Since dropping a decent penny on my digital SLR, I’ve rediscovered my love of photography. I consider myself to be pretty good at it, and wouldn’t mind turning it into a source of a few extra bucks. I’m trying to think entirely realistically - I don’t expect to make any considerable amount of money from this - if I made enough to pay for a manicure, I’d be happy (and manicures here cost about 10 bucks). One day, I’d love to do wedding photography, but I’m going to have to be a lot more confident of my skills before I’m willing to tackle someone else’s Very Big Day[Sup]TM[/Sup].
One type of photography that really appeals to me is modelling. Not necessarily of beautiful people, more stock photography type modelling. My problem is, I don’t have a lot of experience in taking posed pictures of people. Of course the only way to really learn is to practice, make mistakes, and grow from them.
So my idea is to offer to take pictures of people for free - they get the pictures, I get the practice, and the releases in case I get anything decent that I wanted to put into a library. So, here’s where the IMHO part comes in: does this approach make any sense? Does anybody here have experience with this kind of thing?
Also, any info on stock photography in general is welcome. Does anyone belong to stock library, and what have your experiences been? Anything I should know about them in general? Any advice as to what’s currently hot in the world of stock images?
I think - offer to take pictures for free, show them a picture and charge them a small fee for prints if they want them to cover printing costs and make a little profit, build up a portfolio and increase fees as demand increases. I don’t know much about stock photography but much of it seems to be royalty-free and not really worth it as a freelance sort of thing.
Not sure what you mean by “royalty free”, but my understanding of stock libraries is each time the picture is “sold” to a client, the photographer gets that price minus the library’s commission. I’m honest when I say I don’t have plans to make a lot of money at this; if I sold 1 photograph a year for 100 bucks less commission, I’d be happy enough.
Also meant to add that telling people I’m “taking photographs for free”, but charging for the prints seems a little… silly. I doubt many people would find that there was much worthwhile reward in only getting their picture taken.
Just a suggestion but if there is an acting school in your area, post that you do headshots. New actors are always looking for headshots and if you give them a good deal (being students and all) it might work out in both of your favors. But first I would just get some friends to do some modeling for you so you could get a portfolio going.
Wedding and portrait photography has been a minor source of income for me the past 5 years; most of this income was earned during summers since that’s when most people get married and have high school senior portraits made. I didn’t begin photography on my own, however. I work for a photography studio that needs the extra help in the summer. My boss, on the other hand, got started in doing professional photography in the same way that you are aspiring to do (through trial and error) except it was using film cameras 20 years ago. He uses digital nowadays, of course.
IMHO: You’re approach makes sense in that you should build up a portfolio and gain experience before getting paid to do photography. I would suggest giving your subject free photos on a CD. Printing high quality images and giving them away could be costly in the long run. If you do plan to print many images, then I recommend refilling print cartridges using syringes and buying the extra ink in bottles. It’s much cheaper than buying a new print cartridge each time one runs out.
To do high quality portrait work indoors, it helps to have more than just a fancy camera. Additional light sources (such as umbrella light stands, or even just simple shop lights) help to create an image with depth and eliminate hard flash shadows. Also, an image looks more flat with just a single head on lght source. I also recommend having a backdrop of some sort…even if it’s just a solid-colored bed sheet hanging on a wall. Professional photography backdrops are often not very expensive so you may want to consider investing in a couple of them. A backdrop stand is very useful if you do portrait work in various locations. Remember, keep the backgrounds simple for portraits.
For outdoor work, a fancy camera and a subject is all I really use when/where the sun’s light is ambient and there’s have a pleasing background.
I don’t really know anything about ‘stock libraries.’
It’s just some simple advice to help get started…I hope it helps…good luck, TellmeI’mNotCrazy