Aspiring photographer needing some help!

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caitlinjade95

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caitlin
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Hi guys, hope its ok to post on this thread!

I am a newbie but i love phorography. I recently got the Canon 600d and i love it! I only have the standard 18-55mm kit lens.

I know a fair bit about appeture and iso and i generally use is on AV mode (im still very unsure of shutter speed to use it manually!) but im struggling to get the background blurry and the product in focous. I'm a beauty blogger and its the main objective to have your images the best they can be. If you have any tips to make my photos look light and airy and out of focous in the background send them my way!

I'm here mainly to say that i'm going to new york in december and i want to get some amazing snaps, i also want to start youtube filming (i will NEED the blurred background sorted by then!) and im also wanting to become a freelance newborn photographer. I currently work in childcare and i love children i just dont love the job i do with children and i love photography so why not pair them together?! I also want to photograph children/toddlers too not just newborns (mainly newborn though!)

Baseically guys i want your input on wether you think i should get some lighting and some affordable one at that (im inthe UK) and also, should i get the Canon 50mm lens? I'm really stuck wether this would be the best one for me bloggers and youtubers rave about it but i wanted to see what you guys all think! (any other equipment send your suggestions too!)

I'd love any help you can offer!
 
thankyou so much! I am totally new when it comes to lenses but it seems the 50mm is a much loved! thankyou
 
caitlinjade95 said:
thankyou so much! I am totally new when it comes to lenses but it seems the 50mm is a much loved! thankyou
Click to expand...

Yep - it's probably the best value for money lens there is (or maybe has ever been!). The small 1.8 aperture will allow you to get some nice out of focus backgrounds, which seems to be what you're after.
 
Hi Caitlin, welcome to TP.

I'd suggest spending as much time as you can taking photos. In parallel with gaining the experience of using the camera and composing images, also either search for articles on google or better, buy a introduction to photography book. It should explain exposure triangle, compositional rules and the like. Also, if there are any group meetings or clubs near you, they might help, but it very much depends on the people, characters and the like - i.e. whether you click.

I'm going to go out on a bit of limb here and suggest that you may be quite some way from being able to leap into freelance photography from what you describe as your current skill level. However, being a success in business is not always just about your technical capability, it's also about marketing, brand building, "business sense", finances and a whole host of other things which you might already be expert in... so it's impossible to say whether you're ready for that.

Good luck and enjoy learning...
 
I am definalty ready for the last part of your message and yes your correct im not ready to become a photographer tomorrow im looking into gaining the skills with the correct equipment so that one day ill be able to do what i love!

I've got a couple of books im reading at the moment that im hoping will help, thankyou!
 
just take your time, like any other skill, to become half decent at anything takes lots of time and practice. Buy the 50mm and master how to use it using window and natural light, pay attention to shadows and how the direction of light affects tonality and contrast. If you plan on shooting people then make sure you learn how to adjust your exposures so the subjects face is spot on. Such a simple thing, but so often I see perfectly exposed backgrounds with the subject's face in darkness/blown out, from people who think they are the next best thing.

Most importantly have fun and don't get hung up on the gear (like the rest of us)!
 
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Although the 50mm f1.8 is a very good value for money I think the build quality is pretty poor, my front element fell off after a year of use so I wouldn't buy it again (but 99% of people would recommend the opposite). If I was to buy again I would by the 50mm f1.4 not because it's faster but because it has a better and more silent autofocus and a better built quality.

A lot of photographer doing portrait use an 85mm or a 100mm or maybe 135mm but that might be quiet long on a crop sensor camera, the longer you get the shallower the depth of field became (at an equivalent f-stop and distance to the subject) so it might be good to have a look at some of these if you're looking into bokeh.

If you are planning to do some video you should look what lens are available because noisy lens interfere in the noise recorded.
 
creative live have videos on baby photography, snippets should be on youtube
 
thankyou all for your answers you've all helped massivly! I'm still very tempted to get myself the new lens i think that will be my next step!
 
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