Family portrait shoot

[MartinP]

A couple of weeks ago I did a portrait shoot of my niece and sister in law. I'd be grateful for some feedback on the images, especially do you think these are of a 'professional quality'?

I've been out of work for almost 4 months and my speciality area in the electronics industry is looking really grim at the moment, so I'm thinking of trying to sit out the recession by picking up some portrait jobs.

Any comments/suggestions please?

[Steve Evil]

I'm certainly no expert but they look good to me, real test is what your sister in-law thought of them?

From my experience on my evening photography courses, there are a lot of keen amateurs out there making money on the side by doing a similar thing, as your average man on the street has no idea about aperture etc. And has no idea how to get such images himself.

[Simpo Two]

The only thing I spotted amiss was the ruckled sheet underneeth (I use vinyl). The last two look very good.

However everybody is jumping on the 'photographer' bandwagon and the more that jump on, the fewer it can support. So whilst you could make decent holiday money, I'll be very impressed if you can make a living. Family portraiture is very price sensitive. Good luck

[baz7175]

On, but off topic...

Martin, what is your specific field of work?

The UK is dire at the moment, and has progressively getting worse for some time hence why I moved to California in 2002 and then to Germany in 2007 - it's getting to the stage that the only way to maintain the jobs in our industry is with willingness to go where the work is.

I've been in the semiconductor industry since I left school at 16, went through uni at night to get my degree while working, and I'll have been dealing with the typical cycles of the industry for 18 years in 2 months time.

There are still jobs out there, but with so many places laying off qualified and experienced people it's harder and harder to get in the door as the companies have a lot to choose from.

The company I'm with have openings in California for field service, but depending on your home life it will quickly rule that one out or not...

I recently was approached by a company doing sub-contract work for Intel in the Republic of Ireland, maybe another option as there are a few companies over there taking people on to do the service and PM work of systems without paying the company (i.e. Applied Materials/Varian) the money they want to have someone onsite

[MartinP]

My sister in-law was extremely pleased, but she is family and also I wasn't charging her for it. She showed me some portraits that were done at her nursery (by an alledged pro) and they were really dreadful, so I figure there must be something I could do here to earn a bit of cash.

I'm guessing it would be very competitive, but I don't need to earn a big salary from this - I wouldn't be disappointed if the profit wasn't much more than job seekers allowance, I'd just need to ride out the recession and then go back to my career when it all picks up again.

[MartinP]

Baz, for the last ten years I've managed groups of RF engineers in both the mobile handset and semiconductor industries developing radio solutions for mobile phones. I'm stuck in being rejected as being over qualified for hands on engineering or project management positions and can't find anything else appropriate in the UK. My family situation probably rules out a move abroad.

[MartinP]

Simpo Two said:

The only thing I spotted amiss was the ruckled sheet underneeth (I use vinyl). The last two look very good.

Thanks - good point about the sheet.

[Simpo Two]

MartinP said:

I'm guessing it would be very competitive, but I don't need to earn a big salary from this - I wouldn't be disappointed if the profit wasn't much more than job seekers allowance, I'd just need to ride out the recession and then go back to my career when it all picks up again.

Fair point. As a guide, there's a decent family portrait tog not far from me and IIRC she charges £25 for the shoot and then sells prints. Your work is equally good.

[MartinP]

Simpo Two said:

Fair point. As a guide, there's a decent family portrait tog not far from me and IIRC she charges £25 for the shoot and then sells prints. Your work is equally good.

Thanks - that's the kind of thing I wanted to know.

Are there any other angles that are worth trying to get a bit of photography work?
I'm guessing assistant photographer work is really hard to come by at the moment.

[Simpo Two]

MartinP said:

Are there any other angles that are worth trying to get a bit of photography work?
I'm guessing assistant photographer work is really hard to come by at the moment.

I expect they'd prefer a nice malleable student.

If I was after the family portrait market I'd advertise in the local papers/free papers. 'Village Advertiser' kind of thing. Olan Mills has gone bust, Venture is bonkersly expensive so you should get some work quite quickly I'd have thought. It's relatively cheap so it falls into impulse category too, such as birthday/Christmas presents. But you need photos to sell photos, so get a website set up PDQ if you haven't already!

[CVP]

Martin, these are easily as good as images of my nieces one of my sisters paid for. if you can make some cash out of it, why not. I guess a lot of us are battening down the hatches for a while at the moment.

Chris

[baz7175]

MartinP said:

Baz, for the last ten years I've managed groups of RF engineers in both the mobile handset and semiconductor industries developing radio solutions for mobile phones. I'm stuck in being rejected as being over qualified for hands on engineering or project management positions and can't find anything else appropriate in the UK. My family situation probably rules out a move abroad.

I was getting the same replies from the firms I was interviewed with once ESM went belly up in Newport, Wales - I also never thought being over qualified would be a problem, I ended up toning down my CV and ended up with an offer for a field sales manager for south east england and south wales for a well known electronic parts catalog supplier, but turned it down in favour of the job in California which has eventually brought me to Aachen via a 5 year stint in Northern Ireland.

[red355]

I used to do lots of photography work prob 1/2 to 2/3 full time, but that was before digital became affordable . The ease of access to DSLR has somewhat diluted the market place. When a 4.4MPixel Canon 1D was £4K+ it needed serious investment.... mmm still does with the top end kit.
I took a well paid job in IT which stopped me progressing further to full time, but have kept my hand in with a 4-6 weddings + portraits each year plus sports related shoots.



Its worth noting that you can get a lot of business by referral from a just few happy customers. I suspect most people would be delighted with the pictures you took of the child.... and just many will have different view of pictures of themselves. :-)
fickle lot customers

If you can offer something extra over the studios that have been there done it all a thousand times over, that's a big plus.
Nothing against studios I have professional photographer mates who like my work, but say stick at my day job as it simply pays more and is less hassle than dealing with vagaries of the public

Example for generating some income and its a good exposure for your work.
I hired a village hall for the day (35 quid) set up a shoot on teh stage and offered 1 hour slots....worked really well.
Ought to do that again I suspose?

Good luck

Finally be aware of the legal implications especially health & safety plus child protection

I think its worth getting a book, called beyond the lens see http://www.beyond-the-lens.com/ its gives you all the information that is outside of taking the picture

[mikechandler]

OP,

Great pics, what equipment and set up did you use?

[MartinP]

red355 said:

Useful stuff

Thanks!

mikechandler said:

what equipment and set up did you use?

The set up was two slave triggered flash guns fired into silver umbrellas to light the background and two flash guns shooting though white umbrellas with e-bay wireless triggers to light the subject(s). Camera was Canon 40D with a Sigma EX 24-70mm f/2.8 lens.

I must get a light meter at some point, it was a real pain using the camera as a meter to set up the flash levels.

[red355]

light meter is a good idea, and makes you look professional to the customer...but once you have set up the units a few times I bet you can pretty much guess the exposure within a stop.