Question:
getting into photography?
?
2019-04-13 20:24:29 UTC
Hey I wanna get into photography. Its a bit overwhelming but my goal is to become a pro in a month or 2. I already have a camera so that should help.
What websites or videos could help me understand editing software like light room/photoshop?
Also a guide to taking amazing photos, setting up studios and understanding the equiptments necessary.


Thank you so much!
Ten answers:
2019-04-30 10:56:32 UTC
Becoming a pro is much more than simply having a camera and knowing how to use it in many different circumstances so that you always can sell pics which "look a million dollars".



The most important skills are "people skills".



From your question it sounds as if you do not even yet have the most simple skills needed in photography - even for serious pleasure photography.



I assume that the camera which you have is at least a "crop-frame" DSLR or mirrorless.
Digital One
2019-04-26 11:52:25 UTC
A professional photographer shouldn't need a lot of software to fix mistakes.
Marci
2019-04-20 21:53:44 UTC
Well, I suppose having a camera DOES help ;)



After 30 years as a full time professional, I'm still learning. This is NOT something you can just go out after watching a few videos and looking at websites. Take classes, practice on everyone is all sorts of situations and find out what you're good at and what you aren't.



Seeing the above comments, actually there are plenty of people that say they like photography, so they'll "just start with weddings". I see it all the time. My local wedding photography market has gone from 400 wedding photographers to over 4,000. Not enough for all of us and plenty of clients don't appear to know the difference between good, experienced photographers and those that are just starting out and expect little payment.



So go learn your craft, get good at marketing, and don't expect to pay your bills with this for a good five years. But I'll admit, it's a GREAT profession.
BriaR
2019-04-14 17:03:29 UTC
Ask yourself this simple question...

If all you need to do to become a pro photographer is buy a camera and spend a couple of months watching YouTube videos then why isn't every person who owns a camera a pro photographer?
flyingtiggeruk
2019-04-14 15:37:31 UTC
You asked a question a year ago about photography, so what’s happened since then?



https://answersrip.com/question/index?qid=20180416014037AA1zrvk
Steve P
2019-04-14 06:15:11 UTC
Oh my good heavens. A month or two huh? LOL. Yeah, come back and let us all know how THAT turns out.



Whew... look up the words naive and clueless in the dictionary and your photo should be right there!
keerok
2019-04-14 06:09:37 UTC
You can be a pro even if you don't know photography. You only need to convince people to pay you to take their photos. Amazing is not necessary. :)



If you can master the relationship between aperture size (f/number) and shutter speed (seconds or fractions thereof) with respect to the amount of available light (lumens?) and medium sensitivity (ISO) then lighting, equipment and studio stuff will all come naturally. There is math to it but unless you have the eye to see the light, it won't happen.
?
2019-04-13 21:40:07 UTC
First and foremost is that your goal to becoming a "pro" in a month or two is utterly ridiculous and unobtainable. Technically speaking, I suppose that if you got someone to pay you, then you could technically call yourself a pro. Why? Because being a "pro" just means that you got paid and that's it.



To be very good in photography, so that people would actually want to hire you for a variety of projects, you will need to have a portfolio filled with 10-15 professional-quality images that prove your skills as a "pro" and show your personal style. To obtain such a portfolio usually will take 3-5 years at the very least. During this time you will need to be photographing every single day and accumulate approximately 10,000~15,000 images per year. Of those 10k~15k, you will find eventually cull that down to your best 10-15 images which comes out to .001% of your images will be worthy of being in your portfolio. If you think this is an absurd amount of images to get just 15 great images, I would direct you to the photographers of the National Geographic. On average, a Nat Geo photographer on assignment will shoot approximately 20,000~25,000 images for a story that will run just 18 images. Do the math (or maths if you're in England).



Okay, enough with that.



There are a number of ways to learn photography and post processing. You can go to school and take photo classes at your local community college or university. This has proven to be the most expensive and probably least preferred way to becoming a "pro" because you're not guaranteed a job once you graduate. Considering how small the photography industry has become, it's likely that you will never be a "pro." So with this in mind, if you do go to college, major in something else other than photography and spend your free time learning your craft.



Instead of going into a mountain of debt learning a craft with which you'll likely not work in, you can learn photography for free by watching YouTube videos on the various aspects of photography. Photography has a technical and artistic side. The technicals can be learned very easily and rather quickly by reading books such as Brian Peterson's "Understanding Exposure" or Tony Northup's "Stunning Digital Photography" and then going out and practicing what you learn. Things like how to meeter; what a shutter speed and an aperture are, how to adjust them and how they affect the image are critical technical things to know. A few weeks practicing, and you should have that part down.



Without question the hardest part of photography is coming up with creative and artistic methods and ideas to complete a project or just simply photograph a scene. There are plenty of techniques that one can learn from watching youtube. If you want, you can sign up with websites that offer training videos. The very best are kelybyone.com and lynda.com. Kelbyone offers videos on all aspects of photography including the basics, to advanced composition, to lighting, to post processing, to marketing and the business side of photography.



Being a photographer can mean many things. There are numerous different types of photographers all of which have common and unique skills sets. Just because you're a good landscape photographer does not mean you will automatically be a good wedding photographer, and vise versa. So you first need to pick a type. Do you like landscapes? Great, but so does a billion other people with iPhones, so don't expect to make any money with landscape photography unless you can afford to spend tens of thousands of dollars every year traveling around the globe to interesting and hard-to-reach areas. If you like portraiture, then that will be your best option to becoming a "pro" especially if you live in a metropolitan area where there's a large consumer base for that type of photography.



Spend a lot of time in galleries and museums studying the great works of past and present photographers and painters. By studying the great works of others (and not the garbage that you see on instagram and filckr) you will build up an internal visual library from which you can get ideas to use in your own work. Start buying photography books of your favorite photographers and study them religiously.



Notice that none of the suggestions so far have anything to do with gear. Not to say gear isn't important, because it is, it's just not the deciding factor in your ability to create great work. A great photographer with an iPhone will be able to produce great work, while a novice with a $10,000 camera will not. It's not what you shoot with, it's what you do with it that matters. I'd say 80% of what goes into making a great image happens between your ears and has nothing to do with gear. The exception to this is specialty photography such as underwater photography, sports and wildlife photography. To do these types of work, you have to have certain lenses and accessories (underwater housing) to do it well. This will mean accumulating a stash of gear costing upwards of $50,000-$75,000. Of course, this done over the course of many, many years, but that's okay because it'll take you many years to build up your skills and your portfolio.



Consider joining a local camera club where you can meet others, discus photography, and have your work critiqued. Having your work critiqued is critical in your growth as a photographer. You cannot use the opinion of your family or friends because, first, they have no idea what they're talking about, and second, they don't want to say something that will hurt your feelings. When you get your work critiqued for the first time, it's usually a brutally devastating experience where there are no safe spaces to crawl into. Many people give up the idea of becoming a photographer after their first critique because they, like everyone, often thinks that their work is way better than it really is. Having friends & family tell you how much they like your photos, along with all of the likes and thumbs-up you get on facebook or flickr just feed you false praise tricking you into believing that you're good when you're not.



Once you've got a decent portfolio, try getting a job as an assistant to a photographer that is doing the type of work that you would like to do for a living. Such a position, which pays next to nothing, will be well worth the time because you'll really learn a lot. Over a several years, you might even be able to open your own business and become a pro.
2019-04-13 20:31:28 UTC
You will not, cannot become a pro in a month or two. You have a camera, what a point and shoot? There is a lot of thing to learn on how to use a camera, then a lot to learn about lighting inside and outside. I did photography, weddings, portraits, contests, etc., and still learning, something you do not learn quickly. To become a pro you need equipment that cost a lot of money and I'm not talking about hundreds of dollars. I'd suggest you go to school for photography and learn how to do all of this.
?
2019-04-13 20:27:12 UTC
Hey! Yeah! That damn camera should really help! Yes! You can take pictures with it, and stuff. Yeah! Hey!


This content was originally posted on Y! Answers, a Q&A website that shut down in 2021.
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