Posts: JPL | Ugly Hedgehog

Ugly Hedgehog - Photography Forum

Home Active Topics Newest Pictures Search Login Register ☰

Posts for: JPL

Page: <<prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 ... 190 next>>

Mar 29, 2018 08:36:45 #

pamelaj wrote:

Hi there, thank you for your time and advice in advance. I have loved photography all my life, but now wanting to take it seriously and take professional portraits of families on the side, ......preferably - not do weddings, too stressful, not ready, even though I have been asked to, I know my limits! I have been researching and watching tutorials for a couple of weeks, very overwhelming for me, but learning and grasping slowly, so very much to learn, how to use manual and editing is what I need to learn the most. I have a point and shoot Sony, which I love and so many tell me to please start taking pics, even have a few clients set up for practice, but I am no where near where I need to be professionally, I just know how to pose subjects and be aware of location, for I used to own a boutique and would go on countless photo shoots with our local professionals, so I have learned a lot on the subject and posing side. With all that being said, my family and I are going to Biggs Camera in Charlotte on Friday just to see and feel all the cameras out there and what they have to offer. My Sony, for an old point and shoot does extremely well, but I see that everyone mostly talks about Nikon and Canon, does anyone shoot professionally with a Sony and find that it does everything they want it to do, or should I invest in a Nikon or Cannon? My niece let me borrow her very inexpensive Canon and I do not like it, my Sony takes better pics every single time! Budget, preferably under $1000 for everything or even less, may just look and then try to buy used elsewhere, advice on this would be great too, love you guys and thanks for letting me in your little circle of learning, I will be here a while...lol.....I think a long while. This is a pic I took of my beautiful daughter for her graduation invites, I like it, but now that I am doing research, I see that I could do so much better with a better camera and better editing, just used my Sony point and shoot with old editing that was already on my computer in JPG.......I still don't even know how to shoot and download in raw, but I am going to learn! Never even heard of it till a few weeks ago! So please be kind....lol

Hi there, thank you for your time and advice in ad... (show quote)

You are hard on us because you want the best for $1000

But it can be done. I suggest you buy used Sony A7 or A7r. I think the A7 can be had for around $500 used. That is a full frame camera with good image quality, like in good enough for professionals. Since you are interested in learning to shoot manual you can as well use old manual focus lenses. It dones not matter what brand you buy because you can adapt them all to this Sony camera. So choose your lenses based on focal length, other peoples reviews and opinions and price. For portraits it would be a good start to get 85 mm lens and 50 mm lens. Lot of good old lenses of this kind can be had for less than $100 each. A cheap adapter for manual use can be had for around $10. I am using a Sony A7r that I bought new but only using old and new manual focus lenses with it. Have never autofocused anything with that camera. Those Sony cameras have excellent tools for manual shooting, like histogram, zebra, focus peaking and focus magnifying. And it can all be activated by one press on a button. Works like charm. And for a person in the learning this is an excellent way to learn. Much better than putting autofocus lens on your camera and hoping the technology will do the rest. So you can easily start you professional career within your budget. And if you do it like this you can still get most or all your investment back if you change your mind and want to get something else.