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Situational Reccomendations with John Greengo

And now we are very excited to bring along our very own here. Creativelive Mr John Gringo giving up John. So John Gringo is a is a local Seattle photographer, and he is well, has taught many a class here on creativelive, including his fundamentals of digital photography, which is one of the best classes out there for anybody looking to learn digital photography, the fundamentals. We're going to be having that class again, John, in January, which we very much look forward to. But John also does a number of classes on particular cameras. So, Susan, I'm looking over at you here. I had a quote that I just wanted to read from a B 46 who said Just wanted to say a big thanks to creative life, especially John Gringo. You guys have helped me immensely, so we got a lot of love from the creativelive community. John always, always dio John. So what we're going to do in this next segment is talk about the different scenarios as to who What kind of people is about what kind of cameras are best for t...

he different situations. I know there's something John that you talk a lot about in your classes as well what we thought we would go through with the two of you and in these different segments. So let's start out with Portrait's and let's talk about what are the best cameras were Portrait's. Let's talk about lens choices and why. That's important, right? So for shooting portrait of people, which was one of the most the biggest reasons I worked in a camera shop as well many years ago. And there's two reasons. People by cameras, for the most part, babies and vacations on. So if you want to take portrait, there's a lot of different style supports you can take so you could literally use any lens. You want to get a good portrait. But traditionally, if you had to go toe one number and we're going talking about the equivalent of focal links for 35 millimeter frame, it's the 85 millimeter lands. Basically, if you do or get something in the 85 equivalent or whatever is equivalent to it, you're gonna be in a very, very good spot. You can kind of start to stretch out from there, and that's going to give you a little bit more versatile options. But if I had to just throw one number at the very quick beginning, that would be. And that's the long end of a kid. Zoom if you're using a DSLR, right? So if you do get one of the 18 to 55 kit zooms on one of the basic cameras, the 55 will do a pretty good job about 70 something. And then once you kind of get used to that and then you start learning more about cameras, you start learning about depth of field on. A lot of those kit lenses have a maximum aperture of F 5.6, which do not allow you to shoot with very shallow depth of field. And a lot of people like shooting Portrait's where the persons in focus. But the background is blurred out with a nice okay, focus. And I think we've got actually a photograph. Jeff, if you could throw up the picture of the the F one party will not quite now, on the one of the gentleman with the pale white background not that way haven't today we're finding it. Yoka orb. Okay. What do you say? Oh, I think God Japanese say Okay, well, the real problem is is that the Internet storms will just totally light up right now. I think the real problem is is that when you translate the Japanese language into English, they're using sounds that we don't use. And so it's really hard to do it correctly. I say, Okay, kind of like a book. I say the quality of out of focus back. I see. Because I still say Nick on, I still say Nicole correctly. By the way, I want to forget. Trust my princess Tomato, tomato. So, yeah, this is a good example for those of you not familiar with shallow depth of field. This is something that you don't get on your cell phones. You don't get on small 0.2 cameras, and it's something that portrait photographers very much prized. And so having a lens, it has a shallow depth of field. And what does shallow depth of field. Meanwhile, it depends on sensor size, and so it's a bit of a variable number that has a sliding scale. You might say to it, and you don't need. I think the crucial thing here is you don't need to spend a lot of money to get a really good portrait lens. I mean, if you take the crop fact into account, you can get a 50 millimeter of 1.8 lands for your DSLR. Well, you're in Central Lens camera. It becomes 75 to 80 mil equivalent ish. It's 1.8. Very cheap is very small. It's very light. Beautiful portrayed, right. That's what I always here. Is that 85 millimeters that golden? I identify men on full frame. Okay. Yeah, but, you know, I tend to like a 1 35 Okay, as long as I could get even showered up the field, I could get a little bit tighter crop on it. But what I found is that it's completely useless in my house. I don't have a big enough house. So if you're shooting indoors in the studio, 1 35 just puts you way too far back. And so if you go down to the park to shoot photographs, well, the world really opens up and then you can shoot at 1 35 you can shoot it 200. There's really not much reason to go beyond 200 unless you're very far. Thanks. Yeah, but you can also come down and 50 millimeters on the wider in for a little bit more of a lifestyle portrait. You're not quite as close, but I also would use a 50. If you want to do, say, a full figure from head to toe, 50 works out very nice. There's a number of reasons why these air nice. Partly it's because of the kind of the relationship or the perspective on the face and the way it looks normal. Another reason that's not really taken into account is the working distance between you and your subject. A 50 millimeter lands might put you kind of within a personal bubble, where people don't feel comfortable having a camera and a photographer and in 85 would typically put me well, maybe 10 or 12 feet away from somebody, which is a nice comfortable distance for shooting photographs with them. With a wide angle lens, you back off and you can get a really great portrait of someone in their environment, right? And so that brings into the environmental portrait where you're showing a bit of the world around that particular subject, maybe something working on our kids playing around that sort of environment. So it's not a very complicated range to do portrait. And there's no such thing, really is a People talk about there being bad lenses full for Portrait's specifically very wide angles, right? There's no such thing as a bad portrait lens, this many bad portrayed photographs but using for different things. I mean, you could even use official. You know, if you're taking a photograph of someone you wanna be very dynamic and really punchy, use officially, one else. Don't put him way in the corner. It'll distort space, but it gives you an amazing if you're going for that. That's true. That's a good way to look at. And I think also the concept that that 50 right is what the eye sees. And so with those environmental portrait's where you're wanting to show something a little bit more really, yeah, right. So you're getting in just a little bit wider view on It's a somewhat natural perspective. I mean, for me, 35 mil is the format that matches pretty much how I see a seat. OK, OK, but 50 mills a classic ones what Cartier Bresson used everyone knows, you know, 35 mil for me, it is kind of like that. The scene that I'm looking at just personally. All right, So, um, let's talk about again. Lenses, flashes and reflectors for portrait. It's Let's talk about that. So I think one of the trying to think of what are some tips that I could give you probably wo worst things you can do if you want to get a get a good photograph of somebody is stand up against that wall and let me pop up the flash. Take a picture. There's a number of problems with that, and I think one thing we just get him away from the wall but using flash when you wouldn't think that you need it. And so if you're outside on a nice clear day, that's a great time to pop up. Built in flash, adding in what we call fill Flash, you're filling in the shadows with a little bit of light. One of the key things when doing portrait is where you position are subject, and I know John's gonna do a the whole segment later on, but just, you know, kind of for the family photographer out there, Avoid the bright sunlight. Be very careful of standing in the shadows of a tree that's letting some light through. That's kind of speckled. And then it's better to find a nice, clean side of a building where you can get fully into the dark. Shots were really, really important. I mean, I know every time I speak to your portrait was like You've got a lovely day for it. It was a terrible day for it because actually, really bright overhead. Son was the worst invented from Portrait's. Because you get Big panda rise. Everyone looks older than they are. Just horrible. Yeah, I used to dio the in the speckled under the trees, and then I look at them like, Wow, blown out phase. Dirk today is a great which is beautiful about where we live here in Seattle reflected there all the time right. Yesterday I was taking a family portrait, so it's the holidays of my family, and it was not quite raining, so it was just beautiful. It's if you are in the really bright sun. That's when you use the flash, John says, because it evens out those horrible pan dry shadows. Very cool. While we have a lot of classes here on great of live, I will mention about portrait photography so you can take a minute to check those out in our catalogue when you want. But let's talk about your recommended gear. Possible gear here for portrait. It's well for portrait. Obviously, you're gonna want to get something around in 85 millimeter lens, which is going to rule out the point shoots with fixed lenses that are especially 35 28. They're just They're just not suited for this sort of situation. You can use a point and shoot for it. You will find that the depth of field it doesn't give you that shallow depth of field. And so I think most people who really are putting a very high importance on Portrait's are gonna work their way into an interchangeable lens camera of micro 4/3 or the A, P S C or full frame sensor. Chances are, you are gonna want to have something of a zoom lens for general purpose because you're gonna want to do the lifestyle shot, the wide angle environmental shot. And so he just beyond, like this 18 to 55 on the extent to which I think is an awesome set up, by the way, just kind of that one extra bonus lens that really does the portrait nice. And that's gonna be that short, telephoto, whatever that number happens to be. That's a reasonably fast aperture. That's that's basically all you need. You can have other stuff, but that's what most people are going to use for Portrait. Most of the time, you know I wouldn't count out. Even, you know, even things like smartphones could give you good Portrait's but their environmental portrait. Step back. Get a shot. The person, The environment If you are using ah, compact camera ideas, not just a kid seem just zooming all the way. That's the best chance you're gonna get of getting a nice, out of focus background. Not gonna be as nice as interchangeable lens system with a broader lens, but it's gonna give you a bit of separation, and sometimes that's all you need. That's a great tip. That's a great tip soon, all the way, even if you have toe step back the other ways to get really close. But there's not flattering. So you don't, especially for the ladies. All right, cool. Well, that is talking about Portrait. It's Let's unless you have any final comments on Portrait, let's move on to family photography again. This is cyber Monday There might be a lot of folks out there who have families and or have grandkids or cousins of etcetera, etcetera. And now is the holidays air coming up. Gonna be taking pictures of those group shots? Maybe it's your kids indoors outdoors. What are some of the key factors that people should be thinking about when they're looking for cameras for family photography? Well, not having any kids myself, I have to go up of advice. Nephews. Come on your coach. Yes, I am. And so I think one of the things is is to have a camera that you are comfortable using and carrying around quite a bit. And so I think for a lot of people, it's gonna rule out of the big, heavy, bulky cameras just because, Well, great, it takes great pictures, but you're not happy bringing it around. And while it's not a camera I'm a big fan of, I think this is where something like the little Nikon system works quite well. It's extremely lightweight. There's some nice little options, because when you talk about family photography, we're talking portrait's sports travel, which is kind of just everything. I mean, maybe not doing studio photography, but you're gonna be shooting a little bit of everything with this the night cons. At least this particular camera is extremely good at focusing, and so it can do action as well as a camera this size can't. And so that's kind of one little shout out that I would like to make. The one thing I would say about that is that one of environments may account that will not shine or a DSLR would is in low lights. If you are taking low light interior portrait of your kids and family, maybe not so much a deer, so I will still do that better. Okay, okay. And so, yeah, speaking about the low light with the cameras, with the interchangeable lenses there often going to come, and you'll probably purchase them with a standard kit lens. And that's a great lens for walking around Disneyland, for instance, where you don't know what your shot's gonna be. But when you're inside, shooting at the family gatherings and so forth. That might be a time to put on that prime lands that lets in more light, whether it's a normal lens or perhaps maybe a slightly wide angle lens 35 millimeter equivalent lens. There's a lot of good options for these pancake flat lenses that let in a lot of light that are just gonna make things a lot easier because with the sensors these days, we can shoot at pretty high. I esos I feel very comfortable shoe dated eso 1600 with the faster lenses that are F two, you're not going to need a flash. And inside your family living room or something like that, the flash has a hard time filling up the whole area, and it doesn't do a good job at lighting the place very evenly. And so I would I often try to turn the flash off when I'm inside. Yeah, I do is about the same thing, and the other thing that have really fast prime lens of pancake lens will give you is it'll give you A S system more like to deal with as well. It's not just about the sensor. Okay, I hope you typically will mean that you are therefore become faster, more positive. Everything just gets gets easier. So again with families that auto focus and looking for those qualities is pretty important. Focus is a big deal. We actually have a picture off my boss, Simon's kids, where things went a little bit wrong. That's what will happen if your camera just can't quite keep up. So there's camera shake in there. It's also not very focused. Very well is flat. You know, it's not a great camera for family photography. It's not fast enough. The sensor probably isn't big enough. Have system isn't good enough. That's a fail. But if you spend more money and you go to a muralist system and you smarter about your lens choices, then you could make a really big difference. And I think I think probably the best tip for people in situations like this. This is something that all the serious photographers know about is that when you focus on a camera, you don't just wait for the right moment and then slammed down on the shutter release. You need to press halfway down to focus and So in a situation where you know your kids are playing in front of a coffee table or something, you know, focus on the edge of the coffee table are about where they are pressed down halfway and then wait for that right moment. And I think that's one of the abilities that photographers have that people don't truly appreciate is the anticipation of the moment. The understanding of OK, this is going to get good here in a moment and being completely ready on your part. On the other hand, if your kids moving around a lot or you're in a very dynamic situation, don't be afraid to use. Continue shooting in a DSLR. It's gonna make a lot of noise. So maybe not such a great idea, but certainly in a in a muralist camera compact, the shutters are almost silent, so you can sit there shooting at frames a second, capturing all the expressions that you might miss if you just try and get that one shot so that two different ways of doing it and and are there different cameras that are better for that? There are, I mean, you know, there's an enormous range that typically the muralist cameras, messengers. Your lens cameras have have a mechanical shelter over the sensor, which, which doesn't make noise. But some of them, like the lightning nickel one system and actually like the Panasonic GX one if we can find it. That's it. Yep. Sorry, Jack. Seven. Rather accept him. That's the one has an electronic shut. So you know, these these cameras, if you want them to, can be completely silent. The shutter can be entirely electronic, so they're very discreet. Yeah, quite high frame rates in that mode as well. So really, really good for founding portraiture in that regard. And any portraiture. So so family again. My three nieces, two nieces and a nephew. And they do a lot of school performances and dance performances. And again, what are the qualities that you're looking for for that? Not only for this stills, but also for video? Well, pretty much all the cameras shoot video. Now it's It's a rare exception for a camera come out with video, and it depends on how much you're in the video, because most of them are going to shoot good enough what I would consider family video If you're trying to shoot a small film or commercial, then that's a whole different room that we're not gonna get into. But I think all of them can shoot better quality video than most of the video cameras out there when it comes to pure image quality Sonny's Mount from Yeah, definitely. It's the controls that you get into when you get into that side of it. And so, for family stuff, I'm looking for something that's versatile and lightweight. Has a few options. One of together cameras Give us some specifics for family. I do like the micro 4/3 system. I think that the sensor is big enough, definitely for good family photography. The E M five camera that I had for quite a while, and I really fell in love with that. I kind of just bought it to teach a class in it. Here, a zio. I ended up keeping it for a really long time and starting to use it in replacing my full frame camera because there were so many options and the micro 4/3 system is so good because it shares a lens mount with Panasonic and so there's some really nice that there's a beautiful 45 portrait lens, which can be had for under $400. Okay, And also third party manufacturers will make lenses for the microphone Third Standard as well as other options. Any other recommendations for the family photographer? Well, you know it's gonna go against some of our earlier advice, but I still I still would reach for something like this. I mean, this is mil. If two lens it's bright, it's fast. It's a very D camera. Very good squads in low light, not great camera for flash photography. But that's not the point. But that same advice applies not just to this model, but also to the other counter looking at Iran, like the Rico GR. It's very small. It's pocketable. It's a great camera again for environmental portraiture of family groups. Especially great. Okay, well, now the next scenario I want to talk about is one of my favorite subject matters, and some folks asked about earlier. But travel photography. A lot of people out there that's their gold life. Love to travel, but it's always one of those questions is what camera and am I gonna take with me. It depends on you know, whether you're going to safari. We'll talk about exactly. So what are the considerations when you're trying to figure out what camera to bring with you when you travel? I think for anyone who travels, you really need to decide the style upon which he wanted travel. And we have people who probably backpacked in around the world to different places. Sometimes I'm traveling in a car and I literally take trunk loads of camera gear with me. It's really nice because you can have everything there. And so you have to decide I'll this is the style in which I want to travel, and this is this gonna sound a little bit weird. But the best way to find your the perfect camera for you is to look a camera bags and find a camera bag that you say. That's the bag I will take with me everywhere and then figure out what fits inside of, because that's what you're gonna be happy carrying around. You don't want the memory of your trip to be neck ache, right? And I've had movie holidays like that when you get back. I think I wish I hadn't taken a like It s a small about now when I was working for the TV show that did travel photography travels to the edge. You know, we carried around full frame cameras. We carried a full set of lenses. Basically, it was the holy Trinity of lenses, as we say, you know, the 16 to 35 2.8 to 72.8 and 70 to 202.8. But now, as I travel on my own personal reasons, I want to back off on gear size, and I think something with interchangeable lenses. I think two, maybe three lenses is what most people most kind of serious photographers can cut it down to and be quite happy with. And what are you doing with your photos? If you're shooting professionally for a travel magazine, by all means, go by your full frame camera. It's gonna be the best thing that you can take out there. But for kind of the average travel photographer, I think the micro 4/3 and the A P S C system is what I would look most closely out because when the sensor size gets smaller. The camera the lens is the entire package gets smaller in size. Yeah, I was going to the other. And where that ends, the natural end point of that is cameras with much smaller senses, like conventional compact camera size senses. And at that point, you can put in incredibly far reaching zooms that you could never put into a DSLR or interchangeable lens camera sensor format. So the F said 200 veg. I'm just right on the edge. This is a Panasonic. It's loosely termed soup. Resume camera in that super, which traditionally meant 10 times zoom or longer. But these days means whatever you want me that this goes from 24 millimeters to 600 equivalent 600. Oh yeah, and they go up to 1200. But is it good that it is now? This is probably stand out for me anyway in this range right now, because it has a constant 2.8 aperture. Oh, at 600. Yes, So you know it's not got a image quality equipment to the biggest sensor cameras, Dear Slots. Elsie's That's understood, but out in good conditions in daylight. The versatility of something like this is incredible, and I would actually recommend something like this, even to go with a bigger DSLR kit for situations or just days in which you don't want to carry out the extra gear, because the framing versatility like this is incredible. 24 to 600 millimeters and the shoots of quality with a shoots in raw. So you can correct the little annoyances of compact cameras like frantic aberrations and been using and things like that can I offer a counter opinion? And, you know, if you gave me a free trip and told me this is what I was gonna shoot with, I would pay for the trip so that I could take my gear. There's nine along with this particular camera, but I like a camera that has little bit more control, and I these things drive me nuts. Absolutely nuts, but I can recommend them for some people because it fits their needs. I understand that people different than the have differently. You're one of the enlightened. Okay, eso. So if we are talking about the interchangeable lens cameras, what are you said? 2 to 3 lenses that you might consider three. Sounds like a lot to me. But what What would those be traveling? Well, okay, for those of you don't know, Ken and I are leading a trip to Cuba and I own a cannon system. And, you know, that's kind of, of course, what I would bring. But you know what? I'm really considering taking my new food, GX two. I was shocked when you told me this because this is just such a fun little camera for me to use the for for quite a while. I just had the 18 to 55 zoom, and one of the things that I wanted to have for a long, long time was a like a with a 28 15 90. But I just really haven't been able to justify spending $20,000 on that set up. And this set up at around $1400 offered a reasonable semblance of what that was, and I really liked it. It was a lot of fun to shoot with. And yes, of course, it gave me good pictures, but I really enjoyed the process of shooting with a little camera like that. You find is great as well. It's Yeah, it z one of the best on the market on there, and I'm having to make that change from the SLR viewfinder to the electronic viewfinder is a little to me, like going from film to digital. There's this whole transition to digital, and they've finally gotten into these cameras because they're good enough. They're not as good as Thea, so ours. But one of the things that I found about the electronic viewfinder that I haven't seen a lot of talk about is I had my camera set up so that I cheat a picture and I could check it on the back. And I found that that tended to be kind of a dumb thing to do with this camera. And the reason is is because the preview is digital. You are shooting a digital camera. You don't need to look it to review it. You're seeing it ahead of time, where, as with a traditional SLR, you're looking at it with your own eyes through a mirror, and you don't really get to see what's this picture gonna look like, which is why you need to review it. And so it's a little bit quicker shooting and it a little different set up for the electronic viewfinders. And I hope the manufacturers continue to push that technology because that's a very important part of cameras that I think a lot of entry level photographers don't emphasize. Is the viewfinder experience angry? That's really cool. I hadn't thought about it that way at all. So thank you all right, any any final possible gear. So suggestions for travel before we move on. I would just say, look real strongly at the Marylise cameras and they may or may not be for you, but I think there's a lot of great that's that's my best recommendation for right.