Humorous but Helpful Rules for Freelancers Who Offer Photography Services for Clients

• When in doubt, always take a few shots from each angle (maybe even at different settings) - always be in doubt.
• Don't shoot heavy people from below.
• Don't shoot bald people from above.
• Before you agree to shoot somewhere, scope out the place first. Surprises when you're shooting are not usually a good thing.
• If you're taking photos of people, have them smile in some shots and be serious in others (get a variety).
• If you're using digital and think you might use all or part of a photo (even as a background element) in a future design - shoot it, you never know when you'll need it.
• Tell your subjects to get some sleep the night before...remind men they need to shave. It's amazing you have to remind people of this, but you do.
• Shooting when it's sunny out will certainly make colors "pop", but unless you have the proper lighting equipment you'll get nasty shadows casted on your subjects' faces. If you must shoot outside, shoot early in the morning or later in the afternoon - high noon is a bad idea.
• Always try to minimize background clutter, also consider taking some photos of you subjects with almost no background at all (so you can easily knock them out in Photoshop if you desire).
• If you are going to photograph someone in front of a wall, make sure both of you are far enough away from it so that you don't end up with a harsh shadow on the wall (be at least 5' away...both of you).
• Remember that everyone has an image of what they "think" they look like in their mind. If you're going to shoot people that are older, fatter or balder, be careful. Many times these people have come back to me and said, "Hey, I don't look like that!" They then give me a picture of them in the 1980's that they want to use for their web site photo.

An old portrait photographer once told me this (this guy was waaaaaay before Photoshop), he would tell his clients,
"For a dollar I'll give you a picture of what you look like
For two dollars I'll give you a picture of what you think you look like
For three dollars I'll give you a picture of what you want to look like."
Thanks for the quote Armond.

Comments

[IT Outsourcing]

Thanks for the post,give me some ideas about it..I'm not a professional photographer but all the tips you give to us make us one of the professional.Keep it up!

IT Outsourcing

[Jeremy Tuber]

My pleasure IT, glad you got some value out of it. Even if you're not a professional photographer, their nice little tips I've learned along the way...some of them I learned the hard way!

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