5-tips-for-hobbyist-photographers
Ever wanted advice from professional photographers, but never had the chance to ask? We asked four of our ColorEdge Ambassadors questions related to hobbyist photography. Read what they had to say and apply it to your own photography.
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Field: Landscape and Wildlife Photography Marcin Dobas is a photographer for National Geographic Poland and a member of the international Olympus Visionaries team. He specializes in wildlife, wilderness landscapes, and underwater photography. He has a degree in Geology and works as a mountain rescuer and tour leader. Pictures taken during his travels are regularly published around the world in magazines, books, and calendars. Many of them won awards in prestigious, international photography contests. |
What is a common mistake you see hobbyist photographers make when shooting and what can they do to fix it?
| Marcin: All of us make some mistakes in photography, whether we’re hobbyists or professionals. In my opinion the most common mistake among beginners is using central composition and positioning the horizon in the center of the frame. |
What are the most important pieces of equipment a hobbyist photographer should get in your genre of photography?
| Marcin: You should always remember about filters, especially grey medium ones. They’re indispensable in landscape photography, and will make your job easier when you’re taking pictures of a scene with a wide tonal range. |
Is there a piece of equipment that many hobbyist photographers own which you think is not necessary unless they decide to become professional?
| Marcin: I think hobbyists are too bent on having the exact same equipment as professional photographers. Unfortunately, they tend to focus on buying new, expensive camera bodies instead of investing in useful accessories such as tripods, filters, lenses, and monitors. |
What should hobbyist photographers who plan to print their photos do to prepare in the early stages of the workflow?
| Marcin: First of all, they should do their research. It’s hard to prepare pictures for printing without having the basic knowledge. When retouching pictures, they should make sure that colors are accurately displayed. This means they need a graphics monitor, a proper color management environment, and an ICC profile of the device they’re using. But like I said before: it’s all about the knowledge. |
In what ways can a good monitor improve your work?
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Marcin: When I use a good graphics monitor, I know the colors displayed on the screen and the colors produced by the printer will match. I can also preview my pictures to see how they’re going to look printed in a magazine or a calendar. I used to think that if colors were mismatched, the printing house was to blame. Now I know that most of the time, it’s actually the photographer’s fault for working on an uncalibrated, unprofiled monitor. |
Photos by Marcin Dobas
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Field: Contemporary Fine Art Photography Tony Hewitt is one of the great leaders within Australian photography; a photographer whose style is so compelling that others regularly try to follow in his footsteps. Tony began his working life selling high-end audio equipment before becoming a wedding and portrait photographer, but his love of photography has taken him on a much deeper and personal journey. Whether it be aerial landscapes of Western Australia’s changing coastline or studies of man’s obsession with concrete, Tony’s images are always beautiful and in many instances awe inspiring. |
What is a common mistake you see hobbyist photographers make when shooting and what can they do to fix it?
| Tony: Holding the camera by hand when capturing in low light, and not having a high enough shutter speed. This can be rectified by using a tripod. |
What are the most important pieces of equipment a hobbyist photographer should get in your genre of photography?
| Tony: Apart from the obvious (camera), a good tripod is always top of the list. |
Is there a piece of equipment that many hobbyist photographers own which you think is not necessary unless they decide to become professional?
| Tony: Try to avoid a mismatch between camera and lens. For example, you don’t need a top end camera if you own an entry or mid-level lens. |
What should hobbyist photographers who plan to print their photos do to prepare in the early stages of the workflow?
| Tony: Always capture in the largest colour space - don’t shoot in sRGB. |
In what ways can a good monitor improve your work?
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Tony: My ColorEdge monitor gives me honest feedback during post production, allowing me to output the best possible final print or digital file. |
Photos by Tony Hewitt
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Alexander Heinrichs
Field: People and Corporate Photography Alexander Heinrichs is a professional photographer based in Aschaffenburg, nearby Frankfurt in Germany. In his big loft-studio he realizes all kinds of advertorial photography from still life to people and fashion. He has been taking pictures for over 30 years and in 2005 he decided to turn his passion into a full-time job. His clients include well-known companies such as Nintendo, DPD, and Adobe. He also does all kinds of post-production like retouching or composing as part of his job. |
What is a common mistake you see hobbyist photographers make when shooting and what can they do to fix it?
| Alexander: Most people take photographs too quickly. Only a very few consciously take time to choose the composition, the focal length, or the angle. You should take more time to do things like that before triggering the shutter release; you’ll be a more conscious photographer as a result. |
What are the most important pieces of equipment a hobbyist photographer should get in your genre of photography?
| Alexander: Alongside the camera, the most important thing for me is a fast lens with a medium focal length between 50 and 85. When you’re looking at a portrait, what really makes it come to life is the look in the person’s eyes. The best way to bring that out is with a very calm background, which calls for a very wide-open aperture. |
Is there a piece of equipment that many hobbyist photographers own which you think is not necessary unless they decide to become professional?
| Alexander: To be honest, I can’t think of anything to say about that right now. Something that most people have but that nobody needs?!? |
What should hobbyist photographers who plan to print their photos do to prepare in the early stages of the workflow?
| Alexander: It’s important to have continuous color management; without that, the printout will always look different from the image on the monitor. |
In what ways can a good monitor improve your work?
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Alexander: I think a good monitor with a homogenous display, a broad gamut, and precise color reproduction is the main prerequisite for image processing; as I see it, without that, professional image processing wouldn’t be possible. |
Photos by Alexander Heinrichs
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Radomir Jakubowski
Field: Wildlife Photography Radomir Jakubowski is a business graduate and professional nature photographer. He is based in Saarland (Germany). At the age of 18 he became a fully-fledged member of GDT (Gesellschaft Deutscher Tierfotografen – Society of German Nature Photographers). Working as a wildlife photographer allows Radomir to combine his fascination with nature together with his passion for photography. His – often very physically challenging – tours, travels and expeditions result in both photo stories that document his subjects, and creative images that depict a more sensitive, artistic approach. |
What is a common mistake you see hobbyist photographers make when shooting and what can they do to fix it?
| Radomir: The most common error is subscribing to the idea that having good equipment means that you’ll automatically take a good picture. You can never forget that photography is like painting with light. In keeping with that, the most common error is how the photographer handles light and the subject of the image on-site. Of course, technology supports the photographer on-site and significantly reduces the number of rejects. However, it’s always the photographer that makes the image, not the camera. |
What are the most important pieces of equipment a hobbyist photographer should get in your genre of photography?
| Radomir: There is no single most important piece of equipment when it comes to nature photography. Nature photography is far too multifaceted for that. In my experience, though, it’s very important to use good equipment. So it’s better to get fewer but higher-quality pieces of equipment than to get as many inexpensive ones as possible in order to be able to cover a broad range of applications as quickly as possible. When you buy something cheap, you’ll end up having to spend money on replacements. |
Is there a piece of equipment that many hobbyist photographers own which you think is not necessary unless they decide to become professional?
| Radomir: No. We all have a great passion for photography. Those who would like to invest in professional equipment because they enjoy technology should do so, since we have the best hobby in the world: nature photography. Whether or not a photographer chooses to take the equipment to its limits is absolutely irrelevant to me, since I think passion means enjoying experiences and not acting rationally; most people have to do that anyway, at their day jobs. Enjoy your life and your photography. |
What should hobbyist photographers who plan to print their photos do to prepare in the early stages of the workflow?
| Radomir: I think the most important thing is that, first and foremost, you photograph things in RAW. At the same time, as a nature photographer, I follow the principle of processing the image as little as possible. That means I’m already thinking about what the printout should look like at the end when I’m taking the picture. That’s the reason why I work with a manual white balance and light my images on-site in a way that reflects how I want them to look later on. |
In what ways can a good monitor improve your work?
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Radomir: A good monitor lets me see what my camera has captured, which makes it an essential tool. It lets me assess the effect of the image and decide how I should adjust the colors so that my images appear natural. At the same time, a good monitor lets me detect whether the brightness distribution is optimal. Without a good monitor, image processing would be meaningless, since I wouldn’t be able to tell if the image I see on the monitor is being correctly displayed. |
Photos by Radomir Jakubowski
