u/Kennygblickyuh-

Is there a reasonable budget camera for human subject portrait photography for around $500 (used)?

(1) Budget, country, and currency: total budget ~500-1,000 (for entire setup) USD, United States

(2) What equipment, if any, you have now and why is it no longer meeting your needs? I have ordered two YUNGNUO YN360 LED lights, I have yet to see if they satisfy needs

(3) What kinds of subjects do you intend to shoot? Human Portraits

(4) Is it primarily for photography, videography, or both? Photography but I will be more invested in videography

some of the attached images have an "ai modified" tag (pinterest), but they still capture the general idea and I found it difficult to find ones without that tag

• orientation will be landscape (youtube thumbnail)
• subject will range from torso-up all the way to close up of faces and even singular eyes
• will be using a room (estimated 13ft x 11ft) that is dark and will be controlling all lighting aspects
• subjects will be shot often in rgb lighting (see post images), as I find it most interesting. There will also be instances of shooting in normal lighting, but these will be just for learning and not for the finished product
• Currently I see no need for automatic settings like autofocus and the like, and I think as a beginner it would take me further to have to learn all manual settings. My knowledge on photography is limited so this point may be moot
• I have ordered two YONGNUO YN360 LEDs for the purpose of starting to learn light manipulation for videography, but I assume that these can also be used just fine for photography as well?

Additional information/questions:

1. I would also be using this camera to get into photography as a whole (very secondary objective)
2. I'm new to concepts such as lenses, lights, tripod and other aftermarket parts for cameras, are there any recommendations? Things such as tripods that can be used interchangeably between photography and videography can have a higher budget, but I would prefer options to be on the penny-pinching side.
3. Can a budget camera result in high-quality photos rich in detail?
4. I have a laptop, but it is build for durability and not performance (also outdated), is that enough for post-processing/editing? (eventual plan is to get a gaming laptop for film editing but that is out of the question for now

What is the cheapest camera/setup that can be made to satisfy all of these needs? Age is not a factor, as long as it does not tamper with reliability. If you have any other suggestions that are not related to the body text they are welcome and appreciated.

EDIT: I added some pretty significant changes, resulting in the word count now reaching [2116]. Be aware of the new length if you decide on doing a crit to this post

This is my second post to this sub. I wanted to thank and appreciate all of the active participants that read, post and provide feedback on each others writing. Even though the sub is named "destructive readers," I have found it to be much more building than destructive.

[2080] crit - The Thaw - Educational_Art_3763

As you read my writing, the focus is not to consider the context of "what story is this attached to" or "what is the backstory." I would like it to be read as a standalone piece, but one that you can pretend that you have the context for.

The main goal was to have the narrator communicate his love for the addressee, but without becoming overly soppy and schoolboy. He is also stating his understanding that his feelings will only ever be that, but with a dignified acceptance. Does it come across this way to you?

The tone is intended to be very loosely formal

[2116] A Love Letter - romance - project 2

One of my struggles writing this was the use of repetitive terms during lists. Do you find it to be an issue when reading? Is there an alternative to simply using different terms to start every sentence, such as "I remember, I recall, I though of, etc." I think doing this results in a lower quality than just repeating one of them, but I am asking feedback as to if this is the case, or if there is another alternative I haven't been aware of.

I also wonder if I added too many songs in the post script.

Other than that, critique as you wish. Thank you : )

[2258] critique

This is my first ever writing piece outside of high school. Don't take it easy on me, but be aware that I just don't know a lot of things I should. I would prefer if the narrative and word choices were criticized primary to the grammar and sentence structure, but you are the judge of that.

This story contains death, in a way some may consider graphic.

The story

I have briefly gone through slight editing, but I didn't linger too long lest I became self-conscious and decided to never post.

There are a few things of note before you being your criticism.

1. I just kind of stopped writing. The story does not come to a conclusion of any kind. This is intentional as I'm less than concerned about that aspect right now and will worry about that portion on my second or third writing.

2. Traditionally I would prefer to write in first person due to its ease of use. Please point out any discrepancies with the perspective or any overuse of pronouns and what I might do instead.

3. I wanted to write this with minimal information on the characters thinking, similar to a movie. It proved fairly difficult so I didn't follow through but I would like to know what your perspective is on this idea. Is it practical to write a story without the use of thoughts or descriptions of sensations?

some self critiques and questions:

I personally thought the situation I wrote about was very compelling, but I worry that due to my vocabulary choices or sentence structures that it falls flatter than it should. Is this the case?

I wonder if I used too many pronouns, but I'm not really sure what an alternative would be.

I wonder if perhaps I used too much description with the lockpicking portion. Not that I think it was drowning in detail, but I think that novice writers like myself have a tendency to go into too much step-by-step details to increase the validity of their knowledge of the task being performed. Does it feel that way to you?

Do you appreciate the vague nature of the MC? Should I have instead gone into more building of his character, and why?

When the text stops, do you wish there was more or was it a relief to finally be done reading?

I wonder if the pacing is appropriate, as the latter portion of the story goes by much faster. This is somewhat intentional as it adds to the realism, but if it's bad enough I would change it to reduce realism in terms of reader enjoyability

lastly, if you wrote this story, what would you change in terms of description and increasing tension.

I'm very nervous but I think its best to rip the band-aid off now

songs you actually like not meme songs. Its all in good fun. Don't let me hurt your feelings

I keep seeing this scene from the movie Apex (2026) where a crazy guy gives a girl until the end of the song to run away. what song would you play?

Im not sure of the exact genre of this music type as "trance" and "triphop" don't really yield the results im looking for

I absolutely love music similar to the listed below:

Hallucination/The Crank Party - maze runner scorch trials (only on youtube)

Ethereal - skyfall beats

Heaven - mos elian

Frozen - Madonna vs Sickkick

Who I Was - V.I.P.N

what I like about these songs is their spacey feeling and vocals (preferred by sometimes okay without) and slow low energy feeling that kind of gives a body high by listening to them. I dont really like when the songs are fast paced as I feel as though it ruins the ambience

does anyone listen to music like this and have some song recommendations?

for more references I have a full playlist here