November 16, 2005

• i think you should pack all that nice gear up in a box and send it to me.
• a clean website is a must. No flash. No blink tags (you know, blinky noisy crap), that kinda thing. Find your style. Do advertising for money, your own thing for fun. Post them to flickr and let us jury them. Buy a wine magazine and substitute the titles of your photos for the bottle of wine in the reviewing section. Wear a beret. Be aloof and enigmatic. Oh oh but seriously the most important thing of all is: ALWAYS have your camera with you. Always always always.
• My tip would be not to put your faith in all that crap, for starters. In any skilled profession that relies upon mastery of an art in conjunction with complex technical tools, the best way to learn is thru simplicity, and basics. I know how to use a whole range of professional digital audio-visual editing equipment to a high degree of skill, but I could only begin to learn editing by chopping up bits of 2track analog tape with a razor blade and splicing 'em back together with scotch tape. I s'pose I might seem to be being snarky, but I think my point is valid.
• Pooty parper.
• O god. I guess I have to do this. Get a business card. Work out a billing program with a logo. Make a promo card and send it around to all ad agencies, pr firms and magazines. Shoot everyday, make it count. Working for bad money at a local newspaper is a good way to start. After you've done that nothing will ever scare you again. Or assist smarter photographers. Learn photoshop but don't depend on it. You will very likely not be paid for post production. You have have a deep desire to do this-it's too hard otherwise. Know that your pictures are all about who you are, how you see, what you choose to emphasize. Not everyone will like you. Only show what you can stand behind. If you love it nothing I have said will phase you in the least. Also, remember the the D1X back-focuses like a bitch. And read the manual to that flash over and over and over. CS2 is just a program that unites the Adobe suite. CS is faster unless you have the muscle, which you may just have. What you should never do is let them see you sweat. And you should never be a shithead. We kill shitheads. love, blanky
• point push repeat do it till you wear the index finger down to the second knuckle
• I'll go along with the 'take baby steps' thing. If you really want to get started the right way, get a simple digital camera, learn about lighting, the seasons of the year and how they affect lighting, the times of day, learn about 'naychu'. There's some really good photography books out there at your local bookstore, check'em out.
• Oh, and send me your that equipment before you hurt yourself, you'll only be doing yourself a favor (^_^)
• Exactly. Practice practice practice. And remember: it's not the G5, it's your own eye and mind. Dont' rely on tools; it's shitty to have the ideas and no resources to make them come true, but having all the shiny toys and not a single idea can be worse.
• And network, network, network. From what I've heard from the photo-junkies out here, 70-90% of it is just knowing the right people. And weddings.
• I want to start putting out a quality product A.S.A.P. This may not happen. Don't get discouraged if it doesn't. It's something you get better at as you go. There are a lot of variables involved in making a photograph, and you learn to manipulate them with practice. Some stuff you shoot will work, and much more will not. Figure out why stuff didn't work, fix it, and try it again....and again. So yeah, practice. Your fancy camera is nice cuz it records all settings(i.e. aperature, shutter speed, ISO, etc.) for each picture. This is helpful information for beginners.
• Do NOT, under any circumstances, agree to take pictures of a naked Quiddy, no matter how often he asks.
• My, oh my. You got all that gear just on a whim. I will back up the "buy a cheap camera and practice practice practice" suggestion you got from the others. And read, damn you. Read like crazy. And shoot. Shot every day of your life. I did for 4 years am finally proud of the output I am able to produce (10-12 good, sellable shots from a roll of 36 exposures. I still shoot film till I can afford going digital SLR). Buy the cheapest digital SLR there is (Nikon D50 or Canon Rebel D) and start. NOW. I'll trade you a Nikon D50 for all your gear. ;-)
• um, no... The only reason I mentioned what gear I had was so people could offer tips on the in and outs on that gear and also know that I am shooting on pro gear. Good Example: Also, remember the the D1X back-focuses like a bitch (also, what's back focusing?) Here are some specific questions... When should I use the defuser, bounce card, ect? I am also looking for more advice on taking the actual shots. Your tips and tricks with light, ect. The gear wasn't bought on a whim, I have been thing about doing this for YEARS. So I also subscribe to the practice of "buy the best you can afford" Yeah, i know they are big guns and I am only hunting rabbits; but some day I will be on big game so i rather buy the gun I will need than the one that will "do just fine". So let me ask again, but in a different way... What are you tips and tricks on SHOOTING. How do you shoot for different situations? How can one take truly amazing photographs? What do I need to know about my gear that isn't in the manual? thanks so fat everyone
• er far*
• Join a photography club. A lot of talent lurks there that you can learn from. It a good place to get critique of your work too. Photographers generally love to talk shop and help each other out. Seriously, do this. Tips....i dunno. Get a good sturdy tripod, and USE IT. Even if it's too heavy to lug about. You'll thank me later. With digital, you have nearly limitless amount of shots you can take. So take them. Shoot outside of your first impressions of a scene. Shoot lots of different angles, focus on different points, blur parts, etc. Imitate photos that you really like. It's an excellent good way to learn. Always take the lens cap off. Always.
• Get a Wacom tablet. A big one, not the ninety-nine dollar one, or even the 6x8 one...a BIG one. It's the best and most important image editing tool I have outside of a decent editing program and gobs of memory. It's way, way faster to work over using a mouse. Also, be humble with all those wicked toys--even the blessed Wacom tablet. A disposable camera from a grocery store in the right hands will produce museum quality work. With art, it's not what you making it with but rather what you're making. Look at all sorts of visual art. Look at advertising. You'll find secrets and inspiration in everything. And if you're really good in your craft you'll find inspiring picture to snap in everything too. I think Ansel Adams said something like, "If you can't spend the rest of your life photographing in your back yard you best just sell your camera." Maybe it was someone else, or maybe I even made it up. Point still holds. You are what you make of it, the real art is inside your head and the camera lets you show it to others.
• Always take the lens cap off. Always. Oh, and always return the camera back to some sort of normal setting after tweaking it out. Don't just put it away. Sure enough you'll forget and start shooting again with undesired results. Been there and, recently, done that.
• Offset your flash by at least 2 feet. Otherwise everything will look flat and toneless. The S2 often doesn't need a flash, dont be afraid of a tripod and a long exposure. Also, get one of those remote shutter triggers. They are very handy. Pick up a light meter and learn how to use it. Sekonic are pretty good. I learnt photography with film, I used to do my own lab work, BW and colour. Because I know how much can be done AFTER the frame has been exposed, I press the trigger with a few ideas of what I may be able to do during development. With that in mind, shoot RAW only and get real familiar with potatoshop's RAW editing tools. Changing the colour temperature during development can change the feel of a picture in many different ways. The main tips I always give are; Look for positive/negative space. Balance them or unbalance them, depending on what you want the audience to look at and think. Line, repetition, shape. Common painting techniques translate very well into photography. Learn composition. P.S. I have ISO's of the Hyper Utility Software for the S2 if you're interested.
• "Always take your camera with you" is great advice: a friend once told me that the news photographer's maxim is "f8, and be there." The fanciest gear in the world won't do you any good if it's home in a drawer. Nonbinary's advice about putting the camera back to default settings is also golden; I've lost a lot of good pics by forgetting to put things back to normal (800ASA equivalent and 1/60th of a second works for bars and clubs, but it sucks the next day in bright sunlight). Some hard-learned random lessons: Trying to get a picture in a crowd by holding the camera over your head is hard. Practice until you have some feel for how much to tilt the camera, otherwise all you'll get are feet or blue sky. Use a wide angle; you can crop later. If you're taking sports or events - car wrecks, assassinations, street theatre - get to the front. You'll get better pictures that way. Don't be afraid to go inside the roped-off area (unless it's dangerous to do so, or you'd get in the way of emergency personnel). Act like you have a right to be there. Light is key. Dull daylight makes for bad pictures, bright sunlight is tough too: what looks like a soft shadow to your human eyes is hard black to your camera. Watch out for this when you compose your pictures. Take as many pictures as you can (get another couple of 2GB cards while you're at it) and throw away the bad ones. You can't go back and recreate the scene later when you find that your one 'perfect' shot wasn't. Study all the pictures you take and figure out what you did wrong or right in each one. Shoot RAW. You'll be amazed what you can do to improve the picture later with the software that comes with your camera. Shoot wide. You can crop later. Remember to experiment with unusual aspect ratios. And here are three good links that I found just recently. The first two are required viewing: http://www.kodak.com/eknec/PageQuerier.jhtml?pq-path=317 http://memap.org/?p=34 http://www.radiantvista.com/
• Use your instinct and take risks. It'll hurt at first, but pay off later.