amature photographer....want to become professional

<p>So I have loved taking pictures since I was a little girl and my dream is to become a professional photographer. At the moment I only own a Kodak digital camera but am very good with it and would like to try and start getting 'gigs' taking pictures for people. Is it important that I have a bigger/better camera or would a small digital one work until I save money to upgrade? How would I really get started on things like this-being hired to take pictures for people?</p>

<p>Jenni,<br>

I think the best way to start is to do some free practice sessions for your friends. Ask for some feedback (honest feedback, friends can be too nice). Perhaps post some samples here and ask for feedback.</p>

<p>Honestly, I don't think a small camera will work... you won't have the image quality or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bokeh">bokeh</a>, but perhaps your friends won't care for the practice sessions. If you are going to get paid for a photography job, then you will a need a DSLR/SLR... in fact if you are really getting paid you should have back-up equipment.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>Jenni...join the crowd! There are a lot of us (including me!) who would like to make money in photography. There are many ways to do it---weddings, portraits, fine art, concerts, high school prom/graduations, etc. I love photography but I also don´t want to lose my passion for it by jumping into a photography "job" (like shooting weddings) just to make money at it. I would rather be an amateur doing what I want than a pro getting paid for doing something I don´t enjoy. Just some food for thought. Having said that, if you really have a strong passion...follow it and don´t let the naysayers get you down. Generally, if one´s passion is strong enough you´ll figure out how to make a living. One thing you might do is use the SEARCH box on this site to look for previous threads on this subject. This is a fairly common question and you might find some of the advice previously dispensed to be relevant to your goals. Good luck and have fun!</p>

<p>My wife does wedding and portrait photography while its just a hobby for me, i can tell you equipment makes a world of difference. If you want to just start small i would start with a lower cost dslr and shoot friends, family, coworkers,local events things like that and make sure you get some books on posing and lighting and practice, practice, practice.</p>

<p>Dave</p>

<p>Do you enjoy cold calling and marketing? Most of running a business will be finding clients. This is true in any business. At least 80% of your time will be spent this way. Being good at taking photographs is actually pretty irrelevant to running a photo business in many respects, but it helps.</p>

<p>Provided you understand this up front, there is nothing stopping you putting yourself out there. While you could start a business using basic gear - and many do -, you should plan to re-invest any income in more reliable equipment to ensure that you don't let your hard won clients down.</p>

<p>Not trying to put you off, but Daniel has it right in that a love of photography does not necessarily translate into running a successful photography business.</p>

<p>Well, my answer is an indirect one. Me, I take a while to develop things - that's just the way I am. So I have a day job like most other folk. And occasionally I'll do a shoot for someone. The aim is to get that snowballing so that eventually I can safely leave the day job behind. Of course, I could be doing it all wrong. But I have to go at the pace which I think is appropriate for me.</p>

<p>FWIW I agree with much of what is said above. Good equipment is very important. Those who say that "the camera doesn't matter" obviously never had to deliver to a client. For some things the camera doesn't matter - but for some things it is almost more important than your skill.</p>

<p>I might offer my two commandments of photography. Christians live by two commandments and photographers should, too:</p>

<p>1. Look at lots of photographs.</p>

<p>2. Take lots of photographs.</p>

<p>Hi Jenni,<br>

Good equipment is critical, and knowing how to use it without having to think is even more important. Does your camera allow you to work with manual settings, and do you know how to do that?<br>

Once you have a good DSLR to work with, if you do go pro someday, you should have backup gear for everything--two cameras, back up lenses, back up lighting, etc.<br>

You should have some type of lighting gear, and what you get will depend on the type of photography you plan to do. If you want to be in a studio setting, then you'd probably want monolights and related accessories as well as backdrops, etc. If you plan to do location shoots like weddings, then you'll probably want speedlights and more portable gear. Lots to think about.<br>

The other thing about going pro is that you really, really need to have some business knowledge and know how to run a business. Contracts, marketing, business licenses, taxes, overhead...it's all stuff you need to know.<br>

I would start with budgeting for better gear, learn all of the technical things you might not know, and practice with friends and family while you work on your knowledge and building a portfolio. Then if and when you're ready to go, you'll have some work to show and hopefully good word of mouth from your friends!</p>

<p>Unless you're talking about one of the $20,000 cameras from 10-plus years ago when Kodak was modifying Nikon and Canon film cameras to make them digital, then your Kodak digital camera is a point and shoot. If that's what you're working with now, you need to move up to a DSLR and spend a lot of time learning the basics of photography before trying to charge money to anyone. Keep in mind that buying even top of the line equipment will not make you a professional photographer any more than the right golf clubs will turn you into Tiger Woods or the right bat will turn you into a professional baseball player.</p>

<p>I don't believe that success as a photographer relies on having the "best" equipment, though bad equipment can certainly make it more difficult. I do believe that a good foundation in technique is important to enable you to express in your images what you're trying to get accross. Business skill is also important, and many creative individuals lack this skill. In general, artistic people seem to fall at the opposite end of the spectrum from business-minded ones. I pursued a similar course myself as a teen. I took photo classes at every opportunity, and graduated from Art Center College (Pasadena, CA) with a degree in photography. I worked first in the photo lab industry for several years, then opened a commercial studio, which I operated for 10 years with mild success. Be prepared to hear discouraging advice from frustrated photographers who work at camera shops, etc. and failed at trying to do what you're doing. If you truly hold belief in yourself you can overcome any obstacles. </p>

<p>Jenni: You should post some pictures so we can see what you are doing with your Kodak (EasyShare?) This will give us a lot more to go on when giving advice :)</p>

<p>Don't get obsessed with equipment, and don't worry about stuff like 'IQ', 'CA', 'bokeh' and so forth. Work on seeing, composing and exposing. Learn to develop a rapport with your subjects. You do not necessarily need a DSLR to be a professional. Many of today's compact cameras (Canon G10, Nikon P7000 and models from Panasonic and Sony) produce files that can be printed up to 16x20 inches.</p>

<p>Oh yeah. It's spelled 'amateur'. :D</p>

<p>The best advice has already been given: the <em>business</em> of photography has nothing to do <em>with photography</em>. The better you are at business, the better your business will be. Period. The better you are at photography, the better your photography will be. Period. Being good at photography isn't an insurance policy to be bad at business. Ideally, we would hope that one that is good at business is also good at the business they are in, but that is very often not the case.</p>

<p>As far as equipment goes, that is easy, for a business. What about your current equipment is holding you back from making more or charging more (also considering that your <em>time </em>is worth "x" amount of dollars)? Equipment goes in the expense column. Expenses are bad. If you don't <em>know</em> what you need, then you <em>need knowledge</em>! So, as it has been pointed out, take LOTS of pictures. Learn to self-critique the images. Be brutally, and I mean brutally hard on yourself. What could you do better to create a better image.</p>

<p>Ask yourself, What service will my photo provide to someone else that's worth their while to pay me to get the picture? There has to be a functional, commercial service that the photo provides in order to motivate someone to pay for it. Identifying a clear task and purpose for why someone would need to be paid to make a photo is an important part of selling your work. Look over other work that you know has sold, not just those pictures for sale, and ask yourself, Why was someone paid to make this picture?</p>

<p>Actually Maury's post brought up an interesting issue: get a degree or don't bother? Obviously you should do what you feel you will enjoy most. That's what it comes to so you really have to go with your preferences.</p>

<p>My take: the time (and money) you spend 'studying' photography you can spend studying business or a foreign language or something with a bit more depth and utility. In the meantime you can learn photography via practice, workshops and other means.</p>

<p>To me, a degree in photography (or advertising and things of that nature) not only has no substance, it's an actual negative. One can study for a degree in English or literature, but one does not study for a degree in novel writing. Those are my two cents.</p>

<p>Thank you all for your advice. It helps alot but let me ask-what's a DSLR, how much do they run for and where can I find one at? And also I tried to upload some pictures of mine but I'm having difficulties. There's a bar that says it's trying to run active x or something like that and by the time I go to click it the window closes on me so Im not sure how to fix that.</p>

<p>Hi again Jenni,<br /> Since you're asking what a DSLR is, then it's definitely not time to be thinking about professional photography yet. Please don't misunderstand--you can build your knowledge and expertise over time and still pursue this dream down the road should you choose to, but you do need some good technical knowledge and alot of practice before you even consider going pro.<br /> A DSLR is simply a digital single-lens-reflex camera, which is the type of camera that has interchangeable lenses, vs. a point-and-shoot with a built in lens like you probably own. If you go to Nikon or Canon's websites, you'll see all of the models that they offer. Camera bodies can run from around $500 for a basic model to many thousands of dollars, and then you'll need to purchase lenses as well. Lenses also run anywhere from a couple hundred to thousands of dollars, depending on the type of lens, the focal length, how fast it is (something you'll learn about as you go along), the quality of the optics, etc.<br /> Are there any community colleges in your area that offer beginning DSLR classes? That would be a fantastic place to start, and to learn how these cameras work, about the different types of lenses, and about how to manually work with shutter speed, aperture, etc. in order to have the best control over each image that you create. That's how I started out, and you'll be amazed at how much you learn and how much more you'll want to learn after that!</p>

<p>Devon has it! Now knowing what a (D)SLR (I'm not even going to go into the "active x or something like that" sentence!) is shows a lack of touch with true commercial (mind, I did not use the word "professional" - that's a whole different ball of wax!) photography and all that it entails, from formulating a business plan to marketing to shooting to post-processing. You should truly stop thinking about attempting to charge people for pictures, no matter how "good" or "nice" they may seem to you or your friends, before you make a mistake or get into a situation that's going to cost people something more than money.</p>

<p>Photography for money requires a high level of skill, not only in framing a shot but also in judging light and shadow, in prioritising, in zooming in or out, in selecting a wide rather than a narrow view, in moving between narrow and deep depth of field - tons and tons of decisions you can only reach through experience, expertise, reading, studying and experimenting. And then there's post processing... which means DAM, Photoshop (or your tool of choice), learning layers and blending modes, learning about curves and levels, about colour management, about archiving and storage - really, thousands of things you should know before you ever stretch out your palm to accept a single dollar for your "services".</p>

<p>You're still obviously WAY too far from that and I would suggest taking photography a lot more warmly to begin with BEFORE you think about making money out of it. There's a reason why photographers demand thousands of dollars for a shoot - it's not 100% pure profit - quite the opposite actually! It's return on the time and money they invested in two or three $2,000 lenses and two $3,000 cameras (on average), on 30,000-40,000 images, on thousands upon thousands hours in front of a computer learning, not only what "active x or something" is, but all those things they need to know to truly provide a service.</p>

<p>Are there $500 photographers on Craigslist? Sure, but you always get what you pay for. If you show up at a wedding with a P&S camera and I was the organiser (and I had no backup plan), I would truly faint! (possibly even before physically ejecting you from the premises). Sorry to sound harsh, but there comes a time when customers need to be protected and helped as well, not only photographers.</p>

<p>I am by no means a pro but here are my 0.02. I would start by taking photos of friends and family and even shoot for free just to build up your portfolio. These days it's hard to make money with photography and many people will tell you this. Ask your firends have them ask their friends and get the ball rolling I bet someone needs their picutes taken. Good luck to you.</p>

<p>I started out with a Canon T1i (about $700) and slowly added pro lenses, and did gigs for FREE for family and friends. Then they started referring me to people, then they referred me to people. I'm now charging a 'small fee' in order to save up for a pro camera. I'm going SLOW, only doing sessions once every few months while I try to master photoshop and photographic techniques. I'm not charging much because in MY opinion, I would feel like a fraud for charging people unless I have pro equipment and know how to process photos like a pro. If you want to build a reputation, then go slow. Also there are MANY photographers who do NO advertising, and let their work speak for itself and all their business comes from referrals and word of mouth.</p>

<p>Jenni,</p>

<p>Get started by getting an entry level DSLR. However, if you are really good, there is a chance you will outgrow the camera faster than you expected. However, you can maintain the camera by adding lenses that suit your goals. There is much to learn when you have a DSLR as they are cameras designed for the photo artist. <br>

I agree with Janeile all the way on this. Just keep in mind, you have to be honest with many things. Image quality being a major part in whether or not you are considered good.<br>

Learning your camera is key so that you can master each shot. This is done by knowing your enviroment when shooting, lighting is a big player, and adjusting your camera setting to achieve that goal is a part of it. There is much to this, and I am not going to go into detail, but stay on photo.net, whichever camera you do invest in find others on here who use that camera, and this will allow you to get feedback on how to maximize the camera in which you invest in.</p>

<p>Good luck with this journey. It will be fun.</p>

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