Challenge Yourself

When it comes to photography, it’s always a good idea to challenge yourself to do something new and different, just to keep yourself fresh as an artist.

I personally, and many other photographers will agree, that one of the best ways to challenge yourself is to shoot with only one lens. I love to do these kinds of challenges myself. I went to a car show last Sunday called Wish Upon a Car, which was raising money for the Make a Wish Foundation of Georgia.

Shot with my Canon EOS 5D Classic with the EF 40mm STM F/2.8

For this car show, I challenged myself by shooting the car show with my Canon EF 40mm STM F/2.8 pancake lens. I love this little lens as it has the new STM or Stepper Motor auto-focus system, which is very quiet and the lens itself is very small and lightweight.

I know you probably have a telephoto lens or two as I do, but when you take your telephoto lens with you all the time, you tend to get lazy and hang back and shoot everything from a distance, instead of getting up close and personal with your subject. Plus, as I mentioned in an earlier blog post, even though zoom lens technology has come a long way, primes still give you superior image and detail quality, especially when you are up close and personal.

Canon EOS 5D Classic with EF 40mm STM F/2.8

So, your challenge for the month of October, go out and shoot something with nothing more than one of your prime lenses and get up close and personal, as long as you can do it without endangering yourself or anyone else of course.

Comments/Questions

The RAW versus JPEG Showdown

Since the beginning of Digital Photography there has been an ongoing argument on which is better RAW or JPEG and it can at times become a heated discussion. I am going to try and explain the differences between the two and the pros and cons of each one.

JPEGs are compressed photos, which means your camera looks at all the information it captures via the sensor and only saves the data it deems important and that’s what you get in your finished image file.
What does JPEG stand for? Joint Photographic Experts Group, which is the committee that created the file format. Sometimes you will see this file format abbreviated as JPG.

With JPEG, the file is in it’s modified state so there is not need to process anything. Once you download the file to your hard drive it is ready to open for viewing. The camera also tend to make automatic adjustments, such as color enhancements, saturation, exposure and so on. This format is the standard across all brands of cameras so the images are ready to view and print with no extra work. Because JPEG files are compressed they also tend to take up a lot less disk space than a RAW file, so a JPEG image file might only take up 2MB, where the same file in RAW format might be 10MB or larger. JPEG files, since they are so much smaller they can easily be emailed or uploaded to Social Media sites such as Flickr or Facebook, etc.

                                My puppy Gizmo, shot in RAW format and post processed by me.

The RAW file format doesn’t stand for anything, all it tells you is that the files are unprocessed and exactly as the camera sees the image from the sensor, just like the way your eye sees the scene. If the camera collects 10MB of data, then the file is exactly 10MB in size. What this means is that you can print the image in considerably larger formats that you can with JPEG files. When shooting in RAW, you maybe need more memory cards when out on a shoot so that you don’t run out of storage capacity during your shoot and you will most likely need an extra, external hard drive to store your images on and to process them from.

A RAW file is in it’s all natural form and as a result, the file needs to be processed by you using special software and this gives you full control over the colors, vibrance, saturation, exposure and so on. RAW files cannot be opened by anything like a JPEG can be and they cannot be easily emailed or uploaded as website don’t know how to render RAW files and mail servers will not allow those extremely large files to be sent in this format.

So now that you have all this information, which file format is the winner? Well, there is no clear winner, just as which system you choose to shoot with, Canon, Sony, Nikon, Fuji, etc it is more what your personal style and preference is.

I suggest using RAW if you plan to do a lot of post processing and want full control over the finished product. If file size is not a major concern and you intend to print at sizes exceeding 20 inches by 30 inches.
I suggest using JPEG if you are concerned about file size and space on your memory cards and hard drives. If you need to take a lot of photos in quick succession, such as shooting a sports event, then JPEG will allow you to shoot more images faster before filling up your cameras buffer. Also choose JPEG if you plan to do minimal post processing and you want to share large sets of photos by email or upload them right to the internet without converting or resizing them.

I personally prefer to shoot in RAW as I get the most information in my images from the camera’s sensor and I prefer to do my own post processing as the camera’s built in processing isn't always the most accurate. I also since I am an I.T. profession for my day job, I always have many Terabytes of storage and I also tend to buy the larges memory cards my cameras can use. For my new Canon EOS 6D, I am using a 128GB SD card. Now that we’ve covered the subject of RAW vs JPEG, get out there and make some great images.

Comments/Questions

Now & Then: A Personal Retrospective

I'm sure at some time or another you have heard that one of the great things about photography is that there are endless things to learn--we are always learning.  I know that after being enrolled in the Art Institute of Pittsburgh Online Division for over two years now I still have such a long way to go in terms of knowledge/wisdom still to be acquired, but I would like to take this time to reflect on how far I have come.  Maybe you can relate  ;-)

Before I started school I had almost no knowledge of photography but I just knew it was the path I wanted to take--we all have to start somewhere, right!?  It is so thrilling to be able to have random, advanced conversations with new people about photography, cameras, and other related topics.  I even remember my first shooting class before I had my first DSLR.  I was using an old point-and-shoot to capture images for my assignments in Digital Image Management.  (Keep in mind, this was two years ago!)  I had to choose four different categories for images in which to build my collection.  

Without much insight as to what made great photos at this point I chose what I felt would be fun and still a little challenging: Line, Pattern, People, and Nature.  The first time I went out to photograph people was the first time I realized that I did not want to be a portrait photographer!  It was difficult, intimidating, frustrating, and just did not feel like something I could ever be comfortable doing even in a studio.  I couldn't even get Line and Pattern straight in that class, I was always submitting the wrong kinds of subjects.  I just didn't get it and didn't understand photographic design at all.

Move forward two years to present day and I have a whole new outlook on my skills and abilities as a photographer, I have actually exclaimed that I feel as though I was born to be a photographer!  Working with people now feels like second nature and even though I don't always know what I am doing when I use my "fancy" setups, I have definitely improved in technique as well as developed my mind's eye and artistic observation.  Now I did get better after that first shooting class, especially after I learned more about how to use my DSLR, but, as embarrassing as it is, I will post some of my own work today to illustrate how far I have come and to give you inspiration about never giving up and working hard to pursue your dreams.  (By the way, I just recently began considering staying in school to pursue a degree in Journalism!) 

Going from thinking I would only ever be a Nature photographer to feeling like I could do absolutely anything with a camera (career-wise) gives me such pride in my journey thus far.  In two years I will probably look back and grimace at my work now, but in the meantime I will just keep learning.

Now & Then: People (candid)

Now & Then: Line

Now & Then: Nature

The thing that has changed the most in the last two years is my comfort zone.  I went from a shy, awkward, stalker-like person with a camera to approaching people and asking if they would mind me photographing them, making phone calls to get access or permission to do something, and feeling more confident with my presence--I don't feel like I look like a stalker, I look like a photographer now.  

I think I get turned down about 1% of the time when asking to photograph people candidly so there really is no need to fear rejection when faced with an opportunity to break out of your comfort zone.  In my experience, I have found that people are very willing to be photographed or even to let you have access to something.  A lot of it has to do with personality.  I am approachable, engaging, polite, and respectful when I talk to new people but I also give cues with my facial expressions while I'm shooting if I haven't had a chance to speak to them yet.  I will smile a lot, give the appearance of satisfaction after previewing some of the exposures I have captured, and linger around a bit rather than abruptly walking away.  

So, what qualities do you have or do you think need improvement as you progress as a photographer?  Do you have a story you would like to share about breaking out of your comfort zone, how you have developed, or maybe some examples of your work that show how far you have come?  Leave me some feedback in the comments or post your questions, I would love to hear your experiences!