A Few ?’s About Digital Photography….very Amateur Photographer Yet Have Strong Passion To Persue It Further.?
I rec’d a Nikon D60 as a wedding gift as I have always had a passion for photography and my husband knew I was dying to persue it. My questions are:
1. Where should I go to learn more about digital photography? There is the New England Art Insitute near me in Massachusetts or is there any courses online that may be useful?
2. In order to make $ for my photos, where do I start?
3. I need a photo editting software and I believe Photoshop is the best. Should I take a course on that also?
Help!! Thank you
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Taking any course is going to give you a knowledgeable person to ask questions to directly. Taking a any college course is going to give you a student ID which will allow you to buy Photoshop around $500 less than retail. So, you can get professional instruction and the software you need for less than the full price of Photoshop.
Learn Photography and decide what area you want to pursue and then you will know where to look for the money.
1) No courses are necessary, you can of course attend an evening class or similar, but all the information you need is online, and you can quite easily teach yourself.
2) Forget about trying to make any money from your images for at least 2 years. The standard of photography is very high these days, don’t consider trying to make any money from this until you feel that your images can compete with these..http://photo.net/gallery/photocritique/f…
Those are the quality of images that people are taking these days for just a hobby. To sell images you must be at a very high level of skills and fully understand composition, ISO, Aperture, Shutter Speeds, Lighting, White Balance etc… This is likely to take you at least 2 years.
3) Photoshop is the industry standard, a course is not necessarym plenty of free tutorials online, this is my favourite site..http://www.thedigitalphotographyconnecti…
Elements is a good choice for a beginner to serious amateur, it will do all you will need and more. For a free program similar to PS, try GIMP, it is very good.http://www.gimp.org/
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Hi,
I think I got a set of aluminium saucepans – so you have done well, this is a really good camera!
As I live in the “Old England”, I cannot comment on your local course – but these are always a good idea. I would suggest an evening or maybe 1 day course first – to see you you get on. Nikon also run “experience” days in many places – have a look at the Nikon USA site for details.
On-line the choice is big! Suggest Google “photography tutorials” as well, as there are many really helpful free sites – depends again on just what type of work you want to do (portraits, landscapes, architectural, kids and so-on). I would expect you could find something useful on pretty much any aspect of photography, and at pretty much any level.
On-line photo sharing sites are also quite useful. You can get comments (some you may not like – so be prepared!) from others. You can also use it as a sort of living catalog of your work. Upload only what you believe are the best images – then review what you have taken, upload only the best of those, and delete the ones which do not make your cut. This is a neat, and free, way of tracking your progress.
You might also look for local photo clubs or photographer groups. People are usually free with advice, knowledge and encouragement.
Do you have a favorite photographer? If not, find one and study their website. Try not to directly repeat an image, but use the idea for inspiration to develop your own style.
As for selling images, you could try the deviantart link below. There are also many on-line picture sites – again Google this – but bear in mind there are many, many people trying to do the same thing as you and competition is tough. Your images will have to be “top-class” to sell on-line.
The other sales route is commissions, some examples are: portraits (both people and animals), party photos, realtors and of course weddings – though this is probably going to be later, when you have more experience.
Photo editing software splits 3 ways: on-line like photobucket, or the Google picasa download (see link) which are very basic and limited, but free, so worth a try first. Second is pure photo editors. Your camera came with a CD, and depending on localization, there may be one of Nikon’s editing packages bundled already – else have a look at the Nikon USA link below. Adobe Lightroom is another example (I use this myself for a quick edit) – it is c$150. The third group is photo editor/graphic arts packages, this is where I would put Photoshop CS/2/3/4 – up to $999 depending on version. It can do much more than just correct or enhance an image, and has many ways of adding free-hand edits. It also has various video editing capabilities. I have been using CS3/4 for about 4 years, and recon have only really scratched the surface of its huge capabilities. It really helped for me to do a course, as some of the basics are more easily explained face-to-face. One of the problems – and great benefits – with PS is that there is always more than one way to get a particular effect. This makes it a challenge sometimes. There is also a big selection of free tutorials on utube, the Adobe site and the web generally – this applies to all the editors. Adobe Illustrator would be a full graphic art package – but that’s another story!
Quite a long answer, but I hope you find something useful,
Good luck!
Cheers
Charles
http://www.ilovephotography.com , http://www.adobe.com, http://www.blogger.com
This site is filled with amateur and professional photographers alike in one huge photo forum cyber world. It’s wonderful! You can really connect with other photographers and learn about what others like in your work. You receive honest and helpful critiques from pros. The people are very nice, but honest. There are online courses and exercises you can be a part of online…no cost. It’s free.
I would start out with PhotoShop Elements first. It’s cheaper. You can go to Adobe.com and receive a free trial for 30 days before you pirchase it to see if you like the product.
In order to make money…you need a market. What do you want to photograph? Do you want to be a family photographer? a stock photographer? a commercial photographer? Each one of these listed takes different steps toward networking.
Go sign up for a free blog.(www.blogger.com) It’s very easy! New photographers always start out that way. Get your friends and your friends’ friends to follow your blog to ge the word out initially. Take pics, write about what you’re learning and post it. People can look and see what you’re up to and leave comments there also.