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  • in reply to: Wedding photographer? #89045
    IHF
    Participant

    Picstop,

    I have to be honest, I don’t know of any photographers worth their salt (and are legit and profitable) that shoot and burn.  “Sure I’ll do half the job for you!”.  But I have run into people with talent claiming to use that model successfully. They say they just charge what they would make on print sales up front. So they charge an extra $1000 or more to make up for the loss and leave their customers to deal with printing. Then when I say anything negative about charging for prints and not providing them, or about the possible low quality, they come back with something like “well… I always recommend they get their larger prints/products through me”.  “Ok, so you DO sell prints on top of already charging them for prints?!”.  It just goes round and round and I can’t make it make sense to me.

    very few fall into this category though, most that shoot and burn are fauxtographers. Either because they have no business sense, or because they have no talent or care about what they do

    in reply to: Wedding photographer? #89037
    IHF
    Participant

    Photographers that are legit (insurance, taxes, licensing, erx) and profitable AND also shoot and burn charge service fees up front. For a wedding it would be in the thousands. This makes up for the profit loss of not selling prints and products.  A photographer that is full service and sells prints and products, in general charges a lesser service fee and has print and album packages and items available al a carte.  They too can cost a couple thousand, but you get beautiful finished products without any headaches on your end. Preparing images for print is more involved than you might think.  It’s not just a matter of sending any digital file off to any lab. Aspect ratios, color managing, knowing the products and how they work with color is also important.  DIY can end up costing more due to repeatedly having to print and order more products until you get it right

    If prints are no big deal to you than shoot and burn is the way to go, but be prepared to pay a little more upfront.

    If prints are most important it would be better to discuss your budget with your photographer.  find out how long they will keep your images and how long you would have to buy more products from them  maybe even discuss payment plans

    If it’s more about “look!  I just don’t find it worth it, and I need something cheap”.  Your best bet is to search Facebook instead of Google. togs that aren’t profitable and/or legit tend to forgo a website and good SEO. But be careful. Sometimes the quality that they show, isn’t the quality that you receive.  If they don’t take their business seriously enough to be profitable, pay taxes, have a paid website, be insured, etc, then chances are pretty good they don’t take their photography very seriously either

    in reply to: Opinions #25629
    IHF
    Participant

    “Yes, if you are going to print them, you would have to raise the exposure on my images by ~.5-1-stop and raise the shadow values in camera raw by ~+75 to achieve the same brightness appearance when printed as it would appear on a monitor with a backlight”

     

    Can I just say that it is refreshing to have someone (especially as young as you are) know there is difference between a web file and a print file?  I struggle with this because I sell on a POD and I’m in search of another because the POD I just left kept adding products to all my images (like mugs and crap) without notifying me first.  I would find out by making sales “Someone bought a tote of your image blah blah blah”.  WHAT?!  The file wasn’t even aligned properly, and there’s no way it worked well on that material.  Most PODs do not allow you to upload two files.  One for web display and one for print/products, let alone a separate file for each type of material used.  So I find myself not sharing as much as I would like due to incompatibility.  One size does not fit all.  I wish it were that easy

    It’s also something not discussed very regularly in photography forums and groups.  It’s almost treated like a dirty little secret hahaha

    David, finish.  Finish large.  Experiment with different materials and papers metal, glass, acrylic.  I’m telling you, more than just two of your pictures deserve to get made

    in reply to: Opinions #25615
    IHF
    Participant

    Thank you emf!  Yes, I was googling like a crazy woman hahahaha There’s no way I would have came up with ruckenfigur.  I wasn’t even close.  I found this thread in a flickr pool that also has some good info on this type of imagery

    https://www.flickr.com/groups/ruckenfigur/discuss/72157600264414288/

     

    in reply to: Opinions #25613
    IHF
    Participant

    “Where am I going?”

    the million dollar question.

    Right now, I don’t think you need a concrete direction.  Just keep creating, and maybe your direction will become clearer and clearer as you go.  I could see your pictures selling as fine art.  I sell some of my pictures to help support my habit.  No profit made, because I take any money made and get more pictures finished, buy a new lens, new lights, materials, etc, but I’m not going in the hole.  I create when I feel like it without pressure, and only to please myself, and only share those that I think people (not just the ones that love me) may enjoy.  I’ve flirted with the idea of getting more serious about selling/marketing but it doesn’t appeal to me very much.  Maybe someday I’ll be up to the task.

    just remember that even though lay people (meaning those that don’t get into photography) don’t “get it” and kind of harp and nag you to put monetary gain ahead of anything else by saying things like “why do you do it?  What is it for?  You should be in business”, and my personal favorite “you should be doing more with your photography”… It doesn’t mean there is no value in shooting just for you.  I know that it’s complimentary when people push like this, and I’m proud that my hobby pays for itself, but why must a dollar sign be attached to something to make it worth creating In the first place?  I think this is what gets new photographers off track so quickly.  They are told over and over every time they share, by well meaning people in their lives that their photography isn’t worth anything unless they charge for portraits and events, even if they are far from ready to be for hire.  They are dead wrong.  Shooting for the pure love and joy of it, in my opinion, is way more fulfilling and the very best way to learn and improve how you convey with your camera.  Some things in life really can just be for ourselves, and not have any reason at all for it, other than, it feels right and good to us.

    so when I say “keep going” it just means, keep creating, I think this medium suits you

    in reply to: Opinions #25607
    IHF
    Participant

    environmental portraiture… Isn’t that more shooting people in their environments?  Like creating a piece of a blacksmith in his shop or a farmer in his field?  These models were placed.  I could be way off calling them environmental portraits.  I feel like doing a google search and seeing what pops up

    in reply to: Opinions #25606
    IHF
    Participant

    I like the way you see David.  I struggle with wide compositions myself and I’m very attracted to environmental portraiture (environmental portraiture is what I’d say the majority of your work is.  People more knowledgable go ahead and but in and call me wrong, and add your input please.  It’s just, how frustrating to not know what to call or categorize your work as, when describing it to people?  I had to try to help with that).  I try to go wider with my comps, and always fall short, and I almost instinctually go in close where I’m more comfortable, so your work is instantly appreciated by me.  I also like they way you process and the way you play with color in your compositions.  That desaturated filmy type look with a pop of saturation.  You do it well, because normally it doesn’t work well for me at all.

    There are a few pictures that I think may not print/finish well in your port, due to being quite dark and too muted in the shadows.  I think important detail may get lost.  This is just me going by my own personal experiments with different processing and exposures.  Maybe MY darker pictures don’t print/finish well because I suck.  We just don’t know this for certain hehehe

    Have you been finishing your work and making a real paper portfolio for yourself?  If not, that should be your very next step.  Keep an ongoing paper port, and you will be amazed at how much you learn about your photography, and how it will change and evolve and go forward because of actively finishing your photos that make the cut.  PLEASE if your not finishing, you must.  I think you have talent and tons of potential and these pictures need to get made and any confusion or uncertainties you may have would come to light much easier when you view them.

    emf said that they would like to see looming moved or cut because it is so similar to oceans.  I have to disagree with this (aren’t you glad you asked so you could be even more confused than when you started lol).  I think the color play alone makes for a striking difference of the two.  If I had to cut one, I’d pick rattlesnake, because I don’t like the muted black (It’s one I question would do well on paper), and I don’t like how the landscape goes through her head.  If her head was completely in the light area, clear from the landscape, she would have been beautifully and perfectly framed.  Do you see it?

    David, You have to keep going.  No matter how discouraged you may get in the future, keep going.  I think you have something beautiful to say

     

    in reply to: Honest Feedback requested! #25510
    IHF
    Participant

    PS.  I can’t wait for your follow up post where you  “cover how to choose a true professional photographer”.  How do you plan on writing about something that could potentially OUT you as a fraud?  Gonna plagiarize that one too?  grrrrrrrrrrrr

    in reply to: Honest Feedback requested! #25509
    IHF
    Participant

    https://erikati.photography

    I can’t believe its been months and

    Thanks again for all of the  honest feedback. I am in the process of modifying my site to be easier to use and also to remove the watermarks and add some information and more photos.” and

     

    thanks for for all of the criticism as it is helping me develop and I truly do appreciate the honesty.”

    are all just empty words.  No changes at all have been made to anything.  Still have plagiarized content up, and images that do not belong to her.  WTH?!

    The fall mini “templet” you snagged from the internet, has images from

    Tips for your fall mini session

    Do you know what a templet is?  It’s a graphic you purchase and then insert your OWN photos into.

     

    Then there’s the blog post you snagged from

    what to wear

     

    To keep the content up after already being told how dishonest and illegal it is, is just… well… insulting and infuriating.  It proves that it was not done innocently at all, and that your ego and fooling the public is your driving force.  I hope to heck that not many people fall for your BS.  From the looks of it, not many are.  Thank goodness!

     

    To take work from hard working professionals, and use it for your own gain is just despicable.  Then to come here and attempt to gain from honest individuals that have cared enough to take the time to help you…  you are the very definition of fauxtographer.  I’ll be spreading the word about you.  Clean your act up!

    in reply to: Fauxtogs who should end up on the main page… #25323
    IHF
    Participant

    “Seriously? To acknowledge all of those things isn’t going to boost a woman’s self confidence, it’s going to make her want to hide under a rock!!”

     

    ah yes, but they will most likely still have the pleasure of having their pictures posted publicly 🙂  That’s the beauty of it.

     

    Hahaha how many times have you saw a client/subject express how they didn’t like the photo, or how they looked in a photo, or “Oh no!  I can’t believe you posted THIS one!”  only to have the faux say something like “No!  You look beautiful.  Doesn’t she look great everybody?”  It makes my skin crawl.  Then all those times a client is tagged in a damn “sneak peek” (totally HATE that idea), but no likes, no shares, no comment… ummmmmmmm… get a clue people.  When people are tagged (or even just when they are posted without a tag) in photos they like, they express how much they like them, or at the very least share them with others, make the picture their profile or what have you.

    No engagement=no likey  They don’t care though, because they are only doing it for themselves and not for the people that hired them.  URGH!

    When I got my first DSLR I took some pictures of two of my friends.  My favorite of the day, the one that made me feel like I was THE best photographer in the world, the one that IF I had been hired and was in business would have surly made the cut for my port, the one that I took the most time and care with and had what I thought was the very best composition, the one I KNEW they would what hanging large on their wall… was the one they hated most.   When they saw it (IN PRIVATE and not online for the whole damn world to see.  JEEBUS!) one of them actually laughed and said “ewwwwwwwwww NO!!!!  I look hideous!”.  She doesn’t like her profile.  Who knew?!  I personally love her face, and feel her profile is gorgeously perfect.  It was a learning experience and still IS to go through people’s pictures privately and get their honest first reaction to them.  Even if it doesn’t end up being your business model to show privately and you choose to show in an online gallery of some sort… When you are first learning portraiture, and shooting family and friends, I think it’s really important to show what you made in person.  Not just pop it online and make it all about you

    in reply to: Fauxtogs who should end up on the main page… #25318
    IHF
    Participant

    The ones that show promise that you see may be of herself (unsure if another photographer took them, or if they’re self portraits.  No watermark if I remember right, so they most likely aren’t hers). and/or taken off the internet.  I had to tell her to clean up in the past, and havent looked closely in a while to see if they are all gone.  I know she still has a profile picture of “herself” that is just a picture she found and cropped that’s still up.  Other than that, after a quick scan it looked completely clean to me, so I could be wrong and just jaded from my past experiences with her.

    in reply to: Fauxtogs who should end up on the main page… #25316
    IHF
    Participant

    For your entertainment

    http://www.gofundme.com/femfatphoto  for the best experience, Be sure to read the whole thing, and then follow the link to her facebook page she provides.

    IHF
    Participant

    Yeah, I re read and turned red.  Finally sunk in that you meant you needed help with giving critisism.  Eh, oh well. I got a good laugh at my expense.

    I can’t help you there, seems I’m always getting in trouble with sensitive types

    IHF
    Participant

    Lmao!  OMG I totally misunderstood you

    bwahahaha

    classic!

    IHF
    Participant

    Unfortunately the OP eventually deleted her post so one else could read it and learn from it.
    But basically it boils down to getting your user manual out, opening up to the section that covers focus, and learning what all the AF settings mean, and what they can do for you in any giving situation.  Practice with them, and learn how to nail it.
    (The consensus was, after viewing the image, that it looked as though she were letting the camera auto select. The focus fell almost dead center.  Which in turn made it fall just in front of the subjects face). In this case letting the camera select didn’t work very well.

    http://www.exposureguide.com/focusing-modes.htm

    Learn how to select your focus
    http://www.digitalcameraworld.com/2013/02/07/af-points-how-to-take-control-of-autofocus-to-get-the-shots-you-want/

    Couple more links you might find helpful

    http://www.digitalcameraworld.com/2014/07/30/how-to-focus-a-portrait-get-pin-sharp-eyes-in-3-easy-steps/

    http://www.photographymad.com/pages/view/using-focus-lock-on-your-digital-camera

    Develop a good understanding of depth of focus, or depth of field by experimenting with focal distance and aperture.

    Understanding Depth of Field in Photography

    Then move on to learn more advanced focusing techniques like

    Back Button Focusing – Easier than you think!

    I explained to her that she didn’t need clients to learn any of the basics of photography, including focus.  I learned how to focus with my camera by working with my manual, stuffed toys, my vacuum, and then eventually my kids and some friends.  My photos were not about the content at all, and all about learning focus, and learning my camera.
    I think THATS where it became “mean” and “bullying”, suggesting she wait to start up until she had how to focus her camera down (eye roll).

    “I know how to focus!  To suggest otherwise” blah blah blah

     Hope that helped you some 🙂

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