Photography Archives - Page 22 of 32

How The Pros Do It – Portable Lighting For Wedding Photography

Ac 3 — The PocketWizard AC3 paired with the MiniTTL for Canon

My nephew got married recently, an event I was unfortunately not able to attend, although my high tech family managed to send me pictures of the event. One picture that made my teeth grind was one with the wedding photographer in the background, trying to light a dress shot with a dinky external flash.

This was the photographer with a killer web site that my future niece felt she was lucky to get, but there was no way the results displayed on the web site were captured with the camera and flash combination in that photo. Judging by the pictures I’ve seen so far, she was duped by a slick web site with, at best, a tenuous connection to whoever took the promo pictures displayed there.

To contrast the difference between that lighting setup and the real pros, I went to see Karl Leopold at Images4Ever near Melbourne Beach, Florida. Karl has been shooting weddings longer than most photographers working today have been alive, has won more awards than I can list here, and is the president of the Atlantic Professional Photographers Association. I wanted to see a real pro lighting setup and wasn’t disappointed.

Karl builds his portable lighting kit around a pair of Canon 580 EX ii Speedlites, pairing those with a PocketWizard FlexTT5 for Canon. The trigger on the camera is a combination of the MiniTT1 matched up with an AC3 Zone Controller for changing the power settings on any of the flash units on the fly wirelessly.

“I can change the power by 3 stops on any of the flash units right from here,” Karl explains, dialing back the power with the AC3. I watched him flip through the power settings while shooting nearly continuously, much faster than making the change through the camera menu.

The arrangement provides the flexibility to mount the fill flash on a monopod and let an assistant adjust the location and height to fit the situation. If he’s working alone he can mount the remote on a light stand and adjust it himself. Instead of being tethered to the camera, he can also move the key off the bracket handle if the situation calls for it.

Lighting set up — How it all comes together - One Speedlite on a standard bracket, the other a remote that can be mounted on anything

It’s all about speed, reliability and flexibility, with added bonus of being able to light the world.

“The big advantage is you can put a light behind the subject for those nice, bright highlights,” Karl explained. The radio triggers work around corners and even when concealed behind foreground objects.

Equipment isn’t the only factor separating the pros from the posers, but having the right gear is definitely a bonus.

In the days to come I’m planning to work with Karl and Images4Ever on more articles on studio lighting, exposure, and working with models on commercial shoots. Stay tuned.

Building Your Photography Business With Social Media

Don't overlook social media when building your business

There are some businesses that lend themselves particularly well to promotion via modern social media and photography is one of those businesses. At a minimum you’ll want to create a Facebook group page and link to it from your personal page and your photography web site.

As part of the customer interview process get your customer’s permission to use social media to distribute some of the photos, but respect their wishes if they’d rather not. Online image collections of events are a great way to expose your customers entire social circle to your work. If the customer publishes the photos themselves, you lose that opportunity.

Online marketing pro Eric Hardenbrook explains, “Find out early if customers are comfortable opting in for online photo sharing. If they are send them a Facebook friend request. Post selected shots from a “life event” type shoot (wedding, baby, graduation, prom) to an online gallery and announce the post on your own wall. Their friends and family will rush to see your work and call you for theirs.”

The added service of loading the photos to an online gallery for your customers is another value angle for your business both in terms of service and exposure. The idea is to provide a path from their event photos to your contact information in a manner that respects the privacy of your clients.

Twitter is another convenient mechanism for communicating with customers and announcing the availability of photos or posting a few online with Twitpic. It’s also a convenient mechanism to advertise specials, like special deals on senior or family portraits. Twitter doesn’t tend to be a big money-maker but it is very convenient for communicating event information.

A LinkedIn account is important for anyone trying to build commercial and business contacts. Recruiters and media companies are increasingly using LinkedIn for locating local talent rather than putting out a hog call on the freelance boards or Craigslist. Getting location jobs these days really is a matter of who you know. Working your LinkedIn profile will build your business.

Another online marketing opportunity are microsites, small web sites focused on one particular facet of your business. Instead of just one big site that lists all your services, split off those services to individual sites focused on just one of those services and have it point back to your main site. “Many small companies are ignoring microsite strategies,” explains Eric. “They are inexpensive to build and greatly increase your web site footprint and search engine rating with back-links.”

Put your best foot forward with a great website - photo from Subtlevox Photography website

Blogging is another way to raise your web site profile and promote your individual brand value in the form of your unique selling points. “WordPress is a popular blogging platform that is very photo friendly,” explains Hardenbrook. “Use it as a gateway to your portfolio by posting slide shows of your shoots in different categories on your site. Adding links to your Facebook and LinkedIn profiles gives you a professional image.” Blogging is one of those activities that will get you business.

To get the most mileage from your online marketing efforts you have to make sure all your social media efforts are working together and echo your main selling points. Your social media message should be what sets you apart from others in the field of photography and why specifically customers should hire you. These are not “set and forget” advertising venues, but part of an ongoing relationship that eventually yields business.

“Remember that social media is all about the conversation. You want to be involved and available, allowing people to interact with you on their terms. Know who your clients are and use the media that they use.”

Boo! Tips For Frighteningly Good Halloween Photos

Halloween is a great time for capturing family and friends at their frightening best. Many people put a lot of time and work into their costumes, so it’s a photography field day.

Get In The Mood

Dress up yourself. Then you’re not so much an observer as a participant and you’ll notice it will change the way people interact with you. People will be more likely to open up and give you a more natural look to you if you’re part of the party.

Besides, it’s fun. You can buy enough novelty makeup for $20 to become the zombie photographer, just walk with a shuffle and you’re there. Just so it looks like you made an effort.

Light From Below

If you can get a sync cord or wireless trigger for your external flash and try lighting from extreme angles above and below the subject. The shadows will add to the drama.

You can also invest in an inexpensive set of stick on filters for your external flash to add a splash of color.

Or Skip The Flash All Together

Whenever possible, ditch the flash and go with natural lighting. That can be a little harder with point-and-shoot cameras than those with better manual controls. It also helps to have a fast lens.

Good glass that can get down to f/1.8 or f/1.4 will let you skip the harsh flash and preserve the darkened moment. The good news is those lenses don’t have to break the bank, with a few available for right around $100 USD.

You don’t have to have a Canon 5D MKII, either, any camera with a decent chip size should produce adequate performance in low light.

Watch The ISO

Some cameras are better than others in low light, almost any will start to introduce noise into photos at extremely high ISOs.

Personally, I think it’s better to bring more natural light or stop your flash power down than to deal with excessive noise.

The only way you know whether your camera is one that starts introducing noticeable artifacts at high ISOs is to experiment. Turn the flash off and shoot a series of pictures at high ISO values and take a look at the pictures.

Best Free Image Editing Programs

While most professional photographers will utilize a professional image editing system like Adobe Lightroom, Apple’s Aperture Pro, or Adobe Photoshop, there are a lot of people who don’t need all that high-priced processing power and a few who just can’t afford it yet.

There’s no need to feel left out, there are many really good free photo editing applications out there. Some require a bit of learning and lack the automation and polish of more expensive programs, but you can’t argue with the cost.

GIMP 2.6

GIMP is proof that high end image processing capabilities don’t have to cost a lot of money and it runs on Mac, Windows, and Linux. The downside is it has a steep learning curve. If you’re coming at GIMP from an older version of Photoshop, you can almost forget it. GIMP gets its automation from scripts generated by the user base and getting them to work right can take a bit of practice.

I’ve also talked to the GIMP developers about changing the name, trying to point out the connotations of the name in English, but they just laugh and say I’m crazy.

Picasa 3.8

Picasa offers superb organizational tools, galleries, geotagging data, support for RAW formats, and basic editing features. I’ve been a fan of Picasa from the beginning and, like most of Google’s tools, it just keeps getting better.

Probably the best organizational feature is the Unnamed Faces tool. When you import pictures of people, Picasa puts people it doesn’t recognize in a special folder and lets you tag them when you have time.

New editing features include blemish fix and basic retouching.

Windows Live Photo Gallery 2011

As the name implies, this application is limited to those of you using Windows. Despite that limitation, Windows Live Photo Gallery is quickly becoming a capable application. The first couple generations were a little chunky, but those days are behind them.

Windows Live Photo Gallery includes features to combine parts of two or more photos, retouch pictures, automatically stitch panoramas, and straighten photos that are crooked.

It may not be a power user tool, but it does bring a lot of push-button functionality to new users.

Paint.net

Paint.net is another Windows only program, but gets very high ratings from users and reviewers. CNET gave it 5 stars, as did Softpedia, and PC World.

Designed to be quickly intuitive, Paint.net supports many high end features including layers, unlimited undo, and dizzying array of special effects. Paint.net has an active and supportive community that provides a lot of support.

Digikam

This is a Linux only program, but I wanted to give it honorable mention for being one of the best free photo applications on the market. It organizes photos by gallery, plus features a full suite of photo editing tools and compatibility with the KIPI plugin library.

Do Low-Price Photographers Hurt The Business?

Put five photographers together and you’ll get five different gripes about low-cost competition. Photography is one business where there are definite lines between “low-cost” and “cheap”.

You can hire a cheap photographer, and I can almost guarantee you’re going to get what you pay for. Anyone with a modern camera like a Canon 7D or Nikon D5100 can take decent pictures and if “decent” is good enough, and sometimes it is, then there’s no need to pay more.

There are certain risks that come with cheap photographers. One being that because they’re cheap, losing one customer here or there isn’t going to concern them. So, if they have car trouble, camera trouble, or just don’t feel like showing up, they’re not going to be worried about missing an appointment. Pros are going to have people they can call on to cover for them in an emergency, you might get the assistant, but you’ll get someone. They also have spare bodies in case of camera trouble. One photographer I know has a box of spare bodies, all packed neatly into a custom Pelican case.

Someone running an honest business has to hold back money for taxes, which takes a third right off the top, health insurance, liability insurance, equipment insurance and what’s called E&O insurance, which stands for Errors and Omissions. If a professional photographer breaks or damages something, they’ll have insurance to cover the loss, the low-rent shooter probably will not have coverage and suing them will be a waste of time because they likely don’t have anything worth taking.

Low-ball photographers end up hurting themselves worse than the industry. Sooner or later the IRS will catch up to them and they’ll get hit with a bill for back taxes, they’ll break something and get sued, or some other calamity that will ultimately put them out of business.

Modern cameras make it seem like anyone can be a photographer, but the reality is quite different. You not only have to be a fantastic photographer, but you have to understand business, and charge enough to stay in business. If you enjoy taking pictures as a hobby, just understand that getting to the level where you can make money at it, turns it into a job.