Latest news with #professionalphotographer
CNET
03-07-2025
- Automotive
- CNET
The Three Types of Camera I Learned Every Photographer Needs to Have
I've been a professional photographer for over a decade, shooting everything from editorial photo stories, to product photography and landscape, travel and street photography in my personal work. In that time, I've learned there are three main types of camera that all photographers need to own. And I'm not talking about brands, like a Sony or a Canon, or even sensor types, like a full frame or an APS C. I mean a deeper level of camera selection -- the types of camera that offer fundamentally different ways of taking photos and allow you to create your best work, no matter what genre you like to dabble in. And while these types could be three physically different cameras, they could also be represented in two cameras, or even just the one. I'll explain, so let's dive in with camera type number one. The workhorse This is the camera that gets stuff done. It's likely packed with modern camera technology. It's fast to use, shoots at high speed, has lightning-fast autofocus, possibly image stabilization, and almost certainly uses interchangeable lenses. It may well be full frame. It's the camera that pros the world over use for all kinds of photo shoots -- just like I have -- from weddings to cars to products to pets ... whatever. It's a jack-of-all-trades camera that you can trust will do anything you need it to any time you need it to do it. I've used my Canon R5 on numerous professional shoots for photos and videos. It's a high-performance all-rounder. Andrew Lanxon/CNET For me right now, that's the Canon R5. Fast, high resolution. Tons of features. A flippy screen. And it shoots awesome video. Endless lens and accessory options. It's the camera I trust for most of my professional work because I know it can deliver and I know I can deliver when I'm using it. Previously it's been the Canon 5DIV and before that it was the Canon 6D. For you, it might be the Sony A7RV, the Nikon Z8 or the Panasonic Lumix S5II. It might not be the latest model around, but whether it was launched in 2025 or 2005 it'll tick all the boxes you need for a busy day of photography whether you're a professional or an enthusiastic amateur. The workhorse is a camera that'll do everything and it'll do it well. But it's likely also quite big and probably quite expensive. While it's great that there are so many lenses to choose from, maybe sometimes you don't want the burden of choice. So that's when you need... A compact, fixed-lens camera like Fujifilm's X100VI is great to have with you, always ready to shoot. John Kim/ CNET The everyday carry It's a small digital. A compact point and shoot, ideally. Almost certainly a fixed lens. The Fuji X100VI or the Ricoh GRIII. Even the relatively ancient Sony RX1R or the Leica Q3. The Q3 isn't that small really but I actually love my Q3 43 as an everyday carry. It'll be the type of camera you can quickly grab when you're heading out in a hurry without thinking about lenses. When you don't want a backpack full of gear when camping, but do want lots of fun shots of you and your mates around the campfire. It's the camera you can always carry. It's the social camera you don't mind getting in among the chaos of life. It could feasibly even just be your phone camera. Read more: Best Phone Camera in 2025 It's probably the lightest camera you own that allows you to comfortably wear it around your neck while you're walking around the streets of some old Italian town. It's maybe even small enough to slip into your pocket when you go into a bar and easily slip back out when the light comes in beautifully through the pub window and you want to catch a quick shot. Having my Leica Q3 43 always with me allows me to snap scenes whenever I see them. Andrew Lanxon/CNET It's a camera for quick shooting and for social shooting -- maybe even grubby from-the-hip or spray and pray shooting. It's probably the camera you've captured the most memories on but it's also probably not the camera you've used to take your favorite fine art photos. Oh no, that'll be this one. The artful one It might not technically be your best camera. It might not have the most features. It might not be the smallest, the fastest or the easiest to use. But it's the camera that inspires you the most. It's the one that makes you feel creative just by looking at it. It's the one you choose to take when you drive for hours to one location in the slim hope that you might have good light that evening. It's the camera that makes you slow down and think about the art in your images rather than rattling off a thousand mediocre snaps. It's the camera that's responsible for the work you're most proud of. The Hasselblad 907X -- an amazing, quirky camera. Andrew Lanxon/CNET This camera could be a lot of things. It could be a film camera, be it 35mm or 120 medium format. That alone would slow you down and make you take a more methodical approach unless you're happy to spend a fortune on film. Or maybe it's something like a modern digital medium format like a Fuji GFX or my personal favorite, Hasselblad's 907X 100C — that weird little box gave me such a buzz when I used it that it was genuinely difficult to part with it when I had to send it back. I found the Hasselblad's X-Pan panorama mode incredibly inspiring. This image was even shortlisted for a major UK photography award. Andrew Lanxon/CNET It's a camera you might not even own yet and maybe don't even know you want. I didn't know I was at all interested in film photography until only quite recently, yet the other day I gave a man a fistful of cash in a car park to buy his medium format Mamiya 645 Pro, which I'm very excited to put to use. Life throws things your way sometimes. So maybe this camera is one you'll need to be a bit open minded about. But it's also the one you might be most glad you got in the years to come. Three types, one camera Between the workhorse, the everyday carry and the artful one, you have yourself covered in any aspect of photography, no matter what genre you like to dabble in. I took my Canon R5 to Sicily where it performed all the roles of workhorse, everyday carry and inspirational camera admirably. You don't necessarily need three separate cameras. Andrew Lanxon/CNET Of course, some cameras can be two things. Hell, some cameras could be all three. And that's absolutely fine -- as long as that one camera ticks each of those three boxes for you. It's really up to you to interpret whether your camera is small enough to be your everyday carry or inspiring enough to be your artful one. But this rule certainly doesn't mean you need to go out and buy two additional cameras. My Canon R5 with a compact prime on it certainly can be all three. It was a great everyday carry on a trip to Sicily and it inspired me to take artistic photos that I later licensed to go into a luxury travel book meaning it was also my workhorse. So on that one trip alone it ticked all three boxes. But it's not always all of those things for me. My Leica Q3 43 was a superb everyday carry camera on my recent travels to the Swedish Arctic and Barcelona. It was the camera I took on multiple ferry trips to various remote Scottish islands and it was the camera I took when I went to hang with my brother for his 40th birthday. And yeah, it too is also a camera that excites me, that inspires me and urges me to be more creative with my shooting. Because it's a damn Leica and what photographer doesn't feel excited to take photos when they're holding a Leica? My Leica Q3 43 was an amazing everyday carry and professional workhorse on my assignment in Sweden. Did it also inspire me creatively? You bet. Volvo But it's my recent forays into film that have taught me even more about slowing down and crafting an image and the culmination of that has led me to getting this Mamiya 645 as my artful camera, which completes my personal holy trinity. And sure, as my work and my style develops and other cameras come and go, that trio of cameras will likely change over the years but the basic building blocks of workhorse, everyday carry and the artful one will always need to be met by whatever cameras I have.
CNET
08-05-2025
- CNET
How to Take Photos of the Aurora With Your Phone or Camera
The northern lights -- or the Aurora Borealis, to give it its full name -- is a stunning phenomenon that fills the night sky with colors. Typically seen in northern areas like Iceland, Alaska or Norway during winter, in recent years the aurora has been visible in southern areas in different times of year. It was in May and October last year that the northern lights were clearly visible across a large part of the US and Europe, with CNET's team getting some gorgeous viewings in Missouri, Kansas and New York. I myself had an amazing time photographing in Edinburgh, Scotland. The aurora can be an amazing thing to photograph, and it's possible to get amazing photos using just your phone with no extra equipment. I've been a professional photographer for over a decade and have shot the aurora all over the world, so I've put together my best advice for taking your best-ever photos of the northern lights. How to take aurora photos with your phone Most modern camera phones have extremely capable night modes that let them capture bright images even when it's dark out. On most iPhones, that mode will kick in automatically when it detects that there's not enough light (you'll see a little moon symbol light up in yellow), while some Android phones may require you to shoot using a specific night-time photography mode that needs to be manually activated. Not sure how your phone's night mode works? Google the model and "night mode" in advance to check how to do it. Most modern camera phones will have some kind of night mode built in. Andrew Lanxon/CNET With night mode activated, you should be able to tap on the screen to set the exposure, take the picture and watch as your phone captures a long exposure that brings out the beauty of the aurora with little effort on your part. But there's a lot you can do to make those images even better. Read more: Take Your Best Night Mode Photos With Any Phone First, while you don't need a tripod when using a phone, keeping a steady hand will definitely help. Try leaning on a wall or at least bracing yourself by tucking in your elbows and trying to maintain a strong core while the image is taken. Holding your breath can help too. Stick to using the main image sensor, as this will almost certainly be how your phone captures its best-looking images. The ultrawide lens may allow you to capture more of the night sky, but these cameras will typically use smaller image sensors and narrower apertures, which won't help your photos. Most "standard" lenses on smartphones are around 24mm, which should be enough to capture a nice image. If you're shooting with a recent iPhone, take your image using Apple's ProRaw format. This saves more image data, while giving more control to adjust white balance and colors using either Apple's built-in editing tools or in apps like Snapseed or Adobe Lightroom. Most Android phones offer some kind of DNG raw photography, and I strongly recommend you use this. I took this image on my Leica camera on a recent trip to Sweden. I had it on a tripod, used a wide aperture and a 3-second shutter speed. I used the snowmobiles as foreground interest. Andrew Lanxon/CNET Changing the white balance in an aurora photo can often be critical, especially if you're shooting near urban areas where the orange glow of street lights can throw off your phone's camera. By shooting in raw, you can adjust the colors, along with exposure and contrast to really let the aurora's colors pop. How to take a photo of the aurora with a camera Using a regular DSLR or mirrorless camera is the best way to take photos of the northern lights. These cameras have much larger image sensors and bigger lens openings to capture much more light than your phone can. However, you'll need some extra gear. Read more: Best Camera to Buy in 2025 First, you'll absolutely need a tripod. Photos of the aurora are typically done over multiple seconds, so keeping your camera steady during that time is critical. If your camera has interchangeable lenses, opt for something around 20mm to capture a wider scene. A wider aperture is better here -- at least f/2.8, although a fast prime lens offering f/1.8 is even better. The wider the aperture, the more light it can let in. Best camera settings for taking photos of the aurora I find it best to take manual control of the camera when shooting the aurora as the varying light levels can throw off any auto or aperture priority modes. These are the exposure settings you need to consider: I was thrilled to have this impressive view of the aurora on a trip to Iceland. I had my camera on a tripod and used a long exposure to capture enough light. I used a wide lens to allow me to include the bay and mountains in the frame. Andrew Lanxon/CNET Wide aperture: As wide as your lens can go in order to let in more light. Ideally f/2.8, but f/2 or f/1.8 is better. High ISO speed: The higher the ISO, the more sensitive your sensor will be to light. ISO 800 is a good starting point, but you may find you want to push it to ISO 1000 or beyond. The higher the ISO speed, the more image noise (digital grain) will be visible, but most modern cameras (especially those with full-frame sensors) can handle high ISO speeds up to ISO 2000 very well with little to no visible noise. Slow shutter speed: Speeds of around two seconds are a good starting point, but again, you may find you need more light, so slowing it to five seconds might be necessary. Remember that the aurora does move, so if you want to capture it with clarity, keeping your shutter speed to a few seconds is best. If instead you want to fill the sky with a total wash of color (also fine), you can try experimenting with even slower speeds of 30 seconds or more. Keep in mind, too, that with long exposures, any movement of the camera will create blur in your image, so don't touch it while it's taking the photos. If you don't have a remote release cable for your camera, use the 2-second timer to allow for any vibrations to settle before your camera takes the image. Raw format: As with phones, shooting in raw gives you full control to adjust white balance later on in apps like Adobe Lightroom, while also giving more scope to light shadows and pull back highlights. Shooting in raw on your camera is a must here. Shooting vertical allows you to capture more of the night sky along with more foreground. Andrew Lanxon/CNET Tips for better aurora photos While having the right kit and sorting your settings will help your aurora photos come out nicely, there's plenty you can do to elevate your images from simple "oh, nice" snaps to "oh WOW!" pieces of art. First, consider your location. Simply shooting out of your bedroom window might be convenient, but perhaps there's a nearby spot you can quickly go to in order to get a better viewpoint. If you're anticipating an aurora overhead that evening, try and plan a trip out of town, away from light pollution in order to let those colors shine through even more. Read more: Best Tripod for Photography in 2025 Remember to concentrate on your composition. Sure, pointing your camera directly upward to take an image of the aurora by itself in the sky is fine, but think about how you can use the landscape in front of you as part of the composition. Maybe there are mountains, rivers, lakes or coastal bays that would look amazing with the aurora glimmering above. Perhaps you're in the city, far away from such beautiful natural scenery. No worries -- you can focus instead on bringing buildings into the equation, perhaps finding a viewpoint overlooking the city that allows you to capture the light show above. It's worth having some ideas in mind, so if you're keen to capture the aurora, it's worth googling some images and seeing if they help give you inspiration for your own shots. Finally, don't forget about editing. The editing stage can transform your aurora photos. Those of you shooting in raw format will already need to adjust the white balance of your images, but any shot will benefit from a few key tweaks. In my own images, I'll often slightly increase the exposure, up the contrast and even add some clarity to help the details of the aurora really stand out. Increasing the saturation is a no-brainer (we really want those colors to stand out!) and adjusting the crop to eliminate any unwanted distractions can be helpful too. There's no right or wrong way to edit your photos, so it's worth spending some time playing with the sliders.
