Comments on: 5 Tips for Building Your Photography Portfolio

By: Ruan

Ruan — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 07:35:16 +0000

Hi there!

Excellent tips =) Especially the one about asking money for your work. I still feel a bit quesy to accept money for my work but I’m eventually getting there.

Thank you for the great tips =)

By: Zanade

Zanade — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 17:01:22 +0000

Thank you for this article. I am new to photography and I will follow these rules carefully. Thank you again.

By: Nathan O'Brien

Nathan O'Brien — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 23:14:37 +0000

This is just what i needed to hear, thanks so much. This has given me just the push i need to make my aspirations into a reality. I am about to go live as a portrait photographer in my local area, with hopes of eventually running a successful business. Your tips are great and very very helpful thank you so much.

I have been doing a lot of HDR work recently, experimenting so I can add another string to my bow, so to speak. Take a loot and leave a comment, I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks guys
http://www.flickr.com/photos/obrien-photography/

By: Jenna Julianne

Jenna Julianne — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 22:40:47 +0000

Natalie Norton Rocks and is right when she says start off for free. FREE yes! Then charge little amounts….raise your prices every few months depending how busy you are. If you are a wedding photographer, think about raising them twice a year. The more you shoot the better you will become, so SHOOT SHOOT SHOOT! :) And one day you will be famous and everyone will know your name. The End.

By: Kelly

Kelly — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 02:28:47 +0000

I too chuckled when I read this becuase I went through all these steps on my on intuition. I started about a year ago, first, shooting for free for a friend, then I ran a classified ad for free photography for models. I started with almost NO knowledge about photography what-so-ever and never felt like shooting for free was a bad idea. If I had charged most of my first clients, I would have felt awful and refunded their money after seeing my final product… I’ve come a long way since then, but still have a LONG way to go.

A few months ago I stumbled into wedding photography and with all the work that goes into weddings, I had no choice but to charge. I don’t charge much, around $500 right now. Thats still a fraction of the $1000’s the pro’s around here charge. I make it VERY clear that my prices are only low becuase I am inexperienced and haven’t had any problems as being labeled as the “cheap” or “free” photographer. So my clients get a great deal, while I get invaluble experience.

I ALWAYS hard edit. I way over shoot, cause I still am not confident in my skills and rightfully so. I just about ruined half of someone’s wedding pictures just a few weeks ago! What an awful experience… but I definitely learned a valuble lesson… and thank god I didn’t charge too much!

I have reached out to many local pro’s for help, but apparently I havn’t found the right one yet… If they even respond at all it’s a very generic “good luck” and that’s the last I hear from them. I placed an ad a while back for an assistant and got over 250 responses in a week… so I can only imagine the hoards of amatures that bombard the local pro’s on a regular basis…

Ultimately I was left feeling like I am pretty much on my own… but with my determination and the support of places like Digital-Photography-School, I seem to be on the right track and headed towards my goal of creating a well established photography business!

By: Jeremy Bennetts

Jeremy Bennetts — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 23:38:58 +0000

Funny thing is is that I have done all five steps before I read this. I’m laughing because I’ve done the free work, I feel bad for charging mainly because my confidence is down but I get good feed back. I’ve shot thousands of photos and gave them all to the clients. Now I’m in touch with a phototographer who I let pic my work apart and the theing he told me is “if there is a reason why you shot this photo then my opinion doesnt matter”.
Thanks
Jeremy

By: robert gray

robert gray — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 12:42:58 +0000

Hi, in answear to MeiTeng the word amature abd proffesional has a verry smal differnce if you read there meanings in the dictionary. Proffesional is a person who gets paid for performing a job ++ I like you found "asking for money" hard, but i then created a price list wich i gave to people before they fainally booked me, people woulg ring me up or contakt me through my web page asking about pictures.... I then offer to send by post or email the different types of photography i offer ie portraight,wedding commersial.... along side each of the different catogories is the hour price (in my case very reasonable) and normal price for the prints ond other pruducts.... Now when i have a photoshoot it's nearly always the customer who askes when do we pay or can i pay with visa.... I tend to send my clients a bill at the end when the have finished picking out the prints the want In short creat a pricelist and they will ask about payment :-) I live in Norway so you will not understand most of the writting but you can see my example her of a very easy set up you can view it in PDF format here Please all feel free to use the design but please don't use my pictures, respecting our © as fotografers, and i do belive most of us do really hope this helps you out my website showing a selection of my work can also be see her Good luck Robert Gray

By: MeiTeng

MeiTeng — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 08:31:52 +0000

Great article and thank you for the tips. I have shooting for free for a family who wanted someone to help out with food photography for the business as well as family portraits. So, I have some basics in terms of building up my portfolio from working with this family. Plus, they loved my work so much so that their home is literally filled with my work. I take that as an encouragement to keep on shooting and learning as much as I can. So far, I have been quite reluctant to charge people as I feel kind of shy….as I am an amateur. Well…I guess there will come a time when I may need to consider charging a fee.

By: Joe Howard

Joe Howard — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 13:06:08 +0000

These are very straight forward thing that we all can do to better our service to the public. I am so glad i came across this site because i havent got a file system yet and im going to build one as soon as i get out of here, so in saying that ill say thank you for your information, hope you can fine the time to visit my site and have a look at my work. I am starting out in Portraitures and this will be so much help. Thank you again.

By: Peter

Peter — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 12:07:28 +0000

Natalie,
I am only starting out and your advice is great.

Rgds

Peter Hawes
Australia