Professional Photography

How much do you know about photography? Obviously, you must have good eye! What I mean, is do you know how the camera works? The different functions, composition, exposure, lighting, aperture, shutter speed, ISO, etc? This is beginner photography knowledge. If you don't know these things like the back of your hand, you have to learn them. There are so many photographers out there, that call themselves "professionals." The go get a big camera and photoshop and all the sudden they are photographers. Honestly, buying a fancy camera and editing some shots, is not professional. That is amateur. You really need to take classes and learn photography, (MORE then beginner stuff) before you call yourself a professional. Otherwise, it's complete false advertising.
I know this sounds kind of mean and I actually don't mean it to. However, having a eye for something, is not enough. You have to truly know what you are doing, to start charging people money. This would mean, knowing more then beginner stuff before money changes hands. Once you know a little more then the basics, you can offer reduced cost photoshoots, with the customer knowing you are learning...then once you know true photography skills, you can have a real business. True professional photography skills, take years to perfect. You need a business license and a tax number, to be a "real" professional business.

I think Bug B said it well. No, I would not respond to your ad, and if I did I would ask for a website to view your portfolio and package prices. I like to see a portfolio with children, pets, elderly, nature, b&w, color, action and stills. If they don't have that I might as well go to JC Penny's for 40 bucks and get my pics taken. I definately would not pay someone $100.00 if they didn't have a full portfolio, and they are just starting out.
You need to have experience and knowledge. If you start taking classes you will gain both. Then it would be reasonable to start charging people.
Photography is a hobby of mine, and I have looked into it for a career, however I like more steady work. I like the digital SLR cameras from Nikon.
Good Luck.

I agree with bug b, you need to really learn your camera, how to control it in any situation, and practice WITHOUT charging first.

Pick up the book 'Understanding Exposure' by Bryan peterson to start. It will teach you how to control your camera so you can practice.

If you use your pop up flash for pics, if you use your camera on auto, if you don't use your white balance, if you don't know how to use most setting on your camera, you should not be taking pictures of others.

If you have a good eye, then go with it, but learn first. :) The book I mentioned above is a great place to start.

And for what its worth, I've been taking pictures since I was 12 (on an old SLR that you had to advance and rewind the film manually on!), and I've never taken a class other than high school to leanr how to develop film. i'm self taught and am learning more every day. Classes aren't really necessary unless you really knwo nothing about camera's and photography, but you do need to practice, learn, read online, read books, and practice more before you ever charge anyone or take pics of anyone else.

Being a fine art major well 90% of the people in my classes were actually focusing on Photography.

Of all the ones I know two have jobs taking photographs of basically product for two very popular catalogs, another works at the picture people, most of them have jobs outside of their degrees, one actually works at a target photography studio. The two who actually work for the magazine have banded together to do professional photography like you wish to do for senior pictures, wedding etc.

They complain all the time about how they invest all this time on the weekend and such taking pictures and not making enough an hour for their time.

I guess what I'm trying to explain is this is a very flooded market that even when you have a degree it's hard as all out to get work. Most of them are sad they got degrees they did.

BUT go for it! Try. I'm just saying don't but don't be so sad if you can't make alot of money doing it. If you charge less than the professionals you might be able to have a go at it but as I've learned from my friends make sure you know the legal stuff and have a contract and all that good stuff. That is where the said it got complicated. Who owned the pictures, the prices, the terms of what they were to take and when. This weird stuff you'd never think about!

But good luck!!

get ready for a lot of info!!!
i know how you feel! i decided i wanted to do photography a couple years back, and its slow going. ive had a few people take me up on the offer, and actually pay me (thats the hardest part!!) but ive done a lot of stuff for free, or for a gift.
craigslist is a fine option. also, if you know anything about facebook pages, that is another good place to start.

one thing to remember though, people these days are able to get their hands on rather good cameras, and are taking a lot of their own portraits. this is difficult for photographers because instead of going to the "studio" to get family pictures, they are having a friend do it, or doing it with their own cameras or their own pictures from over the year. so becoming a photographer is very hard right now! camera quality and prices are such that almost anyone can be a rather good photographer these days.

dont let that discourage you though! just realize that you arent going to make a lot of money at this (especially at first!)

as far as camera and etc, the professionals all use DSLR cameras. these cameras can be the more expensive ones, and they have interchangeable lenses. this is also a "hazzard" of sorts because removing the lenses increases the chance you might get dirt in the mechanics and have spots on your photos. but its just a step up from "normal" photography, and its more professional.. also one thing is to never use the auto settings. get photo books from the library, and learn how to use the manual, shutter priority, aperture priority and the like. learn about light, ISO, white balance, etc etc etc. basically, you have to know how photography works, and especially how it used to work with film cameras in order to be able to compose successful digital prints.

prepare to use a lot of computer space! invest in the biggest external hard drive that you can afford, the i T options are the biggest that i have seen right now. external hard drives are useful because you can store your images separately from your computer, which helps you if your computer is to get infected (which it will at some point - it happens to everybody)

another step up with regards to computer is to get a mac, but not everyone likes or can take that step.

as far as editing programs, adobe is the best there is. its spendy, and has regular updates, but its worth it. this is a step i havent taken yet myself. i JUST got an older DSLR from a friend of mine. its 5-6 years old, but hopefully i will be able to learn on it. i got it with several lenses, filters and the like, so hopefully if i upgrade i will only have to get the body. the person i got it from has a very nice website, and is also on flickr and facebook: pinkdream photography: http://www.pinkdreamphotography.com/. she is fantastic.

one thing to remember, REGARDLESS of what people say, it doesnt matter if its cannon or nikon; what matters between the 2 is what feels good in your hand. hold them, pick them up, handle them. find out which one you would be more comfortable holding.otherwise, they are the same in quality and everything else.

try to avoid walmart or other kinds of stores like that; those companies definatly make versions for those stores, you arent guaranteed to get the best versions.

one more thing, if you are on facebook, become a fan of as many photographers as you can. this might take a little bit of work, i usually hide them from my wall feed, but at least i have them on my list to review their work when i have a project coming up. another good thing to do is sign up for a newsletter through http://www.digital-photography-school.com/ they give tips, information, and even contests/goals. there are photography contest groups/pages on facebook as well. this will allow you to get good critiques of your work. that kind of thing. a book on posing will also be helpful for people photography. knowing where to position people in groups or alone to make them look their best is a good thing to know.

i could go on and on. but just keep trying, know that it could take 5 years or longer to actually get a real profitable "business" going, and dont let that discourage you. remember that you could do things for free for close friends, just to get your work out there for people to be able to see. but you at some point have to start charging, and you have to be stern and have clear rules about how to make sure to get paid.

as far as how much to charge, i couldnt begin to tell you. right now im charging 40$ per 1hr session, but i live in a VERY rural area where people dont have a lot of money; im trying to make myself accessable to people who have low incomes. my favorite professional studio nearby usually charges 50$ for 1 hr sessions, so i figure im under what they are charging.
right now, i give people the cd of all their images. since i use my watermark, i have to give them a photography release for when they make prints (companies are getting pretty smart about making sure people have permission to make prints)

to make a copyright symbol click alt+0169 (i think!) © then you could use the year and your "name" or whatever. usually, i watermark mine © 2010 erickajen

anyway, if you want to check out some of my work, you can go to blue skies blue waters photography on facebook, or on flickr.com/erickajen

flickr is also another great, and free site for photography. theres some average stuff on there, and also some fantastic stuff. right now, im watching a guy named dan anderson, and though he doesnt have portraits, he has some awesome urban photos, which is something i wouldnt have a clue where to start : http://www.flickr.com/photos/stonebridgedapper/page9/

but you can search for ANYTHING on there, and find a million billion photos to check out.

theres this thing out there too called HDR photography. from my basic understanding of it, on adobe you can combine 3 shots of the same scene with different lighting/lighting settings into one amazing image. you will know them by their glowing colors and lighting. this dan anderson has a lot of photos like that.

anyway, now that ive completely overwhelmed you, feel free to write me and ask questions. :) :) and good luck!!

Wow, I'm coming from a very different place than a lot of your respondents. The high school I taught at offered a photography course, and, while I'm sure they learned good things, it was also a high school photog class, and I know a lot of kids took it because it was an easy class. That said...I am friends with a lot of those kids on facebook, and now that they're into their 20's, they are taking landscape and portrait photography and I'm really quite impressed. It is a lot better than the photos posted by anyone else I know. I don't know whether it has to do with their knowledge of their cameras (I'm sure that's partially it) or their artistic eye (I'm sure that's partially it, as well) but I've often thought that if we still lived in WA, I would hire some of them for cheap (if the 100$ includes photos, that's probably a bargain) to come and do portraits of my rambunctious kids outside. Most studios, in my experience, just do studio photos, but these young people seem to enjoy getting out and taking pics at the beach, in the woods, in fields, with really fun backgrounds and such--and that's hard to find unless you pay big bucks. They post their albums on facebook, and many of them have nice looking, well laid out, well EDITED (that's a biggie for me, an English teacher) websites where I can see what their style is and what they like to do. Anyway: I have no idea what they know about their cameras, and frankly, if their pictures turn out well, I don't care. I see the point about the business license, but if someone's taking pics of my kids, I need them to be creative, so I get some unique shots, and very patient, since my kids are little, and willing to spend some good time--an hour or so--with my kids to get those decent shots. If you have friends willing to pay you a little (I mean a little) for your time, plus the cost of developing and printing, perhaps that's a great way to build a portfolio. And, I do think children's photography is not a bad place to start; people want to be SURE of wedding pics and graduation photos, but I can never be sure if my kids will behave, or be monkeys when I get their pictures taken, so I hate to schedule a Big Event Photography Session that I know is going to cost a lot when it might be a total bust. On the other hand, having some arty pics of my kids (vs JC Penney) would be wonderful. Once you've proven yourself, made a name, people will start asking about those bigger events, too.

If you are just starting out, your probably need to build a portfolio first to show people how your pictures look. I think for that $100 is too high, remember the ones you have paid for are from a professional who already has all of the right equipment, know how, and editing software. I would try to have a couple of families you know help you out, so you can get a range of photos to show what you can do. If you post on craiglist, which will probably work I would charge less, which will give you more potential clients and you can always say no, that the special price is gone if too many people respond. I personally would not pay $100 if I have not seen a portfolio with several different settings, people, etc to see how the work is most likely going to turn out.

Having the classes first may help or reading up all the settings. My husband and I take a ton of birding pictures, as well as many other subjects and have done weddings for family and yearly family pictures. We are not professional, but use several different cannon bodies. Family members tell us we could sell our pictures, but for what we take I know there are lots of other people out there doing the same thing and love the photos as a hobby. We take enough pictures that I am forever behind on going through them, deleting and editing.

I love our 7D, I have know many professional photographers that have used the 5D, since it is full framed. I like our older 30D and it is a cropped camera, so you are already zooming in a little more than the 5D before you put a lens on. The lenses make a huge difference and you are going to want professional series lenses, for cannon it is the l series. A good nikon would work too, we are just a cannon family here. I use photoshop for editing and have saved some pictures where the lighting was terrible, but for the most part the goal is to set the camera right for every shot and do as little editing as possible. We also shoot raw plus jpeg images, since sometimes the raw is easier to edit.

Good luck to you and have fun! I hope it works out for you.

I would freelance to start, you shouldn't charge if you don't have a business. Go slow to start, build your portfolio, get a license then start charging and you can charge more the more experience. Not many people will pay for you lack of experience and no business license. Good luck and have fun!

**EDIT** Bug B is right!!