the money with your exposures, and making sure the backgrounds are free
from distracting elements.
This may sound like an antitechnology rant, but nothing could be further
from the truth. I love Photoshop and other imaging software, but I want to
use that software to enhance already great images instead of trying to rescue
poor ones.
Cameras and Lenses.
That being said, let’s review some cameras and lenses. (And, by the way, I
paid market price for all these cameras; neither Canon nor Fuji paid me to
plug their products.)
As noted previously, a Fuji S1 was my first studio digital camera. While
it’s no longer one of my primary cameras, it’s my favorite for black & white—
especially high-contrast black & white. My two main studio cameras are
Canons—a 1Ds (the original 11.1-megapixel model) and a 5D. I love these
cameras, and the two most important attributes I believe they have are sharp-
ness and a full-frame (24x36mm) sensor. In various workshops, I’ve had the
chance to compare different brands and models of cameras and have not seen
any that top the Canons in terms of sharpness. There are a few that come
close and a lot that aren’t as sharp.
I prefer a full-frame sensor camera because most lenses are designed for
a 24x36mm piece of film or sensor. Most digital 35mm-style cameras, how-
86 MASTER GUIDE FOR GLAMOUR PHOTOGRAPHY
This portrait of Janilee was shot with a Canon
70–200 f/2.8 lens set at 200mm at f/4.5. No-
tice how sharp Janilee’s face is, while every-
thing in front of and behind her is somewhat
soft. If you look toward the edges of the image,
you’ll notice that this effect is more pro-
nounced. If you own a smaller-sensor camera,
this effect isn’t impossible, it just requires
adding blur in postproduction. I prefer to do it
in the camera.