Beginning Photography Q & A

Okay, so I get emails and private messages almost everyday with people asking various questions about how they should go about getting into photography. So here is some insight for those interested in getting into photography and wanting to see if this is something for you. Please forgive my grammatical errors

Q: What camera should I buy? Nikon or Canon?
A: First, I want to say that you don't need to buy the most expensive camera at first take your time and find out if this is something you want to do. Now when choosing cameras you want to look at Price, Durability, Sensor size and not think so much about megapixels. Megapixels are really a marketing thing for manufactures to make a person feel like the more MP's I have the better the pictures will be, but that is not the case if you are only doing web and small prints. With me being a huge Canon fan and I rarely use Nikon I suggest Canon just for it's large number of lenses for my pleasing. Lastly because technology changes so much I recommend going to www.dpreview.com

Q: What lenses should I purchase?
Well again because I'm a Canon guy I only really know canon lenses so Im going based off of lenses I generally use that I know work. Depending on your budget and camera some may not be suitable for the photography you do.
-Canon 17-40L F4 *Good for wideangle shots like landscape and automotive photography*
-Canon 24-70L F2.8 *Very Very did I mention Very good overall lens. I use this lens on a daily basis for portraits, weddings, cars, club photo's, everything. I highly recommend this lens even tho it can be on the pricey side but is pretty much worth every penny.
-Canon 50mm *This lense is for portraits and thats pretty much it. You can find this lens depending on the the fstop from $95-$400
-Canon 70-200L F2.8 IS * This is a telephoto zoom lens that is good for automotive, nature, and portrait photography. This lens is very good for focusing in low light. Now this lens is not cheap so save your pennies now because it can cost anywhere from $1600-$2000
-Canon 100mm Macro *Macro lenses are traditional for those upclose and detail shots like products, flowers, insects, etc. This lens is more of a novelty lens and you won't use it very much.



Q:What editing Software do you use?
Alright so this is going to sound very newage cliche but, "I'm a MAC guy". For the past 8 years I have been so do not think I am some person that has to be a cool guy persae. Anyways for any new photographer I would highly recommend the following programs and plug ins Adobe Photoshop either CS2,CS3, OR CS4 along with Adobe Lightroom or Aperture. Other than those programs you really don't need anything for editing images. For photoshop plug ins I would recommend Nik Software to anyone that likes to just change colors or even make things look a little different without making it look fake.

Q: Raw or Jpeg
I choose raw just because you get all of the colors and no compression.

More to come once I get more time.