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

Wedding Photos: Throw and catch the flower..!!!

These flowers throw and catch moment is the second if not the most important photo shot in a wedding. Every time on a wedding job, I will be in high alert and attention if flower throw and catch is to be happen. Most of the wedding will do this throw and catch but some didn't because the flower was rented.

For those wedding who do flower throw and catch, it is a great photo opportunity. Thou, one need to have a camera that can take a fast movement photo and as usual the dslr would be handy. Point and shoot not suitable because the slow shutter speed and buffer frame. I would like to share few selection of this shot because this is what wedding photo journal is all about.

Different kind of Photography

I was out with my friend to have a drink and she took out something that she bought earlier and shows it to me. It is a key chain size doll that hooked with the hand phone thing. My friend likes all things that look cute and girlish, but I’m not saying that she is one. Then I remember Massy, we chat something about photography and she told me that she taking photo of this doll known as Pinky Street. I don't really know much about this Japanese doll stuff with anime thing although i almost become one myself by hanging out with one of my friend who like to do anything that Japanese include games, anime, comic and toys. It seems putting dolls as a photo subject and arranges it so it looks like posing for the camera is not photography but it is a trend. The growing interest of cute Japanese anime doll created a new trend where the collector put their doll into a position so well and meaningful it look like the doll is actually alive in the photo.

I ask my friend to take out her Canon G9 camera which she always brings it with her every day. Then i set the camera to aperture priority (av) and set the lens to macro mode to make the doll bigger and lively. Me and my friend take turn to take some photo with both dolls and i ended up edited only three of it.







The photo below was taken by my friend but I edited the color to give it a different feelings.

Forum Post: Photography Profession

I was looking at flanegan's photo forum Borneo Shutter and reading some post thread that he made and made a comment on one his topic.

Photography is not an easy field to venture mainly because of the high cost of the equipments you need to invest. People who want to change his steady job to not so stable photography career need to think twice before doing that. My venture to photography was a coincident because i started my work holding a video camera and graphic design. Photography comes in as equipments for a company that i work that at last not really work out for me.

The influx of beginner photographers in wedding field pushes the market price to its lowest. Dslr cameras become cheaper to most people to own. Thanks to the marketing strategies and the competition among the camera brand to make dslr affordable to everyone. Still, never do they know that the cheaper dslr camera does not really meant professional as it to be. During the old days, what really divided the point shot camera and slr is the ability to control the camera mechanism such as aperture, shutter speed, iso sensitivity and flash level. Point and shoot camera setting is controlled by the on board chips that did everything that needed to set in slr camera. digital point and shoot are even better in term in creating an image with all the setting can be preset and the touch up can even done by the on board camera chip without we even realized it. Cheaper range dslr is a hybrid of point and shoot technology and professional advance and setting in dslr. Just imagine a point and shoot camera can use all the pro dslr equipments such as the flash and lenses. Not all really, just lens that designed for digital slr camera.

i don't have any problem with people who want to venture into wedding photography as a career change or part time. The problem is when they offering a dirt cheap price for their services. This will give a general impression to the people that they don't need to spend such as this amount to a wedding photographer. Just let your cousin or friend to do your wedding function and save your money to go to honey moon or wedding dinner expenses. If they lucky, they will get some great shot of bad composition and exposure of photos of their most important day and then no one to blame after that. I don't think a cousin or friend of yours who do a living full time in wedding or other field of photography would agree that their services should be dirt cheap. One general aspect is the equipments that they use. One has to know that professional photography equipments not just fall down for the sky. One need to spent or borrow money to have a full spec of equipments to create a good and commercial standard of photos to the customers and let the customers know that photography no mean all cheap. Money needed to spent not to the time itself but to the equiptment and the artistic skills and experience of the photographer. This is how a photography field will get back its old time of glory and respect.

Yes, some does argue that it doesn't need a great or expensive camera to create an amazing photo. Yes, but half true. Photo was taken via point shoot and hand phone camera doesn't have its technical artistic content. Indeed that I admits to saw lots of good photo taken by point shoot camera in internet. thou, those amazing and technically artistic photo mostly taken by high end photography equipments that require whoever is the person to use it, must has an adequate knowledge and experience in photography itself. All nice photos taken via point and shoot can be categorized as lucky shot for me. i took lots of lucky and unlucky shot photos using a point and shoot camera. Then it turns to be all the way unlucky shot for me when i started to use a dslr 2 years ago. I realized the technical knowhow and experience make great different between the hobbyist, armature and professional photographer.

I realized that some might not agree with all what i wrote above. I understand. Still, to whoever wants to change his day job and venturing photography as a main income need to think thoroughly. The cheap equipments sold in camera shop are not adequate to be use in a commercialized setting because of the lack of accessories that cost many times that the camera itself. The photography skills and the professional work etiquette is important to create a overall good work and impression to the photography field. Letting those ahbeng and ahlian who charge less RM100 per day for a wedding services, how are the professional or full time photographer going to earn a living then? No matter in whatever field in photography, new waves of cheaper range photographer is coming to town. So, for all who dedicated full his heart and equipments in photography, hold tight and brace yourself for the impact. In another way of speaking, learn more skills to get your distance away from those who offering dirt cheap price of photography services.

So, what do you think?