It has been busy couple of weeks here, meetings, clients booking for the summer and post processing of our new project entitled Resolution. Keep your eyes out for a post on that later.

Some readers out there maybe thinking, ‘wow, these gear that these guys use must take great pictures’. To a degree, equipment plays a part in the eventual success of an image, editorial or ad, but mostly, through concerted effort use whatever it takes to make it work.

This is where I am going to go a little wax critic, cameras don’t take pictures, photographers take pictures. This post concerns a lot of comments made by people who just don’t understand the sweat and tears it takes to make the signature look that we try to aim for. “That camera takes great pictures” is just about the least favorable comment that a photographer can receive. However, the commenter isn’t aware that their words are being taken as such.

Case in point, we recently purchased a ‘vintage’ (certainly in the digital age) camera, the solid, commercially available Nikon D50. Weighing in at 6 mp, and at least 5 years old, this tiny camera can take professional images despite its minute and lowly stats. Given the right light, subject matter, lens choice and knowledge, the Nikon D50 can be a heavy hitter.

Of course, we do as much work IN the camera as we possibly can. It saves time later, and we can shoot more images because of it. BUT, there is a certainly amount of work that has to be done outside of the camera. There is where the regular public doesn’t see, the behind the scenes.

An image gone through post processing endures a lot of changes, it’s tone, flavour, temperament and even its emotion can change. It doesn’t stop at the camera.

Here is a typical image transformed from ‘blah’ to ‘hellloooo’..

This image was shot with the aforementioned D50, a Sigma 30mm f1.4 @ f1.6, an on camera Nikon SB800 Speedlight with a ring flash adapter set on TTL and another Nikon SB800 Speedlight propped up behind at a scant 1/128 manual power, manually zoomed out to 85mm.

Beyond the nerdy power settings, this image is finalized in Adobe Lightroom with settings we’ve developed over years of creating a signature look and feel.

Here is the final image, post processed and ready to be consumed by the masses:

ANNNDDD another one just because Christa is so cute:

Gear used on this shoot:

Nikon D50 DSLR (6mp, release July 2005)
Nikon SB800 Speedlight
Custom modified O-Flash ringflash adapter
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2.5 (to process RAW D50 files)
HP Mini 210 netbook to run Lightroom
A willing subject
Some knowhow

So, next time you talk to a photographer, don’t comment how well their camera makes photos, it just makes them want to blog about how their photos look after they are done with them.

Eric OUT!