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Stewart
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Interesting conversation with a customer today. She's a professional photographer. She's hired a Sigma 35mm Art lens from us, for some group portrait work. She's just taken delivery of it but is having problems, so she called us to ask for advice.

Me: So what kind of problems?
Her: All my pictures are coming out really much darker than I expected.
Me: OK. What camera are you using?
Her: A Nikon D850.
Me: Great, that's about the best camera there is. Let's look at how you're using it. How are you setting up the camera to take these shots?
Her: Well, I'm setting the aperture to f/5.6, because I want enough depth of field to get everybody's face in focus...
Me: OK, sounds good.
Her: ... and I've set the shutter speed to 1/250th, because there will be some babies in the groups, and I don't want their movements to be blurred ...
Me: OK, good idea.
Her ... and I've set the ISO to 2000, so I don't get too much noise in the images.
Me: OK, that makes sense. Are you using studio lights or flash?
Her: No.
Me: ......... No?
Her: No.
Me: I think I can see the problem here.
 
Is the D850 one of Nikon's that is ISO invarient....................if so I thought/think she can do some great under exposure recovery in post ;)

Her apparent ignorance of what to 'look at' (histogram) and make the appropriate decision (lighting ?) sounds oh so "rookie" expectations!

But Stewart, after that last line of your chat..........................................what did she say or ask you what you suggest???
 
Me: So what kind of problems?
Her: All my pictures are coming out really much darker than I expected.
Me: OK. What camera are you using?
Her: A Nikon D850.
Me: Great, that's about the best camera there is. Let's look at how you're using it. How are you setting up the camera to take these shots?
Her: Well, I'm setting the aperture to f/5.6, because I want enough depth of field to get everybody's face in focus...
Me: OK, sounds good.
Her: ... and I've set the shutter speed to 1/250th, because there will be some babies in the groups, and I don't want their movements to be blurred ...
Me: OK, good idea.
Her ... and I've set the ISO to 2000, so I don't get too much noise in the images.
Me: OK, that makes sense. Are you using studio lights or flash?
Her: No.
Me: ......... No?
Her: No.
Me: I think I can see the problem here. You need a Zed 7.
:D

Sorry :D
 
Interesting conversation with a customer today. She's a professional photographer. She's hired a Sigma 35mm Art lens from us, for some group portrait work. She's just taken delivery of it but is having problems, so she called us to ask for advice.

Me: So what kind of problems?
Her: All my pictures are coming out really much darker than I expected.
Me: OK. What camera are you using?
Her: A Nikon D850.
Me: Great, that's about the best camera there is. Let's look at how you're using it. How are you setting up the camera to take these shots?
Her: Well, I'm setting the aperture to f/5.6, because I want enough depth of field to get everybody's face in focus...
Me: OK, sounds good.
Her: ... and I've set the shutter speed to 1/250th, because there will be some babies in the groups, and I don't want their movements to be blurred ...
Me: OK, good idea.
Her ... and I've set the ISO to 2000, so I don't get too much noise in the images.
Me: OK, that makes sense. Are you using studio lights or flash?
Her: No.
Me: ......... No?
Her: No.
Me: I think I can see the problem here.

And? I guess very low ambient but without knowing the ambient conditions....
 
You: Have you still got the box the camera came in
Her:yes
You: go get it, put the camera in it and send it back to Nikon, and send our lens back too
Her: do you think there's a fault with the camera or lens?
You: something like that.
 
Set the ISO to two thousand? Was that a typo Stewart, and not two hundred? And they were still coming out darker than expected? Was the shoot venue somewhere badly lit? To be honest, I'd expect a pro to be able to work out if there was a technical problem or not just by looking at the light levels and the camera settings, but 2000 ISO? Entirely possible if it's indoors and lacking in natural light, but thought I'd better ask the typo question.
 
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A friend of mine with a DSLR once set herself up as a professional. She bought the DSLR after staying with me for a few weeks and discovering that my DSLR was taking much better photographs than her handbag camera. She wasn't at all convinced by my insistence that her camera could take much better photographs if she spent some time learning how to use it better and doing a bit of post processing. She thinks I'm one of those geeky guys that just loves to get lost in irrelevant technical details and make everything very complicated. She decided to buy a DSLR and asked my advice. She quickly got fed up with my complicated advice and just walked into a camera shop and took their advice about a DSLR and a few lenses.

After six months she was earning most of her money from photography, doing weddings, company head and shoulders portraits, babies, dogs, whatever. She phoned me up now and then for advice. But mostly she just went to a camera shop and asked their advice because their advice was easier to understand than mine. They were also good about taking stuff back and selling her something else if she discovered she didn't like what she'd just bought. Even after a year she still hadn't a clue about the "exposure triangle" and really didn't want to know. She was doing fine without needing to know. She was charming and had plenty of confidence. After 18 months of having fun being a successful professional photographer she gave up when she moved cities and couldn't be bothered having to start again establishing a customer base.
 
F5.6 1/250th and iso 2000 and under exposed? Is she shooting in a cave?
 
Set the ISO to two thousand? Was that a typo Stewart, and not two hundred?
Not a typo, but it's possible that I mis-head or mis-remembred. But it doesn't matter.
F5.6 1/250th and iso 2000 and under exposed? Is she shooting in a cave?
I don't know, I didn't ask. But it doesn't matter.

For those who don't get it - and I'm sure you two do, but for the sake of anyone else reading who doesn't - the issue is this.
  • She's chosen her aperture for valid artistic / technical reasons, independently of the shutter speed and ISO, and without reference to the overall exposure level.
  • She's chosen her shutter speed for valid artistic / technical reasons, independently of the aperture and ISO, and without reference to the overall exposure level.
  • She's chosen her ISO for valid artistic / technical reasons, independently of the aperture and shutter speed, and without reference to the overall exposure level.
  • She doesn't have her own light source and is therefore totally at the mercy of whatever light there is in her garden / studio / cave / wherever.
So why on earth does she expect that her pictures should come out correctly exposed?
 
And that is why PRO means nothing

there is a pro on here with leica and hasalbad still asking for help all the gear no fkn idea
on simple issues like composition - getting white balance wrong - blowing out whites - etc etc

so your correct pro does not mean your proficient at your trade

nuff said
 
there is a pro on here with leica and hasalbad still asking for help all the gear no fkn idea
on simple issues like composition - getting white balance wrong - blowing out whites - etc etc

so your correct pro does not mean your proficient at your trade

nuff said
Seeking more knowledge regardless is rarely a bad thing.
 
there is a pro on here with leica and hasalbad still asking for help all the gear no fkn idea
on simple issues like composition - getting white balance wrong - blowing out whites - etc etc

so your correct pro does not mean your proficient at your trade

nuff said

I'm a Pro - cos it says so on my Flickr ! :)
.
 
Title is misleading she doesn’t have all the gear!
 
rather unprofessional slagging off a customer online (n)
Spot on, and about something as trivial as exposure.
Maybe she takes really good photos and every now and then gets confused about the techo stuff. 50 years back you had to be really good at all the things like exposure, because if it was wrong you didn't find out until you developed the film. Now, our cameras give instant feedback and take over most of the techo stuff, so we can concentrate on the photos. If we need techo advice, we can ask the guy in the shop (and hopefully not read his forum posts).
 
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