Photography?

I have been taking photos since I was seven years old. I took a lot of photos from that point throughout college but I only recently got serious about trying to make a business of it. I decided several years ago to better my work by attending a class at a local botanical garden. From there I joined a local camera club. You might have one in your area. This club had monthly meetings with guest speakers giving all sorts of interesting photographic topics. I also found several good books on photography basics. One of the best was titled "Understanding Exposure" by Bryan Peterson. Amazon sells it for about $17. It gives an excellent overview of the basics of photography and is an easy read with a lot of relevant examples. The book should give you a good idea if photography is really something you want to pursue further. It shows you all about different techniques such as blurring your background, motion photography, and all sorts of other ways to improve your images. As far as practical things you can do without a book, try watching your corners and edges to make sure you don't have something you didn't intend to get in your photo. Try not to put things in exactly the center of the photo. Draw a rectangle on a piece of paper and then draw four lines at the third points in each direction. If you can imagine that rectangle as your viewfinder, where these lines intersect is where you want to place your subject when you take your photo. That subject could be a person, the sun at sunset or a bird on a tree branch. Practice taking and holding your breath, then exhaling slowly. At the end of your breath is the time to shoot. You will be at your most stable pose to hold the camera still. If you can get a tripod, do so. The less your camera moves, the sharper the image. Also, try differing your depth of field. That means if you shoot a picture of a single flower in a group of flowers, how many of them will be in sharp focus in front and behind the one you focused on. Start by taking a photo of the flower at f2.8 and then at f22. Look at the background and you will see what I mean. Learn this and you will have a good jump on your career.

Photography, like any creative occupation, is not an easy way to make a living. Many photographers start out like I did. Others go on to take classes at a photographic college. Some go on to do weddings, graduation photos and the like. Others prefer nature photography and selling museum prints.

I'm not sure how old you are but if you old enough, have the money and its okay with your parents you might want to into short term photographic studies such as those offered with the Rocky Mountain School of Photography (RMSP). You'll find them on line and they offer a variety of classes from a few days long to several months.

Photography is a blast and I hope you grow to love it as much as I do. Never be afraid to try something different (even if it doesn't work) and above all, have fun!

1

I would like to be a photographer too, I have always had a camera, but only recently got into PHOTOGRAPHY. Everyone before me gave great advice, but one thing I havent seen mentioned here was DeviantArt.com This is an amazing community for artists of all kinds, mainly photographers. There are chatrooms where you can have fun, chat, and ask any question you have and get your answers quickly. There they have tutorials on everything involving photography(including lighting, camera settings, iso, aperture, shutter speed etc). You can learn what camera is best for you, in your price range etc. You can also enter free contests that give you photo ideas and help you better yourself. You can move at your own pace, and if you put up your photography there, you can get constructive critisism, and complements on things you enter. Best of all, if you really get into it, you can make money by selling your photos. People like to have posters, mugs, magnets, calenders and such, and if you learn to take good enough photos, you can make a little extra cash. I wish you the best of luck, and hope to possibly view your art.

o get familiar with using both a digital camera and a single -lens reflex (SLR) camera - Nikon is good.

o practice shooting at different depths of field i.e, how do you get an object focused in the middle ground, but blurr the forground and background? Same goes for if your focal point is in the forground or background - how do you adjust your lenses to capture the object intended while focusing away from surrounding distractions

o purchase a telephoto macro lens - I can't tell you the wonders it does!

o don't be afraid to take really close, cropped pictures - everything doesn't always have to be so boringly centered

o If you are developing in the dark room -using filters work wonders and always use test strips to determine the correct exposure time and what filter is the best to use.

o experiment with both matte and glossy photo paper as each kind works well with different types of prints

pay attention to detail: if the background isn't helping the photo, it's hurting it. also, the picture shouldn't just be a picture. it should have a meaning or theme behind it. another thing i was told is that the focus of the picture is not necessarily the object in the middle. many times, in the better photos the focus is off to the side or above or below (most dig. cameras have an option you can turn on to have a grid appear on the screen, to place an object other than in the middle) good luck! i looove photography as well-- have fun!

You should know a lot about capturing and perspective. Taking a picture is easy but taking a photograph is something that takes time. You have to concentrate and have just the props to make a photo look beautiful. Knowing about point perspective is a good thing too. You need to know the angles from which a photo should be taken.

2

lighting, fstops, shutter speeds, film speeds. don't just take a photo and correct it in photoshop, but know what you are doing. composition, which lens to use, perspective