The Measure of a Photographer

Does the camera make any photographer great or can a great photographer make any camera perform well?

Last week, I talked about how a person who attended the Photo Synthesis photography exhibit had admired my work but said that I must have a great camera with which to capture those images. But was it the camera that made my images great or could I have captured those subjects with any camera?

As a test, I posted three photos of sunflowers that I had recently taken with three different cameras: a $2,750 Nikon D750 with a 50mm lens; a $1,900 Nikon D7200 with an 18-105mm zoom lens; and a $960 Samsung Galaxy S10 smartphone. And I asked you to tell me which camera was used to capture which photo.

If you haven't seen last week's post and want to try to guess, go to that post now, before you read this post any further. I'm about to provide the results.

Ready? As always, you can click each photo to see them close up.

Samsung Galaxy S10: 6mm; f/2.4; 1/30 sec; 160 ISO.

Nikon D7200: 105mm; f/5.6; 1/60 sec; 400 ISO.

Nikon D750: 50mm; f/2.0; 1/2500 sec; 640 ISO.

How did you do? Could you tell which camera captured which image?

Now honestly, did the quality of camera make me a better photographer? Was the photo shot with the D750 really much better than with my smartphone?

For me, I see my abilities as a photographer above measuring the value of the camera. Every one of these shots captured the essence of that sunflower field. It didn't matter which camera I used.

Which is your favourite photo? Did knowing which camera took it change your opinion of the shot? Let me know in the Comments section.

Happy Friday!