Is a Canon EOS Rebel T5 a good camera to begin with to use for professional photography?

I think many of us experienced that - you show somebody a particularly good photo, and hear: "Nice photo, you probably have a good camera"!

BigAl007 wrote in post #17364767
This is likely to make me very unpopular, but really the OP has absolutely NO business starting in business as a photographer. It is plain that they have no understanding of any even basic photographic techniques. Nor the equipment that is necessary to produce good consistent results, no matter what. It would be as if I suddenly decided to to go out and buy a cheap pair of scissors a hair brush, and a hair dryer and call myself a professional hairdresser.

What the OP really needs to do is go out and learn to be a photographer. Photograph your family, your friends, your dog even. Go photograph anything you like. Do this and learn about photography. get some good books, you should be able to borrow them from your local public libary service. Books are good, as they are generally more reliable than just stuff you might read on the net, afterall the author had to get past an editor, and publisher, which can weed out a lot of the rubbish you will find self published on the net. once you have done that, and if you still want to be a pro, then also learn about running a small business first, because that will stop you making too many mistakes as you start. The most important of which is realising just how much money you will actually need to invest in the business, and how much money you will need to charge, just to stay in business, let alone make a profit.

Alan

Alan:

What does OP mean? I understand your perspective, however I don't really like this. I'm doing your suggestions. I want this so bad! I bought Photoshop, Lightroom, Corel, and I photograph people, my dog, my family, my friends. It took me forever to actually just buy this camera in college. I also have a photography internship, and I understand it's challenging, but cmon! I want to learn! Also, my business is my goal, and I realize it's not going to happen overnight. Thank you for your comment. Appreciate it.

I genuinely appreciate everyone and your suggestions/advice, thank you.

OP means original poster, the person who starts the thread. You may be willing to do the work but be less vocal about your ambitions until you at least clear the basic hurdles. You'll annoynfewer people and you'll get better help.

DC Fan wrote in post #17365858
One of the oddities of the world of DSLR's is that the people who purchase the devices all too often expect the toys will make them absolute experts as soon as they're unboxed. That attitude commonly persists with even those who have owned a DSLR for a few months and insist on the need to upgrade the equipment after owning it for only a few months, or want to learn the type of lens that will make their images look just like a fashion shoot they've seen in a magazine.

Of course, the basics of photography typically take a couple of years to learn, and anything beyond those basics requires far more time.
It's fair to say that you never stop learning about photography, and when you think you've started to master any aspect of photography, you're still going to be a beginner at another aspect. It's not unusual to read messages on this forum from people who are experienced portrait photographers but are nervous when they're faced with the challenge of capturing action sports.

Even with the increasing capacity of DSLR's, a photographer needs to be dedicated to a lifetime of learning.

Most difficult is to learn how to think as the combination of a camera and lens sees the world (of course. it's not the same as eyes and brains). When you start to approach the point that you think and anticipate as cameras work, the importance of equipment begins to fade and technique and experience becomes paramount.

Thank you.

I took this with the Canon EOS Rebel T5 18-55mm for my design class primarily using Photoshop and I wanted it sharper. I think I should have raised my Aperture for a better shot?

Thank you,
Jessica

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Unfortunately, I think some of the well-intentioned responses here landed closer to discouragement rather than encouragement. I don't think Jessica ever said she was hanging a shingle today, but simply was asking a legit question about the quality of her current rig.

I stick by my first post. Shoot the hell out of your current camera and lens until you identify and appreciate its limitations. That's part of the learning curve, and it will inform on your next steps along with the advice here. Also, be sensitive to the fact that gear needs will vary from user to user. The features you seek out may not be the same sought by others. There are no short cuts for any of us.

And for future reference, the word "professional" can send a thread off the deep end.

With this shot it appears you focused slightly in front of the subject. It's best to focus on the eyes and then depending on your aperture setting how much would remain in focus would vary. As to a lens for portraiture, the 50mm f/1.8 will be the cheapest entry. I personally prefer longer focal lengths, I used the 70-200 a lot, but it is not cheap. A good option for a prime is the 85mm f/1.8, you can find them used for about $350. Good luck and keep practicing! Learn basic photography and your camera, then learn lighting.

Great example, Jessica. I don't see a shortcoming of your lens/camera, but rather your technique. Unless you have abundant available light or you're shooting flash, give up trying to shoot at ISO 100. You missed focus because of the slow shutter speed, not the aperture. Up the ISO to defeat any camera shake, and you should see improvement. When necessity dictates that you shoot at slow shutter speeds, try to brace yourself somehow. Tuck your elbows firmly into your body or brace the camera against a wall, etc.

jessiekins wrote in post #17366699
Alan:

What does OP mean? I understand your perspective, however I don't really like this. I'm doing your suggestions. I want this so bad! I bought Photoshop, Lightroom, Corel, and I photograph people, my dog, my family, my friends. It took me forever to actually just buy this camera in college. I also have a photography internship, and I understand it's challenging, but cmon! I want to learn! Also, my business is my goal, and I realize it's not going to happen overnight. Thank you for your comment. Appreciate it.

I genuinely appreciate everyone and your suggestions/advice, thank you.

OP is Original Post or Original Poster. TS is Thread Starter. Knowing those two things will help you a lot on forums

Rather than buying every bit of software, I would focus on learning just one of them for now. I prefer LR (Lightroom) because it's workflow is fast and the interface is really easy to learn. There are a lot of free videos on editing in LR all over youtube, spend an evening or two watching videos and playing with your RAW files in LR and you'll find a good comfort zone soon enough, though we all adapt and change our editing habits/styles over time.

Keep shooting friends and family, heck shoot everything. I don't think we were jumping down your throat, just trying to set you straight on what you should do before you start asking for money. You have to understand that for those of us who do make money occasionally (or full-time) doing photography it's very frustrating when people pick up a DSLR and suddenly think they can charge people for their shots... it gives people who have taken the time and developed the skills and know-how to take shots worth paying for a bad-rap. For example, I've personally heard a co-worker of mine say that she doesn't pay for photos anymore because she was really unhappy with a photographer she had hired in the past... she showed me one of the shots and I immediately saw why, it was clearly taken by a novice with no real understanding of composition, lighting or basic exposure settings. Stuff like that is extremely frustrating to most of us on here.

I encourage you to keep learning and trying different things. Don't read one persons ideas as the end-all-be-all, try everything and decide what works for you. For example, there are oodles of shooters out there who will swear up and down that "M" is the only mode to shoot in, or that you should never shoot above ISO100... and for each of those there are at least as many people who would strongly disagree (like me ).

If you look at my flickr you'd see that I shoot everything and anything, most of it's nothing to write home about, but I share it so that I can learn from it and so that I can hear other's thoughts on it. It's also nice to look back and see how my style has changed over the past years and how I could/should do things differently in the future.

jessiekins wrote in post #17366715
I took this with the Canon EOS Rebel T5 18-55mm for my design class primarily using Photoshop and I wanted it sharper. I think I should have raised my Aperture for a better shot?

Thank you,
Jessica

I think this is a decent start, but it looks to me that you've missed the focus and/or the shutter-speed was too low. When shooting people I keep my shutter at an absolute minimum of 1/60s, and even that's pushing it unless your model is very still. I think the aperture here would have been fine had the focus been right, though a little more stopped down certainly could've helped given the blank background.

Are you using all focus points and letting the camera choose where to focus, using the center point and recomposing the shot after it locks focus, or using one focus point closest to where you want the focus to be?

Jelloneck wrote in post #17366738
With this shot it appears you focused slightly in front of the subject. It's best to focus on the eyes and then depending on your aperture setting how much would remain in focus would vary. As to a lens for portraiture, the 50mm f/1.8 will be the cheapest entry. I personally prefer longer focal lengths, I used the 70-200 a lot, but it is not cheap. A good option for a prime is the 85mm f/1.8, you can find them used for about $350. Good luck and keep practicing! Learn basic photography and your camera, then learn lighting.

I agree, looks to me the focus was off a bit. The 50/1.8 is a great place to start for portraiture, it was my first portrait lens and I think that can be said of most Canon shooters. Just be weary that the DOF (Depth Of Field) at 50mm and f1.8 on a crop sensor DSLR will be very narrow up close. Here's an example of a portrait I took several years ago with my 50/1.8 on my T2i, notice the focus was slightly off, I should have stopped the lens down a bit and focused on her eye with one of the outer points, for this shot I used the center point and recomposed, also note that I shot this at 1/40s which is far too low although I lucked out because the camera shake turned out to be pretty well controlled

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/dPXQ​51

EverydayGetaway wrote in post #17366776
OP is Original Post or Original Poster. TS is Thread Starter. Knowing those two things will help you a lot on forums

Rather than buying every bit of software, I would focus on learning just one of them for now. I prefer LR (Lightroom) because it's workflow is fast and the interface is really easy to learn. There are a lot of free videos on editing in LR all over youtube, spend an evening or two watching videos and playing with your RAW files in LR and you'll find a good comfort zone soon enough, though we all adapt and change our editing habits/styles over time.

Well I wasn't out to buy every bit of it...... I have a background in Graphic Design (College), which is why I own the software programs. I prefer Adobe Photoshop CC. I also love Lightroom but not as much as I love CC. Thank you for your in-depth response. I appreciate it. And, I will definitely work on my technique.

Jessica,

B&H has an incredible number of in-depth "tutorials" on Youtube. Look for their channel and watch the ones relating to your interests. Most are an hour to an hour and half long. Some are great, some are so-so. You'll also find many other options on Youtube as well. If you can afford $25 a month for a couple of months, KelbyTraining has some good material. Much better than the stuff I've watched on Lynda or other "free" training sites.

Good luck,

John

Jessica,

Just curious, do you shoot and edit in jpeg or raw?

Sorry if someone else already said this.
There is a book called "Understanding Exposure" Get it, read it and understand it. Its about $16 on Amazon. I dont think there is any thing you can do that would give more bang for the buck, its the gold standard.

LevelPebble wrote in post #17368096
Jessica,

Just curious, do you shoot and edit in jpeg or raw?

This was honestly shot in JPEG but I switched my camera to RAW. I was aware of that after.
I learned about JPEG Vs. Raw online.

jessiekins wrote in post #17369425
This was honestly shot in JPEG but I switched my camera to RAW. I was aware of that after.
I learned about JPEG Vs. Raw online.

When I bought my 1st DSLR ( T3i ), I shot in RAW and jpeg. After getting the hang of processing RAW in DPP and LR, my converted jpegs look a heck of a lot better than jpegs sootc ( straight out of the camera ). I no longer shoot in jpeg.

As for your Portrait, looks to me you have artistic talent, just need to work on the technical side ( I do Like the Portrait even if a wee bit OOF ).