Possible Professional Portrait?

Nice shot's, but not stunning photos. If you don't got "good" dslr, you should get one to get on next step ahead.
I think you are not professional.
I think you can be professional. :)

But you need to be brave!
Just keep shooting and trying everything, break the rules, try different things, take pictures from up, from down, crop heads, crop noses, try everything! You will see what work's and which doesn't. And you can always ask advice from other people, don't be afraid, just shoot!

Good luck!
 
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I agree with that, but most didn't realize it was a point and shoot camera until she told us.

The photos presented were taken with a finepix s5100 on program mode at a near end of its 10x zoom.

Joni,

You do have a good eye. Your model's eyes are open and they have a pleasant expression. Kuddos to you for not presenting underexposed photos with half shut eyes and no central idea of what is presented. You need to learn to take control of your camera. Step back a bit and use the middle to long end of your zoom. The perspective of a longer focal length is for the most part pleasing to the human face. Use aperture priority for control of DOF if you are not comfortable with manual settings. Your camera is capable of working with off camera lighting. Explore the possibilities of a cheap vivitar flash and an inexpensive umbrella. It is very difficult to control focus with an electronic viewfinder, it's difficult at best with almost all of crop sensor visual viewfinders. You'll just have to practice with your camera and learn it's peculiarities. Try pre-focussing on the eyes and recomposing before pushing the shutter button all the way. Give yourself some cropping mode. You don't need to compose so tight that you don't have any wiggle room left for cropping a bit.

Good luck and keep at it.
 
People will say a lot about your pictures on this forum, but they are just looking to help :) I like vertical portraits better, and that is you standard way of taking portraits. However, there are a lot of neat pictures taken horizontal, try both! You should work on getting the pictures better in the camera, not work on getting better at editing them, it will make your job much easier. I'm not professional, but my advice to you is to shoot, shoot, shoot. Try new things, and you will develop your own style. Good luck!
 
I think the thing that stands out the most to me is that all but one of them have eyes that are not sharp. In portrait photography, especially headshots like you are demonstrating here, the main focal point should be the eyes. These are too blurry, so perhaps "practice" on a subject a bit more and I would suggest if you want to go pro for income that you might want to take some classes or find a mentor and THEN go for pro quality gear..The SLR or DSLR body will not be as important as the glass you put on it, just keep that in mind.
 
Okay fist off you're 16, go to school, stay in school. Learn more about the business. I am no professional but this is my $0.02.

Nobody, anywhere is going to take a 16 year old with a P&S camera seriously. Go ahead invest time and money into the business, I doubt you will get serious clients. Learn aperture, composition, ISO. All that basic stuff, then go buy a DSLR, learn it inside and out which will take you a couple years maybe. No need to rush any of this. You're 16.

For the C&C you asked for, I think the originals look almost identical to the edits, what softwre did you use? Also most of the images look OOF (out of focus). Like mentioned before your DOF (Depth of field) is a littl akward? I don't know the word i'm looking for.

Get familiar with your camera, ask for a beginner DSLR for a birthday or something.
Best of luck!
 
This girl has not posted since 6/18/2010... she probably doesn't even take photos anymore. I understand that most people are beginning in photography and love the c&c and that is what we are out looking for, as was this young lady, criticism of the photos, understandable, telling her to keep her dream alive and keep shooting but she isn't at that level as of yet, of course she needs to know the truth. Wording things in a rude way and everyone repeating what has been said time and time again by everyone before you, is getting a little ridiculous. You all are harping on the fact that she is 16 and needs to stay in school and get her education and tearing her apart for asking a question. SHE IS 16! She is a child, everyone rushes when they are that age cut her some slack. No you are not ready to collect money for your photos as of yet, learn the basics, upgrade from your point and shoot, take as many pictures as you can of anything you see, and one day you will be able to... dream big but keep your feet on the ground.
 
Bram, just curious... But aren't you ~16?
 
Speaking from experience... you don't need to be good to charge people. Do I think it's a good idea to be good as a prereq? Yes. Do you need to? No. Depends on who you are and if you can live with yourself.

Speaking as a person who doesn't do a lot of people shots, but who pays attention to it a lot... some of these are ok, the first one struck me as pretty bad. I've seen worse, but I would put you at "clearly entry level".

If you care about quality (and I suspect you do), I would make a study of the area, look at other professional examples, and learn as much as you can about composition and the mechanics of photography.

Whatever the case, learn as much as you can about the business elements before diving in. That (no matter your experience with the camera) will serve you the most effectively.
 
We can tell you yes and no in our opinions. But the reality is, If you can get someone to pay you and be happy with the product you provide - then your there.

You definitely should learn to use some editing software and purchase some really good software. You need to ability to remove blemishes, adjust contrast, brightness and hue - fix discoloration on the teeth, remove a pimple, increase eye color or remove blood shot eyes. There's more to taking a picture then just pulling if from the camera when your doing it professionally. Portraits are not just close-up images. Sometimes you need their entire head in the shot, bust shots, fill figure images. You need to know lighting, flash and have a place to actually do that.

Make sure focus points for the photo are correct. The first image is focus and the boys hand when it should be on his eyes. Some of the others lack sharpness throughout the image and are overexposed.

But it isn't one of us that will tell you if your ready. If you can make money I guess you are ready. Then its time to create a business plan that will allow you to expand your business and really make some money.
 
who revived this 7 month old thread? :lol:
 

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