A Mediocre Photographers Guide to Professional Photography

A Mediocre Photographers Guide to Professional Photography I’ve been a freelance writer for thirteen years. While I’m mainly a writer, hundreds of my photographs have been published in books, magazines, newspapers, and online. I’ve made thousands of dollars from my photos, yet I’m at best a mediocre photographer. I’m not a visual person, and I’ve taken only one â€Å"easy A† college photography class that was back in the days of dark rooms and print film. I’m not alone. Many writers supplement their income with photos even if they aren’t primarily photographers. Here are some tips to help you augment your writing income with your photos. This isn’t a beginner’s guide to photography - there are plenty of those already - but rather a guide to using your current level of ability to its best advantage. Always Use the Highest Resolution: Set your camera to the highest resolution and largest format and leave it there. Even if your assignment is for an online publication that uses small, low-res images, you never know when you’ll need those large, high-res images for print media. Print requires at least 300 dpi (dots per inch). Go beyond that. Why? Because bigger pictures mean you can crop more and zoom in on details better, and a little blurriness disappears when you scale it down. Quantity Begets Quality: The trick to taking good photos is taking a lot of photos. Pros know this, and it’s doubly important for amateurs. The digital era has made taking photos virtually free, so click away. You’ll find plenty of wheat in the chaff. Also avoid the manual setting. As travel writer Pam Mandel says, â€Å"Everything that teaches you about going pro wants you out of automatic. But you know what? Cameras are smarter and smarter these days and if you don’t understand what’s happening with the light, it’s okay to use auto or the presets.† Take a Combination of Vertical and Horizontal Shots, Close-ups and Wide Views: Editors love choice and often pick a particular photo as much for how it fits into the layout as for the content. Give them a wide variety and more than the article actually requires.    Subject Is Everything: The more interesting your subject, the less your readers will notice your lack of talent. Take this photo, for instance. It’s of a castle in Gondar, Ethiopia. Wait, a castle in Ethiopia? Yep. Pretty, too. You might almost overlook the lack of people or the overly wide foreground. The first problem can be solved Spotting a Good Shot: Keep your camera handy and your eyes open for unusual, funny, or arresting images. Sometimes the best shots only last an instant. Another important aspect is depth. Freelancer Kyle Ellison says, â€Å"My wife, who takes far better photos than I, keeps hammering home the importance of depth in my photos. Depth! Depth! A   sunset over a horizon is flat and 2D, whereas a sunset over a horizon with a palm frond in front of it is 3D.† Photo Editors Are Your Friends: I’m talking both computer programs and people here. Inexpert photographers often over- or underexpose their shots, or improperly frame them like that castle photo. If Photoshop is beyond you, even basic programs like Paint and GIMP allow you to crop, resize, adjust brightness, and more. It’s a lot easier to make a perfect shot than to take a perfect shot. Beyond that, your publisher has a real live photo editor who knows much more than you do. Don’t be afraid to ask for help. Chances are they’ll fiddle with your photos anyway. And make sure you know your market. Ellison adds, â€Å"It’s important to look at the types of photos being published in the outlets you’re looking at. You could be the most artistic photog on Earth, but if your personal ‘style’ isn’t what usually publishes then it probably isn’t going to happen.† Creative Commons Is Your Friend: Still can’t get a decent shot? Use someone else’s expertise. There are countless images under the Creative Commons license freely available free for commercial use. Two of the best sources are Wikimedia Commons and Flickr. The photo-sharing site Flickr, a photo-sharing site, is the better of the two because more of its photos are high resolution. Additionally, if you’re covering an organized event, ask the press officer if they have photos available. Institutions such as museums or convention and visitor’s bureaus generally have a stock of images. There are many types of Creative Commons licenses. Make sure the owner allows commercial use. If she doesn’t, it never hurts to ask if you can use it. The worst she can do is say no. Some licenses require that you don’t alter the photo, an annoying restriction, and the vast majority ask for credit. Send the photographer a copy of the finished work. Building up friendly relations with pros is always a good idea. So don’t sweat your lack of artistic talent. Get snapping!