It’s the Photographer, Not the Equipment

Camera Equipment. The Never-ending Quest!

For many years now, I’ve been a person who’s been caught up in the equipment game… Partly because my father – a frequent traveler to European countries – is an equipment enthusiast. For as long as I can remember, he has always brought home classic cameras like the Zeiss Ikon Contaflex Super B, the Hasselblad 500c, the Canon AE-1, the Yashica FX3, and some decent cameras like the Minolta X700 and the Minolta X7A. He used to buy these cameras and marvel at the quality of the construction, the ingenuity of the makers, and the remarkable optics.

Then I got my own camera for the first time… as a present. It was a Carena, a Taiwan-made camera that my father bought in Hong Kong. One that looked exactly like the Minolta X7A and later on, one of my father’s 2 Zeiss Ikons, a camera that I’d been eyeing for a while…

Well, I started taking more pictures than before (which was still not many). Now, some of those pictures were good, and some of them were bad… I especially had a tough time understanding on-camera flash and messed up entire rolls of film with that on both of my cameras…

Beautiful RelicsYears later, after working with film in the dark room, and a whole lot of ‘growing up’, I bought myself a Nikon F3 that I’d had my eye on for quite a while. I spent about $200 on it and I was suddenly taking much nicer pictures… unfortunately I don’t have any of these digitized or I’d actually be able to convince you!

So, now where am I going with all this? Where’s the tip? I’m getting to it, don’t rush!

Better Camera = Better Pictures?

Well, not really. My buddy Umesh had just an Electro 35 GTN Rangefinder camera and created great images when I was messing them up back in college! He still uses his tiny Sony P-72 to create great pictures!

What I’ve found is that with time, my understanding of the principles of photography has grown… especially my understanding and appreciation of the principles of composition, lighting, and design. Allowing me to take better pictures “in my mind”.

Pre-visualization

Let’s back up a Moment… I’m Taking Pictures in my Mind?

Well, not literally, but yes, that’s where they start off… When I’m looking through the viewfinder or just looking at a scene, I imagine it the way I want to see it. Ansel Adams, the master of the Zone system called this Pre-visualization (or previz). You imagine the picture the way it can be finally, and then expose, develop, and print it to achieve that pre-visualized image.

So where does the gear get into the picture? Simple answer… It doesn’t! your equipment is just a tool in aiding the process of pre-visualization. It makes the job simpler. It does not define what you visualize… It just helps you attain what you have pre-visualized.

Let me put it this way, it’s not the brushes that make a work of art! It’s the artist!

If anything, a well-balanced brush will make it easier for the artist to paint the picture, but the brush does not make the picture itself, it’s the artist.

The same applies to photography. You may have a Sony P-72, but you can still make stunning pictures if you know how!

Previz? Here’s an example

[on the banks of the cauveri] [forgotten wayside temple]Now let’s see, these two pictures to the left… They did not start out that way. They started out being plain old dull pictures, but when I took the photographs, I knew that I was going to tone them in this particular fashion. I also knew that I was going to remove almost all detail in the darker areas and make them silhouettes… I did all this with the RAW file format. No Photoshop. Read my previous post to learn a bit more about RAW.

In the good old days, such toning, dodging, and burning would be done in the dark room. Today it’s done in Photoshop or an equivalent photo editor.

It’s all a part of the evolution of photography, so do try to learn how to use these new tools. In the end, that’s what they are… tools made for you to accomplish what you see in your mind’s eye.

Happy previz, shooting, and post-production! ;)

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Susheel Chandradhas

Susheel Chandradhas

Susheel Chandradhas is a Product Photographer and Filmmaker based in India. He has been taking photographs (almost) all his life. He has a diploma and a bachelors degree in Visual Communication, where his classmates all believed that he would write a book on photography... Instead, he writes on this website (because - isn't a community more fun?).

His passions include photography, parkour, wide-angle lenses, blue skies, fire extinguishers, and fast computers.

In addition to writing for Beyond Photo Tips, Susheel is a staff writer for Fstoppers.com, and owns and runs ColoursAlive, a photography, and video production studio.

You can connect with Susheel on Twitter, Instagram, or LinkedIn.

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One comment

  1. That’s comforting, considering I’m currently working with a point and shoot and no other equipment.
    Is it possible to take any kind of picture no matter what sort of camera you’ve got, then?

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