Today’s Post by Joe Farace
“Hard work beats talent every time”—Matt Armstrong
I think it’s a pretty obvious thing to say but I’ll say it anyway: camera equipment doesn’t make photographs, people do.
If you want to make a glamour photograph or a portrait, it’s obvious that you’ll need a camera and some kind of light source—even if it’s just the sun—to capture anything. But you don’t need a $8199 Hasselblad XD 2 to make a portrait of a model, your wife, friend or significant other. Any and I mean any camera that takes interchangeable lenses will let you create really great portraits.
A few years ago, I wrote a article for the former print edition of Shutterbug magazine about putting together an in-home studio for less than $200. If you poke around their website you might be able to find it. All of the equipment, including lighting gear, a background and stands really did cost less than $200. The article featured a portrait shoot I did with a camera and lens that together cost less than $400—and that was with a new camera bought on sale from Amazon. (if anyone’s interested, I’ll dig up my original manuscript and update it with all new equipment recommendation, with links, for a post on this blog. Click CONTACT and tell me if you’d like to see it.)
There are lots of bargains available in used or refurb cameras that you can purchase from camera stores, eBay, Craig’s List or maybe a friend. My purchase of my dream camera—the Olympus Pen F— was made as a refurb because it was almost half the price of a new one. It looks and shoots like a new camera but without the sticker shock* that Pen F’s had for a long time. maybe still have. When looking out for a bargain camera, here’s a few things to keep in mind:
- Don’t let ego determine the kind of camera you should buy or use. Recently I talked with an aspiring portrait photographer whose camera was introduced four years ago and he told me when he went to photography meet-ups people disparaged his use of “old” gear.
- Don’t let other other people determine how you spend your money.
- Speaking of money, having too much money tied up in cameras and lighting equipment or worse, debt for that gear, will sink a new pro or aspiring professional photographer faster than anything else. You should sell your photography to clients based on the quality of your work, personality and business ethics.
- The funny truth is that if your clients like you they will like their photographs. And they don’t care if you shoot with a used Panasonic Lumix GX1 like the one I recently bought from Roberts Camera for $125.
For some other thoughts on the subject if you have time, please read my post “You Are What You Shoot?” on my car photography blog/website.
How I made this shot: Tasha was a beautiful young woman with a lovely personality who I originally met at a car show. I photographed Tasha in the loft area outside the office of my former home using mostly available light from a large North-facing window to her right. Fill light was provided with a 550EX speedlite with a Sto-Fen Omni-Bounce diffuser in place to keep the light soft. The camera used was a Canon EOS D60 (not a 60D) with EF 28-105mm f/3.5-4.5 II USM lens (at 80mm.) That lens has been discontinued but you can pick up used copies from many sources, including Amazon for less than $150. Exposure was 1/80 sec at f/4.5 and ISO 400.
The original JPEG file (made before my current RAW+JPEG regimen) was lightly retouched—Tasha has fabulous skin—and then tweaked in Vivenza before adding the Dynamic Skin Softener filter from Color Efex Pro,
*The prices of refurb Olympus gear on this site have changed. They seem to be much higher since OM Systems took over the manufacture of cameras that used to be called “Olympus.” But, it’s worth a look because there might be some bargains still lurking there.
If you’re interested in learning how I shoot portraits and use cameras, lenses and lighting in my in-home studio and on location, please pick up a copy of Studio Lighting Anywhere which is available new from Amazon.com for the bargain price of $24.12 and starting around thirteen bucks used, as I write this. Even the Kindle version is cheap: $14.99.