Danielle

Hello I am just starting out in the photography business and so far have been using my point and shoot and an editing tool and creating great images for my clients. I have many more people wanting me to take pictures for them and am so excited, but I need a better camera. I can't shoot fast enough and always have blurrs with my current camera. I am going to buy a digital DSLR, but with so many reviews I would just like to hear what everyone thinks the best choice is for me. Thanks for all comments in advance.
Danielle

sinatraman Loc: Vero Beach Florida, Earth,alpha quaudrant

education is the best thing for you. A professioonal mechanic went to school to learn auto repair, a professional chef went to culinary school and then worked under the tutalage of an expierenced chef. At the very least take the new york instiute of photography correspondence course on professional photography. see if any professional photographers in your area need an assistant. even if unpais you will find having a mentor to be very usefull to you. Besides education there is possession of professional equipment and the skill to use it. A professional mechanic owns professional tools from snap on and craftsman before he hangs out his shingle. You need 2 dslr bodies one to serve as back up for just in case situatiions which will come up. When my dad covered weddings he brought 3-4 camera bodies with him. You will need fater lenses, tripod, flash gun filters etc. to be a professional at anything is going to require a significant investment of time money and sweat equity. as for camera bodies also consider pentax and olympus. what you want to specialize in will determine if you can get by witha prosumer camera or need to invest in a truly professional camera like the nikon d-3. Sorry if this sounds harsh but there are no shortcuts to becoming a professional. No I am not one but my dad was. he started as aphotographer in the army went to the Brooks institute of Photography for his bachelors degree, was a staff photographer for the santa barbara free press, then was hired to be director of photographic services at Ferris State University. In short he did it the right way. there is an old saying in the music industry that applies here "you can't sing the blues untill you pay your dues."

charlessmall18

You can go nuts learning about all the features of all the models of all the brands. Or you can figure out the maximum amount of money you can afford to spend on a camera and buy either a Nikon or a Cannon. While for a given amount of bucks, one model might have some feature that is marginally better for your application (and not the application of everyone else giving you advice that either applies to just their application or is based mostly on unfounded beliefs), nothing significantly bad will go wrong if you buy either the most expensive Nikon or Cannon you can afford. The main this is to get a camera with a viewfinder that is "fast" enough and has enough "eye relief" that you can use it in all lighting conditions and quickly bring it into play. I was trained as a combat photographer way back in the Viet Nam era. When I bought my Cannon 780 point and shoot, which is a totally astounding camera for only $120 and which I dearly love, I got it because it was the only P&S I could find with a viewfinder. With it its very small, and not very "fast" viewfinder, I have been able to get a few shots in bright sunlight and a few shots of moving subjects that I could not have gotten with a backlit LCD held at arm's length (but, it must be said, I have also gotten shots with the LCD that would have been very hard to get with a viewfinder-only camera). So take it from an old f*rt who has been there and done that, if you have used only a P&S with an LCD, the simple ablity of being able to glue your camera to your face and move your head and camera as a unit will open up a whole new world of photogrphy for you. The other thing is to get The GIMP (the Open Source and perfectly free analog to Photoshop) and begin learning how to use thie wonderful new class of tools to enhance your ability to bring out your artistic vision. Unfortunately, Photoshop and the GIMP are insanely complicated and are pretty baffling to rank beginners. I have 4.5 gigabytes worth of short tutorials I got from YouTube that I have organized into a short course on The GIMP that will get you up and running one step at at time. That is, with just a few handy "keyboard shortcuts" and one to two "tools" you can do some anazing stuff. I would be happy to "burn" a DVD-R (my cost $0.39) for you but I have no idea how to get it to you.

Danielle

Thanks for the advice. I am interested in all of the education I can get. I just don't know what online programs are actually credible. I am already a nurse and would like for this just to be my passion, but it is nice that everyone likes my stuff and I can make a little money at it. I plan on doing portraits and just general family photography.

sinatraman Loc: Vero Beach Florida, Earth,alpha quaudrant

charles first off may I say THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE TO OUR COUNTRY AND THANK YOU PERSONALLY FOR MY FREEDOM. What this country did to our vietnam vets was disgusting and dishonorable, and I hope we never do it again I would also add olympus, pentax, and sony/minolta to your list. I am a nikonian as was my father before me, but i like alot of what pentax is doing. As for gimp, i downloaded it but the user manual didnt download . i would be intewrested in your dvd if you would send me a copy. i will send you a private message. have you seen gimpshop. its in the apps section at gimp.com and it imitates the photoshop interface.

charlessmall18

Ahhh! Portraits! I worked as a "portrait" photographer in a mill run by Olan Mills for a while. There are "portraits" such as those you get at a studio and then there are "character portraits" which are distinguished from run of the mill, forumlaic portraits, because they are taken by people with talent such as Karsh. There is a more or less stock three or four light lighting setup used in studios that is markedly different from either available light or on-camera flashes. Overhead lighting casts shadows under the eye ridges, nose, and chin. On-camera flashes illuminate these areas and tend to wash out the 3D modeling you get with studio lighting. Do you plan to take candid shots with available light or use "studio" lighting. Now you don't necessarily need a studio to do studio lighting. You can get some pretty good results with a fairly portable setup.

charlessmall18

With The GIMP, you can easily do post-processing, "special effects" like dodging and burning, diminishing the background to focus attention on the subject, compositing, Green-Day Black-Hole-Sun eyeballs and grins, Andy Warholizing, antiquing, making a color shot B&W excempt for the gold goldfish in the bowl and lots of other cool stuff that will people think you have artistic talent when you don't...actually.

Danielle

And thats free? I have been using photoshop lightroom 3, but I bought it at Best Buy. I really like it, but I am going to have to try this GIMP, thankyou

dpullum Loc: Tampa Florida

If you got big bucks then go with Canon or Nikon and PhotoShop CS5.5 Suite...HOWEVER IF YOU ARE LIKE ME

Don't overlook Corel PSP x-3. The price is very low since X4 came out, got my box of ultra from Corel for 30$. It trails PS CS5 a little and a bunch in price!! The Ultra comes with many plugins which add to versatility. If you spend $ get Topaz Adjust for 50. Adjust give a wide range of magic effects. Down load both for 30days and work with them. PSP has an advantage; help is along the left and changes with the tool you are clicking on.

There is an advantage to Sony Alpha DSLR-A230 for entry: takes vintage Minolta AF Lenses, Low cost. By the way, Sony makes the sensors for Nikon. For a comparison of entry level cams Nikon, Canon, Sony see the following:

www.cameralabs.com/reviews/Sony_Alpha_DSLR_A230/video_review.shtml

My choice is easy, I have Minolta lenses.

To all, I look forward to your input and opinions. d/p Don

tarheel-Ron Loc: North Carolina

When I bought my first DSLR, I wanted the Nikon D200 very much; but the price was a little steep for me so I ended up with the Sony A100. This was the first generation of the Sony Dslr. I still have the A100 as well as an
a200 which I bought on Ebay for less than half what I paid for the A100. Both of thes cameras do an excellent job and Sony has come out with greatly improved models since these; so don't automatically assume that it has to be a Canon or Nikon.

Brucej67 Loc: Cary, NC

I started with the Sony A200 and gradualy worked my way up to the A550, A700, A850, A55 and A900 with a bunch of Tamron lenses both for full frame and the APS-C. My investment in Sony equipment was far cheaper than going in top end of the Nikon line and probably Canon as well. Nikon is the leader of the pack but you will pay 3 times as much and only get slightly better quality images at higher ISO settings (more noise on the Sony). I also own CS5 and noise ninja which is a good leveling field for improving noise reduction. As comented by others what ever equipment you buy master that equipment and you can't go wrong. Remember Ansel Adam didn't have half of what is available even at the low end of todays market. Two things to consider are the sensor (chip) on the camera and the second is a quality lens to match that chip.

dpullum Loc: Tampa Florida

FACE RECOGNITION??

Does the sony alpha 200, 230 have face recognition? If not is that significant?

dirty dave

There is not that much difference between them, in fact my canon has sony part's in side (stamped with sony's name on them). I would suggest buying the newest one of witch ever brand you choose even the added video feature I thought I would never need it but it came in handy. What I have seen so far Nikon and Canon has the most lens to choose from but any one you get in 6 mo's there will be a newer one with more features. Another thought is others that you might work around what will they be shooting with they can share and help with your new camera. Good Luck

Brucej67 Loc: Cary, NC

Agree with last coment, however in the Sony line the next one out is the A77 with much the same features as the A55 and the A77 is double the cost of the A55. You should check out http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/ for features and test reports on all the cameras.

docjj

Hi. I agree with Dave. I started with Canon about 25 years ago, and I have stayed with them. I think that the investment in lenses will keep you with one camera line instead of jumping around like one can with point and shoots. Since Canon and Nikon lenses work with their respective bodies only, it makes sense that people go into one camp or the other. It is a lot harder to do a wholesale change of bodies and lenses to switch brands. I have two friends that are brothers. One is Canon and the other is Nikon fan and are both passionate about their respective choice. Once you use one brand, you get used to the features, menus, etc. from one body to the next upgrade. I usually recommend Canon, because that is what I have grown up with. You will hear similar recommendations from the owners of other companies equipment(Nikon, Sony, etc)

Best of luck!