A few questions about photography?

[Sydney]

Im 14, I LOVEE photography, I want to be a photographer. After stalking a bunch of other photographer's websites, I see that it looks so complicated. You have to actually know how to use photoshop dont you? and can't just use http://www.picmonkey.com (What I use to edit ALL my pictures)
I have over 5000 pictures on facebook, so you can just imagine how much I love taking pictures. I've only done my nephew's pictures. I need help, How should I start out? Should I start out with a session of someone I know? Or dont know? I know I should make the first few free. I dont know how much to price, I dont know ANYTHING about this stuff, I haven't really taken it seriously about gettin my photography out there.. but I am now.. Any advice please? heres my fb page, check out my pictures and tell me what you think
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Sydneys-Ph...741?ref=hl

[Nathan B]

I LOVEEEE pornograhpy too.........oh, opps.....nevermind. Misread

[nomnomcarrotts]

Knowledge of photoshop is essential. You can't depend of those web sights because that is all very basic editing that doesn't accomplish much. Even getting Adobe Photoshop Elements for $80 will benefit you tenfold. All Adobe products are great for beginners to pros because they are all very powerful and offer in-depth help manuals and have a featured 'trick-of-the-week' so you can learn new things to do with photos, like merging many photos together to get the 'one person in one photos many times' look. Before you start charging people, get some photos published in the local paper or hanging in a restaurant somewhere, because most people aren't going to drop money on some random girl with photographs to sell. Another ESSENTIAL THING is a DSLR camera. Digital cameras are great, but their capabilities are seriously limited and the only digital camera that even comes close to DSLR cameras are the Nikon 1s, the most expensive version with more ISO options. I would recommend Nikon cameras, which start at $650 for the D3000, a good starting off camera DX format.
Also, being a photographer might be a fun hobby, but have a back up plan when you grow up because it's really hard to make a living on a photographer's pay.

[fhotoace]

If you are a shooter, you will rarely use Photoshop.

Preparing the shot before pressing the shutter release is the key to brilliant photos.

If you learn how to balance ISO, shutter speed and lens aperture to produce nearly perfect exposures and use basic composition tools, all you need is a copy of Lightroom to process your RAW files. Lightroom allows you to batch image files, adding key words, custom white balance, copyright notice and contact information.

* Exposure
* Composition
* Use of light

These are the keys to shooting amazing photographs. No amount of skills using Photoshop can make up for failing to use those three elements in a well balanced ballet of your vision being translated by the camera

Links you will want to explore:

Exposure:

http://camerasim.com/camera-simulator/

Composition:

http://photoinf.com/General/Robert_Berda...Design.htm

Light you will have to learn to see for yourself.

Look for a good used dSLR. It will be the tool you need to learn how to create good exposures and later be able to add lenses that will enhance your capacity for shooting different subjects

[deep blue2]

"You have to actually know how to use photoshop dont you?"

No - you actually have to know how to use a camera.

Don't start talking about pricing & free sessions until you can actually use a decent camera (DSLR) in manual mode & you know about lighting & how to use it.

[Perki88]

It's wonderful that you are young and have found something that you love so much. You have an advantage over many people because you have so much more time to learn the skills needed in a highly competitive field. Since your main interest appears to be portraits, I suggest that you learn proper posing and angle techniques. Also, be very aware of in camera cropping and backgrounds, you have clipped off important areas in several of your images and some of your background would benefit from a shallow depth of field. Next you need to learn about the proper use of lenses, I see you have used a wide way too close to some, distorting their features. Then you need to purchase and learn the proper use of external lighting, a must for portraiture. Harsh shadows along the edge of your subject will be eliminated. This is just a few of the beginner errors I see in your images that would need correction before you even consider pricing , but the good news is still that you are young and have lots of time to learn what is required.

[Ara57]

Congratulations on finding a hobby you enjoy. You are a beginner, and have no need to get anything "out there" at this point. Your shots are pleasant snapshots for your album, but they have a lot of errors common in beginner work. They are not at a level to charge anyone yet. Begin learning some basics of exposure, posing and composition before trying to collect money from clients. After you actually understand how to form exposure and lead the viewer through your picture, you may find little need for Photoshop as a crutch to make "professional" photos. Happy shooting!

[VanReitgen]

LOL:
"I have over 5000 pictures on facebook"
"I've only done my nephew's pictures"
"I need help"
i think you're adorable, really!

i love how enthusiastic you are, and how you found out that you'll need to learn photoshopping being 14 years old! i don't think your pictures are good, but hey: you're a child, and you're obviously willing to learn and get better! and right now you have all the time in the world!

so you're right: photography is not easy. it's easy to take a picture. but photography is different!
and about starting: yea, find some of your girllfriends and start to have fun! don't rely on the very pretty ones, because this will lead you into doing only goodlooking girls instead of doing good looking photos! because shooting a cute girl will make any picture cute. what you need is a great photo of a random person. random! when you'll shoot a serious portrait for a customer one day (who know how soon this will happen) you'll not be able to choos who to shoot. you'll just have to deal with whoever comes and pays you! you'll evan have to adapt to some situations like when the client wants to be shot exclusively on some location, or with a certain set of clothes or whatever!

USE THE TIME that you've got, being only 14 years old! use it wisely, and don't rush anything! don't show your pictures only on facebook or so! your mom, your friends, the boys in your school: they'll all tell you how good you are, because they don't want to hurt you! i tell you that you're not good (yet), and it's better to hear a bad truth than a beautiful lie, right? don't even ask the people around you. you can't blame them for telling you how good you are! motivation is great, but always consult people who really know about photography! it's an art, but it's also a profession, and not a game you play with your girlfriends!

i honestly believe you know all that, but there i said it!

then, learn to take FEW pictures, but take MORE TIME for each picture. after some time you will learn what it means to choose! choose the right angle, perspective, crop, colors, efects, lens, whatever! everything you CAN choose doing a photo has a certain affect to the people who see your photo. if this weren't the case, it would only be important to shoot beautiful things. but you wanna shoot all things beautifully! that's the difference between you now, and you in the future!

have a nice trip!
see you in the land of light and shadow!

[andy w]

You are 14 and obviously know nothing whatsoever about photography or business so what on earth are you blethering on about sessions/charging and "getting my photography out there" for???

Spend the next couple of years actually learning the basics of photography PROPERLY.
The few images I looked at on your facecrap page are typical 14 year old snapshots and certainly show that you are nowhere ready for anything serious as yet.

There is a massive difference between "loving" taking photographs and actually being capable of taking good ones, good enough to tout yourself as a photographer anyway.

Slow down, learn all the different things you need to and in 2-3 years then start THINKING about going further.

[Eric Lefebvre]

"You have to actually know how to use photoshop don't you?"
Not really ... the goal is to get it right in camera. Think about it this way ... you could do it right in camera by taking an extra 30 seconds or you can spend 3 hours in photoshop TRYING to fix it.
Understanding light, composition, posing, exposure ... these things are far more important.

"I need help, How should I start out?"

The very first thing to do is to sit down with a proper photographer and have them do a critique of your work. Ignore what your friends and family say about your photos ... they aren't objective enough or knoleageable enough to give you the type of critique you need. With 5000 pictures taken, you most likely have a long way to go before you are good enough to consistently produce marketable images.

Next, you need to sit down and plan this out right. You are now starting a business as a freelance photographer and like all businesses there are costs and risks and rules ...

You need to sit down and do a proper business plan. What do you have? What are your objectives? What is your target market (client types and geographical)? What do you need? How will you measure your companies success or failiure? How will you reach your target market?

"Should I start out with a session of someone I know? Or dont know?"
You need to create a great body of work ... not great in terms of quantity but quality. your portfolio is your CV ... if you have no images, poor images or a very small variation of images ... no one will hire you. how you get that portfolio/body of work depends on the type of photography you are planning on offering. There are alot of different types of photography: weddings, portraits, sports, photojournalism, product ...

"I know I should make the first few free."
You have to be careful with this ... to start you should not charge until you have liability insurance AND have the skills to consistently produce marketable images but you also don;t want to give your work away for free or else you'll be killing the market and gaining a reputation as that free photographer.

" I dont know how much to price,"
There are 4 factors to pricing:
- Your ongoing business costs.
- The cost of producing your product (your shooting costs)
- How much you want to get paid for the work you do.
- What the market can bear.

Your business costs are things like business cards, liability insurance, web hosting, domain name rgistration, office supplies (pens, paper, ink ...), a fund to replace your office equipment (printers, external HDD, computer), a fund to improve your photography equipment, a fund to replace broken or dying photogrpahy equipment, a marketing budget, your printed portfolios, cellp phone, internet access ...

Your shoot coosts is the cost of each package or service ... how much it costs YOU to provide that service. things like: travel (wear and tear plus gas), how much it costs you to print out prints, any gear you need to rent, any other services you need to hire (an assitant, a makeup artist, a stylist, a retoucher ...) ... so on, so forth ...

Your own salary isn;t as staright forward as you could think. Alot of people look at a shoot and say "We'll I'll be with the lcient for 2 hours and i wan to be paid 20$ an hour so that's 40$" but that's wrong ... a 10 hour wedding (i'm with the bride and groom for 10 hours) is actually 31 to 35 hours of work. You need to consider ALL the time you spend on the shoot ... meeting the clients, driving around, organising locations, shooting, ordering prints, post processing ... all of it and even that doesn;t cover everything ... you'll end up doing alot of work for your business that doesn;t directly generate revenue (attending trade shows, updating your website, meeting clients that don;t end up signing a contract with you ...) so don't undrevalue yourself too much.

Finally, once you;ve taken into consideration hyour business costs, your shoot costs and your salary ... you have to look at your market and see if it can bear the price you've set. If your price is too low, you cut in your salary but you HAVE to be able to cover your business costs and shoot costs or else you are LOOSING money from your pocket. You would literally have more money in your bank account by not shooting if you are unable to cover your business costs and shoot costs.

"check out my pictures and tell me what you think"
I don't want to be an arsehole but you aren't ready. Poorly composed, underexposed, lack of contrast, wrong white balance, very soft, wide angle distortion on portraits ... alot of beginner mistakes. Your "The Williams" folder is compsed of just a bunch of snapshots that anyone with a half decent camera could create, you don;t show any understanding of the art and science of photography.