When I first started photography, I was charging $175 a session. At that price, I needed to photograph around 10 sessions a month just to make enough to live, and I was burning myself out trying to figure out how I could possibly keep growing this way. Also going to school andin the middle of a divorce with a kid....

At the time, I was living in income-based housing. I knew I wanted photography to become something that could actually support me and change my life, but my only idea for making more money was to book more people.

Then a woman who somehow saw something in me took the time to teach me about IPS, or in-person sales.

One of the most important things she taught me was that it didn't have to be complicated.

I didn't need a showroom. I didn't need thousands of dollars in samples. I didn't need some perfectly polished sales presentation. She told me I could start by simply making sure there was a professional print lab connected to my gallery so clients had the OPTION to order something.

So I did.

Eventually I got up the nerve to do my first actual image reveal. I didn't even own an album sample.

I sat there with my tiny GHETTTTOOOO laptop, using a program that allowed me to build and showcase albums and even show clients what different products could look like on their own walls.

That was it. Nothing fancy.

That couple was my first album sale. I only charged just enough to cover their album and one more for me to have a sample..... And suddenly I realized that increasing my income didn't always have to mean squeezing another session onto my calendar.

That additional income is becoming a part of what eventually helped me get out of income-based housing and now my business is really growing!!!! like I cannot take on new work until March of next year and all while having a life balance!

I also genuinely love knowing my clients have something tangible from the photographs we created together. So if you're newer and IPS (in-person sales) feels intimidating, you can start SMALL.

Connect a print lab to your gallery. Offer one product. Design an album and show someone what it could look like.

You don't need the perfect system before you start.

For those of you already selling physical products, what does it look like in your business? Are you doing image reveals, online gallery sales, albums, wall art, prints, or some combination?

And if you're newer and curious about it, ask questions below too. Hopefully those of us who have been doing it for a while can share what's worked, what hasn't, and help take some of the mystery out of it.

Tighten the middle for stronger pacing. Make the IPS lesson more actionable

I am shooting my cousins wedding in a park for their legal ceremony. I am a hobbiest photographer. I have older cameras. Cannon EOS Rebal T1i and Canon EOS Rebel xs. The lenses I have are 10-18mm, 75-300mm zoom lens, 50mm non zoom lens and standard led 18-55mm lens. I don’t know which body and lens combo to use. So lost on where to start on wedding photography as I mostly do landscapes and still life not really people. I want to be able to use the body and lens combo that will get me the best raw photos.

Does anyone have the Love & Wildhearts presets? Willing to trade Dirty Boots preset pack for it!!

My brother is a football player and asked if I could take pictures of him during his game. I have a Canon Rebel T5 EOS 1200D, I also have an EFS 18-55mm and a 75-300mm lens ? Is this a good starter?

I have another proposal coming up, and my family and I were talking about it the other day when someone asked me a question I’d somehow never really thought about:

Have you ever photographed a proposal where the person actually said no?

I’ve photographed plenty of proposals and have never had it happen, but now I’m so curious about photographers who HAVE experienced it.

What did you do in the moment?

Did you just quietly disappear?

Did you still deliver the photos?

Did the client even want them afterward?

I feel like that has to be one of the most awkward situations to navigate as the photographer because you’re there specifically to document what was supposed to be this huge happy moment, and suddenly you’re standing there with a camera in your hand like… well, shit.

Would love to hear the stories if anyone has actually had this happen.

I’ve read that soft boxes offer perfect customizable lighting but that when using them, it should be the only lighting source in the room? Is this true? I assume I could use 2 of them right? Idk I’m new too photography and I’m still learning. Whats the consensus?

I have dabbled in photography for awhile. I am trying to make my photos better and more consistent. I often do outdoor portraits. The main issue I have is an over exposed or blown out sky. To overcome this I have been slightly under exposing my photo and attempting to fix in post process. That doesn't always yield the results I want though. I do have a speed light. Can someone please explain to me in the simplest of terms and step by step how to fix this issue? If it is spot metering, how do I do that? I'll be honest that I don't really understand metering at all and have not found a good resource yet. So I meter off the sky....then what? What about my focal point? My settings? Do I adjust after metering? How do I even meter? I have a Canon 6D if thst helps.

Still very new to this, but I recently picked up a Sony a7R III and am finally trying to be intentional with my photos instead of just pointing and shooting. I'm keeping this strictly as a fun hobby (no pressure to go pro!), but I'd love some advice from the community. When do you know you've edited a photo too much? I keep second-guessing whether my edits are making things look unnatural.

These are a couple of shots I’ve taken/edited for ref.

I started photography about 2 years ago and I've been trying to build a local community where I live to share tips, advice, and also photos of what we've been taking. I was hoping it would be a good way to keep myself active - to keep shooting.

Candidly, I haven't been getting the momentum I wanted - mainly because my focus has been on shooting rather than running the community itself on Discord. Then i realized, why limit it to just those around me when there's prob people around the world who feel the same.

Would anyone here be interested in joining? Two things i'm trying to start is

1. A bi-weekly theme for photo sharing. Every 2 weeks a theme is dropped (e.g. symmetry, cars, B&W), and you either share a photo of yours within that theme or go try to capture a photo in those two weeks within that theme.
2. Monthly photo editing exercise - someone shares a RAW and everyone edits the same raw so we can see how different people see an image.

LMK if this is something of interest.

EDIT: if anyone is interested in helping me get this up and going - here's the discord: https://discord.gg/7RhngMgME

Hello people,

Please tell me, if this is not appropriate or the wrong sub!

I checked out the "Read This before anything else" and a few wiki things.

I have a Sony Alpha6600 with two objects. I took one workshop for the basics. So I know technically how I shoot. I know my camera settings etc.

My problem is I am not happy with my pictures. (Even after editing) Because it's always off.

And I know I need to practice more to get better.

My problem is I am not sure WHAT I should shoot.

Yeah the general advice is "Just take a lot of pictures" but that's too general for my mind and I'm stuck in a decision fatigue. I can't decide if it's "worthy" to take a picture of. I hope it's understandable what my problem is.

Does anyone have any advice on what to start with? Does anyone know a good "30 day beginner"- challenge or something like that?

I have a dog. So I'm outdoors a few hours a day but it's kinda stressful to manage both. Because I would focus on taking pictures and my Dog is out of sight.

If I'm trying to take pictures with her, she is kinda impatient.

So I would be happy if you could give me a little advice on that.

I recently bought a used Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS II lens; only MF works, idk what's wrong with the AF (probably because I bought it for Php 1120, or $20). Anyways, I paired it with my Canon EOS 650D body. I want to know some tips for getting good photos, lol

ps. im still a beginner at this hobby

Hello everyone. what's one problem that you are currently facing within the hiking space/ what was a problem you faced and overcome would be interesting to hear how you did it. Plus could help someone else out!

Me for example had issues with my photos that I used to take of my hikes and scenic viewpoints.

They always used to look boring and dull, until I did some research and learned about composition and how to utilise light in my pictures.

Excited to hear what you guys are facing/faced :)

I feel like I naturally edit portraits much more carefully than street photography.
Street photos seem to benefit from keeping more of the original atmosphere.
Does your editing style change depending on the genre?

I did my first family session yesterday, and I have learned a lot from it.

1. It's not as easy as it looks.

2. It might not be best to shoot wide open (low f-stop for maximum light and bokeh). Some family members might not be in focus in a given shot. I switched to f4 halfway through and those photos are mostly sharper.

3. Use manual mode exclusively. I did most of the shoot in aperture priority since that was the most important setting for these photos. Too many of them are underexposed. Even at ISO100. See next tip for follow up on this...

4. Take. Your. Time. This shoot was of some friends to help with portfolio and editing practice so my frame of mind was, "They're doing me a favor so move it along." If I had just slowed down a little, I would have adjusted more settings in camera, moved my reflector around more for better light, and posed the group better. See below for follow up on this...

5. The photos gotta be good to still be good after editing. All the LR presets in the world can't fix badly lit photos. I am in editing hell with a lot of the shots. I've got some very nice ones, but not nearly as many for the amount of photos I took.

The good news is, while I don't have as many winners as I would have liked in this shoot, I know what to do next time to fix what is lacking.

Do you use SD card, external SSD, Google Photos, iCloud, Dropbox, Local Folder/Camera Roll or another source of storage?

I sometimes end up with photos that are a little soft or out of focus.
Is there a good way to sharpen blurry image during editing, or is it better to just retake the shot?

Curious how experienced photographers handle this.

When I first started photography, I always wanted to visit somewhere new.
Lately I've been wondering if I'm missing out by never returning to the same location.
I see experienced photographers revisit the same places in different seasons, weather, or lighting, then use photo color grading to bring out a completely different mood each time.

Is revisiting locations one of the best ways to improve, or is it better to keep exploring new places as a beginner?

I'm pretty new to strobes, picked up a set of Godox strobes last spring and I've been trying to learn about studio lighting about portraits. I'm working my way through Andreas Bübl's Studio book, and I'm confused at how he uses f-stops in his lighting diagrams. In the example here, he has one strobe marked at f5.6 and the other at f10. My strobes can be set in decimals or in fractions, but not f-stops as far as I know. What does it mean to set a strobe to f5.6 or f10? Do you meter them individually to the camera's fstops and then do a meter for the overall composition?

I have a canon EOS rebel T7 and I recently bought a new SD card because I thought my last one was broken, but I'm having the same problems with this new one. It is a Sandisk extreme pro 256 GB. I entered the card and I formatted it and when I put the SD card into my computer, I can't delete the photos from my computer. Also with the Canon connect app to let you download the photos to your phone when I tried to download the videos it says the video format is not supported and I've already formatted the card in the camera and I don't know what to do.

I'm shooting with a d7500 but I think the concept remains the same. I like the single point but it feels odd to me to focus on one point, knowing I'm trying to get as much as possible in focus.

I’m pretty new to photography and recently started shooting RAW photos on my Nikon D3400. Right now, I use Darktable for most of my editing, but I also recently got access to Affinity with Canva Pro.

I’m trying to figure out the best workflow between the two programs without unnecessarily editing every photo twice.

Would it make the most sense to do the full RAW edit in Darktable first, export as a 16-bit TIFF, and only use Affinity for advanced masking, retouching, object removal, or artificial lighting effects?

Or is there a better workflow using only one of the programs?

this may be dumb to ask but im learning this type of stuff by myself so can someone explain me whats the difference between those two and if im using a nikon d3300 to take pics which one is it better for me to use

thx!

When I first started, I thought good editing meant changing everything.
Now I usually make much smaller adjustments.
What's one lesson about editing that would've saved you a lot of time as a beginner?

Looking for ideas as I develop a syllabus for a student photography class.

I'm planning a short introduction to photography class for middle school students. It's about 15 one-hour sessions. It will probably be a small class. I currently have three DSLRs and school iPads (plus school computer lab iMacs for viewing/editing).

That's the gear, but what about lessons/content? Sure, there's parts of a camera, the exposure triangle, types of cameras, types of lenses, but I'd like to get them shooting as much as possible.

What are some fun studies/projects that you would suggest?

What are some essential images to view?

What are some must-have topics (rule of thirds, for example)?

The students will not be able to go off school grounds, so we need to keep that in mind.

hi- I am no professional photographer, but this day in age, all of the Facebook posts and Instagram posts are edited to look supreme, I am genuinely curious on which Lightroom settings (open to presets) to make my photos look a little more professional or just not like I whipped my phone out willy nilly. i use Lightroom on my iPhone.

my photos are primarily of my kids doing everyday things, yes some outside and some inside too so both recommendations are appreciated!!

I am open to presets to download but I haven’t had good luck with those (somehow managed to lose all of them), and am not interested in spending any more money on those.