Some people may want to go to the studio to do the assistant, to learn to improve their own photographic skills. In fact, for studio assistants, this aspect of the improvement is not significant.
First of all, the work of the assistant, simply put, is the miscellaneous, to help the photographer set up the scene, set the flash, the use of reflectors, after the shooting to clean up the site, the props organized and categorized in order to find a timely use, and so on. We are not photographers, the opportunity for us to use the camera is actually very, very small. Moreover, the studio is not a training institution, you did not pay tuition, they are not obliged to systematically comb knowledge, and then teach you.
Secondly, most of the current studio practitioners are not highly educated, advocate practical operation, do not pay attention to theoretical learning, they may give you a clear operation guidance when you have questions, but the answer to the question and answer is very little. I found in the studio, they will save a lot of their favorite photos to imitate its modeling, shooting, but also will discuss which look good, how to imitate, the degree of effort is comparable to secondary school students. However, they seldom analyze and think about why those photos give people the impression of "looking good" and what is "looking good", as well as any more systematic articles and books.
In my experience, the best thing about being an assistant is that it gives me a lot of direct exposure to professional photography, and allows me to participate as an assistant in a standardized, structured, and patterned way of doing things that I would never do as a beginner, or as a hobbyist, and it's a better way to get into the swing of things after we've learned some of the basics.
Perhaps some people will criticize the studio's process-oriented model lack of novelty, lack of creativity. However, I believe that as a beginner who has not yet had a lot of exposure to actual professional shooting work, this kind of process-oriented work allows us to more quickly understand the entire process of shooting work, what we need to do at each step, and to what extent. Only when we have mastered these basics will we be able to make our creativity more relevant and effective.
Additionally, another great benefit of working as an assistant is that it is extremely easy to use all of the studio's resources to practice and improve. These resources include, but are not limited to, colorful backdrops, different styles of scenes, a wide range of props, inexhaustible studio lights, various sizes of reflectors, as well as photographers who can provide assistance, assistant colleagues who can practice with each other, and makeup models who can provide makeup styling and modeling. These resources, as a beginner, ordinary enthusiasts, we are afraid that it is impossible to have such a wealth.
To put it simply, the assistant job is best suited for people who already have a certain foundation, are familiar with camera operation, understand some of the composition and lighting knowledge, and know the basic operation of post-processing, from theory to practice.
Finding a job as a photography assistant is actually quite easy, because the assistant is not paid much for this kind of work, and many studios need it, but this kind of work is almost impossible to make a living, so no one is doing it for a long time.
I attached some photos I had taken before as my resume, and then searched for photography assistants on 58, Wisdom and some local portals, and then went directly to their stores to ask if they still needed assistants. Since my goal was mainly to actually participate in portrait photography practice such as art photos, I settled on one of the studios that focuses on wedding and art photos.
The store had a total of *** three photographers and two assistants. At that time I was assigned to the store's oldest photographer as an assistant. However, the photographer, although his son is a senior high school, he still maintains a young man's mentality, and we are as playful, often amusing everyone happy. The only thing is, maybe he's been taking pictures for more than 20 years and has lost his freshness in this day-to-day work, and I often have the feeling that he's dealing with the customers.
The other two photographers are about the same age as me, and one is two years younger than me. They were much more active in their photography, experimenting with images they hadn't shot before and using unusual lighting effects.
The other assistant, who was there a week before me, was not paid for the first month because he had absolutely no basic knowledge of photography. He said he came here because he wanted to start as an assistant and prepare to enter the industry later. It's just that he has a wife and kids now, and sometimes there is some financial pressure.
Maybe it's because I haven't been working for a long time and I'm still in the fresh stage, I think it's quite a happy thing to work there.
Overall, the intensity of the work is moderate and acceptable. Because there are always those scenes, photographs to be taken, there is generally no speed requirements, so even if the day guests are more, but also just add a little late. And because makeup often takes an hour or two, this time our photography department can usually take a short break. When there are fewer customers, there will also be a large period of time, or even half a day free. It was also during that time that I made myself a list of outlines for many introductory articles on photography. Well, I haven't finished writing them until now, haha.
During the time I was working as an assistant, there was a college student who wanted to work as a part-time weekend assistant to learn how to take pictures. He came to stay for a day and then did not come, saying that the working hours there are too long, from nine in the morning to six or seven in the evening, and in the middle of the day is very idle, there is nothing to do. I'm not going to comment on that.
When there are fewer guests, we can occasionally discuss with the ladies in the makeup department, they put on their own makeup, we set up the background and lights, practice with each other, and then ask the store's photographer for advice. Here again, thanks to the ladies and photographers, I also dabbled a lot and practiced several times. Although the photos taken are afraid to send to the main character, haha.
Of course, there are often very tired and hard times. We all know that shooting needs to be often out of the field, although outsiders seem to be out of the field seems to take pictures of a very dashing and cool look, but often so, the feeling is not the same. If you add in sunny days, well, it's not for nothing that photographers are usually tanned. So, those of us who don't make a career out of it might like to go around and take pictures, which can be a lot more work for the photographer than being in a studio.
Since the studio business is all about portraits, some of the gains I've made have only been in portrait photography. In this regard, as a professionally untrained enthusiast, my greatest feeling is that I have always lacked the kind of professional photographer to the scene, the control of the details, until now.
Many photography articles and even books tell us that the soul of photography is to record the world with the lens, to find those people and things we have not noticed, and this view is especially popular in landscape and street photography. However, in the field of portrait photography, the situation is completely different. If we just hold the record of the mentality to shoot those people, we will easily fall into a kind of confusion, no matter how many angles to find, press the shutter how much, feel that the people in the photo is unusual, or even worse than the real person.
The reason for this is that we are too familiar with the main subject of portrait photography, the people, to the point that if we just record people's daily appearance of the body, we can not talk about the kind of "beauty" we want. Therefore, portrait photographers have to create, so that the subject wears carefully matched clothes, puts on carefully described makeup, so that the model makes the most beautiful body movements, and finds the model's most heartwarming expression. And all this deliberate refinement is taboo in the field of landscape and street photography.
This, then, is what I feel is the biggest gap between the beginner, the average enthusiast, and the professional portrait photographer. When we take a picture, it's likely that we just ask someone to head to a background that we think is okay, and then they pose themselves and click the shutter. There is a lack of careful observation of the environment, a lack of guidance on the subject's posture, and a lack of attention to and correction of the details of the picture.
Therefore, when taking photos later, I constantly remind myself to envision the picture before shooting, and must communicate with the subject how we want to shoot, and always pay attention to the subject's body posture, expression, there is no wrong place. The picture in your mind will be "depicted" in reality, and then the shutter is the most understated.
If you have the idea of going to the studio to actually practice, you can contact the local studio. Because there is a bit more shooting business at the studio on weekends, some will offer part-time weekend assistants, and some may charge for the opportunity to learn.
Looking for a studio, depending on the direction of their interests, you can choose a different business-oriented studio. Like to shoot girls, about shooting, it is recommended to art photos, wedding-oriented studio; like to shoot some still life, of course, on the product photo studio is better; in addition, there are children's photography, pet photography and other different studios, can try to contact.
Contact studio studio, it is best to have some of their own photographic foundation, especially lighting, which is the most practical knowledge of the assistant, but also allows us to work in the photographer to listen to the arrangement of the photographer when the light is not unknown.
In the work after becoming an assistant, it is recommended to set up some scenes and lighting as much as possible according to your own ideas in your free time, and try to take some photos. At the same time and make-up department sisters to make good relations, see who is free to request her make-up, when your free model. These actually studio are quite encouraged, after all, good learning staff, who all like ~