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@Malula You’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t.  However, if you don’t charge and a photographer is complaining about you not charging, more than likely they are a fauxtog and their opinion doesn’t matter.  Any true professional photographer will tell you to shoot your family and friends and practice, practice, practice.  You shooting for free will not harm their businesses.

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@IHF  You shouldn’t assume your “standards are obviously higher” than mine simply because I choose not to be a dick when I review someones photos.  I would actually argue that my standards are higher than yours when it comes to portraits.  My photography background starts with film and my first digital camera experience was in 2000 with and camera that shot on 3.5 floppies and I edited in Paint Shop Pro.  Currently I shoot with a D90 and D7000 and edit using Photoshop CS5.  So its safe for me to say that I know a bit about photography.  Even with as much as I know and will know about photography, I wouldn’t assume I know more than anyone else.  You shouldn’t either.

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@Malula, keep practicing.  You will get better with time as long as you keep trying to learn.  I wouldn’t be charging at your skill level yet, but if people see your work and are willing to pay for it, go right ahead.

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@IHF , umm, you have all the time in the world because you comment multiple times and felt the need to look the girl up on FB.  I’m really tired of your vindictive comments on all these young photographers submissions.  I saw your work, you have no portraits and your photos are over edited.

@MBC she said the photos she submitted weren’t charged for but were of friends.

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@heatherconway

I think you mean to say “bitchier” and “constructive criticism”.  She doesn’t need constructive criticism, if she can’t tell how bad her photos are then she needs to study and read more.  If the girl’s a nature photographer, she needs to stick to nature.  She isn’t a very good nature photographer either.  I hate when a person gets an entry level DSLR with a kit lens and suddenly they start a business and shoot weddings.  It’s ridiculous and it isn’t fair to the people paying these “photographers”, and I use that term loosely, for mediocre work.

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Looking at the wedding shots, I could instantly tell you were using a low end DSLR and kit lens.  It was painfully obvious on all indoor shots and the shots during the ceremony that you didn’t have a clue how to get good shots in low light situations.  When people shoot weddings with the absolute bare minimum of equipment, I feel terrible for the couple.  You need to practice shooting portraits and shooting in low light settings.  You also need to know your camera like the back of your hand and at least buy the essential lenses for shooting a wedding.  I Shoot with a Nikon D90 and can get very usable shots at iso 1600 and usable shots at iso 3200.  I judge this by blowing the pictures up to 24×36.

The BARE minimum equipment for a wedding(my opinion)

2 camera bodies

a decent lens in the 18-70 range

50mm 1.8 or 85mm 1.8

70-200mm 2.8 (must have)

external flash

 

p.s. I really hope you got a shot of the bride walking down the isle.  I will be even more disgusted if you didn’t.

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I have a couple of questions first.  What equipment are you using now?  What editing software are you using?  My honest opinion is that you “spray and pray”.  Taking 500 pictures at a family portrait shoot is insane.  You cant seriously consider being a pro and making decent money if you have to dig through that many pictures.  I also think you pay more attention to editing than you do composition and focus.  Every session has multiple editing styles and most of them are just faddish.  You have some decent shots, but I think any parent with a DSLR could get those same shots.  Im not trying to be mean at all, but you should consider reading more and really focusing on getting better.  The main problems I have with your pictures are bad lighting, dark eyes, unfocused pictures, too many/bad editing styles.

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@reactiveload   ohh, but I wouldn’t pay for your pictures.  You shouldnt be charging people yet.

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@IHF  I would love to see your pictures.  You always have so much to say, I’d like to see what you can produce.

@reactiveload, practice more but you are better than the other person for sure.  I cant stand over editing

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You’re obviously confused about how “good” you are.

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Nah, keep the Fauxtog award

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If he is worse than you then I feel bad for all the people in the area.  Neither of you are anywhere close to good enough to be charging for photos.

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It seems like you have too much gear for someone that is so inexperienced.  To be perfectly honest, the pictures in your nature album are atrocious.  The images are boring, not focused, have too much bad post processing, and some have no contrast and look foggy.  I can say that I have taken better pictures with my iphone.  You have a case of, more expensive camera = better pictures syndrome.  As for your reflector “problem”, take some of that money your spending on cameras and buy a reflector stand from amazon for like $4o.  If you would like an honest critique, create a “critique”  album and place what you feel are your 10 best images and I’ll take a look and give you my opinion.

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I would like to see some pictures from Wes.  This guy you just called out actually has a few very good shots.

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Use whatever the hell you want.  Its also a good story if anyone asks about it.

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