Meet The Photographer Who Used A Single Manual Camera To Transform His Passion Into A Full-Time Career.

Being behind the lenses and taking great pictures and videos has always been the passion I wanted to follow, says Ernest Debrah, an award-winning Photographer, and Cinematographer.

The zeal to be the man behind some of the most beautiful images we see during our memorable days pushed him to work above himself to attain this position.

If you dream of venturing into Photography and cinematography, you must pay attention to how a man's passion earned him a career.

Who is Ernest Debrah?

He is an award-winning professional photographer with over ten years of experience. He is specialized in wedding shoots, Fashion products, baby shoots, studio portraits, conceptual shoots, and others. He is also into cinematography, shooting, editing, and directing and owns a photo studio. The energetic and vibrant young man has worked with and continues to work with numerous companies, government institutions, and celebrities like Martha Ankomah, Nana Ama McBrown, and Honorable John-Peter Amewu, Member of Parliament for Hohoe, and other notables.

What motivated him to take up a career in Photography

My passion and determination to succeed in Photography pushed me to the field. Back in my secondary level, I used to have this camera. It was manual, so I had the opportunity to explore, and you could see it was passion cause, at a point in time, I was engaged in almost all the school activities and picture-taking during programs. After completion, I had a scholarship from a company called special memories photography school to learn it professionally; by then, we had moved to the digital era. The school is affiliated with the New York Institute of Photography, so I studied for two and half years and later worked with their company for two years and had to establish myself.

What makes you stand out from others

Besides being passionate about the job, I have also invested much in the business, making me stand out among my competitors.

"There is a big difference between passion and interest, and mine is passion. The only thing that makes me stand out is my understanding, communication, delivery, and above all, spending huge money to acquire the best gears to work with".

What are some of the skills a good photographer must have

First of all, you need to love what you do. That is the first skill any photographer needs then the others can follow.

But above all, "Photography is all about light or exposure, so as a photographer, you should have a very depth understanding of light. You should also know your camera and the settings you want to use for the right time. You should be able to identify what a bad and good picture is, and above all, You should also let the client understand what you are giving them and meet their expectations.

Which Photography software are you familiar With?

There are many photography software, I have several ones I use, but the most notable ones I will advise everyone needs to know is:

"Concerning retouch software, I only do lightroom and photoshop, all adobe products. I am the type who hardly does editing cause I was trained to think like there is no software; what will you do? But you always have to go by what the people want cause I believe if makeup does their work well and the photographer your lighting is good, it solves all your problems".

How do you decide which camera setting to use for a particular shot

So it depends on the type of shoot you are doing. Usually, if I am doing an outdoor shoot, I have the sun, which is one big light source, so all you need is to give it a touch of artificial light where applicable. Since you already have a pool of light, which is the sun, you don't increase the exposure in the camera.

So it is the same as the indoor, whereby you will do artificial light and adjust the exposure setting in the camera.

What is your experience with editing photos?

Over the years, I have realized that you adapt to what people like, especially in business. I shoot to get everything on point to avoid intense editing. Frequency separation is a way of smoothing the body in picture editing, which usually sometimes defeats the purpose of the makeup artiste's work output. Still, it has come to stay with us, so even if you do a shoot that is on point without editing, the client feels you still have to do frequency Separation.

Which digital tools/tech tools make photography job easy

Photography is capital-intensive. You can work a whole year and use all the money to buy only one camera, so in Photography, you should look for mobile tools that rely on batteries instead of electric power. Most of your strobe and flashes should be battery-powered to enable you to work effectively, irrespective of power outages. Memory cards used for storage are also significant cause when your files stored on the camera are good, you will end up losing credibility and reputation.

Are you comfortable working independently or prefer to work in a team setting?

I mostly prefer working with a team cause I believe in teamwork which drives the efficacy of the job and enables the division of labor at the end of the day to produce success.

How do you manage work stress?

So I plan ahead of every event that comes my way and make sure whatever is needed for that work is secured, notwithstanding that we go days before to access the venue, lighting, and all to help eschew any difficulties that arise on the said date.