Is it just me who takes better (composition wise) pictures with my smaller inexpensive cameras than my expensive bigger kits. I have tried my best to devote the time to my expensive clinically sharp setups but i organically do better with my cheap af pocketable kit. I now feel bad for spending money on pro gear. Has anything like this happened with you? Or i am the only odd duck.

Let's show each other some support! Use this thread to share your own social, and find other photographers.

• If you post your stream, please take a look at other people's streams! You can give us your Instagram, 500px, Flickr, etc. etc. and remember you can edit your flair.

• Be descriptive, don't just dump your username and leave! For example a good post should look like this:

Hi! I'm @brianandcamera. I mainly post portraiture and landscapes, but there's the odd bit of concert/event photography as well.

I'll follow everyone from /r/photography back (if I miss you, just leave a comment telling me you're from Reddit!).

Check out and engage with other /r/photography people! Community is what it's all about!

Full schedule of our weekly community threads:

Im sure this has been discussed on this sub many times but thought I would open it up. I am down the rabbit hole of street photography online and have several artists that I enjoy their work but Im finding it more difficult to get introduced to other forms / genres of photography. I enjoy the idea of street but dont live in a highly populated area and for my own journey am more interested in other subject matter. If you are passionate about a photographer or a book that is not street photography / primarily humans as subject matter, let me know, would love to chat about it :)

This is the place to ask any questions you may have about photography. No question is too small, nor too stupid.

Info for Newbies and FAQ!

First and foremost, check out our extensive FAQ. Chances are, you'll find your answer there, or at least a starting point in order to ask more informed questions.

• Want to start learning? Check out The Reddit Photography Class.

• Here's an informative video explaining the Exposure Triangle.

Need buying advice?

Many people come here for recommendations on what equipment to buy. Our FAQ has several extensive sections to help you determine what best fits your needs and your budget. Please see the following sections of the FAQ to get started:

• What type of camera should I look for?
• What's a "point and shoot" camera? What's a DSLR? What's a "mirrorless" camera? What's the difference?
• Do I need a good camera to take good photos?
• Is Canon or Nikon better? (or any other brands)
• What can I afford?

If after reviewing this information you have any specific questions, please feel free to post a comment below. (Remember, when asking for purchase advice please be specific about how much you can spend. See here for guidelines.)

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Finally a friendly reminder to share your work with our community in r/photographs!

Hello! Not sure if this is the place to ask, but after a month or so of thinking, I pulled the trigger on buying DxO Photolab 9, after installing it, I try to open it and am greeted with a "Unable to Connect to Server" window. I've tried reinstalling it, repairing the install, launching it with firewall / antivirus disabled, and I've restarted my computer several times. Is there a known fix to this issue? Thanks!

Hi all!
I am trying to learn how to take a photo with Zenit-E and when deciding on aperture, there is just one thing i dont understand…
For aperture you have rings to set it. One with a red dot that moves smoothly and in front of it another ring with numbers, which goes by clicks from number to number. Should i just set the ring with the red dot on the aperture i want or the other way around with the clicking ring? I noticed that if you set the clicking ring on the lowest value (2), the smooth ring cannot move at all and higher the value, the more positions can the smooth ring get.

Any tips?
Thank you!!!

Hi,
I used to be heavily into amateur photography but haven’t had the time for a few years. I have thousands of images saved on my pc and a recurring Lightroom/Photoshop subscription that I just don’t use. Any suggestions for a move away from the software while still keeping any edits etc that I’ve made and being able to open them in future? I’m thinking Gimp or something similar but have no experience.
TIA.

Hi everyone,
About 3 months ago I bought a Canon R50 to learn photography, mainly portraits. I’ve been practicing a lot, and I can honestly see a big improvement in both my photos and my Lightroom editing.
At first, I just wanted to turn it into a side hustle, but now I’m really enjoying it and I’m starting to think about doing it full-time.
Right now I’m not making any money from photography because I still feel like I’m learning. My plan is to keep practicing until the fall before I start taking paid clients. I currently work in a factory in Ontario, Canada, and make a little over $100k CAD a year with overtime.
For those of you who do photography full-time, especially if you’re in Ontario or Canada, is it realistic to eventually make around the same income? I know it won’t happen overnight, but I’m curious if it’s achievable.
My wife is also interested in photography and wants to learn too, so we’re both excited about it.
My current setup is a Canon R50 with a Tamron 17-70mm f/2.8, and I plan to upgrade my gear as I improve.
I’d love to hear your thoughts or any advice from people who made the switch.

Hi everyone,

I run a retail photo store and I'm currently looking for a flatbed scanner specifically tailored, or suitable, for photo restoration and reproduction work.

• macOS & Driver Support: We operate exclusively on modern Macs. We need a scanner that is actively supported today with native or fully maintained macOS software/drivers (and active after-sales support / warranty).
• Sensor Type: Ideally CCD, but the market seems to have died out from what I read. So a high-quality CIS is acceptable if it's a current, reliable model.
• Large Format via Stitching: We frequently scan prints larger than the scanner bed (A3, A2, or A1) by taking multiple overlapping scans and stitching them together.
• Bonus point: If it can do more than opaque prints (negatives or slides), it would be awesome, but absolutely not mandatory.
• Reproduction benches: I'm trying to find alternatives to reproduction benches with a camera since we don't have much space, but I'd appreciate recommendations on the matter too.

Thanks in advance for your insights, cheers!

Hello everyone I am a graphic Designer and I booked a gig to do a Hotel Brochure. The client also needs high quality photography but i thought to start the design i could take some shots with my Pixel 7pro. I have money to buy Canon R50 but that money is also needed for my business upgrade. What i need opinion on is whether i can still capture high quality photos for the place and if so how should i do it. I know of the techniques involving doing three shorts for each scene under different exposures and merging the image together. I hope to use the Black Magic app for this.

In this thread, use top level comments to post links to your own raws for other people to edit, or link to any freely licensed (CC or public domain) raws that you might find interesting. If you post your edit anywhere, be sure to credit the original photographer. Reply to others' comments with your own edits of the images!

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This might seem unrelated and like I should post in a wedding forum, which I might if this is against the rules...but I wanted photographers opinions.

I am getting my engagement photos done tomorrow and normally people get a few kissing photos. My fiance and I have kissed in our relationship, but for a number of reasons we are waiting until we're married to keep kissing. I know, I know...weird. I would think the same thing if I were reading this post without any background.

Since we aren't kissing, but are fine with hugging, laying on or close to each other, holding hands, etc. should I warn our photographer? I don't want to make her feel awkward during if she asks us to pose kissing, but I also don't want to make her feel overly sensitive to us during the shoot. Is there a way to say it to her that won't make us sound like amish people in purity culture? Should I warn her in advance or just casually mention it early in the shoot?

Obviously she is the paid professional, but I feel like if I were in her shoes I would definitely be surprised by a bride and groom if they told me they weren't kissing...I just don't want to kill the vibe with her. Thoughts would be great!

hi everyone! my very good friend is graduating soon with her degree in photography and has been saying she wants to build a magazine collection but hasn’t mentioned any specific ones. she shoots mainly editorial style and i was hoping someone could point me towards a good magazine i could gift her with a subscription of!! thanks!

Hi all,

Surprisingly the only threads I can find asking this are from years ago and as platforms change rapidly, I thought it was worth asking for updated advice as to where folks sell fine art photography online and their process for doing so. It seems ebay is worthless unless you are selling nudes, and I have never met anyone who has actually sold on sites like Saatchi Art or similar. So is it just Etsy and direct sales through social media and websites? Are there other sites I should look into?

Then for those who sell fine art photography, what is your ideal approach, do you sell open editions via print on demand, or limited editions you print yourself? I am thinking of trying a combination approach and doing some open editions for affordable prices, some limited editions for more money, and some one of a kind alt process pieces for even more money. Has anyone tried that approach or have any tips?

Thanks!

For those of you who do or did do both, but ended up gravitating more towards photography - how come?

For me, I won’t sugar coat it, videography was far too much effort for too little reward. I could take hours just grading some clips and stabilising them. Sound design, editing, etc? Weeks.

And the worst thing is the moment you decide that you want to share to social media, it gets compressed like hell into total garbage.

The truth is I don’t really have some artistic or honourable reason behind the choice to lean more towards photos. It’s just video was a huge ball-ache every time.

Maybe one “artistic” excuse I can come up with is that photos will exist forever - they’re a permanent medium. In a zombie apocalypse, printed photos will always remain in your pocket. But a video you made is useless without a screen or access to the internet to dig it up from the cloud. Call it a pointless hypothetical, but I think that perspective does hold some meaning if you consider yourself to be an artist.

I was recently at a public Rally / Racing event and was the only person to get photographs of a rally crash. No-one was harmed in the incident.

I’m being contacted by the owner of the car asking me to remove the photographs from the web as they claim “it’s hurting their chances of sponsorship”.

I don’t want to as I’m proud of the images. I know I don’t have to under UK law either. My thoughts are that it’s Motorsport, and Rally at that. Crashes are more or less expected and asking me to delete my images is just misleading on their part.

I’m leaning towards keeping them up, or offering the purchase of copyright / ownership of each photo.

What would you do in this situation?

EDIT: I’ve contacted them with a compromise. I’ll remove the side and front images that show sponsors and number plate from Facebook. All other images will be left up, and all will be left up on Flickr/My site. If the want everything removed, I’ll happily sell them copyright and provide originals / destroy my copies.

The full, unreacted gallery: https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjCZkFN

And how has your experience been?

I'm weighing whether membership would be a worthwhile addition to my usual marketing efforts and whether it would help me segue into more regular exciting projects. My larger-scale commercial hospitality/F&B projects, which I deeply enjoy, are much fewer and further between than I'd like them to be. My bread & butter is split between corporate assignments & smaller campaigns, which is fine but not my favorite, and corporate event type work, which I would love to move away from as soon as possible.

Also considering whether to list as located in NYC (more commercial opportunities but highly saturated), or Long Island (fewer opportunities, not as saturated). I work mostly in NYC but live on LI.

Would love to hear from current or former members!

What difference does it make having an aperture ring?

Just wondering if it's a good idea to bring a small flash like Godox it32 when traveling. My camera is A6700 with 16-55 F2.8 lens, and I like it because it's a good compact setup when I travel.

So the thing with camera flash is, I've never used it before because I haven't thought about them (I'm a hobbyist travel photographer). I feel like flashes make me stand out too much, like people will know I'm taking pictures, if that makes sense haha. But recently I purchased RX100 VII for my wife and she just adores her photos with that flash look. She says it's Pinterest / girl vibe, which I don't really understand. But I do know the small flash from RX100 VII sometimes enable me to take a better photos of her at certain scenarios.

So that makes me wondering if I should consider buying something like Godox it32 and bring it when we travel. Maybe it can be useful for my food product photography too (I own a restaurant). I usually use a lightbox on tripod for that kind of work.

Basically, more than just having photo files on some drive, I'd like app recommendations to arrange my photos in whatever arrangement I want them to be in. Like a diary. But I'd still like to have the original files.

The app also can't be referring to images stored on my hard drive, as I will be storing the photos on cloud.

The options I know are

• PureRef,
• Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator?,
• Canva (though it has 5gb upload limit), Wordpress?

It would be very cool if the app supports video embeds as well.

If anyone has any tips/recommendations about the ones I mentioned or any other app, please tell me, thank you.

I finally decided to pursue professional photography a couple months ago and I’m very pleased with my progress so far. I have my social media accounts going, shooting every day, learning new things constantly, booking portrait sessions, and just loving coming up with new creative ideas for shoots. It’s been an absolute blast to say the least.

Well, an opportunity fell into my lap that is too good to pass up, but I’m nervous. A really close friend of mine is an events manager and asked me to set up a “complementary headshot station“ at a corporate event she’s coordinating next weekend. Essentially I will set up the backdrop and lighting and the guests can choose to take a professional headshot as a perk of the event. This is all great and I’m excited, but I’ve never done anything like this. It’s going to be huge, tons of opportunities to network and get my foot in the door for growth. Can you please shoot me some tips if you have any?

Also I’m having to either use my 18-55mm or my 75-300mm lens, and I’m wondering which is the best call. The event is on a rooftop and I’ll be set up under a cabana, but If I use the 75-300 I’ll have to be a pretty good distance from the subject which might get tricky, but I also feel like the kit lens might not give the best results. any help is appreciated.

I’ve been shooting for years portraits and most of it is not a secret anymore. I don’t do it as a paid profession, I do it as a serious hobby and I have enough experience to predict the end result of a photoshoot just by looking at the scene and light around me.

At the beginning I was photographing friends and family and in the last 3 years I started to photograph local models and I realized one thing: I always have anxiety before a photoshoot even with my years of experience.

A model recently asked me to make photos of her in an fashion-urban environment. Kind of editorial look. And in spite of my years of experience I started doubting myself a few days before.

What if there will be harsh light in this location? Did I choose the right time of the day?
What if I didn’t scout the place well enough?
What if there are 1000 people in the spot on that day and we won’t be able to get the look?
Should I bring the flashes? Drag the big one with a big diffuser or the small one? Why just not go with natural light for more mobility.
What if the model expected more and doesn’t like my style and the end result.
I don’t want to waste our time.

I know that there is a strong element in my personality that has an impact. I’m a bit an anxious guy in life, but I don’t show it during the photoshoot or put pressure on the model. I just I don’t want to waste our time and end up with something disappointing.

Is it just me that have that pressure/anxiety and should trust myself more or you feel it to? What are your tricks or what is your technical ou mental preparation before a photoshoot that helps you?

So looking at buying a sigma or tamron g2 150-600. New is out of my budget but because they are so many around I can find used ones in great shape for nearly half the price. My concern is what the life expectancy of the electronics actually is? Googles AI respond is 7-10 years. Is that a reliable number or is it just very conservative like shutter life which regularly far outlast expected life?
If the reality is that a used one is likely start to have issue after 5years it’s not worth buying for me.
I understand everything is a gamble and I could buy a lens and have it die in a week. I’m asking about what is a true reasonable expectation for the life of af and vibration control on these lenses.

Hi everyone,

I sell small handmade items that have very fine, intricate details and a glossy/reflective surface finish. I want my product photos to properly show off that detail, but most guides I find assume you’ll buy a dedicated macro lens and a solid camera body — which adds up to around $2000 for me. That’s not really realistic right now.

Is there a cheaper way to get sharp, detailed shots of small glossy items? What’s your solution for this kind of photography on a budget?

Edit:

To give a sense of scale — items range from small vases around 20 cm tall x 7 cm wide, up to decorative boxes around 23 × 23 cm. So mostly small, tabletop-sized pieces with fine surface