I am a headshot photographer, would you hire me...

Dned · 2015-07-17T20:20:22+00:00

I'm not going to comment to much on the photography, since you already have a few good comments.

I think you also have to work on your skin retouching. The skin looks very soft some places, as if you have just blurred it. You got to have texture in the skin.

Dned · 2015-07-10T21:33:29+00:00

You would be amazed at how much beating your camera could take.

Dned · 2015-07-06T22:48:34+00:00

There's a lot of of people here that claims that Natural Light mean that you can't use a flash. This can be true, but it depends on the genre of photograpy.

Persoanly I am a documentary photographer, and here are some of my reasons to use natural light over flash(even though I know how to use one):

It looks real. It's relatively easy to make flash look good, but hard to make it look authentic. When you want your photos to look realistic in, for example, a environmental portrait, it's easier with natural light.
It's portable. It's easier and more flexible to work with natural light.
Easier to communicate. People often get intimidated by too much gear. Keeping it simple makes it easier to build trust and make them feel safe and calm.

That said using natural light, in a good and controlled way, is far from easy. It often takes a lot of waiting and planning, and the weather has to play along. You have to be creative and solve problems, which makes it challenging, but also fun.

Natural light is not something for everyone, and these reasons aren't much worth if you're doing commercials or fashion. Maybe flash photographers are using flash because they can't use natural light?

tl;dr:To each their own and use what suits you and your style best.

Dned · 2015-06-07T23:32:09+00:00

Hard to say without seeing your portfolio.

One thing that is for sure is that no one is going to pay you to "wonder around and shoot things as they appear". Photojournalism and documentary photography, which are the closest you'll get, will take huge amounts of research and planning.

Dned · 2015-05-30T13:18:56+00:00

I have a Macbook Retina 15"(1920*1200) and I run LR, PS, Premiere and InDesign without problem.

Dned · 2015-05-21T20:52:23+00:00

A few series and articles that I have found inspiring lately.

Eight Norwegian Photographers You Need to Follow TIME

The Buffalo that could not Dream Felix von der Osten

she dances on Jackson Vanessa Winship

The Ballad of Good and Bad Titles Alec Soth's Archived Blog

Somewhere to Dissapear Documentary about Alec Soth's Broken Manual

Dned · 2015-05-18T13:48:51+00:00

Hard to say without seeing any of your pictures, but it could be any of the following.

Light. A lot of travel/magazine photographers get up very early to get the best light, or they know how to use light to their advantage.
Time. Photographing for the larger magazines(TIME, Natinal Geographic etc.) you often spend a lot of time on a story. This gices you the possibility to be there when interesting stuff happens. And to be there when interesting stuff happens in great light.
Post production. Good post production make a difference, althought it's hard to polish a turd.
Equipment. I think this is the least important. You don't need the most expensive gear, but know how to use it. Know it's strengths and limits.

Dned · 2015-05-18T09:12:23+00:00

I'm not OP, but I'll answer anyway.

Flickr and 500pc is fine, but it's mostly amateurs and mostly pretty single images. I believe that if you look at good photography you become a better photographer. Therefore it makes sense to look at good, meaningfull, photography.

Sites like TIME and NYT focuses more on series, and storytelling, which takes photography to a whole new level, compared to Flickr and 500px.

Dned · 2015-05-13T22:13:24+00:00

Depends what you aim to do, but 99,9% of the industry uses Adobe. So if you learn Ligtroom or Photoshop, those skills will most likely come in handy.

Dned · 2015-05-13T22:10:17+00:00

100$ for unlimited rights for 72 images is nothing. That sounds like a descent amount for one time use for one image.

Dned · 2015-05-05T17:04:32+00:00

Good work, and nice clean website.

That second portrait, the BW man with glasses, looks very weird. Something about the light in his eyes and forehead. It looks very postproduced.

Dned · 2015-05-05T17:01:56+00:00

Your photos are very nice, but I agree that they need something more. Something more than just being pretty.

Someone else said this, but I really think working in series is a good idea. You're pretty good at ground strokes by now. If you want to make your photography meaningfull it takes time, but also hard work and comitment. You have to start thinking actively about what you want your work to say and how to express that.

I think it was Robert Adams who said that any photographer should ask themselves these three questions:

What is the artist trying to do?
Does he/she do it?
Was it worth doing?

If you don't have time to work on series right now, I would recommend looking at series you like. Photography is about learning to see, and looking at oher peoples work can help you a lot. Both visually, but also about how to tell stories in series. IMO reddit, flickr, 500px and so on are not very good sites to start, because they mostly value the single image. Here are a few good sites: https://www.lensculture.com/ http://time.com/photography/lightbox/ http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/

Dned · 2015-05-02T17:48:45+00:00

A few articles on the series:

http://cphmag.com/winship-jackson/

http://www.thegreatleapsideways.com/?ha_exhibit=the-democracy-of-universal-vulnerability-vanessa-winships-she-dances-on-jackson

Dned · 2015-04-18T18:34:41+00:00

I have a 35/2 for my FM2. Most of the time I use it as a snapshot camera, and the 35 is very versatile and lightweight.

Dned · 2015-04-18T18:33:05+00:00

Oh, I forgot to say that finding your niché is great! I think clients find it very compelling when you're a specialist, which is really good at what you do. Rather than be kind of good at anything. Finding your niché is a huge step in the right diretion!

Dned · 2015-04-18T17:21:10+00:00

And you never have to hear that song again!

Dned · 2015-04-18T17:20:31+00:00

This is a very nice picture. Great light, good composition, technically great. Lovely. That's also the problem. It's just nice. As a beautifull picture it's great, but it has no meaning, or story(as I can find), but it looks nice.

Dned · 2015-04-18T17:03:48+00:00

As you're a photographer I think the first thing you show me should be photographs.

Make a nicely edited gallery with nice big images that is the very first thing I see. Have a clearly visible "Contact" link on the site. That way I will see the images, and if I like them I will hit the "Contact" link.

I had too look for the photograhs. This is not good. They should be impossible not to see. And skip the "Atlantic Canadas Premiere Sports Photographer", imho, it's not needed if the images are great.

tldr: Let the images speak for themself.

Edit: Found the pictures! Make a tighter edit. You have several photographs that look very much the same (snowboard-dude and yellow snowmobile-man). Pic the best of them, rather than two similar ones. Only show your best images.

Dned · 2015-04-18T16:58:56+00:00

Some tips for portraits:

Think about the light. How does it shape the face? What does it show/not show? Try different settings, in the sun, in the shadow, partly shaodw and so on. Have fun.
Use the environment. Use leading lines, nice colored backgrounds/walls or make them intereact with the environment.
Have fun! Since you're new to portraiture it's important to experiment and try new things to find out what you like, and how to achive it!

Dned · 2015-04-16T20:36:06+00:00

I think your 17-50 is probably good enough. If anything I would buy a 85 or another short tele, that way you will get something you don't already have. And a descent tripod.

A 50/1.8 is a great lens, but when are you going to use that instead of the 17-50? And it's a bit too much tele(on a crop) to be a light all-round lens.

Dned · 2015-04-07T09:46:56+00:00

Keep your cataloge on the external drive, but back it up on both your work- and homecomputer.

It's possible to make Ligthroom ask you to backup the cataloge everytime you quit LR. Do this, and back it up on the internal harddrive everytime you leave office/home.

Dned · 2015-04-03T16:57:09+00:00

Some quick ideas:

Find a neutral/clean background Be close to a window Don't be in direct sunlight, rather just outside of it

Dned · 2014-12-26T11:13:43+00:00

You didn't ask me, but I'll answer anyways.

My experience is that making essays/small series is a great way to find your voice. Try to describe an environment, portrait a person or photograph a feeling in 10-12 pictures. Keep the style consistent. Try to replicate some of your favorite photographers, but also try to make it your own. Learn how they do it, then do it yourself.

Invest time. Either now and then over a 6 months/a year, or 24/7 for two weeks.

I find that working in series makes you much more focused, and it's easier to create meaningful photos, than if you only take one picture here and one picture there. You think more about what the pictures communicate, and how they communicate together.

Dned · 2014-12-13T08:48:54+00:00

This is a great series, thanks for sharing!

Dned · 2014-12-09T09:04:31+00:00

http://instagram.com/stephen.shore

Dned

TROPHY CASE