Whether you’re just starting out with photography or a pro looking to keep your skills sharp, there’s one thing you’re surely always after: excellent image quality. At the rate that photography technology is advancing, it’s easy to associate image quality with the latest and greatest gear or editing software. However, Roman Fox warns us against falling into the trap of the “image quality myth.” What exactly does this mean or involve? Let’s find out in today’s featured video!

Fox begins by touching on the premise of today’s photography marketing aimed at making photographers feel that they absolutely need to upgrade their gear. This, they argue, will ensure a major impact on your work, and “you’ll only get good photos or the photos that you want once you buy that lens or that camera.”

However, he also reminds us that most of the modern or advanced features frontloaded by camera manufacturers and marketers are only useful to a handful of photographers. Sure, it may excite you for a while, but as he observed, those will eventually end up never being used.

Then, he mentions a couple of important things to note. First, image quality actually hasn’t advanced significantly over the years, compared to features like autofocus or image stabilization. In fact, some photos he took in 2018 with a Fujifilm X-T3 showed very minimal difference from those taken with the Fujifilm X-T5 in terms of image quality.

Second, good image quality doesn’t necessarily equate to quality images. Fox poignantly put this as, “Image quality, you can buy with a credit card. A quality image, you can’t purchase it. You have to earn it.” When you’re starting out, it’s easy to believe that a photo free of defects like blur, lack of sharpness or chromatic aberration, is a good photo. However, it actually has more more to do with the composition, subject, visual and/or emotional impact, and story than technical perfection. And that, he noted, you can achieve by actually doing photography and getting better at it.

Do you agree with the points Roman Fox raised? Share your thoughts in the comments below!