Talking cameras

This is what I call my "walking around camera".  It's an Olympus PEN E-P3.  It has a 12 MP micro 4/3 sensor and several automatic settings as well as some built-in 'artistic' processing functions.  It has interchangeable lenses, with the one shown being a 17 mm f/2.8, which works out to a 35 mm focal length on the m4/3 system due to the crop factor.  Don't worry about what that means right now, but the 17mm to 34mm conversion is important.

Important features of this camera include:

• It's small and lightweight.  It will almost fit in your pocket.
• It has interchangeable lenses
• It has a pop-up flash
• It has ability to control shutter speed and aperture
• ISO range is 200-12,800
• You can get a 14-42 zoom lens (that's 28 - 85 essentially) pretty inexpensively
• can shoot raw images in addition to jpg output

There are a lot of cameras in this range, and this one is pretty dated (I bought it in 2011 I think).  In fact, there are improved models of the PEN camera that are probably cheaper and more capable.  But I am not going to buy any of them because this one does everything I need without being very obtrusive.  

If you want to see how well a camera like this works, check out this album on my Flickr site.

You don't need this specific camera, of course.  It's just an example.  But if you want to really be able to exert some control over your photography from the camera side, you need:

Ability to control the shutter and aperture yourself, either fully manually or at aperture priority or shutter priority.  Here's why:  if you set the camera on the P (program) mode, which will actually give you good results in many situations.  But the camera will decide an appropriate combination of ISO, shutter and aperture settings for a generic pleasing result.  That won't allow you to capture quick movement, such as people walking by or sports, etc. - for that you need fast shutter speeds.  It won't allow you to blur the background - for that you need a large aperture.  

My recommended settings for most photos:  Aperture priority, auto ISO.  In this setting you choose the aperture, which controls the depth of field (blurriness of the background) and the camera provides a reasonable combination of shutter speed and ISO to give you the least noise in the shot.  If it starts to get dark, then go to manual and make your own decisions.  A news editor once told me to not worry about noise, because post processing programs can minimize that.  Just make sure you get enough light on the exposure.  In most cases this is a good rule of thumb.

Ability to change the lens focal length, either through zoom or changing lenses.  As in film, you get better resolution if you don't crop too much.  So thinking ahead, you should use a lens that fills your frame mostly with the shot you want to get.  I always go a little wider so I can crop to straighten the frame or whatever.  The most convenient way to do this is through a zoom lens.  But, zooms are slightly lower in quality to a fixed lens most of the time, and they sacrifice aperture to get the zoom action.  Kit lenses (lenses that come with a camera) are almost always a medium wide to medium telephoto zoom, because it's the most versatile.  They will work most of the time.  Kit zooms usually add a couple of hundred dollars to the price of the camera, and often come in a bundle.  On the other hand, a really good say, 28-80 f/2.8 zoom will cost more than the camera body, in all likelihood.  

If you don't use a zoom, you will need a wide angle lens (24, 28, 35 mm equivalent), a 'normal' lens (about 50mm), and an intermediate telephoto (135mm to maybe 200mm equivalent, unless you want to do nature photography like birds, where you need something really long like a 400mm or 600mm).  The good news is, these lenses are individually much cheaper than 'good' zooms and work better as well.  The bad news is, you need multiple lenses, so the cost factor may offset.

My lens recommendation: Start with the kit zoom and as you gain experience either move up to a better zoom or start collecting fixed lenses that suit your subjects.

I am really a Nikon guy, so for advanced amateurs I recommend something on the order of a D7500 or something in that range.  There are also some good cameras in the D3500 range.  In fact, if you look on Amazon, for example here, you can get a complete D3500 kit with everything you need for about $400.  

It's a good place to start. 

Next time we will talk about how to set up the camera to take different types of photos.

Less is more

Here is a little encouragement to go out and just take some photos using anything you have on hand.

If you want, you can view the original photo here.  It opens a new window, in case you care about that sort of thing.  Also, feel free to browse the other photos you find on that site.  I signed up for it many years ago for some reason, and I just dump something on there every once in a while.  This particular photo was robotically entered into some internal contest they run on ViewBug from time to time.  It's always been my most popular photo on the site.  However, making the top 10% ahead of over 400,000 other photos in this competition is kinda cool.

Now, I didn't post that just to blow my own horn, not that I'm above that sort of thing.  No, it's because that photo was taken on a foggy morning on the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina, near Grandfather Mountain, with......wait for it.....an iPhone 3G.

Yes, an iPhone 3G.

It's obvious that it wasn't taken with the most expensive camera, but the iPhone 3G only had 1.9 MP.  Even toys for tots these days have better cameras.

So why do you think this image has been so popular?

I know why I think so:  Because it's spooky.

It's got issues with composition because I could not get to a position that gave me the exact arrangement of the elements without a bunch of extraneous clutter in the background.  So I just did the best I could to get that rail fence zig-zagging into the mist with the limbs hanging over like gnarly arms about to grab anybody foolish enough to walk there.   But in spite of the less than perfect composition, it conveys the mood I was hoping for.  And apparently does so pretty successfully, since it has been such a popular shot.

So, I am not going to talk specifically about cameras in this post, because I wanted to hammer on the idea that IT'S NOT ABOUT THE CAMERA.

And by that I mean, IT'S NOT COMPLETELY ABOUT THE CAMERA.

Obviously it's a little bit about the camera.  We'll talk about cameras next time.

If you have any questions about any of this, comments, names you want to call me, credit card numbers, etc., just post them in the comments and I'll address them as soon as I can.

Equipment you need

So, let's talk about equipment.  Basically you need the following generic things:

1.  A camera (duh!)
2.  A means to process the image
3.  A means to upload the image to somewhere, even if it is just to print at a local Walgreens (or whatever brand of pharmacy you use).

The devil is in the details, as they say, so let's talk details.

1. Camera

First of all, let me just admit that I have a lot of cameras.  A.....LOT.....OF.....CAMERAS.

In fact, I have my first camera, a 1973 vintage Nikkormat with its 50/2.0 lens, still working like a champ.

I've also got these:

OK, pay no attention to the messy desk.  I'm a professional consultant as well as photographer/journalist, and I have this issue with putting things away when I am really more interested in doing...well....pretty much anything else.

On the left is a Hasselblad 501CM with a wide angle lens for film portraiture.  I didn't look up the serial number, but I can guarantee it is probably at least 25 years old.  I also have a 1956 vintage Leica with a few Leica lenses. I have an interesting story about Alfred Eisenstadt which is the reason I bought the Leica, but we'll save that for later as well.   On the right is my best digital camera, a Nikon D800 from about 2013.  These represent the top of the line cameras for their respective days (the D800 was the first 35mm camera to sport a 36MP sensor, and it's really nice for portraits and weddings, etc.).

But I also have this:

Yeah, it's a phone.  And aside from a few missing controls, it can probably record better images than any photographer ever did prior to, say, 1995.  I know some people will argue that, but we'll save it for another day.

The point is, you can take pretty good photos with just about any camera.  If you want to get really nice shots of people sort of up close, you may want to get something that allows you to control the aperture so you can create that cool out-of-focus background naturally (I know, some of the high end phones allow that now, in a fake sort of way).  If you constantly want to take photos in pitch dark, well, that's gonna cost you.

My suggestion for the moment is to just use your phone and let's concentrate on how to set up a shot.  Having said that, I will talk more about what you get out of different sorts of cameras in the next post.

2. Computer and image processing software

It turns out that you can do a lot of good work right in your phone, as much as I hate to admit it.  The cameras are so good now that they have started bundling pretty tasty image processing software in with the camera app, and you can also purchase even better ones.  But let's say you want to take it a step further, in which case you need

A computer.

You don't have to go crazy with this.  It will need plenty of memory, a pretty fast processor, and a goodly amount of offline storage.  We will talk about the details later, but if you're going to get serious someday, then you are going to need a little horsepower here.  The computer will be used to process the image and upload it to the place where you want to upload it, which for most people is Facebook or Instagram.  You need an image processing program to go with the computer, which we will call

The Program.

My suggestion is Lightroom, but you need a subscription from Adobe which costs $10/month.  There are a number of other programs of varying expense, but Lightroom is the universally accepted standard and if you use it you can tap into a wealth of experience from other photographers. It's also a decent cataloging program to help you keep track of your photos, if you take time to organize them. You can also get Photoshop Elements from Adobe, which does about 90% of what the full version of Photoshop does but it costs less than $100 and then it's yours forever.

3. A means to upload the images

Actually, this is just a subset of #2 above, and if you are using your phone as your primary camera, then it's all wrapped up into a single package.

Well, it probably didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out these three points about equipment, but it sets the foundation for our future discussions, so bear with me.  Oh, and by the way, I actually AM a rocket scientist.  Well, I don't design rockets but I have designed and built payloads.  That's also an interesting story that unfortunately has nothing to do with photography.

What you need for better photography

Let me start off by admitting that I have lots of nice and expensive photography equipment.  But let me follow that up with saying that many of what I consider my best photos were not made with it.  Here is an example of one of the most important pieces of equipment you need to make good photographs.

Yes, that's right.  Not a camera, but your eyes.  And the other major, indispensable piece of equipment you need is your brain.  That's because a good photo is a thoughtful photo.  You see it first in your head, and then use your eyes to control the camera to do your best to capture the scene you first imagined.  Ansel Adams, the famous landscape photographer, said that his photographs were an attempt to recreate the impression he had felt when looking at a scene, and not meant to document the specific details. So this leads us to Better Photography Rule No. 1:

Rule 1:  See it before you take it.

My wife takes really good photos...with her phone.  But it wasn't always so.  Early on, she just used it like an Instamatic to get snaps of places or children or other family members.  You know, the normal things.  And the photos were often tilted at an angle, people randomly placed in the frame, etc.  She was always wondering why my shots of the same things were better than hers.  So I told her: pay attention.  Think about what you are doing, and set it up in an interesting way when you take the shot.  She is not a techie by any means, but she got really good at taking photos with her phone.  And it was all because she slowed down just a little and put more thought into the shots.  She just learned to pay attention, which is Good Photography Rule No. 2:

Rule 2:  Pay attention.

Most people don't realize that what they actually see through a camera viewfinder is not what they think they see.  That's because we instinctively interpret the scene when we view it.  It goes back to that Ansel Adams quote above.  We are seeing our interpretation, not the reality.  So when you take a photo, stop and pay attention to what is actually in the viewfinder and think about how you can best set up the image.  Imagine that you are trying to communicate the situation to somebody who was not there with you.

Next time I'll write a little about actual equipment.

You can be a good photographer.

I've been taking, or rather making, photographs for a long time.  Since I was in high school, actually.  I am by profession a high tech kinda guy, but I have also been a journalist and found that to be very satisfying.  I gravitate toward journalistic photography.  I am a semi-pro, meaning I get paid for my work but I don't try to use it as my sole source of income.  I have written articles and provided photographs for newspapers and magazines, and photographed college sports for the NCAA.  I'm not saying I am the world's best anything, but I've learned a lot over the years and applied what I learned to make myself better.  Almost everybody has a digital camera these days, even if just in their phones, and I decided to write this blog to help others improve their skills in a simple way that anybody can understand.

I started out with a Nikkormat 35mm camera with a 50mm f/2 lens.  I shot Kodak Tri-X black and white film, and also whatever color film was available at the time.  I really liked Kodachrome and Ektachrome slide films, particularly when you underexposed them a little.  For portraits I liked Kodak Vericolor.  Yes, most people reading this will be laughing at taking photos with actual film, but hey, I admit I'm a geezer.  Imagine being limited to ISO 400.

Being a broke college student, I could not afford good glass, but I was able to eventually outfit myself with some inexpensive wide angle and telephoto lenses.  Everything was manual in those days, although I did have built-in light meters.  But having to manage all the settings was a really good way to (1) waste a lot of film, and (2) really understand how the camera/film/lens combination works.  There's no substitute for going manual to teach yourself.

Eventually digital cameras got good enough and inexpensive enough (relatively speaking) that I moved into digital photography.  I have to say, the modern cameras make taking photos so easy that pretty much anybody can, with a little patience, make some really good photographs.

Now, I am going to be sacrilegious for a moment and say that there are a lot of good photographers out there who augment their incomes by teaching classes, holding seminars, and getting paid to generally teach people a bunch of hooey.  The fact is, photography, like most art, is a subjective endeavor, and each person has his/her own tastes.  There are a few basics you need to know to improve your photography and change your snapshots into photographs.  These things are easy, but you need to practice them.

And that is what this blog is about.  I am going to show you examples of the photographs that I make, and tell you how I made them.  You don't have to like my work, but you should at least try to understand the thought process, so that you can apply it to your own photography.  I guarantee you will get better.

Now, let's talk about the photo I posted at the top of the blog.  Here is the straight out of the camera (SOOC) shot, just reduced in size to fit the blog requirements:

This was taken with an Olympus OMD EM5-II camera with a pretty good wide zoom lens.  I use this setup when I travel because it's small and light and unobtrusive.  The shot is pretty boring SOOC, although I did manage to blur the background and get a decent exposure.  But otherwise it is all very meh.  In particular, the placement of the center of attention, the woman with the camera, is dead center in the frame and I don't find this appealing. When I shoot the street, I am looking for a situation, and I use the camera to get an image that I can work on later.  So I cropped it thusly:

Ah, this looks much better to me.  The woman is now just a little off center in the frame, but the crop has enlarged the grouping of the man and woman and the grouping is very off-center.  But more importantly, I think the snapshot I took has taken a step toward a story.  The significance of the woman has changed.  She is more separated from the background, and now you are wondering what she is looking at.  And that's mainly because the crop made her larger and pulled her closer to the viewer.  It has also removed some extraneous clutter from the background and corrected the composition mistake I made in not getting anything below her knees into the frame.  By cropping in, you no longer really care about that.  Actually, that wasn't a mistake so much as just one of those things that happens when you do street photography.  You often just get what you get.  The next instant after this shot was taken, she moved and there was no longer any reason to take a photo.

Another thing I wanted to point out here is more subtle.  The woman is looking off the frame to the right.  From a storytelling perspective, we need to put some space in front of her to emphasize the distance.  So the crop does that as well, creating the implied distance.

Now, go back and look at the black and white version I posted at the top.  In the color versions, the colors are mostly muted and not distracting, so it works.  But in general, I have found that a black and white treatment of people shots helps you focus on the story by removing the distraction of colorful clothing.  Famous Canadian photographer Ted Grant once said,  "When you photograph people in color, you photograph their clothes.  But when you photograph people in black and white, you photograph their souls!"

I don't know if I would go that far, but certainly it focuses attention differently.  I think this may be due in part to a hundred years of black and white photojournalism.  We are are wired to view black and white shots such as this in the context of a news story, and some times an art gallery.

So, next blog I will talk a little about what goes into making a good photograph.  Spoiler alert: it's not about the camera.