Newbie Photographer

[kittywolf13]

Hi everyone. I joined this forum a long time ago but fell off the face of the planet soon afterwards. My husband recently got interested in photography and wants to start up a business (we are not aiming to to run along side those who are award winning pros, but we do want to provide quality services for those who can not afford the high end photographers or are turned away for various discrimination issues. I'll also be providing illustration/graphic design services on the side) We both have a Nikon d3200 (figured we could share the cost of lenses this way.) and have done a few small shoots for various things. I've only had my camera for about a month so im still shooting in Auto just cause i work a full time job and havent had a lot of time to practice. (<-- ok excuses i know.)

Right now im working on acquiring some models for practice sake, and finding good tutorials. Id love to take an actual class as i kind of suck at self teaching myself... but despite the high amount of photographers in my area, there is no local store to go to get advice. theres a local club that i think i need to visit though. there is a course i found but they want about 260 bucks for the 4 classes. Im pretty sure i can find something else before jumping onto that. but i dont know.

I guess im not entirely sure what im asking for here. I guess just some general good adivce, good tutorial websites or youtube, and if your in the sw fl area any good recomendations for stores and stuff for photography stuff. (you know that isnt best buy. cause thats all i got to work with in the same town.)

 

[tirediron]

The best advice I can give you is: Don't worry about starting a business for a while yet. A LONG while. Once you've got your skills and gear to the point where you can walk into any situation and deliver quality results, then start taking business training. Figure out what sort of licenses you need, how much insurance you need, etc, etc. There's a lot more to do in starting a photography business than simply buying a camera and hanging out your shingle. Don't forget too, you'll probably need at least $5000 for things such as licenses, insurance, attorney fees, registering your business, etc, etc, etc.

 

[kittywolf13]

thanks for the heads up. but again advice as to where i can get some more info.

 

[NCspotter]

@tirediron hit the nail on the head. I was thinking of starting a photography business too a couple months back, so I took a business class, and was blown away by the number of licenses, registrations, and insurance requirements there were. So, I've put that idea on hold and am trying to develop my photography skills a bit better, so that when I pick that idea up again, I'll be more prepared to hit the ground running once the business is up.

 

[NCspotter]

Oops, meant to post some tips and advice in the last comment.

There are plenty of books and whatnot on photography. They certainly don't hurt, but to be honest I pretty much taught myself what I currently know by simply browsing around and finding some pictures that I liked, then tried to learn how the photographers shot and composed each picture. Probably not the fastest or most effective way to learn, but I don't really like to spend a lot of money, and it's worked out for me so far. If there's a library or bookstore near where you live, check out Popular Photography for tips and news regarding photography-related subjects.

 

[kittywolf13]

guess i will check out the library... its not a bad idea. wonder what i did with my library card. Hmmm...

 

[pixmedic]

youtube can be a great way to get some free tutorials.
I like phlearn.com. some of their packages can get expensive, but they also have a fair amount of free tutorials.

the best way to learn is to find a photographer in your area willing to teach you.
If you are ever in the Orlando area, feel free to drop by and me and the wife can teach you a little about portrait photography and off camera flash.

 

[dennybeall]

Libraries can be a great source of information on photography and most have a lot of books showcasing the work of photographers from all eras. There are a number of Forums that have huge amounts of information, This one is great, I also visit Nikonians and nikonites.com on occasion. There are some forums on Photoshop as well that have huge amounts of info.
You can spend days (weeks) watching youtube videos, most of which you can tell right off if they are worth watching.
Cambridge in Color also has a forum.

 

[AceCo55]

This might be a good starting point to get you going:
Best Photography Tutorials for Beginners in 2014

 

[rudimaes]

Here you find a free online e-book, where you can read about the basics:
Creative Photography A Complete Online Book - Book Contents
Rudi

 

[soufiej]

Reading your replies, it sounds as if you want to start this business today - not when you've learned a bit about photography. But you are poor at being self taught. IMO those two things place you in a bind and one has to give. You can give away your services and hope to gain a bit of a reputation for doing so. Finally asking for a real world price after you've made your reputation. But asking for a fee when you aren't all that qualified is about like going to a doctor who charges less because most of their patients die.

Camera stores are not the place to learn photography. They are there to assist clients with specific issues and to give generic advice. But you can't call a store and say you're in the middle of a shoot and what should you do with ...

First, do you have any experience running a business? You want to offer "quality services". Kind of difficult if you neither know photography nor how to run a successful business.

IMO, you should put your plans on hold until you've gone to your local community college and taken a few classes. Do a photojournalism class and a business 101 class - at the least. You'll have the very rudimentary skills at that point to say you can run a photography business.

Just cause you wanna doesn't mean you should. Learn the basics before you even begin to say you can offer quality services.

 

[Valjean24601]

I might say to stay away from You Tube until you know a bit more. While there is good information out there, there is also a lot of misinformation and you won't be able to discern the difference yet. In terms of resources, you will want to buy read and re-read "Light: the Science and Magic". And I might suggest Ansel Adams "The Camera". Sure, it is based on film cameras, but the math and science hasn't changed one bit. For composition, I might start with "The Photographer's Eye". Keep in mind that your camera is only a tool used to record an exposure, to record light. Period. Fundamentally, you can use a camera to record more light (brighter image) or less light (darker image); to control Depth of Field; and to control motion. All of which still depends on the light! After that, composition, light, complimentary colors, perspective, and more have absolutely nothing to do with the camera.

 

[jovince3000]

if you're able to pay a certain fee, I'd recommend trying Lynda.com, that's where I got most of my photography formation and the thing is very well build up, there's hundreds of hours on different subject (only talking about photography for the moment) available and when you will feel confident about your photography skill, they also have many, many business courses that will interest you if you're looking to start your own thing eventually. But then again," take your time" is probably the best advice I can give you.

 

[The_Traveler]

Everybody here is trying to tell you in a nice way that being a pro and making money is difficult.

You are in the same position as tens of thousands of would-be photographers.
You have no knowledge, experience, skills or money to invest.
You have a single low-end camera body and probably will be looking at buying inexpensive lenses.
So, if you do get started and charge low prices, you will be competing against every other PWAC for the low end buck.
And you won't be producing quality work because the skills and experience needed to produce quality work take time to build.

And that's why good photographers charge high prices, because they have invested money and time to acquire knowledge, to get the equipment they need to do good work and have developed skills - the 'high prices' are to pay that back.

If you want to learn to be a photographer, start learning.
If your desire is to make money soon, honestly that's unrealistic starting from where you are.

 

[The_Traveler]

And the ugly truth lurking behind every very good photographer is that work and experience can make anyone a competent photographer but it takes real talent and effort to be really good.