Useful links from todays video
My old portrait work
My NEW portrait work
My tin house studio website
Today I want to talk about why I moved from still life professional photography through to portrait photography in 2024 covering the financial, creative and business elements to this move.
You can find me on;
Patreon
Facebook Group
Tin House Website and WORKSHOPS
Comments
32 responses to “Why I Switched to Portrait Photography and You Should Too”
For those who need help with business, marketing or the creative process as a professional, head here https://tinhouse-studio.com/product-category/workshop/
I agree with most of the comments below – Don't create an additional channel. It doesn't matter the subject matter; still life, portrait, landscape, etc. The skills, artistry, vision of how people capture that magic is what I find the most fascinating. Figuring out how to use what I learn and apply it to what I create is what gets me exited about watching other creators.
I shoot everything and anything professionally and personally my people photos alway stand out to me they have more impact on me i look back on them with pride. Imho i have some very tidy landscapes but they just dont excite me anywhere near as much as my people pictures. Good luck with your new venture you have the drive intelligence attitude and team to absolutely succeed
For both portraits and products you need to be very good with light, so there is a commonality there.
Scott, if you were to speculate, do you think that this whole industry upset with lay-offs, generative AI and all that jazz is coming to an end for photographers and film makers? I get that agencies that were previously exclusively into cleaning up masks, roto scoping and other tedious tasks are as a whole, doomed. I was at a well known agency in Amsterdam in 2022, before they also had to let a lot of people go, but we made an end-of-year-video (DoP/creative for this project), poking some fun at gen AI (this was fall 2022, so before it completely exploded, almost too early for the public to get at that point but it turned out great, it's on their Vimeo), but we all saw what happened in 23 and 24.
Do you think that the general public has finally gotten tired of whatever AI can do or not, and to the point that this mindset reaches the people that control the money? That people want something real when they look to a brand? Real in the sense of something that a human has captured, I mean. I couldn't care less about whatever generative AI will do in such and such time in terms of generating images–it's both lazy and an insult to the creative nature of humans. It's one thing that creatives feel this way, but what do you pick up when you're in conversations with clients, agents, brand managers? It'd be really interesting to hear. Cheers /Björn
So how does one go from having a camera and treating photography as a hobby to being asked to shoot McFly?
Taking portraits involves people. Nasty, vain, horrible people that can't pose, won't listen, hate their outfit, late, rude and liars.
Landscapes do not talk back.
thank you!
Hello! First of all.. love the channel. Your honesty had helped me tremendously in making decisions about gear and how to slowly build a career.
Secondly, it would be interesting to see how you set up your lights for a portrait and if and how years of experience with lighting products has influenced your choices.
Kind regards from Belgium!
My passion is portrait photography and I will never stop doing this because it was what made me fall in love with photography. I've worked with fashion here in Italy, very toxic, then i change my target client. Commercial and still-life photography is my business now, sometimes beauty for cosmetics. Much better, technical and rewarding.
Thanks for explaining why you’re moving into portraiture. Sounds good. You don’t seem to make it clear why we should though.
I like the style but my first thought was “shutterstock”. Maybe it’s the seamless colorful backgrounds. I’m curious to see your first commercial job with this style.
My 20 yr old son is in school for Photography. Will you explain why this has been such a bad year for the field? Is it simply the economy?
Do what makes you happy.
easy, there are more people searching for portraits (less equipment, only 1 lens) than product photography (all your previous videos )🤣
Has it only been six years doing still life work? Wow! you have achieved so much in that time. You have a really captive style and I can see how you’ve brought that to your portraits. So many great artists change throughout their careers. It shouldn’t really be a surprise; it’s what keeps them great, fresh and motivated. Wishing you the very best in your new(ish) direction. Loving your videos and the generosity you give in making them.
Will you ever do a website review video soon?
“Better to have an unedited version out that gets you jobs than unedited version that gets you no jobs.” Don’t expect to hear this line tossed in after the whole video but this was the game changer line for me ! So you’ll actually post or share or market somehow great shots you took that haven’t yet been edited ?! What a revelation.
Just watched this. I do follow you and would appreciate a 'portrait channel'. I'm a beginner. I've done about 30 photoshoots but I'm always nervous as hell and always appreciate other people's BTS videos. So, I'm just throwing my hat in the ring.
You're hair looks amazing Scott!
Glad to see someone doing what they want to rather than what they're expected to do. Hope it's a great success.
I thought this was clickbait, but glad to see it's not. I love how you explain what you're doing and why.
Really interesting to see the change, I do Portrait photography myself and it's always nice to see somebody else's process. I do like the new photos but to be honest I think I like the subject matter of your old portraits a bit more, even though I can tell from a technical standpoint your new work is better. I think this may be because this was all from a two day test shoot some of the individuality of the images are lost a bit, like the colour choice and framing is really good but the subject matter is a bit lacking. Even with this I do think they are a great set of photos with my favourites being the old man in the blue and hope to see some of your future portrait work in a less "throw everything at the wall and see what sticks" way but never the less always enjoy your videos and perspectives.
Isn't portrait photography still life… sort of?
Hi Scott, Interesting. I note that you are based in Leicestershire (and recall you mentioning it was tricky to succeed in advertising field, if outside London). Also that from your website your details (within URLs) imply "London". Have you moved, or is this just part of your positioning to suggest to 'casual' lookers, that you may be easily accessible to ad-agency staff who might be minded to think 'London centric' and dismiss those further afield?
I'm an amateur shooter (40 yrs) who loves photography and manages to win a few international awards. Friends and work colleagues used to say I should do it professionally, but I thought it smarter to stick at my day job (well paid, which I also loved, but now retired) rather than try to earn a living at it. Because you 'want to' is a valid reason IMO. Personally I'd keep one YT channel, but can see why you may decide differently.
On websites, I can see more reason to have separate sites (identities) for different genres/clients etc. I'm a generalist (aka "I'll have a go at anything that interests me" – still life, portraits, sport, travel, landscape, creative etc) so it's hard for those who don't really know me to understand what I'm really 'good' at. And, maybe even more difficult to sell myself to 'paying' clients as the best photographer for their needs because of my diversity. But, unconcerned with clients and getting paid, I can please myself. I have previously shot a few paid assignments from associates who knew about and liked my style, but I never felt is was a seriously viable option.
It looks like AI can create fantastic portraits just based on a number of random snaps from a phone. I wonder how it will change the photography business.
Wildlife, landscapes and travel photography have been for a while, my top favorite genres. I don't really see the money there. Yesterday I had my 1st photoshoot with a model, it was fantastic, I feel like I can do really well on that niche. Hopefully I'll find my way to profitable photography in it. But still, Wildlife will always be my # 1 favorite niche.
Can you make a detailed video of how and where you advertise. Im in a similar position, Im moving from one form or photography to another. I used to do website content for clients( products, etc) and want to move to portraits and fashion for any kind of magazine and ads. Need to know who to target and how.
We are here for you, not your genre of photography. Your style is interesting no matter what you shoot
Thanks for flashing my picture. Lolol! Yeah, it make sense why you stepped away from portraits/band stuff. Do what you love and that's all that matters! And no, please don't start a new channel. Cheers!
Shooting in multiple genres/niches and having a recognizable uniform style across genres is very difficult.
Don't change the channel, people do not care about your past videos + this one is already monetising. 70% people watching your videos have never heard your brand.
I have started as portrait and event photographer. It works well, I can't live out of this, nor I intend to for now, but there is some money if you find the right people, specially in London I imagine with everyone wanting to climb the social ladder.
Funny enough, my brand is starting to become more and more associated with my catholic faith (I live near Fátima), getting a lot of pilgrims that come all over the world to take pictures here. Interesting twist, zero mainstream, but totally niche which I am enjoying. Should I go full on and brand myself as "catholic photographer"? Thinking about this. This would stop all the naked newborn moms from reaching out for sure.