Let’s talk about cameras and gear

Fujifilm XT3

“The best camera is the one you have on you.” When you start photography and select what camera will allow you to express yourself, you have a plethora of options. In 2020, we can consider that most cameras have enough features to be called “professional”. From DSLRs, medium formats and APS-C to the mobile phone in your pocket, you have all the gear you need. Right?

Yes and no. Let me explain. When choosing a real camera and deciding to start photography for any reason, you will go online to check what is available or go to a camera shop to meet a sales person. And very quickly, the photography jargon hits. How many mega pixels? What type of photography do you want to take? Are you shooting RAW? What is your style? And perhaps most importantly, what is your budget? Eventually you are buying your first camera. What an exciting moment! Charge it, don’t forget the SD card, format it and probably set it on auto then snap a few photos…

Then you will dive into the Menu and find out about the focus modes, the raw options, the profile settings, exposure compensation, aperture, shutter speed… Potentially you will start to learn more about these terms. There are fantastic resources on the internet today that explain these very well. And you export your first photos! Some will be blurry, others will be out of focus or maybe you are not satisfied with the composition. A quick crop later, you have the image you had in mind. And something happens… You were expecting better results. After all you spent a few hundreds bucks on this new tool to take “professional” photos but it doesn’t look as good as you have imagined. On top of it, your friend on instagram with a few filters and a phone has sharper results, vibrant colours or the subject stands out better.

And that is why gear doesn’t matter. The magic happens during the edit! Of course, a bad image is a bad image. The same way a bad edit can ruin an image. But adding some vignette, a bit of contrast, a push of colour and an increase in sharpness will change a flat image into something more interesting visually. And that applies no matter which tool you are using to capture an image. Today this can be done with complicated and often expensive programs or completely free from any smartphone. But before I write more about cameras, tools, tips and tricks for new photographers in future blogs, I thought this has to be said. Yes gear doesn’t matter that much but learning how to edit will change the way you feel about the images you will capture.