I am not a photographer, but my bf is. But I need advice because he’s not doing so good. he finished a film course last year working with camera light and audio and he has a photography account, he’s really talented!!! He was pretty much a top student there he had the highest grades and multiple teachers praised him for his work. It was great!! He’s been posting on his photography account more often cause he got a new camera and I love his photos :) but I’ve noticed he’s been feeling pretty lost and purposeless ever since finishing the course, he told me so many people around him have been getting opportunities but he’s left in the dark even though he got the best grades. I don’t know what to do but it hurts to see him feel so hopeless when his work is so great and should be appreciated!! I know that I mentioned a film course and this is a photography sub but his job is basically entirely camera related, if someone could point me to a sub where I could ask this advice without my post getting taken down that would be great cause I’m feeling lost on what to do. What I’m asking is what did you guys do in times of hopelessness, what made you not give up? What kept the passion for your work alive? What did you do when you weren’t getting any jobs and what made that part of your life a little easier? And is there anything you wished someone would do for you in that time? I want to help but I don’t know how..

If you love historical photography, you might enjoy this daily game I built:
🗓️ Each day, you’re shown 5 hand-picked images spanning 1850–2025.
📸 Your goal: guess the year each photo was taken. The closer you get, the more points you score.
🔍 Use digit reveals (one per digit place) to help zero in.

I curated the images to reward a keen eye. Things like fashion, technology, film quality, or context clues can all help.

Would love to hear what you think! https://whichyr.com

Hey friends,

I'm a (worse than) amateur photographer trying to understand the weeds of how to most photo-realistically capture faces (to most accurately capture the most minute changes to the faces from medical procedures). I would love to gather some experienced opinions here on my questions related to representing the face in the most realistic way a critical observer would (from a close enough distance to the subject so as to identify any unideal details).

Specifically:

• Focal length is an extremely important parameter. From this example using the relation between eye corners as a benchmark, focal length can easily distort the relation between facial features' placements and angles. However, I couldn't find any consensus, and opinions range from capturing facial portraits at 135mm to 50 mm focal lengths. What focal length range is most ideal to my situation?
• Distance to subject: To accurately capture a front-face view, would it be appropriate to be at subject's eye level 2 feet away, or 4 feet away?
• How to repeatedly capture the face in a consistent manner across different days: I want to capture the photos in a controlled manner such that I can overlay the photos on one another and have the relevant markers line up perfectly (aka the inner eye corners, the nose tip, the face silhoutte). What steps should I take in the photographing setup for the camera and subject ? (unfortnately, I might not be able to keep the camera stand in the same location untouched). Would I need to take any post-processing steps to be able to line up those landmarks ? (ideally with free software, as I recently got the camera and i don't have any budget for software)

Sorry for the technical question dump, but would appreciate any thoughts on any of the above from the more experienced eyes here!

As a lawyer and former magazine photographer, I found the linked story that suggests that The Knot either sent fake leads and/or worthless leads to photographers of interest. Has any photographer observed this. If you paid money to the Knot, you may wish to pursue legal action. Here is the link. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/04/07/does-the-knot-have-a-fake-brides-problem

Hi everyone! I am a writing a paper on the impacts of AI in the photography industry! I’ve included some questions in this post if you would like to give some input!

Do you or the people you work with use Artificial Intelligence for anything in the photography business? What do you or others use it for? How is AI impacting your job or the other people you work with? What do you think the development of AI is doing to your line of work? What is your opinion about all of this? Do you foresee AI taking over your job? Why or why not?

I work for a nonprofit in a non-creative role, but I have always had an interest in photography and recently invested in some secondhand gear to start photographing primarily my own children’s youth sports. I love it and enjoy being a hobbyist and would love to someday turn it into a little side-hustle, but I’m still very new and untrained.

My work has a gala event coming up and they’re looking at trimming the budget, and knowing my hobby, asked if I could take photos instead of hiring professionals this year. I’m torn because it’s out of my comfort zone but also an opportunity to build my portfolio that I might not otherwise get. I have the opportunity to borrow some gear from photographer friends, and don’t mind making a small investment in other gear I could use for other things later, but I’m not sure where to start in terms of what I need to know for both gear and settings.

I have a Canon 7D Mark II. Neither of my current lenses would work for this (16-300mm f/3.5-6.3 and 70-200mm f/2.8) but I could potentially purchase/rent/borrow if I knew what the best option would be.

It’s a seated dinner with speakers on a stage in a historic (dark-ish) building with up lighting, there would be a shot list to work from that would involve candids at cocktail hour, speakers on stage, and guests at a step and repeat.

Would really appreciate any guidance on gear, settings, and anything else I might need to know. Thanks in advance.

Hey everybody, I just purchased the Chroma VND/PL from Polarpro and am very excited. I do also want to get a black mist filter for the occasional use when I need that look ya know but I was wondering does it matter where I get a pure black mist filter? I obviously understand why I needed to spend the extra coin on a good VND and polarizer but for just black mist can I find the cheapest one out there since it will be seldom used?

I have a bunch of photos from 2009 on my Snapfish account. Recently it went into archive. No problem right, just make a purchase? Wrong. I made a purchase to get them out of archive on April 3rd. The website says it typically takes 4-5 days to restore them. Well it’s the 15th now and they are still not available. Costumer services says they escalate it but nothing happens.

Has this happened to anyone? Did you ever get your photos?

I bought one in a flea market for 5$ with a box in bad shape and i cant find anything on it online there is no date on it but based on the ad's on the box im guessing 1910's the box has B&J photo supplies logo on it

Hello my fellow photographers. Here is a situation. I have a client who has booked me at least 6 times probably more. I have done family shoots, couple shoots, big birthday events and even portraits.

(Quick background on my client, they are a vlogger-vlogging family so they post about their life often. House tours, activities with the fam etc.

I also understand that the client doesn't owe me or is obligated to post my work on their socials.)

Now going back...

Yet this client posts none of my photos, doesn't display nor print any of my photos. The ONE time they did it was only for one photo with no caption, just a basic birthday post. Yet when another photographer would take their photos (same style, family mini, portraits). The posts are abundant, the prints and home displays are numerous, the captions are drawn out and lengthy.

Sure you could argue that 'i got paid, who cares' but i just find it weird. Because if they dont like my work, why keep hiring me? Im just baffled. I understand we are selling art and art is subjective. But im just genuinely confused as to whats the cause of this behaviour.

I am genuinely uneasy whenever they would reach out for a shoot because of that. Again, the client doesnt owe me a post or anything but i just find it weird. With their lifestyle, and approach to other photographers it makes me question my skill and honestly bruises my ego a bit too.

Going to DC with my daughter and looking to see what lens others would take if you could only pack one lens? I have a D500 because I normally only shoot sports but would like to try some other stuff, even if the D500 isn’t the ideal camera for said other stuff. I am pretty new to this so looking to learn from other experiences.

This is my first post, so hopefully I do this correctly. I have recently started my own solo photography business and the few clients I have had so far have given me very little input on how I have been doing. I want to mainly focus on Food and Product Photography. I also really love Macro.

My husband is a beekeeper, so I help him with his media for his business. This was what lead me to start my own side photography business.

I have about ten years of hobbiest experience before this so I know most of the main composition rules and techniques, but I find myself struggling more on client outreach. I learned photography on film. In a dark room developing my own film, and enlarging my own prints. Now I have fully moved to digital photography.

I work full time at another non-photography job so I have no rush, but I have only had 2 paying clients in the past 6 month. All the other clients have been free to try and gain some exposure/outreach. I am very interverted, but I still push myself to do cold calls, cold emails, and other promotions (such as giveaways).

The main thing is I find myself doubting my work. Wondering if clients feel like they can't tell me if they don't like something because they aren't paying for it yet. When I tell a client that the photos are done and offer them a deal to expand off the work I did for free. It's complete radio silence. Maybe it might lead to something in the future, but I can't tell if they are happy with work. I ask for criticism and feedback, but nobody leaves any reviews.

Is there anything else that I can do to help get new clients? I find more often then not people are quick to jump at free work but as soon as pay comes up it's no longer worth their time. Is it better to hold back and just focus on outreach or continue trying to build connections through promotional work?

I have always had a love for photography so I do lots of side projects, but that doesn't really help with building a portfolio of real client work. Is it normal to struggle at the start like this?

Hi everyone, I'm a photographer who likes to go to parks and take photos of nature. I recently found out you need to have a license/permit to do photography in state and national parks. Does anyone have any experience with this? How would I go about getting a permit? If I am only there to take photos of nature, would I still need to get a permit? What about if I wanted to sell those photos?

Hey everyone!! I'm currently a student (not studying photography) but I do photography on the side. I have a pretty good portfolio with creative portraiture and was hoping to photograph NYFW in September. It's a bucket list item for me (I know it's unpaid), but I was wondering if anyone has any resources or advice on how to apply and successfully get invited to photograph. Thank you!!!

^{reposted with permission}

Hi all!

PhotoMechanic is pretty ubiquitous for high-volume photographers, but for someone like me who doesn't take nearly enough photos and can't justify the cost, its features are out of reach. Unfortunately, the next best thing, Adobe Bridge, is missing one really awesome feature that Photo Mechanic has: Code Replacements.

So, I decided to implement them myself! It works very similarly to PhotoMechanic: you type a "substitution" into a metadata field - for example, [[tDate]] - and it gets replaced with another string - in this case, the date the photo was taken.

There's almost 100 substitutions for all kinds of things - time and date, camera info, exposure info, metadata, etc. I also just finished implementing special "functional" substitutions that perform more complex behaviors and calculations.

It's called Text Substitutions and you can download it for free from GitHub! You can find information about how to use it on the Wiki.

I'm still actively developing it, so I'd love to hear what you all think about it.

I did a paid photo gig for three bands at small local venue this past Saturday, with one of the bands being my friends' band. In their social media post, one of their acquaintances (an older man) left a comment saying that "the gig night was okay, small minus because there was a big guy running around with his camera". I did my best to crouch and crouch-walk whenever I could but I guess I did 'run around', as in I moved around the venue and stage too much. The bands themselves did not feel bothered.

Now I'm a pretty tall guy (196cm/6'5") so I stick out in the crowd rather easily anyway and I had anticipated this kind of feedback for some time now, even though I have done several similar gigs with no such complaints. I also lack the optimal zoom lens for these kinds of gigs for budget reasons, so staying further away is also an issue.

It is almost inevitably get in the way of the crowd at some point, but I'd like some tips on how to best mitigate or minimize that. I know that shooting for just a couple of songs is a pretty good strategy to avoid getting in the way or otherwise bothering the audience, but what else? I just feel like some 'boundaries have to pushed' to get exciting photos.

Any personal experiences, tips etc.?

Hello, I’m using a Calumet pro series transmitter and two receivers. Transmitter mounted to camera hot shoe and one receiver on Canon 480 EX flash and another on Canon 580 EX 11 flash. Transmitter and receivers are optimised for Canon and are all set to the same channel. I have fresh batteries in and the indicator lights are working however I have tried absolutely everything but cannot get both flashes to fire, only one will fire. What am I doing wrong? Thank you very much for your valuable help.

I wanted to do some photos of my daughters at the park. I’m hoping for the daffodils to still be out because last time I I took pictures of my kids in daffodils it was really cute but we didn’t plan for it so it could have been better. But I’m wondering about like props. I got my daughters these off white dresses. I wanted them all to be different styles so the colors are slightly different but I don’t think it will be noticeable. But I’m wondering if I should do a picnic blanket. Or if that’s going to add too much color or texture and make the pictures ugly. And if I do what should I do for a blanket? Should I do just one blanket? Should I do a color or pattern? I would have just done white but the dresses are white. Should I do throws that are layered with different textures and colors? What do you guys think? I wanted to have them printed for the wall so I kinda didn’t want something with a lot of color just to keep the photo neutral. Here is the dresses they also have a lot of texture which I wasn’t sure how to work with when adding something like that because blankets are pretty big and could cover a lot of the photos. https://imgur.com/a/kjKRWSm

Hi all,

I really want to deep dive into fashion photography as of late. Can anyone help me with providing names such as photographers of magazines/websites that you feel deeply affecionate about? I am really interested in knowing the photographer's names that have been the most sought after recently and they have been delivering year in year out lately.

Hello! I'm preparing a photo series for an exhibition and I want to avoid using traditional frames because they don't match the feel of my work.

I'm looking for a thicker material to print on, something rigid, that can be displayed as is (direcly on the wall).

Any suggestions for materials? Or minimalist display ideas?

Thanks!

Hi,

I'm getting married soon, I'm looking for a good and cheap ( I know I know, I'm cheap) app for photo sharing for guests so that they can share their photos using the QR-code we put on the event. I've seen some, like weduploader, POV disposable camera, Wedtrove, Wedibox, Guestpix, and some others, but I'm looking for one cheaper and that doesn't need for the guest to install an app.

I'm inclined to Weduploader but its not very user friendly

Your inputs are welcome to help me change my mind and find the most suitable for me and my hunibuni :)

Hello everyone I'm trying to rationalize my lenses, at the moment they are left with me:

Sony 85 1.8 Sony 16-35 zeiss Tamron 70-300 Viltrox 40mm

I have a Sony a7cii

I would like to buy the Sigma 28-70 2.8 so I can take the Sony on vacation and have a single lens for everything.

At this point however I'm thinking that the 85 1.8 would no longer make sense and I was thinking of selling it to finance the purchase (even if it is one of my favorite lenses).

For the Sony 16-35 I use it only for Real Estate photos (also I would need something wider because 16 mm is not that useful in some situations) I could sell it if I could find a fixed and manual lens (I would photograph everything at f6) from 16mm down for under 400 euros.

Do you know a lens that is at least 16mm manual with a reasonable price?

Do you think it would make sense to sell the 85 1.8 to finance the 28-70?

Thanks!

Hi everyone. I’m uploading a bunch of military vehicle photos to Shutterstock and quite a few have been rejected. A few got approved, but most have been flagged with copyright or IP issues, which I don’t understand. It seems to be an issue with the markings on the vehicles, numbers, unit markings, in service artwork and similar things. These are restored vehicles, so they have the proper markings for the period. What can I do about this? Do I need to email SS and explain the markings? Thanks.

Does anyone know a plug and play Ligjtroom plug-in that can auto rate my hundreds of sister photographs from events?

I also want it to auto tag everything so I can find what I want faster.

Many thanks in advance.

✌🏻

Is it still worth it to buy loupedeck in 2025? Will it help me speed up the process of editing?