Question by Whit: Tips for a photographer just starting out?
I am 15 years old and I am very interested in a career in photography. Any tips at all for a beginner (how to start out, things to remember when actually taking pictures, etc.)? please anything helps!
Best answer:
Answer by Ethan
photography is art just like music or painting or drawing etc etc. make it unique make it your own
Add your own answer in the comments!
1. You can take a world-class photograph on anything from an iPhone upwards. Just as a good artist doesn’t obsess about their tools like pencils and paint-brushes, neither do professional photographers. Know how I can spot an amateur photographer? They ask me about my camera kit, not what I’m taking photographs of.
2. Take photographs of a subject that you love. If that’s football or fashion models, don’t worry about the amount of competition should you decide to make a career out of it or other people’s opinions about it’s validity. If it’s a niche, then all the better, but there’s nothing more boring than covering a subject you aren’t interested in. It’s hard to be creative when you’re bored, very easy when you’re inspired.
3. Start building your portfolio online now. Get a free website to showcase your talent. Wix is now HTML5 and is free with unobtrusive adverts. Share your stuff on Facebook and ask for constructive criticism. Whether you go for a photography internship at a company or a photography qualification, get ready to blow their minds with your portfolio, starting today.
4. “Steal from the best”. Whatever subject you’re into, find the best 3 photographers of that subject and try to copy their ideas with your own photography. You’ll find your own style in time believe me.
5. Obtain a copy of Photoshop (any from CS 1 onwards) and learn about the following – Crop, Mask, Levels, Saturation, Healing Brush, Shadows / Highlights, Save For Web. That’s 90% of a pro photographer’s Photoshop usage right there.
6. When you have your camera, learn how to use it on Manual. Find out what f-stops are, what ‘shutter speed’ means and what ‘ISO’ is referring to.
7. Your feet are the best zoom lens you’ll ever own. Use them.
8. Don’t offer to take photographs for free for companies / organisations that usually pay for photographers. You’re taking money from pro phots and that’s what you hope to be some day.
9. When you get bored of using your phone and can buy a camera, get a second-hand one that’s had little use and has easy to access manual controls. Look at Nikon and Olympus. If you can get a full-frame DSLR, no matter how old (so long as it’s serviced / looked after) then do.
Buy your lenses depending on your subject matter. Sport / fast moving objects need a fast zoom at least 200mm and no slower than f2.8. Portraits need a lens as fast as f1.8 fixed length around 80mm. You can get away with much slower lenses for landscapes but then you definitely need to buy a tripod.
10. Even if you ignore or forget all of the above, here’s a quotation for you I hear in my head on every job I ever do from famous WW2 War Photographer Robert Capa.
“If it’s not good enough, you’re not close enough.”
Good luck and have fun!!!
Royal Navy Photographer 8yrs, now professional freelance photographer, video editor and journalist.
Do this in enjoyable manner. Because it makes u thirsty in photography….
When taking a photo, check all corners in the view finder to spot anything that you don’t want captured in the picture. When you find something that you don’t want in the potential picture, move it or move the camera so that it is not visible in the view finder/screen. AND Make sure that you don’t cut off apart of someones body on accident, that can ruin a photo. ex: Cutting off the top of the head, the arm, hand, elbow, foot, leg, hair, clothing( flowing dress) etc.
Make sure that everything you want in the picture is 100% visible, so that nothing cuts off. Leave enough extra space all around the subject because you can always crop it later using photo editing software such as Photoshop, or anything free and accessible to you.
And ONLY use Macro Focus for small subjects, such as flowers, bugs, rocks, spiderwebs, etc.
Hope this helps a lot. This is all the basic stuff that you should really pay attention to.
High ISO- 600-800 will result in a grainy picture. Low ISO- will result in bad lighting.
400 is perfect for ISO
I really hate to say this but it seems that everyone thinks they can have a career in photography.
The fact is, EVERYONE thinks this so imagine the competition you’re going to be up against.
I started getting interested in Photography in the early 70’s… I took some photos of a helicopter crash on board an LPH and NIS (Naval Investigative Service) took ‘interest’ in my images. That’s when I realized how lucrative some photos could be. I shot accidents – made pretty decent money both publishing them with local newsgroups and providing Police copies so I could ‘chase’ lawyers who wanted them for lawsuits.
Next thing I know, I’m shooting for some local newspapers as a freelance photographer and eeking out a living that way. Problem is, so is every body else with a camera and a scanner. I find I’m competing with people with digital services who can get their images to the newsgroups faster than I can driving there. Welcome to digital.
Tips?… be prepared to invest most of your time promoting your work.
Be prepared to be up against some pretty impressive photographer who have not only the money to promote their work but the money to purchase expensive equipment, pay people to do post production image enhancing, pay assistants to capture images you can’t because you can’t be in two or three places at the same time, digitally transfer their images via satellite to anyplace in the world and just simply out source any effort you make to become a successful photographer.
The only advantage I have over these financially supported rich kids is,…
…I’m a photographer that knows what he’s doing.
TRY SELLING THAT.
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Hello Whit. The best way to learn the art and craft of photography is by taking classes. However, its also possible to learn independently. Here are the things you need to learn about: Light, Exposure, Composition, Depth of Field (DOF) and Seeing Photographically. These sites will help:
LIGHT
http://photographyknowhow.com/photography-lighting/
http://photographyknowhow.com/quality-of-light-in-photography/
http://photographyknowhow.com/direction-of-light-in-photography/
Photography is all about light. In fact, its loosely defined as drawing or painting with light. Light has many qualities. It can be hard and direct, it can be soft and diffused, it can be from the front, side or back of your subject. It has different qualities at different times of the year. The light at 3pm in August is different than the light at 3pm in October. The light at 8am in March is different than the light at 8am in June. Every chance you get – with or without your camera – study the light.
EXPOSURE
http://digital-photography-school.com/learning-exposure-in-digital-photography
Learning about the Exposure Triangle – Aperture/Shutter Speed/ISO – and how they are used together to make a correct exposure is something everyone interested in photography must know. Its especially necessary if you’re shooting in Manual (based on the camera’s light meter you manually set aperture and shutter speed) but equally important when shooting in Aperture Priority (you select an aperture, the camera selects the shutter speed) or Shutter Priority (you select a shutter speed, the camera selects the aperture).
COMPOSITION
http://www.photographymad.com/pages/view/10-top-photography-composition-rules
Composition is the pleasing arrangement of a subject or subjects within the frame. By learning this early on you’ll know to not center your subject. However, the “Rules” don’t always apply but you need to know them before you can begin bending or breaking them to suit your personal vision.
DOF
http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/depth-of-field.htm
Depth of field is that area in focus in front of and behind your subject. Its affected by only three things: 1) The focal length of your lens; 2) The aperture used; 3) The subject distance. It can be very deep as in a landscape where everything you see appears to be in focus or very shallow as in a portrait or picture of a flower when you want to separate your subject from the background.
Deep: http://www.flickr.com/photos/drifter45h/4032748624/
Shallow: http://www.flickr.com/photos/drifter45h/7308480918/
SEEING PHOTOGRAPHICALLY
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/columns/aesthetics-1.shtml
You may not know this but those of us interested in photography see things differently than those with no interest in photography. While most people simply look at a scene, we see the details hidden within the scene. They see a bright yellow flower. We see that its backlit and see the detail of the leaf structure. They see a dead tree. We see the detail and texture of the sidelit decaying wood. Its a difficult thing to explain.
Whit, good photography requires thinking. Begin training yourself to think about Light, Exposure, Composition and DOF before you release the shutter. You also need to learn to pay as much attention to everything else in the frame as you do to your subject so you see any possible distractions – litter, a stray garbage can, powerlines, a tree or pole appearing to be “growing” out of your subjects head, an overexposed area that will draw attention in the foreground or background. By seeing distractions you’ll know to change your composition to eliminate or minimize them.
Good luck and persevere. This photography thing requires study and practice. Learning is not done by simply pointing your camera here, there and everywhere and clicking the shutter release. Your goal is quality, not quantity. As often as not if I go out and make 36 exposures and 25 to 30 of them are worth keeping then I’ve had a good day.