Calling ALL Professional Studio Photographers

Previously used the 400D in a small studio doing kids portraits etc.

Why? Well its small, lightweight and easy to hand hold for long periods of time. 10mp is more than enough for the products we offer.

Now use the 1D MKII, no real reason other than the fact it is set up how I like it as soon as I get there, no need to fiddle with the 400D if anyone has messed around with it :)
 
So would you say for normal kid/family portraits the 400d(and its competition like sony a200/nikon d80) would be ample?

Matt
 
More than enough!! With studio work you don't need the fps, the build quality (weathersealing), the high ISO....or most things that you'll find crammed in the higher range models!

What will make a difference though is the lens....so stick to the lower range models and spend a bit more on some nice glass :)
 
Well im just a beginner at the moment but the longterm plan is to have my own studio. So it would just be a room say 15ftx15ft

Matt
 
purpleclouds said:
More than enough!! With studio work you don't need the fps, the build quality (weathersealing), the high ISO....or most things that you'll find crammed in the higher range models!

What will make a difference though is the lens....so stick to the lower range models and spend a bit more on some nice glass :)
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Yeah , i do admit though the Canon 1ds like you have do look the part. They look the definitve "professional" camera dont they!
 
andrewc said:
Define the size of the studio. A lot of the bigger studios will be using 5Ds, 1Ds's, or medium format.
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Exactly....shooting for advertising or anything like that then you will need the utmost quality in every piece of hardware!

General family portraits where you will be printing no bigger than A3 in the majority of jobs then the 400D (or equiv) with a good piece of glass will do the trick nicely :)
 
Exposure said:
Yeah , i do admit though the Canon 1ds like you have do look the part. They look the definitve "professional" camera dont they!
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great camera imho.. but then i am bias now...:naughty:

as said though decent glass will make all the difference...


md:thumbs:
 
Exposure said:
Yeah , i do admit though the Canon 1ds like you have do look the part. They look the definitve "professional" camera dont they!
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They do :D I have my 1D for wildlife/events etc though where fast focussing, high ISO performance and build generally have a bigger part to play!
 
Yeah. Would you say a full frame is better than normal slr's for a studio? , If so do canon do fullframe lenses with Image Stabilization? , and arte they alot of money?
 
Full frame bodies (5D, 1Ds) are generally suited more to portrait photography than cropped bodies. Alot of portrait, wedding and some event togs will use the 5D. Those are the fields it really shines in.

Just don't use it for sport :D

Canon make EF lenses which fit on ANY body (full frame or cropped frame). Some have image stabilisation, but it's not really essential for studio photography becuase you control the light.

EF-S lenses are not compatible with full frame bodies. I personally wouldn't buy an EFS lens anyway.
 
What do you think IS will offer you in a studio environment?
 
Field of view and perspective comes into it.

A lot of Canons more expensive EF lenses come with IS as an option, but then again in a studio conditions and shorter focal lengths then IS may not be needed.
 
Hi,

I dont know what it will offer , i was just wondering.

Matt
 
Exposure said:
Yeah. Would you say a full frame is better than normal slr's for a studio? , If so do canon do fullframe lenses with Image Stabilization? , and arte they alot of money?
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Full frame is better as you have no crop factor to take into consideration with lenses, and they generally have a lot higher megapixels count...so better quality prints.

You wouldn't need image stabilization for studio work as you will have plenty of light from the flash...but you can get lenses such as the 24-105L which has IS, which a couple of guys I know use for the odd bit of studio work! Primes are probably best in terms of quality, but can be quite restrictive if you are shooting kids who will be jumping about and moving a lot, as you can't zoom to recompose.
 
Nah IS is not needed in a studio, it's designed for low light and situations where you need to use lower shutterspeeds.
 
I think it's fair to say you'll get better pictures with quality glass on an average body than you will with average glass on a quality body.

If you're investing in your kit for the long term, I'd say you'd be better off buying the better lenses before investing in better bodies.
 
Nothing really. IS stops blur from camera shake at slow shutter speeds. In a studio using flash the shutter speed doesn't count for much as the flash duration is much shorter than the shutter anyway. If you're shooting using hot lights then IS still won't help because slow shutter speeds won't freeze subject movement so you'll still get blur from that.
 
Simmotino said:
I think it's fair to say you'll get better pictures with quality glass on an average body than you will with average glass on a quality body.

If you're investing in your kit for the long term, I'd say you'd be better off buying the better lenses before investing in better bodies.
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Yeah thats what im wanting to do. Like i say i have a SOny A200 and am happy to a point. Just seem to crave the Canon 1d series every time i see one. I could always buy the Canon 1d which i know is only 6mp but i could then afford some good quality lenses and then could always upgrade to the mk2 or even 3 then couldnt i?

Matt
 
I'd guess that the answer most pro's would give you is 'whatever gets the job done'. At ISO 100, all sensors'll produce clean images suitable for 13x19 prints or larger nowadays. Quite a few will have full frame models because they set their studio up with film, and it's easier not to worry about crop focal factors.

More pertinent questions, and ones where you'll find most difference in opinion, is 'what lens?' and 'what light setup?' To that, I'd say a mix of fast primes and zooms somewhere around the 80-135mm mark, and myriad options of lighting, including umbrellas, softboxes, hairlights, high-key backlights, multiple wireless flash setups or strobes, cool lights...
 
I'm not a professional photographer but I'd agree with Dan that the camera is by far the least important element. The lens is more important and the lighting is the most important.

If you haven't seen it before this excerpt from Joe McNally's blog is an amazing insight into how a top professional thinks about lighting. (And it's a heartwarming story too.)
 
D2Xs - lots of pixies and it'll run all day/month/year without me worrying about it breaking. Kids can play with it, take a few shots, even drop it and it's still fine

'Fast' lenses for most studio lighting are only if you need sod-all DoF AND have a static subject, otherwise they are pointless

If you're shooting something that moves, often unpredictably, then a short to medium zoom works far better than any prime ever could

VR, IS to Canon, is pointless - your 'effective' shutter speed is likely to be above 1/1000 sec and perhaps even 1/10,000th sec!

You can work wonders with 1 light, 2 lights give you far more options, 3 make such as 'White room' photography dead simple, 4+ and you're probably kidding yourself you need them or know how to use them properly

HTH :shrug: ???

DD
 
DiddyDave said:
D2Xs - lots of pixies and it'll run all day/month/year without me worrying about it breaking. Kids can play with it, take a few shots, even drop it and it's still fine

'Fast' lenses for most studio lighting are only if you need sod-all DoF AND have a static subject, otherwise they are pointless

If you're shooting something that moves, often unpredictably, then a short to medium zoom works far better than any prime ever could

VR, IS to Canon, is pointless - your 'effective' shutter speed is likely to be above 1/1000 sec and perhaps even 1/10,000th sec!

You can work wonders with 1 light, 2 lights give you far more options, 3 make such as 'White room' photography dead simple, 4+ and you're probably kidding yourself you need them or know how to use them properly

HTH :shrug: ???

DD
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Hi,
Yes you have helped alot.

Im starting to realise now that the body is irrelevant compared to the lenses and the lighting. Ive seen on the internet some awesome shots with the Canon 20dwhich is quite an old camera.

Im going to have a good think about what lens system i want to get into and then buy the body around that. Do you have any recommendations on what are the best lenses as i have looked at canon and nikon lenses and seem very expensive.

Matt
 
Exposure said:
Hi,
Yes you have helped alot.

Im starting to realise now that the body is irrelevant compared to the lenses and the lighting. Ive seen on the internet some awesome shots with the Canon 20dwhich is quite an old camera.

Im going to have a good think about what lens system i want to get into and then buy the body around that. Do you have any recommendations on what are the best lenses as i have looked at canon and nikon lenses and seem very expensive.

Matt
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Before spending a penny - think very long & hard about what you want to shoot in your studio list things on here even for comment

Then, figure out what lenses will provide the max IQ and flexibility you need

Then find out who has the 'perfect' lens for your budget, and lastly buy the best camera to suit

Without being completely certain of your subject matter - any purchase stands the risk of being flawed as in - not entirely 'fit for purpose'

DD
 
To me the best studio equipment would be a full frame Dslr or a medium format camera with a digital back. And some good lenses, alot of people like a 85 lens and even a 70-200. With the full frame 50 would be a standard lens so that would be handy. The thing about studio is you can control the light and that is huge!
 
Hi,

Well hopefully in the future i would like to oppen my own portrait studio. So i guess it would be family portraits, kids portraits, etc etc

Also, hopefully get into weddings etc

But would like to have the lenses to do some photography for myself like landscape
 
Ally said:
To me the best studio equipment would be a full frame Dslr or a medium format camera with a digital back. And some good lenses, alot of people like a 85 lens and even a 70-200. With the full frame 50 would be a standard lens so that would be handy. The thing about studio is you can control the light and that is huge!
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For shooting cars, food, static/adult portraits - MF maybe

For shooting kids in a 15x15ft studio it'd be far too slow and unwieldy to use a MF camera; as for FF ??? Where do you see the benefit there ???

Also, you'll NEVER shoot a moving kid in a studio that size with a 70-200 lens, and an 85 prime would again be pointless

You're approaching it from the wrong angle m8 - soz

DD
 
DiddyDave,

I was using 15x15ft as an example as i jave no idea what size it will be in the future.

So what lenses would you say for a 15x15 studio shooting kids, families and poss model work?

Matt
 
Exposure said:
DiddyDave,

I was using 15x15ft as an example as i jave no idea what size it will be in the future.

So what lenses would you say for a 15x15 studio shooting kids, families and poss model work?

Matt
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Ah - theoretical photography !!! :lol:

Well as mine's only 18x18ft, I'd have to say the same lens I use for kids, families and model work!

An 18-70 zoom (it's not a 'fast' one as I rarely shot at anything outside of the f5.6-f11 range)

The 50-70 end is great for Head & Shoulders

The full 18-70 gets used for nippers nipping around

Although I have a few other lenses, I doubt if I've ever used any of them more than a couple of times for such work, and although this Nikon lens is now only about £200 it's done a great job on shots printed up to 30x40"

Many 'great' lenses are great because they have great IQ across their full f-stop range, but here I'm only using this (any) lens' 'sweet spot' anyway, and this lens has great sharpness around its sweet spot. It's also small, light and zooms quickly making it pretty much ideal

DD
 
DiddyDave said:
For shooting cars, food, static/adult portraits - MF maybe

For shooting kids in a 15x15ft studio it'd be far too slow and unwieldy to use a MF camera; as for FF ??? Where do you see the benefit there ???

Also, you'll NEVER shoot a moving kid in a studio that size with a 70-200 lens, and an 85 prime would again be pointless

You're approaching it from the wrong angle m8 - soz

DD
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Sorry!! Your spot on I should read the thread before I start rabbiting on! full frame will provide you with the excellent quality for large family images like that. Also in a studio of 15x15 its small enough as it is never mind adding a 1.6 crop factor with some of the other bodys. To be honest in studio you can control the light so its really a case of who gives a flying wotsit about the body. Lens are the very important part! I saw a girl in my college class create a brillant image in studio with a 4 meg camera that had a brillant lens on it.
 
Exposure said:
Which lens is it?

Matt
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http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/1870.htm

There are sharper ones about, but they tend to have less range and weigh loads more - in an ideal lens I'd like 18-100mm, so this comes close enough from Nikon's range while still being good quality

They do make a good 18-200, but you'd also need to buy DxO software to correct it's distortion issues - then it'd be a good buy

If you haven't bought the camera yet though, look for other good glass in that sort of range from other makers too

DD
 
Ally said:
Sorry!! Your spot on I should read the thread before I start rabbiting on! full frame will provide you with the excellent quality for large family images like that. Also in a studio of 15x15 its small enough as it is never mind adding a 1.6 crop factor with some of the other bodys. To be honest in studio you can control the light so its really a case of who gives a flying wotsit about the body. Lens are the very important part! I saw a girl in my college class create a brillant image in studio with a 4 meg camera that had a brillant lens on it.
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No worries :D

Turns out he hasn't got the studio lined up yet anyway, so it could be a warehouse where MF is ideal!

DD
 
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