New member

blues318 · Apr 1, 2013

I am a new member with a love of photography as a hobby. I would love to turn it into a business and am starting to do that by doing FREE portrait sessions to families or engaged couples as on on location photographer. I am a novice at this and I have a marketing background (MBA). I have taken two photography courses on SLR photography so I am learning the ropes and enjoying the ride. I had a Nikon D40 and recently upgraded to the D5100.

Thanks! Here is a photo of St. Louis Cathedral from a recent trip to New Orleans.

JacaRanda · Apr 1, 2013

Welcome to TPF Blues318.

deeky · Apr 1, 2013

You have this post set up as a poll, but I think I'm missing something. It doesn't make sense to me. So I'll add 'Clarification?' to your poll options.

tirediron · Apr 1, 2013

Agree; I'm not really sure what you're asking for either.

vintagesnaps · Apr 1, 2013

The photo looks as if it had the sun behind the building so the exposure may not have been accurate for the existing light; taking this from a different angle or at a different time of day might have been options. I don't think it's possible to determine camera settings without being there - you'd need to use your meter to determine those. It would also help to keep distractions out of your photo; you could wait til people move out of the scene, unless you want a 'crowd' shot in a case where that tells the story. Once you have people in a scene if you plan to use it for retail use that gets into needing photo releases if they're recognizable.

I don't think two photography classes is enough experience to go into this as a business. You'd need to develop your expertise to the point that you know what to do in a variety of situations including the one in the photo you posted. I think too that offering free sessions lets potential customers know that you may not have the necessary expertise to do the job, and I think it devalues photography to work for free. With already having a business background that could be beneficial in handling that aspect of photography as an eventual business.