Archive for Make Better Photographs – Page 42

Why You Need a Professional Wedding Photographer

Wedding photography is the most important part of any wedding event.

We as photographers know this to be true but how do you convince your client? How do you sell them on the idea that if they are going to spend money anywhere they need to spend it on a good photographer? There’s several ways you can do this like throwing a few packages at them and see if they go for anything. Try and figure out their budget and work something into the amount that they feel is reasonable, or you can try my approach. I try to sell them on the fact that what I offer will outlast everything else.

A wedding is a once in a lifetime event. You may get married more than once but every wedding truly is a once in a lifetime event. Think about it for a second, never again at this moment, at this place in time, will these two people be standing in the same place, repeating the same words, with the same love and intensity as they do in that exact moment. This moment is a memory to be cherished for their entire lives and they are sharing that moment with their closest friends and family. A wedding photographer captures that moment to be shared by generations of this couples family to enjoy. What I, as a wedding photographer, offer my clients will stand the tests of time itself. Read More→

10 Quick Ways to Increase Your Wedding Revenue

Ah wedding photography! A goldmine or business land mine?

However you feel it’s going with your wedding photography business the chances are it could be doing a little better……. am I wrong? Here are 10 quick ways you can increase your wedding revenue.

  1. Work out your value and charge day rate for your time……nothing else….. just your time… everything else comes later!
  2. Make sure you’re product costs are not higher than 20%
  3. If you must offer ‘shoot to burn’ then why not consider per image pricing.
  4. Sell storybooks using per page pricing.
  5. Pre-design (or get someone to do it for you) pages of your clients storybook. Let them eliminate the pages they don’t want….. it’s the opposite of up-selling!
  6. Don’t worry about offering packages but instead introduce a minimum product credit spend to be paid upfront. Read More→

Finding Your Feet: Getting Started in Photography: by Jacob Lucas

Many people ask me how I got started in photography as well as why I got started. The answer to both is that I’m a very visual person. It’s just my nature. The scale doesn’t matter either – it could be as simple as a bumblebee on a flower during a warm spring day, or a vibrant sunset panning across the ocean for hundreds of miles.

I picked up a camera because I was moved by these scenes and wanted to capture them as I saw them. During the time of my life when I moved from Australia to Seattle my surroundings changed so incredibly that something compelled me to photograph it all. Seattle is my muse and I love her for it – it’s changed my life for the better on many different levels. In short, the pacific north-west and Seattle is both how and why I became a photographer.

Seattle

This is the first post in a series of fortnightly posts on how to get started in photography which I’m calling “Finding Your Feet”. I intend the series to be impartial and gear-agnostic; hopefully what I have learned since I picked up a camera and recall throughout the series will help you too. It’s not going to sell you on a particular model of SLR camera or anything at all like that; it’s to help you find your own muse so that you too will want to take photographs and learn all about photography. I really think that is the key here… and it’s something completely intangible which a lot of people find troubling because how does one learn to want something? It doesn’t need to be a drastic life changing event… it can be something small like the first snow of winter, or a family vacation. Be cognisant of something that makes you step back in awe and say to yourself, I want to photograph this; and run with it. Read More→

Finding Amazing Photos in The Strangest of Places

Sometimes as photographers, we can find amazing photo opportunities in the strangest of places.  Aside from my regular work, on occasion I might stumble upon a place that could use a closer look.  My curiosity has brought me to places that the ordinary sensible person might never go.  These places include abandoned industrial sites, hospitals, railroad stations and cars, and on very rare occasion, abandoned residential complexes.

Destroyed Box The Life They Let Slip Away Abandoned Farmhouse, Burned (10) Dead Crane Truck (2) Old Phone ESP (17) Deserted Garage

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8 Ways To Turn Wedding Guests Into Your Next Client

Wedding Group Shot

In an ideal world every one of those twentysomething bridesmaids at your last wedding is newly engaged and in the market for a photographer and it just happens you build up a superb report with all them during the prep photos. Sadly this doesn’t always seem to be the case but it’s worth remembering that nearly everyone at the wedding will at least know someone who is getting married in the next 12 months. It’s not easy marketing yourself to 200+ people all at once but here’s a few ideas that might help you along the way…… Read More→

How To Alter Colors During a Photo Shoot: by Guy Van Hooveld

My experience with corporate shoots is that sometimes, the environment is not exactly like the customer has described it, or does not really provides the kind of colors or light allowing to deliver the message you need. That is the reason why I use equipment to modify the look of a specific scene during the photo shoot. Some coloring is of course always possible in post production, but I am not a Photoshop freak, and I prefer to get the results right the first time, and to minimize post production.

First Example

This example was a shooting session in a control center. A few pictures were expected for a press file, showing the “hi-tech” look of the dispatching center. When I arrived on location, I was impressed by the “clean” aspect of the room, a bit like a hospital. I decided to use color filters on strobes to give a more dramatic aspect to the pictures. After some tests I decided to go for dark blue, to give a “night” impression.

Let’s just follow the different steps:

Just for information, the used equipment was:

  • Nikon D3 camera with 24-70 2.8 lens on a tripod with hydrostatic head
  • Radio controlled shutter
  • Radio controlled strobes
  • 600Ws Strobes with color filter and barn doors, with digital energy selection
  • Lightmeter to determine exposure

A first picture to show the environment as it was

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