What Is Your Focus?

A photographer's job is to take pictures and store them. More often than not, they capture a moment and have a story to tell.

It is important for a photographer to be creative and have technical expertise as well.

Your creativity comes into play when you have to shoot a subject according to a theme and work with lights, filters, lenses and other photographic equipment. This helps to improve the quality of your work.

For example, as a fashion photographer you need to focus on the clothes and make sure they look their best.

Similarly, if you are shooting a model's portfolio, you need to highlight his / her best features and hide the flaws. Since the final product - the photograph - has to be technically sound and commercially viable, there should be no compromise on quality!

Depending on the kind of photography you want to do, choose subjects and specialise accordingly.

Still photographers shoot movie and ad stills, industrial photographers shoot machinery and equipment, fashion photographers do fashion shoots while photojournalists photograph people and events.

Degree Dilemmas

Since photography is a highly skilled profession, academic education is recommended but not a must. Some of the best photographers are self-taught. If you have basic knowledge on how to use a camera and other equipment, then apprentice or train with an established professional photographer.

There are several academies and educational institutes that offer degree and diploma courses in commercial photography. Professional associations and even photography magazines and journals conduct workshops that are beneficial too.