Then and Now, do you see the difference?

Photography allows you to track your progress by comparing photos taken in the past with more recent ones. For example, here’s a picture of a hummingbird I captured back in January 2021.

And here’s a recent photo I took of the same bird.

Back then, I was using a Sony a7R III with a Sigma 100-400mm Contemporary lens. Now I’m using a Canon R6 Mark I paired with a Canon EF 100-400mm L Mk II and a 1.4x extender. With the settings I had on the Sony a7R III, there was no way I could have captured a shot like the one I took with the R6. The shutter speed on the Sony was set to 1/500—fast enough to photograph the bird while it was perched. But if I could go back in time, I would have set the shutter speed to 1/5000, as I did with the R6, to increase the chances of getting a sharp image in case the bird decided to take flight.

Another key difference is the editing software. At the time, I was using CorelDRAW Photo-Paint, whereas now I rely on Adobe Lightroom Classic.

When comparing the two images, the hardware didn’t make as much of a difference as the editing tool—and my experience using it. I never quite mastered Photo-Paint to the point of achieving the results I get now with Lightroom Classic. On the other hand, I have to say that Lightroom Classic feels like the ideal editing tool, at least for me, specially when you use this took with DXO PureRaw for denoising the photo.

Clearly, just four years ago, I didn’t yet have the skills to achieve the level of quality I see in my photos today. It makes me wonder where I’ll be in another four years.