January 22, 2019

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Why I Love Aperture Priority

Posted in gear, Technique

I can hear it now—Aperture Priority? Pros only shoot on manual! Nope, that’s just another thread of misinformation that gets people confused and misled.

First and foremost, there are advantages to one method over another, but all that matters is, did you get the shot?

When it comes to camera settings keep in mind that there is no “right way”. I’m not just saying this to ease your mind and make you feel better about your current method. Instead, I say this to free some of you from the belief that if your hero photographer shares their personalized settings, you are not obligated to copy them. So often when I’m teaching and mention my camera setup, others immediately feel they should be doing the same. It’s just not true. Think of how other photographers use their gear as a reference for your own system. I believe it’s better for you to shoot on program mode until you find a need for greater creative control. No need to complicate your photography by applying settings you don’t fully understand. As your skills increase, so will your ability to use different configurations that will best serve you. At that moment, seek out the skills needed to execute your vision. Once you think you have it all figured out, I would respectfully suggest you always keep an open mind for new techniques.

Learning never exhausts the mind – Leonardo da Vinci

Aperture, Shutter, or Manual Settings

Here are some technical differences between the three. Each camera manufacturer labels their settings differently, so for the sake of this article I’ll be using Nikon’s labels.

Aperture Priority

My preferred method and idea for absolute control over depth of field.

The camera works to keep the exposure correct while maintaining the aperture you manually designate.

Advantage

While shooting a wedding where the lighting can change from one shot to the next with often very little time to evaluate each image’s proper exposure, I find aperture priority to be essential. I can grab my 85 1.4 Sigma Art series lens, set the aperture to 2.0 for a shallow look, set the ISO to 400 to keep my shutter speed in a workable range, and get to shooting. The shutter speed will vary as needed while maintaining a proper exposure at the aperture I designated, keeping the “look” that I love about that lens. Aperture Priority is ideal when lighting changes quickly so I that can pay attention to my subjects instead of exposure values.

Disadvantage

If you need to maintain a shutter speed to stop motion, Aperture Priority could easily change your shutter speed outside the workable range to properly stop motion.

Shutter Priority

Perfect for absolute control over motion.

I rarely use Shutter Priority unless it’s a concert or sporting event where I need specific control of motion to capture my subject. In Shutter Priority mode, the camera works to keep the exposure correct while maintaining the shutter speed you manually designated.

Advantage

For subject matter where the motion captured needs to be specific, Shutter Priority is ideal. For example, capturing a motorcycle as they come into your corner or you’re shooting handheld in low light. Shutter Priority will make sure that the shutter speed stays at the exact setting you choose to manage motion.

Disadvantage

Since the camera is working to maintain the shutter speed, the aperture becomes the variable. In this case, you may find the aperture increasing and decreasing the depth of field outside your ideal.

Manual

I only use this for macro and some landscape.

Manual is best for any situation where you need absolute creative control over motion, depth of field, and exposure.

Advantage

Complete control. Manual is excellent when shooting scenes where the lighting confuses the camera’s metering system. Manual is also great for maintaining consistency from frame to frame. Imagine, for example, that you’re doing a product shoot in a studio. You have set up the lighting and swapped out models for products. In this case, Manual will guarantee that each and every frame is the same exposure while Aperture or Shutter Priority will often vary from subject to subject.

Disadvantage

Human error. Manual can be slower and allows for user error. While Manual definitely gives you more control and through practice, you can become very proficient at making changes quickly, there is still a considerable margin of error. Manual shoots what you set while Aperture and Shutter Priority will adjust for correct exposure. Imagine being at a wedding and shooting a ceremony in the shade, and then you set your camera manually. Without any warning, the father of the bride comes around the corner with his daughter, and they are in the sun. If you are caught up in the moment, paying attention to what’s going on around you as you should, you might forget to change your camera settings—Aperture and Shutter Priority to the rescue.

 

So why do I shoot Aperture Priority?

I rely on my camera to do its job so that I can do mine. I want to focus—pun intended—on my subject. I’m very animated while shooting, trying to keep everyone on their toes and having a good time. I don’t want to be overburdened by making too many camera adjustments.

Just to give you an idea, my shooting method starts with me grabbing a lens and setting the aperture for the next round of exposures. Once the aperture is set, I pick an ISO that is close to what I think I need. With my gear, Nikon D5, D850 & Z7, I’m not too concerned about the lowest ISO since I’m confident with any setting below 8000. At this point, I start shooting. With my aperture decided and the ISO providing a range for the camera to pick a shutter speed to maintain a proper exposure, I can shoot and pay more attention to my subject and less to my gear.

Along with aperture priority, I also set my white balance on 5500 Kelvin. All day and in any lighting condition. Because lighting changes so dramatically on a wedding day, I find my post processing much easier to have a fixed color temperature for a series of images that I can quickly correct later rather than auto white balance, giving me invariably different settings or worse, me trying to make the changes and getting distracted from my subjects. Since we’re on the topic of camera settings, I should add that I don’t use back button focus either. I want my thumb free for moving my focus bracket, aperture preview, focus locking, and exposure locking—All functions that I can access at the same time while focusing and shooting.

Like I mentioned at the beginning, do what works for you, but just like the over popularized back button focus, there is no “best” or “right” way. It only matters what works for you. Test, test, test and test some more. It’s all about what works for you to captures those photons.

 

This post contains affiliate links. If you’d like to learn more, see my affiliate disclaimer here.

January 8, 2019

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Taking Photos is Only 10% of What I Do

Posted in Inspirtion

I love photography!

I really do. Photography was a hobby and an obsession before it became my profession. I chased and consumed all things photography, and at the time, I had no idea that it was going to be my only source of income for the next 25 years. On top of that, I had no idea at the time how much work was required to run a business.

I’m not trying to scare you away from making photography your career. I just want you to have an advantage as you venture into a highly competitive, over saturated, and often undervalued profession that is photography. If you think there’s no room for you and an over-saturated market means you can’t make a living, then you would be wrong. Regardless of what anyone has told you before and despite what you may feel, there is plenty of room for anyone that is good, dedicated, and professional.

There is always room in any market. The trick is to find your client.

By the way—The term “Professional” as I’m using it doesn’t have to mean full-time. Being a “Professional” is about how you carry yourself and the quality and integrity you display. You don’t have to adhere to Webster’s definition of a professional: “(of a person) engaged in a specified activity as one’s main paid occupation rather than as a pastime”. If you treat the industry, yourself, others, and your clients with respect and behave professionally, you are more than fulfilling the role.

The reality

There’s room for you! You can make it in photography and yes it’s worth it. Like any pursuit, it will be difficult, and there will inevitably be trying times. However, you can make it happen. Keep in mind though—You love photography right now. It’s maybe your hobby or a serious creative outlet. However, the moment you turn it into a business the story changes, and for a lot of people, the fun element will be gone. No longer are you getting up 3 hours before sunrise, driving 2 hours and freezing the entire time for the best light because you “want to,” it’ll be because now you “have to”. If you want to keep your car and buy groceries, you need to be out shooting. Shooting is only part of the business, though. You need to market, shoot, sell, print, deliver, and follow up over and over and over and over.

You don’t have to work for free

Pretty much every major industry within photography has been diluted and in many ways de-valued by an over-saturation of people not taking care to appropriately price and behave. So many new photographers think that charging less and getting a shoot is building a business. On the contrary—That practice is only destroying their own and others financial future by setting meager expectations of price.

Concert photography is an excellent example. So many are willing to shoot for free to get experience that they fail to understand and recognize the job and profession that is Concert Photography. In doing so, this mentality is only setting themselves up for future disappointment. If you shoot for free and allow an industry to use you for free, someday you will want to be paid and they will just find someone else that will work for free as you did. Don’t get upset when this happens, that’s how they were trained. But I digress……

One interview after another, and another…

As a full-time wedding photographer, every initial meeting with a potential client is like another job interview.

Every time you want to solicit a company or a person to hire you for a shoot, you’re applying for a job. For my business, Imagery Concepts, we go through the process about 30 times a year for the last 25 years—That’s 750 successful job interviews. It’s a little stressful to say the least, but that’s precisely what’s required.

How to make the 10% count

As I was making notes for this article I was actually surprised by how quickly I came up with jobs we do for our business that don’t include any photography. Here is a list of nearly 60 activities we are responsible for that don’t require me to photograph someone:

Learning your gear – Shutter speeds – Aperture – Depth of Field – Lens Choice – Understanding light – Data Management – Color Management – Software for editing – Lab orders – Sales – Marketing – Pricing – Taxes – Insurance – Business License – Branding – Website – Bank Accounts – Business Cards – Letterhead – Advertising – Merchandising – Vendor Accounts – Payments – Social Media – Twitter – Instagram – Facebook – Pinterest – Linkedin – Email – Voicemails – Attire – Appointments – Client Meetings – Scheduling – Accounting – Phone Calls – Texts – Messages – Mistakes – Vehicles -Maintenance – Office space – Leases – Contracts – Deadlines – Vehicles – Data Plans – Subscriptions – Licenses – Permits – Memberships – Employees – Investments – Education

I tend to believe in focusing on what I’m best at. At Imagery Concepts, my wife and I work together. I’m the creative and primary shooter. She handles sales and communications (which includes social media). We work together and make decisions together. As a team, we do all jobs as one person, but it’s the specific tasks that we divide. This is key for us because I don’t want to do sales, but she loves it. I love learning new gear, software, and techniques while she would prefer to talk with our brides, vendors, and help plan the wedding day. It’s a perfect combination for us. With this system, the 10% shooting works for me.

I know you can do the same. You may not have a spouse that’s willing to do your sales, but you can find someone to help or you can build your business so that your sales process requires less of your attention, ultimately allowing you to focus on what you prefer.

How to reframe your business to your benefit:

  1. Step back and look at your business or the business you want to build.
  2. Make a list of the jobs you want to do and a list of those you don’t.
  3. Try to get someone to help you with the less desirable tasks and focus on the ones you like best.

That last step is crucial. It will not only help you keep your sanity, but I believe when you are not burdened with the responsibilities you dislike, you are more open to new ideas. You will have the freedom and the space to allow the best of yourself to grow and flourish. This is the ideal situation for you to innovate your business and become more marketable. If I spent all of my time doing the tasks my wife doest that I don’t prefer, I wouldn’t have time to learn and grow my photographic skills. When I have time to grow, I become a better photographer and that alone will keep me in business.

Embrace the 10%

If you can make that percentage even larger, a big high-five! Share responsibilities where you can and focus on that which you are best at while remembering that, when you’re finally shooting and all the other work has been done, you can enjoy your craft.

So why do it?

Why go through all of the challenges to do the part that I love so infrequently? It’s because I love photography. It’s because although I may only shoot a small fraction of the time compared to the work it takes to run a business, the business keeps me in photography. I may not be shooting all the time, but with everything I do, photography is at its core. I eat, breathe, and sleep photography. Photography guides my vacations and has influenced who my friends are. It’s my every day all day and for me, so worthwhile.

Do what you love, and it won’t seem like work.

January 1, 2019

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Hello Capture One, Goodbye Lightroom

Posted in Software

Featured image edited using Capture One

With so many RAW editors on the market today it’s hard to decide which is the best. Well let me just say, there is no “best”. What works best for you is what matters. Choosing software can be daunting especially with all of the promo and promises out there. At the end of the day, software is a tool just like a camera body. So long as you can get your images tuned how you like and your clients are happy, it’s the perfect fit.

In this post I’ll be mentioning three of my primary image tuning tools while focusing on my migration from Lightroom Classic to Capture One.

It’s been two years now into my migration from Lightroom to Capture One and Luminar. In short, it’s been a colossal pain! First and foremost, learning a new RAW workflow is like learning a new language, but for me, its been worth it and I’m glad I made the move.

Luminar

Let’s look at Luminar 3 before I get to Capture One and Lightroom. For me, I use Skylum’s Luminar platform as a plugin to Capture One, Photoshop, as well as Lightroom. My primary use of Luminar is for inspiration. Its AI features, such as the AI Sky Enhancer and Accent AI Filter, will often times highlight the best features of an image that I might not otherwise have arrived at by my own tweaking. There’s also a great selection of presets for even more creativity.

Another huge plus for Luminar is the price. At $69 retail it’s hard to beat and a great companion app to any raw editor. Skylum, who is also the developer of Aurora HDR, is big into AI and are continually updating their software—Definitely a company you should keep an eye on.

Click here for a more in-depth read into Luminar.

Right: Example of Luminar AI Sky Enchancer + Accent AI Filter

Capture One

I started with Lightroom 2 10+ years ago and stuck it out until I felt there was a system that worked better for me. I still mostly love Lightroom and know that it’s an entirely viable piece of software, but I wanted better. Thus began my journey into Capture One.

Capture One has been around as a RAW editor just as long as Lightroom if not longer. It was the improvement in image quality that got me so excited about the switch. The best way I can describe it is “fidelity”—Capture One allows my images to speak with a more dynamic range of color and tonal range. It’s almost like listening to music in my truck (Lightroom), which has a great system, versus listening to the same artist live (Capture One). There is a tangible, but not always, definable difference.

It’s also fair to point out that, in my experience, all RAW editors have a personality of their own—A “look” if you will. We don’t need to get into the reasons why, however, we do need to be aware that the look of Lightroom is not the same as Capture One, Luminar, On1 Photo Raw, Alien Skin……the list goes on. At this point for me, I love the “Capture One look” along with its robust set of tools.

Click here for a more in-depth read into Capture One.

Lightroom and Capture One side by side

Left: Lightroom / Right: Capture One

The comparison

Although I have a lot of experience with Lightroom, nowadays I rarely use it. I have completely moved over to Capture One and after some growing pains, I couldn’t be happier. The only time I get back into Lightroom is when I have an older job to process that was initially edited in Lightroom. Otherwise, it’s all Capture One.

1. Stability

While both programs are reasonably fast on a modern machine, I feel Capture One is more stable and less likely to be broken in an update. I always cringe when I see Adobe has a new update for Lightroom or Photoshop, so often those updates make changes that either break my workflow or add additional hurtles. For exampe, I have an extensive preset collection that I use on a regular basis. In a recent update when the presets were converted to the new standard, several key presets stopped working. I also use the Palette controllers as well as a Shuttle Pro controller. It’s always a crap shoot if those will keep working after an update.

2. Local adjustments

While Lightroom has better noise reduction and an overall “smoother” look where Capture One is distinctly crisp. You can definitely get either one to look mostly like the other, but they still have their own unique personalities. Lightroom will allow you to adjust specific colors in the HSL panel, but Capture One will allow you even more control with the selection of a specific color range and the ability to create an adjustment mask from that color selection. It’s impressive and something you need to test.

Capture One also has a skin tone adjustment in the color tool that is very helpful for balancing and tuning portraits—A big plus over Lightroom. While both programs have local adjustment capabilities, Lightroom has a limited palette for local adjustments while Capture One offers nearly all of their adjustment options as layers, making it one of the most prominent and powerful features of Capture One.

For example, while Lightroom offers local adjustments with some level of luminosity control, Capture One features legit layers with luminosity masking! It’s brilliant, and if this were the only feature difference I would still switch, it’s that good. Did I mention you could also create layer masks from color range selections? So nice.

Another great feature of Capture One is Focus masking—For you mirrorless shooters, think of focus peaking. If you’re not familiar with focus peaking, when enabled, any area of an image will show a colored mask where the image is in focus. This feature is brilliant for faster culling. It’s my understanding that Capture One uses the info in the raw file to determine focused areas and only works on supported RAW files. I couldn’t function without this feature now that I have it.

3. Catalog and session handling

In short, a catalog is similar to what we are familiar with in Lightroom as a database that holds all image information (including metadata, adjustments, etc.) for multiple jobs containing files in many locations. Capture One will allow you to have multiple catalogs open at the same time, which is a massive plus when managing data that might be on a remote drive. Meanwhile, sessons are commonly used for one project at a time. Sessions can also be very self-contained, so they are much easier to move, backup, and share if needed.

The debate about which setup to choose or which is best will not be quickly answered. I personally use catalogs because I want to have access to all of my images at once for searching.

For a more indepth explination checkout this pre-recorded webinar hosted by Capture One.

Tips for making the switch

Here’s a brief list of things to be aware of if you’re looking to make the switch:

  1. You will lose all of your image adjustments. Lightroom and Capture One don’t share editing info, so you’ll need to re-edit your images in Capture One. Although it sounds terrible, it’s not really. You may just come away with a better image. For any finished images you have in Lightroom, I would suggest rendering out as PDS’s or TIFF’s and import alongside the RAW file into Capture One.
  2. You may lose your keywords and ratings. Lightroom stores all of your settings, including keywords and ratings, in a database. You need to configure Lightroom to write changes to a sidecar file so that the info can be read by Capture One on import. To reiterate, your image adjustments will not transfer.
  3. “Presets” will be referred to as “Styles”. Capture One uses the term “presets” to refer to parameters for a specific tool, while “styles” are adjustments saved from multiple tools are more like what you might be familiar with in Lightroom as “presets”.
  4. Heavy reliance on levels and curves. Lightroom adjustments doesn’t require you to touch levels or curves much, where Capture One relies heavily on them.
  5. Overexposure settings are different. Lightroom has “whites” and “highlights” slides to correct any overexposure whereas Capture One has only “highlights” and “shadow”. You may initially think they work the same, but they don’t. In Capture One the “highlights” and “shadow sliders are intelligent and offer a more fluid adjustment from image to image with often better results.
  6. There are no modules like developing or library in Capture One. With Capture One you can pretty much do all things from all places.
  7. All of the shortcuts are different. Don’t worry though, you can custom configure just about any action(s) in Capture One with a shortcut of your choosing.
  8. Don’t edit the same folder of images between Lightroom and Capture One. This could cause edits to be lost and potentially increase glacial melt. It’s best practice to separate images if they need to be touched by both applications or only move the through editors in 1 direction.

Final thoughts

Should you switch to Capture One? I can’t really answer that for you. I’m glad I did and have no regrets. I will say, though, that migrating from Lightroom did take a significant amount of time to learn the application, organize, and build a productive workflow. All in all, I would suggest diving in deep and really commit to learning it before you decide.

I wish you fun exploring!

 

For some amazing tutorials be sure to checkout the Capture One YouTube channel.

This post contains affiliate links. If you’d like to learn more, see my affiliate disclaimer.

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