Just like back in high school taking photography. You spend the first our teaching basic techniques of framing, subject selection, lighting etc… Then you send them out in the area you are at and have them all take 5-10 photos using the techniques you taught them to make ordinary objects into artistically interesting. A park, office complex etc… does not matter where (in high school we used to literally have to stay on the School grounds during class and go do this. Don’t lock them in, given them freedom of expression just press to demonstrate technique in their images of what is around where they are at

There are people who have skills and get jobs, you however are missing the fact that it is having the proper skills and understanding the business you are in to get you the jobs you want and provide your client with what they need quickly and at a proper point.

You are trying really hard, but are you putting your efforts in the proper place? Are you using the correct skills? If you are not getting work then the answer is likely no.

In general I have found I make the most money in photography from what I would consider the worst photographs I take. Not because technically they are bad photos but because they lack any level of life, don’t “look great” etc… The thing is they are what is needed for the job you are hired for. Part of your problem can even be that your hard work and efforts to make great images takes too long and you are not delivering as your clients want.

The number of times in my life I cringe as I apply a filter to a photo in order to provide a client “the new look” in a trend that everyone wants is beyond what I can count. I look at images I make sometimes and think how terrible they look after applying that latest fad (or even just photographing people in trendy clothing or poses etc…) They suck and I would never put them in a portfolio… I will however do it because I am getting hired and paid and it is not about what I think looks good it is about what the client wants.

Working in this field, in any field, is not about your talents, it is how you market and sell yourself and your product and if that meets the needs and expectations of clients. When you say someone has “no-talent” to make good images and yet they are constantly getting work and you are not… I would say they have the talent needed to make it in this business and you may have talent but not what is required to be successful.

Focus less on your subjective idea of great-looking images and more on what clients / prospective clients are looking for.

Um, you are in a competitive market that is hard to land paying jobs for and you are shocked that other people you do not personally know are being vague or simply not giving you information on how to land jobs? You do understand you are their competition and every job that you land is one that they can not; basically them helping you to succeed is taking money out of their own pockets.

It is not gatekeeping it is protecting their own jobs and paychecks.

When you are being required to be present at a 2 hour event you need to be charging based on the time you are there. In the modern age the number of photos you shoot is really not a relevant aspect to cost. Back in film photography days you had to consider the cost of film as well but with digital that is a non-consideration.

As for the editing, you should not be editing too many more than what they want. First you will need to go through the rough photos to determine the ones which meet the need and from there you go and edit the appropriate number. What you should do is limit the number you edit to show then to a given number (say 24, twice what they wanted) and figure your editing time based on this and then charge for that at an hourly rate.

A professional will charge anywhere from $150 an hour up depending on what they can “command” for the job. You are a college student and should consider that you are partially doing this for experience and building your name so Charging more around $75-100 an hour is appropriate. If anyone ask it is not just about your time it is also the equipment / software etc… that is required to do the work which you are providing as well.

for what you are listing I would assume around 4 hours total work assuming average skills (2 hours shooting then 2 hours sorting and post processing) which would give you perhaps a $300-$400 charge for it.

Here is the thing, when you do work for another company (photographer in this case) you often are surrendering credit for the work to them in situations like this.

Your goal was to get content for your portfolio, if you did that just be happy and move on with life. You start making a big deal out of that with the venue it can cause you larger issues (say the venue may just blacklist both of you because of “drama”)

Yes it sucks they did that to you but if it is not something that is directly costing you money it is not worth the effort.

Take the life lessons, if you work with others in the future make sure that you have clarity (in writing is often important) on everything related to the transaction. This includes things like “who gets credit” for the photos provided etc… Just remember that when working for someone else you often will be sacrificing professional credit for the pay check, especially if you are hired freelance as a second photographer at an event.

It is not uncommon, at least where I am, that if you are hired as a second photographer for something like a venue / wedding shoot; you are not going to be named with any credit. I in fact have a short form contract that covers just this that I would use if hiring someone in a case like this (basically says that all photographs taken at that event are my property, I own the copyright and publication rights to them). To be honest this is important because I was hired and need to have the legal ownership of the work in order to be able to sell it to those who hired me for the work.

The people putting on the event hired X photographer / company and if you are hired (paid or unpaid) to be a second photographer then you are representing the company that was hired and you should expect that they are taking full credit for the work produced. Often photographers operated under their own name in the trade so you can expect this to happen. But any actual professional photographer will have contracts / agreements regarding these types of things and make it clear up front.

If you don’t like that, make sure you are clear upfront and in writing that you need to be given credit or don’t take the job.

You can ask, though I would question how professional the photographer is if they messed the images up that much and did not correct them before they gave you copies. So they may not have RAW files of the images. Expect they may also charge you for the files as well.

When it comes to things like this you need to create a circle of influence around you and make decisions based on the people and well how much impact saying “no” will have on your life. Your In Laws for example you may consider that is part of a family obligation at this point and need to carve out time for it each year; but make it that you are setting the schedule “I can do it on one of these two days and can only spend X hours taking the photos” is the way you phrase it to them.

As it expands out to other family and friends it does come down to saying no to them. Friends, well you should not be doing that for free; you need to start charging them for the services you are offering them and suddenly you will find that few are asking you to do it. Make it a deal compared to what you would charge an actual client for a similar shoot but still put a price tag on it. With family you can apply the same thing but how you handle it should be based on how close you are to that family member. Your sibling you may still offer up a free shoot under time constraints where a 3rd cousin you should be charging full price.

As annoying as these folks are a large part of the problem here is you. It is not just saying “no” to people it is putting the value on your time. People are asking you to do things for free that you normally would charge for. Yes some people you should be willing to do this for but if your friendship with someone is going to be based on if you take free family photos for them; perhaps you need to find a new friend. If you have a hard time flat out telling people no, then put a price on your time and make it a business transaction. I get this is not the type of photography you most enjoy but that is a good balance and does not just deny them access to your photographic skills

Low light situations, Macro Photography, Action photography where you know where your main subject will be but are moving so cannot trust the auto focus to hit the right thing at the right moment.

There are plenty of uses for manual focus, just your average taking some photos here and there the auto focus generally covers it without concern but there are many cases where you may find manual focus a better option.