Younes Bounhar Photography

Tools of the trade

“Gotta have a big camera, eh?” (yeah, I live in Canada) That’s a question I often hear when people look at my photographs. My standard answer (after several rounds of tongue biting) is somewhere along the lines of “Yeah, it’s HUGE”.

The thing is that the camera is, well, just a thing. It’s true that having a good SLR and a good set of lenses gives you options and more freedom for exploration (unfortunately I am still waiting for the hot models to come flocking my way…I guess that’s what dreams are for). The fact is, though, that the picture-making process is about vision, creativity and conscious decision-making. Pressing the shutter release is just the culmination of the process. This doesn’t mean that I never go snap-happy like Rambo in a shooting gallery, but in general, there is some work involved behind every shot.

Beyond the preparation aspect that I discussed last week on Darwin Wiggett’s blog, every shot involves a set of conscious decisions:

- what is your subject matter?

- which part of the subject matter do you want to reflect, emphasize or present?

- what focal length would better achieve that result?

- how do you frame your subject matter in a story-telling composition?

- how much depth-of-field will be needed to convey your story?

When you have answered all these questions, you can now turn to your camera to record the moment. Your camera comes in handy to measure the amount of light on your subject in order to calculate the required exposure. But even then, it only measures what it perceives as proper exposure. Your sensor/film will take in as much light at f/8 for 1s as it does at f/2.8 for 1/125s, yet the resulting image can be completely different. Similarly, your camera’s meter exposes for midtones (18% gray to be more precise), but is that the proper exposure from an artistic point of view. You may want to underexpose your subject to add more mistery, or to make it stand out from other parts of the image. Overexposing your subject (ah the dreaded blinking highlights), can also be desirable at times. Again, your camera may give you pointers and tools to make your images, but unless you take over and make conscious decisions on what you want in your images, no camera will ever make great images for you (well until the invent the D5billion with the “nocrapimage” button, that is).

Posted on April 29th, 2009 in Gear rant

7 Responses to “Tools of the trade”

1. Mark Alan Meader says:

   April 29, 2009 at 8:13 pm

   Yep..”NoCrapImage”, that’s what I need! Doesn’t the D3x have that?
   I have to admit I caught myself looking at a news item on DP Review today for the new PhaseOne P40. How can you not imagine just for a minute or two how awesome it would be to show up at some shoot with one of those bad boys? I mean.. I have a business, I could write it off:) But I remind myself what I tell others all the time: It’s been years since I rejected a shot because of something my camera did or didn’t do (that wasn’t my own fault).. at this point in the tech cycle it’s pretty much all up to me, my knowledge and my creativity. Sure, there are certain convenience and ergonomic features that make your life easier, and designers are finally starting to concentrate on expanding dynamic range rather than continuing to sweat the megapixel thing, so just like computers, there comes a time when it’s sensible to upgrade. (And I do realize that some people really can justify the super high-end gear, but I don’t shoot covers for Vogue and most of us don’t). But, anyone who thinks having an expensive camera is automatically going to improve their imagery is barking up the wrong tree. It might inspire you to go out and work more or harder, which is fine, but that’s ultimately coming from within you, not the gear. You can develop and inspire your creativity and skill, but you can’t just go out and buy it.
   Ahh…. all just a long-winded way of saying “interesting post”.

   Reply
   • Younes says:

     April 29, 2009 at 9:10 pm

     Thanks Mark Alan…I too thought the D3X came with that function…but no…still paying for my D700, so it’ll have to wait for now. Just checked that P40+ looks pretty sweet, but probably in another life.

     Reply
2. Alison Cornford-Matheson says:

   April 30, 2009 at 2:54 am

   If I had a dollar for every time I heard “Wow, your camera looks expensive… It must take great photos!” Well, I’d probably make about as much money as being a photographer The truth is great images are made by the people behind the viewfinder and all the gear in the world isn’t going to change that. But gear shopping is like shoe shopping… it can never hurt to look right?

   Reply
   • Younes says:

     April 30, 2009 at 8:00 am

     “It must take great photos”, that’s got to be one of my favorite lines .

     Reply
3. David duChemin says:

   April 30, 2009 at 9:22 am

   I bought my camera at the same place Picasso got his brushes.

   The worse thing is there’s no way to reply to this without looking like a smart-ass or a jerk. Of course, we could all do ourselves a favour within the industry and stop perpetuating this nonsense ourselves. Sometimes I think we’re our own worst enemy.

   Remember the mantra – Gear is Good, Vision is Better.

   Reply
   • Younes says:

     April 30, 2009 at 5:48 pm

     David: It’s funny you mention the “jerk” issue: I thought long and hard on how to phrase my intro to the post in the hope that I wouldn’t come across as arrogant…I hope it didn’t sound too bad .

     As for the mantra, well some dude here already took it!

     Reply
4. Joe Williams says:

   May 3, 2009 at 2:52 pm

   Enjoyed your post. As a newbie amateur photographer, I find that I rely a lot on the auto setting, yet I realize that at times the setting does not capture what my eye sees. I even can go beyond that to say the auto setting does not capture what I intended to capture. Playing around with exposures and focal lengths are exciting new opportunities for me – your post reaffirmed that for me. Thanks!
   -Joe (@rikerjoe)

   Reply