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Archive 2015 · Portfolio building question

  
 
dachshund
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Portfolio building question


I’m in the portfolio-building phase of my business, and while I have a few paying clients I need more images on my website before I’m comfortable launching the business. While I'd love to do weddings, this will be doing portraits for starters.

I’ve been shooting music performances around town which has two benefits, more images for my portfolio, and I can give out my business card and do some networking. I send the link to the band when their pictures are up, and sometimes this leads to paying work (head shots, band photos.)

Here’s my dilemma. I’m also a musician, and I know that local bands have $0 budget for marketing. I don’t see the point of charging a nominal fee for downloading images to be used on their websites or social media, since it would have to be very low. In my own case I still have a day job, and many musicians do, but there are plenty who are making a living on their music, which isn’t much.

I’m considering giving them away, for now, as my way of giving back. I understand that people you give work to for free may never become paying customers. I'm not sure how I'll handle this down the road, when I'll need to charge as much as the market will bear. I imagine I'll still shoot performances and just give out my card. I'm good at it and I enjoy this type of photography. I use a watermark, so presumably it could get some visibility.

I appreciate any comments and advice. If this is a terrible idea that will only result in circling the drain... brutal honesty is appreciated.
Amy



Sep 21, 2015 at 03:33 PM
Littleguy
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Portfolio building question


I am in the same boat and have been thinking about this problem. I have now started to look at how successful companies do this.

Look at Google or FB - they give stuff away for free but make their money by selling data about their free users to 3rd parties and also ads.

Now, I haven't figured out the ad angle yet - but I would try to trade commercial model releases for free photos. This way - you will have a bank of photos to use for any commercial project or ads you decide to do further down the road...who knows if any of these starving musicians make it big, you will have rights released image of them....just a crazy idea.

Never give anything away for free - just think of other ways you can get "paid"



Sep 21, 2015 at 04:16 PM
Mark_L
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Portfolio building question


It sounds like you don’t know what sort of business you want to create. You need to build a portfolio of images your target market will want to pay you for, building a portfolio of gig shots you did for free isn’t going to get you into weddings and will only get you more musicians wanting you to do things for free because they don’t have any money.

Sorry if this sounds unhelpful, you can look at it as “giving back” but it will likely be a waste of your time if you are looking for anything in return. If it is portraits you want to do or get started in shoot headshots for bloggers, linkedin, actors headshots etc. at least you’ll be getting paid and they don’t take much time. You can use these shoots to also shoot pictures that are a better fit for your portfolio. If you must work for free, at least make sure you use their time to allow you to create exactly the sort of pictures you want for your portfolio this way if you don’t get paid you at least get good portfolio pictures out of it.



Sep 21, 2015 at 04:22 PM
dachshund
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Portfolio building question


Mark_L wrote:
It sounds like you don’t know what sort of business you want to create. You need to build a portfolio of images your target market will want to pay you for, building a portfolio of gig shots you did for free isn’t going to get you into weddings and will only get you more musicians wanting you to do things for free because they don’t have any money.

Sorry if this sounds unhelpful, you can look at it as “giving back” but it will likely be a waste of your time if you are looking for anything in return. If it
...Show more

Mark, thanks. You're right it's confusing sometimes to narrow this down. During this phase I think it's important to get referrals from any freebies I give to friends, building on the word of mouth thing. I haven't looked into doing trades with models yet because I need practice on older people who don't look like models. And I need to perfect the skill of directing portrait subjects, again who aren't models and who don't strike poses automatically.

I have one job so far from a singer who needs headshots, so my thinking is that musicians are just another type of customer who needs good marketing photos. I appreciate the honest advice. I may pick the best performance shots and mix a few into the portfolio. Not all musicians are broke, and this was one idea I had to add some variety to my portfolio.

For me it comes under the general heading of fine art images, which I do sell occasionally, and it's tempting to keep some on my portfolio. But I realize they won't help attract people wanting portraits.

Thanks again.
Amy



Sep 21, 2015 at 04:41 PM
dhp_sf
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Portfolio building question


I wouldn't shy away from models because you feel like you need to learn how to direct. Think of it as learning how to see, and developing your palette. Models are great because you can focus on the lighting & composition. Then you can study the models poses to see what looks good. THEN you can apply that to how you work with "normal" people. When learning to cook, you don't throw a bunch of stuff together and see what it tastes like--you follow recipes and figure out which ones you like. Then you start to pull it apart and find elements that really excite you and eventually you will develop your own recipes.

If you are practicing, just keep practicing. Once you have a better idea of where your strengths are, you can market to that. But I agree with Mark that it doesn't make sense to try to build a portfolio without any sort of focus.



Sep 21, 2015 at 04:56 PM
Flugelbinder
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Portfolio building question


I've taken this year to get a portfolio worthy of allowing me to be comfortable charging someone for my services.
I had no problem working for free (my wife did ), but I often wondered how thin the line was when it came to getting the images the client wanted vs the ones I was taking for my personal use (portfolio worthy).



Sep 21, 2015 at 05:11 PM
dachshund
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Portfolio building question


I'm curious what you all do with your images that are outside your professional focus such as fine art. Do you keep it on a separate website, or Flickr / 500px etc? (provided there's time for that)

I own 2 domains, my name, and my name with 'photography' attached. If I'm searching for a photographer by name I usually find more than one site, which is a bit confusing, so I probably don't want to maintain 2 sites.

Again, I appreciate the advice. I've decided to drastically limit the amount of work I give out for free, so I'm getting there. It's a process, dragging my head out of the amateur sphere.



Sep 23, 2015 at 03:49 PM
Mark_L
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · Portfolio building question


dachshund wrote:
I'm curious what you all do with your images that are outside your professional focus such as fine art. Do you keep it on a separate website, or Flickr / 500px etc? (provided there's time for that)

I own 2 domains, my name, and my name with 'photography' attached. If I'm searching for a photographer by name I usually find more than one site, which is a bit confusing, so I probably don't want to maintain 2 sites.

Again, I appreciate the advice. I've decided to drastically limit the amount of work I give out for free, so I'm getting there. It's
...Show more

It depends on the area or part of the industry, basically figure out how your target one works and be appropriate being consistent over social media, 500px and your website(s).

In fashion, almost any work other than fashion (especially wedding/portraits) is a serious no-no and looked down on in the industry

Commercial/advertising can be similar unless bar high quality personal projects which are encouraged

For wedding and portrait work this is not so hard and fast. Your own personal work in it's own section can show more of you and who you are but again it depends what it is (glamour would be very different to landscapes!)

If you want to target more than one segment split sites is best eg. my fashion work is totally clear of any other type of photography. Since I use fullnamephotography.com one one and surnamephoto.com the two are not that easily linked.



Sep 23, 2015 at 05:12 PM





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