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Photography Terminology: A Glossary of 69 Essential Photographic Terms

06 Apr

The post Photography Terminology: A Glossary of 69 Essential Photographic Terms appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Darlene Hildebrandt.

photography terminology: a glossary of 69 terms

Are you overwhelmed or confused by photography terminology? Do you want to speak “photographer” like the pros?

That’s what this article is all about.

I’ll go over some of the most common technical photography terms as well as some less common slang and photographer jargon. By the end, I promise you will have a better grasp of the language. You’ll even be able to have a conversation with a seasoned pro and hold your own!

Let’s get started.

Basic photography terms

These are the photography terms you’ll find in your camera’s manual and in most beginner tutorials:

  • Aperture – The variable opening in the lens through which light passes to the film or digital sensor. Aperture is measured in f-stops. I like to compare it to your pupil, which opens and closes to allow more or less light into your eye depending on the brightness level of the room.
  • Bracketing – Taking a series of images at different exposures. You may see a setting on your camera that says AEB (auto exposure bracketing). Bracketing is often used when creating HDR images or in difficult lighting situations where you may want to have a range of exposures from light to dark.
  • Bulb – the “B” setting on your camera where the shutter remains open for as long as the button or cable release (remote trigger) is pressed.
  • DSLR – A digital single-lens reflex camera. Any digital camera with interchangeable lenses where the image is viewed using a mirror and prism and the image is taken directly through the lens. What you see in your viewfinder is what the lens sees.
  • EV – Exposure value; this is a number that represents the various different combinations of aperture and shutter speed that can create the same exposure effect.
  • Exposure compensation – Modifying the shutter speed or aperture from the camera’s recommended exposure to create a certain effect or correct for exposure problems. Your camera reads light bouncing off your subject and is designed to expose for medium gray. So when photographing a subject that is lighter or darker than 18% gray, you can use this setting to tell the camera the proper exposure (by dialing in – or + exposure compensation).
  • Exposure – The total amount of light reaching the digital sensor. It is determined by the aperture, shutter speed, and ISO.
  • F-stop – A measure of the aperture opening in the lens defined by dividing the focal length of the lens by the aperture diameter. The sequence of f-stops features multiples of the square root of 2 (1.4): 1, 1.4, 2, 2.8, 4, 5.6, 8, 11, 16, 22, etc. Though these numbers are rather cryptic, make sure to remember that each step is double the amount of light. Know that, and you’ve won half the battle.
  • ISO – Represents the sensitivity of your camera’s digital sensor to light. The lower the number (ISO 100), the less sensitive to light; the higher the number (ISO 3200), the more sensitive to light. A higher ISO allows you to shoot in low-light conditions.
  • Shutter speed – The amount of time the shutter is open during an exposure. The shutter speed controls the appearance of motion. Use a fast shutter speed (such as 1/2000s) to freeze motion or a slow shutter speed (such as 1/30s or longer) to blur moving objects.
  • Zoom lens – Any lens that has a variable focal length, such as a 24-70mm or an 18-55mm lens. You generally zoom in or out by rotating the barrel of the lens.
  • Prime or fixed lens – Any lens that does not zoom and features a set focal length, such as a nifty 50mm lens.
  • Remote trigger or digital cable release – A device that allows the camera to be fired without pressing the shutter button or touching the camera. Helps eliminate camera movement during long exposures.
  • Macro lens – A lens that focuses very close to a subject, so you can capture highly detailed, magnified images.
  • “Normal” lens – Generally a 50mm lens (on a full-frame camera). This lens closely parallels what the human eye sees. If you have a crop-sensor camera, a “normal” lens will be closer to 35mm.
  • Telephoto lens – Offers a tighter field of view than a normal lens (i.e., it takes more magnified images). Generally from around 70mm to 300mm. A super-telephoto lens is usually 300mm or longer.
  • Wide-angle lens – A lens that features a wider field of view than a normal lens. Generally spans from over 10mm to under 50mm. Depending on the focal length, there may also be edge distortion (i.e., in super wide-angle lenses).
  • Tilt-shift lens – A special-effect lens. Allows for realignment of the plane of focus (tilt). Allows for adjusting the placement of the subject within the frame without angling the camera, thus keeping parallel lines from converging (shift). A popular lens for architectural and landscape photographers and is becoming more widely used by portrait photographers to create a unique, stylized look.
  • Camera resolution – The dimensions your camera’s sensor is capable of capturing, expressed in megapixels. This is not the only factor in image quality, but the greater the resolution, the larger the prints you can produce without significant loss of quality (generally speaking).
  • JPEG vs RAW – Two different image file types. Most cameras have the ability to shoot in JPEG and RAW. If you choose JPEG, the camera will shoot a RAW file, process it using the picture style you’ve selected in your menu, save it as a JPEG, and discard the RAW version. If you choose RAW, the resulting file will be larger, carry more information, and require software to process. It gives you – the photographer – more control over the final look of the image.
  • Full-frame vs crop/APS-C sensor – A full-frame sensor is roughly the size of 35mm film. Most lenses create a circle of light just large enough to cover the 35mm sensor area. But in a crop-sensor camera, the physical size of the sensor is smaller; it only captures a portion of the entire image the lens is projecting, effectively cropping out part of the shot. Common crop factors are 1.5x and 1.6x, so if you use a 50mm lens on an APS-C camera, it offers a 75mm focal length equivalent.
  • Camera modes – There are four standard camera modes. Auto mode selects settings without user input. Manual mode allows the user to control the ISO, shutter speed, and aperture. Shutter Priority mode allows the user to select the ISO and shutter speed while the camera selects the aperture. Aperture Priority mode allows the user to select the ISO and aperture while the camera picks the shutter speed. Program mode allows the user to select the ISO while the camera picks the aperture and shutter speed.

Lighting and portrait photography terms

  • Ambient light – Also referred to as available light. Ambient light occurs in the scene without adding any flash or light modifiers. It can be daylight, or it can be artificial light such as tungsten or fluorescent bulbs.
  • Main light or key light – The main light source for a photograph. It could be the sun, a studio strobe, a flash, a reflector, or something else. It’s the source that produces the pattern of light on the subject with the most intensity.
  • Fill light – The light source that is secondary to the key light. Used to “fill” in the shadows. Can be produced with a flash, a reflector, or a studio strobe.
  • Lighting pattern – The way the light falls on the subject’s face (e.g., at a 45-degree angle).
  • Lighting ratio – A comparison between the intensity (brightness) of the main light and the fill light. In other words: the difference between the lit and shadow sides of the subject’s face.
  • Incident light meter – A handheld device that measures the amount of light falling on a subject. An incident meter is not fooled by the brightness range of the subject, whereas in-camera reflective meters can be fooled (resulting in overexposure and underexposure).
  • Speedlight – A small, portable flash that can attach to your camera’s hot shoe or stand on its own when activated remotely.
  • Reflector – A device used to reflect light (generally back toward the subject). It can be a specialized, factory-made reflector (I recommend getting a 5-in-1), or a piece of white cardboard.
  • Light meter – A device that measures the amount of light in a scene. Pretty much all modern cameras offer a built-in light meter, though it uses reflective readings (see the entry on incident light meters, above).
  • Remote flash trigger – A device used to fire speedlights off-camera.
  • Subtractive lighting – Taking away light to create a darker look. It often involves holding a reflector or an opaque panel over the subject’s head to block light from above and open up deep eye shadows caused by overhead lighting. It can also involve holding a black reflector opposite your main light to create a deeper shadow (i.e., essentially reflecting black onto the subject instead of light.)
  • Hard light – Harsh or non-diffused light such as that produced by bright sunlight, a small speedlight, or an on-camera flash. Creates harsh shadows with well-defined edges, contrast, and texture (if used at an angle to the subject). Emphasizes texture, lines, and wrinkles. Often used to create a more dramatic type of portrait.
  • Soft light – Diffused light, such as that from an overcast sky, north-facing window with no direct light, or a large studio softbox. This type of light produces soft shadows with soft edges, lower contrast, and less texture. Soft light is generally preferred by most wedding and portrait photographers because it flatters the subject.
  • Edge transfer – How quickly shadow edges go from dark to light. With harsh light, the edge transfer is very defined and sudden (almost a clear line). With soft lighting, the edge transfer is much more subtle – almost imperceptible – as it gradually changes from dark to light.
  • Flash sync – The synchronization of the firing of an electronic flash and the shutter speed. You need to know what shutter speed your camera syncs at; otherwise, if you use a too-fast shutter speed, you may get a partially illuminated image. For most cameras, the sync speed is around 1/200s.

Slang and photography jargon

Here are a few other photography terms that are a bit more advanced (including some wacky jargon and slang!). Become familiar with this terminology so you can talk to pros with confidence.

  • Fast glass – Refers to a lens with a very large maximum aperture (such as f/1.8 or f/1.2). The lens is “fast” because it lets you shoot with a fast shutter speed.
  • Chimping – Slang term for looking at the back of your camera after every image. Has a negative connotation; if you chimp, you’re spending too much time reviewing images on the camera and not enough time shooting.
  • Bokeh – The out-of-focus blurred bits in an image background. Most often bokeh occurs when small light sources are in the background.
  • Depth of field (DOF or DoF) – The distance between the nearest and farthest objects in your scene that appear in focus. Controlled by many factors, including the aperture, lens focal length, and distance to the subject.
  • Hyperfocal distance – The focus distance providing the maximum depth of field for a particular aperture and focal length. Older prime lenses often have hyperfocal distance marks to aid in finding this depth-of-field sweet spot. With today’s lenses, it is possible to calculate the hyperfocal distance, but it takes a bit more work and a hyperfocal distance calculator.
  • Gobo – Something used to block unwanted or stray light from falling onto the subject. Often the dark side of a reflector is used as a gobo.
  • Scrim – A translucent device used to diffuse and soften the light. Can be a reflector with a translucent panel. Scrims can be made extremely large and clamped in place to create shade even in direct sunlight.
  • Shutter lag – The slight delay from the time you press the shutter button to the time the shutter actually opens. In DSLRs and mirrorless cameras, shutter lag is minimal and almost unnoticeable. In smaller point-and-shoot cameras, the delay is more pronounced (and can cause you to miss shots of fast-moving subjects).
  • Chromatic aberration – Color fringing that can appear in areas of images where dark meets light (e.g., the edge of a building against the sky). CA is correctable to a great degree using Photoshop, Lightroom, and most other editing software.
  • Rear-curtain sync – Rear-curtain sync fires the flash at the end of an exposure. By default, most cameras are set to front-curtain sync (i.e., if the flash fires, it does so at the beginning of the exposure). When shooting a moving subject, front-curtain sync will put any motion blur in front of the subject, whereas rear-curtain sync will place the blur behind the subject. Neither is wrong; it depends on the effect you’re after.
  • Camera shake – When a camera moves during an exposure and creates blur.
  • Lens flare – Stray light that creates haze, circles, or other artifacts in an image. Some photographers actually desire lens flare; they position their cameras to create flare and use it as a compositional element.
  • Kelvin – The absolute measurement of color temperature. Lower numbers represent warmer colors like orange (tungsten light), whereas the higher numbers are cooler (blues). Play with the color temperature to create different effects.
  • ND filter – Stands for neutral density filter. It’s a filter designed to go in front of the lens to block out some of the light entering the camera. Often used by landscape photographers to get slow shutter speeds when photographing waterfalls and streams in full daylight.
  • Panning – The act of using a slow shutter speed and moving the camera in the same direction as a moving subject. Creates an artistic, blurred background.
  • Stopping down – Closing down the aperture to a smaller opening (e.g., going from f/5.6 to f/8).
  • TTL and ETTL – TTL stands for through the lens; it refers to the metering system in regard to flash exposure. The flash emits light until it is turned off by the camera sensor. ETTL stands for evaluative through-the-lens metering. It fires a “preflash” to evaluate and calculate for lost light, then compensates and fires the main flash. It happens so fast you do not see two flashes.
  • Photog – Short for “photographer.” Something pros often call each other.
  • Glass – A lens. As in, “What glass do you own?”
  • Golden hour – Also called “magic hour.” This is the hour or two right before sunset and right after sunrise. The sun is low on the horizon, and it is an optimal time for photography.
  • Spray and pray – Shoot as many images as possible while praying you get something good.
  • Blown out – An image with no details in the white areas.
  • Clipped – Either blown out areas (above) or dark, detailless shadows.
  • Grip-and-grin – A quick photoshoot at an event or a setup with two people shaking hands. Most portrait and event photographers have to shoot these at some point in their careers.
  • Selfie – A self-portrait.
  • SOOC – Straight out of camera; an image with no post-processing.
  • Dust bunnies – Dark spots that appear on an image caused by bits of dust on the digital sensor.
  • Pixel peeper – Someone who spends too much time looking at images magnified in Photoshop.
  • Nifty fifty – A 50mm prime lens. Great to have!
  • ACR – Adobe Camera Raw. The editing software that’s packaged alongside Photoshop.
  • Flash and drag – The method of using a slow shutter speed combined with flash to capture more of the ambient light in proportion to the flash.
  • Wide open – Using your lens with the aperture at its widest setting (f/1.8, for example).

Photography terminology: final words

Whew! That was a long list. If you made it this far, congratulations; you know how to use photography terms like a pro.

So get out there and start practicing your photography terminology. Be sure to have lots of fun!

Now over to you:

What photography terms do you struggle with? Do you have any more terms I should add to this list? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

The post Photography Terminology: A Glossary of 69 Essential Photographic Terms appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Darlene Hildebrandt.


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How These 5 Photography Quotes Can Impact Your Photographic Practice

07 Jan

The post How These 5 Photography Quotes Can Impact Your Photographic Practice appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Megan Kennedy.

inspirational photography quotes

Techniques, theory, approaches, and equipment; there are many items that feed into the art of making successful images. Luckily, we have the authority of countless photographers to guide us!

In this article, we’ll look at five photography quotes and the insights we can glean from them.

photography quotes quotation marks

1. No place is boring, if you’ve had a good night’s sleep and have a pocket full of unexposed film – Robert Adams

photography quotes roll of 35mm film
Canon 5D Mark II | Canon 50mm f/1.8 with extension tubes | 1/20s | f/2 | ISO 200

Robert Adams finds interest in the seemingly mundane. He shines a thoughtful light on the vastness of the wilderness and the hum of human expansion.

However, as Adams argues in one of his better-known photography quotes: It isn’t just a pocket of unexposed film that staves off boredom, but a night of quality sleep.

This is good advice for those of us who often burn the candle at both ends.

2. The camera is an excuse to be someplace you otherwise don’t belong – Susan Meiselas

The second of our five photography quotes comes from Susan Meiselas. Seeing into the veneer of everyday life, photographers such as Meiselas use the camera as a tool to investigate, motivate, question, connect, and share. The camera acts as a passport, as well as a reason to explore and push boundaries.

Today, a generalized knowledge of photographic technology means that most people are aware of a camera’s appearance and function. Nevertheless, those witnessing a photographer in action will frequently respond with interest or curiosity. With a camera in hand, a photographer is often viewed as a person guided by artistic and technical authority.

This gives photographers an entry point into the inner workings of an environment and its inhabitants.

3. Photography is a language more universal than words – Minor White

Photography quotes abstraction black and white
Canon 5D Mark II | Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L | 1/100s | f/4 | ISO 100

Minor White sought to make images that stood as “a record of something in front of the camera and simultaneously a spontaneous symbol…A photograph of the bark of a tree, for example, may suddenly touch off a corresponding feeling of roughness of character within an individual.”

Photographs, as we know, have many layers of meaning. With a conscientious approach to composition and execution, photographers can start a dialogue that transcends the boundaries of language.

In referring to the universality of photographic language, White encourages you to carefully consider the many ways in which a subject can be photographed. This hopefully prompts you to capture the subject with a deliberateness and mastery that goes beyond words.

4. Taking pictures is like tiptoeing into the kitchen late at night and stealing Oreo cookies – Diane Arbus

You’ve probably experienced the thrill of sneaking tasty morsels from the kitchen at a late hour: the anticipation, the apprehension, and then the reward.

But Arbus’s quote isn’t just about stealing food and photos; it’s about the driving force behind photography. Why does photography matter? What makes photography so compelling in the first place? And what makes us keep coming back for more?

Establishing why a photographer does what they do can be tricky. There are many different reasons a photographer might take up a camera.

Nevertheless, developing a good grasp of the motivations that spur on your own photography can help you find direction, especially in the event of a creative block.

5. Searching is everything – going beyond what you know. And the test of the search is really in the things themselves, the things you seek to understand. What is important is not what you think about them, but how they enlarge you – Wynn Bullock

abstract camera movement black and white
Photography is often about the journey as much as it is about the results.
Canon 5D Mark II | Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L | 1/20s | f/4.0 | ISO 200

It was during a tour in Europe during the mid-1920s that singer Wynn Bullock first encountered the artworks of Man Ray and László Moholy-Nagy. Recognizing photography as a powerful vehicle for creativity, Bullock bought a box camera and began taking pictures himself.

Interested in art as well as psychology, physics, and philosophy, Bullock constantly sought to build on his own photographic practice. Many of Bullock’s photography quotes emphasize personal growth, affirming the need for deliberation and mindfulness.

Encouraging photographers to absorb as much as possible from every photographic subject and experience, Bullock’s words instill a sense of constructive curiosity in photographers that expands personal practice and furthers the medium overall.

Conclusion

There are so many photography quotes that have been recorded throughout history that it’s nearly impossible to list them all.

Nevertheless, reading and absorbing the advice uttered by pioneering photographers can help you understand the minds that helped shape the trajectory of photography!

Now over to you:

Do you have a favorite photography quote? Share it in the comments below!

The post How These 5 Photography Quotes Can Impact Your Photographic Practice appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Megan Kennedy.


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Tips for Using Photographic Minimalism to Great Effect

01 Oct

The post Tips for Using Photographic Minimalism to Great Effect appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Simon Bond.

In today’s article, you’ll learn a key tip for improving your photography. After all, when you understand that photography is the art of subtraction, it makes sense that minimalism works so well for photography.

This means that employing photographic minimalism in your work will immediately improve your results. Let’s take a look at what minimalism is, where you’ll find it, and how to use it in your own photos.

photographic minimalism fisherman example
Shooting upward toward the fisherman helped produce a minimalist photo.

What is minimalism?

Minimalism, as the name suggests, is about keeping things simple. It means avoiding clutter, which in photography equates to removing unwanted elements from your photos.

You do want a main subject, though; this is needed for the minimalist parts of your photos to have something to contrast with.

Key elements of photographic minimalism

The great thing about minimalism is that it can be applied to almost every genre of photography, including portrait, landscape, and still life. The only area where minimalism doesn’t always work well is street photography, where you often want to show more of the scene.

Therefore, the key aspects of photographic minimalism are the following:

  • Negative space: This refers to an area of empty space in your photo. The negative space still needs to work compositionally, but that space is what will give your photo its minimalism.
  • Small main subject: The main subject should not fill the frame. It needs to be present, but have enough space around it for the photo to breathe.
  • Avoid clutter: When you compose a photo, do so in such a way that you include the main subject and the background with little else.
photographic minimalism ice cream cone
This photo uses a wall similar in color to the ice cream.

The best location for photographic minimalism

It’s possible to produce photographic minimalism in almost any location.

The important factors are the angle you photograph at and the focal length of your lens. Here are a few possible ideas you can use:

  • Minimal locations: Places like coastlines and deserts offer minimalism pretty much wherever you point the camera.
  • Urban settings: Look for a plain wall and use this as a background for a minimalist portrait.
  • A shard of light: Go for low-key minimalism by locating a shard of sunlight, or by putting a snoot on a flash and aiming it at a person. Then expose for the light on that person, while leaving the background underexposed and dark.
  • Product photos: Use a lightbox to produce high-key product photos that are surrounded by white (or by the background color that you choose).
photographic minimalism boat on ocean
The ocean is minimal by nature. The ripples on the water add interest to the negative space.

Which lens works best?

The lens that works best for minimalism will depend a lot on the location you’re photographing. It may be hard to produce minimalism with a wide-angle lens in an urban setting, but take the same lens to a desert and it’ll do a great job. The following is a guide to help you choose the correct lens:

  • Wide-angle: Use a wide-angle lens in a location where you can fill the frame with one particular background. That background will often be the sky, but could equally be rolling green hills. This works best in rural areas.
  • Telephoto: It’s easier to produce minimalism when you use a telephoto lens. This is because you can zoom in on a specific area to avoid elements that clutter the frame. When using a long focal length, ensure there is enough negative space around your main subject.
street photo photographic minimalism
It’s possible to take minimal street photos, as well. Simply find a wall with a strong color to photograph against.

Change the angle

A simple change of angle can have a big impact on your photos and help you produce photographic minimalism. Stepping to the side or crouching down to the ground can be all it takes to remove a distracting element from your composition.

Here are some options that will turn a cluttered scene into a minimalist one:

  • A bird’s-eye view: This works best where you have fields or a coastline, so the location is already minimalist.
  • Crouching below a wall: Use a wall as the horizon line and aim up towards the sky. The wall blocks out the usually busy horizon, and you can add a person as a silhouette against the sky.
  • Compression: I already talked about this in the section about lenses and focal length, but zooming in to remove distracting elements from the edge of the frame works well.
  • Move to the side: A single step can be all it takes to change the background from cluttered to minimal.
photographic minimalism Greek monastery
This photo shows a monastery at Meteora in Greece. A long focal length is used and the rocks create a minimal, textured background.

Post processing can help

Now, it’s best to get your photo right from the start and simply change your position so that you can compose a minimalist photo.

That said, there are times that creating a minimalist composition in-camera isn’t possible, yet the photo is still very much there to be taken. There could be a lamppost or an electric pylon that comes into your frame.

Fortunately, it’s increasingly easy to clone out unwanted elements from your photo. And once you’ve done that, you’ll have created minimalism.

photographic minimalism farmworker in Laos
This farmworker in Laos works as a great main subject to add interest to the composition.

Maximize your photos with minimalism!

A lot of successful photos use minimalism to great effect. Are you a minimalist with your photography? If so, how do you go about taking photos in the minimalistic style? If you have ideas and photos you’d like to share, please do so in the comments section below.

Now it’s time to maximize your creativity with photographic minimalism!

The post Tips for Using Photographic Minimalism to Great Effect appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Simon Bond.


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4 Goals to Set for Expanding Your Photographic Creativity

09 Jul

The post 4 Goals to Set for Expanding Your Photographic Creativity appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Megan Kennedy.

Setting creativity goals in photography

The new year has come and gone and we find ourselves well and truly into 2020. Traditionally, many significant goals are made around the new year mark. But setting goals is a great way to work towards achieving a desired outcome at any time of the year. So why wait? Here are some simple creativity goals you can set yourself to expand on your photographic practice right now.

creativity goals post-it notes

Goal 1: try new subject matter

There’s nothing wrong with specialising, but branching out in photography can often reveal surprising creative opportunities.

For the first of our creativity goals, grab a pen and paper. Your task is to list at least 10 subjects that interest you but that you haven’t photographed in a while (if at all). Bugs, aviation, food, architecture… the list can be as varied as you’d like.

Once you’ve finished compiling your list, narrow your results down to the three most appealing (and doable) options. You want topics that interest you, but are also realistic and achievable.

creativity goals photographing insects
One of my chosen subjects for this goal was insects. f/4.5 1/1600 ISO 640

Once you’ve decided on your top three, set a reasonable time frame to photograph your chosen subject matter (it can be weeks, months or even years!).

You may also need to consider what photographic equipment you require for your goal. And don’t forget to do your research. Good research into a subject and a realistic time frame will help you make an actionable plan to achieve your creativity goals.

Keep your list nearby as motivation. You could stick it on the fridge, or in your camera bag…somewhere that will remind you of your goal. You could even use the list as a check-list of sorts. The point is that you have identified topics of interest and made a commitment to work towards a corresponding goal.

By creating a list of new subject matter, doing the research, and setting an actionable goal, you’ve already created a solid foundation from which to launch into new photographic opportunities.

Goal 2: room for improvement

Goal setting is a great way to check-in with your own creative process. Grab yourself another sheet of paper and a pen (don’t worry, the whole article isn’t about list-making) and jot down two or three aspects that might be hindering your creative practice. Some ideas are:

  • Running low on time for creativity
  • Lack of photographic direction or improvement
  • Difficulty with the technical aspects of photography
  • Suffering from creative blocks
  • A decrease in inspiration

Next, write some actionable goals that will make a positive impact in the areas you’ve identified as needing improvement. Here’s my list:

  1. Running short on time – dedicate 30 minutes to creativity a day – 1 week
  2. Creative block – photograph at least one favourite subject each week – 1 month

You’ll notice I also added a time frame to complete or perform these goals – this will give you motivation, and a concrete idea of how your goal will impact your practice.

Again, choose a realistic time frame. You can always elect to tackle a goal for a week and then expand the duration from there.

creativity goals abstract photography in black and white
Photographing a favourite subject regularly is a goal that can keep you motivated within your creative practice. f/4.0 1/100 ISO 100

Put your list on your cork board, in your organiser, as an alarm on your phone…whatever works. The list serves as a reminder for you to make time for growing your own practice.

Do your best to achieve the creativity goals you’ve set, but don’t worry if you can’t get everything done. Goal setting is about gradual growth, and every small step toward your goal is a victory. Just do your best!

Goal 3: try new tools and techniques

Not everyone has a spare camera, lens, tripod, etc laying around. But if you do, setting a dedicated goal to put some of your underused equipment to good use is a great way to expand your creativity. The same goes for testing out some new photographic techniques.

blurred and abstract photography creativity goals
Adopting a goal to take up blurred or abstract photography is a great way to expand your creativity. f/1.8 1/320 ISO 800

You don’t have to set a terribly elaborate goal to make a difference. Committing to experimenting with an old lens can offer a completely new perspective.

Shooting with film for a month can test your photographic approach.

Setting a goal to get out of Auto Mode or tackling a new technique each week in-camera or in Photoshop will grow your practice significantly. Setting creativity goals based around new tools and techniques challenges your photographic approach, thus, building your creative repertoire.

Goal 4: taking time out for inspiration

We touched on this before, but inspiration can be a fleeting phenomenon. One minute you’re bursting at the seams with creativity and then running on empty the next.

Creativity goals inspire us to take the time to do a stock-take on our own creative levels. Everyone feels creatively drained from time to time, but making a dedicated gap in your schedule to check-in with what is going on in the artistic sphere creates more opportunities for gathering inspiration and technical knowledge.

research creativity goals in photography
f/2.2 1/80 ISO 200

Start by setting a goal to dedicate at least 15-30 minutes per day for a week to inspiration. Reading books, going to exhibitions, researching websites (like Digital Photography School of course!), filling up a visual diary, and even checking Instagram can all contribute to a greater grasp of photographic theory and execution.

Motivational text for creativity goals

Once your set period of inspirational activities is over, review and make adjustments to your goal so it better suits your daily regimen.

Then…start again!

Soon, you’ll be in the habit of surrounding yourself with inspirational resources that recharge your creative practice and keep you abreast of creative possibilities and solutions.

Conclusion

Goal setting may seem daunting at first. However, once you break the process down, the usefulness and accessibility of goal-making become more apparent.

Goals encourage us to take active steps towards bettering our photographic practice. By making creativity goals, we commit to expanding our creativity incrementally, bettering our theoretical knowledge and practical experience.

Have you set yourself a creative goal recently? How did it go? Share your experience in the comments!

The post 4 Goals to Set for Expanding Your Photographic Creativity appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Megan Kennedy.


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Canon AE-1: the gear that changed my (photographic) life, again and again

23 May

The Canon AE-1 (Program) is by far the camera that has had the most impact on my life. Not that there’s anything particularly extraordinary about this classic film SLR, aside from its affordability, availability and reliability – ok, I guess that makes it a little special.

Over the years it’s a camera that I’ve come back to again and again as a means to hit reset, and recontextualize my love for photography.

I first picked mine up along with a “nifty fifty” for $ 200 at the end of my second year of high school (May, 2004). I’d been an avid film shooter for about four or five years prior, but hadn’t owned a fully-manual camera (coincidentally the AE-1 Program is one of the first mass-market SLRs with auto controls).

The September (2003) prior I’d launched a monthly zine with some of my friends, packed to the brim with skateboarding and rock & roll photographs, along with silly articles and band/artist interviews (creatively named, Dan’s Zine). I was the chief photographer/editor and took my role quite seriously (for a teenager, at least). We printed them on the B&W Xerox machines at my father’s office and distributed the copies by hand in school and at a local deli.

Skateboarding was my earliest photographic obsession. I shot this in 2004 for a cover of Dan’s Zine, a monthly publication I published with some friends. Will Best, Taildrop.

What started out as mostly a joke blossomed into a full-blown amateur journalistic/photographic obsession. By the time May rolled around, we were printing at least 50+ copies an issue (eventually closer to 150+). With the school year coming to a close I was eager to learn more about photography. Up until that point I’d only really paid attention to composition, but suddenly the idea of exposure control and handling my own film seemed like a brave and exciting new world.

The idea of exposure control and handling my own film seemed like a brave and exciting new world

So I enrolled in a summer darkroom photography course at the local community college. And much to my excitement, a fully-manual camera was at the top of the list for course materials.

That summer accelerated my love for photography at lighting speed. I quickly became a creature of the darkroom, monitoring it on the weekends for modest pay and volunteering to assist other students. I spent hours, often alone, making prints or hanging out by the drying racks reading stacks of old photo magazines from the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s.

A selection of “Dan’s Zine” master copies from our 36-issue run.

I also fell in love with my Canon AE-1 that summer; I’d spend the next two years of high school bringing it with me everywhere I went including many solo train trips to Hoboken, New Jersey, where I’d shoot street photography along the waterfront. I also used it to shoot the next 28 issues of Dan’s Zine, which came to a close with issue #36 as I prepared to head off to college (summer, 2006).

I’d acquired a shiny new D300 and all things film photography became an afterthought. My AE-1 would remain untouched for many years to come

I’d spend the next four years studying photojournalism and immersing myself in digital photography and its workflow – first as a photographer for our daily student newspaper, The Daily Targum and later in a variety of editor positions including photo editor. It was there I first handled a DSLR and became hooked on digital.

By my second year in college I’d acquired a shiny new D300 and all things film photography became an afterthought. My AE-1 would remain untouched for many years to come.

I picked back up my AE-1 after a 5 year break to document my transition from college to young adulthood while living in New York City. From a personal project titled Analog 3086.

But then when I needed it most, it reemerged: I was a year out of college and working as an assistant magazine editor, commuting daily from New Jersey to midtown Manhattan. At the time, my life revolved around all things photographic, though I had almost no time on-the-job for actual photography. It was around this point I began to feel a creative emptiness bubble inside me along with all sorts of existential dread.

You can’t force creative passion, so instead reconnect with what made you fall in love with photography in the first place

Perhaps it was the realization that my best years were seemingly behind me (haha) and I’d be spending the next 40-something years working; or perhaps it was a lack of personal creative stimulation. But I needed help, and so I turned to a trusted colleague who advised me that “You can’t force creative passion, so instead reconnect with what made you fall in love with photography in the first place.”

And so I brushed off my dusty AE-1 and start shooting film again, with no real objective other than to try and spark passion. And boy did it.

For me, film is a more intimate medium to work with than digital. From a personal project titled Analog 3086.

I’d spent the next couple years working on personal project, part self-documentation, part observation, called “Analog 3086.” The sole purpose of the project was to foster a stronger relationship between myself and photography.

At the time, I considered most of the images nothing more than snapshots. But as I’ve gotten older and wiser, I now see them as historical records – vivid depictions of a young man finding his way through early adolescence. These are images that otherwise would never had existed, had I not turned back to film.

The rekindling of love for my AE-1 sparked a deep and nerdy interest in film cameras as a whole

That rekindling of love for my AE-1 not only reignited my creativity and passion for photography, it also sparked a deep and nerdy interest in film cameras as a whole. I’d soon begin to buy and sell them with regularity and still do. Years later, my collection would swell to numbers I care not admit.

But even as heavy-hitters like the Leica M6 joined my collection, I’d still find myself picking up the AE-1 in moments where I simply wanted to enjoy photography, without the noise (people see a Leica in the wild and want to talk your ear off). And for many years it remained my go-to photographic decompressor.

Another “Dan’s Zine“-era shot from around 2005. John Mullen, noseblunt slide.

These days, I still use my AE-1 from time to time for sentimental reasons, but it’s largely been retired (replaced by a Nikon FM2). Fortunately, the lessons it’s taught have been well-learned, and I don’t just mean exposure values. It’s taught me how to slow down and reconnect with my childhood photographic curiosity, the one that sent me careening down my present career path some 17 years ago.

It’s taught me how to slow down and reconnect with my childhood photographic curiosity

Ultimately, we all have a story about what got us here, to the point of being photo/camera-obsessed. And mine’s no more or less special than anyone else’s, just as my AE-1 is no more or less special than the 254 currently for sale on Ebay. But you know what is special? The fact that most of us never got into photography because of the gear, we got into because of a feeling: a feeling of joy, curiosity and satisfaction that comes from the first few times you hear that shutter “click”.

It’s a wondrous feeling and one well-worth reconnecting with.

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The gear that changed my (photographic) life: reader responses part 2

03 May

Reader responses part two – gear that changed my life

Photo of Canon AE-1 by DPR member WoifC

We’ve compiled more of our favorite responses to the question we’ve been asking – both of ourselves and our readers – “What was the piece of gear that made the biggest difference to your photography?” We enjoyed reading all of your stories and have picked out a few of our very favorites to highlight.

This time around, we saw many responses expressing gratitude toward the person who inspired them to pursue photography, in addition to the gear that made the difference. There were also several responses naming the books that changed their photographic lives, which is a sentiment we can definitely get behind.

Reading your answers to this question has been a true joy in times when joy has been harder to come by than usual. We’re grateful to share in the remembrances of the people, books, cameras and lenses that spurred each of our readers further down a path pursuing photography. Thanks to all who took the time to respond, and if you haven’t yet it’s not too late! Leave a comment and tell us your story.

Pentax K10D

Doc Pockets: I was to take a 15-week road trip in a quest to photograph what most will call lousy winter weather. A 1996 4X4 F350 with a service body took us from the Sonoran Desert (home) to and across all the Canadian provinces ending in the Maritimes then driving down the American East Coast…. Three bodies, two DA* 2.8 zooms and a wide prime was chosen.

Drenched in downpours (Vancouver Island), blizzard -blasted (Cabot Trail), sand-blasted (Lake Superior’s shorelines) and one spent two hours with the 50-150mm 2.8 DA* attached in 20 feet of silty water (thanks to my sister) without the slightest problem. To this day those cameras work!

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‘My friend Peter’

JeffieBoy: He is about 5 yrs older than me and for 40+ years has been a mentor and someone I have looked up to. The first time we met, he walked into the room and mumbled something like F5.6 under his breath.

He later explained that he was teaching himself to quantify light In his mind’s eye so he would always be ready to get a good exposure. I practised for a month or more and eventually got very good at it… My cameras were always ready because I was unconsciously presetting everything as light changed.

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Michael Reichmann

Chris Butler: It wasn’t an “it” but a “who” that changed my concept of what I could do with with a camera. Specifically, it was Michael Reichmann’s 2000 comparison of digital images to film, in which he had the audacity to prove the 3 megapixel D30 could produce images as good or better than film. I sold all my considerable film gear and never looked back. Well done, Michael, and RIP.

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Pentax SFXn

Photo of Pentax SFXn by DPR member arthur01

arthur01: …the game changer for me, as a wedding photographer using film, was the underrated Pentax SFXn. It was the first time I used autofocus. As a person wearing glasses and struggling to achieve sharp focus as it got dark towards the end of the after ceremony shots it made all the difference. It prolonged my wedding career.

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‘The New Joy of Photography’ (1985 edition) by the Editors of Eastman Kodak Co.

donnybrook: I was a young field engineer that had just bought a used Minolta XG-7 and a few lenses off a colleague to upgrade my point and shoot film camera. That book basically taught me photography and I would review it before going on vacation trips with my film SLR for years. Not just aperture and exposure compensation but balance, composition, vision and light. Lots of great shots to admire and motivate.

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Nikon D5300

Photo by DPR member Aphidman with Nikon D5300

Aphidman: In 2013 I discovered that 35mm film could not be found outside of cities, and realized it was time to change technologies. Used Air Miles points to get the D5300. It re-ignited my love of photography that had been dormant since my teenage years. Used it to discover what kinds of photography I enjoyed most; 4 years later, upgraded to a D7500… which addressed all the things that held me back with the D5300. An adult daughter now uses that D5300, for which I will always have fond memories.

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Nikkormat Ftn

Photo via Wikimedia Commons by E Magnuson

CTaylorTX: It was January 15, 1972. Fairhaven Camera in East Haven, CT. I was 16, and had saved for a year and was ready to buy my first 35mm SLR. The man behind the counter had already loaded the batteries into a Pentax Spotmatic SP1000. My mom looked at me and said “I have another $ 50, is there something you would like better than this?” I pointed at a Nikkormat Ftn with 50mm f/1.4 Auto-Nikkor – “yes, that!” … While I still love the Pentaxes, the Nikkormat opened the doors to shooting Nikon for the next two decades.

Oh, yes, how do I know the exact date? On the ride back home, the car’s A.M. radio informed me that ‘American Pie’ was now #1 on ‘America’s Top 40’. Thanks for the memory, Kasey Kasem.

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Canon TS-E 17mm F4L

Photo by DPR member John Crowe with Canon 17mm F4 L TS-E

John Crowe: After striving to improve my ultra wide angle photography for 25 years, through three different formats, I sold the 4×5 and 120 cameras and went all in on the Canon 17mm f4 L TS-E. That was almost 10 years ago, and soon realized that not only could I correct perspective but that I could also shift and stitch images together to create even wider views! It took a couple more years for the stitching software to catch up, but once it did, I could achieve the kind of results that I had been searching to create for decades.

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Sony a6000

Photo by DPR member Luddhi with the Sony a6000

Luddhi: …I was rarely taking my camera out as it was too heavy to take bush-walking so I pestered my local camera shop trying out all the lighter cameras until – against the advice of the shop, I bought a Sony a6000. This changed my life. I was able to carry it in my jacket pocket.

I carried it in my hand for about 6 hours through Washpool National Park after I tore my jacket pocket. I could take satisfactory photos one handed – important when holding onto a tree to lean out and take a shot of a ravine. Also whereas my grandchildren would flinch when they saw me with the 50D they practically ignore(d) the a6000. So I now have some good and some funny shots of my grandchildren that I otherwise would not have got.

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Canon AE-1

Photo by DPR member WoifC taken with the Canon AE-1 and Ilford FP4

WoifC: When I was 6 or 7 years old, my mother gave me a Canon AE-1 no one used… There was no film in it and I walked around, tried to focus on anything I found interesting and was soooo proud that I was allowed to push the shutter release button. That’s 30 years ago but I still remember that day and know that this was the day I fell in love for photography.

My son is now 8 years old (since Monday) and loves to take photos too. Sometimes he asks me to borrow my X-T2… and walks around taking photos like I did when i was as old as him. Maybe we will share this hobby when he is older. I hope so.

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Speed Graphic

Photo of minor league baseball images created by DPR member SRHEdD using 35mm and Speed Graphic cameras

SRHEdD: I worked for a rural ad agency and shot 35mm Nikons, but we hired a photographer with a Sinar 4×5 from a larger metropolitan area at great expense. On vacation, I saw an old Speed Graphic in its fiberboard case with two lenses and a half dozen film holders for $ 200 at an antique shop. It worked perfectly. I bought a Polaroid back when I got home and instantly replaced having to hire anyone else.

I shot food for a major poultry company, team photos for a minor league baseball team, and some great still lifes used for our clients’ annual reports, etc. I think it was then that I was comfortable calling myself a professional photographer.

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Foba camera stand

Photo of DPR member Jim Kasson with Foba camera stand

Jim Kasson: Lots of gear has allowed me to do things I couldn’t otherwise do. I couldn’t have done Staccato before the D3. I couldn’t have done much of Timescapes without the Betterlight scanning back. But the piece of gear that has changed my life the most in the past few years is a Foba camera stand. Setups that were a pain are now effortless.

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Gear that changed my (photographic) life: the Canon PowerShot G3

02 May
Old and new: The Canon PowerShot G3 and the PowerShot G1 X Mark II.

This article was originally published in 2017 as part of our ‘Throwback Thursday’ series.

It’s hard to believe that the Canon G-series is almost 17 years old, and while technology has certainly marched forward, ‘G cameras’ have consistently been a favorite of enthusiasts and even pros. (OK, there was that whole kerfuffle when the G7 dropped Raw support, but Canon saw the error of its ways and corrected course with the G9.)

However, through all the years, there’s one model in particular that always stands out in my memory: the PowerShot G3. In part, this is surely due to the fact that it’s one of the cameras that helped me make the transition to digital, but I don’t think I’m alone in this. The G3 was released right around the time that a lot of photographers were making the same transition, and the camera offered a fast lens and all the manual controls you could want. Its ‘rangefinder’ look undoubtedly appealed to aesthetic tastes as well.

Taking the PowerShot G3 to the summit. North Cascades National Park, Washington.

Photo by Dale Baskin

It’s predecessor, the PowerShot G2, was already a popular camera, but the G3 improved on it in a number of important ways.

Most notably, the G3 featured a 35-140mm equivalent F2.0-3.0 lens that maintained a relatively fast aperture throughout the range (which wasn’t quite as fast as the G2’s 34-102mm F2.0-2.5 lens, but it provided a lot more reach). Although it had a tendency to exhibit some purple fringing in high contrast scenes, it never stuck out as a terrible problem to me. To make good use of the lens, Canon added FlexiZone autofocus and the ability to manually select from over 300 focus areas around the screen

Crossing the Dome Glacier.

Photo by Dale Baskin

It was also one of the first (if not the first) compact camera to get an internal neutral density filter, a feature that continues on G-series cameras – and many other compacts – to this day. It made the camera usable at wide apertures even in bright sunlight, and allowed for long exposures to create motion blur, such as with moving water.

Of course, the thing most people cared about was image quality, and the G3 didn’t disappoint. In Phil’s original review, he praised the G3, saying ‘The Super-Fine JPEG option delivers almost TIFF-like image quality with no JPEG artifacts or loss of detail.’

Lantern light near Juneau, Alaska.

Photo by Dale Baskin

What appealed to me were the G3’s Raw files. Although it had the same 4MP resolution as the G2, the G3 could capture 12-bit Raw files, compared to the G2’s 10-bit files. Whether this actually made a real world difference in images from those older, smaller sensors, I don’t know. But it sounded good. (Fun fact: back when the G3 came out, DPReview even made sure to tell readers how many Raw images would fit on a 1GB Microdrive. The answer is 272, if you’re curious.)

One feature that hasn’t carried through to modern day ‘G cameras’ is the optical viewfinder. The G3 had an ‘optical tunnel’ viewfinder with about 84% coverage, and beginning at moderately wide angles the lens blocked the lower left corner of the image. But it was an actual viewfinder, making it easier to take pictures in bright places, like on top of a glacier. With practice I became very adept at using it.

Sunset descent. Cascade Mountains, Washington.

Photo by Dale Baskin

As I look back at the G3 now, I realize that it was a camera designed to appeal to SLR users who wanted to go digital, but who weren’t ready to break the bank on an EOS D60. Other than interchangeable lenses, it had all the features you could want: Raw images, viewfinder, top plate LCD, PASM modes, E-TTL hot shoe, command dial on the grip, manual focus point selection, and even the ability to use filters with a bayonet adapter. And it also looked a little more like a traditional camera than the more curvy G2.

Between its relatively compact size, large feature set, and excellent Raw files, the G3 was a camera I could carry along on adventures, confident that I would be able to get the shots I wanted. And it did just that, accompanying me to the tops of mountains, through national parks, and to a few foreign countries. Just playing around with it while writing this article makes me want to go use it again.

Ah, nostalgia…

Read our Canon PowerShot G3 review

If you have a piece of gear that you’d like to write about, we’d love to hear from you – and you might even get featured on the DPReview homepage. Leave us a short note in the comments and if you have a longer story to tell, send it to us, and we’ll take it from there.

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The gear that changed my (photographic) life: the Nikon D3

22 Apr

This article was originally published in 2017 as part of our ‘Throwback Thursday’ series.

In 2007, after several years of lagging behind Canon in the enthusiast and professional DSLR market, Nikon was doing alright. Not spectacularly, but they were hanging in there. The D200 was a popular and capable enthusiast model, and the professional D2x was a significant advance on the muddled ‘h’ and ‘s’ releases of the past. But it was their biggest competitor that seemed to have all the momentum. While Canon had been using APS-H and full-frame sensors for years, none of Nikon’s DSLRs offered sensors bigger than APS-C, and Canon still ruled the roost in terms of autofocus1 and high ISO imaging capability.

But around that time, we had an inkling that Nikon had something big on the way. Not a company prone to grand gestures, Nikon invited the world’s press (and I do mean the world’s press) to Tokyo, in the sapping humidity of a Japanese heatwave for a top secret announcement…

The magnesium alloy-bodied D3 was as tough as anything that Canon ever brought to market, but offered a combination of speed, sensitivity and autofocus performance that the industry had never seen before.

Ten years ago, camera technology was advancing continuously, and quickly. For quite a long time, it seemed like every new generation of digital cameras was better than the last in ways that camera buyers (and reviewers) actually cared about. Obviously, each new cycle brought more megapixels, but equally as important were the ergonomic and performance improvements that made each new generation of cameras easier to use, and more effective than the last.

Buzz Aldrin, in London to mark the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing.

Nowhere were these advances more obvious than in the professional DSLR segment. Compare the original EOS-1D of 2001 to the EOS-1D Mark IV of 2010. They look similar, but in terms of usability and image quality they’re worlds apart.

Let’s take usability, to start with. If we look at just the screen interfaces alone, in less than a decade, LCDs got bigger, and much sharper. Live view became standard, and, camera menu systems evolved from messy lists that looked like Windows ME error messages to friendly tabs and mobile-inspired icons.

My personal D3S, nestled alongside a D810 and several lenses in a Pelican case. It’s still great, and I still use it.

The 4MP Canon EOS-1D is still capable of turning out decent-looking images for web and limited print use, and it can do so impressive quickly (8 fps ain’t bad for a sixteen year-old DSLR). But the EOS-1D Mark IV offered four times the pixel count, better image quality across the board, including a far superior high ISO imaging capability, a faster continuous shooting rate, and a much more sophisticated autofocus system – plus live view and movie mode.

High Barn, not far from where I grew up, in North Yorkshire. 12MP might not be much by 2017 standards, but it’s enough for a high quality 13-inch print.

All of this is by way of preamble. The point (finally! He gets to the point!) is that even by the fast-paced standards of the professional DSLR market in the mid 2000s, the Nikon D3 was a major technological achievement. Arguably, (and I admit it’s a big ‘arguably’) the EOS-1D Mark IV and its successors might not have been quite such advanced cameras without the technological game-upping that Canon had to do in the years following the launch of the D3.

Nikon D3 Sample Images (2008)

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As a working photographer and photography writer at the time, the D3 was (and remains, actually) the single most impactful product to be released during my career. Before Nikon’s presentation in Tokyo had even drawn to a close,2 our industry’s expectations of what a DSLR could do had been shifted.

Until the D3, you could either have a fast cropped sensor DSLR, or a slow full-frame one – not both. Until the D3, the maximum ISO sensitivity setting that you might be able to shoot at was either 1600 or 3200 (depending on the model), and even then, not particularly confidently. Until the D3 (and its sister model the D300) came along, if you wanted the best autofocus performance, there was no question – you bought Canon.

Melody Gardot, performing in London. The D3’s shutter sounds like someone just dropped a cribbage board onto a marble floor, but the D3S introduced a fairly discreet ‘Q’ mode.

I was happily shooting with a Canon EOS-1D Mark II when the D3 was released. For the kind of photography I was doing at the time, the Mark II was one of the best cameras on the market, and did the job perfectly well – or so I thought. I felt the same way about the 1D Mark II in 2007 as I did about my Nokia 3210. Solid, reliable, and elegant in its own way. A useful and streamlined tool.

At risk of overstating the point, the D3 was to my EOS-1D Mark II what the iPhone was to the Nokia 3210: a paradigm shift.3

Florence Welch, shot with the D3’s successor, the D3S. The D3S added some welcome tweaks over the D3, including in-camera sensor cleaning, and slightly improved high ISO image quality.

Using the D3, I could shoot quickly and without a crop factor for the first time. I could capture full-color images in light so low that my own eyes couldn’t fully discern what I was looking at (and the AF could usually keep up). I could shoot at ISO 6400, and marvel at the moderate film-like grain – a grain pattern that wasn’t distracting at all, and showed no banding. The D3’s autofocus system was at least a generation ahead of what I was used to in terms of tracking too, allowing me to reliably use AF-C, even with off-center AF points in poor light.

Nikon D3S Sample Images (2010)

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In practical terms, this meant that I could capture images of performers in light so marginal that none of the other photographers working alongside me were able to get a sharp exposure.

A couple of times during my first few months of shooting with the D3 (when I had the camera for review, but before it was shipping in significant numbers) I found myself alone in the photo pit at a small venue, still shooting in punishingly low light after the other photographers had given up and left.4

But it wasn’t just performance photographers that were amazed by the D3. Wildlife photographers, too, were raving about this amazing new camera that let them shoot in full color, in situations where previously they would have been limited to infrared. Like I said, it was a paradigm shift.

The D3S has accompanied me on a few shooting trips in 2017, including a protest against the Trump administration’s attempted travel ban, back in January.

So of course I bought one. I sold all my Canon gear, took a hit on the exchange, ate tinned food for a few months and picked up a D3 with a 24-70mm F2.8. I added more lenses over the following couple of years when I could afford to, and ultimately traded the D3 for a D3S. The D3S added in-camera sensor-cleaning (one of the D3’s few deficiencies), even better high ISO image quality and a basic HD video function. That was around the same time I started to write for DPReview, and about a year after that we moved to America and I mostly stopped shooting live music.

My life has changed a lot since then, but I still have my D3S and I still use it – mostly now as a second camera for event photography. And no, Dan Bracaglia – I’m not selling, so stop asking.

A still from a commercial shoot for a young singer-songwriter, Anna Sinfield, in 2008. She’s a producer, these days, for UK radio.

One last anecdote…

Not long after the D3’s launch, back in London, I spoke to a young Nikon engineer who had been heavily involved in the design of the new camera. He was visiting from Tokyo. He brought with him two sets of prints – one set from the then-current Canon EOS-1D Mark III, and an equivalent set from the D3. Pointing to the shots from the Canon, he said “in my opinion, these look like digital images”. Turning to the images from the D3 he said “but these look like photographs”.

That might sound like hyperbole, but the thing is – he was right.

1. Setting aside the much-reported and in my opinion overblown autofocus woes of the EOS-1D Mark III.

2. In addition to the cameras, the presentation was also memorable for a closing appeal from a very senior Nikon executive to the assembled US press. Please – he requested – please pronounce ‘Nikon’ correctly as ‘Nick-on’ not ‘Nye-con’ – a plea that was of course completely ignored by all concerned. That trip was also the first time I encountered a Geisha (it would not be the last).

3. If the D3 had come loaded with ‘Snake II’ it would have been perfect. Actually, given the amount of time professional photographers spend just waiting around, I’ve always wondered why simple arcade games weren’t pre-loaded on professional DSLRs.

4. The Pogues – I’m looking at you. Or rather, I was trying to…

If you have a piece of gear that you’d like to write about, we’d love to hear from you – and you might even get featured on the DPReview homepage. Leave us a short note in the comments and if you have a longer story to tell, send it to us, and we’ll take it from there.

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The gear that changed my (photographic) life: the Canon EOS 10D

18 Apr

This article was originally published in 2017 as part of our ‘Throwback Thursday’ series.

A few months ago I wrote a short article about the Canon EOS D30. The D30 was a groundbreaking camera in its day, being the first ‘affordable’ DSLR and the first to feature a large-format CMOS sensor. Yes, its autofocus system was woeful, and the LCD display on the back was about as useful as making a sketch from memory, but back in 2000, everybody wanted one.

I was definitely curious about the D30, but given that in 2000 I was a first-year undergraduate student, such an expensive camera was far beyond my reach. It would be another couple of years before I saved up enough money to buy my first DSLR, and the camera I eventually settled on was the successor to the successor of the EOS D30 – the counterintuitively named Canon EOS 10D1.

The break with Canon’s previous naming convention was appropriate, though. The 10D was a substantially new camera compared to the models that preceded it, and it replaced the D60 with an almost indecent haste (the D60 had been on the market for little more than a year before the 10D came along). Compared to the plastic-bodied D30/D60 it was better built, featured a far superior rear LCD (with a usable magnification feature) offered a more rounded styling, closer in spirit to the EOS-1D series, and was much quicker in operation.

The 10D was a thoroughly modern camera in 2003, and remained on the market for some time. Canon took the basic form factor of the D60 and modernized every aspect of that model’s performance and styling.

The 10D’s DIGIC processor drove a blisteringly fast (ahem…) continuous shooting rate of 3 fps, operation was snappier, including reduced shutter-lag, and the 10D’s 7-point autofocus system was a huge improvement over the 3-point system in the D30 and D60, which seemed prehistoric even back then. Although the 10D’s 6MP CMOS sensor was based on the one previously used in the D60, Canon had refined the manufacturing process in the meantime. Consequently it offered slightly better resolution than its predecessor, superior noise performance and a wider ISO span, topping out at a grainy but usable ISO 3200.

Remarkably, despite all of these improvements, the 10D was also $ 500 cheaper than the D60.

Although it definitely wasn’t in the same ballpark as the EOS-1D in terms of speed or construction, the 10D beat the pants off Canon’s then-current pro sports model in terms of image quality. Significantly, the core specification of the 10D was close enough to the EOS 30 / Elan 7 that film holdouts didn’t have to feel too badly short-changed by the costly jump into digital.

With the EOS 10D’s accessory grip attached, it was almost possible to believe that I was shooting with an EOS-1D.

Almost…

So, to recap – the 10D offered a very usable sensitivity range of ISO 100-3200, 3 fps continuous shooting, 7-point AF system, magnesium-alloy body shell and a substantial price reduction. In 2003, it all added up to a hugely desirable camera.2

Canon EOS 10D Sample images (2004-5)

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Because it was so popular, the 10D was pretty scarce for several months after its introduction. After saving up my wages for an entire summer (a story told in more detail here), I ended up purchasing mine from a ‘big box’ high-street retailer, because it was out of stock everywhere else – something I later came to regret.

I decided to pull the trigger on a 10D for several reasons. In a rare attack of foresight, I determined that this digital thing probably wasn’t a fad, and with ambitions to become a photographer of some kind, it seemed sensible to dive in as soon as possible. And while previous DSLRs had felt like too much of a compromise, the 10D seemed to meet my most important criteria.

As a budding theatre and live music photographer, I was hitting the limits of what I could do with film, both technically and practically. Technically speaking, high ISO film exposed in marginal light and processed at your average high-street pharmacy simply doesn’t look very good – especially if you’re talking about high-speed color emulsions. From a practical standpoint, development and printing turnaround times were a problem if I wanted to get images to people quickly. And forget about serious commercial work – by 2003, the magazines and websites I was interested in working for were increasingly insisting on digital file delivery.

A typical monochrome conversion of a shot taken in the Assembly Rooms Theatre. The 10D’s highest ISO settings were grainy, but perfectly usable – especially when converted into black and white.

The first quasi ‘commercial’ work I ever did was head-shots and performance images for Durham University’s student theatre. Student productions rotated every few weeks, and every production wanted some prints to display outside the theatre. I can’t remember the first production that I shot digitally (was it Harold Pinter’s ‘The Caretaker’?)3 but compared to film, it was vastly easier. Ironically, I was a sort of caretaker for the theatre at the time, since I lived in a small flat above the lobby. Being able to shoot a dress-rehearsal in the theatre, then head upstairs to make my edit and print the images – sometimes all in the same evening – was a revelation. I can’t remember how much I charged for my services, but I made enough over a couple of years to buy a couple of new lenses.

And for a while it seemed like it was lenses that were the problem. Initially I had two lenses for my 10D. A 50mm F1.8 (of course), and a 24-70mm F2.8L. Later I added a 70-200mm F2.8L and a 17-40mm F4L (all purchased used). The 10D worked perfectly with all of them, except the 24-70mm. For whatever reason, camera and lens did not get on at all. Chronic back-focusing was apparent even through the 10D’s viewfinder, and this was before the days of AF micro-adjustment. The 24-70mm was simply unusable on my 10D, but it focused perfectly on other DSLRs that I borrowed from friends, or rented in an increasingly desperate attempt to figure out what was going on.

A live shot from one of my first proper commissions – a major awards show tour that came through Newcastle in 2005 – not far from where I lived at the time. It looks like I benefited a bit from someone else’s flash, in this shot. Thank you – whoever you were.

The retailer I bought my 10D from wasn’t particularly interested in helping, so I sent it back to Canon at least four times during the first year I owned it, shooting on film during the long intervals when it was away for service. Every time it came back as ‘up to specification,’ but the back-focusing problem remained. Finally, after a lot of back and forth, I send the 10D in with the troublesome 24-70mm, and was rewarded with a ‘fixed’ camera, complete – funnily enough – with a new serial number. Knowing what I know now, I should have sent the camera and lens back together in the first place.

Even this frustrating experience wasn’t enough to dull my excitement at owning and using the 10D. It really was a fantastic camera at the time, and it helped me gain a footing in the not-at-all-lucrative world of performance photography. My first magazine commissions were shot with the 10D. I learned about the benefits of shooting Raw with the 10D (albeit rather belatedly). The first camera I ever had confiscated at a music venue4 was the 10D. It was my main camera for a couple of very formative years, before being relegated as a second body beside to the truly magnificent EOS-1D Mark II (which I’m hoping to write about at a later date).

The 10D couldn’t do everything (it choked up when shooting several Raw files in a sequence, and in low light its off-center AF points were little more than decorative), but it opened up a completely new world for me.

One of my favorite bands of the mid-2000s was ‘Hope of the States’. I probably photographed them more than any other band, for a while. This shot is from another awards show in London in 2005. Despite the off-center composition, most likely I used the central AF point for this image, since the 10D’s off-center points didn’t work very well at all in low light.

And it’s a world I’m still living in. Without the 10D, there is no doubt in my mind that I wouldn’t have become a music photographer, and if I hadn’t become a music photographer, I probably wouldn’t have ended up as a photography journalist. Whether or not that’s a good thing is something I’m happy to leave to the commenters to decide.

Did you own a 10D? Let us know.

Read Phil Askey’s review of the EOS 10D (2003)

Canon EOS 10D Review Samples (2003)

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1 – A note on Canon’s confusing naming convention. The ‘D30’ because it was a digital camera with 3 million pixels. The D60 because it was basically a D30 with a new 6 million pixel sensor. And the switch to 10D because – I assume – Canon and Nikon’s lawyers had a little chat.

2 – In fact, just about the only people who weren’t singing Canon’s praises at the time were recent D60 owners.

3 – The Assembly Rooms – it’s still there, and this being student theatre, there’s every chance that they’re currently staging a production of Harold Pinter’s ‘The Caretaker’, too.

4 – It was all just one big misunderstanding. Specifically around two people’s definitions of the word ‘permission’.

If you have a piece of gear that you’d like to write about, we’d love to hear from you – and you might even get featured on the DPReview homepage. Leave us a short note in the comments and if you have a longer story to tell, send it to us, and we’ll take it from there.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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The gear that changed my (photographic) life: reader responses

17 Apr

Reader responses: the gear that changed your (photographic) life

As we share stories of the gear that made the biggest difference to our photography, we’ve asked DPR readers to respond with their stories as well. To our delight (and believe us, we need delight right now), hundreds of you have responded. While we’ve enjoyed reading them all, below are some excerpts from our favorites.

Find out what gear changed the lives of your fellow readers, and be sure to respond with your own if you haven’t already! We’ll continue sharing our favorites until, uh, something different happens in the world.

35mm F2 AIS Nikkor

Image via Wikimedia Commons by Paul1513

lightandaprayer: A 35mm f2 AIS Nikkor was one of the first lenses I bought new for use with a battered black Nikkormat FT2 I found at an LA pawnshop. I still own the lens; I sold the much-loved FT2 to a friend’s son and later replaced it with a mint FT2 that I still use today.

Ultimately the 35mm was replaced with a 35-70 2.8 Nikkor and it quickly became one of my most used work lenses. But a 35mm always had a place in my bag. I’m glad that I have hung onto much of my fave film-era prime glass. I simply enjoy using them more than any AF lens on both digital and film Nikons.

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Kodak Brownie 127

Image via Wikimedia Commons by Enrique

entoman: The gear that changed my life was a Kodak Brownie 127…. given to me as a Christmas present at age 8.

I think I knew instantly that I wanted to be a photographer. When I collected my black and white prints from the local chemist, a kind young lady assistant said “Ooh, these are good pictures, are you going to be a professional photographer when you grow up?”

She inspired me, so I took more pictures. And I’ve never stopped.

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Nikon D4

Razor Sharp Studios: For me the Nikon D4 that I purchased in 2013 took my sports photography to a whole new level. Until then I was barely getting 5 or 6 fps with a gripped D300. In the super quick world of horse racing, I would barely get a second worth of time at the finish line to capture the winning horse…

Being able to go up to 10 fps greatly helped me get more keepers in terms of published images. Still one of my favourite work bodies in the field.

Photo taken in Dubai in 2018 at the Meydan racetrack.

See more of his work on Instagram at @zoomnclick.

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Minolta SRT101

Photo via Wikimedia Commons user Hiyotada

gopherino: My Dad turned me on to photography… He was his high school yearbook photographer/editor, and 28 years later, so was I. By the time I went from Brownie to Instamatic to polaroid, it was time to learn to covet my Dad’s Minolta SRT101…

Photography, travel, tennis and business were interwoven threads that bound me with a most amazing father. He would have been 92 this year, and I think of him every time i pick up my Sony FF cameras and lenses.

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Nikkormat FT3

WV Communications: My dad let me use his Nikkormat FT3 in high school as the yearbook photographer. What a great camera, although the meter was a little wonky. If I asked nicely, I could use his black Nikon F2 with motordrive for football games. I felt pretty awesome clicking off frames of Tri-X.

By the time I was in college shooting for the school paper, I scraped enough money together to buy a brand new FM10, which while a great camera, was in a much lesser league than the classics. By that time, we were developing film and then scanning into a Mac Quadra for layout. I feel fortunate to have experienced the twilight of the film era. Now I’m getting back into film for the joy of it.

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Samsung EX1 / TL500

thielges: For me it was the Samsung EX1 (TL500). Having previously used a Konica Minolta A2, I saw the EX1 as being a lighter carry around camera, not a replacement for the A2. Then one day I was processing photos from both cameras and noticed how those from the EX1 really popped in comparison. Crisp, bright, and with noticeable broad dynamic range.
From then on I used the EX1 exclusively and bought another Samsung travel zoom to cover the tele end….

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Panasonic LX3

Samuel Dilworth: The LX3 was a revelation to me… It made the digital dream a reality, although I had other digital cameras before (notably a Nikon D60 and lenses).

I had moved to Paris, and the combination of that city’s beauty and this small, functional, Raw-capable camera gave me many photos I liked at the time. I should reprocess them with today’s Raw-developing software.

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Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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