Going for it, starting your own photography business

You have a camera and now you should have the needs to fund your new obsession, if it's not an obsession i hope it quickly becomes one.


First you should decide how you want to make money, what i mean to say is what do you want to shoot to bring in revenue. You could go commercial and shoot for a company or shoot products such as jewelery or clothing or even buildings. Another is through the art of it, you can take beautiful pictures and sell them at shows or online. You can shoot portraits that range from models to babys and pets and anything in between.  My favorite though is wedding photography. One wedding can land you anywhere from $1000 to $5000 and the workload isn't as bad as you think it is.

So you should figure out your pricing before someone actually proposes buying your art. Don't ever feel guilty about  your price. If someone is willing to pay $200 for an hour shoot then go for it, if someone isn't willing to pay that then politely apologize and walk away from the situation. It's one thing to negotiate but don't just drop your price because they can't afford you. If someone says i really want you to take my picture but i don't think i need a full hour, then you can drop the price a wee bit. As far as selling your prints, don't negotiate; this is your art and you shouldn't compromise.

See my post about shooting weddings, it's worth the trouble if you can call it that. One wedding can buy you a 70-200 lens and a MacBook Pro, think about that.

So starting a business one of the basic things that you want to do is go to City Hall or your Town Hall and apply for a business license which will cost you anywhere from $15 to $50 max.  With this business license in hand you can go down to a local bank and open an account in your businesses name. This is essential so that you can track your finances better with your business.

So now you need some swag for your business, your letterheads, business cards, shirts and invoices and contracts. You can either brand yourself or not brand yourself when it comes to this. Basically do you want to stick with one theme or not care at all, that's for you to decide, i'll be posting more about that later on in another post.

So i know there's a million other little things that go along with having your own business,  i'm not going to get into those million little things. The point of this post was to get you excited and to get you to take those first step.  Some of what i said may apply to you and some may not, but take those first steps and figure it out for yourself; there lies a life of possibilities. 

Giant kid gets feedback.

One of the major perks of being a photographer is that you get better because of feedback from friends, family, clients and your facebook fans or elsewhere. In some way you're like a giant little kid asking how do you like my photo how do you like my photo. That's one of the perks of being a photographer, getting that attention regularly and getting to work with beautiful people.

The one bad thing about having friends and family check out your photos are positive feedback, they're not going to give it to you straight. Don't believe me, put an average picture up and see what responses you get.

As a photographer when i post an okay picture i usually get a few likes or maybe a single comment. When i post an amazing picture it gets shared and gets dozens of likes and an average of 6 to 8 comments.  When i want real commentary i will ask other photographers to give me real feedback and then when they do i ask them to give me real feedback and usually i get it.

That's how you're going to get better, but getting real feedback and adjusting your style, composition and technique. Again, stop being so terrible and get better.

Take thousands of photos and get better.

Okay a simple lesson that many people don't get, if you want to become better you have to practice. The same thing is involved when you're a photographer or trying to become one. The difference between amateur and pro is about 100,000 pictures.

I was about 60,000 pictures in before i realized that i wanted to even be a photographer, i traveled alot and hiked alot and documented everything. Looking back i saw that every once and awhile i took the time to frame correctly and use the light the correct way and had amazing little victories. Once i realized that i was stupid for not seeing that i was on my way to being a photographer i started to practice. I went hiking and in my head I convinced myself i was shooting for a big magazine or trying to get the perfect picture to frame. I tried alot of different angles and compositions and every time i would end up with something a bit more refined. 

Now i can take pictures and regularly have enough to put a small book of pictures together or at the least something to add to my portfolio. So basic point of this post is that you may suck and your photos may be terrible but they can only get better.

In addition to just taking photos i suggest reading photo magazines from the UK (they outnumber our prints in quality and substance) and check out photo art books. Kill a few hours at Barnes & Noble and figure out why these people have books and you don't. 

Stop being so terrible and get better at photography.

Aperture, Shutter & ISO. Quick basics for photographers

So one of the most common things I do at the studio is correcting photographers camera settings. Most photographers don't understand why there pictures are coming out too dark or too light.

Photographers can always correct their work in post but that doesn't help them become better photographers. So here is the basics for those of you willing to take the time to heed my words of wisdom.

Your aperture is what regulates the amount of light that is let into the camera and also will effect the amount of bokeh (fun amazing blurriness). The higher the aperture the less light that is let in and also the sharper the picture. The smaller the aperture means more light and a little bit lighter on the focus.

The shutter of course is what opens and shuts and let's light in. The faster the shutter the less light that gets in and the slower the light the more light it let's in.

The ISO dictates the sensitivity the camera will have while shooting. The ISO will also get grainier the higher it goes. 100 is good for any light setups or outdoors and 400 for cloudy and 800 for dusk or indoors. 1600 will do wonders for indoors, but there is a price to pay for such magical low light photography. Then higher the iso the more grainy your pictures will come out. The more sensitive your camera is the better it will handle a higher ISO vs. grain.
There's a few things out there that will help you in the fight against grainy pictures. A full frame sensor on a DSLR will mean it's much kinder to you. Post processing in lightroom and photoshop will also help to reduce noise and levy the quality. When it comes to quality through you want to keep your iso as low as you can. Nikon has a setting of 50 for iso for some of it's cameras. I believe that Canon has ISO 100 as one of its lowest settings. The ISO will basically compensate for any blunders in exposure and act almost as a safety net for your low light shots. I commonly turn up my ISO when shooting weddings because of restrictions on flashes.

So once you've absorbed the above info you may continue on.

Now here's what i do when I help people with their camera settings. By looking at a picture you should be able to tell why a picture is blown out or under exposed by looking at the settings and also what conditions you were taking the picture in.

The combination of Shutter speed, Aperture and ISO will dictate how proper the exposure is. I expect to receive a good deal of criticism on this subject, here's how I operate though.

I keep my Nikon on ISO 50 all the time, if I have to shoot indoors I switch on auto ISO. I have my auto ISO range from 400 to 1600. Most times if I have to shoot indoors I'm using a flash or have adequate lighting somehow. When using Auto ISO you can expect mid ranges in your ISO such as 320 or 460. If you're shooting a wedding then you're going to want to adjust your range from 200 to 800, but for most events such as a family party or small event it's not going to matter. I always look at who I'm catering to when adjusting my ISO, if its a model I keep it low; if it's an event I usually don't worry to much and enjoy a higher ISO



So that's my two cents on the issue of Aperture, Shutter Speed and ISO