dandekarv wrote:
Blaster, thanks for the info. It is good but confusing. How can I use long zoom lens if I want to blur the background? Long zoom means small opening. can you please explain little bit more?
Nope. Guess I confused you.
I say get a zoom only because it can be used for portraits and other things too. It is more of an all in one. I good prime is great for portraits and many other things too but is less versitile than a zoom.
You blur the background either by having the background far away from your subject, shooting with a large aperture or both. Sorry to say if you don't know this you have no business thinking about charging people for photos.
Everybody thinks being a photographer is easy money and anyone can do it but I promise it will be the hardest, lowest paying job you have ever had. You will invest thousands with equipment and just when you think you are going to get a paying job, someone will come along and do it for free just for their portfolio.
Read, study, learn. You will never get there by asking questions in a forum. You need a foundation of knowledge first before a forum like this becomes useful for fine tuning what you have learned. An hour watching youtube videos is worth a month here asking questions one at a time.
Your camera & lens budget will not even be enough to equip your studio with lights, backdrops, furniture, props, etc. Sure, you could be a "natural light outdoor photographer" but so is everyone else with a camera.
For now, get any cheap DLSR with a kit zoom lens. A T2i is all you need. Shoot thousands of photos and learn with it. Stay out of full auto mode. You learn nothing there and are just wasting time. After you have taken about 10,000 good photos with that camera you should understand what you need to move on.
Sorry if I was a bit harsh but too many people roll out of bed and decide to be a pro photographer and their plan is something along the lines of...
Step 1: buy a camera.
Step 2: charge lots of money for photos
Step 3: join a forum and ask why my subject is blurry when my background is sharp
Step 4: bankruptcy, divorce, front page on youarenotaphotographer.com
Don't ruin a potentially enjoyable hobby by trying to make it a job and don't try to make it a job until you have mastered the hobby. Post pictures here and on other sites for critique. Your friends and family will always tell you that you are awesome but they are lying AND they don't know any better. Almost every momtog I see running a facebook photography business posts absolutely horrid photos that are out of focus, improperly exposed, poorly lit, poorly composed and just generally bad. Their friends rave about how great they are but then come to me for their family portraits. If you are really serious about starting the protrait business be prepared for a lot of study and expense and ingore the people who tell you how good you are. Listen to the people who tell you that you suck but only if they are able to tell you why.