Sometimes equipment really is important...

Creativity and vision are always more important than equipment in photography. Without those, you can take crappy pictures with a 60gb $40,000 Hasselblad all day. With those, you can take amazing pictures with an iPhone.

But when it comes to particular photographic endeavors, sometimes, equipment really is important. In my wedding class, I am often asked if you can shoot a wedding with a Nikon D40 or a Canon Rebel XTI and the 18-55 kit lens.

While the quick answer is yes you can, the truthful answer is "not my wedding". Often times, in weddings, you are shooting under extreme lighting conditions. Wedding photographers live at high ISO's and big apertures. This ain't no sissy job. Dark churches that don't allow flash, dark reception halls that do allow flash, harsh midday sun, group portraits at dusk, large groups, huge groups, beach weddings with sand and wind, the list is long. As such, often times, consumer gear won't suffice. You need the extra boost of fast glass, f/2.8 zooms, and f/1.4 primes. You need the extra boost of quality high ISO's. You need the ability to change settings on the fly without diving into a menu.

Sports photography requires many of the same things, as does photojournalistic work. Wedding shooters live at f/2.8 and ISO 1600. The newer cameras (Think Canon 5D MKII and Nikon D700) take amazing images at high ISO's. They make the job for the shooter easier. It gives the shooter 1 less thing to worry about. Less stress, worrying about image quality or what will happen if you can't use flash, or how do I keep my shutter speeds up enough to avoid blur. The next piece of the puzzle is glass. Gotta have f/2.8 zooms if you are serious about shooting weddings. And IS or VR if it is available for the zoom your looking for. I live with my 24-70 f/2.8 and 70-200 f/2.8IS attached to my camera bodies.

And if that wasn't enough, what do you do if a camera or flash malfunctions during a shoot? Well, you grab another one out of your bag and keep shooting. You don't get to come back tomorrow if your flash breaks down. I see a lot of people getting their first DSLR and a kit lens, and now they are wedding photographers. Please keep in mind, that to do this professionally, taking pretty pictures is only part of the occasion.

The 2 pictures you see here were taken during a class I taught on Thursday night. The lovely model is Sondra. Thank you Sondra, I know it must be overwhelming to work with so many students. While the class was using my flashes off camera, in the dark at an abandoned gas station, we had the model lit with a low powered hot light to aid in focusing. I utilized that light, ISO 6400, and f/2.8 with my Canon 5D MKII. Are they noisy? Sure, but I had 80 students that wanted to shoot, and I didn't want to get in their way. So I just followed the hot light, and fired away. All in all, I am amazed at the quality of these images at ISO 6400. The Canon 5D MKII continues to surprise me. And the good thing about this exercise is that I get to test out things like this before I need to utilize it in a real world, paying situation.

If you have any equipment questions or concerns, you can always ask them here: Faded and Blurred

And of course, if you are looking to learn more about photography, you can always come check out Tri-Community.

Coming up in class this week:

Monday night we have cars and models. Bring your gear!

Wednesday night we will cover paperwork. Contracts, releases, etc.

Thursday night we will have some Photoshop instruction.

See you all soon, have a great rest of your weekend!

Frank