Tag: Professional camera

You have decided you want to have some sexy photos of you.  You can take selfies in a mirror.  You can have a friend use their phone to take photos.  What makes these photos different from the photos you might pay someone to take?  There are several differences, some of which we will discuss in this blog entry: image quality, lighting, poses, camera angles, editing skills, and photographer experience. In other words, let’s do a camera image quality comparison. This is a longer post than my normal, but I needed the space to show all of the photos for comparison.

The photographer takes the picture, not the camera

The first, and most important factor to remember is that the camera does not make the picture, the photographer does.  I use professional equipment, but the camera does not choose when to fire the shutter.  It does not chose the lighting or pose.  In my case, it does not even make many decisions relating to the exposure.  My experience guides me in picking the lighting and poses that will show you at your best and minimize the areas I do not want to show.  I compose and light an image with a plan of what I what the viewer to see and think as they look at the photos.  I know how I want their eye to move as they look at the photo, where I want it to linger and where I want it to move past.  I am the one who removes zits.  All of this makes me smile when someone asks me, “what camera do you use?”.  In reality, the camera is but a small part of what went into producing the final image you see.  And, there are other cameras made by different companies that will produce photos that look just as good.

Better cameras record better images; a camera image quality comparison

Having said that, I do use a professional camera and lenses.  It produces very sharp images (when that is what I want), and it allows me to produce images that can be printed large, 2×3 ft or more. These large images will look good even when you look at them up close.  If you do a side-by-side comparison of a photo taken with a phone camera, my photos will look better every time. Here are some examples. My apologies to the lovely AzariaZia, because these first photos do not show her true beauty.

All three photos were taken at the exact same location in the room. The point-and-shoot and the DSLR photos were both mounted on the tripod at the exact same location. I held the cell phone right above the tripod so the location would remain constant. The cell phone has no optical zoom, so it shows more of the room than the other two.

First, my cell phone, a Samsung Galazy S3 (8MP):

While these might look more-or-less OK, when you look at them in more detail, you see that they are grainy and not sharp:

OK, so the cell phone is not so good. How about a point-and-shoot camera (Canon SX30-IS)? It has a built-in flash, but on-camera flash tends to be poor light:

And here is a natural light (no flash) photo:

By the way, notice the color difference between the two photos. We will return to that in a moment. For now, look at the full-resolution extracted parts of the image:

Again, they are really grainy and not sharp. Compare the photos up to this point to the photos from my Canon 5DmkII and using off-camera lighting (you can click on it to see it larger):

Here is what a 100% extract looks like (note that you can see her pores on her cheekbone and forehead):

The photo shows her face closer because my DSLR has more pixels in an image than the cell phone and point-and-shoot cameras do. Which would you rather have?

Professionals produce photos with good color

All of my equipment from the camera through the printer is color-calibrated. Before I start taking photos,  I test the color of the light.  This means that your photos will not have a color cast from the lights.  Many cameras have what they call “automatic white balance”.  What this means is that the camera is picking the color correction that it thinks you will want.  It turns out that few cameras get it completely right, and their photos can have a color cast, making you look a bit green, blue, yellow, or red.  Did you really have an orange tan from the salon, or was it just the lighting?  When I take your photos, the images you get will have colors that make you look your best. Here is an example showing AzariaZia holding the white balance card before we started a photo session:

If I produce prints for you, I work with professional-quality printers, ink, and paper.  They produce better prints that what you can produce at home.  Because all of the equipment is color calibrated, neither you nor I will be surprised when we see the result.  Your local discount store saves money by not doing the calibration, nor do they use the highest-quality papers and inks.  The result shows in their photos.  Set up an appointment, and I will be glad to show you the difference between the printing options.  Side-by-side, the quality is clear.

What all of this means is that, when you choose me (or any qualified photographer using quality equipment), you get better photos.  In other words, you get what you pay for.  Be cheap and you get cheap results.  Buy quality and be happy with what you get.

You can contact me to get your own high-quality, sexy photos taken. Why put it off any longer?