make it look professional?

[Clint_Smith]

Ok I heard this twice this week.

"How do you make it look professional?" - referning to images made with a digital slr.....

the first time it was from a student. Second time was from someone that spent $800 on a Rebel kit because, "those guys that take our teams pictures are too high.....I can take my kids out in the yard and do what they did for less money."

I found the question to be very interesting....On one hand my answer could help a young photographer. On the other I had two choices....blow it off by telling them it is an Acient Chineese secret or try to point them in the direction of where to find educational materials for photographers....

Ok 3 am again on a saturday morning, I am wired from work and this is just a rambling.....

[johnastovall]

Originally Posted by Clint_Smith

Ok I heard this twice this week.

"How do you make it look professional?" - referning to images made with a digital slr.....

the first time it was from a student. Second time was from someone that spent $800 on a Rebel kit because, "those guys that take our teams pictures are too high.....I can take my kids out in the yard and do what they did for less money."

I found the question to be very interesting....On one hand my answer could help a young photographer. On the other I had two choices....blow it off by telling them it is an Acient Chineese secret or try to point them in the direction of where to find educational materials for photographers....

Ok 3 am again on a saturday morning, I am wired from work and this is just a rambling.....

Point them to education materials and this forum, after all many people helped us and we need to pass it on.

Here's that old Chinese secret:

If you want happiness for an hour, take a nap. If you want happiness for a day, go fishing. If you want happiness for a year, inherit a fortune. If you want happiness for a lifetime, help somebody.

[brad]

Originally Posted by Clint_Smith

...from someone that spent $800 on a Rebel kit because, "those guys that take our teams pictures are too high.....I can take my kids out in the yard and do what they did for less money."

The idiocy of his statement would have left me gasping for air.

Obviously if he's asking you that question, he can't "do what they did" for any amount of money.

Only one thing will "make it look professional" ... experience.

There is an old engineering anecdote... a company is having trouble with their mission critical industrial machinery.. a complex piece of equipment, covering an entire warehouse. No matter what they do, they can't seem to work out the problem, so they call in an expert. The expert walks the line, listens, looks. Finally, he takes out a piece of chalk and marks a big X on one of the pieces of machinery and tells them to replace that unit. They do and everything starts working perfectly again.

When they get the bill for $10,000, they are surprised. They ask the engineer for a breakdown of the amount.

He replies: "1 piece of chalk: $1, Knowing where to put the X: $9,999"

[DEMDeepEllumMusic]

Tourist with Camera at the Grand Canyon- 2 hours on the rim and shoot 2 rolls of film (72 pics).

Professional with Camera at the Grand Canyon- 2 weeks in the Canyon may shoot 30 large format pics (2 a day), or 1,400 medium format pics (100 a day), or several thousand digital 35MM pics with an array of lenses and tripods.

Now the tourist may get the "WOW" shot just because they are at the right spot at the right time-like an eagle flying into the corner of the shot while the Pro will get many "WOW" shots.

[pippin]

DEM = how true.

Lost count of the people that would stand at the edge of the ampitheatre at bryce happily snapping away, but so very few of us took the plunge and went into the ampitheatre for some better shots.

[AndrewCCM]

I had a musician the other night tell me that my camera makes great pictures... I smiled and said, your guitar makes good music too. I think he got the point. :)

[brad]

That's great, Andrew!

[Bartman01]

Originally Posted by Clint_Smith

Second time was from someone that spent $800 on a Rebel kit because, "those guys that take our teams pictures are too high.....I can take my kids out in the yard and do what they did for less money."

If I want professional anything, I hire a professional. No way to replace the right equipment, the right experience, and the working knowledge of how to do a specific task. I bet that person will spend more in equipment costs and personal time use than it would have cost to just pay 'those guys' for a whole lot of images.

As to what to tell them: point them in the right direction, but set the expectation that it won't happen overnight and will take dedication on their part.

[Duffy Pratt]

I hate to disagree, but I don't like it when people use the word "professional" to mean "good".

There is lots of professional photography that I think is terrible. Just look at any of the gossip magazines. And I'm also sure there are alot of people who make no money from pictures, but are avid amateurs, and take some very fine pictures.

When I was growning up, one of the more successful town photographers was a friend of the family. He did all the group shots (kids in three rows with stupid smiles on their faces) for the elementary schools, for little league, etc... I went to his house pretty often for various things, and I don't remember ever seeing a single good picture. He was fast, genial, had a good way with kids, got correct exposure and everyone to smile, developed his own stuff quickly. And I'm pretty sure that he had zero talent. Having talked to his kids since then, I now know that he pretty much hated photography and felt stuck in the job because he was, in some sense, "good" at it.

Another photographer I knew grewing up was our family doctor. He never talked much about his pictures, but I distinctly remember he always had amazing pictures from Antartica and the Galapagos in his waiting room. It wasn't until I was older, knew him a little better, and was going to film school, that he admitted that he had taken all of the pictures himself, and showed me a few albums of his own work. He had a passion for the Arctic, Antartica, and for Photography, and it showed through in all of those albums. They were some of the most spectacular pictures I've ever seen.

I think this bears out in alot of fields: mediocre professionals abound, and the passionate and gifted amateur is more common than most people believe. So, for me, the way to make it "look professional" is to have some nice equipment and a certain degree of technical competence. How to make pictures great is another matter altogether.

Duffy

[Breezy]

I post pics for some military wives and they always ask me what camera I have and that it takes Great pics. I just smile and tell them.
And then another girl has a 20D and hers are "ok" but they also comment on how "great" her camera must be too lol

[LoungeLizard]

Originally Posted by johnastovall

Here's that old Chinese secret:

If you want happiness for an hour, take a nap.

That's NOT what they say in China!

[darktiger]

Originally Posted by johnastovall

Here's that old Chinese secret:

If you want happiness for an hour, take a nap. If you want happiness for a day, go fishing. If you want happiness for a year, inherit a fortune. If you want happiness for a lifetime, help somebody.

That's not what my wife says

[DeLeon]

I had an early intrest in photography, it was even the first merit badge I earned. When my daughter was about 6 months old, we made an appointment at a studio to have some pictures made. We arived about 10 minutes early, and ended up waiting in the waiting room for 45 min. after our appointment time. A 6 month old does not stay content for that long and the photos came out awfull. We left that day and I told myself "I'm going to learn how to do this myself, and we are never going to come back here" So I Got a student loan, quit my job selling shoes and got an associates degree in photography. I used my daughter in almost every portrait assignment and showed some friends at church. Before I knew it, I was taking senior portraits and booking familly sessions, just from people at church. I just got a contract to do all of the senior portraits at a childrens home and I cant stop thinking about photography. So I guess im a pro, but my photos still suck most of the time.

So, I learned the art, and the pro part came later.

[johnastovall]

I'm seeing an interesting sub-text in this exchange where Professional = Commercial. It's expectation that a photograph has in the mind of the public and some photographers to look like the millions of photographs of family, landscapes etc.

How ever I think this equation of "Professional = Commercial" would break down if if those wanting to "make it look professional" encountered professional work done with a Holga or pin-hole, or many of the various wet and digital techniques an image can be subjected and yet is a Professional work.

[Gordon]

Along the same lines, Seen it Before ?