Can the Canon 60D take high quality photos like this?

KayNYC

I want to know if my Canon 60D camera can capture high quality photos like this guys pictures on his instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/patisdope/

Or should I get a better Camera?
I'm using the Canon 60D with 18-55mm kit lens.

bruto

Those photos (or most of them) look reasonably well exposed and composed, etc., and I don't see any reason why any decent DSLR would be unable to duplicate them if the photographer has the vision required. They look also to be sharp, with fairly deep depth of field, suggesting either a kit lens or a good prime lens not used at its maximum aperture. Since none of the photos are of fast moving action of the sort that requires the most sophisticated auto focus, there is no reason they could not have been done on a mirrorless camera as well. Unfortunately, the EXIF information is not attached to the images, so we can't just check.

One thing I do notice is that because the subjects are dark skinned, the photographer has met the challenge well, possibly by exposure compensation or spot metering, and the result is often "high key," with the subject well exposed and the background very light, parts blown out. Black people can sometimes be a bit of a challenge to expose, and the photographer in question has, for the most part, got the skin tones well. To do this outdoors will often require that the background be sacrificed, and a judicious use of blown out background can sometimes work well as a substitute for shallow depth of field.

I don't see evidence of any exotic equipment here, though the perspective of the images looks to be normal, and it could well have been done with a normal length prime lens. A 35mm or 50mm lens on the DX body would give you this kind of sharp and straightforward look.

Of course it's quite possible the photographer does use a fine and exotic and expensive rig for this work, but I don't think it's a requirement. It's possible that the work was done by Joe Moore productions, which did the youtube video linked. They would appear to be a pro outfit and probably don't stint on equipment, but the work looks pretty straightforward without tricks and attempts to be different for its own sake.

I am not familiar with the ins and outs of Instagram, but wonder if there is a way to get in touch with the photographer. If there is, you could ask him directly. Perhaps if you were diligently to follow the youtube trail.

In the mean time, if you're wanting to raise your photography a notch, I'd seriously look at prime lenses of either 50mm or 35mm Canon has a "nifty fifty" that is said to be very nice at a crazy low price.

edit to add: While many of the images seem very good, a few do not, and I don't know if this is a matter of different photographers or of not getting it quite spot on every time. Some of the outdoor shots, especially those with hats, leave the faces poorly exposed, with shadows and dark areas. Although one of the earlier shots with a subject wearing sunglasses suggests that a flash might have been used, others look as if they would have benefited from a flash but it was not. This leads me to suspect that whoever was doing the photography was not equipped with a good off-camera flash. A wedding photographer, for example, would almost certainly not get away with this kind of face shading, and would almost certainly be carrying a pretty hefty off camera flash.