The Beginner Photography Podcast

Photo Q&A: Why Do My Photos Look Different on My Camera vs. Lightroom?

• Raymond Hatfield

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#580 In Today’s Episode of the podcast I chat with YOU as I tackle listener-submitted questions for our monthly Photo Q&A session. We cover a variety of challenges that many beginner photographers run into—from understanding the difference between RAW and JPEG files, managing noise in corporate event shots, to building a strong portfolio through strategic “model calls.” I’ll also share practical insights on why your photos might look different across devices or editing programs, when to use settings like aperture priority or manual mode, and how to set up and communicate a successful portfolio shoot. Plus, we’ll get into deeper topics like how to price your work as a new photographer and whether AI editing tools are changing the value of getting things right in-camera. 

KEY TOPICS COVERED

  1. RAW vs. JPEG & Display Differences - Raymond explains why photos often appear different on camera screens or phones compared to Lightroom. He outlines the technical reasons, including how cameras display a JPEG preview even for RAW shots, and how monitor quality and calibration affect perceived color and contrast. He demystifies RAW editing and encourages beginners to experiment with JPEGs if extensive editing isn’t required.
  2. Shooting Busy Events & Managing Noise - Responding to a question on noisy corporate event shots, Hatfield stresses the relationship between noise, ISO, and light quality. He recommends using manual mode for full ISO control and explains the importance of understanding light “quality vs. quantity” rather than relying solely on semi-automatic modes like aperture priority.
  3. Model Calls & Portfolio Building - Practical guidance is given for running a “model call” to expand one’s portfolio. Raymond highlights where and how to recruit volunteer models (or clients), setting clear expectations, the value exchange, and strategies to ensure you’re showcasing desired styles or filling portfolio gaps.

IMPORTANT DEFINITIONS & CONCEPTS

  • RAW (Image Format): An unprocessed file that retains all data captured, offering maximum flexibility for editing, though often appearing flat until processed.
  • Model Call: A public invitation (often via social media) for volunteers to participate in portfolio shoots, typically in exchange for free or discounted images.

DISCUSSION & REFLECTION QUESTIONS

  1. Considering your current portfolio, what “gaps” could you fill with targeted model calls?
  2. How does understanding RAW vs. JPEG workflows shape your approach to in-camera settings and post-processing?
  3. Reflect on your pricing strategy: What personal factors (time, opportunity cost) might you consider before setting rates?

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Thanks for listening & keep shooting!

raymond-hatfield_1_07-09-2025_074619:

You're trying to get people in front of your camera who can build your portfolio in a way that will help you get more clients in the future. So have a plan for the shots that you need, for the style of photography that you need, whatever holes your portfolio has and need filled, have a plan to capture those images. Then once you get those images, then just have fun with them. Hey, welcome to the Beginner Photography Podcast. I'm your host, Raymond Hatfield, and today we are in for our monthly q and a episode, which is your opportunity to ask me all of the burning photography questions that you have going through your mind, swirling that you encounter while you're out shooting. You ask them to me and I give you an answer. So let's go ahead and get on into it. But first, just a little FYI. Our neighbors are getting their house reroofed today. So if you hear some banging, if you hear some, guys yelling and screaming, I apologize for that. They're just having a good old time though. But, what are you gonna do? We're in the height of summer here. So it's either, we deal with, the kids running around the house and screaming and yelling or, our neighbor's getting our house reroofed. So just gotta make it happen at this point. Okay. So, if you find yourself with, any, again, burning photography questions, know that you can feel free to ask me. You can do so anonymously by heading over to beginner photo pod.com/qa. That's just qa, just the two letters, and you can submit your questions there and who knows, maybe I will answer it here on the podcast. And that's exactly what I'm going to do today. So I got a collection of questions here for you, so let's just go ahead and jump right on in. My first question comes from Daniel. Daniel asks, why do my photos look so good on my camera and my phone? But when I put it in Lightroom, it does not, where am I going wrong? How can I manage my noise when doing busy corporate events without having to change my shutter speed, constantly. Is aperture priority a good fit for this? Alright, so this is a kind of a two part question and I'm gonna answer the first one first'cause that's typically where you start. Why do my photos look so good on my camera and my phone, but when I put it in Lightroom it does not. So this could be, a few things here, Daniel. One, let's tackle the camera side first before we tackle the phone side. I would imagine that you're shooting in raw. Okay, so hold on. There's actually a lot of variables, so let me just lay them out. One could be that you're shooting in raw. Two. It could be that your computer screen is not a very high quality screen. It could be, more of an entry level, say laptop or desktop screen. Not one made for color replication, color accuracy. And, three, it could be also on the camera side as well, that, the brightness on that screen could be wildly off. So let's kind of tackle them individually. One, you're shooting raw. Okay. So if you're shooting in raw, when you take a photo with your camera, the display on the back, we will show the jpeg preview. So if you're unaware, there are two main image formats. One is raw. One is jpeg. A raw photo is what your camera captures, and it captures all of the light and the color information. This is great if you intend on editing the image. Typically the image is pretty flat. There's not a lot of color. There's not a lot of contrast because when it's flat, it allows you to add in how much or how little you would like. JPEG is more of the standard of what is shared on the internet. It is a much smaller file size and therefore does not have as much flexibility in editing. So rather than being a flat file, it has a, a color profile applied to it, based on the camera manufacturer or. Based on, the settings that you choose within camera. Now, when you take a photo, it's going to show the jpeg preview on the back of the camera because that's the fastest way, and what the camera assumes, what you're going to want an edited version to look like. so that's why it does that. and then when you import it onto your computer, it is going to use the raw file to show you an accurate representation of what you're working with so that you can edit it according to your vision however you want it. So that could be one area of discrepancy, right? The way, if that's the issue that you're having here. One, you either just understand that that's how it works. And when you take a photo on your camera, it's going to look more vibrant. It's gonna look more contrasty than what it will look on your computer. Or two, you decide to just shoot in jpeg. That is the decision that, I have made over the years. Jpeg, I don't wanna say JPEG technology, but, JPEGs have been getting better and better as far as their flexibility. And I find that I still have quite a bit of range when it comes to editing my images, but I also try to get them right in camera. So I don't need a lot when it comes to editing. So, I hope that helps. I hope that that, that makes sense there. the other, issue is, what did I say? It could be your computer monitor, right? Computer monitors come in a wide range of prices as you know, of different, standards. Some monitors cost less than a hundred bucks. Some of them cost, 1500 plus. So there's quite a wide range, and you would think, well, they all just display what the computer's showing it. But you're wrong. In the world of photo editing, what is important is color accuracy, right? So creating a monitor that is color accurate and using a monitor that is color accurate is extremely important. Now if you have a desktop, that's great because you can switch out the monitor for whatever one you wish. It's hard to give a recommendation on here because monitors are always changing, and a few years from now, this recommendation isn't gonna be correct. So, I have a Apple Studio display that I use with my computer. And, it is extremely pricey, but I love it and I use it for work, so it makes sense for me where color accuracy is, is incredibly important. Dell also makes a line of, what's called ultra sharp monitors, and I believe that all ultra sharp monitors are color calibrated from the factory. AIS also makes a line of monitors called ProART displays, and I believe that those are also all color accurate displays. So if you're using a laptop and the laptop was sub, 800 bucks, it probably doesn't have the best screen on it or one that you can trust as far as color accuracy goes. So plugging in a monitor would help you with that to be more color accurate. That is an area where I've seen a lot of beginners get tripped up because we just assume that monitors are monitors and that they all work. And before you get into photography, it's like, yeah, it works. It shows me what the computer is, putting out. However, again, that's not the case. And it becomes a lot more apparent when you're working with image files. Photos, videos, things of that nature, and therefore that could be, another part of the issue. So then the last thing here, if you're using a camera, is that the brightness on your cameras display could be wildly off, right? If you have it too high, it's gonna show a very muddy image. If you have it too low, it's gonna be more contrasty, but, not accurate. So again, when you load it on the computer, it's gonna look different than what you thought that it would look like. what it looked like on the camera. So there is where some discrepancies. Could happen for sure. now when we're talking about a phone camera, if you're using an iPhone, iPhone, displays are fantastic. They look great. They marry the camera technology with the display technology and it just looks fantastic. That said, again, when you get it on a computer, it could look wildly different depending on the quality of your. Display. So, that could be an issue if you're using an Android phone. displays are all over the place. There's like$50 Android phones and$2,000 Android phones. So again, the display technology can be wildly different. So I can't necessarily speak to that, but I do know that there are some Android displays that are just like not good. And therefore if you're taking a photo with that and you see it look not good and then you put it on a computer, it'll look completely different. So I hope that helps answer that question right there. But yeah, I think the biggest one that I see most often is that photographers don't understand that when you shoot in raw. It shows you a jpeg preview on the back of the camera, looks nice, and then you put it on a computer, it's flat. There's no contrast, and there's a big difference. And within Lightroom, you'll even see that switch when you first load it in, you'll see that jpeg preview, but then it'll go away real quick. And that is, kind of annoying. don't know what is going on, and that's, that's what it is. So hopefully, again, that helps kind of guide you in the right direction as far as how to troubleshoot that problem. Now the second question is, how can I manage my noise when doing busy corporate events without having to change my shutter speed? Is aperture priority a good fit for this? This is a harder question to answer because, I'm not sure where you're shooting. I'm not sure what your gear is as far as these noise levels. But I will say that aperture priority sounds like it's not the right fit for this because if you're having noise The problem is coming from your ISO, right? So aperture priority only lets you set your aperture, shutter speed priority only lets you set your shutter speed. but what you need to do is lock in your ISO and this is why manual is so, so, so important. Some cameras have auto ISOs within limits. Say, your camera might go up to, ISO 8 million or whatever it is, but you can lock it down to not go above 3,200. And then that depends on what you perceive as an acceptable amount of noise in your image. But the other thing is, is that, noise does not change based on quantity of light. It changes based on quality of light. I can shoot an image at iso, 8,000 plus, but if the quality of light of my subject is good, then the image isn't going to be super noisy. So start to learn the differences between quantity and quality, because there could be a can light right above somebody's head, and there's plenty of quantity of light, but the quality of light is absolutely garbage. So start looking into that. I highly suggest, and just learning how to see light will never do you wrong in photography, so that's probably the best thing to look forward to. But to directly answer your question for shooting corporate events, I would be shooting in manual to fully allow me to control my ISO to dictate how much acceptable noise is in the image. And then, adjust my aperture as well and my shutter speed. So again, Daniel, hope that helps. Lemme know if you got any follow up questions. Whew. That was a long answer. Hopefully we can, get through these with a little more. That one was very technical, so, I don't think that these next ones will be as, as technical. The next question that we got is from Delaney. Delaney was at our Chicago Beginner Photography podcast workshop. Very eager to learn photography. She's like a sponge, wants to know so much and we were together for an entire day at the workshop and she even has more questions, which I absolutely love'cause it shows her dedication. Delaney says, Hey Raymond, I'd love to hear your thoughts on how to start pricing when you're ready to start doing paid shoots. They say to charge what you're worth, but how do you know where to start? Delaney, fantastic question and definitely one that, I think a lot of people wonder as well. I know that I had that question when I first started doing paid shoots, I tried to figure out like, okay, well what are other photographers charging? And that's just the wrong answer, for so many reasons. One being, you don't know what their setup is. You don't know what their circumstances are,'cause a photographer who has kids, has a mortgage, has a car payment, is going to have different needs than a young, I don't know, a 20 something who's in college who, doesn't have a lot of, bills and just extras in life yet, right? So, that question or that way of trying to find an answer doesn't. Work for everybody. so charging what you're worth, how do you know what you're worth? And I would say that knowing what you're worth is not about the image quality, but it is about yourself. Okay? And what I mean by that is, if you're brand new to getting into photography, you have this idea, and I know this because I have this idea too, that like being a professional. Being a full-time photographer is like the dream. You have all this time and you can choose your own schedule and your clients and you make all this money. And if you shoot weddings, you only work on the weekends, things like that. But what you quickly realize is, oh, that's not necessarily the case. It does become a job from the communications to the editing, to the just packaging things up nicely, putting it in an email, writing out this lovely response, going through leads and investing time into them, and then they just ghost you. So there's a lot of things in the background that aren't as fun as the actual shooting process itself, but you still have to go through. Okay, so what does that mean? You have to charge what all of that is worth to you, not to them, to you, because that's the only way that you will be able to build a sustainable photography business. Look, how much does it cost you in raw materials to go out and shoot a photography session? Well, nothing, right? If you already own the camera, then guess what? Then there's not much overhead unless you have to pay for parking or something like that. Maybe a specific prop, but other than that, you can get out and shoot a session and it costs you$0, right? I did this plenty of times for engagement sessions. We just go to local parks or, places around downtown and we would just photograph and I would leave and it wouldn't cost me a dollar, but what it does cost you is your time. For me specifically, it costs me time away from my very young children. It costs me time away from my wife. It costs me time away from other hobbies of getting things done around the house of living my life. So the way that I would always figure out how much to charge for a session. And the way that I've been recommending for a while is asking yourself, how much would it cost to take you away from, a band that you really wanna see, right? They're coming to your town. If you live in this little town, like they're coming to your town. It's a band that you've loved for years, you really want to go see them. Oh, but this couple wants you to photograph them for an engagement session. How much is that worth for you? What would it cost for you to miss this concert that you really want to see, or, whatever it is an event, something fun that you would look forward to. How much would it cost for you to miss out on that and for you to be happy? Because if, if Fleetwood Mac were to get back together, with Lindsay Buckingham and then they were to go on tour with Rush, and of course somehow Neil Pert was there as well, how much would it cost for me to miss that? Wow. Tens of thousands of dollars for me to be happy about missing it, if that makes sense. All right. So in the beginning, maybe it's$250. If you think to yourself, man, if I got$250, I think I would be okay with missing that concert then that's the number, right? I know that there's lots of costs of doing business calculators. I know that there's more professional ways about going about this, but if you're just trying to dip your toes into taking paid clients, I think that this is the best litmus test because again, if somebody says they'll do it for$75. They're not gonna be able to do that long term, right? You're gonna have to raise your rates. And the last thing that you want to do, because I know that this is an uncomfortable situation, is to do shoots for$75. That's where I started,$75 for shoots. And then, well, now you gotta raise your prices, but you're scared about upsetting all your past clients, so you only raise'em up to$150 and now you feel terrible about this, but you're still getting some bookings. But there's been a bit of a drop off, and then a past client asks you like, Hey, will you do another shoot? And you're like, yeah, but it's$150. And it's that weird conversation. If you start at a level that you're more comfortable with that you know that you're gonna be happy with for a longer term, say$250, then it's gonna be a less awkward conversation. You're gonna be happier about the amount of money that's coming in. You're not gonna feel so feast or famine when only you know, two inquiries come in per month because you know that if you book one$250 session. Well, that's a whole lot easier than having to book four$75 sessions. So again, once you get to that point, right, you start doing it for a little bit. Then you can look into more professional ways of pricing your photography for long-term profit. And that is where things like cost of doing business calculators come in and those account for things such as how much time does it take for you to communicate with each client what is your booking rate so that you can get paid essentially for your time that you're communicating with potential clients that don't end up booking you. How much planning do you put into each session? How much editing time do you put into each session? Do you have a marketing budget that you have to account for? What about all the subscriptions that you have for editing software and your CRM and all the things right? All of those things have to be taken into account to know that you're pricing your photography profitably. But for now, just in the beginning, if you're just getting started, ask yourself what would it cost? How much money would I have to make to miss a concert of one of my favorite bands? And that is gonna at least get you going in the right direction. So Delaney, again, I hope that helps. Alright. Next question here comes from Sarah. Sarah asks, my question is, how and where do you put out a model call to build up a specific portfolio? What does the process entail? What should the models expect from the process? And is there anything that they expect to receive in return? Okay, that is, that's a solid question. In fact, I should have answered this question before Delaney's question'cause I feel like that's the first step of, of getting into getting into doing this. But anyway, Sarah, you want to do a model call because you want to build a specific portfolio. Okay. I'm going to use the example of weddings because that's what I did for so long. If i'm looking for a new style of photography to capture, to be able to put into my portfolio. I don't want to try out something new necessarily at a wedding that is, it's high stakes. If it doesn't work out now, I've wasted the couple's time. So doing a model call can be extremely helpful to building a specific type of portfolio. so where and how do you put out a model call? for myself, I would put it out on Facebook, but really the answer is wherever your potential clients are, if your clients are, families, right? Parents, they're probably gonna be on Facebook. If your client is a senior, they're probably not gonna be on Facebook. Maybe they'll be on TikTok or possibly Instagram. So figure out where your clients are, and then, you can create marketing material. what I would do is not call it a model call, is the thing. If I saw a model call on Facebook looking for families, I would think, well, we're not necessarily model material where just like average, regular people we're not models, right. Maybe this doesn't apply to me. But if a family photographer, so I guess I'm using the example of family photography here. If a family photographer posted something on Facebook that said, Hey, I need five couples, who are willing to try something new in front of the lens, I would be more interested to read more. Right? I need five families, kids aged between eight and 14, are needed for a, a new type of session or like, I'm working on a new technique and I want to use your family and in return, you're gonna get some great images. Right? That's what I would do because what you're doing by putting out a model call is, it feels like you're kind of weakening your position, by saying like, I need help. I don't know anybody. I need help. I need help. But when you say like, Hey, I'm already working on this thing. I got it. I just need some people to be in front of my camera. Now it puts the ball in their court that says, Hey, not only can I help out this other photographer, but we're gonna get something in return. That sounds much better. Right? So put an out out like that. And then I would highly suggest putting a few dollars behind it as well. I would say a minimum of$5 per day because look, I mean it takes money to make money. If you're trying to build a portfolio, could you do it for free? Yeah, you could. If you already know a bunch of people, if you already have all this stuff set up, like you could do all this stuff for free. But if you're trying, if you don't have a network of people who you're close with who you can call on at a moment's notice, then you're gonna have to put some money behind it. And that's not a bad thing. So put money behind this ad and try to get them involved. Right, and then explain exactly. From there, you can do whatever you want. the process could just be, Hey, you show up here, I'm gonna take two photos and then we're done. I'm never gonna see you again or the process could be exactly what you would do for an entire portrait session. I would suggest doing exactly what you would do for an entire portrait session because not only are you building your portfolio, but you're also learning, you're dealing with another person, a person who could potentially share your name with others as well and bring actual business to you, and it gives you practice for what you would do during session, how it would run, how would you communicate, like what are the next steps? Things like that. But again, you could do it, however you want. So then lay out exactly what it is that you want to do. So for weddings, what I would do is say, Hey, I'm working on this new lighting technique. I need some new couples who were engaged, who's up for it? They would then fill out a form on my website, letting me know that they were interested. From there, I would then tell them, Hey, look, here's how it's gonna work. I'm working on this new thing that you don't really even have to get into exactly what it is. It's just this new lighting technique, this new portrait technique, whatever'cause clearly you're working towards something anyway, so you're working on something and then let them know. We're gonna get together for say, 45 minutes. I'm gonna take your photos. We're gonna have this fun session. I'm gonna try out some new things. At the end of it, I'm gonna send you a link to all the photos. You can, you get one for free, right? Choose whatever one you wish. You can have it. I'm gonna send you a full resolution file of that image. And for engaged couples, what I would tell them is you can purchase them if you wish. Or if you decide to book me for your wedding and you, you said that the session was fun and it was a good time and you want to work with me, for your wedding, you book me for your wedding. I'm gonna give you all these images for free. And by the way, this is where Cloud Spot was so helpful because I could send clients, their photos with a watermark on the image. But then if they decided to download just one, then they could download the image and there was no watermark. If they decided to purchase the photos, cloud spot would automatically remove the watermark and then they could download the full res images. And then if they decided to book me for their wedding, I could just turn off a check mark that says, watermark these photos. And then it just removes the hassle of having to manually watermark the photos, upload them, and then worry that they're accidentally gonna buy one of the photos with a watermark on it. And then that's just a hassle for them. It's a hassle for me'cause now I gotta rebuy the print or, or the download and then. So anyway, that's where Cloud Spot was a huge help there. But making sure that that watermark helps to ensure that they're not just gonna screenshot the photos and steal them. And if they do well, then guess what? They got your watermark on it and that it is what it is. So, yeah, explain what the process is going to be. What should the models expect for the process? Now, if you're shooting four models, like actual models, maybe you're doing fashion or something like that. I think that it's customary that you, if they're gonna give you their time, because that is their profession. You give them your product, right? As a form of payment. If you're not gonna pay them. However, if it's for families, if they're giving you their time in in exchange, in the hopes that you're going to deliver something that they're gonna be happy with and that they'll want to buy. So it's two different audiences, right? If it's photography for people who are in the photographs, then you can offer to sell them the images. If it's photography for a model or somebody who is working, then you just give them the images because they gave you their time. But ultimately it's, it's 100% up to you. There's no hard and fast rules, so you can do kind of whatever you want there. So there you go. That's what I would do. I would put out, a post or an ad wherever your clients are going to be saying, Hey, I'm working on something new and exciting who wants to be a part of this journey for a, a free session? And you'll even get a free print. Let them know. if you like the session, if you like the photos, you have the purchase to buy them all. If not, guess what? You get your one free photo and then we just go our separate ways. No harm, no foul. If you want to work further with me, I'm gonna give you all these photos for free and there you go. I hope that makes sense. Again, communication here is gonna be extremely important and have a plan for exactly what you need. You're not just trying to get people in front of your camera to be in front of your camera. You're trying to get people in front of your camera who can build your portfolio in a way that will help you get more clients in the future. So have a plan for the shots that you need, for the style of photography that you need, whatever holes your portfolio has and need filled, have a plan to capture those images. Then once you get those images, then just have fun with them. Try new things, experiment, and then it becomes a time for fun. So Sarah, I really hope that helps. Lemme know if you have any follow up questions there. All right, next question here is from Elise. So, Elise says, here's the thing. I work with A-D-S-L-R Cannon, a DDI have one speedlight and one off camera. Flash. I. Congratulations. Good for you. Off-camera flash is definitely the way to go. I want to be able to shoot images with light focused on the main subject, but still giving mystery in the background. Ooh, to achieve this look, are flashes feasible? Or should I break down and invest in continuous light? Anything helps. Can't wait to listen. Okay. Elise, I have a few questions here for you, and unfortunately I can't get an answer, so I'm just gonna answer them to the best of my ability. Okay. I want to be able to shoot images with light focused on the main subject, but still giving mystery in the background. Mystery, mystery in the background. I guess I need to know what that is. What is mystery in the background? Is mystery a dark background or is mystery an out of focus i. Background, what is mystery? So, let's tackle both just in case, right? I wanna try to give you the best answer here. If mystery is a dark background, then yeah, you can absolutely do that With off-camera flash, what you would do is, I guess lemme give everybody a breakdown of how off-camera flash works, when it comes to portraits. So, off-camera flash, increases not only the quantity of light, but also the quality of light because you can place your light wherever you want, however you want, and put in any sort of modifier, like an umbrella or a soft box, to change the quality of the light. It's not just on your camera blasting at your people. So if you're not using a mode like ETTL, which is like auto mode, but for flash, but you're using, manual on your flash, you yourself are deciding how much or how little light the flash is going to output, then what you would do step by step is you would have a subject in front of you. You would then pull up your camera to your eye and then you would meter the scene for the background, right? However you want the background to look. If you want your background to be super dark, then use settings that are gonna make your background super dark and don't worry about your subject right now. If you want settings that are gonna make your background totally out of focus, then use a large aperture to ensure that your background is totally out of focus and is as bright as you want it to be in the final image, so typically darker than your subject. So when shooting with flash, typically your settings are more dark than what it would be if you didn't have a flash, because you know that you're gonna be adding flash, which is going to increase the quantity of light on a specific point, which in this case would be a subject for, say, a portrait. Okay, so this is called, exposing for the background. When it comes to flash your settings, you choose settings for your background, specifically the background, because you know that your flash isn't going to illuminate an, an entire forest. It's only gonna eliminate things within like zero to, I don't know, 20 feet. Anything further than that is not gonna be hit by the light and therefore whatever your settings are in camera, that's how they're gonna look in the final image. Okay? Now you have chosen your settings for how you want the background to look, either darker than your subject or how out of focus you want it to be. And now you bring in your off-camera flash. Now when using an off-camera flash, you bring it in, you place it where you want it to be for how you like lighting your subjects and now you just adjust your settings to properly expose them in the image for how you want the image to look. So let me give you an example. If you're shooting without a flash. When you take a photo of a person, you're gonna expose for that person'cause you want them to not be too bright, not be too dark. You want them to be perfectly lit. Right? Now, if we're using natural light, we can't control how much light lands on that car in the background, or trees in the background or whatever it is. So the whole scene has to be at that exposure. With an off-camera flash, we can change our exposure so that the background is dark, and then our light ensures that our subject is the correct exposure that we would want in the image. They're not too bright, they're not too dark for the whole scene. So when you do that, what you have is a person who is perfectly lit and now they're in this environment that is either much darker than they are, or completely out of focus. So that would give you a mystery in the background, right? It's either dark and you can't really tell what's going on back there, or it's totally out of focus and you can't really see what's going on out there. So yeah, I would say that off-camera flash is the perfect thing for this because with continuous light. Continuous light is helpful in the sense that while you have the camera to your eye, you can see exactly what the image will look like when you take the photo, whereas opposed to flash, flash fires while you're taking the photo, so you can't really see an accurate representation until you actually take the photo. The downside is the output of light. The quantity of light with flash far exceeds, I mean, far exceeds anything that continuous light can put out. Just as an example, when I was working on film sets, we would have massive, massive, massive generators to power the lights because the lights were continuous lights. You need continuous lights when you're making movies because it's not just a still frame. It's a movie. And these generators were so big. I mean, you could kill an elephant by shocking it. Like that's how powerful these generators were. That's how much power these things were putting out. And with a single speed light, you can overpower the sun on just four AA batteries. The difference is, is because instead of continuously needing to put out an immense amount of light. A flash only puts out that amount of light for one, 3000th of a second, or 30000th of a second. So it's a much shorter blast, and that's why it can be more powerful. So if you're shooting outdoors, flash is the way to go. If you're shooting indoors, you could get away with some continuous light because there's just less available light, but you could buy a continuous light and give it a shot and see. See what happens. See if it helps. Who knows? It just may, depending on your style of photography. So Elise, I hope that that helped to answer your question, but, from what it sounds like to me, flash is the way to go for what it is that you're looking to achieve. You just need to play around with it some to find that perfect mix. All right. We have come down to the final question, and the final question here comes from Reid. Ooh, this is a long one. Okay. Let's see. You may, I love any question that starts with, you may edit this any way you want. Okay. Reid says, you may edit this any way you want, but I have a problem and I'm looking for a solution. I very much enjoy taking photographs, but editing is difficult and time consuming, and frankly, it takes the fun out of taking pictures. Amen. I realize that that sounds like a grumpy old man. Maybe I'm a grumpy old man. I understand that we live in a modern world with all kinds of photo apps and ai, but why does everything have to be perfect? Why can't we learn to take good to great photos in camera? Seems to me we try to change the color, the sharpness, the shadows, and remove something from the photo that we don't like. So what are we actually doing? Is there a place today for someone that just wants to take photos? I guess the easier answer is to take pictures and don't worry about it. And is there a simple program you can recommend for people editing? For people editing or recommend for people who are editing? I would imagine we're not editing people, so it's gonna be for people editing. Okay. With Lightroom and Photoshop, they seem way too confusing. I just need something simple or am I dreaming? Thanks for reading. Read from La Go Dodgers. Go Dodgers, go Blue. Number one in the West. Let's go. Okay. Read. Great, great question, man. Wow. We do live in a world of photo apps and ai and we live in a world where we are able to create things that, with relative ease would've taken teams of people and production budgets to create just, I don't know, 15, 20 years ago. And we can do this with ease on the telephone in our pocket. And, changing things like colors, changing things like shadows, changing things, like sharpness or removing things in the photos that we don't actually want in the image, again, is easier than ever to do, but I do wanna stress that they're not new to the digital world. Photographers have always been able to adjust color, adjust sharpness, shadows and remove things from the photos that they didn't like. That's always been possible. And it's always been done with photography. These things can be done in the dark room. When you have a photo en larger to print your photo, you have to put in different color gels to, get the color of your image. So, adjusting things like timing and what colors you use for the timing of exposing the, the file and print image do affect color. You can dodge and burn to affect highlights and shadows. You can remove things in camera by painting on the photos and then taking a photo of that. Like these things have been done for a long time, but it does seem like they're happening more and more often, so I get that it feels like everybody's doing it. But here's the thing, you are not every photographer in the world. When you say things like, it seems to me like we try to change the color sharpness, all these things. or adjusting the sharpness and shadows to remove something from a photo that we don't like. What are we actually doing? I think you're talking about photography as a whole, and the thing about photography is that it's very nuanced and there's a lot of niches shows. There are plenty of working photographers today who only shoot on film. There are plenty of photographers today who everything that they create goes through heavy editing in Photoshop. There's a lot of photographers in between. So rather than thinking about the we, which is funny, I would recommend thinking about the me. Because I am not creating an image for you. I'm not creating an image for social media. I am creating an image for me. And I understand that if you're sharing the photo, it feels like you're creating the image for social media. You're sharing the image for, or you're creating the image for another audience, but you are not. You are creating an image for you, and whether or not anybody else likes it is none of your concern. I'm sure that there's plenty of people who hate Picasso or Picasso's. There are plenty of people who don't like my work. And yet, despite that, I shot several hundred weddings and couples who I shot for, loved my work. I'm not creating for everybody else. I'm creating for myself. And that is the only way that you're going to be, not only successful as a photographer, but happy as a photographer. And what that means is that you can do whatever you want, whatever you want. And also, here's the thing with social media algorithms that I think make it really difficult is that you don't know what you're not seeing. So you know what it is that you're seeing. And sometimes it looks like it's only high production, highly edited, high gloss type images. You know where everything is pixel perfect. But I promise you, I promise you, there's a huge community of people who are taking photos. No editing, getting it right in camera and just sharing the photo of the moment of the subject, whatever it is, and they're doing their best to do the best that they can in camera to create amazing images, and then they're sharing them. I know this because I see some of those images in my social feed. I see images of photographers who, this is an older thing, of course,'cause it's, with Polaroid images, but you take a photo of a Polaroid and then it's called an emulsion lift, where you open up the Polaroid and you can, the ink or the gel inside of the Polaroid kind of solidifies and you can remove it and put it on something else like a piece of paper to create these interesting kind of ethereal type images. And that's done physically, right? There's a lot of things that we can do with our images. Not all of them have to be digital. It's 100% up to you about what it is that you want to do with the photos. One of the things that I like so much about shooting Fuji Film cameras was, I mean, in the beginning it was just a smaller camera, and I liked that'cause now I can kind of blend in more at a wedding and not get such camera aware, smiles, cheesy, fake, inauthentic images, but more authentic images because I can, again, blend in with the crowd and take these photos that they just thought maybe it's a guest taking photos. But as I got deeper into the Fuji film system, I realized, man, I really like what's called Fuji recipes, right? Within Fuji cameras, you can adjust the things like, how much sharpness you want in the image. how it renders blues, how it processes the image. You can create these quote unquote recipes and have them saved in your camera for, old looking film simulations. I have a film simulation, looks like Ill for 3,200. It's really grainy. It's really gritty. It's very contrasty, and I like that style of image. You can create these film recipes for something that looks more, like a portrait 400, right? So you can create these looks in the camera that produces JPEGs that in theory, look exactly how you want them to be, no, editing required. Now, can you edit those images further? Yeah, you can bring them into a program like Lightroom. Give them an edit before you share them. But there is a huge, huge, huge community of JPEG shooters, shooting Fuji film because you can get, you have a lot of control over the image in camera to produce a photo the way that you like, in the same way that how in film days you would choose a film stock based on the look that you were going for. You could choose something like, like a portrait 400, like an ill for 3,200, like a portrait one 60 nc. Tons and tons and tons. Fuji Film made up whole bunch of film simulations, and that's why you can create these, these looks inside of a Fuji Film camera that can emulate these older films. And again, get closer to how you want the photo captured in camera. And I love that because as somebody who, again, I feel you, when it comes to editing, I don't love it. And if I walk you through my entire editing process, I think it's a whole lot simpler than most people think that it is. I don't look through every photo looking for the problems. I don't look for things to remove. I don't look for a certain color to be able to adjust it in a different way. My editing workflow is starts in camera, get it as close to right in camera as humanly possible. And then the way that I see editing is just simply putting kind of my signature on it, my visual signature. I have one preset that I use 99% of the time. And what it it does is, is it's mostly just a tone curve slider. There's some slide adjustments that I'm not able to get as granular to tweak within my Fuji film camera. So again, it just brings me closer to how I see the image. I apply that preset to all of the images that I import, and then I just make super minor tweaks, a little bit more exposure here, a little bit less here. Bring down the highlights of touch here, and then I'm done. I can go through hundreds of images in a matter of five or 10 minutes, and they'll be ready to share. They'll be ready to do whatever I want with those images. They will be done, but my job is getting it right in camera and a lot of images I don't really have to touch once I apply my preset to it, that, again, adjust the tone curve to a way that I like. A lot of the images are just, they're just done and that's it. So read, man. Photography is whatever you want it to be, man, if you just want to go out and take great photos in camera and you want to focus on getting good to great photos in camera, man, do that. I'm not gonna stop you. I'm gonna applaud you for that. That is fantastic. But also if you want to go out and take photos that you know that you're gonna composite later into some heavily photoshopped masterpiece, I'm also gonna applaud you for that because that's what photography is. It's whatever you make it. So are there a lot of photo editing apps today? Yes. Is there AI that can do some wild things in photos? Yes. Is it easier than ever? And does it seem like everybody is heavily manipulating their photos? Yes. Do you have to do that? No. Not at all. I want photography to fit my life. I don't wanna fit my life around photography. I don't wanna spend an hour editing two photos. Now, the people who do that, man hats off. You're able to create incredible images. I love it. That's just not me. My wife is a nurse. She tells me wild stories at work, blood, bodily fluids, gross things, bones. I'm like, nope, not for me. I'm glad that there's people in the world like you, but that's not for me. Same with photography. I'm glad that there's people in the world who heavily edit a bunch of stuff. Magazine quality, huge composites. Great, fantastic. Love it. Not for me. That's not my style of photography. Reid, you can go out there, man. Shoot whatever you want, however you want. And guess what? It's no more or less valid as a piece of art than anybody else. So go out there. Do not let editing take the fun out of taking photos for you. Learn to get it right in camera. Learn a very simple editing workflow. And I promise you photography will be much, much, much more enjoyable because that's, that's what I have found it to be. So I know that it's possible. I kind of turned into a rant. Somehow, there's a soapbox now that I'm standing on. That's weird. I'm gonna go ahead and get off that. And that's it, man. So I hope that you enjoyed today's q and a episode. That's all that we got for you. If you have a burning photography question, I would love to answer it for you here on the podcast. You can submit your question by just heading over to beginner photo pod.com/qa. Submit your question and who knows, you just might get it answered here on the show. All right. That is it for today. Until next time, remember, the more that you shoot today, the better of a photographer you will be tomorrow. Talk soon.