Pretty Much Told I Am Horrible At Photography, That's Real Encouraging

[gsgary]

Have you seen the price of a good pair of jodhpurs

 

[Overread]

Ok Gary deep breaths now - deep slow steady breaths.

Innnn

And

Ouuut

Now lets just get our minds off the jodhpurs for a moment

 

[astroNikon]

Photography like anything else requires training and experience to get better.

I got a big dose of that as I met my new soccer team that I'm coaching. The last team went 11-1 and was great.
Most (nearly all) of those players went to a travel team. Now I have 3/4 newbies that have never played before.
Ugh.

But, like TPF I have to mentor these 8 to 10 yr olds to a soccer team and not just a bunch of kids running around a soccer field.
So use TPF, post photos that you take and get the mentoring.
Sure, I'm sure in some threads you are going to get bashed. Especially if you say you "charge" or try to charge for your photos. That puts you right up there as a "professional" Fauxtographer.

Horses are difficult. They are BIG and you have to maintain perspective. You also have to think of more than just the horse - lighting, background and your camera settings. The other week when did a horse shoot I wasn't thinking completely (talked to much to the owner as she was a high school friend). So now I'm going back and redoing the shoot but this time I'm going to think more "professionally" because last time I wasn't changing my camera settings like I needed to when I knew I had to change them.

So take photos and learn from posting your photos for critique and criticism.
You'll get better and you'll laugh at your older photos.

 

[robbins.photo]

Ok, well read through this and I think the best advice I can probably give at this stage would be, tell them all to go to hell. Just keep shooting and learning. It doesn't matter at all that your last shot may not be good or great or whatever, all that matters is that you take the time to figure out what the problems were with the last shot and how to correct them so your next shot is better.

 

[gsgary]

Ok Gary deep breaths now - deep slow steady breaths.

Innnn

And

Ouuut

Now lets just get our minds off the jodhpurs for a moment

But you can't beat a nice arse in a pair of jodhpurs

 

[pgriz]

Modern cameras make the making of good snapshots very easy. However, good photographs are much more than snapshots. The ability to construct an image to tell a story, to engage a viewer, to elicit emotion, are skills that require a lot of learning and practice. Then there are technical aspects such as light management, picking of the appropriate focal length, posing, scene and background management, that are additional skills that transcend the things you do at the camera.

Bitter is right. It takes a long time. And part of the learning process is to learn to ask the right questions. That's actually a key point. As you get better, your questions get better.

 

[waday]

I dunno, I'm old. I see a lot of younger people expect to be "awesome" immediately. In more than just photography. But photography I think has the highest rate of "I've had my camera for a year, I should start a business!"

This is so true. I've had my camera for a long time, and I'm still trying to reach half of its potential. My wife thinks that I can start selling my photos. I love her to death, but... .

Ok, well read through this and I think the best advice I can probably give at this stage would be, tell them all to go to hell. Just keep shooting and learning. It doesn't matter at all that your last shot may not be good or great or whatever, all that matters is that you take the time to figure out what the problems were with the last shot and how to correct them so your next shot is better.

I like this response. :mrgreen:

 

[runnah]

I wasn't asking what they would pay for THESE images or ANY images of mine. I was asking what they would pay for properly set up, properly taken conformation shots. Something I have yet to achieve. I'm talking a few years down the road, not next week. I'm not nearly good enough to do anything of the sort.

There is your first problem. NEVER EVER start doing photography as a means to make money. That should not be your goal. The goal should be to have another job that supports your photography hobby.

 

[limr]

All this good advice notwithstanding, the thing that the OP said made her the most upset was that she was "horrible" and that she should give up. The people who told her this are the ones who should be reading this thread. They are the ones who don't understand the time involved in improving photography skills. We're all telling her that she shouldn't expect to be great in 6 months, and she knows this. THEY are the ones who are essentially saying, "Six months and you're not good yet? Just give up."

I agree with Robbins - just tell them to go to hell. That's my advice for your immediate injury.

 

[Designer]

Maybe I just need encouragement. I don't know. Just bummed. Thanks for reading it. Normally I'm not this depressive.

I'll try.

Start by looking at the kind of shots you would like to emulate. Look closely at everything. The pose, the lighting, the focal length, the backgrounds, everything. Notice where the photographer has placed his lights, left, right, high, low, etc.

Notice how each shot shows what needs to be shown, and then start noticing where some shots seem to fail at showing details. When you can immediately see flaws in someone else's photographs, then go out and try to make better shots yourself.

When you have about ten year's experience at doing this, here's what I want you to do:

Act as if nobody can buy your photographs. They will ask, they will plead, they will offer to pay, offer to pay more, but you just act as if they're your babies, and you couldn't possibly ever imagine selling one of them. Nope, you're not for hire. Meanwhile, keep making wonderful photographs, and letting people catch little glimpses of them occasionally. DO NOT EVER beg someone to buy one of your photographs.

Eventually, you will be so good that horse owners will be calling you and offering you gobs of money to take some pictures. That's when you set a price that seems high even to you, and they will be happy to pay.

 

[sm4him]

Well, I wouldn't tell them all "where to go," (because I don't DO that sort of thing ), but I DO think you need to change your perspective. Personally, I wouldn't respond to these folks at all, I'd just say, "Okay, thanks for your opinions" and move on.
WHY on earth are you letting a bunch of strangers on the internet affect your emotional state, AT ALL? Don't take it personally--just realize that some people have one opinion, some an extreme opposite opinion…and some don't have the intelligence or sensibilities to craft an opinion so they are left with ridiculous responses like "they're horrible."

So, just dismiss the whole thing and move on. If nothing else, you've learned a valuable lesson. Don't expect strangers on the internet to give you the emotional boost you need to keep going.

HOWEVER: You *could* find some value by going beyond the harsh words they chose to seeing the essence of what they are saying, which is simply, based on the photos you've shown, you're really not ready to even START the discussion of "how much would you pay?"
Yes, I know you were not suggesting that YOUR photos are ready for that. But, WHY are you even pursuing that direction right now? Are you saying that if there isn't enough of a market to sell horse photos, you won't bother to learn how to do it well?

Look, you love horses. And you like photography; at least, you think you do--enough that you were willing to divest yourself of your horses. So:

Step One: Start learning everything you can about how to improve your photos, in general. Learn about proper exposure, good composition techniques, etc. You stated that you knew your photos weren't that well composed and had exposure issues, but then questioned whether they were actually "horrible." (And, for the record, no, they aren't HORRIBLE--but there IS vast room for improvement). Exposure issues and composition issues will KILL the effectiveness of a photo, period. So don't worry about whether it's horrible, or just bad. Just focus on how to improve.

Step Two: Start learning everything you can about taking good HORSE pictures. As Derrel mentioned, that can be tricky. Getting a good picture of a black horse, or getting a nice photo of a white horse, showing good definition and not blowing out any of the white areas, is something that can really take a lot of time to get proficient at.
I do a lot of bird photography. When I started doing it, about three years ago, I was TERRIBLE. Horrible. Truly. AND--I KNEW how to work a camera. I could get decent photos. But bird photography was a whole 'nother thing! It took a long time to get to where my pictures were anything someone besides my mommy and my sister could be impressed by, and the truth is, I'm still not where I want to be. Practice, Practice, Practice.

Step Three: Don't even WORRY about how to make money at it right now. Let that come AFTER you have gotten really good. By that time, you'll have a better idea of what direction to head in marketing yourself, or whether you really even want to do that.
Let tomorrow worry about itself; today, just concentrate on the issues at hand, which is improving your skills.

As a side note: I have three nieces who are very "into" horses. All of them rode in shows constantly when they were younger, and two of them still keep horses today (they are all in their 30s now and either married, or about to be married). Based on my experience with them and their mom, I'd say you CAN make some money with really well-done horse photography, but my guess is you'd do better selling "horse shoots" like people shoots. Doing a session with someone's beloved horse, and providing them with pictures worth framing, rather than taking pictures of horses they are selling. OR, photos at horse shows, session with the horse, the rider and their ribbons, action shots, etc.
In other words, my guess is that people will pay more money for good photos of something they are emotionally connected to, than they will for something they are trying to sell.

 

[robbins.photo]

I agree with Robbins

Oh ya, that's getting marked on the calendar. Rotfl

 

[Tee]

If you were just merely asking fellow horse owners how much they would pay, why would they tell you that you suck unless you showed images? Why was showing images necessary if you only wanted to know what others would pay? See where I'm going with this? I think you were fishing for an opportunity. You didn't like the answer you received and now you're ego is bruised.

Yeah, your photography isn't very good but that doesn't mean it can't be. It just takes time.

 

[chuasam]

If you want to photograph horses well, first you got to understand and love horses. Go research other equestrian photogrsphers. Off the top of my head look up Tim Flach and Rick Maynard.
You're not horrible. You are just grossly underestimating how long it takes to get good.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[The_Traveler]

TBH, the first two pictures are the ugliest horses I have ever seen.

Right now you are just putting the horse in the frame and pressing the shutter button.
You aren't really a photographer yet any more than you are a surgeon if you pick up a scalpel.
You don't have the knowledge about composition, exposure and post-processing to do any more.
Don't worry about that.

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
Lao-tzu, The Way of Lao-tzu
Chinese philosopher (604 BC - 531 BC)

Start with learning how your camera works and why the different variables (shutter speed, iso, aperture) are important.
Using the tutorials on lightroom to understand how you can change pictures.
Then start looking hard at your pictures to pick out the characteristics that make them less successful.

Most important, stop asking other people who aren't photographers what they think.
They don't know anything.
Van Gogh only sold one painting during his lifetime.

There is an enormous amount to learn and just because you can actually produce a photo doesn't mean anything because the camera is doing 99% of the work.
From now on, it's up to you.