Professional photos with budget camera?

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AndyG123

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Andy
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Hi guys, I do love my photography since taking it up in September with my d3300 and kit lenses (sigma 70-300) and 18-55 3.5. I want to try and earn some spare pennies with photography... How hard is this to do with my camera if my shots are good.
I do have free access to website hosting and actually make websites for a living. So it's not an issue getting a website set up.
I've thought about building a portfolio of doggies in the family and getting some nice shots of pooches.. Have thought about using these images to Build a Facebook page and website. Then offering people a free 1 hour session with access to purchase a memory card with all of the images at cost of the memory stick. For liking and sharing my page. To boost traffic. Then starting to see if people would actually buy this service (at very little cost in comparison to others) . My only problem is Im not a professional photographer and my kit is limited.

Do you guys think with time and practice this could be possible to do with the kit I have?.. (the reason I say dogs is because I am an animal lover and animals do seem to listen to me) more so than children. (still failing to get a fantastic picture of my 4 month old baby)
 
You've had a camera just under two months and you want to start charging people for your images? Erm right ho.

Try giving it another couple of years, by when hopefully you'll have learned something about photography.
 
My advice learn to use the camera you have before thinking of upgrading.
 
And of course the only risk to your business is someone with only a months experience undercutting you...

Less sarcastically, if your business plan depends on being cheap because you’re not good enough, it’s a s*** plan. Would you go to the cheapest restaurant in town if you knew there was a risk the food would make you ill? Have a cut price mechanic fix your car but he’s not very good?

The obvious answer is that to go into business you have to produce a product people want, not because it’s cheap, but because it’s worth having. IMHO it’s not important how long you’ve been shooting or what gear you’re using. What’s important is that you know exactly how to produce images people would want to buy, but that is strongly helped by knowledge, practice and decent quality kit.
 
I'm not out to undercut people, however do undertand the difference between different photographers... At our wedding we paid for a wedding photographer who was a higher priced photographer because that for us was a special day and we loved his style of photographer. But there are people out there who charge a lot less for wedding photography to the point there can be a difference between thousands of pounds in some photographers.
My point is more so.. I want an opportunity to practice more with photography, learn more about it and working with people on a 1 to 1 basis and giving people an affordable service which would develop my skill and build a portfolio. I was more so concerned about limitations of my kit with it been an entry level budget camera.
 
A Nikon D850 + a lens around 105mm is what is needed.
 
Why spoil a hobby you enjoy mixing it up with money, be very lucky to make anything anyway.
So no I don't think its a goer, time might be better spent trying to get a good picture of your nipper

Also your kit is very limited, can hardly run a business without a spare camera. Why can't you do all you want without the monetary aspect?
 
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There again a Kingston Data Traveler 16GB is under £6. I got a few of that in USB3 for giving away to people. If you want to try what you are suggesting why complicate life? Pay for the stick and give it away ... it is worth a lot less than the time you could get from people. b*****ks comes to mind.
 
AndyG123 said:
I'm not out to undercut people,
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What made me think that?
AndyG123 said:
... For liking and sharing my page. To boost traffic. Then starting to see if people would actually buy this service (at very little cost in comparison to others) . ...
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;)
AndyG123 said:
...I want an opportunity to practice more with photography, learn more about it and working with people on a 1 to 1 basis and giving people an affordable service which would develop my skill and build a portfolio. I was more so concerned about limitations of my kit with it been an entry level budget camera.
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Work on getting subjects, ignore charging until you know what the ‘business’ is all about. Put yourself out there, you’ll build skills that you’ll need later when you start to charge.

I chuckle when I hear newbies with aspirations say it’s difficult to get subjects for free, if you can’t attract an audience at £0 how are you supposed to convince people to pay you £500?
 
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I bought a budget tool kit from Halfords in September and I want to be a pro mechanic. Would you let me change the clutch in your car for an affordable price to build my portfolio?
 
TLR-330 said:
And if you try to offer some advice as to how it can be made better you get your head bitten off because you did not say this the bestest nipper you have ever seen.
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I had a strict policy at work of only looking at one baby or wedding photograph
 
Phil V said:
I chuckle when I hear newbies with aspirations say it’s difficult to get subjects for free, if you can’t attract an audience at £0 how are you supposed to convince people to pay you £500?
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I have seen these kind of shots charged at £50 for 1 hours work and 1 print. Then access to order prints. If I did start to get shots people were happy with from the freebies which I did mention from family and friends then I would offer free shots on social media.. If I had interest that way and people were happy that's when I would charge with the USB files available at something cheaper that.

Perhaps £30 for the USB drive. It isn't a fully functioning retire from my job and make it big. It's more so, get to work with people, at a very reasonable price without having their eyes out,earn a bit of extra money for my time to Invest in more equipment.
 
Making money from photography is 85% marketing, sales & business skills. The remainder is about taking pictures people want to buy.

If you are going to seriously consider doing it for money, even as a sideline, you will need at least two body's, a range of lenses and also know how to handle flash. I've been doing it for years, and while I have sold a few images here & there, I wouldn't consider myself to be of a good enough standard to produce high quality output on a consistent basis, which is what it's all about.
 
-Oy- said:
I bought a budget tool kit from Halfords in September and I want to be a pro mechanic. Would you let me change the clutch in your car for an affordable price to build my portfolio?
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I think it's a bit different to be honest. Potentially you trying to fit a clutch in my car could be an expensive error.
An hour of someone's time to get some photos of their pet on the beach or at their home for a small fee of £30 for photos you could get printed or framed is giving someone the opportunity to get them without shedding out a lot more for a professional who would give a sharper image and give the same level of courtesy respect and dedication to their work.
 
Jelster said:
Making money from photography is 85% marketing, sales & business skills.
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Thankfully part of my job with the websites I make is online marketing. At least one of my skill sets are there.

But yeah flash is something I defiantly do want to learn to use more.
 
AndyG123 said:
I have seen these kind of shots charged at £50 for 1 hours work and 1 print. Then access to order prints. If I did start to get shots people were happy with from the freebies which I did mention from family and friends then I would offer free shots on social media.. If I had interest that way and people were happy that's when I would charge with the USB files available at something cheaper that.

Perhaps £30 for the USB drive. It isn't a fully functioning retire from my job and make it big. It's more so, get to work with people, at a very reasonable price without having their eyes out,earn a bit of extra money for my time to Invest in more equipment.
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Seriously, take a breath. I’m well aware there are photographers charging ridiculously low rates.

And I’ll tell you what they don’t know. When they ‘think’ that £30 is ‘reasonable’ for ‘an hours work’ and that £300 is ‘having their eyes out’ they’re being idiots. An hours photo shoot has a £ value in advertising, promotion and admin costs. And in reality, it is actually somewhere between 2 and 6 hours direct work. Now that work is:
  • Skilled work (not minimum wage unskilled button pressing)
  • Also dependant on serious business overheads.
What happens to all those cheap photographers is they either:
  • Give up because the hassle isn’t worth what they considered a fair rate
  • Or they put their prices up to make it worthwhile
Now add to the above, something that ought to be obvious to a ‘marketing expert’. Photographs are a luxury item, if someone is skint, it’s not the price of photography that’s putting them off buying, no matter how cheap, photos aren’t enough of a priority, so your target audience need to have disposable income, so you need to provide them with an ‘experience’, offer something of perceived high value and they’ll pay whatever price is on the ticket.
 
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AndyG123 said:
snip ....

giving someone the opportunity to get them without shedding out a lot more for a professional who would give a sharper image and give the same level of courtesy respect and dedication to their work.
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Nail, Head, Hit. Why would I pay anything for an unsharp photo?

Until you can reproduce high quality output on a consistent basis you're on to a loser.....
 
Post a few of your shots. I would go for it you have nothing to loose.
 
Not as easy as people might think regardless of what kit you have.

If your doing photography for people many will expect to be able to buy sets of prints in various sizes and have no interest in digital files.

Those prints need to be professional and a cut above what average joe with a dslr and local printers can do.
 
You are amongs a crowd of people, especially new mums, all fired with enthusiasm of a hobby grade camera, and a lot of face-book 'likes' and comments "Oh, you take such good photo's you should be a pro'....no, no you shouldn't... by all means go for it! Who knows, you cant win the lottery unless you buy a ticket, B-U-T.. you haven't got the know-how to make a real go of this right now, and the camera is probably the last thing on the list that you need worry about, knowing how to get the most of that, or any other camera, only slightly above it. You really don't now how much you just don't know... but by all means go try.... OR re-read your ow thread, and take a good long hard think about what you have bee offered by folk who DO make a livng from this sort of stuff!
 
So it's not necessarily about the kit but how you use it, but also having the skills to use it, and then about the light.

What are you going to use for lighting? What are you going to use for a background. Are you shooting in your premises or going to their home. If you're going to their home with lighting kit, will you have liability insurance?
 
Byker28i said:
So it's not necessarily about the kit but how you use it, but also having the skills to use it, and then about the light.

What are you going to use for lighting? What are you going to use for a background. Are you shooting in your premises or going to their home. If you're going to their home with lighting kit, will you have liability insurance?
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Actually one thing I've just thought of is years ago I used to go to customers premises and occasionally to their homes to fix computer stuff and once you walk through someone elses door it's amazing what some people will accuse you of. Plug anything in and there are people out there who'll accuse you of blowing up something expensive.

I remember one lovely person who insisted that I'd blown their TV as all the colours were off and it must have been me... I removed a plug from the back and saw a bent pin, I straightened it and voilla! Lovely picture again. People (or a percentage of them) are just lovely :D

Step into someone elses premises or God forbid their home and IMO you have to assume that sooner or later you're going to get the blame for something.
 
Take shots for nothing to build experience and your portfolio.

Spend money on decent lenses.

Practice.

Practice.

Practice.

Forget about making money out of a 2 month old hobby (snigger).




As soon as you start charging be prepared to be able to handle pressure and lots of it.
 
AndyG123 said:
(still failing to get a fantastic picture of my 4 month old baby)
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If you're struggling to get a good picture of a baby that has limited movement, how can you do dog pictures?

If I was you, I'd take my camera to a local park and speak with people asking if you can take pictures of their dogs - in return you'll send them free pictures of their dog (with your watermark if you want).

You need this experience.

Imagine charging someone, failing to get any shots and nothing to deliver. Experience, experience, experience.
 
Peoples houses are never large compared to a dedicated studio space thats set up, so you introduce a backdrop (with two stands or a pop up), then lighting with stands (lights or flash guns) and you could be struggling to get the location you want, so compromise.
Then you introduce a dog that won't sit or behave, or maybe young kids, or maybe a distracted photographer and you've the possibility of knocking something over.

So you need insurance, just to cover yourself.
 
i mean, calm down lads, yes I'm sure you can absolutely get some nice pictures of dogs with your camera. Good luck with it all!
 
I'm going to go against the flow here, and suggest a way you might consider.

We have recently got a puppy, and as my wife and I both work there are some days when we cannot be at home to look after the puppy, and so take him to a 'Doggy Daycare' place local to where I work.
They basically look after a number of dogs on a day-by-day basis - helping with socialisation for the puppy, but also providing him with a safe location where he gets plenty of exercise and attention.

A week ago they had a 'Doggy Photo shoot' - basically a room at the centre was set up, and a couple of aspiring photographers (who were, I assume, friends of someone at the centre) ran free 20-30 minute sessions getting shots of the puppy, both on his own and with our children.

They then have a website set up where we can buy copies of the images (they've not got the images up yet, so I've not investigated, but I believe you have options of actual prints, digital copies, prints on mugs, etc).

For the photographers, this is a part time activity (they both have other jobs), which enables them to build up their experience, and earn some additional cash to help fund their gear.
By making the shoot itself free, they have partly bypassed the risk of not getting any great shots, and by running it at the centre over a couple of weekends they have ensured they get a reasonable number of potential clients.

You might want to see if there are similar places near where you are, and if you could offer a similar service via them - you would need to prove to the owners of the centre you could produce quality shots, so as already mentioned you might wish to spend time building up a suitable 'portfolio' of shots, getting used to using flash, etc. before you approach somewhere.

As others have already mentioned, you need to consider things like lighting, liability insurance, and backup equipment - in the case of the couple I mentioned, they both shot (with different lenses to get variety), but also because there were two of them, once could be watching the dog & gear, while the other was taking shots - reducing the risk of an accident.
 
Orangecroc said:
The rest of it is mostly down to your ability to sell yourself and promote yourself.
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AndyG123 said:
Thankfully part of my job with the websites I make is online marketing. At least one of my skill sets are there.
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Shouldn't have an issue there. I've not met one website developer yet who isn't brilliant, until they come to deliver :D
 
Good luck :snaphappy:

Wait till someone comes along how isn't one of your friends or family. :whistle::whistle:
 
Another one going against the flow here. Nothing wrong with you having an aim to work towards. I would however suggest getting yourself some training, both in photography (try your local college for classes) and in business - legal business basics, marketing, book-keeping, record keeping, branding, social media for business etc etc. You may well find that you have a local enterprise agency or similar that will offer these for free - there is a plethora of free/cheap small business resources where I live (Suffolk). so I'm sure there's similar available elsewhere. Even if you are not planning on going the small business route at the moment, a lot of that will still apply to you - tax, insurance, marketing etc etc. You will find that being a successful photographer is more about the business side than the photo side - this is alluded to in this thread and something I've seen this discussed many times on this forum by the professionals. Pay heed - it's advice worth its weight in gold.
 
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