Quick question…

Which lens do you use the most? I have the Nikon D40 but my pics don’t have the depth yours do. Seems like you use the wide angle a lot?

I saw your story on Oprah and it touched my heart with it being fathers day this weekend. I find so much strength in you- daugthers are amazing- i don’t have one just yet however seeing my neice and her daddy, its an inseperable bond. congrautlations on a beautiful baby girl.

i am a professional photographer and you are the perfect example of why photos are so very important. Looking at the ones you took of the birth of your daugther makes me want to bawl. Those photos are so priceless. I applaud you for doing those as well as being so brave to tell your story. May god bless you and you’re beautiful daugther!

1) Canon and Nikon are REALLY close in terms of quality of both camera bodies and camera lenses. Primarily the difference is one of how the controls are laid out. You fill find ardent believers in both camps that one is better than the other, but really, they’re both very good.

2) One thing that I see from Matt’s lens assortment is that he has has some relatively fast lenses (for the uninitiated the f number is a speed rating of sorts for the lens, lower is better) which makes it easier to capture fast moving subjects, like wiggly kiddos for instance.

3) Faster lens are usually, but not always, sharper, which improves image quality quite a bit as well. Generally speaking, the lens is the critical component of the camera system. The body makes a difference, but a high quality lens will make a big difference. I would spend my money on high quality lenses (Canon calls the L-Series, but they also have their Ultrasonic lenses which tend to have better glass, but again, not always. For Canon lenses, those manufactured in Japan are also generally better than those made elsewhere. The other big upside to spending money on the lenses is that the lens will last years (if you treat it nicely) whereas you may decide to change bodies several times over the life of the lens.

4) I don’t know what Nikon’s default curves are when converting the RAW data to jpeg, but this also makes a huge difference in image quality. Each camera is tuned slightly differently so you will see better photos from some bodies out of the box. On the positive side, if you shoot in RAW mode, you can adjust the curves on the computer (using various tools such as the TotallyRadActions that Angela mentioned or any number of other programs including Photoshop, Lightroom and Apple’s Aperature). Many cameras come with some sort of program for editing RAW files or at least adjusting them. Adjusting the curves to meet your personal sense of a good photo will go a long way.

5) One thing I have noticed in many good photos is that they tend to be high contrast (adjustable on the computer if need be) and also tend to be brighter. You can do this in camera but manually setting your exposure one or two stops higher than “even” which is what most cameras meter to when shooting in auto mode. Depending on the body this can make images look dull because white isn’t really white but is a bit grayish. If your camera body supports it you can look into the custom white balance mode and use reference tools like an 18% grey card or some lens caps that do the same thing to tell the camera, “Hey, you in there, this is what white should look like!”. Check out the camera manual.

If anyone has questions about any of this, feel free to contact me.

Just found the link to this post today, which is sad because I definately have visited the what’s with the robot link right above it.

Thanks for the camera info. I was shocked to read that your not a professional photographer. Your photos (the ones you post anyway) say otherwise.

I do have one question though. How do you take the photos of you and Maddy? Do you use a tripod, a self timer, do your cameras have flippable screens, or are you just very good at judging shots?

Okay, so technically that was two questions.