photography

[im_the_undead]

one day, i want to please myself and study the art of photography

yay, i'd love to do something artistic like this!

is anyone a photographer here?

what professions can one obtain in this area, other than booking weddings? lol

also, what kind of professional camera should i purchase ??

[sidehop]

Photography can go in so many directions, people do the popular weddings, landscape, architectural (for real estate, ads, etc), portrait, artistic, product, and more. Most photographers usually focus on one or two things. So there are many ways you can market yourself once you've established some portfolio. I've done weddings, had few photographs published but not doing it full time by any means.

 

Camera wise, the 'professional' camera can range from $2,500 up to $37,000 just with the camera body alone. If you're starting any point-and-shoot camera with some manual features will be great. Then when you want to spend more money on the body, lens, flash, etc etc the fun begins. There are a lot of entry level DSLR also, the only thing is the body can had for less than $1,000 but good lens will cost you $500+ all the way to $20,000+ a pop. If you want jump in and get a good DSLR with good lens Canon & Nikon usually have a package. Even a DSLR that's few years old will be more than enough to produce stunning images. The other thing you'll need to learn with any digital photography is post processing with Photoshop and other software.

 

I'd look into learning the basics of photography and go from there, even the pro's will tell you there's always something new to learn in photography. It's great fun!

[DrKitten]

I'm a photographer. There's a pretty big split in the pro photography world between commercial and fine art. Do you want to make a decent income from photography? If so, you want to be a commercial photographer. You can shoot products for advertising, editorial, fashion, architecture, interiors, etc. Find your specialty and get REALLY good at shooting it. Then you'll have to market yourself, which is a whole other beast.

 

Look around for DSLR cameras and play around, see what you like. I've always been loyal to the Canon EOS series. Nikon D series is good too. Sony has recently become a very affordable competitor with their Alpha series as well. The camera body is secondary to the lenses though. Invest in good lenses if you want good quality shots.

[im_the_undead]

how do i know which lenses are "good"???

anyway, thank you for the tips !!!

i'm excited, even though the prices are outrageous ! lol

[sidehop]

link removed & link removed have an excellent lens review.

 

Price is relative sometimes, Canon's "L" labels and Nikon's "VR" labels are usually more expensive designed for professionals but Tokina and Tamron produce excellent quality lens depending on the version as well. Canon's $100 50mm f1.8 for example is very popular with beginner photographers that offer very sharp image. Usually with the expensive lens they are constructed for durability, accuracy in focus and sharpness with less distortion, chromatic aberration, etc.

 

If you want a good DSLR you can pick up something like Canon's Rebel XS with the above lens I mentioned. A good walk around lens around 17mm~200mm will give you enough for wide angle to zoomed without having to change the lens frequently.

 

The lens really depends on your use. If you want landscape you obviously want a wide angle like 17mm~35mm lens while if you want a zoomed or shots that focus on a subject and have that blurred background you want something in the range of 50mm+ Or shooting a bird or something in the distance will require more. Look in Google for the term 'bokeh' and you'll know what I mean.

 

It 'can' be expensive doing photography but doesn't have to be

[im_the_undead]

yes, i want something that focuses on one thing and blurs the rest out. i didn't know there was a lense especially for that.

so that would be a 50+ lens?

[sidehop]

Well it depends on the aperture of the lens as well. Say a lens that's designated as 50mm f2.8; f2.8 is the aperture which how big the lens can open, the smaller the number, the bigger opening (it's weird concept I know). If you take that lens, shoot it at f2.8 of a subject, you'll have a somewhat of a blurred image in the background. If you take say a 200mm lens with the same aperture, the blur will be even more visible.

 

But if you 'stop down' the lens where you close the aperture to say f8, you'll have an image that you can see the background more. It really depends what you're shooting. Sometimes you'll want to stop down to take a picture of a subject with no background blur. Generally f2.8 and larger (up to f1.2 lens) is expensive as the construction of the glass is bigger to allow more light but can take very sharp images. Not to say other lens can't but it's also nice feature in low-light setting.

 

I'd definitely get a zoom lens that can offer between 35mm~200mm. It'll be versatile for wide angle shots to up close/macro or the blurred image shots.

[im_the_undead]

omg that all sounds crazy! lol did you take classes to learn this?

[sidehop]

Nope, mostly learned from online resources. Been doing photography for about seven years now.

 

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^some great resources.

[im_the_undead]

oh, thank you

do you have a studio ?

[sidehop]

Nope, I haven't done a lot of portrait to justify. I do bit of product photography.

[yall002]

Ive been doing photography for about the past 5 months as a hobby. Obviously I still have a lot to learn, but I found that once I bought a DSLR camera and got a chance to play around with it I picked up the basics in a few weeks.

 

I would recommend the canon 550D if thats in your price range. Check out photos ive taken on it here:

 

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[sjjohnson89]

one day, i want to please myself and study the art of photography

yay, i'd love to do something artistic like this!

is anyone a photographer here?

what professions can one obtain in this area, other than booking weddings? lol

also, what kind of professional camera should i purchase ??

 

I love photography, one of my favourite artistic mediums and highly underated as an art form. My favourite photographers are Alexander Rodchenko and Bill Brandt, if you dont know them you should serioulsy check them out. I think the decision you need to make when thinking of pursuing art is are you doing it out of love or looking for a career. If youre looking for the latter then maybe you should do something else in sted, since the art world is based on who you know to get you places. Do it because you love it and you will have gained a new skill which could lead onto something. In terms of photography careers, that is a very broad question and it totally depends on how you intend to use it. But yes, there is plenty of potential here if youve got the abililty. Depending on your experience level, i would start out with a something like a Canon EOS range. I started with one of these so i can say they certainly do the job. I wouldnt worry about the lens yet, just develope a style and then decide what lens will help best achieve what you want. I would wait to buy a proffessional camera until you feel you really need it to get to the next level.

 

Its a bit like say, you start playing tennis. You dont go out and buy a full on Babolat Pure Drive GT for your first racket, you wait till you have the skill to benifit from its advantages. Im assuming youre just getting started so my advice is based around this, if you have a fair bit of experience then you might want to go all out with a proffessional model.

 

Hope this helps.