Man I'm not a pro but it always makes me wonder why I'm not doing weddings every time I see photographers with worse gears and probably same level of skill as me, other than I'd feel guilty cuz I know my skill level isn't there.
I've considered it, but it truly is the one of the most difficult areas of photography to do well. The equipment needed to do it right is expensive, especially since you need backups of that or similar equipment in case of failure. Your organisational and people skills need to be top notch so you can get the right people together and the images you require as efficiently as possible, since many of them are impatient.
I've been asked on a few occasions to shoot peoples weddings for them and have declined each time. I was asked again today actually by a friend to shoot his in December. I'll bring my camera and take photos anyway, and they're welcome to the images, but they have to get their own photographer.
One day I may show some photos around to some established wedding photographers and see if I can assist them. That's the best way to get experience if you want to eventually go your own way and do it yourself. You get the feel for the flow of a wedding, so it's much easier to predict and be ready for certain shots you'll need and that will sell. You can't mess up too bad as you're usually getting some of the filler shots like the preparation of the bridal parties, the rings, different angles of the ceremony, and the reception of course. Most of those shots won't sell anyway, though if you grab good photos of the flower girl, page boy and some other kids, some of those will sell quite well indeed.
It's all experience and if you don't end up enjoying it (cause it's certainly not for everyone) you'll at least learn something that'll make you a better photographer.
You really come across as quite a dickhead in this thread. Go get laid before erupting at people for asking questions you don't feel are good enough.
Haha, really? Where exactly did I erupt? I may have been a little condescending in my initial reply, but erupting, hardly. There was info in that reply that has been echoed and fleshed out in later posts by others in this thread, perhaps you missed that. Maybe you instead want to focus on where all contents of my post were ignored for containing mild condescension, and I pointed that out, to receive a hilariously long and angry reply. How dare I make light of someone wanting equipment to perform out of its depth, cause that
never happens on these forums to worse degrees, for far less, right?
Why don't you offer some constructive advice to that person instead of charging in here calling people names?
@danoss - you really did come off harsh. Yes we get newbie questions from time to time if you can't deal with that dont post.
I usually don't mind, but that one was comical. While harsh, there was useful information in my post, not in great detail, but it was there. That video was useful too, they were free to ignore all of it, and they certainly did. I'm glad I didn't put any further effort into it.
If this thread had started off better instead of evolving into its current state, we could have an OP with information about different equipment that people could be pointed to and could be updated from time to time as things change. Not much of a concern doing this, things really don't move that quickly in the camera world.
Now, let's have more people tell me how shitty I was, because the message hasn't been received at all.
I disagree. From my experience in in big markets like LA, a lot of people get away with cheap/no-pay for good gigs because there are good photographers out there who are willing to work for nothing just to get experience. It lowers rates for every photographer.
How long do you think free photography is sustainable for these people? Until housing, food, electricity, camera and computer equipment, studio space, make-up artists, assistants and so on become free, I would say not very long at all. The places that are willing to exploit free photographers do so, mostly because they weren't willing to pay someone to do it anyway.
I don't hear anyone complaining about interns at different companies. Technically they're taking jobs away from people who are experienced in those areas, but the employers weren't willing to pay anyone for the job anyway, so what's the harm really?
XMonkey said:
Funny video, but I'd appreciate it if you could explain why some shitty photographer ruins it for the good photographers. People making a poor choice when hiring a photographer isn't a very compelling case as it happens all the time. I have a portfolio of work and a client is welcome to evaluate my rates based on that work. Someones shitty experience with a bad photographer doesn't really have much to do with me. They aren't going to swear off all photographers based on one bad experience.
You didn't see that in the video, why they make good photographers look bad? They charged $1300 for that rubbish. I know people who currently charge about the same and output amazing work. Weddings are pretty serious, and photography is often of the lowest importance. Now, people see that crap, hear about it from others, and tell others about it. One thought process is "Clearly the people in that price range aren't worth it, they're too cheap and it shows..."
Different results can come out of it:
- "...I'll have to get a more expensive photographer instead then, I want nice pictures"
- "...I've found this other person who'll do it for half that price, I'll just use them"
- "...I'll just get disposables and give them to the guests, that should cover it"
- "...I'll just get my cousin to shoot it, he's got a nice camera"
You might even feed some of those free photographers you dislike so much.
Don't forget that the customer liked the photographers portfolio to begin with, so it's hardly their fault for picking the bad photographer after seeing work that they liked. I was terrible at photography when I started out (I still have a long way to go, learning never stops in this hobby) and even then I could produce some gem photos, like happy accidents.
People paying and getting crap hurts more than not paying anything and getting crap. Which do you think they'll complain about more?
Just a question, how often do people here use high pass filter?
Less often now than before I started using Lightroom with the sharpening masking option in the develop module.
I've yet to try using it for that skin softening technique, it seems interesting.
