What should I buy?

[amisfitlife]

My teenager is into photography and says she wants to be a photographer. Wanting to support her interest that I also share I bought her a digital camera. Up until now she has been taking shots on her phone. What other things would you recommend I buy?

 

[jcdeboever]

A flash, a tripod, a cable or cordless remote. Maybe a nice 50mm prime lens or an 85mm prime. If she is into portraits.

 

[zombiesniper]

Since I don't know her experience level the only thing I would suggest at this point is getting experience and information.

If you can do this without spending cash (Youtube, Online articles should be taken with a grain of salt. Lots of good info but a lot of blowhards as well) do it, but there are some excellent books on photography as well.

Too much gear to quickly is what confuses nearly every new "My camera won't do X" poster we see here.
Get the basics down with whatever she currently has. Once she has done this she will have a better understanding of:
A. What direction she needs/wants to focus on next.
B. What next purchase will yield the most benefit to achieve the above goal.

Lastly if she is 13 or older. Have her join here. We'd be happy to aid her in becoming the best she can be.

 

[Jeff15]

Its always good to get your kids interested in Photography that way they will have less money to spend on drugs...........

 

[Designer]

Well, since no one has really answered your question, ..

She already has a camera, and JC gave her some good ideas.

 

[greybeard]

oops, I need to read more carefully

 

[SquarePeg]

Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson is an excellent place to start.

 

[dunfly]

It is a little hard to give you an idea of what you need, if we don't know what you have. What digital camera have you bought her? The next step would be to know what subjects she is interested in, people, landscapes, wildlife, street, etc.

 

[Designer]

Also your proposed budget.

 

[Derrel]

I would buy her a good book about photography. It would be valuable, more so than YouTube, if only for the structure and overview a good book provides.

 

[Gary A.]

Classes ... if she qualifies for community college or adult school, that would be a good and inexpensive start. There is also “Distant Ed” classes via the internet. A formal and structured education platform is very helpful in establishing a solid foundation. It would be helpful to know what equipment she presently has and what type of photos she enjoys taking.

 

[ac12]

A GOOD class that included a decent section on composition.
The art side of photography is as important or more so than the technical side.

 

[SquarePeg]

Petapixel has a great free video tutorial on composition. It’s geared more toward video but I found it very enlightening. I’ll see if I can find the link when I get to my Pc.

 

[DGMPhotography]

I'll echo what others have said here. As long as she has a camera, be it her phone or whatever, she should focus on learning about the rules of composition and some of the basics.

But I'll tell you from my personal experience, I quickly outgrew my phone and subsequent digital camera, and upgraded to a crop sensor DSLR (D5100). My main issue was the photos had a delay between pressing the button and taking the picture, which I hated. And then I didn't outgrow that camera for about 6 years, which is when I started doing more weddings and events and needed a full frame camera for the sensor.

Without an idea for your budget, here is my sub $1200 "starter" kit (bias towards Nikon, and refurb) that I recommend to people interested in portraits and general photography (and I made it easy for you with Amazon links):

• Refurbished Nikon D5600 with 18-55 and 70-300 kit lenses $700
• Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 lens $200
• Yongnuo 560IV flash $60
• Yonguo 560TX trigger $40
• Flash adapter $10
• Light stand and umbrellas $40
• Reflector $20
• Tripod $70
• Remote shutter release $30
• Reverse ring and aperture control (for macro) $30

The idea here is to get the basics, so that she can try a wide variety of photography types (portraits, wildlife, landscape/astro, macro, etc), and figure out what she likes best. You can also just get the camera and lenses and not worry about lighting, but it depends on her interests. The goal is to keep shooting as much and whatever she can. Experience is the best teacher.

Whatever you decide, have her post her pictures here (or post them here for her) so she can get feedback and critique on her work.

 

[Derrel]

I'll echo what others have said here. As long as she has a camera, be it her phone or whatever, she should focus on learning about the rules of composition and some of the basics.

But I'll tell you from my personal experience, I quickly outgrew my phone and subsequent digital camera, and upgraded to a crop sensor DSLR (D5100). My main issue was the photos had a delay between pressing the button and taking the picture, which I hated. And then I didn't outgrow that camera for about 6 years, which is when I started doing more weddings and events and needed a full frame camera for the sensor.

Without an idea for your budget, here is my sub $1200 "starter" kit (bias towards Nikon, and refurb) that I recommend to people interested in portraits and general photography (and I made it easy for you with Amazon links):

• Refurbished Nikon D5600 with 18-55 and 70-300 kit lenses $700
• Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 lens $200
• Yongnuo 560IV flash $60
• Yonguo 560TX trigger $40
• Flash adapter $10
• Light stand and umbrellas $40
• Reflector $20
• Tripod $70
• Remote shutter release $30
• Reverse ring and aperture control (for macro) $30

The idea here is to get the basics, so that she can try a wide variety of photography types (portraits, wildlife, landscape/astro, macro, etc), and figure out what she likes best. You can also just get the camera and lenses and not worry about lighting, but it depends on her interests. The goal is to keep shooting as much and whatever she can. Experience is the best teacher.

Whatever you decide, have her post her pictures here (or post them here for her) so she can get feedback and critique on her work.

This is a GOOD, solid kit to shoot a lot of stuff with. The inclusion of the flash trigger,the speedlight flash unit and the umbrella adapter, and the light stand and a couple of umbrellas makes this a kit that could provide a HUGE opportunity to learn how to LIGHT things. Add a tripod, and the young photographer has a HUGE amount of equipment potential...with a tripod, and some lighting gear, there's an entire world of things that could be photographed, which simply could NOT be photographed with the camera simply held in the hands. Night shots, for example, almost demand a tripod. Timed exposures demand a tripod. Etc..