[benji25]

Let me start off by saying I am new to photography. And no, this isn't a "what camera should I buy" thread. However, I do have a few questions.

1. What do you do when you start out as a photographer? Obviously you take pictures, but what do you do with them? Just wait till you build a portfolio, then try to get hired somewhere?

2. How easy is it to get a freelance job? (weddings and such) if you are not part of a known company?

3. Would photography be a good secondary job? What I mean by this is that, if I have a job, on weekends and spare time, could I make some extra cash? Or is it a very time consuming hobby?

4. How reliant is a photographer on Photoshop? Is it a necessity? I imagine it would be for weddings and important things, but I mean for my own pictures to look good.

5. Did you go to school for photography? Or did you just buy a camera and learn?

edit 6: What would I being looking at price-wise to get started with entry level things, such as a SLR or DSLR? (just a close guess, I don't need specifics)


I have been mature in posting this thread and taken time to be grammatically correct, please be respectful and hopefully give me some insight.

Thank you.

[207]

1. Learn

2. It depends on your reputation and your market.

3. It can be either. You have to make a significant time commitment to get good.

4. Necessary.

5. There are plenty of resources to learn; you don't have to go to a photo school.

6. Lots and lots

7. FAQ thread. You aren't even close to being important enough for your own thread. This **** simply will not do.

[benji25]

Originally Posted by 207

1. Learn

2. It depends on your reputation and your market.

3. It can be either. You have to make a significant time commitment to get good.

4. Necessary.

5. There are plenty of resources to learn; you don't have to go to a photo school.

6. Lots and lots

7. FAQ thread. You aren't even close to being important enough for your own thread. This **** simply will not do.

Thanks for the help on 1 through 6.

I didn't realize I had to be "important"

[geekyrocketguy]

1. Pretty much. Get good at photography and build a portfolio. This will take years.

2. Hard, especially if you're looking to get hired by anyone other than your current friends/aquaintances. It would be much easier to work for someone else.

3. It's pretty time-consuming, but you can make decent money. Tonybhall (one of the mods in this forum) takes photos at kids soccer and baseball games, plus a little paintball, and (iirc) he said he made over $1000. But he dedicates a LOT of time to it, and he does it almost every weekend... Keep in mind that if you take photos for 2 hours, you'll probably spend like 3 hours editing.

4. Totally and completely.

5. You can go to school, but not too many people do. If you're looking for a career, the best thing is to major in business and minor in photography.

6. $1200 to $1500.

Thank you for taking the time to write out your questions in a grammatical manner. If you had said "lawls i wana take pics n get paid!" I would have generally flamed/trolled the thread...