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My initial motive for creating this post was how impressed I am with the incredible dynamic range of the Canon 6D. But the more I thought I about it, the more I realized that folks might get the wrong idea. So let me just preface this whole thing by saying; I truly believe gear does not make the photographer. The camera is a tool, yada yada, photography is about seeing things, using light, creating something; there are threads and forums and websites that have beat that dead horse, well, to death. Let’s not make this post, or resulting comment thread, about that.

I am a huge fan of getting it right in the camera; you should be too.

On The Left

It’s glaringly obvious that my flash did not go off, as I had snapped that frame before my flash could recycle. Shooting full power, camera left on a stand with Rogue Flashbender attached. This photo was taken at 1/160 sec at f/4.0, ISO 100.

Before I had the 6D, that frame would just be a throwaway, and that’s OK. Really, it’s ok. When you are shooting family portraits, including wedding formals, and if you have then you get this, you fire more frames than any other type of portrait work. Add a kid or two or three into the mix and your filling up hard drives with blinking eyes and goofy faces. You get a lot of throwaways.

Well this particular moment was a keeper, but my flash didn’t fire. Enter the Canon 6D.

On The Right

Same photo, same moment. The dynamic range on the 6D is just that good. This is with the shadow slider all the way to the right in Lightroom and an adjustment brush localized on the family to bring in a little more detail. No noise reduction applied. The image on the right was still a bit too dark for my liking, so I took it into Photoshop after my initial work over in Lightroom so I could select the family and make some more localized and precise adjustments that I just couldn’t quite pull off in Lightroom. Although I must say Lightroom is getting scarily close to being the only program I need. Ever. This is not my typical workflow at all, btw.

Photoshop is my first aid kit.

Below is the final result (pretty much), with some of the foreground cleaned up and the overall image bright enough for my taste. No catchlights in the eyes, but hey, what can you do?

The Results

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Take Away

1) Gear doesn’t matter, but having great gear can really save your butt here and there.

2) Don’t take technology for granted. Getting it right in-camera means more time spent with my family and less time staring at my MacBook, and that’s huge for me.

3) Go out and shoot something. Now. Stop reading this, seriously.

Thanks for reading and please share your thoughts below.