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Response to I want to spend the next year of my life emulating this guy's work. Does that make me lame?

from John Kantor (jkantor@mindpring.com)
Assistants learn one thing: how to shoot someone else's work. It's great experience if you're willing to blow 5 years of your life only to be always known as someone's ex-assistant.

As in any profession, you can shoot for the bottom, the middle, or the top. Plenty of people make great livings doing technically good work; some make decent livings shooting portfolios for "girls-next- door" who will never get any real modeling work. And some are good enough, ambitious enough, or lucky enough (notice I said "or") to make it to the top. (And that goes for any sub-field, from table-top to weddings.)

Photography, although a broad discipline, isn't difficult to master technically. There's no magic or mystery in setting up and lighting a shot. Training and experience are required to master the broad range of techniques you'll need in order to make a day-to-day living, but the creativity comes in doing what art directors usually do for the photographer (as we're discussing on the Fashion Only Forum): visualizing an exciting way to meet the client's needs.

So there are two stages to building a portfolio. Showing that you can handle the work technically, and showing that you have some creativity.

But if you're shooting fashion and use a glamour model (or worse), you've proven that you don't understand one of the basic elements you have to start with to get a quality result. (You don't light, interact with, or shoot a high-fashion model the same way you do a glamour model.) The same goes for hair, makeup, and retouching. (No one would have even noticed Eolo's work if it weren't for the quality of the models and, to a lesser extent, the makeup/retouching).

And anyone can shoot a supermodel - if they've got the bucks to hire them for a day. Once you've mastered the basics (like how to load the camera and point it in the right direction), I'd say stop wasting time shooting your girlfriend and save some money to hire a decent model and makeup artist. And if you're really serious you'll leave Topeka as soon as possible.

(And I am a professional wedding photographer. I'm not yet a professional fashion photographer - though I certainly could be charging to do headshots and model portfolios. However, they wouldn't be up to the standard I have set for myself, so I choose not to do them yet.)

(posted 8429 days ago)

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