And I thought BMW were ridiculous when they offered heated seat functionality for a monthly subscription…

Shoot and post our loot boxes on your social media to receive FREE collectable skinned menu systems for your mirrorless camera!

I’m almost exactly the same, although I don’t change file names.

Instead, the files will sit inside a folder e.g. “2023_11_27 - Reddit Shoot.”

It does rely on you remembering when you took the shots you need, though. They’re not in any kind of DAM.

Well that too, although (in her defence) no sign that OP is targetting people local to her for advice - they could be half the world away.

But yeah… I guess it is a little like asking a baker in their bakery for their secrets of how to get into baking.

I don’t mean to be mean but…

So one of my strategies were writing pm‘s to concert photographers on instagram with the question if they could be so kind and spill the tea about experiences in the business.

Guess what? The answers were vague and short or you would get ignored.

That’s not gatekeeping, it’s simply not being interested in helping someone they don’t know with nothing in it for them.

You’re expecting them to take time and put effort into hand-crafting replies to give you information with nothing in return.

They’re not saying you can’t be an event photographer, they’re not stopping you from doing anything, they’re just too busy living their own lives to want to take the time to help you.

Your best bet is to ask on forums like this one where people can elect to provide advice if they want to, or to search up the answer (it’s been asked often enough!). Most people posting on social media like Instagram don’t tend to have in depth conversations about anything, in my experience, unless they stand to gain from it.

Everyone carries either headlights or handheld lights, so there is some light from that.

If you set up shots you could achieve this with a tripod and long-exposure shots if everyone was willing to stay vaguely still. But you probably wouldn’t get great portrait shots…

I see you mentioning that’d be tricky further on.

However you mention torches etc. and so there is another option…

I have a Canon EOS Rebel T3. My budget is in the couple hundred dollar range (less than 100 if possible).

Get a 2nd hand 50mm or 35mm f/1.8 lens.

Use the other people who have torches / head torches as a mobile lighting studio. Get them to provide light not just on your subject but on the surrounding area. Use that along with a high ISO and low aperture to take your photos.

Being a Rebel T3, you’ll still encounter some noise over ISO3200 odd, but that’s the price you pay for this kind of thing.

I really feel like getting creative with it that way is your best bet. Otherwise? With no light? I really don’t see how.

My friend… first of all: grammar and formatting. That was a mess to read and if you’re starting a business website, that really matters.

Now in terms of niches… firstly at 17 you are (with respect) young as hell and have plenty of time to go wherever you want with whatever you want. Seriously.

In terms of advertising any services, it does help to show that you do specialise. It helps reassure customers.

Don’t make would-be wedding couples sift through your sick shots of music festivals. Don’t make events companies look through your portraits. Try and compartmentalise so that if you have multiple offerings, you can direct customers to any one of them and they can read up about that.

That way - even if you have no niche right now - you’re showing you can effectively deliver on multiple niches.

Watermarks haven’t been a secure way to protect your images for years.

This is the truth of it. They’re ugly and they serve little purpose.

I’m not concerned about AI removing watermarks because I never watermark my work.

But big bag is better than a too small bag tho

As someone who struggles to fit their body, 24-70 and 70-200 in one bag, I totally agree with that. I need a bigger bag and it’s cumbersome to use.

That depends on the Youtube channels you’re watching.

There’s plenty of creators out there posting handy editing tutorials etc. that don’t even try to monetise a LUT or preset or software or kit.

It’s almost about… knowing there’s a time to practice and experiment and make mistakes, and there’s a time to search out learning resources on the internet that’ll answer some niggling question or provide some vital tip in seconds.

Youtube taught me some amazing software editing tips that would’ve taken me a lot longer by experimenting and making mistakes, but getting out and shooting helped me learn what I liked to shoot far more than any Instagram “Instead of this, try this” stuff.

I think it depends how often you update either the subscription or the standalone.

If I bought DXO Photolab and kept it for 5 years without paying for an update then it’d come out far cheaper than 5 years of Adobe subscriptions.

But those subscriptions would bring me the latest version, where that Photolab license would only count for the existing version (which would be 5 years old at the end).

Personally, I activate and us DOP sidecar files, which can then be transferred with the image file, to other locations on disk without messing up things like catalogues.

That’s exactly my method.

I don’t use or manage a vast library in software, preferring instead to organise my shots chronologically in folders by year, month, then individual shoot date.

I can move the DOP files along with the Raw (CR3 in my case) files wherever and retain those edits every time I reload them in Photolab.

Plus Photolab doesn’t get so bogged down as a result, with loading entire libraries of photos. It only loads the ones I want to work out.

I do wish their masking was better developed, that’s my big gripe right now. Control Points are great but a little more fiddly than some of what Lightroom can do so easily (‘select subjet’ etc.)…

One time cost… Every few years … Hmm

You could buy it right now and keep that license (essentially) indefinitely, with bug fixes made to the latest version (7) for about the next year.

But in a year the new version will likely drop with some improvements. You won’t get those unless you pay more to upgrade to the latest version.

So you don’t pay a subscription, but if you want the latest toys then you must pay.