Professional Photographer vs Artist.
Both are valid and worthwhile endeavors and are not mutually exclusive, but they are different.
An artist with true talent can make a living while doing only the work that they want to do. But that is rare. The typical venues will be galleries and art fairs. If people like the work, they might want to hire you for a shoot and give you full creative control. Again, that is rare.
People are called starving artists for a reason.
A professional photographer may have a style or particular subject matter that they specialize in, but they are essentially hired guns to perform a particular task. And that task is whatever the client wants. A professional will be ready and capable to handle any task assigned to them. That means having the technical skills as well as talent.
I started out being an "artist". I did portraits and landscapes. People hired me to do natural, environmental portraits of their families. And I had a landscape architect that needed a portfolio. He liked my artistic approach to landscapes. All was good. I was a working pro! I was making money with my camera. That is until my landscape client referred me to his friend. The guy called me up and said he heard wasa pro photographer and that he needed a product shot of a few boxes of office supplies. It seemed simple, put the boxes on a table and shoot them. No big deal. Long story short, there were so many mistakes such as bad focus, bad lighting, bad exposure that the guy came close to shoving my camera into a place on me where the sun don't shine. As he stormed out he asked how I dared to call myself a pro when I couldn't shoot a simple box of paper.
That is when I decided that if I was going to make a living as a photographer, I better learn what I was doing. For the next 18 months I shot nothing but 4 different shaped blocks of wood...a cylinder, a cone, a square block and a sphere...all painted white. I set them up on a table by the window and started shooting. I learned exposure, composition, DOF and lighting. I added a fill light. I moved into a studio and started working with one light, then two, then three etc. Different backgrounds and bases. My output was contact sheets only, no darkroom manipulation. It had to be perfect in the camera or it got done over.
I forgot about trying to be an artist but worked on mastering my craft. The art could (and did) come later. And when I did start getting artistic again, I had the skills to produce what I was seeing in my head accurately and quickly. The Zen of photography comes when you forget that you are making photos and totally lose yourself in the moment. You won't even notice the camera and neither will your subject.
That won't happen until the basic skills are as automatic as breathing. No matter how good your natural voice may be, you need to learn to talk before you can sing.
It ain't easy, but no one ever said that it should be.
onelove
Wow! Very strong words of advice here and touching. You have my convinced. I feel overwhelmed with everything I still need to learn. Should I work on DOF for a month and then move to Lighting, should I do 1 day on lighting and then composition the next day. should I read books or practice shooting or both in the same day. AHHHHH! I feel out of control. :/
You can't start with DOF and lighting, you have to first start with exposure and understanding each element and what does in terms of exposure and creatively. Once you understand that and how to control it, then move to DOF and motion-stopping motion and capturing motion. THEN move to adding in lighting. Don't mix in lighting while you are learning the very basics. Flash changes the rules a bit and can change them a WHOLE LOT if you get into advanced flash techniques. Until you know how to control the basics adding light will actually make it much harder on you to learn.
You have to build a foundation. Kind of like in grade school: First you learned to count to 10. Then you learned to count to 100. Then you learned to add and subtract. Then you learned to multiply and divide... They are all layered starting with the basic first. Same thing here.
I have some materials you are welcomed to if you are interested send me a PM and I'll link you.
You WILL get there and if your un-edited images are any indication it won't take you all that long. You have an eye for what you want to capture and you have figured out how to at least accidentally get it. Now we just need to get you to where you can get it 100% every time all by yourself without praying it's right.
If you really want to develop a style like the one you've shown you absolutely can do that.
Photoshop and editing are the same as photography. You have to learn the basics first and the where and how and why of it AND what it will look like in print-because looking good on a monitor is not always the same as a print. You can get away with much on a monitor that looks exactly the same in print but when compared side by side you wouldn't like the print so much.
You often mention raw and that's where you need to start in Photoshop. You have to know how to fully use the raw editor and what each thing does AND how to properly use it because (again) you are working on a monitor and what may look amazing on the monitor-which is actually a very small image compared to print-will look like total dog poop in print. I truly do not edit more than 95% of the time and the edits I do are only things like adding a texture or designing an album, etc. EVERYTHING is done in Adobe camera raw. I cannot afford a minute an image to edit. Your style or what you are pointing to as your style does not even require that you open PS for most of it.
I also have some awesome resources on PS from raw to polish you are welcomed to use if you want them.
Well shoot!! That looks like a really nifty calibrator BUT I have no money!! UHG! I was really honestly thinking I could just start a photo biz and improve as I go to help compensate for my husbands loss of work. NOPE! And really have no way to make any $. We are on the verge of lose our small 2 bed room duplex with our 5 kids! I don't know what to do but I can't even afford a tooth pick right now. :/
For the calibration-order several 8x10 prints and do your best to make your monitor look like them. When you get the prints in let us know and we'll come up with some good resources for hand calibrating for the time being.
I can understand your reasoning and thought process, however photography isn't something you can make a quick buck at. A LOT of people with that first DSLR think it is and A LOT of them end up selling their gear when they realize that in reality they just lost a LOT of money making that $50 CD for a client. A wise person said... The quickest way to make money in photography is to sell your gear. It's totally true.
We don't want you to fail-or anyone else. That's why we do what we do around here. Success is there for the asking.
ANY business that is not started with a thorough business plan and a GOOD education in BUSINESS is pretty doomed from the get go. Your business education doesn't have to be in school either just like your photography education doesn't have to be in school. But you do have to have the business end covered. You didn't even know that you were losing a TON of money when you sold that $50 CD. You probably literally lost about $50 to $100 assuming that you have next to nothing invested in gear, computer, programs, etc. You didn't hand the money out that day. You have already bought your gear PERSONALLY. You have to pay back "personally." You also have to be putting $ in the kitty for the next camera and the additional gear you NEED. You also didn't consider sales tax.
Please, please, please don't get caught advertising any kind of business on facebook or the internet by the state. They are truly out there trolling for un-registered businesses. I've been checked, I know others who have been checked and we just had someone posting in here a short while ago who had their town find out which then turned to the state and the IRS. She was in the same exact financial boat as you just trying to survive with her kids. You have to know what your requirements are for your municipality, county, state and of course federal.
Back there somewhere someone said you made $16.66 per hour. That was BEFORE you considered gas in your vehicle and wear and tear (you had to have the vehicle insured and registered to be able to use it.) Before you considered the cost of the equipment or the CD or the computer to make it. When you add all of THOSE things in you made NEGATIVE money.
Business is complicated and it's expensive. There are a LOT of programs out there for women and minority businesses for education and even for loans and grants. Take a look at
The U.S. Small Business Administration | SBA.gov There is a wealth of information there and there is usually a local chapter of the SBA or SBDC (small business development corp.) They do FREE business workshops at local colleges across the country. Take them!!!!
If you are in a financial pickle take a good hard look at college. You would then qualify for state and federal college money. Each semester my husband gets back roughly $2K from his state and federal grants that goes to pay his living expenses while in college. You could take business or basket weaving or even photography. When doing that you are getting 2 things from it-obviously the education and a little bit of a shot in the income dept. Not much, but it helps a little. And the education is free. Education is NEVER a waste.
While you are building a business that has a plan and will succeed find something else. Troll the salvation army and start selling crap on
ebay or God knows there are a million ways to do it. Hell, I see people selling total CRAP on craigslist every day that you know came out of someone's unwanted crap! Do clean-outs after people move, pick up some house cleaning for others... There are a million things you can do in the mean time for a buck or two. This is a business you want to invest in properly and to succeed in the long term. You want to build something here and you can-if you do it right.
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