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

I covered a baby shower for a family friend for free and I feel humiliated and embarrassed now. The girl the shower was for was an hour late after I arrived 30 minutes early to make sure I had my life together. I took photos the whole time. Even did some more maternity style shots in the greenery outside. I also took my camera back out as I was trying to leave because she said she needed a few more with people. I got the photos home and I was so excited about them. They were worlds better than the baby shower photos I had done only a year or so ago, and I was ecstatic at how good these turned out. I worked really hard, only for her not to like a single one.

I turned in a gallery of 80 carefully chosen and edited photos that I felt told the story of the event. She politely thanked me and asked me for the rest of the files unedited, then had her sister ask if she could sit down with me and choose the ones I edit. There’s no way I’m editing another photo for them because it took so much time and energy. I’m just wondering, do I send them the rest of the photos?

I’m already embarrassed that they were disappointed. Obviously the unedited ones don’t reflect what I actually want my finished work to look like. I worry she will edit them herself with an instagram filter and tag me, and that won’t be my authentic work. I’m kind of annoyed that they’re nitpicking me to death for something I did for free. I’m not an absolute pro but I’m 2 years in. I guess I’m just seeking helpful advice. I don’t want to keep her memories from her but I also feel like I already went above and beyond.

Hello fellow photographers,

I've rediscovered my love for coffee table photography books, like listening to an album all the way through I feel like it's an entirely different way to consume the art in this age of algorithm. I also like to support artists that inspire me. I recently bought a book from Phil Penman and

What is a photobook that you absolutely love and cherish, and why does it inspire you?

Recently i have been intentionally over sharpening my portraits. I know that sounds bad but let me explain. Typically i would sharpen until the noise and contrast start to become really bright and apparent, but recently I've been slightly over sharpening the subject of my portraits. the reason I'm doing this is it only looks bad if you zoom in a ton, which most clients wont. from a normal distance it makes the photo look super sharp so i think this is a win win scenario. I'm wondering if this is the right thing to do. Should i keep doing regular sharpening and leave the subject slightly less sharp or keep doing this?

It’s for a project at school. If it will ruin my camera, any other ideas? Thanks!

Bonjour, dans le cadre de mes études, je dois rédiger un rapport de stage sur l’activité des photographe en France aujourd’hui, en tant que photographe quelle est votre plus gros problème ou ce qui vous manque aujourd’hui ? Mon rapport porte en général sur l’évolution des pratiques photographiques de nos jours et comment cela évolue.

Im more of a beginner photographer, ive had my camera since April and I've been taking lots of photos, well I take photos for a family member who plays football, at first I was doing great but now theres night games where its dark. No matter how high I put my iso so I can have faster shutter speed, my photos turn blurry and I can't grasp those in the moment shots how I'd like to, so I came here for advice how how I could possibly fix this problem (I have cannon R50)

Guys I need help on storing picture frames. I have so many picture frames which have been gathering clutter and dust in my spair room but I don't want to get rid of them. Any advice? Please someone help me out

How commonplace is it to love photography but to low key hate the edit. Don’t get me wrong I’m very happy when I’ve got the exported images, but it always takes such mental inertia to sit down to get on with it. Anyone else experience this?

I just returned from a trip to New York City. Last year I have been to Japan, Tokyo. I always felt like these Cities almost shoot themselves. Doesn’t matter if it’s about portraits, architecture or street. There is very often a certain magic to the photos. I live in Berlin and I always feel like it’s super hard to find good spots. In the city there is very often a strange mixture of colorful shops and trees that are just too buisy for photography. Of course Berlin is very big and of course you can do good photography but I always feel like you really have to work hard for it. An aesthetic that is certainly easy to do is cold, industrial black and white in the winter. But that’s rarely what I want to do

I have always wondered if this is only because I live here and I’m just so used to the look or if Berlin is actually really hard for photography.

I wonder if people from New York and Tokyo have similar feelings about their city?

I would be very curious to hear your opinion, especially from people that are not from Germany. Does Berlin inspire you? And what kind of aesthetic would it be?

Bonjour, dans le cadre de mes études, je dois rédiger un rapport de stage sur l’activité des photographe en France aujourd’hui, en tant que photographe quelle est votre plus gros problème ou ce qui vous manque aujourd’hui ?

Hello all photographers who read this! I am a model who LOVES collaborating with new people or old in the industry as I know building up portfolios can be a challenge. I’ve worked with countless photographers over the years and have NEVER had any issues until now. There is this newer photographer I worked with for a collab shoot and she was very nice I wanted to work with her again and would always slide up when she posted call-outs. This photographer wanted to work with me again on this gorgeous shoot. I sent some photos of the vibe I would love for these photos and she agreed. I’ve looked on her page and she has moody pictures with shadows and felt comfortable and confident working with her for the creative direction. I selected the photos and sent them through to her only to get back two random photos i never selected. I messaged her and asked where my chosen two went and she told me it must be my error as I must have selected too many photos. I told her calmly that I selected the exact amount and sent her screenshots, she then asks me if I changed them later and I told her no. Finally she believes me and says “bloody technology I will get them to you in a week cause I’m busy.” I said that is very understandable but asked if I could by any chance get the unedited photos of the ones I choose as the way she edited them was very warm and over exposed for my liking. She said no, I told her that’s very understandable and tried to explain the photos I choose I loved them because of the shadows, the body contouring due to the moody lighting and the brilliance being as bright so if possible could we re edit them so they are closer to the original photos. She told me that’s not what her page is about and that’s not how she edits photos and how she spent a long time editing these. I messaged her saying again I understood it was just that these photos don’t feel like me and I won’t be able to use them. (I did pay for this shoot as well) Since she isn’t comfortable sending the unedited photos or re editing would it be possible for me to edit them for my personal Instagram and to tag her with a note that these were re edited by myself just for my personal taste. She has since left me on seen for 5 hours. I have not posted anything yet but I just am genuinely not sure what to do. I sent her pics that showed the vibe I liked she agreed, the edits are nothing like the original photos so I requested those or a re edit she said no because that’s not her brand when there are clearly no photos edited like this on her page. I have no clue what to do or what to say because these pictures are no longer useable for me in their current style. I am so confused because I have given three different resolutions and all she has said is no without adding any way to amend this situation. I have truly never worked with anyone like this before and I am so close to crying again because I LOVED the original’s, complimented her eye for photography multiple times and have tried to resolve this issue in a number of ways. I also spent time getting ready, putting together every piece of my clothing, jewellery, nails, shoes, 4 hours on hair and 2.5 on makeup. I am genuinely so heartbroken to be left on seen and to call her and be ignored. I am trying to see if I was rude in the messages but every single one was as non confrontational as possible.

What do I do now? 😭

I’m a senior having my photos taken in this quirky Meow Wolf type place that has pretty heavy purple/pink lighting in the rooms I’d like to have my photo taken in. I’m not familiar with photography at all, but I figured this lighting could screw up whatever outfit I’m planning to wear, and I was wondering if photographers had any advice on this sort of thing?

Hi everyone,
I’m just starting out in sports photography and I’d really appreciate some advice on my workflow and how I could improve it.
I mainly shoot football (soccer for the Americans), and I usually come back from a game with around 6,000–8,000 RAW files.
During the match, I import the photos into my Lightroom catalog without actually copying the RAW files onto my MacBook. Basically, I work directly from the SD card, so I can only edit the photos while the card is inserted.
I need to use Lightroom during the game because my main output is the club’s Instagram account, so they often want edited photos ready to post during the match, at halftime, and immediately after the final whistle.
The main issue is that the SD card gets really hot while Lightroom is constantly reading from it, and I’m worried that doing this regularly could eventually damage the card or cause problems.
For those of you who shoot high-volume sports events, how do you manage thousands of RAW files while still keeping a fast turnaround?
Would you recommend:
copying everything to an external SSD first?
using Smart Previews?
importing only selected images during the game?
using Photo Mechanic or another program for culling before Lightroom?
or a completely different workflow?
Any suggestions, tips, or examples of your own match-day workflow would be really appreciated.
Thanks!

I used to shoot portraits a lot like birthdays, fashion shoots etc… but kinda stopped for a while, been trying to get back into it again & got a 85mm.

Took a few pics of my best mate & I ended up liking how it came out after I edited the raw file so I put it as my phone wallpaper, obviously I asked him first & he was fine with it. I understand people have landscape photos as their wallpaper but never really see much in the realm of portraits which makes me wonder why?

I guess considering some people will have celebrities or pets etc… as their wallpaper which is the norm nowadays

Anyways wasn’t sure if this was the right sub to post but yeah

EDIT : A lot of the comments are posting their landscape images or street photos but I’m talking about specifically portraits like photos of people

EDIT #2 : seems like people are divided. Some are saying it’s fine & others are saying it’s weird. I guess it’s all subjective at the end of the day

Hello Reddit. A flare up of OCD this summer unfortunately made my relationship with photography a little strained. Everytime I would open lightroom I'd quickly be overwhelmed with the feeling of needing my photos to be "perfect," whatever that means. This feeling got so bad that I couldn't even look at others' photography without wondering "Wait, what if they did this and it looked better?" As absurd as this sounds, you can't really beat OCD in a logic-off. You need to either reframe your thinking or allow time to do the healing for you. 

One of the coping mechanisms I developed to my aforementioned photography perfectionism was quite simple. Shoot JPEG! Although this switch offered some short-term anxiety alleviation, I couldn't get the thought out of my head that I was less of a photographer for doing this. Now I should mention that most of the shots I take are either for fun, with my girlfriend or to document trips or are just a product of walking around and being curious. Back when I used to take photo classes in school, I'd say I was more artistic with my shooting; I cared more about stylizing, I made more dramatic post processing decisions, and I had a more dramatized final goal in mind. 

It is now, with a great but simple realization that I present to you my attempt to reframe my thinking. JPEGs are like memories and RAWs are like works of art. (This post is just as much intended to share as it is to convince myself of this perspective.) When one is documenting, they set out to shoot the way what they see is depicted in real life. When one is making, they add their creativity after the fact. They transform the dull and muted RAW and provide an individual take on contrast and WB and color and effects. I acknowledge this to be the case, but it is not to discredit the intentionality of JPEG shooting at all. You're still able to add a sizeable degree of deliberate style to your JPEGs, too. Composition, WB modulation, exacting your exposure, (for Fujis) what recipe you use, and finally,(for others and Canons, me!) your in camera style settings: color tone, contrast, sharpness, saturation. They might not have the same customizability as RAWs, but you can still make your JPEGs look distinctly yours. 

I'm trying to tell myself that this is reality and that this is OK. For 90% of my photography ventures, I think I want to be a documenter. But for that other 10% I want to lean into that artistic making aspect. 

"Okay lightroom, go hibernate. But just know you might be roused..."

Is anyone else getting spammed with these AI Editing Aftershoot ads and "memes"? They are super annoying, I dont know anybody using it but I might already have an image af that person.

Also it looks like every photo is edited differently. Anybody used it?

hey everyone! I was wondering if someone had experience with shooting either a Profoto D2 500 air strobe and/or Apeture P300c LED Lights in a studio/location capacity on film? I’ll be shooting with those lights available but only on film and I’m nervous my imagination and my actual output will not be aligned. Anyone have advice?

Need to rant about something in the photography world? Here’s your safe space to be as salty as you want without judgement.

Get it all* off your chest!

^{*Let’s just keep the personal attacks and witch hunts out of it, k?}

Full schedule of our weekly community threads:

Was it just a laurel to put on your website, or did you use the opportunity to advance your "career" in some way?

Good afternoon! Currently I've been learning how to edit and color grade my photos and I really liked how they looked on my laptop. However, whenever I post somewhere my photos looked worse and washed out when looking at the post on my phone.

I'm assuming most people who will come across my photos will be on mobile so I'd like the photos to look good on everything. Do y'all have tips?

Hello there.

Typically when I want to book a shoot with a model, I cold canvas the model, discuss the usual details (when, where, what studio, pay etc), and show them a mood board for what I am after (in actual specific shots, as well as general themes.

However, I have recently contacted a modelling agency, to hire one of their models, and as part of the process, I am to submit "A body of work".

While I kind of understand what they are after - my editing skills, how I set up my lighting, and a few other details - my question here is:

How many images should I include? 5? 15? 28?
Plus, is there any other suggestions you may be to offer?

Thanks very much.

Hello everyone,

I recently decided to pick up my old Lumix camera (point and shoot). I tried replacing the old 512MB SD card with a 16 GB one, only to find out that it can't work; the camera can only take standard SD cards, not SDHC or SDXC.

Question is: I found some new chinese 1 GB SD cards on ebay and temu. How fast do they break? I personally assume that since the technology is old, then they probably have mastered the manufacturing. Or should I shell out ~25 bucks on an unused (new) sandisk card?

I’m a headshot photographer. I do about 4 shoots a day, and have a turnaround time of a fully color graded gallery for each shoot by end of day.

The color grade is simple - I have a pre set which means all I have to do is adjust skin tone with white balance for each look and I’m done. What bogs me down is exposure. Because I shoot natural light, there tends to be small, yetsignificant changes in exposure across sets. Right now I’m doing all of that manually, which is tedious. “Match exposure” in Lightroom doesn’t really work.

Im curious if anyone knows of any software, either native in Lightroom, a plugin or AI, that is able to match exposures correctly across an entire gallery that would speed up my workflow? Cheers!