The Break of Dawn

Useful Advice–

A reader recently wrote in to ask for advice on a situation plaguing him. That question will be dealt with privately at first and, with that reader’s permission, will be featured here so that people facing the same situation may benefit from the answer.

Erick Lirios

We start with that little detail to emphasize something here: Sharing actually helps both concerned – the person who shares and the person who receives. Jo Avila, one of the most recognizable names now because he holds very successful photography classes, explains that when he started being more open about what he did and why he did things to achieve his photographic ends, he got input from other people that eventually benefited him. Eventually, he accumulated more knowledge that not only helped him but his clients as well.

There’s this fear that if you share your trade secrets with others, they may just steal them and use them to get work from you. While there may be some truth to that, think about it: Unless you were bidding for the same client at the same time and unless the other person actually got information from you in an effort to make sure you didn’t get the account, the chances of your losing an account to a person you shared some information with aren’t really that big. Now, if someone you were shooting with started giving out business cards in your shoot and argues when caught that he/she didn’t know that such act wasn’t allowed is either lying, stupid or both. It can get very exasperating knowing that your client has stuff shot by someone you were training because that person was very liberal with giving out business cards during your shoots while using techniques that you taught. (That actually makes for a good column and we will deal with that soon.)

Now, going back to Scott Kelby, we realize that he makes money in various ways and one of them is sharing information. It’s not like we’ll be capable of stealing his clients from him if we devour his books. Far from it. Just looking at how the guy writes gives you an indication of what kind of person he is and the type of person you are really determines just who your clients are, what they want you to shoot and how long they keep working with you.

While his The Digital Photography Book Volume 2 has the usual topical treatment – shooting weddings like a pro, shooting macro like a pro, shooting travel like a pro, and others, there is one chapter (wish it were longer) just on tips to shoot better. It is here that you really see Kelby’s experience on the field, as it were, and how he’s solved the numerous problems that beset any photographer who has graduated from taking snapshots.

Right off the bat, he starts with a basic choice – which mode to use. He just discusses the top four choices: Manual, Shutter Priority (TV or Time Value according to Canon), Aperture Priority or Program. Why just these four? We mentioned that Kelby seems to be talking to people who want more than just taking snapshots and this is quite obvious. Some people would trust the pic modes (you know, the modes indicated by the cute little icons like a face, a flower, a running person, etc.) and they do have good reason to. These modes, regardless of the camera make and model, are based on good, solid photographic theory. Why not use them all the time then? That’s because a good part of the creative decision-making is determined a lot by the mode including what format the photo will be. For example, you can’t shoot RAW with these modes in a Canon camera because it is assumed that if you’re working with these modes, you aren’t shooting for a magazine or an ad anyway. Family snapshots are okay with JPEG.

He also explains the reasons for the usual ISO choices. Two facts come to fore with his one-paragraph treatment of this topic: 1) He’s a professional enough person to know that even if the cameras now have decent ISO 800, he still suggests shooting at the lower ISOs (100, 200, and 400) since these offer the lowest noise levels. Yes, there are cameras now that allow you to shoot at something like ISO 6400 but when it’s your career on the line, along with your client’s satisfaction, it’s best to use the ISO level that produces the least amount of noise. Second, his professionalism is also brought to the fore by the simple mention of using a tripod even in church so that he can keep shooting at ISO 100. Dig that.

So many shots are now done at high ISO simply because the person holding the camera knows that camera has that ISO alleviating the need for an external flash. Some even argue that the noise-processors of these newer cameras are so good that they really can shoot reliably with high ISOs. Regardless, the lower the ISO, the less noise and with these whiz-bang noise-processors, the lower ISOs may also benefit.

The next choice seem basic and they are but some people don’t give it the necessary thought. Should you shoot in JPEG, RAW or TIFF? We’ve discussed the comparative benefits of RAW and JPEG before so we won’t go into it now. Suffice it to say that Kelby agrees. Now, Canon has never had TIFF as an option and some people early on, say 2003, were bragging that their Fuji S2 Pro had it as an option. See Kelby’s comments: “Shoot in TIFF if you’re loose with money. This is a great format for people who have money to burn, people who shoot to huge 16-GB memory cards and have plenty of ‘em handy. TIFFs are also perfect for anyone who has lots of spare hard drive space and lots of spare time, because TIFF files are huge to deal with. Outside of that, I can’t think of any real compelling (or remotely reasonable) reason to shoot in TIFF format.” Now, that’s the spirit.

What’s good with Kelby, regardless of his books really, is his directness. If something works, he says so. If it doesn’t, he says so and, for people who want to shoot creatively as soon as possible, that’s something to be valued.