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Amateur Vs. Pro: How Differently The Same ‘Ugly’ Location Looks When You Become A Professional Photographer
About two years ago, I used to go about my usual everyday life like most people do, not noticing all of the beauty around me. After I picked up a camera and started taking photos of my kids, I started to see the world in a whole new way. Once you start to see it, you can't un-see it.
I started to notice how light affected things, and how looking at something from a different perspective could change the whole scene. The whole world seems to be trying to tell us a story in the most beautiful and colorful display. It's like watching a movie, but it's all around us, and we're living it.
After becoming a photographer, I slowed down from this crazy fast paced world and started to appreciate the masterpieces that were before my very eyes. This was a life changing experience for me!
I want everyone to have this same experience. So I created a free photography course for anyone who wants to give it a shot. I show you how you can do this with a cheap camera and cheap lens. I've even used my cell phone when I didn't have my camera with me.
You can see more of my work and/or check out my free photography course on my website.
More info: philliphaumesserphotography.com
This post may include affiliate links.
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Celeste Murray 7 years ago
I think people are missing the point--that becoming a photographer taught this person there is beauty to be found everywhere. All it takes to capture it is a change in perspective, or lighting, or focus..., or some combination of these. This isn't an article suggesting that a photographer will take the exact same photo better, but rather that a photographer knows what changes need to be made to capture an emotion with an image.
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#9
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#10
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Eduardo Magueta 7 years ago
The editing has a lot to do with it, but you can notice some improvement on the way the camera is now positioned according to subject and light source, so the person would definitely have better results even if no editing was done to the photos.
Add New Image
What do you think ?
Lara B. 7 years ago
Perspective and lighting makes such a huge difference. Beaut is all around us, we just need to start seeing it :)
Emanuele Colombo 7 years ago
Your photography skills have definitely improved, but you still use a s****y font my friend ;)
Eduardo Magueta 7 years ago
The editing has a lot to do with it, but you can notice some improvement on the way the camera is now positioned according to subject and light source, so the person would definitely have better results even if no editing was done to the photos.
Ela Pink 7 years ago
This is my try. No awareness of light just a couple of minute of fooling around in Photoshop :) forest2-59...9f091b.jpg 
Ironhide 1904 7 years ago
The composition is definitely better, but I would love to see the photo's straight out of the cam instead :(
HauntedForests 7 years ago
Guys, all you need to do for similar pictures is adjust your perspective, transfer them to a laptop/computer, add enhancements if you want, and adjust the clarity/color/lighting/contrast, all of it. There is a "Red Eye" setting that fixes the redness in your eyes when you take a picture with the flash on, and a "Spot Fix" where you can erase spots. I use a crappy nikon coolpix that has lens issues, and these settings are my best friends when it comes to photography. :D
Anna Thouvenin 7 years ago
Thank you for the link to your free course. Those pics are amazing :) If this is your son, I'm sure those are memories that will last!
Kurisuti Elena 7 years ago
The comments section of this article just proves once again that you can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make it drink.
Mark Smallman 7 years ago
First rule of photographing kids,get down to their level. Most of these demonstrate that one simple technique.
Dei Midkiff 7 years ago
Wow those pics are awesome! The angle and lighting made significant difference. Dis you also use filters?
porcupine 7 years ago
I was just thinking about how many of the graphic designers who frequent this site will be unable to see past the Papyrus
Tony Moon 7 years ago
You could teach the use of thirds quite well. Nice use of dead space and focal interest in your subject matter. Your use of front and rear lighting is also quite nice. I like it. Great job and thanks for sharing.
Just a Purpler 7 years ago
Wow I love your pictures, and I for one, ADORE any of the editing you did to these photos! Whatever you did to make them the way they are, I hope I can someday learn to do exactly what you have done here! They're all so warm, I can hear the stories in each picture, they all seem so quiet and peaceful. An innocent childhood. A world of curiosity that these boys are exploring. I love your work so so much! Thanks for sharing :))))
Chris Sprucefield 7 years ago
perspective, level, composition, focus, light. understand these, and it will work wonders for you.
Lisa Greene 7 years ago
Lighting, getting closer to your subject and editing, are all ways to improve your photography.
Malene Kjær Pedersen 7 years ago
I don't like excessive photo editing - it leaves only a sad whisper of the original soul of the photograph. Of course, it creates a wider range of artistic possibilities, if you use qualitatively good camera equipment, but sometimes the simplest photography is also the most beautiful. I think it's more about angles, light, creativity and imagination than good equipment when it comes to capturing a beautiful and eye-catching image. 13391504_1...81fdae.jpg 
Zbiór Otwarty 7 years ago
There's a perspective, there are close-ups and ....what you maybe didn't notice - there is photoshop or other similar tool... it's not light, it's about buttons in a program.
Dwayne Letson 7 years ago
Would be interesting to see a similar article with 3 pictures for each one. Before.... after-unedited... pro
Dwayne Letson 7 years ago
Would be interesting to see a similar article with 3 pictures for each one.... 'before'...'after-uneditted'.... 'pro'
Matija Kovačič 7 years ago
In a nutshell, go for as much bokeh as possible, wind the color temperature to warm and dial saturation up, lower the camera angle, add a massive ammount of vignette .. anything else? :) In all seriousness, how did you achieve the brownish haze in the background trees - boy&rabbit pciture?
Eframit Orozco 7 years ago
Ok, so the trick is just bending on your knees, taking a closer picture and using a filter. Actually I like the "how I used to see" photos better than the other ones. They are more natural, more refreshing than the photo-studio-kind-of-pic. But it is just an opion and I am not a professional :)
Alexander Reyne 2 years ago
Everyone is seriously missing some of the most timportant parts here. Composition, exposure, focus. Just getting closer and lower isn't going to make everything look good. Neither is editing. It's a combination of all these things to be sure, but composition and exposure are the keys to taking a great photograph.
Aura Mae 5 years ago
Phillip, my experience is a little different. I am a professional haircolorist and have always had a good eye for noticing the beauty of light and color. I picked up photography so that I could help my friends see the beauty I saw. PS, photographing my haircolor work made me a better hairstylist because the camera lens shows me tiny things that are out of balance or out of place.
Rachel Manning 7 years ago
Please consider another font choice next time. Papyrus is making my eyes bleed.
Connor Moriarty 7 years ago
This is a great article. Any of the haters below are just jealous?... I can't think of another reason why everyone is so salty about this. This is a fantastic representation about growth as a photog. Yes, the "pro" images have been edited, but that's what you learn to do as a photographer. I don't care that one image is straight OOC and one is an edit, because shooting RAW and editing is what you learn as a professional. Keep it up.
Jose Nemmo 7 years ago
Lower the angle, focus on the subject, s****y soft-focus on everything else.
Kimberly Kuhn 7 years ago
Just wanted to let you know that I'd love to check out your site and your class but the web link is giving a "503 service unavailable message." I love your shots!
Maria Funk 7 years ago
DSLR (i.e. with full frame sensor,) a good lens, editing-software - all that makes better pictures than your phone, but frankly: not a professional ... a professional makes his living with his (professional) gear. Looking at these pictures I would guess you chose lowest f-stop to create max shallow DOF, but the overall blurriness, even of those objects 'in focus', may be due to a low - average quality of your lens. I would suggest raise quality of your lens pack - or start 'playing' with lighting.
Warren Morgan 7 years ago
Nice presentation on the difference in your work and in fact, the difference between a photographer that does a good job compared to uncle bob with his expensive 'slr'. This would be a good portfolio to use when selling your services and showing a prospective client what they might get for cheap or what can be quality work.
Cody Asher 7 years ago
Great use of lighting. Yes! Always get low or close and personal. A little too much vignette and filtration for my taste.
Matthew Gore 7 years ago
Nice photos and a well written article... great job! I hope that you start seeing in something other than "Papyrus" in the future, though (and I hope that something isn't "Comic Sans"). :-)
Laura Sherman 7 years ago
It's true all it takes is a different perspective... and knowing your camera ;)
Kei Hiragi 7 years ago
Hi, do you need to learn photo editing(photoshop) to start photography?
Carol Taylor 7 years ago
this was taken using an one of the thingy-ma-bobs button on the camera of my Huawei P9
Eric Boslok 7 years ago
Ok...and a good shot using a wide angle? Every comparison (besides light treatment and how he treats perspective) is between a wide angle shot and a Tele shot, so the second one has bookeh. There is impressive "all in focus" photography also.
Eric Andrist 7 years ago
Most of the "photographer" photos just look to me like they've been photoshopped. I took #7 and in just a few minutes made it way better. 7_HDR-598c...b-jpeg.jpg 
Margie Lazou 7 years ago
I could use some tips in regards of indoors photography for product placement, I am a handcrafter and my photography skills suck, so everything I make looks awful and drab in photos, not doing anything justice :/
James Coburn 7 years ago
So you see everything with a vignette now, might want to get your eyes checked :P
Pol Macqueron 7 years ago
Well, pictures are amazing but they're not even what you lived. Depends on whether you want to have an amazing pic or stg to remember
Meowton Mewsk 7 years ago
It's a shame all these cool pics are ruined by having kids in them. 😕
Max Feldmann 7 years ago
so, you just put the same filter on all your pictures and adjust the colors? well thats what i call effective.
Apocalips B. Teodor 7 years ago
this is 70% gear! A point and shoot camera versus a full frame camera with a fast telephoto lens. The gear is the one changing the perspective because it gives different end results and that forces the photographer to... take a lower point on the ground and be more aware of the narrow dof. Oh... and let's add some vignetting.
Vanit Kashyap 7 years ago
Long story short: Learn about composition, lighting, HDR, colors, Photoshop and Lightroom; and then just crop the image, fix the exposure, shadows, and highlights, color correct image, add a gradient map and some vignette. So easy, right? just takes a minute.
Vanit Kashyap 7 years ago
Long story short: just learn about composition, HDR, lighting, photoshop, and Lightroom; and then just crop the image, do a little color correction, fix shadows and highlights, apply a gradient map, and add a vignette. So easy, right?
Vincent Tiggelman 7 years ago
Maybe it's just me but you seem less connected to the kids in the pro level shots. They're great though.
Robin Grossman 7 years ago
https://philliphaumesserphotography.com/ gives a 500: internal server error.
Emanuele Colombo 7 years ago
Your photography skills have improved but you still use a s****y font my friend ;)
Joe Dad 7 years ago
I really like this project because it shows how everything around us is beautiful. We just need to open our eyes and look around!
Camellia Rains 7 years ago
You know what would've awesome? Suggesting to us how we've could've viewed things differently through our own lenses. At least, so we, Joe-Blow lay persons, could dain to achieve your greatness, photography-wise. Thanks for nothing dude...other than paying reverence to your photographic greatness, waste of time. Click bait. The worst of the worst, DailyMail, Sun, Post, etc...Go do what you do best, go photograph yourself through others...
Jozsef Fulop 7 years ago
So basically, use zoom option, bend your legs + use some filters on the pics, adjust colours & brightness. Also great if you have some 'action' on the pic sometimes
Greebo Watkins 7 years ago
These are great... but is it really seeing beauty in the world, or extracting beauty from the world as a lot of the "world" is blurred out using shallow depth of field?
Semira Roy 7 years ago
Sadly why I get disappointed when I get out there nowadays. Places are not as nearly as pretty like the some of the pictures. Also, thought it's just using better camera but it's Photoshop. :( Don't think I want to spend so much time on editing pictures. so here's to taking a crappy picture and spending more time actually enjoying the moment. Cheers! (By no means any offense to photographer. I will just leave photography to them).
Paulette Guillory-Gardner 7 years ago
Should me labeled as: how I (that's me, right here) takes photos and how the pros do it. LOL
Lyubo Lyubenov 7 years ago
This is very deceiving post. You shot the first ones with a phone and the rest with 85mm+ and 2.8minus. This shows nothing.
Bill Shrum 7 years ago
Telephoto lens for framing and bokeh, off-camera flash for fill lighting (many of these pics had artificial light), and adobe lightroom. Great compositions!
Sky Simone 7 years ago
Really ugly font.. a photographer should have a better eye than that and anyone saying "oh he's not a graphic designer" is wrong.. most photographers are.. but you don't need to be a chef to know that moldy banana looks bad
Lara B. 7 years ago
Perspective and lighting makes such a huge difference. Beaut is all around us, we just need to start seeing it :)
Emanuele Colombo 7 years ago
Your photography skills have definitely improved, but you still use a s****y font my friend ;)
Eduardo Magueta 7 years ago
The editing has a lot to do with it, but you can notice some improvement on the way the camera is now positioned according to subject and light source, so the person would definitely have better results even if no editing was done to the photos.
Ela Pink 7 years ago
This is my try. No awareness of light just a couple of minute of fooling around in Photoshop :) forest2-59...9f091b.jpg
Ironhide 1904 7 years ago
The composition is definitely better, but I would love to see the photo's straight out of the cam instead :(
HauntedForests 7 years ago
Guys, all you need to do for similar pictures is adjust your perspective, transfer them to a laptop/computer, add enhancements if you want, and adjust the clarity/color/lighting/contrast, all of it. There is a "Red Eye" setting that fixes the redness in your eyes when you take a picture with the flash on, and a "Spot Fix" where you can erase spots. I use a crappy nikon coolpix that has lens issues, and these settings are my best friends when it comes to photography. :D
Anna Thouvenin 7 years ago
Thank you for the link to your free course. Those pics are amazing :) If this is your son, I'm sure those are memories that will last!
Kurisuti Elena 7 years ago
The comments section of this article just proves once again that you can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make it drink.
Mark Smallman 7 years ago
First rule of photographing kids,get down to their level. Most of these demonstrate that one simple technique.
Dei Midkiff 7 years ago
Wow those pics are awesome! The angle and lighting made significant difference. Dis you also use filters?
porcupine 7 years ago
I was just thinking about how many of the graphic designers who frequent this site will be unable to see past the Papyrus
Tony Moon 7 years ago
You could teach the use of thirds quite well. Nice use of dead space and focal interest in your subject matter. Your use of front and rear lighting is also quite nice. I like it. Great job and thanks for sharing.
Just a Purpler 7 years ago
Wow I love your pictures, and I for one, ADORE any of the editing you did to these photos! Whatever you did to make them the way they are, I hope I can someday learn to do exactly what you have done here! They're all so warm, I can hear the stories in each picture, they all seem so quiet and peaceful. An innocent childhood. A world of curiosity that these boys are exploring. I love your work so so much! Thanks for sharing :))))
Chris Sprucefield 7 years ago
perspective, level, composition, focus, light. understand these, and it will work wonders for you.
Lisa Greene 7 years ago
Lighting, getting closer to your subject and editing, are all ways to improve your photography.
Malene Kjær Pedersen 7 years ago
I don't like excessive photo editing - it leaves only a sad whisper of the original soul of the photograph. Of course, it creates a wider range of artistic possibilities, if you use qualitatively good camera equipment, but sometimes the simplest photography is also the most beautiful. I think it's more about angles, light, creativity and imagination than good equipment when it comes to capturing a beautiful and eye-catching image. 13391504_1...81fdae.jpg
Zbiór Otwarty 7 years ago
There's a perspective, there are close-ups and ....what you maybe didn't notice - there is photoshop or other similar tool... it's not light, it's about buttons in a program.
Dwayne Letson 7 years ago
Would be interesting to see a similar article with 3 pictures for each one. Before.... after-unedited... pro
Dwayne Letson 7 years ago
Would be interesting to see a similar article with 3 pictures for each one.... 'before'...'after-uneditted'.... 'pro'
Matija Kovačič 7 years ago
In a nutshell, go for as much bokeh as possible, wind the color temperature to warm and dial saturation up, lower the camera angle, add a massive ammount of vignette .. anything else? :) In all seriousness, how did you achieve the brownish haze in the background trees - boy&rabbit pciture?
Eframit Orozco 7 years ago
Ok, so the trick is just bending on your knees, taking a closer picture and using a filter. Actually I like the "how I used to see" photos better than the other ones. They are more natural, more refreshing than the photo-studio-kind-of-pic. But it is just an opion and I am not a professional :)
Alexander Reyne 2 years ago
Everyone is seriously missing some of the most timportant parts here. Composition, exposure, focus. Just getting closer and lower isn't going to make everything look good. Neither is editing. It's a combination of all these things to be sure, but composition and exposure are the keys to taking a great photograph.
Aura Mae 5 years ago
Phillip, my experience is a little different. I am a professional haircolorist and have always had a good eye for noticing the beauty of light and color. I picked up photography so that I could help my friends see the beauty I saw. PS, photographing my haircolor work made me a better hairstylist because the camera lens shows me tiny things that are out of balance or out of place.
Rachel Manning 7 years ago
Please consider another font choice next time. Papyrus is making my eyes bleed.
Connor Moriarty 7 years ago
This is a great article. Any of the haters below are just jealous?... I can't think of another reason why everyone is so salty about this. This is a fantastic representation about growth as a photog. Yes, the "pro" images have been edited, but that's what you learn to do as a photographer. I don't care that one image is straight OOC and one is an edit, because shooting RAW and editing is what you learn as a professional. Keep it up.
Jose Nemmo 7 years ago
Lower the angle, focus on the subject, s****y soft-focus on everything else.
Kimberly Kuhn 7 years ago
Just wanted to let you know that I'd love to check out your site and your class but the web link is giving a "503 service unavailable message." I love your shots!
Maria Funk 7 years ago
DSLR (i.e. with full frame sensor,) a good lens, editing-software - all that makes better pictures than your phone, but frankly: not a professional ... a professional makes his living with his (professional) gear. Looking at these pictures I would guess you chose lowest f-stop to create max shallow DOF, but the overall blurriness, even of those objects 'in focus', may be due to a low - average quality of your lens. I would suggest raise quality of your lens pack - or start 'playing' with lighting.
Warren Morgan 7 years ago
Nice presentation on the difference in your work and in fact, the difference between a photographer that does a good job compared to uncle bob with his expensive 'slr'. This would be a good portfolio to use when selling your services and showing a prospective client what they might get for cheap or what can be quality work.
Cody Asher 7 years ago
Great use of lighting. Yes! Always get low or close and personal. A little too much vignette and filtration for my taste.
Matthew Gore 7 years ago
Nice photos and a well written article... great job! I hope that you start seeing in something other than "Papyrus" in the future, though (and I hope that something isn't "Comic Sans"). :-)
Laura Sherman 7 years ago
It's true all it takes is a different perspective... and knowing your camera ;)
Kei Hiragi 7 years ago
Hi, do you need to learn photo editing(photoshop) to start photography?
Carol Taylor 7 years ago
this was taken using an one of the thingy-ma-bobs button on the camera of my Huawei P9
Eric Boslok 7 years ago
Ok...and a good shot using a wide angle? Every comparison (besides light treatment and how he treats perspective) is between a wide angle shot and a Tele shot, so the second one has bookeh. There is impressive "all in focus" photography also.
Eric Andrist 7 years ago
Most of the "photographer" photos just look to me like they've been photoshopped. I took #7 and in just a few minutes made it way better. 7_HDR-598c...b-jpeg.jpg
Margie Lazou 7 years ago
I could use some tips in regards of indoors photography for product placement, I am a handcrafter and my photography skills suck, so everything I make looks awful and drab in photos, not doing anything justice :/
James Coburn 7 years ago
So you see everything with a vignette now, might want to get your eyes checked :P
Pol Macqueron 7 years ago
Well, pictures are amazing but they're not even what you lived. Depends on whether you want to have an amazing pic or stg to remember
Meowton Mewsk 7 years ago
It's a shame all these cool pics are ruined by having kids in them. 😕
Max Feldmann 7 years ago
so, you just put the same filter on all your pictures and adjust the colors? well thats what i call effective.
Apocalips B. Teodor 7 years ago
this is 70% gear! A point and shoot camera versus a full frame camera with a fast telephoto lens. The gear is the one changing the perspective because it gives different end results and that forces the photographer to... take a lower point on the ground and be more aware of the narrow dof. Oh... and let's add some vignetting.
Vanit Kashyap 7 years ago
Long story short: Learn about composition, lighting, HDR, colors, Photoshop and Lightroom; and then just crop the image, fix the exposure, shadows, and highlights, color correct image, add a gradient map and some vignette. So easy, right? just takes a minute.
Vanit Kashyap 7 years ago
Long story short: just learn about composition, HDR, lighting, photoshop, and Lightroom; and then just crop the image, do a little color correction, fix shadows and highlights, apply a gradient map, and add a vignette. So easy, right?
Vincent Tiggelman 7 years ago
Maybe it's just me but you seem less connected to the kids in the pro level shots. They're great though.
Robin Grossman 7 years ago
https://philliphaumesserphotography.com/ gives a 500: internal server error.
Emanuele Colombo 7 years ago
Your photography skills have improved but you still use a s****y font my friend ;)
Joe Dad 7 years ago
I really like this project because it shows how everything around us is beautiful. We just need to open our eyes and look around!
Camellia Rains 7 years ago
You know what would've awesome? Suggesting to us how we've could've viewed things differently through our own lenses. At least, so we, Joe-Blow lay persons, could dain to achieve your greatness, photography-wise. Thanks for nothing dude...other than paying reverence to your photographic greatness, waste of time. Click bait. The worst of the worst, DailyMail, Sun, Post, etc...Go do what you do best, go photograph yourself through others...
Jozsef Fulop 7 years ago
So basically, use zoom option, bend your legs + use some filters on the pics, adjust colours & brightness. Also great if you have some 'action' on the pic sometimes
Greebo Watkins 7 years ago
These are great... but is it really seeing beauty in the world, or extracting beauty from the world as a lot of the "world" is blurred out using shallow depth of field?
Semira Roy 7 years ago
Sadly why I get disappointed when I get out there nowadays. Places are not as nearly as pretty like the some of the pictures. Also, thought it's just using better camera but it's Photoshop. :( Don't think I want to spend so much time on editing pictures. so here's to taking a crappy picture and spending more time actually enjoying the moment. Cheers! (By no means any offense to photographer. I will just leave photography to them).
Paulette Guillory-Gardner 7 years ago
Should me labeled as: how I (that's me, right here) takes photos and how the pros do it. LOL
Lyubo Lyubenov 7 years ago
This is very deceiving post. You shot the first ones with a phone and the rest with 85mm+ and 2.8minus. This shows nothing.
Bill Shrum 7 years ago
Telephoto lens for framing and bokeh, off-camera flash for fill lighting (many of these pics had artificial light), and adobe lightroom. Great compositions!
Sky Simone 7 years ago
Really ugly font.. a photographer should have a better eye than that and anyone saying "oh he's not a graphic designer" is wrong.. most photographers are.. but you don't need to be a chef to know that moldy banana looks bad
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