Posted February 19th, 2009
by Dan Eitreim
by Dan Eitreim
Your job as a photographer (whether you’re an amateur or professional) is simple. You have to make your subjects look as good as they’ve EVER looked without your tricks and techniques being obvious. That’s a task easier said than done.
Unless you are a master retoucher or spend countless hours in Photoshop (or both), it’s hard to change too much in a portrait without ruining it. To get seamless retouches, You need to do most of your fixes “in camera”.
This first tip concerns acne and wrinkles.
It won’t take long in your photo career to realize that teens are plagued with acne and adults have wrinkles. They may or may not actually say anything to you about it, but both age groups want to eliminate or at least lessen their respective problems.
Let’s face it, as we get older our wrinkles become more pronounced and actually deeper. Wrinkles are the first photographic signs of our age but they’re a problem that is actually fairly easy to fix.
What defines a wrinkle? It’s the shadows filling in the crevices. As we get older and those crevices get deeper, the shadows become darker and darker. How to get rid of wrinkles and take years off your photographic model?
Lighten the shadow! (There’s a blinding flash of the obvious.)
What creates shadows? It’s light skimming across the face from the sides or the top. The side light is not able to get into the wrinkle crevices and creates a shadow. The deeper the wrinkle, the darker the shadow. This can (and does) add a lot of visual years to our subject.
So, going in reverse, avoid hard side lighting! Pretty simple. By having the light aimed directly into the face, it will penetrate to the bottom of the wrinkles’ crevice and either lighten or totally eliminate the shadow. Obviously giving your model a younger appearance and saving you a lot of time in Photoshop.
Acne? Use the same cure. Acne scars, pimples and other facial blemishes are at least partially defined by the shadows they cast on the face. Again, light skimming the face from the side will cast longer and harder shadows thus making the acne scars more pronounced and pimples appear larger. Shine your light directly into the face and they will be minimized or disappear altogether.
Use a reflector of some sort or even your on camera flash in addition to the sun to fill in the shadows. Your smooth faced teens and wrinkle free adults will thank you.
You now know as much as most professionals! Now it’s time to make some money with YOUR camera! to see how easy this is, follow one of the links to my site…
About the Author:
Stop working at a job you detest and for a jerk of a “boss”. It is easier than you think to earn a very nice full or part time living in
Photo Marketing. Getting freelance
Photo Jobs and assignments is a snap. You could be making money with YOUR camera as soon as this weekend!
Tags: camera, Digital Photography, freelance photography, hobby, home-business, make money, photo, photo jobs, photo marketing, photo studio, photographer, photographers, Photography, photos, professional photography Posted in Photography
Posted February 4th, 2009
by PJ Francis
by PJ Francis
Beginning photographers often overestimate how difficult it can be to make money as a photographer. In reality, there are dozens of ways to make money through digital photography. Here are 15 great ways to help you kick start your photography career.
Method #1 – Selling Stock Photography: Selling stock photography is easier than you may think. Just take some of your best photos and submit them to stock photography sites. They will be reviewed and if it’s a good photo, it will hopefully be accepted. You’ll get paid about $1-2 every time someone uses your photo.
Method #2 – Screensavers: Screensavers are a big business online. You can make a whole lot of money online by taking a group of photos and making them into screensavers. You can sell them on screensaver websites or eBay.
Method #3 – eBay Sellers: Speaking of eBay, eBay can be a great source of business. eBay sellers often have very poor photos of images they sell over and over. Set up a local service photographing eBay items.
Method #4 – Wedding Photographer: Wedding photography is one of the most popular, profitable and competitive photography fields out there. To get jobs in this area, it’s important to have a very impressive portfolio.
Method #5 – Restaurant Photographer: Restaurant menus often need to have appetizing photos taken for their dishes. They also often need photos of the restaurant itself for marketing materials. Restaurants can be a great source of business for the budding photographer.
Method #6 – Real Estate Listings: Real estate agents need listing photographs of new homes they’re listing. Get yourself a few real estate agents you work with regularly and you could quickly be booked with work.
Method #7 – Insurance Photographer: One of the most tedious tasks of getting insurance is having everything in your home photographed. For highly paid professionals, they would often rather pay someone to do the work than do it themselves. Positioning yourself as an insurance photographer is a great way to get started with paying gigs.
Method #8 – Online Dating Photographer: Both men and women often want to have great photos of them taken for online dating profiles. This is a great way to make some quick cash.
Method #9 – Consignment Art: Places like Cafes and restaurants would often love to showcase your artwork. It gives them art on their walls for free. In exchange, you get exposure and potential buyers for your art.
Method #10 – Sporting Events: Local sporting events such as little league games or high school soccer games would often love to have photographers photograph their games.
Method #11 – Church Directories: A church directory is an album that contains photographs of all their members along with their contact information. Church directories are quite common among churches in higher end neighborhoods. You can easily sell your services as a photographer to help create church directories.
Method #12 – Create T Shirts: T shirts have been and will continue to be great sellers online. Taking photos, putting them on shirts and selling them on eBay or T shirt websites is a great way to make money as a photographer.
Method #13 – Craigslist: Craigslist is a great place to find paying gigs. Hundreds of photographers are using Craigslist to connect with clients. It’s the most trafficked classified website on the internet.
Method #14 – Take Portraits: Portrait photography is a highly profitable business models for photographers. There are two ways you can go about doing portraits: Setting up your own practice, or working with another studio.
Method #15 – Photo Blogging: You can build a small but loyal following simply by posting your photos online on a regular basis. Art lovers who love your style will often subscribe to your blog and keep coming back again and again.
Now you have plenty of profitable ideas you can use to start making money as a photographer. Whether you want to do it part-time for extra cash or make it your full-time work, there’s plenty to choose from.
Tags: business, hobby, home-business, Photography, photos, work at home Posted in Photography
