The Tools of Photography

Note: This is an article I published about 6 months ago and has been updated here. When learning photography or any art form, it helps to keep this in mind.

The Tools of Photography

by William Lulow

The process of creating images for sale, or just for oneself has always been an “equipment driven medium.” There are certain tools that we all need to learn how to use before we can create our form of art.  It takes some type of machines, if you want to call them that, to make pictures. It would be nice if we could come upon a scene, blink our eyes and produce a print of what we just saw, but until we can do that, making photographs will always involve equipment. One needs a camera, lens, tripod, darkroom (with all its collateral tools), computer (as of the late 1980s or so), printers, mounting tools and frames for display of images and a number of other kinds of equipment as well.

And, wherever equipment is involved in any process, it is necessary for one to know how to use it and what its capabilities are. As I look back over my long career in the photography business and with just making photographs as an amateur beginning when I was about eleven years old or so, I can remember a kind of fascination with equipment in general. I learned how automobiles worked and could actually do some repairs on some of the cars I have owned in my life from oil changes, hose replacements even to installing a new clutch in my old Mustang.

I have been equally intrigued by how airplanes fly and what is involved in flying them. I even managed to take a few hours of flying lessons with a friend when I was in college. I subsequently learned that it was much too expensive a hobby to pursue given the other things that interested me.

I have often said of almost any art, that it is necessary to learn the “science” before you can make the “art.” Almost any art form from painting to sculpture to photography has a scientific base. With paints, you had to know how to mix them properly and how to dilute them to get a proper consistency. With sculpture you needed to know about such things as the “lost wax” technique in making bronzes or how to use the various chisels with marble. Photography is no different. If you wish to progress to the point of doing it as a career, you need to know your camera thoroughly. You need to know how light makes an image and how it can be preserved for all to see. And if you are going to make portraits for instance, you need to know something about artificial lighting and how it works. As a matter of fact, knowledge of classical studio lightings will help anyone recognize them when they occur in nature. So when the science becomes fully integrated in your process, you are then free to create your art! Another example is in music. Did you ever notice how really good musicians almost never look at their instruments when they play? They are reading some sheet music or singing a vocal part but they never have to look at their instrument to make sure they are playing the right notes or chords. That’s how well they know their tools!

But photography always seemed accessible in terms of the equipment needed. When I was working as an assistant at a few studios in New York City, I was slowly able to save enough money to purchase various pieces of lighting equipment. As each new light was acquired, I would literally spend weeks learning how to use it, how it worked, what all its components were and how to maintain them. It is worthwhile to note that much of the lighting I used in my commercial studio, lasted thirty years or more. It wasn’t until just last year, 2023 that I finally bought some new lighting equipment.

These lights are ‘Monolights” which are battery powered studio flash units (as opposed to the plug-in units I was using). And I studied how to use them with same intensity that I have devoted to all the equipment I now use.

This is the quality of portrait this setup can produce:

The same can be said for every single piece of gear I have ever bought. Sometimes I would take the manuals to bed with me and read them over as I fell asleep each night. I would do this almost religiously until I got to know thoroughly, how each worked.

I have also studied the history of the medium. When one does that, one comes to a more complete understanding of how modern-day equipment has evolved from what it was in the past. This makes for the realization of which parts are still as important as when they were first discovered and how new processes were introduced and how they are now integrated into today’s picture-making.

In addition to all this, today we have computers with various software packages designed to take the place of chemicals and darkrooms of the past. There are photographic “purists” who still love to make photographs using “continuous tone” techniques with traditional darkroom work, but most working professionals need to know how to use Adobe Photoshop, Bridge and Lightroom in order to be able to create a workflow to service their clients these days. There are other programs as well (such as Capture One), but the Adobe versions are almost industry standards. It also should be noted that learning computer programs is an intensive and extensive process. Most working photographers probably use only a small fraction of what Photoshop can do. Learning computers and the various software packages needed to process images is the “science” part of the process today. I used to sit for hours in my studio office just getting used to how the computer worked. My first machine was an IBM XT with maybe 128MB of RAM total! I remember when I was setting it up along with a dot-matrix printer I got with it, I heard the phone ring. It was my wife inquiring when I would be coming home. It was 2AM and I was still at the studio!

The camera is the first piece of equipment one needs to know how to operate. Today, of course, there is the glut of camera phones (or should I say cameras with phones attached). Everyone is a photographer, but perhaps not everyone really knows how to use this piece of equipment. One has to study these things to become really proficient at using them if one’s end goal is produce really good quality images and not just snapshots.

As most photographers of my generation, I had to make the switch from film to digital capture and learn the various computer programs that went along with it. I went completely digital around the year 2000 or so. My first digital camera was kind of like learning to use my first really professional camera (a Pentax Spotmatic) back in the 1960s or so. Shortly thereafter, when I decided to make photography my career, I bought two Nikon F bodies and a few lenses because they were really a step up from the Pentax. The reason was that the Nikons had bayonet lenses that could be changed with a simple twist whereas the Pentax had a thread mount that took much longer to attach a lens. Since I began by shooting musicians in concert, the Pentax mount was way too slow.

This is one of my early assignments for The Denver Post, Judy Collins in concert at the old Denver Coliseum, shot with my Nikon F and a 200mm f/4 lens. Whenever you change camera systems, you then need to learn anew, where all the dials and settings are and how to get the most from them. Most camera systems have the same features but the dials and settings are often in different places. These days, the cheaper digital camera bodies have settings built into their menus, which makes making changes a lot slower and more difficult. It is especially helpful for a photography teacher like myself to learn the various placement of all the menus and dials on various cameras because each student’s equipment may be different.

At some point, probably around 2009 or so, I made another switch to Canon equipment. At the time, their lenses were better and the bodies a bit more rugged. Today, almost any system has benefited from the advancement in digital technology that has taken place over the last 20 years or so.

That is indicative of the kind of devotion one needs to learning every single bit of equipment one has and how to get the most out of it. It kind of becomes a full-time job in itself.