Five Steps to Master Your 70-200mm Telephoto Lens

When you talk about landscape photography, chances are, you associate it with wide angle lenses. Telephoto lenses are probably the least used in landscape photography, but they do have some fantastic qualities to them.

In a new video of mine, I share five steps on how to master your telephoto lens. The step I forgot to include is you actually have to go out and practice. As an educated teacher and former sports coach, who has been working with kids since I was a teenager, I am a firm believer that you need some theory before you can practice. Theory and practice go hand in hand.

Understanding how a telephoto lens works and what it is capable of is essential to getting the most out of it. Telephoto lenses are available to all camera systems no matter the brand, and I highly recommend having one in your camera backpack whether it is the classic 70-200mm or a 100-400mm. When it comes to the aperture, I find it to be less important than weight, which is why I normally recommend the f/4 version of the 70-200mm. Enough about the specs; check out the video abovem and let me hear your thoughts. Can you add a tip or two to what I said?

Mads Peter Iversen's picture

Danish Fine Art Landscape Photographer and YouTuber. He is taking photos all over the world but the main focus is the cold, rough, northern part of Europe. His style is somewhere in between dramatic and colorful fantasy and Scandinavian minimalism. Be sure to check out his YouTube channel for epic landscape photography videos from around the world.

Log in or register to post comments
12 Comments

what are those 5 steps?

i’d rather read it in 5 minutes and be able to refer back to parts as necessary than sit for 16+. some people, myself included, retain knowledge better thru the written word than spoken or thru video. written can also help comprehension in cases where an accent differs greatly from what i’m normally accustomed to hearing.

Watch the video. It’s not difficult. Instead of wasting your time complaining constantly just accept the fact that some articles are text based and some aren’t. Try to remember that it’s not all about you. Got it? Good.

Try to remember that everyone has a right to state their preferences and opinions and what helps them learn because this is what this site is about and that it's not all about you either. Got it? Good.

Really. You’re defending someone who’s complaining about how the article is presented? Yes we can all state our preferences about this but complaint after complaint after complaint is just pathetic. Fstoppers provides a tonne of interesting and helpful articles much of which is original content but also they are kind enough to share others’. In this case they shared a video from another content producer. What were they supposed to do - contact the guy and tell him to go away and repost it in text format? Wake up.

“In this case they shared a video from another content producer.”

Ummm, no they didn’t. Mads made this article about a video he made. So, he could have easily added the list here. This argument would work in most cases, but not here. When insisting someone “wake up”, it’s best to ensure you have all of the facts straight, otherwise you risk looking foolish.

Furthermore, I second the idea of adding them in written form, when possible. I really like Mads and respect his work, but adding another 16 minute video to my already busy day is going to lower the likelyhood I’ll obtain that information. I understand why Mads didn’t do it, why take away views from his own video, and I can understand that.
He wasn’t thinking about only himself, you just seem to have misinterpreted the whole situation. Not everyone has the time to watch videos, and as he stated, it’s easier to pop back into an article to double check something or refresh.

Again stop complaining about the content and how it is produced here. If you don’t like it you’re free to leave the site. Just because you yourself don’t like watching video it doesn’t mean there isn’t plenty of those that do. Entitled much. Again, its not all about you.

Once again, you've misinterpreted a suggestion as a "complaint". I never said not to post videos, I seconded the idea that it would help to add the list to the article, when possible. In fact, they shouldn't post the information if it's from another creator because then they are actively taking views away from that creator. However, since Mads wrote and article about his own video, that's less of a problem.

Also, nice job completely ignoring that your entire argument was totally wrong because you either didn't bother to look or didn't notice that the guy in the article and the youtube thumbnail are the same guy with the same picture... you can't write comedy this golden.

Furthermore, I never said "I don't like" watching videos. I said "I don't have time" to watch every video published by every photographer, it's a big difference. Some of us have lives outside of being a troll on the internet. As a teacher, I really do have to ask you to read more carefully and do some some critical thinking before spewing your word vomit and continuing to make a fool of yourself. Out of respect for Mads, and my brain, I'm not going to waste more time with you by filling his article with one-sided arguments, so I'll leave with the following.

Simply put, stop complaining about people making insightful suggestions to help the site become more accessible to more people. Just because you yourself have time to watch every video every made in the universe, doesn't mean everyone else does. It's not all about you. Entitled much. If you hate the users here so much, you're free to leave the site.

All I'm saying is FStoppers have a good balance or original content both text based and video, plus shared content also some text based and some video. They don't deserve the criticism they are receiving about this imo. Apologies if my comments have upset you.

Educational, inspiring and very helpful tips to improve long lense landscape photography. Great work Mads ;)

I really need to use my long lens! Very informative!

Nothing to do with the article, but when the ad is a rather loud video that plays at the same time as the fstoppers video, I'm less inclined to stay on this page.

Although the video is quite informative, the title is very misleading. I got lost after few min of watching it. Most people use 70-200 for events / reportage rather than landscapes, and this is what I was expecting from the article. I do not shoot much of landscapes, hence there is less value for me in this video comparing with if the video would be about "Five Steps to Master Your 70-200mm Telephoto Lens for events photography". What are the 5 steps?? How composition and "turning off camera stabilisation are related to "Five Steps to Master Your 70-200mm Telephoto Lens"? Also, having an option to read it rather than watching 17 min video would be more productive and less time consuming for many people.