Digital Portrait Photography For Dummies®

Chapter 4. Becoming a Portrait Photographer

In This Chapter

• Thinking like a photographer

• Practice makes perfect

• Shooting portraits

• Thinking like a photojournalist

You've got your brand-spanking new, 14-megapixel camera, and now you just want to go out and shoot something. But you're not sure what to shoot, or how to go about it. It's kind of like being all dressed up with no place to go. Many new photographers, and a lot of old-timers, are tempted to take the camera, point it at the first thing that moves, and shoot. But photography is so much more than that. Good photographers don't happen over-night. Photography is a discipline, just like basket weaving, albeit a lot more fun. In this chapter, I discuss some of the things that go into the makeup of a good photographer.

Seeing, Thinking, and Acting

In order to take a good picture, you've got to have the right equipment. But the right equip-ment doesn't guarantee you'll get a good, or even mediocre, picture. Getting a good or great picture is all about you. Your unique personality, vision, and creativity is what separates your photographs from those taken by the guy down the street who owns the same digital camera. Have you ever looked at two photographs of the same person, place, or thing, yet they look completely different? That's where the skill and unique vision of each photographer comes into play. Compare Ansel Adams' fine art photographs of Yosemite to tourist snapshots, and you'll see what I mean.

Being in the moment

Some people ...