Photography?

Question

Anyone here have any tips for starting off in photography? I have a serious passion for it, and I want to get more serious with it rather than just goofing off. I’m interested in like portrait photography, newborns, children, maternity, family pictures, stuff like that. Any tips or advice would be great! 🙂

Answer

Hi there! Semi-Experienced photographer here, I’ve done a few weddings, newborn, family & senior portrait sessions. (insert work here) 😂

The very first thing you’re going to want to do is get to know your camera. Watch YouTube videos, read manuals, whatever works best for you. Know how to adjust apurature, shutter speed, iso, white balance, literally EVERYTHING! (If you don’t know what these are, YouTube will be your best friend, it’s photography basics so it shouldn’t be hard to find) this is the worst part tbh. Stick with a simple lens (I recommend a 18-55mm lens to start with) until you get comfortable and then you can work your way up from there. 
Next up is practice shooting! Ask friends to pose for you, do not charge them! This is great experience and it will expand your portfolio, it’s a pretty fair trade if you ask me, my friends loved when I did this and they still ask me to do it to this day! 
Tips for shooting: 
• Avoid harsh lighting. This is probably the most important. You can have the most beautiful model, perfect pose & perfect shot and the lighting will totally ruin all of it, and most of the time when you get into photoshop it’s impossible to fix. I always recommend shooting between 5-8pm also known as ‘golden hour’ and don’t put your model in direct sunlight. Adjust your settings to accommodate how bright your background is and shoot from there. 
•For posing I always say Pinterest. Pinterest will be your best friend! There are different angles and poses for people with every body type. I personally will have the model pick a pose and place and then get a bunch of shots from different angles/lengths. 
•The rule of thirds is widely talked about in the photography community, I generally like to have symmetrical shots which I like and I think it gives me my own style so you can opt out of that if you wish :)))
•and finally... Have fun with your model!!!!! This is also so important,  there is nothing more uncomfortable to me than looking at shots of models who look so uncomfortable and out of their comfort zone!! Joke around with them, give them compliments to boost their confidence and get them more comfortable being in front of the camera! Some people don’t have a problem with this but some do. Making them laugh is the key to really cute candid GENUINE smiley shots. 
Now comes the Photoshop step, this is also very important. Editing can also make or break a perfect shot. Do NOT and I repeat DO NOT over edit your photos. Ever. 😂😂 I cannot stress this enough. First of all, it is very obvious to clients when you over edit a photo, their self esteem will crumble. They will think that it took massive amounts of photoshop to make them look appealing. Second, it says a lot about you as a photographer. If other photographers or potential employers see a Sephia2 filter on your photo along with a dark black ring around the border of your pictures it (to me) looks highly unprofessional. Your job is to slightly enhance the photo. My usual routine for photoshop is to add slight contrast, adjust the lighting/color balance if I need to, blemish removal, sometimes teeth whitening (not always), I always add a little bit of blur to my background to make the model stand out more and my favorite thing to do is to take the whitening&darkening tools and edit the eyes to make them stand out (blue eyes are the best to edit, just saying lollll) Know your program! Get familiar with it, practice with a few old shots or get some from google images (this is what we did in a class I took) 
Once you get comfortable and know the basics the only thing you need is practice & a portfolio. If you’re looking to do paid sessions, social media will be your best friend. Network yourself but be smart about it. I have used Craigslist and I haven’t had issues with it but if you’re going to use it I would say take a second photographer with you to be safe. I’ve gotten a lot of jobs through Facebook and through family friends so get the word out there! Set up accounts strictly for your photography on Facebook, Twitter, instagram, tumblr literally anything you can do to get your name out there! It’s a slow start but once you have a few clients they’ll be good references and they’ll refer you to friends and family as well. Also talk to pros in your area and see if they do any internships, photography assistants or any jobs/programs to get your foot in to door and gain experience!  
 
This is so long I apologize omg. Probably a lot of unnecessary information but I hope this helps. If you made it through this, thank you 😂😂😂 and good luck! You’ll do great 💗💗

Answer

Pinterest has great tips for poses and lighting ect. there are also some great books you can buy. 
also just practice and start fooling around with your camera and settings!

Answer

Following. I also love photography and recently got a camera that is actually somewhat decent for real photography and I’m also a beginner and want more tips

Photography?

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