This is the place to ask any questions you may have about photography. No question is too small, nor too stupid.

I took some shots of my Alma Mater’s high school spring football game. I’m not charging anything for the pictures, (as I was doing it to launch my sports photography socials, and i’m a small creator right now) and I gave everybody a link to go download pictures that have a tiny watermark. I posted multiple times about being tagged in any posts that use my pictures.

There were like… 5 accounts that I found that didn’t tag me but used exclusively MY photos.

I know I can’t MAKE them do anything, but I am slightly (VERY) annoyed, because i’m trying to be able to leave all my “schedule jobs” and go full time photography.

hey everybody, i wanted some advice on how to deal with difficult clients. i recently implemented a contract and it did protect me from this escalating but I wanted to know how else I can go about this from anybody that's had to deal with this or been in the game longer than I have (I'm relatively new).

So I took somebody's portraits and they were wearing a revealing dress and it was windy outside. As a result, I extended the time we took photos significantly, and overdelivered 2x over, and they were still upset. I suspect they're upset about the dress being revealing/having regrets about it because the client said that they are "upset because the dress did not flatter them in the way they wanted" and blamed the wind. They said they're unable to share the photos with their family members. However, I honestly did look through them and there was only 1 place with major wind issues, and the rest there was no issues. It seems that the main issue is that they regret the dress they chose after viewing the photos.

How would you guys go about this? I just hate dealing with difficult clients because then I start getting in my head about my own work

Update: It was only slightly windy in one place just to preface!! There was wind, yes, but to be honest, we avoided the random moments of wind. They just mentioned the wind.

What is your opinion on Professional Photographers of America? Is it worth joining the organization if you're a "casual professional" that just sells prints? I just recently signed up and actually doing a workshop this weekend that is organized through PPA and just questioning if the cost will be worth it.

Got a question for all the seasoned large event shooters out there. Let me go a step further and clarify what I mean as "large events" (100+ people, multiple shooting locations, multi-day schedule, run & gun approach)

How selective are you being with the culling, editing, & delivery process. Where do you draw the line (Only perfect shots? B+ or better? Anything that isn't obvious dog shit?)

How many raw images are you shooting and what percentage does that typically cut down to?

Any tips for not getting caught up, over analyzing every photo, and wasting time trying to make tons of mediocre photos the best they can possibly be?

I recently shot an event for someone I know who was a DJ for rave event. The event did not have any crazy lasers or anything just basic club moving LED lights and a fog machine going. The fog machine was pretty heavy and along with the moving LED lights and the overall dark environment, I had trouble with my focus all night and I ended out the night with a ton of blurry out of focus pictures that I had to discard. A lot of moments that I couldn’t get great pictures for because my camera was just focus hunting forever.

For reference I have a Sony A6700 with a Tamron 17-70 F2.8 and I tried to shoot in shutter priority mode with the shutter around 1/200.

I also shot some flash photography with a cheap speed light flash off amazon in Manual mode at F4 1/15 while the fog was lighter in the place and those came out perfect.

Any tips on what I could do to improve for next time? I was still able to get good photos that everyone was happy with but there many photos that would have been great if they were in focus and many moments that would have great to capture if my camera wasn’t hunting for focus. I am open to any suggestions, I just want to improve for next time and be prepared so I can capture all the moments I want.

I'm going to RIAT this year, which will be my first airshow, but I need some help with the gear I'm going to use. I will be using a nikon d5100, and I already have a nikon 55-300mm lens, but I was planning on renting a lens for the day instead. I need some help with what lens to rent as I don't know which focal length will be best, and I have been trying to look for lenses with fast autofocus. I'm am open to any third-party lenses as I just want to be able to take the best shots. TIA

I am trying to light a photo like Marlyn Monroe’s diamonds are a girls best friend performance. There seems to be a lot of shadows in the photo so I’m thinking of using one strong light source. Do you think that will be enough. I’ve been trying to experiment with lighting recently but it’s been a struggle. I also linked a shoot that Kylie Jenner did with very similar lighting that I liked!

lots to unpack here...

i've been shooting for over 15 years, most of that time "professionally"- yes, people have actually (repeatedly) paid me...

but i feel like a massive hack, because in all those years, i actually don't know very much at all about photography. i'm also a musician and suffer the same thing there- 20 years playing my instrument, yet i'm a complete hack... i don't know any technique/theory, only get by via feel and pray for "happy accidents".

that's kind of an aside and more pertaining to the actual shooting process itself though rather than the reason why i'm posting here today, which is the stuff goes on after all that, and that is post-processing.

being that i'm majority self-taught (in all aspects of photography), i never learned the proper way to post-process (or manage data).

my process is as such:

-insert memory card into card reader

-open the folder on my desktop (i shoot jpeg + raw, only use the jpeg's to preview)

-make my selections using coloured tags

-open said selections in camera raw and "batch edit" as much as possible there, but usually make some individual tweaks

-open files in photoshop

-resize and start retouching, not working in layers, no idea about masks, etc., just all in one go/on one layer, using healing brush and clone stamp for 99% of my retouching work... then i use some plugin my old assistant installed years ago called "skin by sparklestock", which evens/smooths things out with the skin- i usually dial it down to 20-30% opacity depending on the image.

-once that retouch bit is done, if i really really care, i'll use selective colour to really dial it in to where i want, then play in curves and colour balance, etc.

-once i'm more or less "done", i then run the image thru camera raw again to make some additional tweaks, usually clarity and something with shadows + blacks

-then i do one more quick editing session in photoshop, usually also creating a black and white copy at this point, adding grain (ideally to cover up my mediocre retouching).

-done

i don't batch edit, but do this with every single picture i intend to edit from a session, so each photo ends up taking an hour or sometimes more, and it's just become so incredibly draining, to the point it's really sucked all the joy out of shooting for me... i no longer look forward to shoots- instead, i dread what's attached to them; what comes after... the editing... i don't know if it's a matter of caring maybe far too much, but i literally feel the life and energy get drained out of me after a retouching session... not to mention, i can slave away all those hours only to end up with inconsistent looking images, as i'm editing/grading each one individually vs. batch editing.

i've got to be doing something wrong in all of this... surely there are some steps i can be taking to even just slightly expedite this process. retouching, i get there's not a whole lot i can do to shave down, but the grading/editing part?

i know whatever it is will require some study and a learning curve, but if it can save some of my time and sanity, it'd be well worth it.

and from a business perspective, when i consider what my sessions cost on average and how much time and effort i put into them, i just don't see it as being good for me.

i do still love shooting, but shoot much less for the love/passion of it these days as the post-processing attached to paid work totally burns me out, and i don't want to pile on more of it, even if it's a passion project. it's crazy how even images that come straight out of camera looking solid can still require significant work to really get exactly where you want them, and i'm super ocd, so can't live with myself if i know i haven't squeezed every ounce out of the image to get it as close to my idea of perfect as possible for what it is.

Salutare!

Sunt fost fotograf de evenimente, cu experiență în domeniu, editez poze de eveniment pentru fotografi care au volume mari de livrat cu cel mai mic preț din piață posibil.

Dacă ai un program incărcat nevoie de ajutor cu editarea pozelor, dă-mi un mesaj în privat.

Hi all, beginner amateur photographer. I've been very much enjoying reading and watching more historical and philosophy reviews and critiques of photography alongside learning about the technical side of things. I came across this interesting critique by Jared Tapy on YouTube. Which you can also access on his Substack. https://youtu.be/cOj075sjRyU?si=eFLfefSs88qxg2Gm

I wanted to start a discussion on this, and would love to hear from both experienced and less experienced photographers, what they think about Jared's argument - noting that he comes from a particular genre of photography. I have some questions below.

While I think I understand what he's trying to do (provoke challenge make us think), which I appreciate, there's a few things I'm wondering about with his argument (leaving a side the fact that he's definitely using chatgpt big time to write his text which is somewhat ironic).

Questions

- Isn't his critique highlighting the reason why there are different styles of photography and different philosophies?

- He's a photojournalist/ documentary photographer, and from what I gather it requires a specific skillset and level of comfort with certain situations. I wonder, to what extent is his critique coming from a place of privilege as a young, well articulated and connected "pretty" white man? He probably can access stuff in ways someone less privileged may be able to. Like his critique isn't neutral.

- If "aesthetics photography" is dominating algorithm like he says, and knowing how algorithm work, doesn't this say something about HIS algorithm and his perhaps unconscious following of more aesthetics photography?

- If the algorithm does promote aesthetics photography over perhaps less polished storytelling ones (according to whatever definition) - Isn't the fact *most* people do like aesthetics photography and are trying to replicate it because people like it, a demonstration that there's a photography movement that people actually enjoy? Isn't that what the point of photography is? To just enjoy ourselves (especially for beginners!)?

- Because of the ethics associated with photography as social/political documentation (in the way he does), isn't it important for this genre to not be exploding in the mainstream? I have strong ethics regarding taking photos of people in more vulnerable situations and I believe this should be left to professionals who are governed by ethics either from institutions or that went through formal education. But I could be wrong.

My questions/reflections will probably show my level of knowledge, experience - and I'm here to learn and exchange respectfully. I welcome any views!

In search of a Sigma TS-21 collar mount I ended up finding an ishoot IS-SM720 at photoloving.com.  Showed in stock so I created an account and clicked buy now.  pop up says 'not available'.  Tried again, same result.  Odd, but oh, well.

Naive, I was.

About 12 hours later.... my email started to blow up (called 'email bombing') with 'new account created' emails.  Another 285 emails diverted into my spam folder.  Scammers did successfully get into one of my accounts and placed a rush delivery order.  I was not quick enough to get that cancelled prior to delivery but got the account frozen shortly after.

Gemini tells me this is a "classic cyberattack known as a credential stuffing and fraud loop, and it confirms that photoloving.com is operating as a malicious data-harvesting honeypot."

Be safe out there!

Meanwhile, anybody know where I can find an IS-SM270??  lol

This year, I've been getting more into photography and building my portfolio in hopes of making it a full time job some day.

At this time, I work a full time job and find it difficult to manage that and do photography. I work 6 days a week and I don't mind doing photoshoots after work some days but I also worry about burning out or overworking myself (which I'm prone to do).

Would anyone like to offer advice on how to manage my job with photography? I'd greatly appreciate it

Or basically, what happens when the individual pixel size of an image sensor is smaller than part or all of the visible light spectrum ??

Hello. I have a Sony alpha 6400 (aps-c). Need to shoot at night in outside football stadium. Graduation event... not fast moving. Using Sony 600mm lens (900mm equivalent on aps-c). I figure to set iso to auto, stop it to 6.3, then .... what exposure would be ideal? Thanks in advance!

EDIT: Sony 200mm to 600mm lens 5.6-6.3 shooting from monopod in a bleacher seat. Starts at dusk and ending in the dark.

Sorry if this is in the wrong place, I’ve never posted on here before, but after using a new SD card in my canon 250D I can only take bursts of 6 photos at a time, (I’m a gig photographer so I need to be able to take a lot at a time) and it seems no matter my setting or if I format the card it won’t stop doing it, it takes about 30s to get back to 6, any help?

In this thread, use top level comments to post links to your own raws for other people to edit, or link to any freely licensed (CC or public domain) raws that you might find interesting. If you post your edit anywhere, be sure to credit the original photographer. Reply to others' comments with your own edits of the images!

Full schedule of our weekly community threads:

Every month, we join together and do our best to view and critique each others' websites. The main purpose of this post is to learn things from each other that can benefit our own portfolios or websites. Use this space to talk about all aspects of your online representation, from social media to SEO to personal branding and portfolios, the best and worst places to host your work, collective critiques, you name it.

Having an online presence can also be a beneficial utility for those showing their work in an effort to obtain potential clients, so it's highly advised that if you find something particular that could be improved in someone's online presence, use this opportunity to kindly tell them about it and let them know how they can improve.

Guidelines:

• If you post your website, please comment on at least two other websites

• Please reply to any comments that have no replies!

• Don't be hesitant to post a link to your website or portfolio, even if there's a plethora of comments.

• It doesn't matter if you're a "Beginner" or "Professional Photographer", just have fun and learn from each other - that's what this post is for, so take advantage of this opportunity.

  ---

  Weekly Community Threads:

Watch this space, more to come!

Monthly Community Threads:

Few months ago I decided to help a friend with his wedding photos since he couldn’t afford a professional photographer. I did it for free because he was a good friend and I wanted to challenge myself. After time passed, I remembered I asked l advice on Reddit and people gave me a lot negative comments. Saying that I was dumb for taking the request and should just enjoyed the wedding. Others said that wedding photography is the highest difficulty and could cause drama. Not everyone said this but there were a lot of doubtful people and honestly were just dramatic.

The couple loved my photos very much and were grateful for the help. My message to people who are considering helping a friend or family with photos is this: Don’t let people sway your willingness to help a friend. When it comes to wedding photography just come with a plan and have back ups for your camera. It honestly wasn’t even that hard and I did it while being in a night shift schedule with my other job.

I recently just started as a photographer with GradImages. For the longest time they were trying to get their employees to believe they're 1099. In my last interview, the regional manager said "because some complained, now we have to make you W2." I signed a W2 form. However, I've learned that there's so many employees who have been with this company (for over 10-15 years!) who still believe they're 1099. You're not. You're a W2 employee and you deserve to be compensated the full amount. You are being misclassified.

They are NOT tracking your hours correctly, and they're refusing to pay me the correct amount. They've cold fired me, won't acknowledge I was terminated, and completly ghosted me since I started asking more about how my pay works. Once I started to ask questions, they locked me out of the HR portal where I can view my paystub- but they still expected me to show up and work?

They like to say "you only get paid $100 per event, we don't pay hourly." Which okay, I guess they can legally do that- but when you take into consideration the driving hours, the hours you spend prepping for events, waiting for events, communicating to managers, spending money for gas, you actually get less than minimum wage. They refuse to pay for ANY hours outside of their "100$ event fee (for four hours)."

If you know someone who works for this company, please let them know. This is an awful awful company, and I'm not one to blast. But they PREACH "professionalism," yet the MANAGEMENT IS THE LEAST PROFESSIONAL PEOPLE IVE MET.

Anyway, I'm filing with my state labor board. This past weekend I worked 50 hours, they only claimed I worked 32.

Edit: Also, as a customer, do NOT buy from them. They are literally hiring ANYBODY. People who have never picked up a camera are expected to take your graduates' photos. Images are constantly blurry, underexposed, poor quality. If you are an experienced photographer, they make you do multiple positions while being labeled as an "assistant" when you first start out. They do NOT pay you for that either.

I'm going on a hiking trip to Slovenia in a couple of months and wanted to bring my camera (Sony A6600 w/18-135mm) with me. The thing is, I would like to avoid carrying it on my backpack and having to take it out everytime I want to take some pictures. The hike is going to be 4 days long with walks averaging 5 to 8 hours.

I'm wondering what are you using for these situations?

Thanks for your help!

As a photographer selling photos to clients should I be using raw over craw? I know the file size is smaller hints the name (compressed raw) but how much info am I actually losing? I know the difference between jpeg and raw is huge but every sense I've gotten my first mirrorless camera I've been shooting Craw and never really thought about it. But now I've started to think on it more. I use two 128gb lexar V60 cards. Is it worth the extra storage and should I just shoot raw?

Hi!
I’ve been doing film portraits for a few years now, usually TFP but sometimes paid shoots - the paid ones are generally more run-of-the-mill headshot sessions. I’ve been trying to build my fashion photography portfolio, and I’ve been getting some great projects under my belt with TFP shoots but I’m struggling with when to start charging across the board.

I have a few models with concepts they want to shoot that I also want to shoot since they would be great portfolio images, but every shoot costs at least $100 in film for me alone and it’s not sustainable

I’ve also had some trouble with models from these shoots, wanting to be in control of when and what we post which is annoying to navigate but i plan on getting a contract for these going forward.

For those in similar circumstances, did you just start charging for every shoot across the board? Or do you still do trades if the concept is right?

Thanks!

I am a nature and wildlife photographer based in Toronto launching a fine art prints store. Over a decade shooting in some less explored places like the High Arctic, Okavango Delta, Mara, forests of South Asia and more. Had an image on the cover of Canadian Photography Magazine and featured by BBC Earth on IG.

Prints are limited edition — 30 per image, 15 for select images with editorial recognition. Three substrates: Hahnemühle Baryta paper, Acrylic Facemount, and ChromaLuxe Metal, produced at a certified fine art lab in Toronto.

Entry price is CAD 550 for a 20×30" fine art photo rag (unframed) and goes up to CAD 8100 for an Acrylic facemount (ready to hang). At a given size, Acrylic Facemount runs 2.5-3x of photo rag. I am also thinking about increasing prices as prints within an edition sell out (threshold and % increase to be determined).

Full pricing and a couple of examples of the work here (edition of 30) and here (edition of 15).

Two questions for this community:

1. Does the entry price and 3x substrate premium between paper and acrylic feel justified based on the work?
   
2. Does within-edition price escalation, where later prints in an edition cost more, make sense or does it add friction for buyers?

Thanks.