5 Photography Myths Busted

5 Photography Myths Busted
#1 Full frame camera is the only professional camera
#2 You buy a system camera to be able to use as many lenses as possible
#3 You need certain lenses or a certain number of lenses
#4 Sharpness is one key element in a photograph
#5 Shallow DOF is one key element in a photograph
👕Get something to wear and support my channel at the same time👕

If you are interested in premium quality music for your videos, please use this affiliate link to subscribe to Artlist and get two extra months for free.

My name is Matti Sulanto, I'm a photographer and a Lumix ambassador based in Helsinki Finland. I'll publish a new video twice a week.

My camera gear, these are affiliate links:

I make my content using Panasonic Lumix cameras and lenses. Some of the equipment I use is my own and some is on loan from Panasonic.

[mfreider]

Doing photography as hobby for 20 years, I was delighted to hear your words of wisdom. I really mean it. It is very sad to see how many young and starting photographers falls to marketing traps completely ignoring fundamentals. Thank you! Thank you for such sensible and honest video!

[dorianonthebike]

An opinion of a photographer with a background like yours is extremely valuable. Also this is one of the best videos an amature photographer can find on youtube! Thanks for sharing your knowledge.

[SalwanJBinni]

Great stuff... You are absolutely right Matti

[christiankorn]

Love it! And teaches me a lot. THX Matti.

[johnehman]

Thanks, Matti. I went with MFT precisely because Panasonic came out with the 45mm f/2.8 Macro, giving me new freedom for handheld macro nature photography, and the G1 body was a wonderfully small pairing. Plus, MFT gave me the opportunity for greater DoF in many situations: while still allowing me good capability for shallow DoF when I wanted. That setup, plus the Panasonic 20mm f/1.7, was all I ever used for years — very happily — giving me the results I wanted (and earning me awards). So, I applaud your overall message In many of your videos: get just the gear you need and learn to use it well! That’s a message for professionals and beginners alike, but one from which people are too often distracted. Thanks for your emphasis on the craft and art of photography over a fascination of gear, and thanks for pointing up the value of MFT. It’s a fantastic format for the “sweet spot” between performance and size that lets me be unencumbered in my pursuit of great images and has increased my enjoyment of the photographic process.

[hanslamal]

Very very true! "Garbage" is also the perfect word 👍a lot of arrogance and snobism going on in the photography world too

[jorgjanssen]

I agree with this. Thank you for this video!

[rikardpersson]

I really like your videos! So much wisdom presented in a positive and humble way! Thanks! I also totally agree with you - especially the part on shallow depth of field - I’ve seen so many potentially great photos blown into boring oblivion by too little depth of field (and thus completely devoid of composition or story)!

[siofna]

You are right. I am only a amateur and maybe not the best. But "good material" doesn't make me better too.

Have a nice day :-).

[leszekmazur]

Agreed with everything. When it comes to the first point of sensor size - in reality it's the lens that matter not the sensor size. A 50mm/f2.8 FF lens is exactly the same size and weight as a 25mm/f1.4 lens. It also produces the same depth of field and captures the same amount of light because it IS the same lens just adopted to different sensor sizes. The advantage of MFT is the size and portability which I love. While no one would buy a 24-64mm/f7-11 FF lens, people including yours truly are happy with a 12-32mm/f3.5-5.6 pocket zoom lens to go with my Lumix GM5 pocket camera. Yes you could have the same size lens in FF, but because of misconceptions about "slow" lenses (f7-11) no one would buy it.

[erichstocker]

I agree with you on the whole. I think selective focus is a good way to isolate a subject and even use as a frame in macro shots. However, this fixation on bokeh drives me absolutely nuts. I don't buy a lens for how the out of focus area looks. I buy a lens for the other qualities it has color rendition, sharpness, etc. My one other reservation is that as an amateur I like to fondle my cameras as well as shoot with it. Better than a pet every day! :-)

[kimbentsen]

1#: Some claim that medium format also is a pro camera - not just FF.

[tEhsamuxr]

I totally agree with you Matti. Years ago when I started photographing, the shallow depth of field was something very attractive and something I wanted to do also. But in my opinion, when you advance in your skills, you suddenly notice, that the shallow depth of field is actually very lazy and unimaginary type of photography. There is nothing easier to do than just to pick the right lense and throw the background out of focus. Actually I think that the shallow depth of field photography fascinates people because you need certain type (usually expensive) gear to do that. Most people still takes their photos with phones, and you need some AI and post processing to achieve that shallow depth of field -look. After all, shallow depth of field works very nicely in some situations (macro, types of portraiture etc.), but the real satisfaction for me in photography comes, when you can nail those four key elements you just mentioned. It really helps to improve you as a photographer, when you ditch that shallow depth of field -mentality and start to train your eye. All others are just technique and everyone can master technique of photography quite fast, but the training of the ”eye” can take some time and it never gets perfect and thats the real fascination of photography.

[GanesanRajkumar]

A very good myth-buster video this is! Adding another myth from my hobbyist experience - “The higher the social media ‘likes’ you get for your photograph, more better the photograph is.”

[paulthomas]

I started into photography several years ago with a fuji apsc camera. When I bought the cameras I got the 18-55 kit lens with it. Later I added some fast primes for shooting indoors when I could not use flash and to create shallow depth of field. I have been temped by full frame and higher megapixel but never bit the bullet. The past year I tried a friends Olympus em1 and was very pleased with the results, so much so I ended up buying one of my own. The compact size of the lenses encourage me to take the camera along instead of leaving it at home. The image quality difference is barely noticeable compared to my apsc fuji. To see any difference you have to zoom in at least 100% and pixel peep like crazy. In any practical situation you can not tell which picture was shot with which camera. Another huge benefit of micro 4/3rd is the zoom range available with the lenses which make them ideal for one lens travel. If I were shooting a lot in very low light and needed fast shutter speed or had to have extreme shallow depth of field then yes a full frame would be preferred. Glad I went with the more compact easy carry kit.

[markwagner]

Matti, one of the myths in photography that I teach my students is that strange belief that all pictures should be shot with a very low ISO. Many of my favorite pictures I have shot at ISO 2000 on my Lumix M43 cameras. Many shots at ISO 5000 and a few even at ISO 8000. But, yes, I do use low ISO too. Sometimes I have been known to shoot below the native ISO as well.

[Bgmutza]

As a beginner, this video really hit me in a profound way, especially the last two points. Lots of wisdom to digest here... thank you so much for sharing it!

[theuktoday]

I sold my full frame Sony and still use older Sony APSC mirrorless cameras. I get fantastic results especially from my old lenses.

[nrmpt]

I agree with all 5 points, except number 2 has a lot of truth to me. I went from Sony APSC to full frame because I wanted an ultra wide angle fast zoom which APSC didn't have. So while i don't need to use as many lenses as possible, i wanted one lens apsc didn't offer to consumers.

[robertromanelli]

I appreciate you for always telling it like it is. Sometimes we get so involved in the minutiae we forget about the fundamentals of taking a good photograph. Your words are as usual, very wise and very instructional. Thank you for yet another great video.