So, I’ve come to an interesting point in time. My sister wanted to take some pictures, and she asked about me coming to use my DSLR camera. I suggested that she just started with a smartphone camera, and we would take retakes later with the DSLR camera. Why? Suffice it to say, I know she doesn’t really know what she wants out of the photos. Of course DSLR cameras can give you a lot of options, but at this point, the main reason why I must be skeptic about is because even though I can bring multiple lenses with me, I don’t have a setup or any practice for changing lenses “on the go,” outside of a clean indoor environment. Also, as it turns out, my sister specifically wants to take the photos outdoors.
So, now to detail my recommendations. First you start by taking photos with a smartphone camera, point-and-shoot camera, or some other compact and convenient camera that you know that will emphasize the point to your client/customer that the best way to know what you want out of photos is to take some of your own photos with your own equipment. After all, that’s even what some professionals recommend too.
Next comes the professional review process, where you, the more experienced photographer, reviews the photos that your client/customer took and asks them some customer-focused questions about what they want out of their photos from a technical standpoint that can only be achieved through the use of more expensive optics. The answers to these questions can then be translated to the more technical specifications about what optical equipment to use.
-
Do you think the photos have too much noise? Are you dissatisfied with the noise patterns you see?
-
Are you dissatisfied with the color gamut of your photos? Try printing them out. Does the color gamut leave room to be wished for?
-
Are you dissatisfied with the luminosity dynamic range rendering of your photos? Check for dark tones in your photos. You might see a telltale “banding” or “stair-step” pattern with conspicuous noise due to the limited digitizing precision of your smartphone camera sensor. Are you dissatisfied with that?
-
Are you dissatisfied with the shutter speed of your smartphone camera? Is there too much motion blur in your photos? Would you prefer a faster shutter speed and shorter exposure time?
-
Are you dissatisfied with the lighting conditions in the photos?
Would you prefer using a flash unit to correct the lighting conditions?
-
What field of view do you want out of the photos? Do you want a wide angle lens or a narrow angle lens? If they haven’t already, ask them to try taking some photos with their smartphone camera at double distance and triple distance and zoomed in. What do they think about the overall photo composition in comparison? Do they like the wide angle or narrow angle photos better?
Are you willing to compromise on sharpness in order to have the desired field of view?
-
What depth-of-field do you want? Do you want the full frame to be in focus, or would you rather have the subject in focus and the background blurred?
Would you be willing to compromise on the focus of the subject in order to have a stronger background blur effect?
-
If you want a narrow depth-of-field, are you okay with vignetting? This means that the edges of the photo frame are darker compared to the center. Your smartphone lens will show no vignetting.
Alternatively, would you like the effect corrected in software?
Alternatively, do you deliberately want a vignetting effect in your photos? Are you willing to have this effect if it means decreasing the depth-of-field?
-
How do you want to view the photo? Do you want to poster print the resulting photo? Do you want to view the resulting photo on a 4K UHD HDRI TV? Try printing the photo out on a consumer inkjet printer. Are you dissatisfied with the resolution? Do you want to be able to zoom and pan a large, high resolution photo on a smartphone screen?
Are you willing to wait for longer download times when viewing on a smartphone?
Do you want to project the photo with a digital projector? Do you want to print analog slides and project with an analog projector?
-
Are you dissatisfied with the sharpness of your camera’s photos? Zoom into your photos by a factor of 10 on your smartphone screen and check if you want to see more detail. Also compare the center sharpness with the edge sharpness. Are you dissatisfied with the focus aberration of your smartphone camera?
-
If you are okay with less sharp photos, are you dissatisfied with the pixel resolution of your photos? Note that this concept must be understood and evaluated separately from sharpness. Zoom into your photos by a factor of 10 on your smartphone screen and check if you want to see more pixels, even if this may mean you will not see more detail.
Determining which lens to bring to the site requires answers to multiple questions. Once all relevant questions are answered, you know what lens to bring with you on your DSLR camera, so you can mount that in your studio and bring it with you to the site. No need for changing bags or tricks like changing lenses blind underneath a coat.
Now that we’ve got answers to those questions, let’s transition back to the professional side. What gear should you bring with you based off of the answers from the customer side?
- Smartphone
- Wide angle, small aperture preferred.
- Don’t care about resolution, noise, sharpness, color gamut, luminosity dynamic range, depth-of-field, vignetting, shutter speed.
- There were no issues with the lighting being too dim in the photos taken by the smartphone.
- Point-and-shoot camera
- Wide angle, medium aperture preferred.
- Lower noise levels, better luminosity dynamic range, better color gamut preferred.
- Don’t care about resolution, sharpness, color gamut, depth-of-field, vignetting, shutter speed.
- Flash unit available.
- There may have been issues with lighting being too dim in the photos taken by the smartphone, but these are acceptably corrected by a flash unit.
- DSLR camera body
- Lower noise levels, better luminosity dynamic range, better color gamut preferred.
- Alternatively, faster shutter speed preferred.
- Flash unit available.
- There were issues with lighting being too dim in the photos taken by the smartphone.
- Higher resolution, higher sharpness, narrow depth-of-field, vignetting are possible, but must be considered in conjunction with the chosen lens.
- Flash unit
- Lighting conditions were undesirable, and flash illumination is the preferred approach to correct this.
- Long focal length prime lens
- Sharp, high resolution preferred.
- Alternatively, fast shutter speed, narrow depth-of-field, minor vignetting preferred.
- Don’t care about wide angle.
- Short focal length prime lens
- Willing to compromise on some sharpness, but resolution will still be high. Vignetting may occur on wider depth-of-field.
- Wide angle preferred.
- Don’t care about narrow depth-of-field, fast shutter speed.
- Zoom lens
- Willing to compromise on some more sharpness, possibly also color gamut.
- Don’t care about narrow depth-of-field, fast shutter speed, vignetting.
- Tripod
- Super-resolution is desired.
- Slower shutter speeds like 1/25 second are desired.
Finally, to reiterate, as we know in professional photography, a client/customer can only see sharp, high resolution if they are either viewing on a sharp, high resolution display or are eager to zoom and pan the photo on a low-resolution smartphone display.