Does your camera make you a better photographer? You see this question posted absolutely everywhere. DigitalRev TV even has a whole collection of videos called “Pro Photographer, Cheap Camera”. Here they give famous pro photographers super cheap cameras such as lego or barbie cameras and send them out to take amazing photos. In the end they always agree. “See it doesn’t take a fancy camera to take great photos!”. But let’s be real here, if you asked them to use any of the photos they took as part of their portfolio or as part of their work flow outside of the novelty of the video they would laugh at you.
As much as we all hate to admit it better gear does make for better photos. If you wanted to capture depth of field and blur out backgrounds your options are a lens with a large aperture or lots of time in photoshop. What if you wanted to take amazing landscapes where everything is in focus? Again you will need a better camera and lens. Any camera can take photos, but specialized cameras open you up to a world of options that were previously closed to you. The argument of the above video series and the people who always say gear doesn’t matter is that just having a better camera won’t make you better by default. Which is true, just buying your kid a high end DSLR isn’t going to make them take better photos. But it is going to open up a massive world of options and creativity which they previously didn’t have.
The number one thing that can change is shooting photos in RAW mode. Absolutely the best thing that ever happened to my photography is getting a camera that supports raw and switching to it. RAW photos are larger files that have not been analyzed and compressed by the camera. Basically with a JPEG the camera’s brain processes the image for you makes what it thinks is the best image and then deletes the rest of the data to keep the file size small. With RAW photos the camera doesn’t do anything, this means you have the extra forced step of having to edit every photo after in photoshop, lightroom, capture one, or some other image editing program. While this sounds like extra unnecessary work the ability to pull more light from a photo and tweak it your self is a god send. Every image you edit ends up looking like some sort of wizard magic because you were able to pull stuff out of the shadows and correct the white balance. Of course you want to get the shot right the first time but when you learning RAW can help you salvage an otherwise ruined image.
Second is you get more creatively. Zoom lens, wide angle lenses, macro lenses, aperture control, long exposures, the list is endless. Picture yourself down at the beach with your phone or point in shoot. Off out in the water are some surfers doing really cool tricks. You snap a photo with your phone but it’s terrible. If you had something with a zoom lens you could have been up close and personal with them. Did the zoom lens make you a better photographer? No, but it did give you the option to capture the photo that you wanted. The better camera/lens gave you the option to get that creative shot. Some point and shoot cameras come with a zoom but digital zoom will just add noise to your photos which will ruin them in the end.
Finally you get much better sensors and much better technology with your higher end camera. If you are going from a point and shoot to a DSLR you will notice a difference for sure. Looking back on old photos from my Sony DSC-TX10 Point and Shoot in Lightroom has been pretty sad. When zoomed in details in the photos look like they were painted with a trowel or sent through some sort of paint filter in photoshop. The image processor turned all of my trees and grass into strange smooth blocks. When I upgraded to my first DSLR the Canon T5i everything changed. Trees were crisp and grass looked great. Suddenly the limitations of the camera were no longer an issue. Now it just comes down to your capability as a photographer.
So does your camera really make you a better photographer? Yes to a point. If you are on your iPhone or a digital point and shoot then moving to a DSLR or a hybrid like the Sony RX100 will be a drastic step up. But once you get into the world of DSLR cameras and shooting in RAW the upgrades between cameras is not as noticeable. You get into more fine details that will come into play when start to become more and more serious such as ISO levels and lens sharpness but by this time your have the photo bug so you will be spending all of your free time learning about these things.
