All The Idea, No Gear!
Over the years I have taught many people who you would call “all the gear, no idea” and I’ve seen people spend an absolute fortune on equipment because they think that equipment is going to make their shots better.
Knowledge is power and in this tutorial I am going to be using a £150 second hand camera with a standard kit lens (Canon 1200D) and a £20 reflector to show to you that you can still take great pictures with a cheap, basic camera. This video is all the idea and no gear!
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Photography Taken with a £150 Second-Hand Camera
1/125th Second - f4.5 - ISO 250 - 30mm Focal Length Crop Sensor
Here the model is dressed in black to compliment the silver background and a symmetrical composition has been used. A focal length of 30mm was used to keep all the lines straight and the scene as natural as possible. In Lightroom one of our free cinematic presets was added to finish the look. To learn all about composition, click here.
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1/100th Second - f5 - ISO 1250 - 43mm Focal Length Crop Sensor
As it was dark here a silver reflector was used to punch some light back into the model’s face and create catchlights in the eyes. Compositionally the lines on the floor and ceiling are used to draw the viewers eye to the centre of the frame. A higher focal length was used to help throw the background out of focus. Again, it was finished with one of free LR presets. To learn about lighting for portraiture, click here.
Reflector used
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1/250th Second - f5 - ISO 100 - 35mm Focal Length Crop Sensor
Here a beige jacket was added to the model to help harmonise with the background colours. The line in the wall was used to help lead your eye through the frame and a higher focal length was used to blur the foreground. Again, it was finished with one of LR presets. To learn about focal lengths in photography, click here.
1/100th Second - f3.5 - ISO 1600 - 35mm Focal Length Crop Sensor
As this was a dark scenario and I was hand-holding the camera I put the camera in Manual mode, put the shutter to 1/100th of second to avoid camera shake and the aperture to the camera’s widest aperture to let in as much light as possible. To compensate the ISO had to be quite high. To learn about ISO and noise, click here.
1/160th Second - f5.6 - ISO 100 - 48mm Focal Length Crop Sensor
Here, composition was used to balance the model with the word NO. The viewpoint of the shot was also very low to the ground. Again, it was finished with one of free warm LR presets.
1/200th Second - f5.6 - ISO 400 - 55mm Focal Length Crop Sensor
Here a high focal length was used to compress the scene and throw the background out of focus. A repeated pattern was used for composition to create an abstract view of something that would otherwise be boring. it was finished with our colour popping Lightroom presets.
1/125th Second - f4.5 - ISO 400 - 35mm Focal Length Crop Sensor
Here again I focused on a repeated pattern to create an abstract look. An ‘as your eyes sees’ focal length was used to box in the pattern and a large aperture was used to give a shallow Depth of Field. It was finished with our Black and White Lightroom preset. To learn about apertures and Depth of Field, click here.
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