What do i need to do to become a photographer?

Question

What do i need to do to become a photographer?

Answer 1

I strongly agree with fhotoface (hope i spelled that right).  Practice, Practice, Practice, and don't give up!

Answer 2

Start shooting

Develop a skill set

Create a marketing plan

Shoot some more

Develop a reputation

Market to your sphere of influence

Keep track of everything

Market some more.

Shoot some more.

Answer 3

A couple of years of photography classes, a good camera system and about five years of working with a pro to gain the experience in both your photographic skills and the business of photography.

There are those who will tell you that you do not need any school at all and that you are wasting you time with any school or training, etc.

School is the fastest way to learn and NOT learn bad habits.  If you are willing to waste your valuable time using the trial and error method, just remember there is an easier way.

Answer 4

You need to see the world in a way that only a photographer does. Appreciate the beauty and intrigue around you, create composition that's not only pleasing, but also reveals something new about the world. Learn to see rhythm and feel color. Allow motion and capture time. Walk the paths least trodden and let your viewer tag along through the pictures that you make. Never hesitate to explore the mundane and give new meaning to the old or common. Suffer the viewer to see through your images the world that you enjoy daily through your photographic eye. Learn the many personalities of light, and negotiate with it an accord we call a photograph. Understand the fundamentals of technical proficiency, study the rules of composition so that you can not only employ them, but break them when the time is appropriate. Finally, realize that in every photo you make, you not only capture the world but a glimpse of your own soul. This comes through a lifetime of practice, both with the camera and without, exercising both your technical skill and imagination.

Now there's a few fine art photographers out there that make a living off that first paragraph. To me, that's a triumph not to be taken lightly, and the vast majority of photographers will never fall into that category. These few photographers aside, if you wanted to become a mainstream professional photographer, that's a whole 'nother ball game. Forget that first paragraph, it'll be worthless to you. Instead, go to school to learn how to take safe pictures that'll make you enough money to keep food on the table. Ensure that you keep all your equipment up to date so that your clients will take you seriously, because an older model of camera is not only embarrassing, it also limits what you will come to call photography. Keep up on the latest prices in town so that you're competitive, and spend all that time that you could be using to take soul-affirming pictures to find new work so that you can feed yourself and your family for another week in an increasingly mundane, mediocre, but nonetheless competitive field. You won't need to reveal anything about the world, you won't need to see rhythm or feel color. h**l, you won't even need a soul. Forgive my cynicism, but the majority of the professional photographers that I see take technically sufficient but wholely content-free photographs to add to a growing pile of nothingness that's touted as art. There are exceptions to that rule -- if you intend to go professional, ensure that you're one of those exceptions.

Answer 5

First- buy a camera

Seriously, start taking photography lessons at your local college. Or and this is what I did, take correspondence classes from the New York Institute of Photography. It was way more then I expected from a corespodence course. Very well structured and easy to follow classes with instructors being very knowlegeable and easy to access.

Then once you learn the basics, get out there and shoot tons and tons of photos, get friends, realatives to pose for you. Portraits are the toughtest to learn but will get you the most business. Lighting is key, learn your lighting and exposure. Once you get comfortable with the camera, try to get a job as a photographers assitant. I can guarentee  that if you thought you knew it all, once you get a job with an established photgrapher you'll find you don't hardly know anything. Also taking a few business courses would be helpfull, marketing, accounting things like that. Good luck!!!

Answer 6

Need to know how to take pictures properly, know the computer programs to inhance your pictures, maybe take some classes and you will probally need a top notch camera.