Hi Josh,

The world is full of photographers. The question is really more about what makes some Photographers stand out from the masses. I believe it to be creativity, imagination, and innovation. I am one older guy who believe that being Avant-Garde is something to be proud of. There is a high level of snobbery in parts of the art world. Some believe that catering to the tastes of the audience/customer is not in keeping with true art, which is ridiculous, like it is a choice between one or the other.

Great art is all about moving the observer in some way, touching their hearts, conveying and inspiring any combination of energy, mood, emotion, story, wonder, beauty/ugliness, message, concept, idea, and thought.

There are 412 human emotions and only 20 facial muscles to express them. The challenge in portrait photography is in capturing personality, emotion, attitude, spirit, and story of the subjects face and body language, and then doing it with high quality technical values.

You have your bread and butter work, all of which looks high quality to me, but you also have a very creative and imaginative side, as seen in your DA postings. I have seen highly creative and imaginative work in my life that will wow people, even though the technical qualities were low. But when people see the creative and imaginative work done with high quality technical values, they will very much know the difference. They may not know why one is much better than the other, but they will know. This is why I think your success will grow.

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More Portrait photographers are now using HDRI, but in a very subtle way and with no tone mapping, just to enhance dynamic range a bit. I think most photographers hear the word HDRI and immediately picture what kind image that is, then discount it in their work. But HDRI is just one more tool that can be used how you choose to use it, subtle or dramatic.

Duotones, Tritones, and Quadtones, when outputting to print media, can also give amazing results in increasing richness and greater depth. It is like adding complexity to the visual feast. The color tones you choose can make a huge difference in how the image feels, its energy and mood. But just as with HDRI, this can be done very subtly. For example, you can use black and one or two Pantone Grays, or even add just a touch of rubine red. NOTE: For Lithographic printing, each color pass in printing increases cost, but for InkJet or Giclée there is not extra cost.

I frankly have no experience in in using ring flash myself, but have seen it used a number of times for photo shoots. It was always used in addition to your normal studio lighting schemes. Ring Flash gives you a hard light, but because the light comes from all around the lens, the only shadow is a darkened halo around a subject, but the subject itself is uniformly lit.

Normally a head on light source would flatten a face, but the ring flash makes highlights on relief areas of the subject. Ring Flash provides even illumination with few shadows visible in the photograph, as the origin of the light is very close to (and surrounds) the optical axis of the lens. When the subject is very close to the camera, as is the case in macro photography, the distance of the flash from the optical axis becomes significant. For objects close to the camera, the size of the ring flash is significant and so the light encounters the subject from many angles in the same way that it does with a conventional flash with soft box. This has the effect of further softening any shadows.

The reason Ring Flashes are also very popular in portrait and fashion photography, is that in addition to softening shadows, which can be unflattering to models, and bringing out unsightly wrinkles, the unique way that a ring flash renders light gives the model a shadowy halo which is a common feature of fashion photography.

You can get a ring Flash adapter for Nikon and Canon Hot Shoe Flash, Here is one for $200: Go to [link] then click on Ring Flash for more detail.

They have a gallery of photos taken with their ring Flash at: [link]

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Eventually, you may want to look into "Rights Managing" some of your work. Instead of selling your photo, you sell the right to use it for a specific use, like for a book front cover, or a print add. The fee depends on things like the expected circulation (e.i. Magazine, Television, etc.), output size and resolution they will use, and time of use.

If you have images you feel are particularly high value, it is worth registering them.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT:
Ideally, none of your images should be posted anywhere without a copyright signature or watermark directly affixed to it. Some artists on DA simply add their copyright signature in the "Artists Comments" area under the image, but the signature must be affixed to the image for full legal protection, so that it travels with the image if someone takes and tries to use it without permission. They can use the argument that they did not know it was copyrighted and got it from someone else. But if your signature is on the image and it is removed, there will be evidence of that and then the person is guilty of a crime.

YOUR COPYRIGHT SIGNATURE should be affixed to the image itself and must contain 3 elements, which can be in any order (spaces and punctuation do not matter). The three elements are:

1. Your legal name, or your Tradename (ideally registered).
2. The © symbol as shown, either drawn or typed (option and g keys pressed at the same time).
3. The year the image was created, followed by each year it was changed.

You can use fancy script fonts, handwriting fonts, and graphics. It can be placed anywhere on your image and in any size you wish.

EXAMPLES
©Joe Blow 2008, 2009
© Joe Blow 2008
Joe Blow 2008©
Joe Blow© 2008
Joe Blow © 2008
© 2008 Joe Blow
2008 © Joe Blow
ETC.

Some artists incorporate their signature into their artwork. See how this artist ran his signature along the shirt/neck line [link] .

Some Signatures actually look good with the art, like these:
[link] but it is missing the year
[link] also missing some info, but looks good.

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Print media is unforgiving to blowout, burnout and poor tonal quality, due to screening and ink absorption characteristics (like loss of tones closest to the ends of the tonal range). Problem photos become even bigger problems when output to print media. I have had to reject a number of photos that I wanted to use, because on poor technical values.
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ABOUT ME

I did not want to give you the impression that I am a professional photographer. Growing up, I spent much more time in the darkroom than I did shooting. Most of my experience has been in working with what others have already shot, especially in print media.

I am now pretty much crippled no longer able to do creative work.
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This turned out way longer than expected. I shall now you in peace, LOL

The very best of good fortune,

Matthew

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I worship at the altar of creativity.

oh please please upload it

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_{Question your sanity. Lose all humanity.
Into the psychotic calm.}