Am I Ready?

[ElCapitanoAwesomo]

Its a question i've been pondering over the last few days. I think i've progressed as a photographer quite a bit over the last few months, especially in my favorite bit of it, portraiture. My photographs have been receiving a TON more attention on facebook and lfickr and stuff as of late, and also, i've been getting complements for my work on fliers plastered around school that i had made for my school's production of SNL. I've also been asked to do actual shoots 3 times this year for the drama department (which i'm also in, so that helps), and so far, the 2 shoots i've done have gone well.

What i'm wondering is this: am i ready to start marketing myself out there? Selling prints, charging (albeit, quite little) for shoots, and the whole whiz-bang? On a more minor issue, am i ready to make myself a facebook fan page to display work?

I know there's no real standard, and people can begin to do it at any time, i'v just been holding back for the sake of my personal opinion that i just wasnt good enough before to justify boosting my ego with a fan page, or website and such.

What do you think? Is there a time when one is ready for this?

[graciousness]

It's a little bit hard to tell if you are looking at your flickr account. You have way too many photos in there.

It would be best if you can actually show just maybe a handful of your best work, and I mean about a dozen or so but not a lot more, then it's easier to answer the question.

In all honestly, if we judge from the photos on the first couple of pages, I'd say no because you still need to learn to use flash better. But then there are a few photos on other pages that are ok and makes you think yeah, maybe he can, but hard to tell.

The thing is if you need other people's validation to see if you're ready, then the answer would be no.

You're the only one who can answer this question regardless.

And Yoda.

[SwissJon]

Honestly?

Your photos are good. But they're amateur photos not professional.

What I mean by this is that you don't appear confident in directing poses. Your photos are still snaps of people doing their own thing. They're in focus, they seem to be well composed, but they're.. Well... Random. some are much better than others, you dont seem to be controlling what happens in front of the lens. You're just the one with the camera.

Get some of your friends together, take some time setting up your lighting, and POSE your subjects. Once you have some photos that were entirely composed by you. That's when you'll produce photos that you'll know if you're good enough.

[ElCapitanoAwesomo]

Ok, thanks! I'm definitely going to start heading off in that direction from now on.

[nickbedford]

I agree. You have a lot of potential, but your photos don't really have that much direction. They do appear to be "experimenting" portraits, rather that deliberate portraits with deliberate lighting. I also find you have a lot of black backgrounds. While this isn't necessarily bad, you need to keep the black part of things to the minimum.

Your flash lighting is okay, but I think you need to practice a bit more to really nail it. I would suggest looking at some of Joe McNally or Joey Lawrence videos as they are two photographers who really know what they're doing (there's many others but I know of these two). The lighting should feel like it's there for a very specific reason.

One thing that JoeyL's work and videos really set off in my head was to really think about the entire portrait, including the environment (and it's lighting and exposure in relation to the subject), getting the lighting of the subject just right and also in simply directing the model.

This photo was from basically an idea/experiment shoot I did with my housemate and singer in my band. I was just throwing some lighting and expressions around to get a feel for how I want our portrait to look. But as a part of this, I did have specific things I wanted to try, such as the lighting angles, the amount and colour of backlighting and the general expression I wanted from the subject. Armed with the knowledge I'd gained simply from these two guys mentioned above, I ended up with this and I'm pretty proud of it, even if the background isn't ideal (just our unit).



Good luck. I think if you make an effort to learn from some of the pros in this field of photography and experiment more with premeditated ideas about the kind of look you want, you'll start to feel like you're really nailing things

[ElCapitanoAwesomo]

I'm definitely checking those guys out! I see what you mean with the conceiving the photos instead of just letting them happen. Thanks!

[rcarpenter3d]

One thing I find helpful is to capture the emotional moment. When you look at a scene, you think to yourself thats a cool shot, Ill take a picture. Focus on what makes it cool and then maximize the cool factor. Example: I see a man in a suit sitting on a park bench reading a newspaper. I think the shot looks industrial which is why I want to take the shot. Consider adding to the industrail nature of the shot by adding an industrial object sitting next to him on the bench, or consider having him give a stern look on his face. Anyway, it helps me.

[lunathea]

Not to derail at all but holy man did I think of Dexter when I saw this! could be because the new season just started but it reminded me of the opening sequence after he pulls the shirt over his face and has that little smirk.

[nickbedford]

Originally Posted by rcarpenter3d

One thing I find helpful is to capture the emotional moment. When you look at a scene, you think to yourself thats a cool shot, Ill take a picture. Focus on what makes it cool and then maximize the cool factor. Example: I see a man in a suit sitting on a park bench reading a newspaper. I think the shot looks industrial which is why I want to take the shot. Consider adding to the industrail nature of the shot by adding an industrial object sitting next to him on the bench, or consider having him give a stern look on his face. Anyway, it helps me.

Precisely. In the kind of environmental, lit portraiture that you'll likely get into, everything works better when it's exaggerated. The lighting, the props, the clothes, the expressions etc.