Ready for anything:
family photography with the
Canon EOS-1D X Mark III

Photographing lively children in low light might not have quite the same glamour as shooting, say, international skiing action or a sea eagle plucking a fish out of water, but it's equally challenging. Canon Ambassador Helen Bartlett has been a professional family photographer for 16 years, and in that time has had plenty of experience in capturing great pictures in difficult conditions.

Helen shoots informal, natural-looking family portraits inside clients' homes, and often in parks or playgrounds. Setting up artificial lighting isn't usually practical for these shoots, so she has to work in whatever light is available on the day.

Coming away from the shoot with sharp, well-exposed, top-quality images is essential; her shots are displayed as large framed prints for clients' walls, up to 150x100cm in size, or often up to 60cm wide on a double-page spread of a 30x30cm album.

What do you look for in a camera?

"For me, using the Canon EOS-1 series is about having a camera that I know is the best available, and one that will help me take good pictures in quite difficult situations. If you're operating at the top end of the market, you need to be producing a top-end product in every way. I'm making life easy for myself by getting the best camera in the world to help me do that."

What kinds of lighting conditions do you work in?

"Sometimes I'll go to a place and it will be a gorgeous, light-filled house, and other times people might be renovating a house and staying in the smallest flat they can fit into. Taking pictures of four small boys in a basement flat on a rainy day is not unusual, and that's a really challenging situation – you've got to deal with kids bouncing off the walls and terrible lighting."

Why don't you use artificial lighting?

"I'm usually moving around from room to room, so I can't set up beautiful lighting to get the perfect shot. The kids might refuse to stay in one place, or might be there for two seconds before they're gone. Everything I'm doing needs to be really fluid because I'm always on the move. So having something that works in very low light, with excellent autofocus, is absolutely key for me, and the Canon EOS-1 series is the best for that."

What were your first impressions of the camera?

"I thought it was very similar in feel, build and menu structure to the Canon EOS-1D X Mark II, which is good for me because I don't really like change. I find learning to use new equipment really stressful, so the fact that I could pick up the Canon EOS-1D X Mark III and it felt like the Mark II was a real bonus – it does everything the Mark II did, but better."

How did the autofocus perform?

"The autofocus was absolutely spot-on all the time. The new autofocus algorithm, which uses deep learning to recognise and follow a subject, was incredible. When kids are jumping around on beds, for example, the camera will find their faces and follow them. If a child is jumping and spins around, when they turn back the camera will focus on their face again. The autofocus on the Canon EOS-1D X Mark III was snappier than on the Mark II and seems more accurate, particularly indoors."

Since you don't use artificial lighting, what ISO do you shoot at?

"On the Canon EOS-1D X Mark II, I usually go up to ISO8000. On the Canon EOS-1D X Mark III, I was shooting at ISO10000, and the images look great at high ISOs. This means I'll be able to move up a notch or two in my everyday work, which is going to be really helpful. You can take it up higher with no problems. It's certainly going to give more flexibility with low-light work."

What's your favourite feature on the Canon EOS-1D X Mark III?

"I love the new AF point selection control – it's so quick. That made me really happy. The Canon EOS-1D X Mark II has 61 AF points but I set it to use the main nine of them, because it's easy to jump quickly between those nine using the joystick. But with the Canon EOS-1D X Mark III I don't need to limit myself to just nine, I can use all 191 available focus points because, with the smart controller, it's much quicker to move between them. That gives me more flexibility for interesting compositions because I can move the focusing point as fast as the children are moving around."

Any other features that will be particularly useful to you?

"Live View tracking. When you're photographing in people's homes, you're working around furniture and things on the walls. It's not a clean shooting environment, so anything you can do to make it clearer – without moving things around – will help. Using Live View and shooting from interesting angles, down low or up high, is going to give a different viewpoint, and sometimes you just can't get yourself in those corners, so you have to hold your camera in position. Using Live View tracking is going to be a game-changer. It will give me a lot of creative advantage in terms of composition, especially with the movement I get in a lot of my shoots, because children are never still for long."

What makes the Canon EOS-1D X Mark III worth the investment?

"In many ways, everything we do as photographers is to give ourselves a competitive advantage. I have used the Canon EOS-1D X Mark II because very few people in my genre are using it, and that means I can take pictures other people can't – and get clients that others can't, so the cameras pay for themselves. It's a commercial no-brainer. The Canon EOS-1D X Mark III will give me even more of an advantage. That's why I'll be jumping on it, because I want to take advantage of everything it offers. It will allow me to push myself and take pictures I can't take at the moment, which is also what makes it fun. You have to keep pushing yourself, pushing the technology – and working out how that technology can give you opportunities."