As a former photography instructor and camera sales person, this was the most troubling question. While the intent is positive, there is so much more to that question.
Transcript
Welcome everybody to podcast episode number two of The Tie Dyed Wanderer In Focus.
My name is Shawn, I am the Tie Dyed Wanderer. I’m a photographer, storm chaser, and adventurer. Although my adventures have been a little bit slim lately, but hopefully we’ll get those fixed in 2024. No, this is 2024, in 2025, next year. I am so confused right now.
At any rate, welcome to the podcast. This is, like I said, this is episode number two. If you want, go back and listen to episode number one. It was a little bit longer than what my goal is going forward. This episode should be a little bit shorter. At any rate, thanks for listening to episode number one, if you did. And thanks for finding me and listening to this episode.
So, in last episode, I mentioned that I was planning on making this podcast an enhanced podcast, and tossing that up on YouTube. If you went over to my YouTube channel and looked for it, you will find that it isn’t there. I’m going to blame that on two things. Number one, ADHD. Yeah, I’m just going to blame it on that. I mean, yes, it’s my fault, but unfortunately, along with the ADHD territory, territory I can’t speak worth a darn today, comes the I want to make it perfect. And with video editing, it takes a lot more time for me to make it perfect. I know it doesn’t actually need to be, but that brings me in at reason number two, and that’s I want to get the process for this, for just the regular podcast, kind of nailed down so I’m fluent with it, and I know how things are going to go. And then I can kind of wrap in time to be able to do the enhanced podcast on YouTube.
So, let’s, oh, another big news. I have recently left Twitter, otherwise known as X, I will never call it that officially. I left Twitter, I deleted my profile, and that really hurt. You know, I’ve been on Twitter for easily a decade now, and I left a ton of really awesome people. The good news is I’m over on Blue Sky now, so if you want, if you are already on Blue Sky, I do a search for Tie Dyed Wanderer. You will find me there. I really hope you do because I’m really, I want to build up a solid following of people that I interact with all the time. And again, I’m working on my website identity yet again. Right now, it’s still shawnrundbladephoto.com, or if you visit tiedyedwanderer.com, it’ll take you to a special little landing page. But you can view my blog posts, though there aren’t that many right now, and of course, full episodes of the podcast and the transcripts. I’m gonna start putting those for each podcast up there as well.
That brings me to this week’s topic, and it’s one that really annoys me. Now, in the last episode, I kinda gave some background. I used to be a photography instructor, but I also did camera sales. I was a sales manager at a camera store. And this question is really frustrating, both as a salesperson and as an instructor, but also it really irks me. Yes, I use the word irk. It’s not used enough. Maybe it is, I don’t know. At any rate, it really bugs me when I see on social media and various forums this question, and it is, what’s the best blank?
So I see a lot of people ask, what’s the best lens for portrait photography? Or what’s the best camera brand? Or what is the best body? And that question is asked. I know that the people asking it are asking it for real reasons. They’re asking for genuine feedback. The problem is, it is an insanely ambiguous question. There is so much more information that needs to be thought about when trying to make a decision like that, especially when you’re buying gear. Camera gear is expensive. It is an investment that you’re going to make and most likely have for a long time. So obviously, I want to make sure that you’re getting the right thing. And aside from it being a really ambiguous question, it’s also completely relative. There isn’t a right answer to that question. So while, again, the intent, the reason for asking that question, completely valid.
Whether you’re a new photographer or somebody looking to get into photography in general, and maybe buying your first camera, you just go, hey, I really enjoy this, and I want to grow, and my camera phone is great, but I want to take the leap, and I want to get an actual camera body. And asking, what’s the best brand? That’s valid. The problem is, generally speaking, if you ask a Nikon user, they’re going to tell you Nikon. I happen to be a Nikon user myself. I love my camera. But I’ve also shot Canon. Canon users are going to tell you Canon. Fuji and Leica users, they’re going to tell you Fuji and Leica. So it’s all completely relative. No Sony users, I didn’t forget you. I just got tired of rambling names off. So each brand of camera has strengths and weaknesses. And while digital cameras today, there’s a lot less difference between…
Well, let me take that back. There’s still a lot of difference, but because it’s a digital world, there’s so much that can be changed after the fact. And there’s so much that can even be changed within the camera body to kind of tweak it and make it behave the way you want. You know, in the film days, Nikon’s metering system would tend to reproduce scenes one way, whereas Canon’s tend to reproduce a different way. And even in the earlier days of digital, there was a bit of a difference. But today, I can go out, I mean, heck, right now, I shoot, although I don’t generally shoot JPEG, when I do shoot JPEG or when the intent is to output directly out of camera, I have presets in my Nikon for the picture controls that simulate a Fuji Riala film, which is a slide film, and I absolutely love the color reproduction on. I have Portra 400NC, which is a great portrait film. So I can make my digital body behave completely differently. Now, the metering system is still going to meter the way Nikon intended to, but even that, if you’re a skilled photographer, you can kind of work around that, and you know how to change it to be able to reproduce images the way you like.
And that kind of brings me to the core of why I don’t like that question. Because when you’re asking it, as the person asking it, you’re making it too broad of a question. Now, I understand that going into photography, and I had a discussion on a Facebook post that I posted recently about this very topic, that maybe the person doesn’t know any better. Maybe they don’t know what their style is. Maybe they don’t know what they want. Hey, that’s a completely valid reason to not ask more questions. But hey, guess what? That’s what this podcast is about. I want to help photographers get the most out of whatever they’re doing. I want to help you learn what your vision is.
So, as the person asking, you should work on reframing that question. Specifically, well, getting more specific. You know, if you’re into photography already, and you have already decided, hey, I’m going to buy my next lens. This is a really, really common one. And I’ll use this specific example, because it’s the one that I see all the time. What’s the best portrait lens? Well, it depends. And the reason I say that is because there’s, so the general consensus in the world of photography is portrait lenses traditionally are from 50 millimeters to, say, 120 millimeters or so, which I’ll agree with, generally speaking. That’s a happy range to be in. Me personally, I do enjoy shooting my 85 millimeter prime. I like how that particular lens looks, but that’s honestly not my go-to portrait lens. If I’m trying to accomplish a specific look, I will absolutely dig that lens out, and I’ll even be honest, as much as I love that lens, it’s a lens that doesn’t get that much love for me. I don’t use it nearly as much as I’d like to. But it really depends on the type of portraiture that you’re going after.
If you’re a newer photographer, you look back on your images and kind of see what that general feel is. If you’re using a photo management software that can filter out, filter images by EXIF data, look up which focal lengths you tend to use the most on your favorite images that you like. That’s going to help you narrow down what kind of lens you should be looking at. A 35 millimeter lens, and we’re assuming full frame, I’m not getting into the full frame versus crop bodies, so we’re going to assume full frame. So 35 millimeters is a little bit of a wide angle. It’s not super wide, it’s just a little bit. But that is a valid portrait lens if your goal is to put your subject into an environment. So think photojournalism, editorial, where yes, you’re doing a portrait, for sure, your subject is a person, but you want to help tell the story about that person by using background in the image.So if that’s your goal, then yeah, you’re going to want that 50, 35, a little bit on the more wide angle side.
If you are really trying to isolate the subject, eliminate distracting elements in the background, you do want more telephoto. So you want to be into that 85, 120. And that kind of goes with, I said that my favorite portrait lens overall, or one of my favorite portrait lenses is the 85. I find myself using my 70 to 200 for portraits frequently. I mean a lot because backing up, zooming in on your subject is going to give you amazing bokeh. It’s going to blur that background really nicely for you, especially if it’s a nice, fast lens, you know, a 2.8 lens. And it’s going to help eliminate distracting elements. Plus, when you get into discussing the compression of distance, telephoto lenses help flatten the face. So that’s another consideration that you need to get into when looking at, at, say, a portrait lens, is what is, what does my subject look like? Do I want to flatten their face, or do I want to fill their face out?
So picking a lens based on your subject, and based on what you’re trying to accomplish, is more important than just a blanket “What is the best X”? What is the best this or that? So while I know that isn’t an answer, it’s an honest answer. So you have to look, as the photographer, as the person asking that question, keep in mind what your end goal is. What are you trying to emulate a particular style? Are you trying to accomplish a particular look for that shoot? That’s going to determine what the best whatever is for you.
As the person being asked, so me as the camera salesman, me as the person on Facebook or Blue Sky now, that’s where I live, I need to be, as a more experienced photographer, if somebody comes up to me and says, what’s the best blah, I need to, instead of just throwing out my preference, I want to dig a little bit more into that question. I want to ask some clarifying questions to help understand that person’s goal better if they didn’t ask it already. So that’s my responsibility as somebody helping others to learn, is I want to know what your real goal is, and then put my opinions completely aside, my preferences, not opinions, I guess, to really help that person get what they want. So that’s why that question bothers me so much, because it really is a completely subjective, completely relative question that needs more information.
So that’s kind of what I wanted to discuss today.
If you’re a new photographer asking a question of what the best whatever is, try to understand why you’re asking that question and what you want to get as an answer. And again, if you’re an experienced photographer, help that new photographer understand what they’re trying to accomplish so they can make their photography better, so they can make their image what they see, what they feel.
At any rate, that was this week’s topic. I said I wanted to keep these episodes a little bit shorter, so my time is slowly running out. Feel free, if you’re seeing this from a social media link, feel free to leave comments below. If you visit my website, tiedyedwanderer.com, and go to the podcast section, you can of course leave comments there. I am still working on building an audience, and I really think the best way to do that is to get interactions with you. I wanna know what you’re thinking, what you’re asking. And honestly, I want some feedback on how I’m doing. So be sure to share this, and let me know what topics you want me to discuss. I don’t know everything, but between myself and all the other absolutely amazing photographers out there, we can really help each other grow.
So thanks for listening. I really appreciate it.And make sure that if you like this podcast, if you found it helpful, or you just like listening to my voice, ha ha, ha ha, be sure to click subscribe. You can follow me on iTunes, or excuse me, subscribe on iTunes. I’m on Amazon and Spotify now. I just set those up a couple days ago. And of course, you can always visit the website. The episodes are there with the transcript as well.
So thanks for listening. Again, my name is Sean, I’m The Tie Dyed Wanderer, and go out and have some fun. Make your images amazing.