Today came a unique opportunity to assess my improvement in photo skills. It’s not truly represeantative, because the setting was extremely limiting, still I photographed our one-day Via Ferrata adventure with my wife
- using the same camera
- under very similar light conditions
- one year apart
Again, this is not a good measure of visual skills, given I was more focused on survival than taking the photos of my life. I’ll make the comparison by taking the best photos from each sub-genre from both albums. Fortunately I took a fair amount of snaps on both occasions. The sub-genres are:
- Walk in the woods
- Action (this is the majority of photos in both albums)
- Macro / flowers / nature
- People and Fun
- Landscape
- Storytelling
- Portraiture
The camera I took was the Panasonic DMC-FZ200. It is a superzoom camera with a tiny 1/2.3″ CMOS-sensor from 2012, and a powerful, stabilized Leica-designed lens, covering 25-600mm equivalent focal range with f/2.8 aperture throughout. It is the most usable one-handed camera in my collection, which I never thought I’d consider as a positive treat for a camera, but when you’re hanging off a wall and still want to take pictures, this is the best tool I know for the job.
1. Walk in the Woods
Last year
This year
Verdict
This year wins. This was cheating though. Last year I didn’t take actual walk in the woods photos, but I still kept this category, because broadening the subject is a plus in my book.
Log to self: Consider even banal shooting sequences as photo stories. The buildup is an essential part to a a photo story, so take it as seriously as the meat of the matter.
2. Action
Last year
This year
Verdict
Last year wins (just). There’s a better display of Viki’s skills and the action itself in last year’s set. Viki is more pronounced in last year’s photos, which is what this is about after all. This year there’s good variety and some okay wide angle shots, but many images have the face underexposed, which leads to HDR images in post.
Log to self: Focus on poperly exposing the face. If the subjet is a person in your pics, they should be the star of the image, which is not the same as taking the majority of the frame.
3. Macro / Flowers
Last year
This year
Verdict
Last year wins. The FZ200 is not a macro champion, but as last year’s produce proves, some isolation is possible with the right considerations. This year’s output is lazy and pedestrian.
Log to self: Focus on isolation opportunities. A macro with a busy background is usually a bad macro.
4. People and Fun
Last year
This year
Verdict
This year wins. Again, cheating, since last year I didn’t take other people, as there were not many. This year the Ferrata was right at the heart of a popular outdoor area, which gave me some people photo opportunities.
5. Landscape
Last year
Verdict
Last year wins.
Log to self: Take the time to get to a vantage point and take some nice landscapes if you’re out there.
6. Storytelling
This year
Verdict
This year wins, but should not count. I’m happy that I didn’t forget about storytelling as a sub-genre in the heat of the action.
Log to self: Always consider storytelling when photographing. And please use more wide-angle.
7. Portraiture
Last year
This year
Verdict
This year (just). Environmental portraits from last year beat this year easily, but the variety and execution seems a bit better this year. When shooting someone, it’s not always about the bokeh. The setting makes portraits stronger than anything.
Log to self: Less focus on blurred out backgrounds, more on the environment and setting!
+1. Editing
Verdict
Does not count bit this year wins. Would be unfair to use this for scoring. Editing represents my current taste, which has not yet fully developed. But on more objective grounds, last year I didn’t do much besides fixing the exposure, and white balance is visibly inconsistent. This year I tried to pay attention to white balance, colors, and then give the images a consistent look, which is at least not the same as the camera’s default Lightroom render.
The Bottom Line
Last year took 3 categories, this year took 4. It’s safe to say I went backwards with macro and was about on par with portraits, but did better in adding some of my own taste with editing and a lot better with storytelling and variety.
Key takeaways are to focus more on environmental portraits and subject separation for macro shooting. Keep shooting storytelling, people and detail photos.