[fstopper89]

My earlier work I may now consider “fauxtog” (well, I don’t think I was terrible, or did wonky editing, or posted all kinds of out of focus images) but I definitely had things to learn (and yeah still do). My first wedding I charged a huge discount. I worked with the bride and she specifically asked me to shoot her wedding. I told her that I never shot a wedding and wasn’t sure how well I could do, but she had confidence in me and she was on a tight budget. She was very happy with the photos but looking back now I can pick myself apart. I know I got a few good ones I still regard as good, just not great. I’ve kept some of my earlier work on my page and I think it shows my progress. I even posted an album called “Before I became a real photographer” with images I once considered “portraits” that actually really sucked.

[fstopper89]

Here we go. Found this ad on Craigslist today (hope the link works, sometimes people have trouble on this site) http://appleton.craigslist.org/for/3397928118.html

 

She says “I print at local stores to keep the cost down for both of us.”

Fail. I jsut did a print quality test with six images, using 5 different services. Walgreens and Walmart pretty much failed as I expected (I never use discount places to print, I did this to prove to clients why they want to choose a quality printer).

I also looked up her images and while she has some interesting nature shots, I didn’t see any portraits except for the crappy wedding photo on her Craigslist ad.

[fstopper89]

It is true… when I first started out with photography (mind you, not charging, or when I did charge, it was for friends who knew my skill level beforehand and were willing to help me out), I had NO IDEA how expensive, how much work, and how much thought there really is for this business and how competitive it really is. I have not yet learned everything I need to (technically, you can never stop learning with photography as the industry is constantly changing). It’s expensive. Imagine dropping your entire tax return on a camera. Or having your dad buy your lens and paying him back over the course of the next six months. And then there’s all those annoying surprise expenses, like calibrating your screen, buying a whole new hard drive for your computer when it fails, buying more RAM for your computer when Photoshop keeps crashing, all the gas money, buying more/faster memory cards, paying for website or web storage, buying additional external hard drives so that your work is safe, etc etc etc. It’s brutal. But I would never give up and say “pshhh this is too expensive, I can’t do this anymore.”

[fstopper89]

I’m sure part of it is that he knows how to run a business. The website says 35+ years experience as a professional.

[fstopper89]

@Sharra: I always keep my autofocus setting on One Shot, unless I’m dealing with moving subjects, so that I can lock it on their eyes and then recompose. You’re right about calibration. However, according to another photographer I know, the crop bodies don’t work with lens calibration? I could be way off on that and misinterpreted him. I think things will get so much better when I get a 5D Mark II. Until then, I’ll try not to pull out my hair 🙂 And of course, work on fine-tuning my skills.

[fstopper89]

The point is, a camera does not ever take a picture. It’s the person behind it- their experience, expertise, knowledge of functions of the camera, use of lighting, ability to focus, ability to compose a shot, ability to properly post-process, etc. I certainly did not start out pro because that’s impossible. But I didn’t market myself as a photographer for hire, until I had some experience, college credits, and actual field experience in photography and knew my work was worth it. Assuming from what you said being the family in those photos, I saw the same family when perusing Megan Ray’s page. It is evident she has much more knowledge about photography as a whole than the other photographer.

[fstopper89]

My $1300 camera and $1100 lens put together cannot take pictures like that either.

It takes someone who doesn’t know what they’re doing to click the button.

No one was making fun of your family, they were just making fun of the photographer who apparently doesn’t know at all how to use any settings on their camera correctly to take a good photo.

[fstopper89]

http://www.flohrsphotography.com/seniors.html

Seriously?

[fstopper89]

Huh, weird, when I click on it, it goes to the right place.

Her’s their website, try this link. I clicked on the “weddings” section. Terrible photos imo! http://www.flohrsphotography.com/weddings.html

[fstopper89]

@soaringturkeys- yes the Canon 70-200 f/2.8 IS L version II was my first choice but way out of my price range. The Sigma was several hundred less. It does seem to perform quite well, I’ve been able to get some great sharpness with it, I’m just the problem at times I think. I’ve tried working with that focal length factor to keep my shutter speed up high enough, but I know it’s not something I think about all the time.

@Cameraclicker – Yeah all the lenses I invest in now are built for full frame (and also work on crop sensor) I am just keeping the two kit lenses I got with my Rebel for my non-professional stuff now like out and about /vacations, etc. Since they’re light and I don’t have to worry about damage. Also, my Sigma lens does have the two options. I usually keep it on OS-1 since I don’t do a lot of panning/moving shots when I use it.

[fstopper89]

Thank you Sharra. While I don’t often order very large prints for people I will check into those programs. I like having more image to work with also when editing. For those images that I get that aren’t tack-sharp (yes, it’s something I’m working on to figure out why I sometimes get perfect sharp images and sometimes do not), when I blow it up to do some editing on the skin and eyes it’s fuzzy. “They” say you don’t need more than 10 mp to create excellent images. But I’ll have to do some testing with prints to really be sure for myself. And I believe both of my cameras make 240 dpi images by default.

I also love my new Sigma 70-200 f/2.8 OS (optical stabilization) for portraits. I love the compression of DOF, but my issue occasionally like I said is the camera shake is more pronounced the more I’m zoomed in. I bought this to replace my JUNK kit lens, the EF-S 55-250 f/4-5.6. While it’s a nice little lens with a good focal range for nature shots, and is lightweight, I will never use it for portraits again after wanting to throw out every portrait I shot with it. Nature/flower/etc. shots seem to be ok, with slight lack of clarity much less evident than in a portrait. I thought about selling it for $150 but I think that I’ll keep it, and once I get the 5DII I’ll just keep it to take on my Rebel for when I go hiking around and don’t want to chance damaging a more expensive camera/lens out in nature, and plus, the person I bought it from included a UV filter which is great for shooting water, you don’t get sun glare. My Rebel will be my toy camera.

This winter, with a lack of clients wanting portraits done, I’m planning a fun shoot with a girl who does makeup art on the side, to work on exposing for snow/cool winter tones, and focusing better on faces, even while shivering. Might be a challenge but I need to do it.

If anyone is wondering about my progression of skill, I received my first DSLR I think at the end of 2009. It was a Panasonic, piece of junk, super color-noisy, and you couldn’t even change the lens. I didn’t even know what the difference of any focal length meant, could not remember if a higher f-stop or lower f-stop gave you more light, and I didn’t even know what the heck ISO meant or how it related to the picture. I feel that I’ve come A LONG way since then.

[fstopper89]

@Soaringturkeys: I usually don’t adjust shutter speed first. Typically, I find the f-stop I want to shoot at, given the number of people/situation. I prefer the style of shooting wide-open as possible, in most situations (of course not landscape photography though). I feel like portraits are best done wide-open. I initially set the ISO to the type of available lighting. On a day with plenty of light I do keep it at 100 (But, thank you for the reminder, I was told once about the least amount of grain when at 160 etc… I had forgotten and now I will remember to do that when shooting on my 40D, unfortunately, when I use my Rebel, it only goes in increments of 100). If a lower ISO then compromises a decently fast shutter speed when handholding, I adjust accordingly. For portraits I don’t like to go below 1/100 but have gotten by just fine slower, but handholding when I have a heavier lens I often get some camera shake even with IS lenses. I do not like using a tripod, though I have one.

If you’re wondering why I sometimes prefer my Rebel T2i over the 40D, it is because the Rebel is 18 megapixels and the 40D is only 10. While this often doesn’t matter, I’ve wanted to make very large prints from images on the 40D and according to size charts, at the number of ppi the images are at by default, I don’t want to risk pixelation. Please, give me some insight on this if you have some. I’ve done some research but haven’t come up with a solid reason to use the 40D more. I believe it has more image sensors and is better with autofocus, and the CF cards save much quicker the SD cards the Rebel takes. It is also easier using the dials to change the f-stop and the joystick to change autofocus points without having to take the camera away from my eye, whereas the Rebel is clunky and you have to press buttons and go through menus to change some of this. I have used a 5D Mark II for a couple weddings and love the controls. I am possibly getting a used one for Christmas. It is truly amazing how little grain it produces at higher ISOs. I just cannot go up over 400 on my Rebel, whereas I shot in the church ceremonies at 1600 in some cases and it wasn’t too grainy.

@Ggjo: I get very discouraged when I see people paying $25-$50 for just terrible work. It’s like the fauxtog got a camera (some I swear are point and shoot) and did just that- pointed, and shot, then burned the disk with 100 images with absolutely no care for posing, composition, lighting, focusing, etc. Now my images certainly aren’t perfect all the time! But these are things I always pay attention to. I ask myself also “Is this what people want?” but they’re just out to make a quick buck, taking pictures of 5 people per week and just burning them a disk so they don’t have to deal with anything.

[fstopper89]

The diopter is that tiny wheel next to the viewfinder… you have to make sure it’s set so that when you look through the viewfinder, the numbers on your light meter look sharp.

Also, when using autofocus, make sure it’s set to “one shot” focusing rather than “al servo.” One shot means you can select a focus point (this function depends on what camera you’re using) and then lock the focus by depressing the shutter halfway, and then while holding it, you can then recompose your shot. So you can lock it on the person’s eyes, and then move the camera to get the best composition. If you are using al servo, that is specifically for when you have moving subjects- like people moving toward or away from you, so that your camera can select the focus just as you press the shutter. If you accidentally leave it on al servo for a non-moving subject and then try to recompose, you’ll get the camera to focus on the background, throwing your subject out of focus. From viewing your last post, I think that’s what is happening. Check your camera manual to find out how to set your focus points and then how to change it from one shot to al servo. It’s easy to do quickly, once you get the hang of it.

 

[fstopper89]

Ah, my favorite post!

Sharra, you sound a little nuts, but in this respect, it’s a perfectly good nuts! There’s nothing wrong with having them backed up in all those places. OP, I agree with the suggestions to get a couple of external drives and some form of online storage. First back up everything to your external devices, and then I’d suggest doing overnight backups to the online storage. I recently got a SmugMug account. I started backing up stuff from 2005, which is as far back as my snapshots go, since they’re all smaller size jpg’s they don’t take forever (well, a few hours per month folder). Some of those are still on disks which I’m slowly chucking in the trash as soon as I get them all uploaded. I pay for the extra service to upload RAW files also. It amounts to such a small cost per month. The only RAW files I save from my own personal photos are ones I really feel I might want to re-edit later, and the RAWs I save from client work are the ones of the photos I kept and edited. That reminds me, I need to do a few more backups again. I’ve kept my Macbook on overnight and turned off the auto shutoff feature so that I can just sleep as it uploads. I keep my external drives in a small fireproof lockbox in my house, but I would like to get another one and keep it at my dad’s house or something, just in case.

My form of file folder organization is Year_MonthNumber_Month. So, like 2012_11_November. It makes for easy cataloging and keeping them in chronological order. My files are always named things like Nov2012-3489.jpg or the like. If it’s a client photo, it’s the first 3 letters of their last name plus the previous filename.

It is always a good thing to think of- a friend of mine who is also a semi-pro photographer recently was burglarized. She had the iMac set up in the basement- why the thief would think of going into the unfinished basement anyway (they think the burglar must have been someone who knew them, as they only targeted items from certain rooms and knew the computer was in the basement). Luckily, she had backed up client work already, but the two recent shoots she did and had not backed up yet were still on her camera card which was luckily not stolen, even though it was sitting right next to the computer that was. However, she did not have some of her personal family photos backed up and lost all the photos of her two kids’ births as well as all the other family snapshots. She said she cried for two days straight.

[fstopper89]

There is so much wrong with this whole situation. Broken Focus- it was a bad idea altogether for you to agree to edit those images. My response to the bride would have been “No way, that’s copyright infringement.” If she wanted so badly for you to do it still, tell her she absolutely would have to just use them for personal use like in a photo album on her coffee table, and not post them online. Posting them online, regardless of the credit you gave the fauxtographer, was just a bad idea in itself. Copyright inherently always belongs to the photographer, unless specifically in writing and signed, it is released (Seriously, WHO would release a copyright anyway?) I release print rights when purchased. You did a decent job rescuing the already horrible photos. They can never be good though, they were bad from the start, but at least I suppose the bride and groom have something they can look at to remember their day without cringing so much their eyes get stuck closed. Maybe if this fauxtographer was such a beginner she should not be doing weddings. You cannot redo a wedding. From the looks of it she needs serious practice not for hire and maybe something other than a kit lens at f/8.0 and a camera set on auto. She doesn’t even know how to take  portraits in the first place. But what can you expect having a wedding done for $100? And if she did their engagements before that, shouldn’t the couple have realized “oh shit… we need to find someone else, fast!” And I could hardly get past her grammatical errors. How unprofessional! And why would she be asking you to help her out, saying you’d both benefit- what are you going to benefit from her? And yeah, she stupidly gave a verbal agreement of them having the “copyrights.”

Aside from that, OP, it looks like you need a little work also. Maybe you have more than what’s on your page but I saw a lot of technical shortfalls and over-editing to rescue something that probably wasn’t good at the start. You also should consult with the clients before a session and suggest they do not wear shirts with logos or words. It’s so distracting. I always do, though once in awhile I have people wear their logo shirts anyway. I recently did a family session where the man was wearing a shirt that read “Hurley” right across the front. Oh well, I tried.

Remember, @TEV, it’s not always the gear, it’s the person using the gear. I have done some work I myself and others feel as amazing with my Rebel. However, it is much easier to me to use the 5D Mark II which I had been able to borrow for some work. The controls on the Rebel are too clunky to use, and SD cards are slower than CF. Much easier to switch focus points, aperture, and shutter speed on the 5DII, and you can bump up the ISO much higher without as much degradation of quality.

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