You and your fancy camera!
When I first got my fancy new camera, I was kinda disappointed about the pictures I was taking. I wasn’t disappointed about my subjects or my composition. It was mostly from the way the pictures looked going from my camera to my computer. I learned about all the settings and how to make everything more colorful but more times than not, I ended up with pictures like this…(image not showing for some strange reason)
My pictures would be either too bright or too dark. The colors would be flat. I wanted bright and colorful sunsets and sharp photos, too! So I had to learn how to edit my pictures. I learned about the different formats to save an image and which one worked best for editing (RAW). Almost every good photo has had something done to it (think magazines). Maybe it was cropped, had the contrast adjusted, the brightness turned up or down, a pimple removed, etc. Most photos coming straight out of the camera leave alot to be desired.
Editing is often a time-consuming job and now I see why most photographers charge what they do. The customer is not only paying for the actual photo shoot, but also for the hours the photographer spends in front of the computer adjusting each and every photo and picking the best ones from the 50-100 they took at the session.
I’m better at it now. I took the photo above and turned it into that in under 10 minutes.
I don’t think it’s perfect by any means but I’ve just used it to illustrate a point. I may be weird but I like editing pictures. I love using Lightroom and I’m still learning how to use Photoshop effectively. I like taking something and turning it into something unexpected.
In the long run, maybe your camera doesn’t matter as much as you think it does when it comes to great pictures. I want at $1500 Canon 7D but will it make my pictures better? Probably not. I’ve seen some amazing things done with an IPhone. Maybe it’s just a matter of being in the right place at the right time and just going ‘Click’. In the end, until I reach the point where all I have to do is point and click, I’ll keep enjoying editing my photos so I think I’ll keep my fancy camera…until I upgrade!
