Professional photography help!?

Question

How do you take nice pictures of people? Especially pictures like this:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jwlphotography/

Not the unreal pictures. I'm mostly talking about the composure of the picture. Especially the portraits. Professional looking pictures.

Does it have to do with having a nice camera? My aunt has a nice camera. She has a Canon Xti. But her pictures just look normal. They look like a regular digital camera took it. Do you have to edit them in photoshop? Also, where can I learn how to do that without taking a class?

Sorry. I have a hard time explaining this.

Please help.

Answer 1

You Really need to capture that moment, I started photography when i was about 11 using film and then got an Olympus E-500 For christmas 2 years ago. but you really need a fast capturing camera. Or you could get the person/model to pose to give you enough time. Also in photoshop or even Paint.net (free) you need to do auto levels. and maybe mask healing where you remove dirt or spots.

Hope This Helps

Answer 2

try in   non-colour

        

Answer 3

that one was done in a studio with REALLY, really soft light. If you want to learn about how to do stuff like that, i would recommend taking a class. The camera helps, but its controlling the LIGHT and using good quality of light that makes the difference between a "regular" photo and a "nice" photo

Answer 4

This photo was most likely taken in a studio, or somewhere where the photographer could control the lighting.

I have a Canon Rebel XTi and it is gorgeous, I love it to pieces, it takes the most wonderful photos!

The thing about professional cameras is you need to know how to use them, and their settings! I personally adore it for the high resolution, with high resolution you get the high quality photos that are the easiest to edit, you can literally zoom in 2000x and it will not get pixelated and ugly. Things that you need to take into consideration are the composition, lighting and what you want to attain in the shot. I suggest taking tons of photos of the same thing over and over again, in case someone blinks or one comes out blurry. I took about ten shots of this, and its a good thing i did, some were blurry or he had his eye shut!

http://marcieness.deviantart.com/art/Laz...

Same thing with this one:

http://marcieness.deviantart.com/art/Ser...

I would take TONS of portrait photos if I could get my hands on willing models who would let me do what i want with them (dress and make up wise as well as composition and poses).

Professionals almost always edit their photos in photoshop. Its what makes them look professional. They can take a regular photo that looks like your aunts, and make it look professional grade in a few clicks. So yes, you need photoshop if you want to go professional hobby-wise or at all!

Learning to play around in photoshop is easy. At first it may be confusing, but just play around, try different things and look at tutorials! I would suggest joining deviantart.com, where you can post your photos, get critiques and suggestions as well as view many amazing photoshop tutorials that will help you better get the hang of it! There is also a sweet website that is both entertaining and educational, www.mydamnchannel.com, and go to you suck at photoshop. In no time, you will be creating nice photos! I know it worked for me! I'm still learning about the features, there are SO many in photoshop, especially CS3 but its definitely worth learning about, and on your own you develope your own style instead of having to do it by the book, which is boring!

Take your aunts camera and have fun! :D Also don't forget that you can play around with things as well! Such as, if you wanted water droplets on a flower...dont wait for it to rain! get a spray bottle!

I hope this helped!

Answer 5

That photo was taken with the use of  either off camera strobe or studio lights.  I see light from both sides and from the front.  They used a main light off to the right and another light off( a light that is usually placed behind the subj and pointed at the background, called a background light) to the left and also use a fill light next to the camera. Their two side lights actually were quite strong as compared to the fill.  See the little refection of the light in the eyes, that is called a catch light. It is not the camera, this could have just as easily been taken with point and shoot.  It is the lighting here that makes the difference.