The Game-Changing GH4 - Guest Post by William Innes

Intro by Skip Cohen

I love the analogy Panasonic's Luminary, William Innes, brings to this post this morning. The original title was "Read Your Camera Manual", but that so understates what the GH4 is really all about. I've been shooting with the GH3, the GH4's predecessor, for several months and the technology Panasonic has developed is a game-changer.  So, William, I hope you're okay with the title change. LOL

Check out William’s new website at www.innesphotography.com to see more of his wedding work and examples of the entire LUMIX family in action!

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I have a good friend (who will remain anonymous) who recently posted a story on Facebook describing how he had found some new buttons and switches in his car. What made this interesting was he had owned and driven the automobile for over three years. He was amazed and finally admitted to finding his owners manual and discovering what functions these new switches performed.

I think photographers with new cameras seem to roll like my friend above. They get a new camera and since it is very similar in appearance (including the menu) to their older camera – they don’t bother reading the manual in detail. This has been confirmed to me by quite a few of my photographer friends.

I am one of those geeks who loves reading manuals – all kinds of manuals – new TV’s, computers, coffee makers, and of course new cameras. A good case in point is my new Lumix GH4 camera.

I was very excited when it arrived and wanted to shoot it at my next wedding. On the outside it looks almost the same as the GH3, but the inside (where all the good stuff happens) is all-new. So I resisted the urge to just go and shoot and spent some time with the manual. I learned a lot about new features and things you can do with your camera.

One of my favorites is a feature that not only lets you touch the screen where you want to focus, but it will also set the optimum exposure for this area as well. In the bridal image here – I touched the bride's face on my screen and the camera set this as the area to expose and focus. This was confirmed on my screen with a little green rectangle (for focus) and a little blue "+" sign (for exposure).

Read your camera manual. You may be amazed at some of the new features you will discover.

Pro Tip: Download your camera manual in PDF format and save it on your smartphone. If something goes a little sideways during a shoot – you will have easy access to your manual.

Photo: Image was shot with a Lumix GH4 in raw format and processed in DXO 9.5 and Photoshop CC.

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