The Break of Dawn
Moving On–
Photoworld is just about wrapping up by the time you read this so if you haven’t gone yet, you might as well give it a go. There may yet be the bargain you’ve been looking for or a new gadget that will keep you a little busy. Mind the money, everybody. Summer is coming up fast and you may want the extra cash to get your activities going. On the other hand, you may want to arm yourself a bit more as a photographer before you started going around the country, the region or the world.
Erick Lirios
Just to wrap up the little discussion on new stuff to buy, please keep in mind that though there seems to be the “best” in terms of lens choices, for example, there is also what may be best for you. It may be really great to have the best whizzbang lens like the heavy and expensive Canon 100-400 IS or the Nikon 80-400 VR, but you do have to decide whether it’s really worth it for you. One of the best photographers in the world, as far as I’m concerned, Art Wolfe, used to be a Nikon user who now shoots with Canon, was a bit surprising when he revealed that he actually used a 70-200 f/4L instead of the 70-200 f/2.8L. Reason? It’s “just as sharp as the much heavier and more expensive 2.8 version.” Shows you a real pro doesn’t necessarily have to buy into the usual mindset or the hype. A real photographer, a real pro, looks at his/her needs and gets the stuff to address those needs. Oh, and as people do get older, the problem of weight versus sharpness versus auto focus speed and maybe other concerns come into play. Each person is uniquely and beautifully made, English teacher Onofre Pagsanghan always says. It may just also mean that the equipment one uses is as unique as the person who uses it. (Oh, just another English lesson here: It’s not “equipments,” which is wrong. It’s “equipment.”)
Studying on your own
There are groupies and there are, well, loners and there are those somewhere in between. Regardless of this, any person can benefit from the knowledge presented in a good book. There is always the challenge of finding a book that will actually suit your reading style and address the need for usable and relevant information.
Scott Kelby is a favorite among both photographers and Photoshop aficionados and he’s certainly one of the easiest to read. Many books he’s done concern the use of different versions of Photoshop and more recently, Adobe Lightroom. He’s also into photography and quite a good at it. He uses Nikon equipment exclusively and though this is so, he does a fantastic job of being objective. Most of the illustrations in his book Digital Photography, Book 1 will, by virtue of practicality have Nikon equipment as examples but he always tells you the Canon equivalent. Unlike some shortsighted individuals who seem to think brand allegiance is the same thing as rabid religious affiliation, he simply recognizes that some people like Nikon, others like Canon and others Sony, Pentax, Fuji, and Olympus. C’mon, guys. Cameras are tools. A person who uses another brand is no less than you.
As the title suggests, this is but the first book in a series. There are actually three of them and we’ll get to the other two in turn. Each book is a real bargain. Really. You can get each one for less than Php700 and just so you realize that not everything is more expensive in the Philippines, a boxed set in Singapore (which is supposed to come out cheaper) costs around SGD80 (Php2640).
The usual Kelby humor is apparent from the get go. He likes keeping things fun as he discusses things and starts off from the basic concerns – what to get. He has a good number of suggestions as to where to get stuff but unless you’re in the States, you do have to realize where things are different in the Philippines. For one, he mentions B&H, one of the largest, most respected establishments in New York. Since we’re working on the reality that Hidalgo St., Quiapo is our friend, some points he mentions aren’t relevant but that’s a very little bit. When he talks about how much easier things can be with a ballhead for example, regardless of whether you’re in the Philippines or Greenland, that still holds true.
He presents things in a very topical form. He starts off with Chapter One, for example, discussing sharpness and how to achieve it. Dig this: He says not to raise your ISO even if things get dim. It’s very disturbing to see people who are new to SLRs using ISOs like 1600 in broad daylight. They reason out that things were getting dark without realizing that when they look at their LCDs, they don’t even bother to zoom in 100% to see the effect on noise. It’s like their goal is just to have a photo that perfect for a 3-inch screen or for something on maybe Facebook or Flickr. Pros can’t afford such carelessness. They have to zoom in a hundred percent all the time to check just how sharp edges are and how much noise there is. This from the ground, professional advice of Kelby can be quite surprising for lazy shooters. (Wonder why people who shot film have this little smirk on their faces? They have other tricks up their sleeves when things get dim and all they have is ISO100 film.)
Perhaps one of the best things about the book is that though there are chapters, each of these is chopped up into one-page discussions of how to solve problems. His major take is: When you ask someone how to do something, you often don’t want the long answer. You want the straight, short, and effective answer. That actually makes sense. Once something works for you, then you can start asking about the theory behind it. There’s a lot to be said about being able to get something done and then getting a better appreciation of what was really going on.
More on Book 1 next week. Sorry. There’s a bit more to say about this.
