Forum: Category of Photographer

I got this idea and want to write it for a long time. Here are the thread i wrote and posted in Borneo Shutter for reading and discussion in the forum.

The first category is the Beginner.

Beginner photographers are people who don't have much experience about taking photo and the camera they use. Simply saying, it just like looking our parents aged 50 years plus old handling your high tech camera hand phone that they don't even realized there is a camera in the hand phone. Beginner photographer started to do photography because of friend and peers influences or self inspiration after looking at some other photographer's photo in action.

Beginner level photographer most likely started with a full automatic point and shoot camera. The idea of having automatic point and shoot camera is because of the need of getting use to holding a camera and pointing it to take a photo. Taking advantage of the full automatic function of the point and shoot give chances to the person to spent more time on doing photography creatively without having fear of the technical things such exposure and low light environment.

Beginner photographer can also use a full DSLR no matter it is an entry level or professional gear. The problem with having an expensive gear in such early stage is time that was spent on getting used to the equipment that other manual setting and function that was not used wasted. Having a point and shoot at the beginning can give the person a little taste of how to point your camera to right angle and perspective rather than being confused with all the extra button and function that you might not need to use yet.

The second category is the Amateur and Hobbyist.

Amateur and hobbyist photographer evolved from the beginner photographer. In this level, most of the photographers were already has more time and experience on pointing the camera and took lots of photo as eyes seen fits randomly. Hobbyist photographer will consider on taking similar photo that only can be done with DSLR setting camera. This was the time when point and shoot camera lost out to the semi professional and professional camera. Hobbyist photographer will spend more time on taking photo and in additional on the setting and function that available not just the DSLR but on the point and shoot also.

Hobbyist photographer started to learn about the basic fundamental of photography such as the aperture, shuttle speed, ISO setting as well as the composition, depth of field and the rule of third when doing photography. The limitation of point and shoot really shown in here where some of the lens effect can’t be done and this is when the semi pro and professional gear come in handy. Beside just photographing around with what our eyes seen fits randomly, the photographer started to have its own idea on how he want the photo to look like after that.

Hobbyist photographer must has the basic rules in photography because not all the photo taken due to our skills and experience. Beginner photographer can take a very impressive and good photo randomly without any experience and skills. One such thing I can see on this situation is in landscape photography such as sunset and sunrise photo. The outer factor such as beautiful scenery and less challenging light environment give good opportunity to such few people that happen to be on the right time and right place.

Hobbyist photographers mostly prefer to buy a DSLR camera with at least one lens at disposal. DSLR camera now sold with one so called kits lens in one price range around 2 thousand to 3 thousand ringgit depends to what type of lens offered. The best kits lens that a hobbyist photographer use is the 18-55mm or 18-70mm lens. The add on feature such as auto focus lens and vibration reduction in Nikon lens and Image Stabilizer for Canon lens add extra cost to the lens. External flash can be consider a necessity due to the limited power and usage of the camera flash producing better result in night or low light photography. Additional accessories and lens can be obtained if money is not a problem.

The third category is the Part Timer

Part timer photographer is people who work on a day job and part time in taking photo. The different compared to the hobbyist is they charge money for the photography activities offered. Part time photographer still has their own financial income from their full time job, but they don’t mind doing some extra part time to earn some extra income to support their expensive activities and hobby.

Part time photographer should have a basic requirement of equipment and gear before offering their services and charging money. Part time photographers tend to choose an expensive piece of DSLR camera that cost around 4 to 5 thousand ringgit in range minus the accessories and lenses that can fetch up over 10 thousand ringgit. The advantage between a cheaper DSLR camera body and the cheaper one is the quality of the photo, button range for short cut and convenience, ISO range and the speed of the camera shot frame per second.

Reliable equipments needed to make sure the photography activities will not having a problem that will make the photographer himself looks bad. Additional lens such as wide angle 12-24mm, zoom lens 70-300mm and bigger aperture up to f1.4 with multiple range cost fortune to buy. Some photographer also invest in the indoor studio equipments such as a wireless flash system, high end computer that managed to process large size of photo and interconnected backup, portable and wireless system to take photo outdoor.

There are no different in term of skills level and experience between the hobbyist and part time photographers. Slightly different is the specialty of the photography activities they do. Part time photographer can mostly be seen in low budget events and function because they offered a lower rate than the professional full time. I estimated their price range is around half of the market range offered compared to the full time depends to their experience and work profile.

The fourth categories is the Professional Full Timer

Full time professional not mean the photographer photography skill better than a part time or hobbyist photographer. Professional full time give a meaning of hours of time spend in photography activities by the photographer. Professional full time charges more than the part time. Full time spent more time on the photography activities and their skills and experience supposed to be better than the part time by rights. Professional full time photographer charges can be expensive depend to the photography they do. Most can easily reach above 10 thousand and exceed to 100 thousand in commercial photography.

The equipments that used by the professional full time was mostly high end professional gear. The high demand in quality and skills and the high expectation from the client make the full time photographer to invest more on the reliability and the high end result and effect that most of the conventional mid range photography gear cannot give. Photographer in this category can spend around 100 thousand to 1 million ringgit of equipment depend to his income and investment capability.

This range of equipments can be compared to small and medium business standard where the passion is not merely to earn money but to create a masterpiece that well worth up to the competition that give a high quality result in a high expectation demand in a real competitive market. Some still choose to the old technique equipments that still cost a fortune to buy but a little bit adaptation to the new digital post processing to get the better result to compensate the limitation only electronic can do at the moment.

The different that make among the professional full time photographer is the experience and the photography art work they produce. Professional full timer photographer challenge is to make sure their art work stand out among all many photo exhibited in specific genre and field such as commercial, art and journalism. Photographer that has a very detail insight and observation on finding details that stand out among many photos will excel to success and recognition that will earn him/her as a Master in Photography.

Link:
Borneo Shutter: Category of Photographer