Interested to know what type of photography you do, commercial, consumer, people, product or something else and what type of market you’re working in. I’m a commercial people photographer in the US, medium to large market, and it’s definitely getting tougher. Fewer jobs, lower budgets, unlimited licensing and becoming harder and harder to find who to talk with at agencies and companies, and clients having less time to communicate, even about parameters of a job they want you to estimate.

This gives me hope as at 40 years old I am back in school to get into what I always wanted to do

Your advice is too. I watch your channel as well. Keep up the good work chap

I watch both your channels now lol

You have similar philosophies Roman…👌🏻

$500/day would work out at 300 shooting days in a year. That's actually a very high number. Remember to allow for days pitching to clients and simple admin tasks. You might find 150 shooting days is nearer the mark for a busy pro.

@@Tom_KZfaq_stole_my_handle yep, sorry that's exactly what I mean. That's not sustainable, so I need to be worth at least $1000 a day

Stills used to be a bigger part of people’s lives. But both magazines and web pages displayed on anything bigger than a phone are no more

@@The_CGA Yep. You are so right. I know this first hand too. I was a director of photography at magazines in NYC for years and magazines ruled the day back then. I'd get so excited when a photographer's film box of prints or chromes would show up at the office. And working on layouts was somehow more engaging back then..maybe I'm just romanticizing my past career. And because of my job I had a monthly budget of about $200 just for buying magazines which let me look at all the leading publications. Anyway, now I often shoot Fujifilm GFX 100s with those huge files and for this one client we shoot big files so they can crop the hell out of the image and use different parts of the image for their web pages or print. The photography world is just a different animal now--not necessarily better or worse but such different needs. Never mind having to shoot motion on the same set as stills...🤪

Furniture photography is a world of its own. Room scenes, silos, shots with models, pets, leather, fabrics, metals reflective or not, wood, plastics, glass, food, fluids.... it never stops. it's quite technical, often requires lots of light output and all kinds of accessories. Room scenes to me are the easiest. You can get away with much less perfect items, it will look natural. The hardest to me have always been isolated (silos) grand father's clocks because they combine woods with skinny intricate details, glass if you can't remove it, metals and the pendulum that's reflects everything and can have embossed deign. Such clocks in a room scene are easy but isolated not so much and the tall vertical size makes it hard to light evenly.

@@benoitpigeon487 Yep. There is always that one thing or product that you see and then just sigh. Tomorrow I'm shooting outdoor furniture but smaller setups and the studio I am at (an agency's space) is so small. There are columns every 12 feet which make lighting a challenge. Also, sometimes there are other sets happening right next to my set so you have to be aware of not imposing on the other set. And to top it off for some reason this client wants the least amount of post work done on the files so lot's of prep work to get as close as possible to the final image. When I used to shoot hotels/resorts the thing I liked the least was shooting bathrooms. Usually so small and then the client would always say "can we avoid the toilet" 🤪

I don't agree with your opening "The digitalisation of photography made good quality photography much easier and free for all." Good quality photography is not about sharp and correctly exposed snapshots. It needs a vision that preceded the creation of the image. And story (telling) in it. And maybe resonate with a certain art school (in the sense of stylistic direction). And communicate the expected/desired message. In the past, practitioners (technically educated photographers) could easily create and sell images. Many creatives did not have the technical in-depth knowledge and that held them back. Today, you can be successful with a distinguishing artistic approach without worrying too much about the technicalities. Scott, in this channel here, illustrates that, however in a domain where you also need the technicalities in order to succeed or outperform the competition. Being successful in this as a business, however, adds a bunch of other criteria to that. Yes, there is a lot of teaching being sold today by photographers who cannot make ends meet otherwise, and by successful photographers who have "in between" time. If you earn enough with paid assignments and do not come close to, say, 47 weeks of 40 hours for that, then yes, teaching could be a side business, easily, that could add to the bottom line.

Yes, the maddening experience of quoting a REALLY low price for a job, and finding they've balked at your relative peanuts, and turned to their mates for a few snaps off their phone! Their typical excuse (if you can ever communicate to discuss), is that they were just "researching!" The jobsite BARK is full of these time-and-money wasters, who drop out after you've spent £20 - £40 just getting their contact details! Definitely NOT worth the investment!

By good quality photography I meant photography that was technically good quality as opposed to the analog days when making a good quality photograph was much more difficult. Today due to digitalization anyone can make a technically good photograph.@@jpdj2715

We have a huge Mitsubishi air con system that also heats, but too loud to have on when filming. The office is all infrared and the warehouse is not heated at all

I think long term you are right, but for short term achievement its easier to be one way or the other.

@@TinHouseStudioUK agreed. I know this isn’t your kind of video but I’m interested in seeing a video on diffusion. Two layers of diffusion one on top of another the same size does not soften light further. What’s perceived as further softening is something else entirely. Cinematographers get that but photographers don’t. (Ones who tend to work in bigger productions)Would you make a video on this? Or is it too much science and math? I personally think photographers need to learn about this but most are just willing to see and do and not understand.

⁠​⁠@@000CloudStrifethat’s a complicated thing you’re talking about. Softness is frequently referred to as a function of relative size of light source, but the material does make a difference. So if your first material is 251 and your second is 216, even if they’re stacked directly on top of each other, the light will be “softer” and also less intense. To take that further, the light will get softer as you create distance between those two pieces of material (up to a certain point). This why book-lights are a thing. Bounce the light of bead board, and then through diffusion. it’s the same thing as going through 2 pieces of diffusion (with distance between them) it just saves some space because the light is in the center of the setup.

@@vistasuprema so to my understanding it’s not that it makes it softer but light that wasn’t passing through the first time is actually passing through the second time. Its quantum probability was changed. So is it actually softer or is it light that was supposed to pass through now passing through and wrapping along with light that was passing through. (Some light always gets left behind) So diffuse scatter.

@@000CloudStrife 😂

Nah, it’s about how good you are. The key to being a successful photographer is primarily delivering fantastic images. Which of course is more difficult than it sounds. It’s not deliver fantastic images sometimes and just OK images other times, it’s about delivering awesome every time, without fail. Being the photographer that people come to because they can rely on you to deliver the superb images they need to drive their businesses. You can know everyone in the world, but if your photos are average you won’t survive in the photography industry.

ok , well guy from local burger place , i want 1 photo for FB i can give you 20euro , ,,, what you gone do 1,take and set meticulously every ingident , set up 4-5 ligths set up 10bg take 1000 shots ,and spend 5houes in photoshop , or2 just take the burger as it is , throw a softbox ,take 5shots , press auto on ligthroom and call it the day , , or 3just say no my minimum is 1000 per image , @@kiwimike2330

I disagree. Maybe I'm young and hopeful, but I like to think I can have great fun having photography as a job. It's a creative job, you should be able to make it interesting. Besides that I have photographed bunji jumps strapped to a side of a bridge in the scorching sun, I have photographed paragliding, meanwhile on a boat, in the middle of the summer. Everyday for about a month, 5-6 hours on a boat. When I was on land I could still feel the waves. Not ideal circumstances, wasn't even desperate for the money but just wanted to take pictures. Try it out and take it as a challange.

Nah. That’s your experience. I’ve made 23k from photography last year and that was my first time in businesses. What I’ve found is that most photographers aren’t adept to running their own business. The business of photography is 80% business and 20 photography. I’m happy the way things are for me at the moment. I can also say things are getting better. I’m not doing the level Scot is doing but it’s slowly growing in an upward trajectory. I encourage people to go for it.

I started a part time business of photography for this reason. Not making it a full time endeavor lets me enjoy it while not having to do it every day. With that said, I have lost some interest in it for fun because I do see it is work oftentimes

There will need to be some serious law changes to allow that which I don't see happening in the UK.

There will be / and there already is a demand on people who can acutely „use“ AI. It’s just a new tool for creating something and it may become important to have the knowledge how to do. So in my opinion: machines need humans to use them. I don’t worry about AI. It’s already there.

@@nicolai_berlin AI is in its infancy. We haven't seen anything yet. Within 5 years AI will be for the most part autonomous and that's where the danger really starts. Imagine you're the marketing director for Coca-Cola. Rather than hiring a photographer, a copywriter, a director, or an ad agency, you will simply go to your computer and say, "Create a new ad campaign with copy and photos of a biracial couple vacationing on the beach in Thailand and enjoying Coca-Cola." 60 seconds later you have your copy and your photos and you've saved millions.

@@TinHouseStudioUK What type of law changes?

@@TheBigBlueMarble possible - there will always be a demand for the authentic over the artificial. Look at Analog photography- it celebrates its renaissance. Classical music - apple did a complete streaming service for that. Food! Look at the trends there. Its in human nature that we prefer the true value over the artificial.

Haha since filming this I impulse purchased an old v6 merc, so I don’t always follow my on advice