IT’S A TRAP! I
n my time as a photo tour guide
I’ve probably seen and heard it
all, but it’s also helped confirm
for me a few of the traps to avoid
and the things to encourage people
to think about when it comes to their
own photography.
So without further ado, here are a few
tips for avoiding some of the common
traps in this modern age of overnight
photographic experts.YOU DON’T NEED TO SHOOT
EVERYTHING AT LOW ISOS!
One of the new shooting styles that is
aff licting some photographers is pixel
counting, or perfection in incremen-
tal digital detail. You may know one of
these people, or you may be one your-
self! The reality is we don’t need to
shoot at one or two hundred ISO any-
more, and we don’t need to keep our
photography confined to a tripod either.
If you do this, you’ll simply be missing
out on creative images.
Now, don’t get me wrong, some sub-
jects like landscapes do suit low ISO and
tripod shooting, and likely always will.
But so many other subjects do not. Try
shooting a leopard in Africa two min-
utes before sunset at ISO 200!YOU DON’T NEED A TON
OF MEGAPIXELS
You’ll have seen the latest camera an-
nouncements, and you’ll probably be
thinking just how much more creative
it will make you by shooting with a big
megapixel sensor camera.
But wait a minute, it wasn’t all that
long ago that 16MP was considered a
‘big’ sensor! Remember that more mega-
pixels isn’t a magic bullet to better im-
ages. Even the cover of this magazine
could be shot with about 3MP.GEAR ISN’T THE ONLY SOLUTION
So many experienced enthusiasts think
that a new camera will be the magic
bullet to making great images. Yet they
miss the simple point that any camera in
the right hands takes great images, and
more so today than ever before. Camer-
as and lenses are simply tools.
Will that old Nikon or Canon shoot great
images? Yes, the same as they have for de-
cades. Will a new mirrorless kit make a dif-
ference to your photography? Maybe, and
if it does, it is more likely due to it sparking
new enthusiasm from you, rather than a
camera that shoots a bit differently.
For me, mirrorless has positives and
negatives. What I like about my mir-LEFT: This lion was photographed as the sun hit the horizon at sunset, under the shade of a tree. If
you are a pixel counter, you will be alarmed at too much grainy (noise) and other faults that have no
bearing on the creative aspect of this image. I leave it to you to decide if you would be happy under
the shoot conditions to get this result. Panasonic Lumix G9. LEICA DG 100-400MM F4-6.3 lens.
1/160s @ f6.3, ISO 1600. 30% image file crop in Lightroom.It can be a confusing world out there, what
with so much information about photography
and so many self-proclaimed experts.
Darran Leal shares a few lessons from the road.
STRAIGHT SHOOTER