Photography 101

[B. Self Reliant]

Glad folks are still enjoying this thread. I can't stress the importance of the book I mentioned in my first post enough. It's amazing, is a much better teacher than I am, & is very easy to understand!

I have the next post concerning lighting written, but I still need to make & process the images for it. Unlike the other posts that made use of images I already had, this next one needs human subjects, so I had to get original with it and it's taking a long time! Given the nature of this forum, I can't use images of my clients. . .

Give me a few more days!

 

[JBlaze]

I think I'll buy that book. I somehow found the self-restraint not to go out and buy a camera on a whim. I'll finish the book first then make an objective decision.

Any rigs BSR that you would recommend to the hobbyist? Something I could grow into and not break the bank roll.

 

[B. Self Reliant]

The book is great! Read the chapters I recommended in my first post and you'll be amazed at the improvement in your images. I can't vouch for that book enough!

Depends on what you mean by break the bank!

The Canon 7D is amazing for the money. It's still between $1000 & $1500, but it takes amazing HD video as well. This is great because even if you have a video camera and an SLR, it sin't practical to carry both with you all the time. One camera body, one set of lenses, and you can take great stills and incredible HD video. Dream come true!

This camera has been awaited for many many years and it has/will change EVERYTHING.

That camera with a 50mm f/1.4 lens could be had for about $2k and it would be a shit hot setup. Throw in a 28mm lens & a speedlight and you're literally ready for anything!

 

[B. Self Reliant]

6. Lighting

Introduction
Photography is light. Pure & simple. Not only is light what makes photography physically possible, but it also has the power to make a mediocre image into a spectacular image. Granted, a small percentage of outstanding images are great simply because of the subject matter, but most great images that we all admire on a daily basis are spectacular largely because of the light.

For example, if you want to take a picture of the world’s largest indoor cannabis plant that fills up the inside of a grain silo, even without spectacular light it’ll be an amazing photo due solely to the content of the image. However, an image of the 250 watt “super dank” bag seed SCROG growing in your basement isn’t going to be memorable to anyone unless you learn how to light it!

This plant was nothing to write home about. It was grown under a T5 fixture so I could use it’s pollen, plain and simple. However, I don’t have males hanging around my garden too often, so I wanted to document it. Because I took the time to light it in an interesting manner, it’s a halfway decent image. Light can make all the difference!

If you haven’t read my previous posts in this thread, you should, because this post builds on the previous topics. Take special note of the section on manual exposure, because artificial lighting doesn’t work well with an kind of automatic camera! This section is pretty involved, and lighting really separates the hacks from the dedicated photographers, so be prepared to be slammed with quite a bit of information. It’ll be worth it though, I promise! I’ll cover the topic very briefly, and if you feel the desire to go further, buy the book I mentioned in my first post.

General Thoughts & Goals Pertaining to Lighting
I would define “good light” as light that supports your overall vision for the picture you’re about to take. When I shoot weddings, I’m looking for a different kind of light than when I’m shooting a portrait of a rough & tough biker fellow who just got into a bar fight! The bride might look best in soft, flattering light that minimizes skin blemishes, because it’s the bride’s big day and she wants to look better than any other day of her life. The biker on the other hand would probably look better with some sort of harsh, contrasty light that would accentuate his wrinkles, scars and other “rough & tough” features. Just like with exposure, depth of field, shutter speed, composition and the other tools a photographer has at their disposal, the light should be used as an intentional tool that portrays the subject how you the photographer chooses. WHat story are you trying to tell with your images? How can you use the tools at your disposal to tell that story to others?

Great lighting can be seen all around you on a daily basis. If you want an example of how light can change the way a subject looks, watch a movie or two, taking mental note of the way the lighting effects the way you “see” the subject. When a cinematographer wants to portray Batman as an intimidating person, he might keep Batman’s face in shadow by back lighting him. This would portray him as ominous and threatening. When the same cinematographer wants to portray Rachel Dawes (batman’s girlfriend) as affectionate and feminine, he might have a flat, more even light to minimize shadows. This would make her look flattering and approachable. Even without knowing all the technical lighting terms and lingo, you can watch a movie and see how the light affects your perception.

We’ll start off by covering ambient light, then we’ll move on to artificial lighting. I’ll be covering the very large topic of lighting in this order for a couple of reasons. First, artificial lights are generally are used to mimic ideal ambient lighting conditions, so you need to understand ambient light to use them properly. Second, the ambient section will apply to both Picture Takers & Image Makers, but the second section will be much more relevant to the Image Makers armed with SLR cameras.


Ambient Light - Intro
Ambient light is defined as the light that’s naturally in your frame. It isn’t introduced specifically for photographic purposes. Many times it’s sunlight, but it can be artificial light as well. If you’re making images of your buddies sharing a joint, chances are you aren’t going to turn out the ceiling lights just for the sake of your image, so in that case we’d call the lamp light ambient light. Ambient light is something that everyone can take advantage of. Even with an automatic camera, you can choose to shoot from one angle over another. Don’t just pull out your camera and snap away! View your light source as negotiable and understand that how you choose to use your ambient light will have a huge effect on your final image.

The qualities of the ambient light you’re working with at any given time is critical. What direction it’s coming from, how high it is in relation to your subject, & how diffused it is are all critical factors to consider.

Ambient Light - Direction

An image is front lit when the light source is very close to your camera. It might be above your camera, below your camera or even ON your camera. Front lit subjects tend to look flat due to a lack of shadows.

When the light source is moved to one side or the other, front lighting becomes side lighting. The farther to the side the light goes, the more dramatic the subject will look. By moving the light source 90 degrees off camera, this image is an extreme example of side lighting.

When the light source is behind the subject, we’d call that back lighting. If a back light is your only light source, you will need to overexpose the rest of the frame in order to correctly expose the side of your subject that’s facing the camera.

When back lighting is used more moderately or to supplement another light source, it is sometimes called a rim light. It adds a nice rim of light to the subject that enables the subject to pop out of the background. This works especially well when the subject and the background are both dark, such as someone’s dark hair against a black wall. Rim lights work best with hair, sweaters and other things that have texture which catches the light.


Ambient Light - Height
Keep in mind that we live in a three dimensional world, so the height of the light source in relation to your subject is important as well. If the ambient light source is level with your subject, it is generally seen as very desirable because the under sides of things aren’t left in the dark (such as eye sockets). This is one of the many reasons that early morning sunlight and late afternoon sunlight are seen as very desirable to photographers. We call it the “Golden Hour.” When the sun is too high, it leaves shadows inside of eye sockets, a.k.a. “raccoon eyes.” An extreme example of this is making a portrait of someone at high noon in direct sunlight. They’d look horrible & have huge black spots where their eyes should be seen! This isn’t a black & white issue, but generally speaking, the lower the sun gets, the better the quality light.

It’s also worth noting that natural forms of light come from the side or above, but never below. Ever wonder why kids will hold a flashlight under their face when telling a ghost story? It’s because this angle of light doesn’t appear in the natural world, and therefor it tends to look mysterious or even frightful.

Ambient Light - Degree of Diffusion
The degree of diffusion that a light source has is just as important as the direction or height. On one extreme end of the spectrum, you have direct light sources that produce dark shadows with very distinct lines between the highlights and shadows. On the other extreme end of the spectrum, you have diffused light sources that show almost no directionality & produce very graduated transitions between the highlights & shadows.

This image was made with a harsh light source. Notice the razor-thin line that separates the shadows from the highlights.

This image was made with a more diffused light source. Notice the gradual transition between the highlights & the shadows.

Most light sources can’t be defined as harsh or diffused. That would be like trying to set hard & fast rules about what constitutes “mids” and what constitutes “the dank.” There’s a gradual transition between the two, and most light sources fit somewhere in between these two extremes. Sunlight on a clear day between the hours of 10 & 2 would be a great example of a very harsh, direct light source. It would produce hard, dark shadows. Sunlight on a totally overcast day would be a very soft, diffused light source. Window light seen from the inside of a small room would be somewhere in between these two extremes, as it’s directional, but also diffused enough to produce softer transitions between the highlights & shadows than direct sunlight would provide.

Ambient Light - Manipulation
If direction, height & the degree of diffusion are some things to be aware of when working with ambient light, how does this knowledge help you? Can ambient light be manipulated? How can a photographer change the direction, height, or degree of diffusion of ambient light sources such as the sun or a light fixture that’s bolted to the ceiling?

Let’s start with how you can take control of the degree of diffusion. The size of the light source in relation to the size of the subject is what dictates how diffused a light source appears. I’ll say that again. . . the size of the light source in relation to the size of the subject is what dictates how diffused a light source appears. A light source that’s large in relation to your subject will appear to be very diffused. A light source that’s small in relation to your subject will appear very harsh.

Let’s say you’re making an outdoor portrait of a friend, and it just happens to be about 1 PM on cloudless day. If you put your friend directly in the sun, the resulting image will have very harsh light with dark shadows. Why? Because the noonday sun is a very small source of light in relation to your friend. The sun isn’t small at all you say? Well, for our purposes it’s VERY small because it’s so far away. Instead, find a white wall that’s reflecting the sun’s harsh light and face your friend towards it. The wall now becomes your light source, and it’s very large compared to your friend. By doing that, you’ve taken a light source that’s relatively small and made it into a relatively large light source. It will therefor be very diffused! Even a shaded area will produce diffused light. Think about it. . . if your subject is in the shade, they aren’t receiving any direct sun, so they’re being lit by light that’s bouncing off all kinds of sources.

When a small light source directly illuminates your subject, it’s very harsh and contrasty. The light source is small in relation to the subject, so the light is harsh. Notice the hard shadows on the face. This isn’t good or bad, but the light should match your subject and the story you want your image to tell.

Instead of the tiny flash illuminating the subject, we bounce the light off of a larger object such as a wall. The wall is large in relation to the subject, so the light is diffused. Again, this isn’t good or bad, but the qualities of the light should match the story you’re trying to tell with your image.

Modifying an ambient light source’s direction is an easy fix. Move your subject! Move your subject! Move your subject! I covered this in my first post, and I’ll say it again here. If a photographer doesn’t care enough about their photographs to move their subject, why should viewers care about the resulting image? Don’t settle for side lighting when you were hoping for front lighting. Don’t settle for front lighting when you were hoping for back lighting. This is especially true when photographing objects such as plants. It's an inanimate object that's relatively easy to move, so don't be lazy!

The last (and maybe the best) option you have when manipulating ambient light is the use of reflectors. A reflector is any object that will reflect light. Commercially available reflectors are handy because they can be folded up and easily carried when not in use, but once they’ve been opened up, they don’t do anything that a large, flat piece of styrofoam won’t do. A piece of cardboard that’s been painted flat white will also work, along with a million and one other things. It’s easiest to use reflectors when the original light source is fairly strong & harsh. It can be tough to find a diffused light source that’s strong enough to be effectively bounced, but then again, the more diffused your original light source is, the less use a reflector is!

This is a side lit image. There is no reflector being used to bounce fill light back into the dark side of the bottle. Notice how much difference there is between the shadows and the highlights. This is very dramatic light. . . which may or may not be suited to your subject.

This image has been lit by the same light source as the last image. Without adding another light source, the dark side of the bottle has been filled in with the use of a reflector. It’s a cheap & easy fix that professionals use all the time! The closer the reflector is to the subject, the more light it will add to the shadowed side of the subject. Here, the reflector is about 2 feet away from the bottle, and the darker side of the bottle shows detail, but is still much darker than the bright side. The reflector is always placed opposite the light source, so in a traditional indoor grow room lit by HPS bulbs, you would place the reflector underneath the plants in order to bounce the light back up into the underside of the plants.

This image is once again lit by the same light source as the previous two images. The reflector has been moved to within 1 foot of the bottle to bounce fill light into the dark side. Because the reflector is so much closer than in the last image, the fill light is much stronger. The dark side is now almost as bright as the lit side. Notice that my reflector for this demonstration is a white door in my home. I bet you have some good reflectors in your home too!

These last three images show that photography isn’t dependent on expensive gear. Anyone armed with an SLR camera, some window light and a piece of styrofoam for a reflector can create incredible images. Anyone claiming that great images are made by expensive equipment is a fool! Knowledgeable photographers can consistently make good images with minimal expensive gear.

Artificial Light - Introduction
Artificial light can be from flash units or any constant light source that’s brought into the situation for photographic reasons. Flashes are used more often than not because they produce light that’s much, much brighter than most constant light sources. Constant light sources that are anywhere near as powerful as flash units are huge in size and generate enormous amounts of heat. However, constant light sources such as LED lights or tungsten lights can be used in conjunction with a tripod when shooting subjects that don’t move, such as. . .oh, I don’t know. . . a cannabis plant! Most people start with constant artificial light sources because they’re cheap and readily available, but if you’re shooting on a regular basis, they’ll drive you insane and you’ll probably feel the desire to upgrade to a flash unit.

Artificial lights are generally used to mimic natural ambient light, so it makes sense that many of the same concepts apply. The size of the light source, the height of the light source and the degree of diffusion that the light source has are all still relevant. The only real difference is that once your flashes are set up, these attributes can be changed very easily without moving yourself or your subject. Of course artificial lights can be used to supplement ambient light, or they can be used in an otherwise dark location as the only source of light.

Here’s a scanned page from the photography book I recommended in my first post. It’s very helpful, and it shows how lights are commonly set up. Take note of the fact that there’s only one light source in each image for demonstration purposes. Most of time, either more than one light is used, or else ambient light is used in conjunction with one or more artificial sources.

At this point, fill light needs to be brought up. Fill light doesn’t dictate the exposure, and it doesn’t illuminate the subject in and of itself. It simply fills in the shadows (see the second & third hot sauce bottles above). By definition, your key light is the brightest light source that dictates your exposure. Typically, a fill light that’s almost as bright as the key light is used for flattering portraits because it minimizes shadows made by wrinkles and other imperfections (the third bottle). However, this can also make the subject look flat and uninteresting. Less fill light will make the subject look more contrasty and will accentuate the age and imperfections of a person (the second bottle). Which kind of fill do you think is typically used in Cosmopolitan, and which kind of fill is typically used in portraits of heavy metal bands?

Fill light is generally spread as evenly as possible over the shadowed area of the subject. Again, an example of fill light can be seen by looking at the hot sauce bottles above. The flash is the brightest sources of light, and therefor dictates our exposure. The reflector is the fill and merely fills in the shadows, making them brighter than they would otherwise be.

 

[B. Self Reliant]

Artificial Light - Practical Application

In this image, the exposure has been set to properly expose the subject. Because the background is brighter than the subject, it becomes overexposed and we lose the ability to see any detail in the background.

In this image, the exposure has been set to properly expose for the background. Because the subject is darker than the background, it becomes underexposed and we lose the ability to see detail in the subject.

In this image, the exposure has been set to properly expose for the background, and fill flash has been used to fill in the subject. By adjusting the power of the flash, the photographer could have filled in the subject to a greater or lesser extent. When using flash, you no longer need to choose between properly exposing your subject or the background. You can have it all! The challenge becomes using flash in a way that mimics pleasing ambient light.

This is a portrait that was made at Venice Beach in SoCal. Here, the ambient light was underexposed to give the sky a deep blue color, & flash was used to properly expose the subject’s face. The dark shadows on the side of the subject’s face are a side effect of underexposing the ambient light, which in this case is also our fill light (by default). If a second flash unit would have been available at the time, it could have been used as a fill flash to bring detail back to the dark side of the subject’s face. The more lights you have, the more options you have. Practicality & mobility often become the dictating issues. How much gear are you willing to bring to your guerilla plot?

This image demonstrates a popular technique. Here, the ambient light is underexposed by a little bit less than the last image. Therefor, the sky isn’t as saturated, but the fill is brighter too. Even the dark side of the subject's face is quite bright. The flash is set to properly expose the left side of the subject’s face, making the underexposed ambient light act as a natural fill light on the right side of the face.

This image has too much fill flash in my opinion. When a hood is up like this, the viewer expects the face to be slightly darker than usual, and the flash makes the subject look too bright, and the result looks artificial. Much of lighting is subjective, and what looks good will depend on opinion and the photographer’s objectives.

Here, the fill flash was toned down a little bit in order to make the eyes visible, but maintain the darker face that people expect from a hooded face. Again, flash should subtly mimic and supplement the natural ambient light. You don’t want it to look artificial! This subject lived on the streets and was a tough fellow. I lit him differently than I lit the girlfriend I had brought to the beach that day. She'd look ridiculous with dramatic lighting and a hood over her head, just like this fellow would look ridiculous in soft, flattering light! What story are YOU trying to tell in YOUR image?



Equipment
Picture takers armed with point & shoot cameras are rather limited here, so I’m going to concentrate on those of you who are Image Makers armed with SLR cameras that are shot in manual mode.

I will also concentrate on the use of speedlights that are mounted to the camera. Off camera flashes that are triggered remotely are great tools, but when used this way, the flashes must be used in manual mode. The methods I’ll cover here make use of automatic, or TTL, flash. The only way to utilize TTL flash is to attach the flash unit to your camera’s hotshoe.

This is a speedlight mounted directly onto the camera’s hotshoe. I recommend only using speedlights made by the same manufacturer as your camera body, unless your manufacturer recommends otherwise. These little flash units work great on or off camera under an extremely wide array of situations. If I had to choose one lighting product to use all the time, this would be it! Speedlights can be used in a manual mode or in TTL mode. TTL mode is an automatic mode that works very well under most conditions.

Speedlights offer many advantages over the built-in flashes that come with some SLR camera bodies and on all point & shoot cameras, but the main advantage is that you can point the flash in any direction you want. This enables bounce lighting. Remember when we went over the degree of diffusion a light source has? Well, when a flash unit that’s on top of your camera is fired directly at a subject, it’s such a small light source that it will leave harsh shadows and look nasty. Unlike built-in flash units, speedlights can be turned in different directions. Shooting inside under a white ceiling? Easy fix! Point your speedlight head at the ceiling and the small flash unit becomes a huge source of light as big as the ceiling itself. You can bounce flash off of anything, just be aware that if the wall/ceiling/object you’re bouncing off of isn’t white, you’ll get a color cast that will look horrible. Try and stick to white objects when bouncing your speedlight.

When bouncing off the ceiling, the majority of the light will be coming from above the subject, giving them a “raccoon eyes” effect. This can be minimized by using the bounce card that’s built into many speedlights. The bounce card will direct a small portion of the light directly onto the subject to fill in the shadows under the eyes. Of course the same thing would happen with a bud shot or anything else. If your speedlight doesn’t have a bounce card, use a 3”x5” notecard attached with a rubber band.

This is another way to use your speedlight in TTL mode. The advantage of the TTL cord is that you can dictate which direction the flash is coming from. You aren’t limited to front lighting or bounce lighting, so methods such as side lighting become options you can utilize. You can still bounce if you want, but when there isn’t a white ceiling or wall to bounce off of, the TTL cord enables you to avoid the nasty look of on-camera direct flash. TTL cords prevent red eye as well. The closer the flash is to the lens, the more red eye you will get in your images.


White Balance - How to Beat HPS Orange
This last section deals with color balance. Color balance is measured in degrees kelvin. The higher the kelvin temperature, the cooler (bluer) a light source will look. The lower the kelvin temperature, the warmer (redder) a light source will look. Ever see a little sun symbol on your camera? How about a lightbulb? Those are manual white balance settings. Use them! Here’s some examples:

It’s not really important to remember the different temps, but know what they mean. Your white balance, whether dictated in-camera (shooting jpegs) or in a post-processing program such as Photoshop or Lightroom (shooting RAW files), can only be set to one temperature. What this means is that if you use flash (5500k) as your dominant (key) light source, but your fill light is a tungsten lamp, then you’ll have a problem because they aren’t the same Kelvin temp. You can set your white balance to 5500k and the majority of the frame will look great, but the part of the subject’s face that’s lit by the tungsten lamp will appear to be much warmer (a nasty yellowish color). If you try to fix that portion of the face by setting your white balance to 3200k, then the rest of the frame will be much too cool (a sickly bluish color). You can only have one white balance! This is why most flash units and speedlights are set to emit a white balance of around 5500k. It matches sunlight, which a common source of light that photographers use.

This is what happens with mixed lighting sources! A tungsten lamp is on the right, but the flash coming from the left is much cooler. Nasty! Here the white balance was set to 5500k, so the tungsten lamp looks awful.

This is the same image, but it’s been balanced for the tungsten lamp. Now the side illuminated by the flash is a sickly blue color! Since you can only white balance one or the other, the only solution is to balance the flash with a gel.

When shooting without flash, you can run into multiple light sources with different kelvin temps, and this is obviously a problem. There’s not much you can do about this. There are solutions but they aren’t that practical. I’d recommend either setting your white balance to the most prominent light source that’s illuminating your subject, or else converting the image file to black and white on your computer. When I shoot for clients, I avoid locations with mixed lighting like they’re the plague! If it’s unavoidable, I’ll convert those particular images to black & white after the fact. Not much else you can do.

Another problem you can run into is using your 5500k flash alongside an ambient light source with a different kelvin temp. For example, if you’re shooting under tungsten lighting and want to use flash, you’ll have one source that’s 3200k, and one that’s 5500k. This is fixed fairly easily. You can’t easily modify the temp of the tungsten lamp, but you can warm up your 5500k flash by using a gel. Gels are transparent pieces of plastic that can be taped over your flash to modify the color temp. Shooting under tungsten and your flash looks too blue? Put an orangish gel over the flash to balance the colors. Shooting in overcast conditions and your flash look too yellowish? Put a slightly bluish gel over your flash to balance the colors out.

Gels are a couple bucks each, but you have to buy them as large sheets & you only need a 2”x3” piece for your speedlight. What I’d recommend is getting a sample pack from Rosco by sending them an email, or else get one here:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/45184-REG/Rosco_950SBCNG0103_Cinegel_Swatchbook.html

If you’re using a speedlight for your lighting, then it’s probably worth it to get this product from Sto-Fen, as they’re easy to take on and off, and you don’t have to deal with taping little samples of gels over your flash. They come as a 2-piece set. One balances for tungsten and one balances for fluorescent:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/397225-REG/Sto_Fen_OC_EYSET_OC_EYSET_Gold_Green.html


One problem that’s unique to us indoor growers is that nasty “HPS orange” look you get when shooting your garden during the lit period. The problem here is pretty unique, and you probably won’t run into it anywhere else. HPS bulbs are specifically made to emit a very warm kelvin temp. That’s why they’re so good for flowering, right? In fact, the color temp of HPS bulbs is SO low that cameras and programs such as Photoshop can’t really deal with them very well. Quite simply, it’s outside of the realm of what photographic technology is made to deal with.

You have a couple solutions that will both work very well. First, you can shoot your images right before the lights come on or right after they go off. The disadvantage with this is that you’ll need to artificially light all your shots. This is fine if you feel comfortable doing this. Side lighting a plant with one speedlight on a TTL cord, with a reflector bouncing light back into the other side of the plant is a great solution. The other solution is much easier in my opinion. Get a strong blue gel for each of your HPS fixtures!

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/44119-REG/Rosco_RS320211__3202_Full_Blue.html

The above link is for a product that will solve all your problems. . . as long as you’re not too lazy to tape one over each of your HPS lights before you start shooting. A 20”x24” sheet costs $6.50, so you’ll probably need one for each fixture. Simply tape one over your cooltube or tape one under your fixture, and the gel will convert the HPS’s color temp. to one that’s within the range of normal photography. It will then be easy to fix either in-camera (by manually setting the white balance) or in post-processing (should be easy in almost any program).

Conclusion
Explaining lighting in one post is like explaining how to grow indoor bud in one post. It ain't happenin'! My goal here is to give you a brief introduction that hopefully gives you enough knowledge to improve your photos a bit and more importantly, know what you need to read up on and experiment with.

 

[DoobieDuck]

B many thanks for your contributions to our photography forum. This is another excelent example and will be very helpful to our members...great presentation. DD

 

[B. Self Reliant]

Thanks. Lighting is an intimidating subject to try and write about, especially to a mixed audience with different skill levels! WHere do you even begin?!

I hope it helps folks out a little.

 

[Clackamas Coot]

The Megapixel Myth

The Megapixel Myth

Good read on what 'megapixel' mean and what they don't mean.

HTH

CC

Nikon D3s

 

[B. Self Reliant]

Clackamas - I couldn't agree more! My clients have the option to buy prints up to 20"x30", and I shoot with a Canon 1D MkII, which is a 9 megapixel camera. The prints wouldn't look any better if they were shot with a camera of a higher resolution! The ability to shoot at higher ISO's, faster autofocus, sensor quality & certain other key features are what you pay the big bucks for . . . not megapixels!

I always tell folks that I'd rather have a 5 MP camera with killer glass than a 25 MP camera with the crappy lens it comes with!

 

[Clackamas Coot]

Clackamas - I couldn't agree more! My clients have the option to buy prints up to 20"x30", and I shoot with a Canon 1D MkII, which is a 9 megapixel camera. The prints wouldn't look any better if they were shot with a camera of a higher resolution! The ability to shoot at higher ISO's, faster autofocus, sensor quality & certain other key features are what you pay the big bucks for . . . not megapixels!

I always tell folks that I'd rather have a 5 MP camera with killer glass than a 25 MP camera with the crappy lens it comes with!

B. Self Reliant

Have them check out the 'megapixels' on one of the best cameras in the world, i.e. like the Hasselblad H4D

Kinda short on 'megapixels' so maybe a Canon Rebel with more 'megapixels' is a better camera, eh?

LOL

CC

 

[DoobieDuck]

Killer Glass $$

Killer Glass $$

I couldn't agree more! I always tell folks that I'd rather have a 5 MP camera with killer glass than a 25 MP camera with the crappy lens it comes with!

Killer Glass costs big bucks..I agree that images captured with premium optics are far better, this is one of the best upgrades one can make to thier kit, quality lenses. Then you can pile um all up like I do wrecklessly, no..please don't. I shoot four or five lenses each session but I only own one Canon L lens. I have a couple Sigmas that I like. My images would certainly be better if I could afford to upgrade. These images shot with a 70-200mm L lens and 12mm extension tube. Lighting was key in these, natural, filtered. DD
Edit: Casey Jones ninety days.....

 

[B. Self Reliant]

That Casey shot is siiiiiiiiiiiiiiick! Well lit too! What did you filter the light with? A white flat? A translucent white reflector? You have quite a collection of lenses there! I understand why though!

I shoot with a variety of lenses as well, with my most often used lenses being three of Canon's primes: the 35mm f/1.4L, the 50mm f/1.2L & the 135mm f/2L. I see these as an investment though. If I didn't get a return on them, I would never even consider owning them.

Good glass is a relative term. I know many pros who use Sigma lenses and love them. Canon's 50mm f/1.4 is a great lens that was the industry standard until very recently when the f/1.2L version came out. . . and it's $1,100 less expensive, putting it in reach for many people. The 135mm f/2 is about $900, which considering it's the sharpest lens I've ever used is a real steal. Most folks don't NEED long glass at first anyways. When I'm working outdoor for clients such as senior portraits or engagement shoots, I do 80% of my work with the 50mm lens. Unless I want that wide look or the compressed look of long glass, the 50mm is just fine. Of course indoor it's a little tight with a 1.3x body like mine.

I always enjoy seeing your work Doobieduck! I should have another garden up and running at some point, and at that time I'll do another post. It will probably be on how to collectively apply everything I've gone over so far, using a plant shot as an example.

 

[DoobieDuck]

Thank you B...I installed a 4' x 8' double pane window, one that had leaked moisture into the inside glass and water stained it, upright into the wall of my studio facing south. The light that comes through it is perfect for shoots. By accident of course. My other favorite lens is my Sigma 105mm Macro that I use for cola portrait images because of the nice background blur, but its DOF is so shallow. I'm looking forward to seeing your next grow..Smiles...DD

 

[MoldyFrogToe]

Wow this thread is so helpful, thanks

 

[HydroGal]

Just venturing into the amazing world of photography myself. Thanks for posting this thread and sharing your knowledge!

 

[lowrydergrower]

how important is the micro focus range on a camera?

 

[B. Self Reliant]

how important is the micro focus range on a camera?

Quite honestly, I've never used the macro feature on a point & shoot camera. I'd imagine it's rather limited due to aperture constraints, but with a good tripod I bet you could get some good images.

 

[lowrydergrower]

Thanks B. Self you have no idea how much I learned from spending an hour or two on this thread thanks bud thanks alot!

 

[gavin2511]

this thread is great, plenty of refrence for me and my canon eos d

 

[B. Self Reliant]

Glad you both enjoyed it!