The Best Camera for Photography
... might be the shabby one you already own
This is a photo I took from the CN Tower on my first trip to Toronto:
I remember going up a few floors and being amazed by the view. Then going up even more and being even more amazed until reaching the top and taking in the beautiful cityscape.
The best part was that some of the windows were tilted outward, so when you leaned on them, it felt like you were going to fall right off the tower.
If you’re scared of heights, I dare you to try it!
The camera
I don’t remember what camera I used, other than it wasn’t a fancy one. But no matter the quality…
It did its job.
The edit
Years later, after I started my photo editing journey, I decided to transform the photo into something else.
By this time, my skills weren’t limited to just messing around with brightness, contrast, and color, and struggling too much with masking (click the links to read more). Since my editing skills were more evolved now, I could create more freely.
So this is what I made:
The story
When I look at the picture, I think of a superhero lineup.
The tall and proud buildings in the front take up more focus now, and the blur effect in the back kind of looks like a halo (yes, I’m associating halos with superheroes). The colors also look like they belong in a comic book.
I didn’t picture this exact image when I started editing. My goal was simply to create a surreal look, and I had that in mind throughout the editing process.
And I gotta say that I really love how it turned out!
What are your impressions of the image?
Back to the camera
The original photo and the edited image are very different from each other.
This is what I normally do with my edits. I make them look like they’re from alternate realities, and a super expensive camera isn’t really needed to achieve this look.
Some of my photos have had terrible quality, but I’ve still managed to create something interesting out of them (I’ll show you a super horrible one in my next post).
So if you’re a photographer or a photo manipulator, ask yourself:
What look do I want my images to have?
Then consider whether you really need a high-tech camera to achieve that. I’m not saying the answer will always be no. You might still conclude that you need an expensive one.
But when considering it, also have in mind that:
With enough creativity…