Use Long Lenses

Traditional portraiture is done using long lenses or focal lengths.  You can do this on your simple point and shoot by stepping back and zooming in.  This cause a flattening effect of the face, which tends to be much more flattering.

Use Large Apertures (Small F Stops)

If you have manual ability you can use large apertures, this allows you to blur backgrounds and draw focus to the subject.  Experiment with different f/stops.  Good portrait lenses can use f/2.8 or lower.

Here’s a great lens for portraits.  It has the characteristics of a great portrait lens.

Canon 135mm f/2.0

So try it out and let me know what you think, contact@photographycents.com

Total Cost Range- $500 (Canon 1000D with Kit Lens) - $2000

I suggest spending more money to get good lenses and less money on your camera body.  Why?  Camera bodies come and go but your lenses will stay with you.

Camera Options

*New* Canon EOS 500D $799

or

Canon EOS 1000D (with 18-55mm lens) $500

Lens Options

Canon 24-70 2.8 $1200

or

Sigma 24-70mm 2.8 EX DG Macro $450

or

Choose some Fixed (non-zoom lenses).  This last option is sometimes considered a good one for beginning photographers because when you use fixed lenses you learn to ‘zoom with your feet’.  You will enjoy buying less expensive lenses that are generally sharper.

Check out www.fredmiranda.com for some reviews on lenses.

If you’re still shooting film, perhaps this is your opportunity to make the leap to digital.  Take a look and let me know if you need some more advice.

Canon A590 IS 8.0 Megapixel Digital Camera

An amazing camera for less than 150 dollars

Photo thanks to Sanja Gjenero

Adobe Photoshop is the holy grail of image editing software.    You are probably excited about learning to edit your photos.  Most likely you are not excited about shelling out the $600+ to buy the full latest version.  Luckily, you have some other options as a beginner.  Here are a few:

Student Software - If you are a student you can buy software at discounted prices.  Just google ’student software’. You should be able to find Photoshop CS4 for around $200.  A savings of $400.  Not too bad.  You can also find Photoshop Elements (A more basic version) for around $70.

Free Online Image editors -  Free is always a good option, and most of the features should be sufficient for the amateur.  Try them out and you can always choose something more powerful like Photoshop later.  Here’s a link to 10 Free Web-based Alternative to Photoshop.

Free Offline Image Editor - You may also enjoy using GIMP, an open source program very similar to Photoshop.  You can find it at gimp.org This program is surprisingly powerful, considering the surprising price of $0.00

So take the plunge. Get your feet wet in image editing and try some of these free or low cost image editors: Your photos will thank you, and when you’re done let me know what you think of them.  I’d love to hear from you.  Happy Image Editing.

you can contact me at: contact@photographycents.com

I’d love to hear your comments, questions and suggestions for future posts!