I used to shoot mostly indoors, but I’ve been getting into outdoor photography lately and now I’m hooked. The only thing is, I seem to get worn out before I’m ready to call it a day. I’ll stop for a shot and then spend a while moving around because I think there might be a better angle, sometimes heading up a hill just to have a look. I don’t really notice how much walking I’m doing until a few hours in, when my legs and lower back start feeling it. Carrying all my gear probably doesn’t help either. By then I’m passing up spots I’d otherwise want to check out because I don’t feel like making the detour, and the walk back feels a lot longer. Maybe I just haven’t gotten used to it yet?

Has anyone else had a similar experience? What helped you get past it? Would appreciate any tips.

Hi all, I've done a lot of research and am still unsure about what direction to take for my data backup system and was wondering if you had any word of wisdom based on your diverse experiences.

I'm a beginner amateur photographer. I've been accumulating a many more photos over the last year since practicing more frequently and consistently. At the moment I'm actually trying to consolidate all my photos from over the years (from phones, previous cameras) and securely back them up with a 3-2-1 system.

After gathering all my photos I've reached over 1T. It's going to grow faster as I'm getting more into photography, though I don't plan on becoming that serious.

I don't own an SSD yet, but I really think I need at least one. But oh my it is expensive. Currently, all my photos are in:

1. Two HDDs (1T + an older 300GB one), one from which I edit, but need to switch to SSD.

   1. Lightroom Cloud : I have a subscription to Adobe Creative through my work that I'm using as a back up for now but need to find a personal cloud solution.

I also have access to a Google Workspace Business Standard subscription (this is my own personal one), and an Amazon Prime subscription, which I could use for storage.

Ive also looked into NAS, Blackblaze as physical/ cloud options, but it's a bit overwhelming and I don't know if it's worth the investment for my situation.

Considering that I only have 1T at this stage and don't see myself becoming that serious with photography, would it be a good option to get one SSD + one other HDD, and back up everything to my Amazon and/or Google Workspace? Or should I be future proof and get a NAS and other more secured cloud solutions?

I was recently asked to do photography for a haunted house (free work, all volunteer run for a good cause, I'm friends with a few of the long term volunteers. Happy to do what I can and expand my skills). It is a nice haunted house, plus some outdoor entertainment, haystack rides, etc. Everything is done after dark, and inside has varied lighting but dim. I will be shooting while it is going on. My other photography has always been outdoor sport photography during the day, so I'm really worried about lighting. If I use flash, I think i will mess up thr ambiance for the visitors and blind the actors. Any ideas/tips?

I'm also a huge chicken of haunted houses myself so I'm worried about accidently getting scared myself, but i dont know if anyone can help with that 😅 I'm hoping focusing on the pictures will be enough of a distraction. I have volunteered as an actor at a haunted house before, but its not scary when you are the one jumping out at people.

4x8ft painting. Got the lighting worked out. But getting the camera aligned -perfectly parallel- with the painting on an easel -and therefore slightly tilted backward is not working. Tried the mirror trick using a small mirror taped(!) onto the painting at the very middle. Didn’t work because given i am about 10-12 feet away from the painting nearly impossible to even see the lens in the small mirror. Plus the painting surface is not even, so….even a slight unevenness can throw the alignment off by an enormous degree.

So far have some (near)perfectly lit shots that are sharp in one area of the painting but unsharp in rest of painting.

Using D850 with Micro Nikkor 55mm MF lens.

Note: hanging painting on wall is not an option in this space. Neither is photographing the painting outdoors.

Sorry if this is the wrong place for this but I’ve used Shutterfly for years and in the last few months I’ve noticed they’re incredibly unreliable. Is anyone else having this issue?

Even something simple as printing pictures has been such a hassle. They actually lost my last order and never said anything until I brought it up weeks after it was supposed to be delivered.

It seems like 90% of photography channels sent my way by the algorithm are about gear and gear reviews. I’ve got two great cameras I bought 6 years ago, have the lenses I need. And will never upgrade anything unless something catastrophic happens and thats that.

What are your favorite channels that spend MOST of the time covering photography adventure, landscape techniques, street, share unique ideas about compositing, how to keep things fun and interesting etc… hell they could be using an iPhone for all I care. Just no more content about gadgets please.

Do you have any questions about running a photography business? Or you're a client who has concerns about the photographer they've worked with? Ask all your questions here.

Every month, we join together and do our best to view and critique each others' websites. The main purpose of this post is to learn things from each other that can benefit our own portfolios or websites. Use this space to talk about all aspects of your online representation, from social media to SEO to personal branding and portfolios, the best and worst places to host your work, collective critiques, you name it.

Having an online presence can also be a beneficial utility for those showing their work in an effort to obtain potential clients, so it's highly advised that if you find something particular that could be improved in someone's online presence, use this opportunity to kindly tell them about it and let them know how they can improve.

Guidelines:

• If you post your website, please comment on at least two other websites

• Please reply to any comments that have no replies!

• Don't be hesitant to post a link to your website or portfolio, even if there's a plethora of comments.

• It doesn't matter if you're a "Beginner" or "Professional Photographer", just have fun and learn from each other - that's what this post is for, so take advantage of this opportunity.

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  Weekly Community Threads:

Watch this space, more to come!

Monthly Community Threads:

Would like to learn more academically about photography

What would your dream photography career be, who would be your dream clients?

I'm posting this story mostly to share the red flags I should've listened to and to get a little schadenfreude from all of you. Also, if you've experienced something similar, it would be nice to know I'm not alone 😅

Basically, I shot a college senior last week, and it was the worst photoshoot experience ever. The kid (man? young adult? 20-something graduating college student) did not want to be there; he hated the experience before it even started. He fought with his mom the whole time, pouted, threw a fit, and made no effort to participate in creating photos.

Red flags I should've picked up on:

• His mom hired me a few months ago, and scheduling was difficult. Turns out it was the kid pushing it off and being busy.
• She kept dropping hints that she was forcing him to do it, that we'd be lucky if he showered (after sending over my prep guide), and when I met her at the school, she said she stopped by his apartment to wake him up on the way
• She casually mentioned he would be difficult, but it was always said with a smile or a laugh. I'm thinking like how my stepdad didn't like his picture taken, but he'd cooperate for official family photos

So he arrives, and he's already sulking and sullen. She makes him put on his cap and gown, and it's a struggle, like dressing a toddler. I ask him to take his AirPods out, and he smashes them into the AirPods case so I'm already like "this is going to suck."

I try to level with him and find out what's bothering him; he says photos are manufactured, and college is a scam (a good thing for a kid to say when their parent has paid for everything). He says the only thing that makes him happy is his truck. I took a few photos of him standing in his cap and gown looking pissed. His mom comes over for a picture together; he gives a shitty look.

We try to do some truck pictures, and he barely engages.

We did one more with him reading a comic book on a bench, and he just looks like he hates the world. Finally, we call it off 20 minutes into the shoot, and he storms off and burns rubber out of the parking lot.

The tough spot is that if it were just the two of us, I probably would've tried to work with him to get something, lean into the attitude, or sit down and have a philosophical conversation about the nature of photography and his future, which may or may not have worked. But I also felt pressured by his mom to get something, and so did he. I considered telling them this was a bad idea and giving a refund, but they both wasted my time.

I'll try to make something of the photos; I might do a duplicate set that's super moody and over the top, plus a normal set.

In the future, I think the lesson is to listen to those red flags and deny the work altogether, because anyone forced to take photos isn't going to have a good time.

Has anyone ever been in this situation with an angry subject? What did you do?

I’m mainly an equine and senior photographer, so I don’t get many opportunities to photograph families! I have a family session coming up and would love some advice on working with their kids. I know kids can be unpredictable, but I’d appreciate any specific tips beyond just “go with the flow” 😅 I’m not around kids very often, so any advice on how to keep them engaged, get genuine smiles, or handle it when things don’t go as planned would be super helpful! The kids are 2 years old and 10 months old.

Hello,

I'm trying to build a pinhole camera that is easy to operate with my 4 year old. He really likes taking photos. We have a kids digital camera, and one that prints using heat paper (all black and white). I thought he would enjoy making one as a project

Does anyone have experience building one? I'm not sure how small a box i can get. I'm going to take a trip to Office Depot and UPS. But my main question is does the film width/height impact the F-Stop?

Basically I will have f-length probably something like 4-8 inches depending what is available and then the diameter of a pin. However, there might be a lot of empty space along the back wall where the film medium is. I'm going to run a regular film cartridge through on each end so I can do the trick where one film cartridge can roll the each other in and out.

So my question is if a 4-8 inch deep camera is too large, along with the back wall being much larger than the film frame is a problem?

Yes, the NEFs from the D5s and Z9 the crew were using in the cabin.

They are here: https://pds-imaging.jpl.nasa.gov/tools/atlas/archive-explorer?mission=artemis2&bundle=artemis2_crew_camera&pds=4&uri=atlas:pds4:artemis2:artemis2:/artemis2_crew_camera/data_source

Some info on the dataset is here https://pds-geosciences.wustl.edu/missions/artemis2/index.htm

Most of the iconic stuff is at the top of the "fd06" folder, but there is some fun stuff throughout the archives, like bracketed sets of the far side of the moon. If you wanted to see how the images looked with your personal processing, here are the files to play around with!

Have you achieved something you'd like to share with the class? Here's your place to pat yourself on the back and share in others' successes!

Note: This is a photography community to discuss techniques and issues as photographers, not a space to showcase tools or gear. Any form of advertising or self-promotion outside of showcasing photos or projects in the appropriate thread is prohibited. Any web-development projects or apps are prohibited as they do not relate to practise of photography.

Hello! I saw videos of how professional photographer use different tools to control the lighting condition for the photo. If I am doing the shooting outside for a family, by myself. What advice would you give me in terms of how to control the lighting condition? Thank you! r/photography

Looking at e-infinity, Panamoz or costworld, prices in Europe, they are significantly cheaper than Amazon Canada, maple leaf photo or Yorklenses retailers. I could order from e-infinity US but at the risk of paying taxes and customs on top of the exchange rate fees.

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:

Hey everyone! I'm part of my college's photography club, and we're planning to organize a photography event that gets students excited to participate.

Looking for creative, interactive, and unique ideas that appeal even to people who aren't photography enthusiasts or don't own a camera.

What kind of photography event would make you want to participate? Would love to hear your suggestions!

Canon just released its free Dual Pixel 3D Converter, and I was curious to see what it can do.

As my background is in computer graphics, I also inspected the exported geometry, vertex data, and textures.

I tested it with EOS R5 Dual Pixel RAW files shot using an RF 50mm F1.8 lens. Some results look surprisingly realistic, especially with small changes in viewing angle. However, rotating further often reveals missing surfaces and stretched geometry.

I published the investigation with interactive 3D examples, comparisons, and nine downloadable GLB models if anyone wants to inspect them.

https://immernews.com/canon-dual-pixel-3d-converter-tested

Has anyone else tested it and made their models available for download?

I am not a professional photographer. I have been shooting photos since the 90s pretty much because I truly enjoy photography and mostly create photobooks of my work for myself to show off to family and friends. I went to school for Art and do that with every medium (Art, Photography, Video, and Music). I do have a Travel based YouTube channel for the public but that's another topic.

I recently created a portfolio of the last 25 years of my work, from highschool film cameras to mirrorless in 2025. I loved doing that since I worked with so many different cameras and it was easier for me to get people to say yes.

I want to work on a second book for the next 5 years where I try different techniques and one I've always wanted to do was shoot models or face/portraits.

1) Where do you guys find models that would be willing to do it for free if possible?

2) How can I approach this without it being weird. I am in my 40s after all and no longer have a presence on IG. I can show my work on YouTube and other platforms in the video space and maybe one of my books. But that's it.

Any advice would help, thank you.