Sunday 7 April 2013

Do I need expensive gears for good landscape shots?

HDR shot processed from 3 bracketed shots
For my first weekend on Blogspot, I will try to answer one of the most frequently asked questions to me since my landscape shots were first posted - "Do I need EXPENSIVE gears for good landscape shots?"

First and foremost, my answer is an outright NO!!! Now, I know that many out there will want to debate this with each other and both camps will obviously have their reasoning to argue till the cows comes home (errr.. no disrespect meant to the cows living comfortably in their condos, but that's another story)

Guess which camera took this shot?
To me, the most important thing in a GOOD shot is always about framing, composition and exposure. Sure, having expensive professional gears might make your life easier in terms of having better contrast and color saturation that might save you some time in post processing, but it definitely does not replace having a good understanding of the basics. I'm not saying that having good complements like the LEE or Singh Ray filters does not help but you can overcome it with exposure bracketing and a little bit of work in Photoshop or Photomatix for HDR post processing.

In a nutshell, you can have the most expensive gear in the world and you will still take crap shots if you do not bother to shoot correctly while someone with patience to frame and compose correctly will beat you even with their hand phone camera.

Okay, so much for my rant and raves. Appreciate your comments if any. Happy Sunday everybody. :)




5 comments:

  1. Agree with you very much. At the end of the day, it is the person behind the lens. Nothing beats creativity above all else. Having good gears help along the way but you need the 'oomph' to pull off a great shot.

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  2. Oh yes you do need expensive gears to take good pictures. DSLRs or Handphones don't come cheap..... ;) Ok on a serious note, I fully agree with you and I would like to add, if we don't take the trouble to understand our gears, even if we own the most expensive camera in the world we still produces crappy pictures....

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    1. Expensive is relative to the gears one can purchase for example L lens, filters, FF body and such.

      Many new users comes to me with a glum look just because they are using a 1100D with a 18-55 lens and many a times, I have shown them that they too can get wonderful shots with what they have as long as the framing, composition and exposure is good.

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  3. Landscape photography is very popular photography but as a photographer there are many tools as well as equipments should be required for that.

    photo enthusiast

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    Replies
    1. Thanks for your comment. I do agree with your words but the main point about this post is that you do not need cutting edge top of the line equipments to get good shots.

      Of course I am not saying that the normal 18-55 kit lens will produce a better picture than the premium lens. But for a hobbyist, I would dare say that it is good enough to get good shots if you have your framing, composition and exposure correct.

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