Canon allows you to adjust the brightness of the LCD screen to suit your
environment. If you’re working in a studio, for example, the brightest
setting may be too bright to provide an adequate estimation of the
image quality, and you may think it necessary to adjust the exposure.
Working outside, you’ll probably want to boost the level as high as
possible. Checking an LCD image outdoors is diffi cult, especially in bright
sun, so you’ll want all the help you can get. Both EOS body styles use
a slider to select brightness with this Function, although they don’t have
the same design.
Rod Evans
Walking into Rod Evans’ studio reception room in Sioux Falls, South Dakota,
is a bit like walking into an art gallery. Huge (4’ 6’ inch and larger) prints
are hung on sandblasted brick walls over plush sofas and chairs. Large
windows, with carefully restored woodwork, illuminate the room with
east and north light. Occupying the fi rst fl oor corner of a building built in
1897 (which he purchased a number of years ago), Evans’ studio is a well
thought out mix of tasteful elegance and digital convenience.
The beautiful, massive, prints look a lot more like paintings than
traditional photographs, and that’s intentional. They represent the high
end of Evans’ considerable talent, and have been worked in Photoshop
and Painter, sometimes painted by hand, until he’s satisfi ed he’s created
an heirloom. Says Evans, “I believe the uniqueness you bring to your work
is what people are looking for, so I think the more unique you can be
with posing and design, and all the technical info you have will make you
better as a creator. Whatever artistic vision you bring to the table will help
you survive this market.”
Rod Evans draws visual inspiration from one of the great masters of
painting, John Singer Sargent. “I’m very passionate about his work,” he
says, “which gives me passion for my own. I think the more passion you
have, as an artist in any media, can’t help but make you better. I’m not
trying to copy him, I’m trying to be inspired by his work and creativity.”
“He had the same challenges that we, as photographers have; pleasing
your client and pleasing yourself as an artist. There’s a balance you have
to create”
Evans’ photography career started as a fl uke. “I had a real job (as a sales
trainer for Citibank), and someone asked me to shoot their wedding. I
said yes, then realized what a huge mistake I’d made. I bought books,
a camera, lights, because I knew a huge responsibility this was.” He
obviously did a good job. “One thing led to the next, and I booked a
few more. Pretty soon I had more business than … well, I had to make a
decision of one job over the other, and I was completely enamored with
photography.”
These days, Evans is strictly a portrait shooter, having left the wedding
business behind years ago. “We’ve been fortunate in our market, a city
of about 150,000 people which is growing rapidly,” he says. “I’m able to
work Tuesday to Friday, 9 to 5, and just shoot children and families. The
children and family markets are very big right now, segments of the
business that are actually growing”
Evans has always been a Canon shooter. “I had a number of Canon fi lm
cameras, including the 1N RS, a fantastic camera,” he said. “My fi rst Canon
digital was a Kodak DCS 560 (a Canon/Kodak hybrid), one of the fi rst
35mm digital cameras, which I keep as a memento of my $33,000 foray
into digital. Technology moves so fast; today, a camera with its features
would cost $800.00.”
These days Evans shoots with the venerable EOS-1Ds, although
he doesn’t use it in a conventional manner. “I like to shoot under
incandescent light with the camera set for a Daylight white balance,” he
says. “It was a mistake I made some years ago, resulting in images with
really orange light, but I liked it. Pictures I make this way have a degree of
intimacy that I don’t see when I shoot ‘correctly’. It’s amazing what comes
out of the camera
He goes on. “There’s an intimacy that happens when you don’t use fl ash,
even in the studio. Right now probably 85–90% of my portraiture is made
without any fl ash, just higher ISO. When the fl ash goes off , people relax,
but that’s the moment I want. So by photographing them without a fl ash
they’re always relaxed”
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