Family Portrait Photography

Starting up a small child/family portrait photography business and need a name. Something sweet and elegant but not too cheesy. Thoughts?

"The Memory of a lifetime"

2009-04-19 22:50:19 by chzbrgr

Life as a portrait photographer... some clients are more lovely than others.

I have a canon digital rebel xt that i received as a Christmas present. I'd like to take professional looking portraits of my baby and family, whats the best lens for this? I'd also like to buy a good lens for landscape photography. Any suggestions?

If you understand the fundamentals of photography you will know the lens that best fits your needs. The fundamentals are not really rocket science, to really really use an SLR/DSLR like the XT you need to know how to get the max out of it.

For example: If by landscape you mean like a sunset or a sort of mountain/lake scenery you will need a deep depth of field (DOF) and you need to know what DOF means and how you can very easily change that on your XT (you do this by changing the aperture of your lens in the the Aperture Priority (Av) or Manual mode (M) mode). Similarly for babies you want a shallow DOF and you do this since the baby is the focus of your pic and you want the background blurred.

But by changing the aperture you also mess with the amount of light thats entering the camera and that affects the shutter speed etc.

Its not that hard, once you understand the fundamentals you will know EXACTLY what kind of lens you need. For starter I suggest:

1) Get a good photography teacher or a good easy to read photography book. I recommend "Understanding Exposure" it has lots of pics that explains what the terms means visually. IMO its the BEST $15 you will ever spend in your photography hobby. You will understanding what makes up an Exposure-Aperture, Shutter and ISO.

2) Once you know that, when you read your Camera manual it will make a lot of sense.

3) For beginner portraits the best lens is the $75 EF 50mm f/1.8. This is a prime lens (it does not zoom you zoom in and out with your feet) and it a fast lens (any lens with an aperture more than f/2.8 is called fast, since it usually yields fast shutter speeds) and bigger the aperture f/1.4, f/1.8, f/2.0, f/2.8 even f/4 the shallower the DOF and the more blurred the background is.

Note: In photography f/2.8 is smaller than f/2, which is smaller than f/1.8. This is because it is a ratio, so f/1.8 is large coz it lets in MORE light than say f/2.8. It's confusing now but will make a lot of sense once you get the fundamentals.

I am assuming your camera came with a EF-S 18-55mm kit lens. This is a moderately Wide Angle Zoom lens and its really good for landscapes and close people shots. If you do 1-3 as listed above you will figure out what your favorite focal length is for shooting and what you really need.

I could easily tell you to get a $640 EF-S 10-22 mm lens for wide angle landscapes or a $300 EF 50mm f/1.4 for portraits but you need to know WHY they cost that much and how to use them first to justify the cost. There is a reason why good lens cost a LOT of money and you need to understand photography to understand their cost and how to get the most from them.

2007-12-29 19:18:28 by Sarah Stevens

Price: $34.95

I am looking to start a portrait studio. I will be taking pictures of families and children/babies. Maybe even senior pictures. I have a 8mp SLR Canon Digital Rebel XT. Is this good enough to start out with? Also, I read that the Tamron 90mm macro lens is good for portraits. Is this true and what other lens will I need? Will I need the following things and if so what kind do you recommend: studio lamps/lights, bounce cards, light reader/meter? Is there anything I'm leaving out? As for backdrops. I'm thinking of having my white background be the kind where the wall curves as it meets the floor..is there a certain name for this? Should I also get a backdrop system for muslins? Any help would be appreciated! Thanks!!

First of all, I do wish you good luck on your venture.

So, you are going to open a photography studio, but don't have any idea whether you have the right camera, or lighting, or meter, or backgrounds, or lenses.

I think the first thing you need is some education in studio photography. It ain't brain surgery, (or even wedding photography) but you need at least to have some notion of the things you will need for start-up and more importantly, how to use those things to produce images that customers will treasure enough to pay for. Just having the equipment is not enough, you need the knowledge to use it!

Also, another important thing you will need is business savvy.

For the record, you could shoot portraits with a digital Rebel, although that camera isn't exactly awe inspiring I would rather have a medium or large format camera for studio photography, though, or at least a professional level DSLR.

2007-05-18 14:27:36 by pictureit

Price: $31.95

I'm just starting out and don't really have the money to spend on something expensive. I mainly work with friends and family, but thought it would be good to have a contract. Thanks for your help.

You could google it & find one in about 30 sec.

2009-05-27 21:28:52 by k

I've been taking pictures of couples/families, etc and I'm having trouble with which f/stop to use. Sometimes, both people are at the same distance from the camera (they are next to each other), but the camera seems to focus on only one person. DOF is supposed to be in distance from front to back, right? And not side-to-side? I ussualy shoot on Aperture Priority Mode and my camera is a Nikon D40, with a Nikkor 18-200mm lense. It seems as if I need to use at least f6 or more (f8, 9...) for both people to be in focus. However, this does not always blur the background as much as I would want. Could this be because the D40 only has 3 focus areas? I asked a professional photographer and she told me f4 would be fine... but once on the computer, I see that someone is out of focus... Also, when shooting two or more people, where on the subject should I look the focus area? Any help would be good! Thanks!

Focus on the eyes..

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2164/2168 941423_e1ba49bf59_o.jpg

Canon 5D with Canon 100 mm Macro f 2.8 at f 4 at 1/180, ISO 400.

Had there been two persons, I would have used a slightly smaller aperture--but not that small--and I think I would have made sure they were standing at the same plane--wonder if it would work..

2008-01-07 16:58:58 by philboud_989