What's the first step in taking professional pictures?

Question

I know there is more to photos than point and shoot digital cameras. I'd like to learn how to take professional pictures of my family and other things. Any recommendations for a website or specific techniques? thanks.

Answer 1

Like the answers above get a camera.....but you don't have to go into major debt to do this. It is not the equipment that is the main source of professional photos. It is the photographer's ability to see common things in a different way. It has been said that everything has been photographed at least once. When I saw some amazing photos of a fetus in the womb with three different light sources I knew that I had to start looking and thinking about how to photograph people and places in new ways.
When you say you want to take photos of your family are you talking about portraits or more candid photos? I try for the latter. I like to catch my family enjoying life in a natural way. They know that when I pick up the camera to just continue doing what ever they are doing and not to smile and say "cheese". The shots of children playing dress up in their parents clothes or jumping through a lawn sprinkler are the best in my opinion. If you learn to anticipate the action and make the best of photo opportunities you will be ahead of most family photographers. You are already too late if you have to say "Do that again."

If it's a rainy day outside I'll travel to a nearby bookstore and browse the magazine racks and photography section. I also watch some MTV music videos.....some of the imaging is amazing and quite creative.

There are some basic rules of composition that can improve images in a click. However, learn the rules and then break them....it's your photo, do it your way.

Answer 2

invest into a good quality camera with decent lense that will take high resolution pictures. digital camera get some nice editing software such as Adobe Photoshop CS2 or something like that.
to take a professional picture you need to get the lighting to look right - depending on what style of picture you want then the lighting is important - if you want to take a picture of your family make sure that things like facial features are clear but without large shadows.
you can also check out the tutorials available all over the internet - there will definatly be something that can help you as well as editing tutorials
www.adobe.com has some and then just depending on the software you have you can also get tutorials for that software by searching for tutorials and that software in google.
hope this help a lil

Answer 3

Digital photography

There are many things different about digital photography, some are better than film and some are not. To get good digital photos, you need to remember that electronic sensors respond to light differently than film. A cheap film photo will have much more detail than a low grade digital image. However, a high quality digital image can be extremely rich in detail, with the added advantage of being able to edit it, copy it, and print it so easily. Most professional photographers now use digital cameras, but they buy very good cameras that are fast. We'll be adding more about digital photography soon.
hope this helps..

Answer 4

Cannon is a good make and I have heard good things about Nikon too. Personally I think an analogue camera still has the best results, but I'm using a Fujifilm digital at the moment and have got some lovely shots, it's not even the latest version. If you like your camera, upgrade to a higher spec with the same make.

Answer 5

The thing with photography is that it takes a special eye for things. You can take a fairly artistic photo of almost everything. With people it could be with something as simple as the quality of your camera. For things it's usually very good to experiment with perspective (i.e getting close up, shooting at angles, etc.). When you use black and white film that can also improve the quality of your image depending on what it is you want to capture. It's hard to explain. Just have an eye for things, get close up, see it from a different view. I hope that helps.

Answer 6

Take lots of pictures about 1 in 10 will be "good" about 1 in 100 will "great" and about 1 in 1000 will be "spectacular"

Pay attention to your subject! If you are taking people pictures, then the person or people should be the most important thing in the view finder.

Pay attention to lighting, shadows, etc.

Answer 7

I love this site: Takegreatpictures.com

A professional provides a service in exchange for payment in accordance with established protocols for licensing, ethics, procedures, standards of service and training/certification. A professional is a member of a licensing body which is legally established within the laws of a given state, county, province or nation.

The term "professional" is widely used to refer to individuals with recognized expertise within a field of endeavor even though they are not a member of a licensing body or legal entity. The distinction between professional sports and amateur sports simply refers to how the athlete is funded. Similarly the distinction within creative pursuits between professional and amateur becomes somewhat grey.

Historically, behaving professionally would indicate that the person's actions remain in accordance with specific rules, written or unwritten, pertaining to behavior, dress, speech, etc. By extension, the adjective professional identified somebody recognized for expertise or skill in a craft or activity.

Answer 8

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Answer 9

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Answer 10

rule of 3rds:

divide the shot into 9 equal boxes (2 lines up and 2 lines across)

make sure subject is touching an intersecting line


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interesting angles
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make subject draw the viewer's eye from one end of picture to another
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crop "bad" pics