Beginner Beginner photographer... fee or no fee.

tracey123

tracey123

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tracey
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Hi. I joined here a few months ago but haven't posted much. I've been taking photos of family and friends now for over a year and loving it but I would like to start building portfolio of my work so others can see what i can do. I know I've so much more to learn and I've been teaching myself by watching you tube toturials and reading. I've been told by friends that by photos are realy good and I've been ask to do portraits of their kids and offered to pay me but I'm just not sure if I'm good enough yet to get paid for my work. I have a small studio set up in my spare room. What could my next step be ? Just keep doing free photo shoots for friends or ask for a small fee to cover cost of prints that I would give them ? Any help or advice greatly appreciated. Also were on the page do I post my photos please ? Ive posted one on here of my grandaughter i hope thats ok. Thanks.received_1670721369855784.jpeg
 
Allways charge something, to cover your costs, otherwise everybody will expect everything for free, I like the idea of the pic you posted, although the focus is slightly out, perhaps needs bigger DOF.
 
Cover your costs for sure. Charging a fee for your time as well feels like a big step as you have more of a responsibility for people to be happy with your work. My friend when she took the step up to proper photography jobs said at first £X (which was time and costs) but only pay £Y (costs) if you arent absolutely delighted with the pictures.
 
Thanks dizidav. Yes I think a bigger DOF would have helped. I will have to work out an appropriate fee to charge as I don't want to over charge. I was thinking an hour-2 hour photo shoot and receive photos on a disc or sent by email to them and also a 10x8 print.
 
Prints and reprints tends to be where you'll make your money though in the future - so I wouldn't easily give away the files on disc... I would do the photo shoot and post-processing, show them on your screen and then can chose which to pay to get printed up. Then your costs are covered but you don't build an expectation in the future of free files! Then the next step is up the prices of printing so you make a bit of a profit compared to what it costs you..then the final step when you have more experience / confidence in your output is a flat fee for the photo shoot and per print charge. If people are desperate for the files and right to print themselves then they can pay...
 
I don't think you could justify charging yet, to be quite honest. Friends will usually be positive because generally they'll love any picture which includes themselves or others they know, even if it's blurry or out of focus. They will mostly stop being positive when you start trying to charge for an inferior product.

The idea with your example is ok, at least the reflection, but the selective colour effect is not at all professional, it's awful frankly. The shutter speed also seems to be too slow which is why the child's head is blurry. To execute this properly you need to get further round and shoot the relection almost from behind the child's shoulder (as long as you're not in the shot), focusing on the eyes in the mirror using a wide aperture such as f2.8 to blur out the back of the head. You generally need a shutter speed of around 1/250th, maybe quicker to freeze unwanted movement. The home studio might be a bit cramped realistically, and the lighting doesn't look great - there's nothing to stop you from shooting outside in natural environments though, I think that's a better option as studio pictures can appear quite sterile.

I am sorry if this post sounds negative but friends won't give you the proper critique needed. I think you need to get the basics of photography right before even attempting effects in processing, rarely ever does selective colour work and it marks you out as a beginner. If portrait photography is what you want to specialise in it's worth looking up who the best in the genre are, study their work and apply it to your own
 
I pretty much disagree with the above.

Don't charge until you are 'good enough' to put a decent price on your work.

If you bought a cake from a friend, would you be happy if it was inedible and cheap?

If the image in the opening post is a good example of your work, you're not ready to charge yet.

But don't be disheartened, keep practicing, keep learning and you'll get there.

If you want more specific technical advice, post some images for critique, you'll learn lots.
 
That is realy good advice blueb I hadon't thought of it that way. When I get my own photos printed for my studio and home I go to a local processing shop in town, would this be ok with costumers photos or should I realy be.doing all this myself ? Anything I've had printed from him has been 100% perfect.
 
Sorry that's what I meant by shoot for free and then if anyone liked what you'd done when you show them on the screen to want to print it up then they can pay for that bit. You aren't out of pocket, you keep control over your copyright files and they only pay for something they are happy with and want to keep.

I was then talking long term how then to progress to a charging model as the OP gained in experience without having given stuff away too cheaply.
 
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The one you've posted? .. no fee, sorry it's got to be said that whilst there's an interesting concept behind it the execution has nothing going for it. The studio set-up is untidy/distracting (creased backgound paper with curling edges), shutter-speed and lighting are off.

Ask yourself if you're really building a portfolio or gaining subjects to practice on? You chose one image to represent your ability level, maybe it was a bad choice or maybe it was representative. We'd need to see more to tell.
 
dizidav said:
although the focus is slightly out
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Focus looks reasonably good, it's motion blur from a toddler not sitting still and a slow shutter speed.
 
In terms of printing - as your photos get higher quality, best to find a specialist printer (this may well be somewhere you email to and get back by post unless you are in a big city) - you won't do your photos justice past a certain stage using a local shop. But then you get issues like monitor calibration and making sure what you see is an accurate representation of what they'll print. That however is the difference between friends paying £3 for a print and customers paying £25 for a professional print. Lots of photographers now invest in their own print equipment but that's way way down the line.
 
Hi scirocco. Thank you for your advice and I appreciate your honesty. I have an awful lot to learn I know. If I was going to charge anything it would only be for any prints they would want and no fee to me at all as I know I still need lots of practise. In that photo was before I made the home studio so yes it was quite cramped and not good lighting. I will put some of my work on the critique forum.
 
Thanks blue. Definitely something worth thinking about but like you saI'd, that's way down the line for me yet. I will have look into specialist companies who do professional printing.
 
tracey123 said:
Thanks blue. Definitely something worth thinking about but like you saI'd, that's way down the line for me yet. I will have look into specialist companies who do professional printing.
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DSCL are about the best VFM printer.

When you need really high quality products to show off your work, there are some really interesting and expensive alternatives.
 
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