We’ve all heard it at some point of another. We’ve all complained about it. One of our fabulous members did something about it and posted about it on her blog. She agreed to let me share it here, with you! The author is Erin Farrell of Erin Farrell Photography. Follow the link to check out her gorgeous work and Erin, thanks for letting us share!
Imagine that you’re baking dessert for a party. It’s your special recipe: the one everyone asks for. You make it from scratch, of course, never looking at the recipe that you committed to memory so long ago. Sugar, beaten eggs, sift in the flour… you’re crafting something delicious from basic elements. Now you’re at the party and everyone is gushing about your dessert. The flavor! The texture! But most of all you’re being asked, “what kind of oven do you have? It makes great cakes!”
That’s pretty much how a photographer feels when people look at their photos and say, “your camera takes great pictures.”
Of course it’s not the camera that takes great photos, any more than it’s the oven that makes a great dessert. Ovens and cameras are just tools that make our jobs easier. Yes, better equipment does make a difference. I wouldn’t spend thousands of dollars on cameras and lenses if it didn’t. However, you must understand the camera to take advantage of all it can offer. Just because you’re using a professional camera does not mean you are producing professional images.
It’s all about what you know: the technicalities of photography. You have to determine just the right type and direction of light, position your models to take advantage of that light and create a pleasing composition, utilize the correct camera settings (aperture, ISO, etc.) and work with your models to make them feel comfortable. And that’s just the first half! After the photo shoot there is still post-processing to be done.
I decided to do a little experiment. I used my friend’s daughter as my model and brought my brother with me for a mini session. Not at a garden or the beach, but at Houlihan’s Restaurant situated right in the middle of the mall parking lot. (I figured a little challenge never hurt anyone.) I set my camera to auto, handed it over to my brother and sent him off with my model for 10 minutes to see what he could do. When they came back, it was my turn (using my camera on manual, of course). Same camera, same location, same model. The only difference was the person using the camera.
I was anxious to get home and look through them. These are all straight out of the camera, with no processing. You’ll see that there wasn’t a whole lot of thought put into the first set; my brother pretty much stuck the poor girl in front of different trees and snapped away. The exposure isn’t perfect, the color is off in some and the composition is boring.
Non-professional using a professional camera:
Professional using a professional camera:
And just because your session is over, that doesn’t mean the photographer’s work is. Far from it, actually. I carefully go through each image and select the very best. From there, I process each one carefully. Sharpening, smoothing, dodging, burning, cloning, layering… you name it! Most of the images from this session look pretty good right out of the camera, but you can see how just a little processing gives them a bit more “oomph”. :)
After processing my photos, I pulled a couple of my brother’s images into Photoshop to see what I could do with them. It sure did take a lot more work to get his photos looking good!
Even turning a color image into black and white is more complex than it seems. Sure, there is an auto black and white feature in Photoshop, but let’s take a look at the difference of the results between doing that and the way I normally do it. See the difference? The one on the left is very flat and dull-looking. The one on the right has greater depth; there’s a wider range of shades from darkest black to whitest white.
Professional photographers spend so much of our time researching, learning and networking. We have a tendency to live, eat and breathe photography. For instance, even when I’m taking a drive out to visit family, I’m always looking out the window, scanning the horizon, taking mental notes of great places to hold a photo session. And if I happen to drive past a wheat field at sunset? It takes every ounce of willpower not to drag my hungry, tired kids out of the car for an impromptu photo shoot. Professional photographers put all of their passion and knowledge into every wedding, graduation, birthday and family photo session. If expensive tools were all it took, producing great images would be a piece of cake. Amazingly delicious cake, of course.
Thank you. I have always cringed when someone said that to me. You clearly articulated why it hurts, and proved it as well!
Posted by Lisa C | 28. Jul, 2010, 12:12 pmI think until you’ve actually begun the journey of learning photography, you just don’t understand what it takes to be a good photographer. I certainly have way more respect for pro photogs now that I’ve begun to learn how to use my camera.
Photogs will always have to endure that type of comment. Best to just brush it off and keep shooting!
ps, I thought of another similar type of comment: “Wow, your womb makes great kids!”
tee hee!!!
Posted by Vera | 28. Jul, 2010, 2:05 pmAWESOME article! Thanks for sharing it! I would love to post this on my blog- how can I go about getting permission?
Posted by tamsen | 28. Jul, 2010, 2:30 pmexcellent article! Proves a wonderful point!
Posted by Lori | 28. Jul, 2010, 4:28 pmGlad so many people are enjoying this! It was a fun experiment to do!
Posted by Erin Farrell | 28. Jul, 2010, 4:46 pmI LOVE this! I seriously want to do the same experiment and post it on my blog for my clients/friends/family to see. You explained it so well! Thank you!
Posted by Shari | 28. Jul, 2010, 4:48 pmI would also love to post this! Such a great article Erin. Let us know if you would allow us to use this, while of course, linking back to you.
Posted by Jessie | 28. Jul, 2010, 4:58 pmAWESOME!!!!!!!!
Posted by Susan Kelly | 28. Jul, 2010, 5:04 pmGreat post! Thank you to you and Erin for sharing this and I hope it’s okay to link it to my blog.
Posted by Mindy | 28. Jul, 2010, 5:11 pmGreat post! My mom says, “You’d never tell John Steinbeck his pen writes amazing novels.” Point well illustrated. Thank you!
Posted by angie | 28. Jul, 2010, 8:57 pmCould you post a link on the site, walking through the steps of your B&W conversion please? Loved the article, it is so true!!!
Posted by Amy | 29. Jul, 2010, 12:47 amLove this post!!! We should all write a similar post!!! Thank you!
Posted by mali | 29. Jul, 2010, 3:46 pmHear hear! I’m not a professional photographer, but a little part of my soul dies when someone looks at my photos and tell me my camera is cool. (It’s not even that cool. I have a Nikon D50.) I also love how you mention the editing. That’s a whole other layer of work on top of shooting. Mostly, I think I’m saddened that people don’t see the art and skill in photography.
Posted by Lynda | 29. Jul, 2010, 4:58 pmGreat post!
Posted by Jeri | 29. Jul, 2010, 6:24 pmthis was an excellent “experiment” and wonderful article and by illustration it shows a picture is worth a thousand words…love the pro photos vs the amateur… and even the pro editing of the amateur shots shows how much goes into the art of photography
Posted by bjc | 31. Jul, 2010, 11:06 amNice work! great blog
Posted by PTZ IP Camera | 31. Jul, 2010, 8:42 pmAfter reading this post, I still have so much to learn!! That being photoshop and what makes a good photo great! I’ve got cropping down, the rule of thirds and when to break it, decreasing the clutter in the background, making sure not to cut off extremities on the edge of the frame at joints, etc.. Now I just need to get my eye looking for what needs to be sharpened, how much color/white balance correction, and if it needs to be saturated. Then the question becomes…which monitor to use for your workflow…do you use your laptop or the desktop monitor? So much more that just the photo shoot.
Posted by Ann Grounds | 01. Aug, 2010, 9:05 pmThis is a great article. I would love to see a follow-up post of you and your brother using his (or another) point and shoot camera.
Posted by Cammy | 10. Aug, 2010, 5:51 pmWonderful article!!! Thanks!
Could you please write up a tutorial on how to do the custom black and white conversion? Pretty please!
Thanks again!
-Kristin
Posted by Kristin | 10. Aug, 2010, 6:28 pmI LOVE this!! I was just telling my Mom the other day how much it bothers me when people assume it’s the camera that makes my photos great… “Woah, Shauna that camera takes amazing pictures!!”.. “Shauna, what brand of camera do you use??? I need one!” Honestly, not one person has said, “Wow, Shauna you take amazing pictures”. Well, except my Mom. But she doesn’t count
le sigh.
Thanks for the great post! It’s reassuring to know that I’m not the only one irritated by this!
Posted by Shauna | 11. Aug, 2010, 12:23 am