How absurd! Frogs are great animals. I have never eaten one and don’t plan on it.
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What makes a great picture?
- Thread starter jwolf6589
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Thank you. Again, creativity is only one of the many components of good photography, and of course not every image is going to be sparkling with creativity. Sometimes one sees something and just shoots. That frog photo I posted, for instance: not a lot of creativity went into that! Because I am interested in and like frogs, when I spotted this guy I carefully leaned over the rope railing on the boardwalk and shot him before he caught on that there was this big thing pointing at him going click-click and he hastily jumped away into the deeper water.
Later, in the editing phase I cropped the image somewhat because his hindquarters were in a mess of weeds and such, so I chose to emphasize the most interesting part of the image, which was of course his head and those large bulging eyes and the texture of his skin. By cropping the way that I did this got rid of the distracting messiness of the weeds while still providing context (his watery environment) and added more impact to the overall image, emphasizing the area which was most important to me and would be to a viewer. Keeping things fairly simple and focused on the subject, with few distractions is another basic tenet that most photographers follow.
But I l
Yes, I was kidding with you. Wile frog legs can be a meal for a lot of people, I am not into it. I do like frogs, moose, and so on. However, I like moose more than frogs. Can you imagine my username being "AlaskaFrog" instead of AlaskaMoose?
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I highly doubt many people in this thread are pros making money with their photography.
I certainly am no professional photographer, nor have I ever claimed to be! I spend money on photography but have never made any....... Knowledge and skills can be acquired without ever making a dime from shooting photographs. There are many technically skilled and creative, artistic photographers who do not do this for a living, they have learned and worked with the science, art and craft of photography because they genuinely love it and have a passion for it. Some of them may actually be better photographers than a so-called professional!
And, yes, many of these same people do own and use gear which is also owned and used by people who actually make a living from shooting photos -- if someone has the interest and the funds they can purchase whatever gear they want, there is no rule stating that only so-called "pros" may use certain gear..... So the person one might see walking around a given area with what is a rather expensive and sophisticated looking camera and lens may be a professional photographer, but it is also quite likely that in fact the person is an amateur, a serious enthusiast, a hobbyist, someone who enjoys photography without being engaged in the money-making business of photography.
That said, just because someone can afford to purchase and use top-of-the-line flagship gear doesn't guarantee that his or her images are going to be stellar and will knock a viewer's socks off...... This is where the whole willingness to learn and develop technical skills and utilize creativity and artistic approaches comes into play. Someone can shoot outstanding, amazing images with a flagship camera and an expensive lens......but someone else can also shoot something really lousy with that same gear. Photography needs to be learned and skills honed, but not everyone has the interest, the patience or the time to do so.
And, yes, many of these same people do own and use gear which is also owned and used by people who actually make a living from shooting photos -- if someone has the interest and the funds they can purchase whatever gear they want, there is no rule stating that only so-called "pros" may use certain gear..... So the person one might see walking around a given area with what is a rather expensive and sophisticated looking camera and lens may be a professional photographer, but it is also quite likely that in fact the person is an amateur, a serious enthusiast, a hobbyist, someone who enjoys photography without being engaged in the money-making business of photography.
That said, just because someone can afford to purchase and use top-of-the-line flagship gear doesn't guarantee that his or her images are going to be stellar and will knock a viewer's socks off...... This is where the whole willingness to learn and develop technical skills and utilize creativity and artistic approaches comes into play. Someone can shoot outstanding, amazing images with a flagship camera and an expensive lens......but someone else can also shoot something really lousy with that same gear. Photography needs to be learned and skills honed, but not everyone has the interest, the patience or the time to do so.
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I was just talking to my co-worker today who is tired of using a phone for pictures and wants to get a point and shoot camera. I recommended the Canon Powershot (same model that I have) since it takes excellent photos and is a great camera. I doubt that he like me can afford a pro camera, and even if he could he has no interest in taking a class just too learn too shoot photos!
I said $500 which seemed to him kinda expensive. But the camera itself was only $400 if he does not buy a warranty, already has a SD card, USB cable, and HDMI cable.
Send him here, we can give him some recommendations for some good cameras.
If he is ever going to display his images on a large monitor or wants to print any bigger than 8x10, then the aforementioned Panasonic zs100 is a far better choice and it has a real viewfinder.
no no no no.... $500 will get them a much better option. ZS100 or a MK3 RX100. Much much better choices.
Personally if my budget was $500 I’d be going the second hand route.
There's no camera - the $1000.00 iPhone, the $500 point/shoot, the $7k "pro" body with $10k lenses - where an understanding of photography and how to capture images wouldn't go amiss. Especially if you'd like to take great photos. Whether classes online, in person or whatever makes sense, knowledge helps. You're in Denver, so Mike's Camera is a great place to take in-person or virtual classes.
I did make some money from photography, not much, but I was the public affairs staff photographer at RIT for a period of time. Had my own office and darkroom, did all my own B&W processing and printing. Highlight of my tenure was designing and building a booth for the Alumni department, with two side panels with color prints I printed on a Kodak drum processor, and a rear projection screen with two projectors and a controller.
Bought a new TV recently 32 inch and my photos from Powershot display just fine on it using HDMI cable.
that’s your use case scenario. have you asked your friend how he wants to display his photos or what his end goal is?
and most of the information is free now. although sometimes it’s worth paying for a class for instructor feedback or for a specialty genre.
I should have been more specific. I was referring to the high resolution monitors that are now standard with iMacs and becoming increasingly popular as stand alone as well. An HDTV is nowhere near that standard as a matter of fact it is a mere 1080x1920 pixels and possibly 720x1280 pixels. With a 5k monitor we are talking 2880x5120 pixels and 8k monitors are not that far away. The lack of detail capture with that teeny weeny sensor will be extremely obvious when you get into that quality of monitor.
And yes even an 8x10 print is a tougher challenge than your HDTV. As to 11x14 or 16x20 forget it with all but a tiny percentage of images.
If I was shooting larger than 8x10 images I would use the full megapixels of the camera. But since I am not I am happy shooting at 10 megapixels.
In the studio I worked when I was young, we shot 8x10 negatives and transparencies of product shots. Try developing 8x10 b&w negatives in a tray without scratching them, completely in the dark!
Edit post post.
While digging through some very old slides, I found this shot of the studio and it's enormous 8x10 Deredorf camera. It had two columns and the camera in the center.
Slide was "scanned" by my iPhone, got this new phone scanning platform with a rear light, cheap but decent.
I still have an Epson full size scanner for serious work.
Edit post post.
While digging through some very old slides, I found this shot of the studio and it's enormous 8x10 Deredorf camera. It had two columns and the camera in the center.
Slide was "scanned" by my iPhone, got this new phone scanning platform with a rear light, cheap but decent.
I still have an Epson full size scanner for serious work.
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I've printed this pho. to to 20x24 and it's absolutely flawless printed that size. In fact the person I gave the print to cherishes it, and her children are already fighting over who gets it when she passes(of course I'll gladly make another, but that's beside the point).
Could I have done this with a 12mp point and shoot? Maybe. This was a 30 second exposure at base ISO from my D800, and I pulled a LOT of detail out of the shadows. I probably could have had similar results with my D3s(12mp) or Df(16mp) but all of those have something in common-a big sensor. I doubt I could have pulled as much shadow detail this cleanly from a small sensor. The fact that the house is fully visible, but you can also see the rooms inside through the window, is one of the things that everyone(the person who lives in the house and the people who grew up in it) absolutely love.
Maybe you consider this a good photo or not(I'm open to critiques as to what I may have done better, especially as I might try to recreate it given the chance later this year) but technically I think it shows off a lot that the people who like it really enjoy seeing.
Could I have done this with a 12mp point and shoot? Maybe. This was a 30 second exposure at base ISO from my D800, and I pulled a LOT of detail out of the shadows. I probably could have had similar results with my D3s(12mp) or Df(16mp) but all of those have something in common-a big sensor. I doubt I could have pulled as much shadow detail this cleanly from a small sensor. The fact that the house is fully visible, but you can also see the rooms inside through the window, is one of the things that everyone(the person who lives in the house and the people who grew up in it) absolutely love.
Maybe you consider this a good photo or not(I'm open to critiques as to what I may have done better, especially as I might try to recreate it given the chance later this year) but technically I think it shows off a lot that the people who like it really enjoy seeing.