Portrait Photography How To

It‘s no secret that there’s been a dramatic shift from DSLR to mirrorless camera systems on the part of consumers and manufactures alike. But some photographers are hanging on to their trusty DSLRs for making certain types of images.

In the interesting video below, Florida-based pro Miguel Quiles provides an unequivocal take on this topic with regard to portrait photography, and he greatly prefers one system to the other. In fact, he provides five strong reasons why mirrorless cameras are “far better” than DSLRs for his type of shooting.

Quiles says his preference is particularly important for novice portrait photographers, and his first reason is that “What you see is what you get.” As he explains, when you shoot with a DSLR and adjust various exposure settings, the image you see through the optical viewfinder doesn’t change at all.

As a result, “You have no idea whether the settings you entered will give you the look you’re aiming for until you take the shot and review it on the back of your camera.” On the other hand, thanks to the Live View feature on mirrorless cameras, you can see how your settings affect the image in real time—before you press the shutter button.

Another reason Quiles prefers his mirrorless camera is what he calls “new age chimping.” As noted above, with a DSLR you have to take a photo, pause for a second, and then review the image to see your settings are correct. Quiles says this pause is detrimental to portrait photography because it disrupts the flow of the session and can be very distracting to the model as you spend time staring at the back of your camera.

Another reasons Quiles shoots with a mirrorless camera has to do with “all the useful new tech” these systems provide, and he explains several important considerations. For complete details on these and other advantages of mirrorless cameras for portrait photography, spend 12 minutes watching the video.

You can find more helpful tips on Quiles YouTube channel, so be sure and take a look.