photography questions answered…
So i am by no means the end all be all of photography knowledge (remember people i have never taken a photography class and i have an engineering degree, ha). however i do get asked alot of questions, alot of the same questions, alot of non photography related questions…well you get the picture. see the thing is i don’t mind sharing my answers, not alot of people like to that in this industry and ultimatly if i can help answer one daunting question for one single jso (just starting out) photog then this is all worth it, bc if jso photographers get better then the industry gets better. So here is the first installment of fishin’ for answers.
1. do you shoot in manual mode?
YES 99.9% of the time! I recently learned that a ton of other photogs dont shoot in manual very often they shoot in av, tv or p modes. while all of these options are awesome and their work is pretty fab i am so happy with myself that i forced myself to learn to shoot in manual first. Plus i am kind of a control freak so this gives me the reins on mostly all of the aspects of my shot. let’s face it their are so many variables we cant control like how fast that 2 year can actually run, or the heat in july in texas so i take what i can get.
2. what lenses do you use and what lenses would you recommend to a mom with a dslr? and to a jso photog?
(first of all for newbies i shoot canon) my all time fav lens that hardley ever comes off of my camera is the 50 1.2L. this glass is worth every single penny and is truly my workhorse. However if the 1.2 is not in your prices range the 50 1.8 is a good start! i tell everyone i know who is about to purchase a dslr NOT to buy the kit lens just buy the camera body and buy the 50 1.8. Its waaaaay better than the blah that is the kit lens, its very inexpensive (around $100)and provides beautiful portrait shots of kids. The next step is the 50 1.4 a little more expensive (in the $3-400 range) but again this is one fab lens. The thing is these are prime lenses meaning you don’t have to worry about changing the focal length and all of that jazz, you essentially move yourself forward and backwards (of course depending on your other settings but you get the point). the 24-70 2.8L is also a pretty amazing lens for shooting several people at once, but it is not a prime lens and has a pretty pricetag. the 85mm 1.8 is another pretty spectacular lens however if you do not have a full frame camera it could give you some issues in tight spaces.
3. what is the biggest key to getting pictures like yours?
HA thanks for this one you blog readers are really very encouraging and sweet! The most important factor, in my opinion, to getting a “good” image is exposure, exposure exposure. Hey i will be the firstt o admit when i first started i remember saying at some point to a friend “i typically underexpose a half a stop bc my camera blah blah blah.” when in reality i was soooo wrong. Unless you are doing it for intentional purposes (like exposing for the sky to merge later, etc) DO NOT OVER/UNDEREXPOSE. Ya see exposure plays a huuuuuge part in so many different keys to the image, like clarity, color, noise, and depth. plus if you expose properly you have alot less work in photoshop. I always try to get the best sooc (straight out of camera) shot i possibly can. the point of photoshop is to give some oomph to an image NOT FIX an image. make sense? Plus i shoot in jpeg so i have to be careful how much editing i do to an image.
here is an sooc image from a recent shoot the settings were: aperature 3.2 ss 1/400 iso400
and the edited version
as you can see i took some of the red out, lightened with curves, cloned out the twig, burned her eyelashes a teeny tiny bit, sharpened and voila…easy peasy…now dont get me wrong they arent always that easy. but the point? get proper exposure! i have another one of these posted on the blog from a few months ago and its worth checking out
4. do you have any advice for me, i am just starting to launch my photography business.
Okay i could answer this one with 10 pages but no time for that so….I think there are 3 things you need to run a sucessful photography business
- really really good business knowledge/a husband who can keep your bootay organized. (think files, reciepts, quickbooks, dba numbers, etc)
- a strong marketing strategy. and by this i do not mean $ for ads, i have never paid for advertising space, all of my business has come via word of mouth! what i mean is, a website, blog, etc that all represents YOU, your business and your style of photography. If you know and SHOW who you are and what your style is, then clients that like it will book you and thats all you will need to be more busy then you can imagine.
- good working knowledge of how to read your manuel…okay not really but you really need to know how to technically use your camera and the rules of photography. you cant break the “rules” of photography if you dont know them!
5. are you a member of any forums or photography groups?
yes, i am a pro member on ilp, i am a member of several private flickr groups and i have met several local photogs that i hang out with, as well as a member of ppa.
6. How long do your newborn sessions usually take? and can you tell me about your newborn setup?
my newborn sessions typically last about 3-5hrs. YEP you read that right, might as well shoot a wedding, hahaha, just playing all you wedding photogs. but yes they are long, this is why i will not book a newborn after the 2 week mark. as far as setup, i bring about 6million blankets, maybe 2400 hats, ummm 10 baskets, no really i do bring alot of my own stuff thought. I typically hover at an aperature of 2.8 for the majorty of the shoot, i never go below a shutterspeed of 160 (i have a shaky hand, lol)and set up the baby about 45 degrees from the main lightsource if possible.
7. when you shoot a newborn session in someone else’s home how do you know there will be enough light?
i get this one or some variation of this one ALOT! the thing is you never know what type of light someone’s house will have but guess what? EVERY house will work, in fact every house HAS to work. that’s part of why people hire me, bc i come to them, no bringing their newborn baby out into the germ filled world. depending on the time of day and which part of their house gets the best light i walk around the rooms that should be getting ample light. we set up my little “workspace” and when i say we i mean the dad and myself bc we almost always have to move some furniture. and like i said above i typically try to set up the baby 45 degrees from the main light source if you shot parallel the bw’s will not have as much depth but sometimes i have had to do it and it has been fine.
8. do you shoot in raw?
nope (GASP), plain ol’ jpeg! i tried it but wasnt really that impressed with the difference in my images. i still did most of my postprocessing the same but i had to add another step of converting the files….ugh. while there are tons of photogs who shoot in raw and swear by it, its not for me. i will say if you continually blow highlights or have troubel with exposure then maybe raw is for you bc it def helps with that!
8. what do you use to edit your images? and what is the best bw action?
I edit in CS4 and have a variety of actions what i almost always tweak in some way. I have alot of bw actions but i mostly use a custom one from a friend and jinky’s light bw from her 52 actions set. i run the action then turn off the first two options and start dodging and burning away.
9. if i want to learn to edit my images to bw but can’t afford photoshop what should i do?
simple, buy photoshop elements its pretty inexpensive (compared to cs4 that is) and google free bw actions. you will inevitably find one you like.!
so i think thats its for now i will try to get to some of the other questions at a later date but this is a bunch to digest….i may add some more ex images soon too. let me know what yall think if this and if it helped at all….oh and ps in case you didnt know i dont spell check, hahahaha
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