TYPES OF CAMERA

So what type of camera should you opt for? As a professional, most of my work is done using a DSLR. I will probably also have a Gopro in my pocket during a shoot mainly for those moments on board when it’s too wet to get the expensive one out, or for video. For family and friends and for those lovely shots that pop up unexpectedly my iphone gets used, simply because it’s the camera that’s available to me at the time and the quickest to use.

1 DIGITAL SINGLE LENS REFLEX

A DSLR gives you total control. You can choose lenses from super wide angle to telephoto. And while most other camera options do give a choice of lens, the DSLR enables you to use a lens that is of high quality, even when the lens is a telephoto. The DSLR also gives you the choice of aperture and shutter speed, which allows you to control depth of focus, keeping everything pin sharp, or blurring out the background to really highlight your subject. You can also use a separate flash, so you can control the lighting, even on bright days, to fill in the shadows.

2 COMPACT CAMERA

The compact camera was all the rage a decade or two ago. Smartphones and action cameras have largely taken their place. They do still offer high-quality still images in a small package. Many are now splash or waterproof, many have RAW format, some sort of visual zoom and various levels of automatic or manual settings to control your image. With care, use of their built-in flash can give good results. Be careful with using the digital zoom, however, as this can reduce image quality massively.

3 ACTION CAMERA

The action camera has taken sports photography by storm and Gopro led the charge. I’ve never broken one yet, a testament to their quality. Choose RAW format for the best quality stills and this will also give you more scope in post production. The action camera is great if you plan to do a lot of close-up, on-board shots. The super wide setting will give you distorted fish eye type results which have their place but if you’re more conservative, stick to wide or linear settings. These cameras aren’t great for shooting into the distance, as there’s no telephoto setting.

4 SMARTPHONE

And last but by no means least, a camera that most of us have in our pockets is a smartphone. Whether Android or iphone, these cameras have really evolved in recent years. They can be good for wide-angle, but offer little by way of real zoom.

The flash is okay, but you will have little control over it. And don’t forget when you touch the screen to alter the focusing distance you can also swipe up or down to easily change the exposure of your photograph. Most smartphones now offer a portrait mode, which will give the effect of dropping the background out of focus, which looks great if used carefully. Just keep your phone to hand and charged up.