Skylights and polarisers, but no grads or colour gels.
Also a Fuji S7000 for non-SLR days.
I've outgrown both of the cameras now. I'm aware of technical flaws that I wasn't aware of when I started - most obviously noise, but also some odd digital artifacts in extreme lighting conditions.
It's still possible to take good photos with both of them, but post-processing afterwards to remove the flaws is tedious.
I don't like primes. I do a lot of outdoor shooting, and the alternative to a zoom is clambering over barbed wire fences trying not to fall into mud. Zooms are a good way to minimise this. Also, swapping lenses outdoors in hostile weather isn't fun.
I'll probably move to a Canon soon. I don't particularly want to get rid of the Nikons, but the Nikon/Fuji bodies are no longer doing it for me - not even at the top of the range, from what I've seen of them. I'm finding I can recognise a Nikon image because it has a certain look - which really shouldn't be possible on a pro or semi-pro camera.
I'd like some grads, however. People who think you can duplicate the effect exactly in Photoshop are wrong. There isn't enough dynamic range in an 8-12 bit image to make it possible without adding noise. Likewise with coloured gels - not quite the same when done optically.
In spite of the fact that film can still look prettier than digital, my lack of interest in film is almost total. I'm so used to the convenience of digital now that I can't imagine enjoying playing with chemistry in a darkroom.
It's amazing to think that £250 will get you a camera edging tentatively into the bottom end of what's needed for professional work. Thirty years ago a snappy camera would use a godawful film format like 110, with next to no resolution or colour stability. Now a good snap cam will be just a step or three down from pro quality. You can't use one for a glossy fashion shoot, but if you capture something unusually interesting with it, AP or Getty won't necessarily turn their noses up at the quality.
Let's say you're shooting into the sun. You don't use a grad. You have a choice between over-exposing light areas or underexposing shadow. If you do either, the available dynamic range of both will be limited.
This is obvious if you select the light or dark area and look at the histogram. Half the curve will be missing.
If you use a grad, you can limit the light and bring up the shadow. You now have much more detail to play with in Photoshop because both shadow and light are properly exposed. It's not unlike using a compressor for audio. The histogram will be more balanced - maybe 3/4 of the curve used in each section, and much less spiking at the far left and right.
I've done this in practice, so it's not a theoretical point. If you digitally correct shadow underexposure without a grad you get noise. If you use one, you get much less noise. The difference is obvious, especially on a cheaper camera.
I have a plug-in which converts a range of shots with different stops into a single high dynamic range exposure. You can do tricks with that you can't do with a single exposure, and one of them is creating low noise grad effects.
But you can't create the same result with a single shot, because it doesn't capture all the information you need.
Electronic compresson can be achieved by fidding with the black clamp levels, but this feature is only available on pro video cameras, and it happens after the chip. It is something I've used a lot with Betacam video shooting.
For stills, there is a simpler method if your camera will automatically shoot a set of bracketed exposures off a tripod. Or you can do it manually for a scene in which there is little movement. In both cases there is some photoshopping to do. You can't be me, I'm taken
With digital, all is much easier... Of course, I "like" taking pictures too, meaning that I always find some excuses to get the camera that seems a good compromise between a snapshot use and a more interesting one...!
I don't feel that pictures can be traced for brands, unless you shoot in all auto ! But then maybe I'm not expert enough ! Still, like in computers, progress moves asymptotically, so I'll wait a year at least before changing for the next one !!! :-) "What can I do, What can I write, Against the fall of Night". A.E. Housman
As to zooms, I just don't have the eye or the discipline to use them. I tend to stand where I am and zoom without considering whether I should move to get a better shot. The primes force me to either move or change lens, which is enough hassle to make me think seriously about moving for a split second.
Some go fishing, I go photographing ! Sometimes I get small fishes and sometimes a big one... But the pleasure is still the same ! "What can I do, What can I write, Against the fall of Night". A.E. Housman
Ad astra per aspera
