Some people may want to learn to improve their photography skills by working as assistants in a photo studio. In fact, for studio assistants, this promotion is not significant.
First of all, the assistant's job is simply to do chores, help the photographer set up the scene, set up the flash, use the reflector, clean up the site after shooting, arrange the props for timely discovery and so on. We are not photographers, and we actually have very, very few opportunities to use cameras. And the photo studio is not a training institution, and you didn't pay the tuition. They have no obligation to sort out the knowledge system and then teach it to you.
Secondly, at present, most of the studio employees have low academic qualifications, advocate practical operation and do not pay attention to theoretical study. They may give you clear instructions when you have questions, but they know little about answering them. When I was in the studio, I found that they would save a lot of photos that they thought they liked to imitate their modeling and shooting, and they would also discuss which ones looked good and how to imitate them, and their efforts were comparable to those of middle school students. However, they seldom think about why those photos give people a "good-looking" impression, what is "good-looking" and what systematic articles and books there are.
In my experience, the biggest advantage of being an assistant is that I have many opportunities to get in touch with professional photography directly, and let me participate in these standardized, streamlined and modular work as an assistant. This is almost impossible for beginners and enthusiasts, and it is also a better way for us to step into practical operation after understanding some basic knowledge.
Some people may criticize the lack of originality and creativity in the process mode of the studio. On the contrary, I think that as a beginner who has not been exposed to the actual professional shooting work, this streamlined working method can let us know the whole process of shooting work, what needs to be done at each step and to what extent. Skilled in these basic works can make our creativity more targeted and effective.
In addition, another excellent convenience of assistant work is that it is very convenient to use all the resources of the photo studio to practice and improve yourself. These resources include but are not limited to various background cloths, different styles of scenes, various props, inexhaustible shed lights, reflectors of various sizes, photographers who can help, assistant colleagues who can practice with each other, makeup models and models. These resources, as beginners and ordinary enthusiasts, may not be so rich.
To put it simply, the job of assistant is actually most suitable for people who have a certain foundation, are familiar with camera operation, know some knowledge of composition and lighting, know the basic operation of post-processing and move from theory to practice.
In fact, the job of photography assistant is easy to find, because many photo studios and studios need assistants, and the salary is very small, but this kind of work is almost impossible to make a living, so no one can do it for a long time.
At that time, I attached a few photos I had taken as my resume, and then I searched 58, Zhilian and some local portals for the news of recruiting photography assistants, and then I went directly to their stores to ask if I needed an assistant. Because my main goal is to actually participate in the practice of artistic photography and other people's portrait photography, I decided to set up a studio focusing on wedding dresses and artistic photography.
There are three photographers and two assistants in the shop. At that time, I was assigned to be an assistant to the oldest photographer in the store. However, although the photographer's son passed the college entrance examination, he still maintained the mentality of a young man, laughing and cursing like us, and often made everyone happy. It is only possible that he has taken photos for more than 20 years and has lost his freshness in this day-to-day work. I often feel that he is dealing with guests.
The other two photographers are about my age, and one is two years younger than me. They are much more active in photography. They often try some photos that have never been taken before and use some unusual lighting effects.
Another assistant went a week earlier than me, because there was no photography foundation at all, and there was no salary for the first month. He said that he came here to study as an assistant and was going to enter this industry in the future. But now he has a wife and children, and sometimes he is under some financial pressure.
Maybe it's because the working hours are not long, and it's still in the fresh stage. I think working there is a very happy thing.
Generally speaking, the work intensity is moderate and acceptable. Because there are always those scenes and photos to be taken, there is generally no speed requirement, so even if there are many guests on that day, overtime is only a little late. Because makeup often takes an hour or two, our photography department can usually have a rest during this time. When there are few guests, there will be a long time, even half a day's leisure. It was also during that time that I gave myself an outline of many introductory articles on photography. Well, I haven't finished it yet, haha.
When I was an assistant, a college student wanted to be a part-time weekend assistant and learn to take pictures. He stayed for a day and then stopped, saying that he had worked there for too long. From 9 am to 6 pm, he still has nothing to do, nothing to do. I won't comment on this.
When there are few guests, you can occasionally discuss it with the lady in the makeup department. They make up themselves. We set the background and lighting, practice with each other, and then ask the photographer in the shop for advice. Here, I would like to thank my little sisters and photographers again. I took a lot of photos myself and actually operated it several times. Although I dare not send the photos to the protagonist, haha.
Of course, there will often be very tired and hard times. As we all know, shooting requires frequent location shooting. Although to outsiders, location shooting is very chic and cool, but it feels different if you do it often. If you add sunny days, well, photographers usually have dark skin for a reason. Therefore, if we don't do this, we may like to take pictures everywhere, which is much more difficult for photographers than in the studio.
Because the business of the studio is mainly portrait, some of my gains are only reflected in portrait photography. In this respect, as an untrained amateur, my biggest feeling is that I always lack the control of scenes and details like a professional photographer, and it still does.
Many photographic articles and even books will tell us that the soul of photography lies in recording the world with a lens and discovering people and things that we have not noticed. This view is particularly popular in landscape and street photography. However, in the field of portrait photography, the situation is completely different. If we just take pictures of those people with a record attitude, we will easily fall into a kind of confusion. No matter how many angles we look for and how many shutters we press, we feel that the people in the photos are unusual, even uglier than real people.
The reason is that we are too familiar with "people" as the main body in portrait photography and realize that if we only record people's daily appearance and body, it is really not the kind of "beauty" we want. Therefore, portrait photographers must create, let the subjects wear matching clothes and make up their paintings, let the models make the most beautiful body movements and find the most wonderful expressions of the models. And all this is deliberately made, which is a taboo in the field of scenery and street shooting.
This is the biggest gap between beginners, ordinary enthusiasts and professional portrait photographers. When we take pictures, we probably just let others stand in the background that we think is ok, then pose ourselves and press the shutter. Lack of careful observation of the environment, lack of attitude guidance to objects, lack of attention and correction to the details of the picture.
So when I took pictures later, I always reminded myself that I must imagine the picture before taking it, and I must communicate with the subject how we want to take it, and always pay attention to the subject's body posture and expression. It is the lightest shutter to "draw" the picture in your heart in reality.
If you have the idea of internship in the studio, you can contact the local studio. Because there will be more shooting business in the studio on weekends, some will provide part-time assistants on weekends, and some may charge for learning opportunities.
If you are looking for a photo studio, you can choose a photo studio based on different businesses according to your own interests. If you like to take pictures of your sister and make an appointment, it is recommended to take art photos and wedding dresses as the main studios; If you like to take some still life, of course, it is best to take photos of products in the studio; There are also different studios such as children's photography and pet photography, so you can try to contact them.
When contacting the studio, it is best to have some basic photography skills, especially lighting, which is the most practical knowledge of the assistant, and it also enables us to follow the photographer's arrangement of lighting in our work, so as not to be unknown so.
In my job as an assistant, I suggest that I decorate as many scenes, lights and photos as possible in my spare time. At the same time, get on well with the sisters in the makeup department. See who is free, let her put on makeup and be your free model. In fact, these photo studios are quite encouraging. After all, everyone likes studious employees ~