amateur photographer wanting more professional photos

sabenemmons

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I am a amateur photographer and i would like to step up the quality of my photos. I already have a pretty good camera (canon rebel ti) but i was wanting to know what kind of film to use (b+w, color) and where to get it processed. I want to start doing some portraits and want a place to process it that will do 8x10 and wallet size but keep them at studio quaility.
any help would be great.
 
Fil choice is largely personal although you can get films balanced for portraits. For finer grain remember to use a lower asa film and use a tripod wherever possible.
 
remeber one thing: the camera itself HAS NO EFFECT ON IMAGE QUALITY WHATSOEVER. This might sound absurd but its true. Image quality=Lens+Film+Lighting
 
let me add something to that Sasha, In order of importance.

1. Photographers vision relized
2. Photography skills

These two are the most important for any photograph

3. Lighting
4. Lens
5. film
 
New film, new camera, new lens won't help as much as shooting more, reading more, looking more.
 
Practise,practise,practise....and be critical of your own photos...more so then your friends and family ever will be
 
i can't agree more with whats already been posted. i am in the same position. i have been photogrpahing for about 2.5 years now and go through film like water in the desert! that reminds me, i have about 15 rolls that need developing :(

if you're looking to do colour portraits, fuji NPS 160iso is one of the best print films available for portrait. the vast majority of wedding photographers use it.
 
try using color slides, they hav realli fine grain n e colors can b beautiful...also i dunno if its just me but using a slow shutter speed with small aperture seems 2 give more saturated colors :D
 
I have noticed, after posting on here for serious critiques, my pictures and artistic vision has gotten better. You can also notice in the threads how people who frequent this place have also improved.
 
When ever I see a photo I really like I'm out the next available chance to try and capture the same style. As soon as a customer started bringing in Infrared negatives I was out within a week shooting IR. That is one of the things that has attracted me to this site is the quality and variety of the photos posted. It makes me want to go out and shoot. I have never gone to school for photography, the basics was handed down from my father and grandfather, who printed at home so I grew up in a darkooom. Now my father is blown away by some of the pics I shoot and the amount of work I get published. About 10 years ago I started working in one hour labs and the pay has sucked but I really enjoyed the work, sure I see lots of bad pics and tons of point and shoot baby stuff but it is rewarding when a good photographer drops in a few rolls. I recently moved up and out of the lab and into minilab support so the pay is way better but I don't have the contact with the images any more and I really miss that.

All I can say is yoou have to love photography and good images, shoot, read, ask questions and shoot again.

Man, I can ramble on sometimes,

Eric

port05.jpg
 
well i doesn't really matter what film or camera you have. Its just the photographer behind the lens. I started taking cheap pictures to test exposures on differnt colors with cheap film and just went to walmart. And i've been getting better, a lot better, and i've been moving up with film. I've found that Kodak tmax is good, and tri-x is good for skin tones. Color? Well I like provia or velvia, even though velvia is ment for landscapes. Is that good?
 

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