I was asked "THE QUESTION"

[rpcrowe]

Let me clue you in to one venue when a top-line camera is quite important...

In wedding photography! Not so much for the quality of the imagery but, because what people (both your customers and potential customers) think of you when you are shooting with less than professional looking gear. There are lots of people these days who shoot with and can recognize the Rebel class of DSLR.

I was at a wedding not so long ago when the official (and paid) photographer was shooting with a Canon Rebel DSLR. I don't know what kind of images he got but, I did hear several comments such as: "Look, he's shooting with a camera just like mine!" and "I wonder why that guy isn't using a 'professional' camera?"

[AndyB1975]

Everything in this thread is so true!

I have a mate who wants to get a new camera. A friend of his recently visted with his DSLR and obviously knew how to use it as he took some great snaps of their child. This has now comvinced him that as long as he buys a DSLR he will be able to replicate the quality of the pictures.

I sat with him and asked him questions such as, are you looking to learn photography and understand exposure, apeture etc or just use in Auto and snap away. His reply...."why would I want to learn all that, I will just use auto, as long as it's a DSLR it will take good pictures" The discussion went on with him not really listening to me. So, realising I could not convince him otherwise I started helping him look at a few entry level DSLR's. Again, he ignored everything I said and just started searching for any camera with the highest Mega Pixels and anything under 20mp was dismissed as rubbish! He even got to the point of refusing to have a play with my Nikon D40 as it only has 6MP and would never be any good.

At this point I left him to it. The only up side is that if he buys something decent then realises he is not getting better results than with his P&S he may sell it on nice and cheap

The world is becoming obsessed with mega pixels.

[Loose Canon]

A photographer I know was invited to dinner by a gourmet chef.

He went to some trouble to make some prints to present to the chef as a gift.

He presented the prints to the chef when he arrived for dinner. The chef exclaimed: “Wow! These are awesome! You must have a really good camera!”

They had dinner and it was nothing short of five star.

When leaving the photographer said to the chef: “Dinner was excellent. The best I have ever had. You must have some really good pots and pans!”

[Colin Southern]

I sat with him and asked him questions such as, are you looking to learn photography and understand exposure, apeture etc or just use in Auto and snap away. His reply...."why would I want to learn all that, I will just use auto, as long as it's a DSLR it will take good pictures" The discussion went on with him not really listening to me. So, realising I could not convince him otherwise I started helping him look at a few entry level DSLR's. Again, he ignored everything I said and just started searching for any camera with the highest Mega Pixels and anything under 20mp was dismissed as rubbish! He even got to the point of refusing to have a play with my Nikon D40 as it only has 6MP and would never be any good.

You can lead a man to water, but you cannot make him think!

[arith]

These computer thingies have me confused most of the time I get sent straight to the last page and don't realise there are more pages.

So now I've had a read of the thread it is indeed interesting.

I think photography is more than one thing, and different things to different people.

A wedding photographer is the one in charge; most likely nobody at the wedding knows a thing about the formality apart from the priest or religious representative who will be concerned with other things. But also the photographer is the entertainment, as someone there to make them feel they are the most important, no expense is spared and since most people think better photographs come out of more expensive cameras, it is part of the show to provide as expensive and complicated equipment as possible.

Like a fashion photographer the wedding photographer has to engage with his models; it is no good being stuck behind a lens, engaging with the subjects means talking and eye contact, it means knowing what is wanted and how to get it.

This different skill is something that can only be acquired with experience and training, and a certain disposition allowing communication with different and varied people, all looking for signs of professionalism to reasure them everything in this confusing formality called a wedding is running smoothly and efficiently.

By contrast I think most people think of photography as candid; it is not the capture of an image in as accurate a way as possible, nor the creative use of lenses, focal length or dof, but the subject in the image capturing an expression or look in a moment in time, For these maybe a point and shoot is the best equipment; because it is so much easier to point a matchbox sized object at an unsuspecting subject than to frighten them to death with a camera the size of a small car.

By contrast a macro photographer would require very different equipment.

If anybody told me they was going to do wedding photography, I wouldn't be able to give advice except to point to the High St photographer established 150 years and point out although I don't think much of his photographs he can charge thousands and knows everything about weddings, how to talk to customers and give them what they want, go and ask him.

[koolkat]

I've had several of these conversations but mainly with people who only use or know one camera company or the other, kinda like what is better a Chevy or a Ford? While I shoot with Canon equipment & just picked up a 400 "L" lens I can say that using that lens versus non Canon lens for me is an experience that has produced a lot more keepers. While getting "the shot" is important, the journey to that shot is also a lot of fun, I'm sure my 7D will keep me busy for a number of years.

[Gwalion]

The delights of equipment!

[rpcrowe]

Some people have a gift for dealing with people and others need to learn the techniques.

Both my daughter and son have this gift. he is an ace salesman because of it and she owns a thriving human resource business.

Both of them give the impression, when you are talking with them. that you are the most interesting person on the planet and that they are extremely pleased to be able to talk to you. This is both a gift and a learned technique. But, it also works very well with photographers who need to interface with people in order to do their jobs.

However, even the most gregarious photographer would have a difficult time interfacing with subjects; if that photographer was not sure of his or her capabilities and didn't have a total command of the gear being used.

I believe that I can do a prety good job of interfacing with my subjects and that I learned the skills needed for people photography early in my career as a Navy Photographer. The skills that I learned in handling high ranking persons of every personality was directly transferrable to wedding and portrait photography. I learned how to be assertive in a very polite way.

Just because I was shooting a high ranking individual or group of individuals who were not particularly cooperative was never an excuse for coming back with less than optimum images. The Bride and the Mother of the Bride can be compared to high ranking and often uncooperative subjects. High ranking because, they are usually the ones paying for the photography and uncooperative because the Bride and MOB are often stressed out to the max before and during the ceremony and reception.

Their cooperativeness or lack thereof is never an excuse for poor photography. However, there are times when knowing how to handle problem people in an assertive but, friendly manner (combined with the actual photography being second nature) are what you need to successfully complete any assigment involving people.

[Bill Yeung]

I used black marker to black out the Canon 7D on my camera strape. Anyway, i still cannot spray my 70-200mm len to black!! Amature question is understandable.
A win win reply can be; ( to my skating club parents) let me know you want to have pictures of your kid on next occasion and I can shot some and process it for you, pass it to you with a USB stick. They don't need to spent any money, can have nice pictures, and I got more friends.
The popular of larger size of DSLR and lens lately already caused us face this kind of curious question.
Remember my elder sister asked me when I bought a 20D " Why do you need such a big camera , is it a pocket size P&S already can do the job?"

[Letrow]

Additionally, I stated that although I have not used Nikon equipment, I feel certain that I could achieve the equal quality using that brand of camera gear.

Probably even better quality I would guess

[blakemcguire]

I was chatting with a friend's parent about making money off of photography and she said something along the lines of "if you have a good camera you can do it." I never realized that this could get under your skin so much.

[OldFrank]

Has he come back yet to ask you what film you use????

[Buster1050]

I was at a wedding not so long ago when the official (and paid) photographer was shooting with a Canon Rebel DSLR. I don't know what kind of images he got but, I did hear several comments such as: "Look, he's shooting with a camera just like mine!" and "I wonder why that guy isn't using a 'professional' camera?"

I have a T3i which was a gift from my wife for Christmas, not what I would have chosen, I would have chosen the 60D and partially for the very reason you mentioned above. I actually do get very high quality shots with this camera (coupled with a 50mm 1.4) which is nearly identical to the 60D other than the smaller body and frame rate. Because of what you mentioned above I have considered using black electrical tape over the rebel T3i part so that clients can not tell the difference.

The other point about people who think because they have a DSLR that they are going to get similar results is spot on. I often tell them if you just set it on the green square you are basically just using a much larger and more expensive p&s camera. I have many friends that have them and they are disappointed in the images they are taking because they are no better than what they were shooting before. I have held small group DSLR bootcamps for them so they understand lighting, aperture, dof, and how to actually use the camera.

[The Blue Boy]

Wow, it seems everybody here has a great keyboard!

Funnily enough I got a phone call the other day from a friend of ours asking if I could nip round and show them how to use their camera as they thought it wasn't working properly. Turned out they had it full manual mode and didn't know how to change any of the settings. Fair mistake for beginners I thought. Have you read the manual? I asked. Too bloody complicated was the reply.

Thing is, you can show people stuff but you can't make 'em learn.

[rpcrowe]

I don't have any problem operaing my cameras... It's my damn smart phone that has me confused. Obviously the smartphone is smarter than the smartphone operator!

[Colin Southern]

Wow, it seems everybody here has a great keyboard!

Funnily enough I got a phone call the other day from a friend of ours asking if I could nip round and show them how to use their camera as they thought it wasn't working properly. Turned out they had it full manual mode and didn't know how to change any of the settings.

Reminds me of a friend who bought a DSLR from a local electronics store. They couldn't get liveview to work (rendering it practically useless - 'cause everyone knows that the only way you can see what you're shooting with a DSLR is if you use liveview) (and what the heck is a viewfinder anyway!).

They took it back to the store - but they couldn't figure it out either. In the end the shop concluded that that model didn't have live view and offered to up-sell them to the next model that did (rolls eyes).

It took me about 5 seconds to "fix the camera" by choosing the right menu item ...

[The Blue Boy]

I don't have any problem operaing my cameras... It's my damn smart phone that has me confused. Obviously the smartphone is smarter than the smartphone operator!

Richard,

Erm, have you read the manual?

[The Blue Boy]

They took it back to the store - but they couldn't figure it out either.

Colin,

That in itself is shocking.

[Colin Southern]

Colin,

That in itself is shocking.

Dunno to be honest. If it were a dedicated camera store then I'd definitely agree, but it's a store that'll sell you a camera - or a clothes drier - or an iPhone / iPod / iPad / iRon.

In my mind, I wouldn't expect someone to consult me (wearing my IT hat) about a new microwave -- so why would they buy a computer or a serious camera from places like that? (the answer I guess is that they have a higher profile than me - and they can finance it - and the salesman sounds convincing). The bit they don't seem to get is that they're buying from a SALESMAN - NOT - a photographer.

[Ravenglass]

Unfortunately the problem of people being convinced that a certain make/type of camera will instantly make them a good photographer is just another manifestation of the power of advertising, particularly on TV. Advertisement after advertisement tells the viewer that if only they purchase this or that item they will be able to do a particular task, look beautiful, be successful etc. etc., with no mention of having to study, learn a skill, or work at it in any way, shape or form.