Starting in Photography
The more you know about what makes a great photo, the better your chances of taking amazing pictures.
Learning photography isn’t easy and it takes some thought but even stars like Beyoncé or Kim Kardashian have to take time out before they post something online so that their work is top notch!
Read on to learn how I started
(5 minutes reading time)
I started taking an interest in photography when I first started being on social media 5 years ago. I started taking more photos on my phone (iPhone 4 at the time) and favouriting my best pictures in an album. I took pictures until my phone was out of storage, then selected my favourites, put them in a folder and deleted the rest. Repeating this cycle until I had dozens of folders and filled my storage with my best photos of the year. These made me more critical of my photos, and I found I liked my more recent "favourites" than my earlier ones. This self-critiquing process helped me improve and impress a few people, so I took this more seriously while enjoying the feeling this hobby gave me. I became the "photographer" on holidays as an excuse to use a nicer camera and learned how to use fully manual settings.
Progressing from this, I started photographing in RAW formats and saving more of the photos I take knowing when my editing skills improved, I could make more use of the images I was taking. At this point, I purchased my first DSLR camera with the kit lens, a Canon 750D with an 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM lens.
After a whole year of this, I managed to get a placement with a photographer at an airshow which gave me experience in a completely different type of photography that I was used to. I remember being I awe of these massive lenses nearly the size of me and learned very quickly how heavy some of them were. I borrowed one of these lenses at the event (Canon 300mm f/4 Prime). After one day, I was exhausted but looking at the photos later, I was inspired again and showed me an entirely different perspective to photography through a new challenge. Photographing aircraft flying towards each other at closing speeds of Mach 1 certainly was the biggest challenge.
After I finished this placement and imported the 200GB+ files from the event, I edited and published the photos. These photos got the publisher's attention and were later used on social media for the event I covered in the subsequent year and in a couple of versions of the corresponding magazine.
I started my college course in A-Level Photography and, even though I achieved a grade: B, was very proud of my result but even more so of the images I had taken in those two years. At that time, I was also photographing portrait clients and taking photography more seriously as a business. I started my own website with Adobe Portfolio (now inactive) and built my portfolio as a portraits and events photographer. I also was second shooting for various photographers, including a wedding photographer, to gain more experience and develop my portfolio further.
Investing money earned through photography into gear as I went, I purchased full frame gear at the start of 2018 and haven't looked back since. It was paid itself off many times over with the increase in clients I am meeting and having excellent reviews. Year on year, I have had a 20% increase in the number of clients while having a 10% increase in average sales year on year. I made my new website (linked below) and have a gear collection to fill a small van if needed. This year I passed the 500,000 photos taken on my cameras combined and comparing my "favourites" now to back in 2015 on my iPhone 4; there is simply no contest.
My advice for those who want to start photography as a hobby:
Take lots of photos.
This helps to gain experience, and that is key. Developing a critical mindset for reviewing your images pushes you to pick what worked well in an image and creates your style as a photographer. Growing your own personal style takes time and cannot be learned through a book. It takes time and a hell of a lot of photos.
Try to experiment with editing.
Experiment with free editing apps but save the originals. This allows you to have a clean slate if you irreversibly make a mistake with an edit you have made. This is good practice as a professional photographer too, and I still do this myself. I recommend free editing apps such as Adobe Lightroom and Snapseed.
Learn Manual settings
As daunting as this is, I believe it gives you a better understanding of how the images are formed and gives you a better idea of creating different styles. Long exposure photos and a better insight into how to reduce grain and blur in-camera to save time editing are examples of the benefits of this.
My advice to taking photography forward as a business:
Know your worth
It is a lot easier to get clients when working for free, but working for free is working at a financial loss. Your time is valuable, so know the work you are doing, and the reward is of equal value. If you are working for free, make sure you're doing it because you are gaining from experience too in another way. But remember, no amount of exposure offered will directly pay your bills.
Build your portfolio
As self-explanatory as this sounds, this is vital. Build your portfolios for individual types & styles of photography. Do not just have a collection of random images from your best work. Building a portfolio for each style you offer as a photographer in your services is vital. For example, clients do not want to see edgy edited photos for a band when you're pitching yourself as a photographer for their wedding.
Backups
Make sure you answer the question of "what if" before it happens. Whether an SD card is corrupted, lens breaking, battery dying etc. You need backups. Especially if the opportunity is paid for or a major event such as a wedding, it would be completely irresponsible to not have backups. At a wedding, I have 3 camera bodies total available to me and backups for the main lenses, too, as well as a plethora of SD cards, batteries and insurance for all of my gear.
Get a contract
Photographing for a client without one is risky for both of you and can leave you in very awkward situations if you don't have one. They put everything in writing, so you both know what to expect for a photoshoot. This also casts the clients looking to try and mess around aside. I have heard of clients refusing to pay on time, the amount discussed and increasing the photographer's workload, which has made things much more difficult. I have ensured my clients sign a contract before the photo shoot to avoid this from happening since 2018.
If you are unsure how to write a legally binding contract for your local laws, please consult a lawyer. There are plenty of templates online as a starting point for you to fill in your information, but these are very rarely sufficiently written for your individual local laws. The main points are:
The information of each party involved (full names, contact info)
The amount to be paid from each person to each person (details for how payment is to be made)
The scope of work involved (how many hours of coverage at an event? how many edits from a studio photoshoot? etc.)
Who is responsible for various aspects/requirements of the work (who is responsible for sourcing the location & permissions associated with that location? who is the photography coordinator at the event?)
Other points
Do not send over un-edited files to a client.
Do not spend money on gear you do not need
Spend more time taking photos than reading about how to take better photos. The experience will help most.
On the point of spending more time taking photos than reading about how to take better photos I will leave it here. I hope this article was useful and look forward to seeing more inspiring photography in 2021.
All the best,
Kieran