Many people think that photography is a talent, but technique is just as important. Becoming a professional photographer means selling your photos. And sales depend a lot on the quality of your pictures.
Those photographers who can provide consistent quality have a constant flow of clients. Not those who periodically shoot masterpieces, but sometimes misses. More orders and money from those who deliver consistent quality. Stability is an essential attribute of a photographer’s professionalism.
To get the results you expect, you need to know your equipment. Your camera has three groups of settings: brightness, sharpness and color.
ISO, shutter speed and aperture are responsible for brightness. Color is white balance. Sharpness is the focus setting and shutter speed.
Lighting helps emphasize the mood of the shot. When shooting in a studio, in addition to your camera, you need to know the lighting equipment. Even if you don’t use additional lighting, you still need to understand the properties of light.
What properties of light a professional photographer needs to understand
- Brightness and contrast
- Hardness of the light (shadow shading)
- The direction of the light source
- Angle of dispersion of the light source
- Color (spectrum) of light source
- Length of pulse of the light source
- Reflectance of surfaces of objects in the frame
At our course for beginner photographers you can get a thorough understanding of your camera and basic knowledge about working with light.
When you take a picture, your camera applies its own settings for contrast, color saturation, and sharpening to the image. It is preferable to at least control this. Better yet, do it yourself. So you have to learn how to process photos.
Professional photographers have only three programs they use to retouch photos. The most common are Adobe Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop.
If the photographer has all of these – the client from shoot to shoot gets the expected result and comes back with more orders.
This is the foundation. The profession of a photographer is interesting because it allows you to develop with each shoot, regardless of your level. Your style becomes more sophisticated. Your workflow becomes faster and more consistent. Your skill allows you to introduce new creative techniques, increasing your price for your services and attracting new clients.