5 Common Mistakes New Photographers Make
When you’re just starting to build your portfolio and begin your journey as a photographer, there are certain situations you should avoid that may not be obvious to a newbie. Here are 5 common mistakes new photographers make and how to avoid them when building your photography portfolio:
Mistake 1: Doing anything that jeopardizes someone’s safety
The first of these five mistakes new photographers make may seem like a no-brainer, but unfortunately, it needs to be said. Please avoid doing anything that would put someone’s physical safety in jeopardy as you build your portfolio. Don’t take pictures on railroad tracks or in the middle of the road. Even if the tracks are inactive or the road is rarely busy, just don’t run the risk of injuring your model or yourself. Don’t ask your model to do dangerous things like stand on a precarious cliff or lean over deep water or sit on the edge of a parking garage rooftop. Even if you are confident that you can photograph your model in what appears to be a dangerous situation safely, ask yourself, do I want this photo to inspire middle schoolers to come to this dangerous location and take photos of each other? It’s just always better to be safe than sorry and to be a good example for other aspiring photographers in that regard.
Don’t overlook newborn photography safety
If you’re interested in newborn photography, never hold or pose someone’s baby without first taking a newborn photography safety course and becoming certified. If you’re not ready to get certified, experiment with lifestyle newborn photography instead and have the parents be the ones to hold and pose the baby at all times. Newborn babies are so fragile and can very easily be injured by an untrained photographer trying to fold their limbs into poses for newborn photos.
Protect yourself and your clients with liability insurance
In addition to these safety practices being good common sense, remember that true professional photographers pay for liability insurance to protect themselves and their business in the event a client is injured during a photo session and sues. Be smart and don’t take unnecessary risks that could so easily turn into tragedy and lawsuits while you’re trying to build your portfolio and reputation as a photographer.
Mistake 2: Messing up someone’s once-in-a-lifetime event because you want to build your portfolio
You may have a friend ask you to shoot their wedding for free when they find out you have a nice camera. Unfortunately, I have heard of so many friendships that have been ruined over this scenario. Even if it’s a wedding with a very small budget, it’s still a once-in-a-lifetime event in your friend’s life and there’s no way to make up for any missed moments. At the end of the day, when the cake has been eaten and the flowers are wilted, photos and videos are the only tangible memories of someone’s wedding day that will last forever.
Think twice before committing to capture a wedding
It’s so easy for someone to not realize the value of professional wedding photography until the wedding is over and then feel remorse that the photos they have to remember the day did not capture it as well as they would have liked. Am I saying you shouldn’t help a friend out if they truly can’t afford to hire an experienced photographer? No, but I’m saying you should be very careful before you commit to documenting someone’s priceless memories when you don’t have much experience. Make sure you have a contract in place even if the person is a very close friend and you’re shooting for free.
Make sure you’re prepared for the unexpected
Think through all the worst-case scenarios that could happen during the event (you get a flat tire on your way there and the wedding starts with no photographer, your camera suddenly dies, your memory card gets corrupted, your camera lens falls out of your bag and shatters, the reception is dark and you don’t know how to use flash, etc) and ask yourself if you are really ready for the responsibility that comes with the trust your friend is placing in you to capture this event. Make sure you are ready to act like a professional and be prepared for all those worst case scenarios before you take on that responsibility. If you don’t have the funds to have a backup camera, extra batteries and memory cards, more than one lens in your camera bag, and a flash that you know how to use, you might not be ready to shoot a wedding. Be honest with yourself, and if you don’t feel ready for the responsibility of capturing a wedding day, then politely decline and encourage your friend to choose a photographer who is experienced with shooting weddings.
Though I used weddings as an example, this advice also applies to any other kind of photography that would be impossible or difficult for someone to make up with another photographer if they aren’t happy with your work. Birth photography is another example–if you miss important shots during a birth, those moments are gone. They can’t put the baby back inside so you can try again! Same with newborn photography–though there is a bigger window of opportunity for parents to have more photos taken of their newborn, time is still limited, since within just 2-3 weeks after birth, babies grow out of that precious brand new baby look. Gain experience by offering to assist an experienced photographer with shoots, paying a mentor photographer to teach you, practicing with model calls and styled shoots, or working as a second shooter for a wedding photographer instead.
Mistake 3: Committing a photography faux pas around other photographers
I don’t want to make any brand new photographers feel bad if they have already done one of these things, but in the photography industry there are certain faux pas that new photographers are kind of notorious for doing that tend to bother seasoned photographers! And I’m not sharing these to shame anyone, but they are little mistakes that would be so easy to make without realizing it and without intending to cause problems. You’ll be better off being aware of them so you can avoid committing these faux pas and have an easier time making friends with other photographers in your area. Photography can be a lonely job, and it helps so much to have fellow photographers that you can turn to for advice, community, and camaraderie, so don’t do things that would make them want to avoid working alongside you or avoid referring clients your way.
Don’t be an “Uncle Bob” at weddings
Something that upsets a lot of photographers is when an aspiring photographer attends the wedding of a family member or friend as a guest, but brings their camera along and tries to shoot over the shoulder of the hired photographer. This is a problem because it distracts them from doing the job they were hired to do, and it’s distracting to the wedding party having their photo taken if they’re not sure whether to look at the hired photographer’s camera or yours. By sharing this I don’t mean that no wedding guests should ever take photos during a wedding, not at all! But just try to be aware of your surroundings and respectful of the hired photographer. Don’t be that guest that steps out into the aisle with an iPad to take a photo and blocks the photographer’s shot of the bride and groom’s first kiss.
Be courteous to other photographers you meet in person
Photography faux pas can also happen when you’re out taking photos with a model at an outdoor location that is really popular for taking pictures in your area. These can usually be avoided as long as you have some common courtesy, thoughtfulness, and awareness of the people around you. If you walk behind another photographer’s clients and begin to pose your model or client in the background of their shot, the other photographer is going to be a little annoyed because now they’ll need to have their clients move to another spot without people in the background. Some popular locations for photography have one specific feature that everyone wants in the background of their photos–like an archway, beautiful foliage, or an interesting wall. If you pose your model or client in that coveted little spot and stay there for a really long time even when other photographers are standing by with their clients waiting for you to finish, those other photographers are going to be frustrated.
Be kind and courteous on social media
Other photography faux pas can happen in your interactions on social media. When another photographer posts a photo at a beautiful location and you want to know where they took that gorgeous photo, don’t just comment, “Where is this?” Some photographers are very private about the locations they use because sadly, many beautiful locations for photos get so overrun by photographers and their clients that the location gets trashed and photography fees are imposed or photography becomes prohibited. Photographers may also be reluctant to share locations because they spend many hours scouting around looking for beautiful and unique locations and consider that part of their service to their clients. However, there are also many photographers who are willing to share their locations if another photographer asks in a respectful way. So instead of commenting, “Where is this?” and expecting detailed instructions of how to find the location, first give the photographer a compliment on how beautiful the photo is, then ask if they would be comfortable sharing the location where it was taken, and be respectful and understanding if the answer happens to be no.
Another type of photography faux pas that happens on social media is called client poaching. This happens when one photographer searches through another photographer’s social media posts to find their past clients on social media, then contacts those clients and offers them a free or discounted photo session. It’s one thing if another photographer’s past client seeks you out and asks you to take their photos, there’s no problem with that. But intentionally seeking out and contacting clients from other photographers in an effort to lure their business to you just isn’t ethical and comes off as tacky and desperate to the clients, and won’t win you any friends in the photography community. (I will add the caveat that there is a difference between client poaching in the portrait photography industry and pitching in the commercial photography industry, where it is common to seek out brands you’d like to work with and pitch your work to them. But even in the commercial photography industry, you certainly shouldn’t go around contacting all the clients of a fellow commercial photographer.)
Mistake 4: Breaking copyright law
Many new photographers (and even some seasoned photographers) are unaware of aspects of copyright law that they should take care not to violate. One of the most important things to remember is that when marketing yourself as a photographer, you should only advertise your own work, and never try to pass off another photographer’s work as your own. Whether it’s images on your website or in your social media feed, potential clients will assume that the photos you present to the world under your business name are images that you captured. Taking photos from another photographer and presenting them in your portfolio is theft, it violates copyright law, and it’s false advertising since you’re advertising to your clients a product that you did not create and may not be able to produce in the exact same way. If you see another photographer do a specific type of photo session that you would like to try, find a model and try it out yourself, don’t post the other photographer’s images on your Facebook page and ask if clients are interested in a similar photo session.
A recent example of this was a photo session that I saw going viral during the holiday season where a photographer took photos of a baby sitting in a life-size mug filled with chocolate milk and marshmallows with a holiday background and advertised hot chocolate mini sessions. The photos were really cute, and soon lots of other photographers took her images and used them to advertise hot chocolate mini sessions on their own business pages. It’s okay to get inspiration from other photographers, and it’s okay to share photos you think are cute or inspiring, but taking someone else’s images and using them as an advertising tool to profit from is not okay.
It’s also important to be aware of copyright laws so that you don’t get sued by a huge corporation, such as Disney or Dr. Seuss. Photographers who advertise holiday mini sessions with The Grinch and have someone dress up in a Grinch costume to take pictures with children as a (quite possibly more traumatizing) alternative to Santa Claus should know that their behavior is inviting litigation. The Grinch character and all likenesses of that character are intellectual property that belongs to the Dr. Seuss company, and they are well within their rights to sue unauthorized for-profit use of that character’s likeness, and they have lawyers always on the lookout for this kind of thing. Does this mean that you can’t take a photo of a child dressed as a copyrighted fictional character for Halloween? No, but you can’t have someone dress up as a copyrighted fictional character and then advertise photo sessions with that character. (This is why all those princess birthday party companies can’t call their princesses the same names as Disney princesses if they want to stay in business, and even so they tend to be walking on pretty thin ice when it comes to copyright violation). Click here for more information on US copyright law via Copyright.gov.
Mistake 5: Damaging the environment
The last of these common mistakes new photographers make is disrespecting the environment. You know the “Leave No Trace” rule when you’re camping or hiking? That should be your motto when taking photos in the great outdoors, too! Allowing your clients to throw confetti or glitter at an outdoor location is littering and harmful to the environment, plus it makes the location look messy and takes away from the enjoyment of nature for everyone else. Even if clients want to throw something more eco-friendly like rose petals or biodegradable confetti, it still makes the location look trashy to leave a mess on the ground and could be harmful to wildlife, so charge your clients a cleanup fee ahead of time if they insist on including a messy prop in their session, bring a battery-powered hand held vacuum, and clean up the mess when you’re done. The very easiest, least harmful-to-the-environment solution to client requests for glitter or confetti in their sessions, is to buy glitter/confetti overlays from Etsy, have your clients just pretend to throw confetti/blow glitter, and layer the overlay on top of the photo in Photoshop. This will save you the headache of making sure you get the perfect confetti or glitter shot in camera as well as save you from cleaning up a mess.
Another major environmental hazard to avoid is anything that could potentially start a wildfire, such as smoke bombs, which have been really trendy in photography for the last few years. While smoke bombs do make a really neat visual effect, a cool photo is just NOT worth the risk of starting a wildfire, especially when it’s so easy to get the same effect by buying a smoke bomb overlay from Etsy for a few dollars. In addition to the risk of a wildfire, colored smoke bombs can also stain anything the smoke comes in contact with, which still makes a mess and detracts from the natural beauty of the environment.
As a professional photographer, it’s your responsibility to plan with your clients, set expectations for their photo session ahead of time, and gently educate them if they are asking you to participate in something that could be dangerous or harmful to the environment. Multiple major wildfires that have resulted in loss of life, property and serious environmental damage were started by smoke bombs used at gender reveal parties. If a potential client is insisting on doing something that could be dangerous or harmful to the environment and/or people in the vicinity during the photo session they’re planning, tell them you are not comfortable with booking their photo session and can’t risk having your business be held liable for any potential problems that could occur. In spite of P.T. Barnum’s famous quote, “There’s no such thing as bad publicity,” getting press as the photographer who took photos of the gender reveal smoke bomb that started a wildfire is not the kind of publicity you want your business to have!
Another way to show respect for the environment as a photographer is to obey the law and follow the guidelines that are in place for the locations you want to use. This means don’t trespass on private property, don’t sneak into locations where photography is not allowed, and don’t try to get away with shooting without a permit at locations where a photography permit is required. There are so many beautiful locations in nature all around for us to enjoy and that are available at little or no cost for photographers to use, but if we want those beautiful places to still be enjoyed by our posterity 100 years from now, we need to take care of them. Abide by the rules, pay for the permit that helps maintain the location, stay on the trails, clean up your mess. As a professional and a good citizen, it’s your responsibility to “take only pictures, leave only footprints.”
In short, use common sense and be a good human
Whew! This post ended up being a lot longer than I expected, but it’s so important to become aware of these common mistakes new photographers make when you’re starting out in the photography industry. Avoiding these mistakes will help you protect yourself and your business, avoid uncomfortable situations with clients, and ultimately be viewed by peers and clients as the professional you aspire to be. If you liked this post, please pin the image below to help share these tips with other new photographers!
5 Common Mistakes New Photographers Make | How to Build Your Photography Portfolio
