It’s The Camera, Not The Photographer???

 ”Anyone can take amazing digital pictures with a Nikon in their hand”….Nikon’s tag line for marketing basically giving people the impression that it’s the camera that takes the pictures and not the photographer. Another photographer was quoted “The camera has nothing to do with the outcome & great photography lies in the skill of the photographer.” So which is it? The camera or the photographer?

I believe years ago, back before the digital era this question was simple, the photographer made the difference. In this new digital era, camera manufacturers will tell you that with the technology today anyone can take a great picture but how true is that? But like any tool, if you don’t know how to use it properly nothing else matters. For example, give me a canvas & oil paints, simple directions, & have me paint a mountain scene. I might do a half way decent job but it won’t compare to that of someone who does this for a living who has the true skill & talent to do it. You can give me the most expensive brushes & the best paint & the best canvas but it won’t change the outcome. With practice, I might get a little better but it still won’t compare to that of a professional artist. The professional artist will know how to use the oil paints and different techniques that I simply don’t have a clue about.

Let’s look at another comparison, web design. Technology has made it easier than ever to create your own web site. Many companies help make it easier to design personal pages etc. Let’s say you have Dreamweaver, a web design software. You study it a bit & can design a basic site. Will the person who has the education/experience be able to design the site better? Of course. Why? They know how to use the software.

Photography is no different than any other art or skill. I can give someone my equipment and tell them to go take pictures. Put it on auto mode & I guarantee you that the results might be OK but it won’t compare to what I can do. A wedding I did back in November the formal portraits were being accomplished outside under an overcast sky. Easy shooting conditions for me and of course there were people all around taking pictures of the formal portraits I was doing. When I went to drop off the couple’s CD of images she was showing me these pictures. To be completely honest, I thought the pictures that everyone else was taking will look just as good as mine since some of them had really nice cameras & we weren’t in tricky lighting conditions, right? WRONG!! The bride was just amazed at how much better my images were than all the others! Why? Because I know how to use my equipment.

This concept is very simple, the tool is only as good as the person holding the tool. But the artist is only as good as their tools. You give me a crappy digital camera & I will make the best possible pictures with the limitations of the equipment. Will my pictures look better still on that camera than the Uncle Sam? Probably. Any photographer will tell you, equipment selection, especially in this digital era, is extremely important. One reason why when you see me at a wedding, I have at least $3,000 worth of equipment hanging around my neck & I’m looking to upgrade my system to have even more than that!! Some photographers will easily have $10,000 to $15,000 worth of equipment around their necks to photograph a wedding. Hard to believe? No, not when you look at some camera bodies cost $5,000 & then you need to spend at least $1,500 for a lens!

Technology has not replaced the need for skill in photography. I met with a great family for a wedding consult who are into photography. The bride’s mother told me about a survey that showed most “professionals” don’t shoot in manual mode anymore or know how to. I find that very disturbing and is one reason why when people are looking to hire a photographer to document their wedding, the photographer not shooting in manual or knowing how can create some issues. Take a wedding I did in November….technically speaking very difficult due to the lighting scenario. Shooting in any of the programmed modes would’ve resulted in some pretty icky images & not a happy bride! But I want to illustrate my point. I don’t shoot in any programmed modes but I will just for you:)! Now these pictures will lack all creative stuff since I’m just taking quick snap shots to illustrate the difference between programmed & manual:)! I’m going to use my puppy (yes, he’s my puppy…just a big puppy). His name is Buddy & since he is mostly black he will illustrate my point very well!! The only thing I will do to these pictures is resize them…taken on my Canon 40D by the way. I won’t do anything else to the pics!

The first picture was taken on the portrait programmed mode as a JPG since that’s what most people take them as. That flash popping up scared me to death:)! I don’t use that flash!!! Results below & yes, I cringed!!

And now mine, shot in RAW (that’s what I shoot in), manual settings. I used that pop up flash just to make it a little more fair but adjusted the settings & I don’t think Buddy liked the flash either!!!

Hmm…see the difference? Let’s make this easier….put the images together for you!

First thing that just jumps at me…the white balance wasn’t right which caused the couch to have a reddish/magenta hue along with Buddy & you see that in his beige color. Also, it’s over-exposed…it has that flashed look to it…we also see the beginnings of red eye. Just in general icky….so now why? Why didn’t that programmed mode in portrait setting produce a properly exposed image??

First, one must understand the digital metering & we’ll keep this simple. It sees dark colors as being shadow for a lack of a better word (yes, I know….I could get into some other reasons but I just want to keep this simple). It sees whites/light toned colors as bright light. So, if you have a subject, like Buddy, where the scene is taken up by alot of dark tones, the camera isn’t going to read the light correctly and over-expose the image. I know this and over the years know how to compensate for it. I also know how to manipulate the camera’s settings. Interesting to note on the exposure settings of Buddy’s picture:
Programmed Mode: Shutter: 1/60th of a second, Aperture: F5, ISO: 400
Manual Mode: Shutter: 1/60th of a second, Aperture: 4.6, ISO: 1600
Now, I adjusted that flash’s power to not shoot off so strong (-1 for those who know)…why it doesn’t look flashed. The programmed mode allowed the flash to compensate for the dimly lit scene and also had it fire off too strong since it thought Buddy was a shadow!! Now the color is off because of the white balance. I had it set at the adjusted white balance which is what most people use. This setting, the camera guesses what the white balance is. I don’t guess, I know….the color in the second picture where Buddy is hiding is correct….that’s the color of my couch.

Now, depending on your monitor…you may see the colors different or even see the brightness of the image different. This creates the other issue that people have….the picture looked one way on the monitor but when it printed it didn’t look right. Professionals always calibrate their monitors!!! This way, when they do editing, what they are seeing on the monitor is how it will actually print:)!

I think those pictures proved my point between programmed modes & manual. It’s not just the camera…there is skill behind photography. Much of this skill comes from experience & education! I’m going to close with this statement: For the amateur photographer, the CAMERA can improve his/her pictures due to the CAMERA’S better reading of the scene AND the IMAGE can be limited by the PHOTOGRAPHER’S ABILITY AND CAMERA. For the professional, the PHOTOGRAPHER can improve his/her pictures due to THEIR understanding of the scene AND the resulting IMAGE can be limited by the CAMERA!

Art is not dead in photography!!! Let’s not forget that not only do you hire a photographer for their skill but for their artistry as well. This digital era has seemed to take the artistry out of photography but to those who are skilled it actually added a whole new dimension to it. Take the artist again, they make their money not only because of their skill but also because of their vision. Photography is no different. The tools have changed over the years but it is still no different than the artist. Not only are you looking at the artistry in composing the image & creating dramatic lighting but in the digital rendition of the image afterwards. It all starts with a picture that even if nothing else was done to it, it would still be a beautiful picture. Photography is an art that has been able to advance due to technology but the technology will never replace the artist