Anyone taking photos with a mobile or a camera is not a photographer; it takes more to get into photography for beginners.
This tubeguide is about photography for beginners. If you are interested in photography, then stick around till the end of this article.
In this article, I will take you to the step-by-step process of how to get into photography as a beginner.
1) Take an online photography course.
To get into photography professionally, you will have to take an online photography course.
When you search on the internet about how to get into photography, you will find tons of articles and videos about basic photography lessons.
There are tons of videos on youtube that teach photography but not how a paid video course teaches.
In paid courses, you can learn the principles of photography along with the latest photography techniques so that you can familiarize yourself with the latest photography equipment.
It also help you if you will switch from photography to videography!
A famous photographer in the industry known as "Aaron Nace" offers professional paid courses on Fiverr.com, which may be good news for those who want to get into photography in 2021.
But, at the same time, he offers tutorials on youtube for absolutely free.
He has millions of subscribers on his channel, and he teaches them for free. So, the question is, why would you buy his course if you can learn for free?
Well, when it comes to making money, you have to spend money!
His courses deserve a few bucks because he will teach you all the bells and whistles of photography professionals.
So, it's totally up to you!
Either you can watch his free videos on youtube and then later purchase his paid course.
You can also take an online photography course from anywhere you want to just get into photography and later polish your photography skills by watching his free videos.
2) Learn Photo Editing
Learning photo editing is the second step of this guide of how to get into photography for beginners.
Either you are taking photography as a hobby or a business, editing skills are compulsory for both. Especially if you want to work on film photography projects, you must have photo editing skills.
When you compose photos, not every time you will get mind-blowing shots. Sometimes you may face lightning issues; sometimes, you may not have a good view background, and so on.
So, after taking an online photography course, you should also take a photo editing course.
In adobe classes, you will be taught different editing tools like illustrator, photoshop, and a couple of more.
Once you are familiar with camera handling and photo editing, you will be able to get into a particular photography niche.
Niche is something like a category in which you are going to be a master!
In the next section, we will discuss your inspiration to select a niche to master.
3) Inspiration for the photography
The third step of how to get into photography for beginners is finding inspiration.
Your inspiration would come from anything like adventure points if you travel a lot, nature if you love, sports if you are keen on them, and so on. Photography is a massive industry, so you can fit yourself to any point you want.
But remember one thing: if your photography intent is doing business, do some research on popular photography to get into a niche.
There are different needs and demands for the various niche of photography.
Real estate photography has different demands as compared to sports photography.
So, you should choose your niche very carefully to scale your business faster.
Either way, you can also sell photos of yourself to create a sturdy business. For that, all you need to have a good personality and madness to get into photography.
4) Get a Good Camera for the best photoshoot.
Asking someone about how to get into photography without having a camera or smartphone is kind of a joke.
LOL! Don't be serious!
You can take a used/cheap camera from the local market, or you can proceed with your smartphone only.
But, I recommend you to go with a good camera from the beginning of the photography journey!
Camera results impact a lot in your photography! So, if you have a good camera, it will enhance your creativity.
There are many opportunities for amateur photographers to easily access a good quality camera at an affordable price with various features.
At the beginning of this century, we did not have as many resources as we now have.
We can travel easily anywhere on the planet, access any learning resources, and easily buy or even rent an excellent camera at an affordable price.
So, at least for a few months at the beginning of your photography journey, keep a good camera for the best photoshoot practices.
5) Setting up gear
Setting up photography gears are different for different niche photography. Photography gears are must-have equipment to get into photography for beginners.
Depending on your affordable budgets and your niche, you can pick gears such as:
a) Tripod:
Tripod is one of the most useful things for photography if you are shooting landscape views. It helps stabilize your camera from shaking and gives you freedom from holding your camera in your hand for a long time.
b) Laptop:
A laptop with installed lightroom, photoshop, or similar software will help you edit your photos. It will bring your expectation into reality after taking a shot. The software will make up your photos with different features like color gradients, green-screen effects, face retouching, etc.
c) Lenses:
Lenses are required when you use interchangeable cameras like DSLR. There are two types of lenses that photographers use. Number one is the prime lens, which is more expensive and fixed with a camera. The other one is a zoom lens, which is less expensive but heavier to carry.
d) Batteries:
Keep two extra batteries of 1000mAh capacity for your digital camera. A higher or lower power battery doesn't matter until your camera supports the battery. Keeping spare batteries will help you to reduce uncertainty and inconvenience during your photoshoot.
e) Hard Drive:
A portable hard drive can reduce your headache as an extra backup of your hard work. You can keep your high-resolution photos in this drive for on-the-go photo access.
f) Instant Lab:
If you are interested in travel photography, this is an excellent tool to print your photos in hard copy instantly.
Most of the time, when you meet new people, you capture this moment, and to keep it memorable, you share the hardcopy with that stranger. It's pretty awesome, isn't it?
g) External Flash:
Sometimes, you need to capture photos with an ultra-wide angle. In that case, an external flash plays a vital role.
In some digital cameras, it is a built-in tool that is also called a pop-up flash. It would be best if you take an external flash for your wide-angle photography.
h) Camera Bodies:
Having two or more camera bodies is a good idea in your photography journey. It protects your camera lens and sensor from dust.
You can save a lot of wear and tear on the body as well as lens mounts/contacts. I recommend you to have at least two camera bodies for your photography.
i) Camera Backpack:
If you plan for travel photography, wedding photography, or real estate photography, then a camera backpack must be needed. You can put together all of your photography accessories in this backpack.
It would be a convenient carrier if you can arrange all the small items such as lenses, backup batteries, flashlights, hard drives, cleaning kit, camera, and sometimes a mini laptop also.
j) Camera Cleaning Kit:
A cleaning kit is a good thing for your camera lenses. You must have a cleaning kit in your camera backpack, including a few things like a power blower, wet cleaning wipes, dry cleaning wipes, cotton swabs, liquid cleaning, cleaning cloth, retractable brush, etc.
k) Remote Shutter Release:
Shutter release remote is not a must-have item for photography; however, it is needed for landscape and macro photographers.
It helps to reduce camera shaking during the shoots. You can also use a remote shutter release for any other photography.
6) Composing
Although you will learn each and everything if you take a short photography course, I will give you a few tips about the best photo composing techniques in this section to get into photography for beginners.
Here are the top five rules that you can follow to get a better composition.
a) Rule of Third:
In photo composition, the rule of third is used to divide the photo into different parts to drive your viewers' attention where you want, like dividing the image into four intersections.
Keeping your subject between any two (left/right) vertical intersection points or in one-third of all divisions is known as the rule of third.
b) Golden Point Rule:
Most of the time, the photographer mixed up the rule of thirds with the golden point rule. The golden point rule is used to keep your subject in one point of intersection and highly keep its viewers' focus on it.
c) Symmetric Rule:
By using the symmetric rule, a photographer draws the viewers' attention to the subject's reflection. In this composition, the subject and the similar elements are shown together beside each other.
d) Headroom Rule:
When photographers shoot portrait images, they keep their subject in the center using the rule of third.
Sometimes there is less space available above the head of the subject, so to keep focused on the audience, they cut out half of the head. It helps to focus on the eyes, nose, lips, or overall on the subject's face.
e) Leading Line Rule:
To create depth in an image, a photographer uses the leading line rule. It helps to draw the attention of the viewer one after another. Like the viewers at first, see the subject or foreground on the photo and then see the photo's side elements and then see the background.
In this section's conclusion, I would like to tell you that you should know every photography rule, but you should not strictly follow it.
The primary purpose of photography is to capture the moment by adding the story. So never mess up with the rules, and focus on composing mind-blowing photos.
7) Polish your photography
It was not the end of your photography learning journey; you need to grow up on a regular basis. Photography is all about creating the story behind the photo with a lot of creativity.
You will have to learn day by day from your past experiences, from the senior photographers, and most importantly, from your situation.
Here are a few points I have tried to cover up that you can follow to polish your photography skills on a regular basis.
a) Practice:
Only practice makes a man perfect. Without practice, you can't reach your satisfaction goal. Learn what works and what doesn't in your niche.
b) Collaborate for free:
You can join different photography Bootcamp with other photographers. It will help you to learn new techniques in your niche.
Also, you can collaborate for free with other photographers for the commercial shoot.
c) Watch YouTube Videos:
YouTube is the best free tutorials hub where you can find almost everything for free. So, it would be a great resource to polish your photography skills.
You can watch tutorials of "Aaron Nace" or similar photographers by searching "photography tutorials" on YouTube; you will find tons of free videos that can teach you on the go.
8) Make money from photography.
Making money from photography is kind of a royalty business. If you can stabilize your feet in the photography space, you will be earning while sleeping. Sounds crazy, right!
Let me explain!
Basically, in photography, you shoot images and sell them for different purposes. That means you can sell your one image multiple times for multiple purposes. WOW..!!!
So, the question is, how can you sell photos of yourself in order to make money passively?
Here is the three steps process of making a passive income funnel by selling photos online.
a) Create Portfolio:
The first step of your photography business is creating a stunning portfolio that can evoke your audience's interest.
Your portfolio must contain a little bit about you but a whole lot more about your photographs.
You must add your best photos in your portfolio to understand your creativity and either hire you for their photography studio or purchase your photographs for their needs.
b) Promote Yourself:
The main and the most crucial part of any business is promotional activity. Without promotion, a business can't exist.
So, in order to make your business passive, you can share your portfolio and your photos to the different stock platforms like Shutterstock, Adobe Stock, iStockPhoto, and your social media profiles. In Particular, you can create a youtube channel and create video content about photography. Go live on YouTube on a regular basis to show off your work. From there, you may get your potential photography clients.
Additionally, you can create a portfolio website using wix.com or any other landing page software Singapore and showcase all of your photos there. You can also turn your portfolio site into an eCommerce site to directly sell your photos from your website.
c) Make money:
Now it's time to make real money! When you share your photos to the different stock markets like Adobe Stock, Shutterstock, Envato, Etsy, Photomoto, and more, you will get paid whenever a customer of these sites downloads your photos.
My suggestion is to create your own eCommerce site for your photographs if you have money to invest! Other than the entire platform mentioned above, pay enough to their contributors.
So, join them and earn from there.
Conclusion
If we combine all the steps of how to get into photography for beginners, first, you have to take a short photography course, then learn to edit your photos, and finally, learn how you can make money with your captured images.
On top of that, you need a good camera with the best gear so that you can finally get into the photography industry.
