Art effects...so many choices, how to present options to clients?

[nicola inglis]

This may be my relative inexperience speaking (two full seasons on my own now)

but I wonder about showing different digital art effects...

 

I like vivid, contrasty colour and have kind of made this a part of my 'look'

but now I'm seeing other work with desaturated sepia look and I love that too.

 

Do you just pick a style (or a set of favourite actions) and stick to it or do

you do different things for different couples? And do you show them a couple of

different treatments of one image (obviously not all of them, I'm talking about

a potential enlargement here)?

 

I suppose the conflict I'm feeling is between developing a recognisable 'look'

which I see as a commercial need and my desire to explore and try new things

which is of course a creative need (or am I still WAY too influenced by the

latest fashion...is today's desaturated sepia tomorrow's colour-touch tack-o-rama?).

 

I'd love to hear how some of you others resolve this. For example those of you

known for your fantastic black and whites, do you ever just get the urge to do

all blue-tone prints instead? Do you show the clients or just do it for your

own satisfaction?

[chris76]

Hi Nicola,

 

How much for membership to your club of uncertainty. I have the exact same question? And also adding to this if you stick to a certain style do you apply it to the whole batch?

 

I tend to work with a batch of 250 pics of which I give 50 or so mostly from the BG some extra attention. The balance gets the normal levels, crop sharpen etc. treatment.

 

Of the 50 or so pics I will play around with some of the Kubota actions ? Love them or hate them. I try to be constant with my approach but one look will not always work for the next. What I do is give them a variation of the 50 or so prints in 2 or 3 diff formats on top of the normal colour pic. BW, Soft focus, maybe a blue tint or BW with grain etc.

 

I?m also in my second year of shooting and to date I have done well in terms of growth. I have to admit in the last year there was a clear improvement in shooting style and PP work. So maybe it?s a case of time will tell. Having looked at the Wedding masters DVD I became even more confused. You have Yervant (Digital) with very arty dramatic shots with PS done and then Jeff A (Film) has a very clean look to his pics with I think very little PP to his shots.

 

So I can clearly say that there is a market for both looks of pictures. Maybe it is a case of defining your style and combining it with modern trends. In business you have to adapt to styles and crazes but then there is argument for individuality and even setting new trends.

 

Would love to see what some of our more esteemed photographers with more experience have to say.

 

Have they given in to fashion and fad for financial gain even if it?s not their style and also how often have they changed style etc to be competitive. All in all I think this should be a great thread. Thank you

 

Cheers

Chris

[d_gillespie]

One thought is to look at the idea of fashion in your post. I would encourage an look into the thoughts of style and fashion. One can be thought of as more lasting the other, passing quickly. I think that exploration into the fashions of digital manipulation can produce amazing images. Do those images have lasting style? Can you look at graphic arts from the 1970's and have the same opinion as those who saw it for the first time?

 

Style, to me, is approaching timeless beauty. Fashion is beauty of a time. I know I seem to have fallen in the psyco-babble semantics hole of a philosopher, but it comes down to what works for you today and tomorrow, and ultimately over the long hall.

 

So, the answer is quite simple, there is no answer.

 

Consider the strength of a well executed black and white photograph. There are examples of images created over 100 years ago that are still arresting in their ability to move people's emotions.

 

Spend a bit of time with your clients and see what you can discover about their style and how appropriate some modern manipulation techniques would be for their circumstances. Create a small book of work you have completed that represents some of the ideas you are currently interested in and see what reaction you get.

 

Cheers,

[rob_s___san_francisco_bay_]

I think no matter what "look" you decide to go with, you should stick to it and retain some

consistency. We all continue to develop our style as we continue to shoot. It will evolve

slowly. But if you show a client one "look" and then give them an album with a different

"look" ... it may not go over well. You should show them something representative of what

you will give them.

[sean_r2]

I agree with Rob. One needs to get comfortable with a particular style so that a client can come to expect that style. When a bride checks out your albums and portfolio, she's looking for a certain look for her day. If she books you, then that means she wants the style you showed her. This is not to say there isn't room for a few effects or for that style to evolve over time, but I think its best to have one prime style and market with that primarily.

[kim long- cincinnati, ohio]

I agree that it's good to develop a recognizable style. Within that style, though, there is bound to be some variation. Strictly speaking toning options, I'm in the minority, I suppose, in that I don't offer B&W, color, or sepia on every single image. I agree with the approach that maintains that photos are made, not merely taken, and that what goes on in the darkroom (physical or digital) is an integral part of "making" the images I produce. I get a feel for (and document in writing, actually) the clients' processing preferences during the pre-wedding consultation. By this I mean the dispersion of/ preference for color, B&W, and other toned or alternatively processed images (one client expressed an affinity for bronze toning, for example, another was interested in some edgier, cross-processed looks). On the basis of this, I make the call during shooting and post-processing on every single image, and that's what is presented to the client.