Want to make $$$$! Educate yourself first

[private]

Thanks Very much for that post. As you may have gathered, I am sliding down the slippery slope of professional photography. Like Sarahgirl, I am just using word of mouth to get business. So far I have spent $10 on advertising (postcards) and I KNOW that I do not know all there is. Like my Mom says, if you think you know evertything, you know nothing.

There is SOOOO much to learn re photography and once you learn it, you still need the people skills to pull it off. Reading and seminars is the way I have to do it b/c my son is still small - but as soon as he gets into full time school and after school sports - watch out...

BTW, I think the world is going to digital images - what do you think? That's what most of my clients buyt, not to make 100 prints but to put in their digital photo frames and to put on photo sharing sites...

[Pauli]

Originally Posted by private

BTW, I think the world is going to digital images - what do you think? That's what most of my clients buyt, not to make 100 prints but to put in their digital photo frames and to put on photo sharing sites...

You can protect yourself from losing money on reprints if you supply the images at 72dpi.

[Pauli]

Originally Posted by private

There is SOOOO much to learn re photography and once you learn it, you still need the people skills to pull it off. Reading and seminars is the way I have to do it b/c my son is still small - but as soon as he gets into full time school and after school sports - watch out...

Find YOUR style, and become excellent at it. It's so easy to go chasing different styles. That doesn't mean to say you shouldn't experiement, you should. Without that you won't grow, but don't let that distract you from becoming the best professional you can. You know, keeping it simple really does work.

[Jim Poor]

BTW, I think the world is going to digital images - what do you think? That's what most of my clients buyt, not to make 100 prints but to put in their digital photo frames and to put on photo sharing sites...

That depends largely on what your target group is. When I do events like festivals and such, I get more requests for web-sized images and images on CD (which I actively discourage by really high prices for digital copies). For private sittings where the fee is five or six times what I would charge at a public event, I get more requests for larger prints, canvass, gallery wraps, etc.

While there is nothing wrong with targeting either or both group(s), the second is obviously more profitable and more likely to respect your work.

You can protect yourself from losing money on reprints if you supply the images at 72dpi.

Not really. I can make a really nice 5x7 print from a screen capture. Even larger with a quality file and a little time in Photoshop. The folks that want digital images (in general) are not likely to purchase anything larger than 5x7 or 8x10 anyway.

The other downside to this is that ONLY changing the resolution to 72 DPI has no effect on the number of pixels in an image and therefore can be set back to something like 300 DPI. To be more effective, you must also reduce the number of actual pixels in an image.

For example to print an 8x10 I use 300 px so the image is 2400 x 3000 pixels.

If I ONLY set the resolution to 72 px, what you end up with is an image which would print at 33.3 x 41.6 inches.

If the person who receives the file changes the resolution back to 300 px, they get a perfectly fine 8x10.

SO, The first thing to do is set your pixels dimensions to something lower. On the rare occasion that someone buys a web image from me, they get a file that is 400x500 px at 72 DPI. Reset THAT to 300 and you get something like 1.3x1.6 inches for a print.

Even so, unless you are looking them through a loupe, most people can't tell the difference between a print done at 180DPI and one done at 300DPI on a quality printer. So, once again, the image size grows.

[shawngrimes]

In the realm of education, I think that it's important that aspiring professionals not only know as much as they can about their camera and techniques, but they also need to know about marketing and running a small business.

[piston9]

Very good point - I have run a small business before, and the 'managing the money and marketing', cashflow, and pressures of small business are quite the challenge!

[fantasmic2tek]

[QUOTE=Jim Bryant;362995]Do you know the first time I saw that little knat of yours walking around on your post, I clicked my hand to shoo it off, until I realized it was part of your signature. You got me on that on.

It got me to I thought there was something on my laptop screen an tried to get it off. Very Good.
I am from a family of photographers my dad still uses his original Leica he bought in the 1950's and my sister and brother-in-law have their own photography business. Between them(b-i-l and sis have 45 years experience. They have told me what it takes to run a business like that. If they are not shooting and taking care of their son they are at photo shoots or processing them and getting them on their website. It is a very busy business.

[krister68]

I came across this ebook on the subject. Seems good. Any thoughts?
http://photography-clues.blogspot.com/

[t blanchard]

Originally Posted by krister68

I came across this ebook on the subject. Seems good. Any thoughts?
http://photography-clues.blogspot.com/

I would be highly suspicious of something with so much bold, all caps, and exclamation points, haha! Obviously they have a huge monetary incentive to sell this learning series.

I personally wouldn't recommend anything like that. By education, I think the best resources are in-person education (classes, workshops, etc) and reading books and free material online. Go to your local library and check out anything you can on photography! And that's free (unless you rake up overdue fines!) There is a wealth of knowledge on this forum too...

Maybe someone can vouch for it, but it seems like a waste of money to me.

[valleygirl]

LMAO! Good post.

A neighborhood mom just started her own photography "business." I saw her at the school the other day shooting an awards ceremony with her brand new Canon 5D Mark II...set on Automatic mode. I noticed she wasn't quite sure how to remove the lens on the camera to change to her telephoto. Yet she has a "business" as a photographer. Tsk tsk...