DSLR CAMERAS:

In 2023, I stepped up to Nikon’s Mirrorless “Z” series cameras — this after a decade of using a pair of D800/D800Es.  I had thought the D800s were technological miracles — the Z8 is another generation ahead.  The ‘what-you-see-is-what-you-get’ aspect of a mirrorless (non-optical) viewfinder has huge upsides — it’s easy to shoot manual and never worry that you’ve completely missed the exposure.  And the autofocus is amazing.  Just put the dot on a person, and the camera will find their face, then find their EYE, and lock in on that eye to keep it in focus even if the subject and the camera are both moving around.  I barely know how to operate it and it still does great.  Like the D800s, they have a HUGE file size.  And the Z8 can shoot 20 fps in 45 megapixel raw!  Even faster in .jpg.  I’ve got a 1TB card in mine, so I can shoot forever without changing the card.  

 

Prior to 2023, I’d carried the D800s. Why two nearly-identical cameras?  When things are moving fast, I hate having to stop and change lenses.  Instead, I just carry two cameras (each with a different lens) so I can immediately switch back and forth.  I’m struggling a little now with a Z8 and a Z7ii because the control placements are pretty different — it’s hard to adjust on the fly.  We’ll see.  

 

SHOOTING BASICS:

I use autofocus 99% of the time (unless e.g., it’s too dark to focus).  It is better at this than I am, though “we” do have to practice.  It’s usually in single spot (locking on) mode, unless things start moving very fast.  For people up close, put the spot on the subject’s eyeball (the eye closest to you, if their head is turned).  If you’re not quite up to that, the full “auto” on the new Nikons is surprisingly good.  The new Z8 has an INSANELY good autofocus that locks onto the eye FOR you.

On a DSLR, I used aperture priority auto-exposure 95% of the time.  The mirrorless cameras open up the possibility of going manual because the viewfinder SHOWS you whether the image is exposed the way you want it.  You’re seeing the image off the sensor in real time.

I tend to get VERY close to people and subjects when I can — I don’t like “shooting” people with long lenses like you’d shoot tigers on a photo safari — so I lean toward wider-angle lenses.  Some of my favorite portraits were made with a 16-35mm lens at a distance of about one foot.  This often requires meeting those people, shaking their hands, being nice to them and maybe even learning their names — all of which can have other wonderful side effects. I move around when taking pictures. I climb stuff; I squat; I squeeze into corners and lean over rails. The location of the camera is as important as where the camera is pointed. (I feel like I should repeat that last sentence two or three times).  Small differences and movements matter a lot, especially if you’re using a wide lens or lining up multiple elements. I try desperately to always look at the entire image in the frame to avoid ugly stuff and add interesting stuff.  More advice along these lines:  Move around to try to be sure the subject stands out (“separation” via lighting or color difference) from the background. Move around to line up elements in interesting and balanced ways and to include more than one interesting thing in your picture. Move around to get interesting angles and perspectives. Move around. Think about your background: Sometimes you just want to be sure it doesn’t distract, but sometimes you want that “background” to be just as interesting as the subject itself, or to tell another bit of the story. Maybe even better: don’t think of anything as a background. Instead, just think of it as another element of the image whose location, lighting, focus, etc. you manage just like the main “subject” and other elements.

The old saying, “If your images aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough” is great advice for relative beginners.  You probably don’t want to see lots of the floor or the sky in your images.  Move closer to your subjects, or have them come closer to you.

When in doubt, I use a wide open aperture (both to reduce depth of field and blur the backgrounds, and to get me faster shutter speeds).  The resulting look is often very pretty and it’s something your iPhone cannot replicate. I take a LOT of pictures:  when there is movement or people, this allows options of a perfect gesture, position or expression; when there is no movement, I have the luxury of bracketing.  Lightroom (see below) makes it easy to edit.

 

PROCESSING:

Adobe Lightroom may be the greatest, most indispensable tool I use.  It’s the software program that lets me organize, review and edit my pictures.  99% of the time, its editing capabilities make the more-expensive, more-cumbersome, more-complex Photoshop unnecessary.  

I absolutely swear by Lightroom — it’s a fraction the cost of Photoshop, but for actual photographers it is far more useful 99% the time.  (NOTE: Recently you may have to buy the package of both of them together anyway, so this is advice about what to USE; not what to BUY).   If you’re trying to get by with Photoshop or with Apple’s version of all this, you’re missing out.  Nikon has a similar program, too (Capture), which has some advantages for a Nikon shooter, but hardly anybody uses it regularly.

I do use Photoshop.  It’s mostly for extreme things like major “cloning” (magically putting myself into a picture, for example!) or something like that.  I’m no expert on Photoshop; don’t listen to me.

Taking advantage of the modern high-end cameras’ dynamic range capabilities requires shooting in the RAW format (thus the huge file sizes), and Lightroom handles the RAW files fabulously.

In Lightroom:  Depending on the camera, I’m prone to add a little clarity and vibrance to most images.  I bring up the shadows a little, but pull back the blacks to keep that from washing things out.  I at least consider whether it would be improved by cropping, by exposure adjustment, and by tweaking white balance.  I use the brushes a LOT — hopefully in subtle ways to adjust (mostly) the balace of lighting among the various elements of the image.  The new AI capability (which detects and masks for people/subjects/backgrounds) are game-changers, too.

I’m not one of those people who think it’s impermissible to crop an image.  I don’t even understand that logic.  “Logic,” I should say.  If you don’t at least consider whether a crop (or any other adjustment) will make your image better, you’re just being lazy (not that there’s anything wrong with that) and you’re missing an opportunity to improve your output.  On the other hand, I don’t like extreme HDR stuff or very dramatic processing — I’m not morally opposed to it, but I usually don’t like the artificial look.  I use processing mostly to make things look MORE realistic — more like my eyes saw them or at least more like my brain remembers them.  Admittedly, sometimes I use more extensive processing just to salvage whatever image I can from a situation that was otherwise difficult or impossible to shoot.

 

LENSES:

I’ve got the Z series ultrawide 14-30mm f4, and the 24-120mm f4.  The old distinction (in quality) between the f4s vs f2.8s is gone — even Nikkor labels these as “S” lenses, which means the optical quality is great.  The 24-120mm Z is better than the 24-70 2.8 FX lenses of old.  You just lose the one stop — which is something I can live with using a camera that goes to ISOs in the many-thousands and still gives beautiful pics. 

I’ve also got the 85mm 1.8 and the 50mm 1.8.  Great. Also the “S” quality.  And since the Z8 puts the image stabilization in-camera, ‘every’ lens get the stabilization — even these primes.

 

FLASH:

I usually hate using flash.  I hate it because it’s tough to get natural-looking images; I hate it because it’s physically awkward when attached to the camera; I hate it because people are often put off by blinding flashes of light in their face.  I’ve got little to say about it because I almost never use it.  But THIS IS IMPORTANT:  If using flash and if at all possible, set your exposure so that at least some (maybe “most”) of the light making the image is natural, ambient light. Flash as a subtle supplement can be great; flash (especially a single flash mounted on the camera) as the sole or primary light source usually looks like crap.