Reply To: What do you think of my work?

[CoastalTog]

I tend to be blunt so take that for what it’s worth while reading.  Also, remove any emotional attachment from your images before reading:

1.  White balance- you shouldn’t be charging a cent before achieving perfect white balance every time.  A piece of white paper ain’t gonna cut it.  Using grass as a sub for a gray card?  Huh?  One of the biggest giveaways of a new photographer is the green color cast on skin on outdoor images.

2.  Get better glass.  One look at your images told me you were using a hobbyist Canon Rebel.  All is not lost.  You can make up image quality with good glass. Your images lack “pop” that good glass gives.  I can also see you are using a lot of post processing to make up for out of focus images.

3.  Learn how to focus.  8 focus points isn’t an excuse for anything.

4.  Learn how to properly sharpen your images for output, how to resize images for web viewing, and knowing how to sharpen for both print and web viewing.

5.  Do a cost of business analysis before pricing your sessions.  $25 for 25 minutes is not a true assessment.  I guarantee you actuate your shutter for more than 25 minutes.  Unless you set a stop watch….which is really amateur.  Plus, you need to factor in post processing time.  $25 may an acceptable session fee (i.e., just for showing up) but you’re going to spend more time processing.

6.  Don’t price for weddings until you’ve second shot for one or have actually done one.  Weddings are a big deal.  A T3i is not gonna cut it.  This is where the camera body does make a difference.  Oh…for weddings, you need 2 of everything.

7.  Invest in good processing software.

8.  Your contracts- this is a whole other separate thread.  It’s plain as day you culled these contracts from the internet or pieced them together.  You have so many loopholes it’s like looking through swiss cheese.  Do yourself a huge favor.  When you go legit this year, spend the $150 and meet with a small business attorney to draft up lawyer reviewed contracts.  The contract will be your best defense.

9.  Join the PPA and get the indemnification insurance.  You’re gonna get sued.  It happens.  Refer to item #8.

10.  Step back, take a breath, and practice.  Just because your friends on Facebook think your photos are “kewl”, does not make one a professional.  You need to master perfect shots every time, be very comfortable with using flash and lights (half your images could’ve benefitted from fill flash), and set up an infrastructure before hanging out a shingle.

I’m not gonna call you a “faux” but you are exhibiting every sign of one.  Sometimes ya gotta crawl before you run.