LAUREN ENGEL

Hi! I started off shooting friends from my school, then expanded to people from other schools.  I then showed my portfolio to agency models, they liked my work and agreed to shoot with me.  All the editing is done on Photoshop, there is no specific other software to use, I mostly use curves on Photoshop!  There are plug-ins like Color Efex pro but I prefer to do it all myself.

Great!  I just asked my friend photographer and he said you can get a Canon camera under USD $500, so I’m sure you will find something!  I know exactly what you mean about photoshop, it really took me a while to get used to— I first started using it for graphic designing so I knew a few of the functions but not the type for editing pictures, so I had to teach myself that.

You mean the Tamron 28-75mm?  I’m not quite familiar with Tamron lens so I did a quick search: http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/Tamron-28-75mm-F-2.8-XR-Di-Lens-Review.aspx, I’m sure you read this review before and the lens sounds great!  

Great! Canon 500D is all you need.  What are you thinking of lens wise?  I used the kit lens for nearly a year and it was enough for me then.  If you want to get good lens, I suggest a 50mm prime or a good zoom lens.  In my opinion, save up to buy a good lens that you could use forever— don’t buy different cheap lenses.  As for tutorials, I don’t remember any great tutorial websites, but try to search ‘Curves’ or ‘Actions’ into google.  I haven’t completely mastered skin retouching, so I can’t give you really good suggestions for that’ however, try to learn how to use the clone stamp tool!

Hi!  I have Canon 500D and I think it’s the cheapest Canon DSLR.  However, it is already two generations below— they already released Canon 550D and Canon 600D.  If you want to buy the body only for Canon 500D, it’s around USD$700; but then you will need to buy the lens separately.  Or you can buy the kit lens for around $800.  So I think it’s quite impossible to buy a Canon camera for less than $500, unless you want to buy a secondhand one.  I haven’t worked with aperture or adobe lightroom before.  I use Photoshop CS5; I really recommend that, a lot of photographers use it so it’s easy to learn from tutorials online.  Hope that helps!