New here-would love some C&C and advice-very beginner!

lovetoclick · Sep 15, 2011

Hey everyone! My name is Shannon and I'm new to this site, so I wanted to introduce myself. I love photography and have been taking pictures for years as a hobby but I am now wanting to get more serious about it and possibly turn it into a career. The main camera I use to take pics is a Nikon D60 and currently I use the auto mode a lot because I'm not really familiar with the other functions, but I would really love to learn more. So I'm looking for some advice I guess for getting into the photography world more. What steps should I take to start getting into a career in photography? Should I look into going to a school or is that not necessary and I should just read some books to learn more about it? What books would you recommend I read?

Here are a couple examples of some pictures I have taken. Please let me know what you think, it's ok if you're honest with me, as I do really want to learn. I did use the auto mode for both pics, so if you have any suggestions on which functions I could have used to make the pictures better, I would love to hear it and try it out to see the difference. Thank you in advance for the help and hopefully you see some potential in me lol.

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WesternGuy · Sep 15, 2011

Welcome to the forum. If you are thinking of a career in photography you have to really think in terms of it being a business - your business - and then treat it like any other startup situation, for example, have a look at this one: Start a Photography Business - there are many others as well - just Google "photography business plan" and you will get all kinds of information. You will also find all kinds of postings on this forum regarding business aspects of photography - look under the "General Shop Talk" subforum under the "Business District" part of TPF.

As far as learning the technology, it would probably be useful to take an introductory course in digital photography and learn about the various technical aspects of your equipment...you can supplement this with reading books and looking at material on the web. There are literally millions of sites on the web to cover photography - you name the kind of photography, it's there somewhere. Whether formal training at school is necessary really depends on you and how quickly you learn from self-teaching, but a few basic business courses for things like marketing and "keeping books" would probably prove useful. From the actual photography side of things, you didn't really tell us what type of "photography business" you want to be in...if it is something that involves taking pictures of people or pets, then you will probably need some sort of studio...on the other hand, if you are going into nature and wildlife, then your studio is all the outdoors and you have other things to think about. Regardless, once you have selected the type of photography that you want to "specialize" in, then I would get some books that cover that area and read all of them very thoroughly - look for books by people who have "been there - done that", if you know what I mean, and learn from their experiences and examples, and what they have to say about their field. Get to know the local photographers who work in your chosen field - see if any of them give night or weekend classes in their chosen area - some do, some don't - join a local photography club and get to know the folks there.

The other thing that you will have to become very proficient at is post-processing - working in the digital darkroom on a computer using something like Photoshop. I am not sure what you do now, but as a professional, your customers will expect you to produce "miracles", unless you are simply going to shoot stock photography, then your agencies will also have a bucketful of expectations for the images you provide to them. The best way, in my opinion, to get started in this area, is to take a course at your local community college. In my area, they give both introductory and advanced courses in Photoshop - usually one night a week for 8 weeks, or every Saturday for a month, or something similar. You will probably need a website to exhibit your work - marketing and all that stuff - you can learn to do this yourself, or you can hire someone to do it for you - may want to hire first, unless you are very proficient at this sort of thing.

Well enough for now - hopefully this has given you some ideas as to what you need to do and think about. As for the pictures you posted, they are simply snapshots - nice ones, but simply snapshots. The areas you will need to be very good at, regardless of your chosen field, are in the area of composition - check this out as an example: Photography Composition Articles Library and of course when it comes to babies and kids, Google is your friend! Any more questions, post back and you will get more input, I am sure!

Cheers,

WesternGuy

LizardKing · Sep 15, 2011

Being a newbie myself, I would recommend you these 2 books I just read (thanks to comments I saw in this forum): Understanding Exposure and Learning to See Creatively... both by Bryan Peterson.

In the first one you'll find all the information you need (and so much more) in order to forget about the auto mode, and start using manual or priority modes. And, in the second one you'll learn about the different aspects of a composition and the way you can play with them.

From these pics, there isn't much to C&C because they're snapshots... But after reading these 2 books (or any other you read) you'll easily see what are the problems (or things improvement) with these pictures.

Regards,
LizardKing

lovetoclick · Sep 15, 2011

Thank you so much for the advice! I will definitely look into the books and websites mentioned and see what classes or groups my area has to offer. I guess I need to think a little more about what area of photography I would like to get into. I haven't really decided yet. I like wedding photography, kids and maybe travel/resort type photos, which are all very different so I suppose I need to look into all of them some more to try to decide what would fit me best.

As for the pictures I posted, I appreciate your comments and I will work on getting out of the auto mode. I have had many family and friends tell me they love my pictures, but obviously they are amateurs too, so that's why I came here looking for some input from people who really know photography (or at least more than I do lol). I'm going to try to read some books and find some websites, so I can practice and hopefully my next post will be an improvement! Thanks again for the help!

The_Traveler · Sep 15, 2011

Besides the advice above, you also have to learn the vocabulary of photography, how to look critically at your own photos and how to correct problems.

In the first picture above, the orange overwhelms the baby's face.
The face is dark and dull and the eye sockets are very dark.

To some degree problems can be corrected but it would have been better to get this just right in the camera.

Here is a partial fix.

Sharfy · Sep 15, 2011

OMG... Kids kids kids babies babies babies i just love them,

the background of #1 is little bit destructing, a little crop i think will do in my amateuristic opinion ^^

Sharfy · Sep 15, 2011

can get over lovely photos ^^

KmH · Sep 15, 2011

As I note in my siggy ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓, quality photos are all about how the photographer used light.

Here are 4 helpful web sites:
Digital Photography Tutorials

Guidelines for Better Photographic Composition: Introduction

Strobist: Lighting 101

http://neilvn.com/tangents/flash-photography-techniques/

bennielou · Sep 15, 2011

I think these are usable. Do you have any version of Photoshop? Curves is your friend.

DiskoJoe · Sep 15, 2011

honestly if you have been using a 60d for years and still have not progressed passed using auto functions then i would not recommend pursuing photography professional any time soon.

KmH · Sep 15, 2011

DiskoJoe said:
honestly if you have been using a 60d for years and still have not progressed passed using auto functions then i would not recommend pursuing photography professional any time soon.

DiskoJoe, she said a D60 (Nikon), not a 60D (Canon). :er: