Mobile Computing News

Photo: Nikon

In our ongoing series where we talk about the right tools for the right knowledge economy professionals, we’ve covered general basics for all freelancers, a guide for freelance writers and a guide for freelance editors. Now we move from moving images to stills with our gadget guide for the freelance photographer.

Step one: a camera

If your budget is tight and you need to cut corners wherever possible, your camera is one area where you do not want to cut corners. Fortunately, with the wide range of DSLR cameras on the market, there are gems to find at pocket-friendly prices. The Nikon D5000, which costs under £450 if you search carefully, is a 12.3 megapixel DSLR, capable of shooting 4 frames per second with face detect technology if you need any additional assistance.

Step two: a computer

Photo: Stock.Xchng

If, as a freelance photographer, you’ll be doing light post-production, most contemporary laptops running an Intel i5 and upwards processor will have the juice necessary to process what you need and run the software you require. Make sure you also have enough RAM. Naturally, as the price increases, so does the power, and the trick when choosing a laptop is to balance out your needs carefully.

Step three: software

Image manipulation and image touching up is part and parcel of contemporary photography, so embrace it. The best general composition and photo editing software is without doubt Adobe Photoshop CS5. New editions make it a fantastic piece of hardware for all creatives. If Photoshop isn’t your thing, perhaps Aperture or Photoshop Light Room are your thing. Do some research to find out which solution works best for you, but if you’re unsure, Photoshop is without doubt the default piece of software for you.

Step four: an external hard drive

Photo: LaCie

The long-time freelance photographer will tell you that they shoot thousands of shots over a brief period and, even after disregarding average images for brilliant images, it’s still very easy to end up with too little disk space for all your pics, so invest in an external hard drive with ideally 500GB of capacity. The Lacie rugged hard drive range is a good option.

Once you’ve got these items sorted, you’ll be able to add as you need, from tripods to lighting kits and so on.

Happy shooting.