length range of this lens also makes it easy to keep the white shooting table background completely in the frame. Wider angle lenses must be closer to the shooting table to avoid extraneous subject matter. While that closer distance can work, there is some flexibility lost (and a closer perspective results with parts closer to the camera appearing larger than those farther away).
 
This lens is very sharp, corner to corner, even on a full frame body. Ticking the CA removal check box seals the deal.
 
While I also have the f/2.8 version of this lens, I don't need an aperture that wide when I'm shooting with studio strobes (f/11 is the aperture I most-often use). The narrower max aperture allows for the f/4L IS to be a relatively lightweight lens, inducing less fatigue (along with less wear and tear on my body).
 
Very helpful is that this is an image stabilized lens. While the studio strobes are fast enough to stop any camera motion, image stabilization greatly aids in subject framing.
 
The 70-200 f/4L IS is a very useful lens for other purposes, including landscape photography. The additional versatility makes having this lens in the kit a better business proposition.
 
The weakest aspect of this lens for product photography use? It does not focus close enough to frame smaller subjects tightly. If I need to more maximum magnification, I'll most often use the Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L IS USM Macro Lens, though extension tubes can remedy this issue to some extent.
 
Products come in all sizes and most lenses can be used for product photography of some kind. The range of sizes covered by a telephoto zoom, especially if you have plenty of working space, are great.

An October Glory Maple Leaf to be specific. Interestingly, this tree gets its brilliant fall color in November at our house.

A little girl sitting in a field pulls her shoe laces tight. Lighting is from a nearly set sun.

Bryce Canyon National Park is simply full of unique rock formations. One of my favorites is this dragon-like rock formation near Mossy Cave.

A young girl poses for her portrait. Lighting is from 3 Elinchrom Digital Style RX Monolights.

Clouds block the sun from lighting the top of this rocky mountain resulting in an unusual (reverse-normal) shading in the picture. This mountain is located in the northern area of Yellowstone National Park.

Multiple White Birch Tree trunks are sharp in focus while the background pleasantly blurred.

A young girl shows the serious look in her portrait.

While I spent a lot of time in Lamar Valley looking for wildlife, the scenery is very worthy of photographs as well.

Bryce Canyon has simply amazing landscape. This waterfall is located in Water Canyon and is most accessible from the Mossy Cave Trail.

I was looking for a composition that would capture the unique horizontal cloud bank that was hanging over the Pacific Ocean just south of the Point Sur Lighthouse in Big Sur when I discovered this row of evergreens. I composed this shot for strong horizontal lines and features running through the frame opposed by the contrasting vertical tree trunks.