alex_dc

<p>Cape Cod wedding rings. Nikon D700 with a Lens Baby Composer and 4+ macro attachment. ISO 320 2000th sec.</p><div></div>

<p>After a meeting, I give interested clients a ten day courtesy hold. I tell them I must have a signed contract and deposit in hand by the end of the ten days or their date is considered 'open', and I will give them no courtesy calls after that time. If I do get another inquiry during the ten days I let both parties know, this has never been a problem and I doubt folks have felt like I'm making a 'hard sell', as they have been briefed on my procedures.</p>

 

<p>Melissa, you may want to migrate your clients to a Facebook business page, and keep them separate from your personal page. There are many advantages to having your business page separate from your personal info, including the fact that people who aren't your friends can both 'Like' and see your work. Such as guests from a wedding who may want to buy prints, etc.<br>

In addition, if you do care to share your health issues with clients, be prepared to also share with them your 'plan of action' (refund? suitable replacement photographer?) should you not be able to shoot their wedding. Also, make sure your business is properly insured before taking on any more jobs.<br>

Good luck with your surgery!</p>

<p>Get a LensBaby (I own the Composer), with the macro kit. It's a bargain at about $310.00 if you ask me. I've attached a shot to show what it can do on rings. This was shot on a D700.<br>

Note you can see the reflection of the Lensbaby in the men's wedding band.</p><div></div>

<p>I consider it an honor to be invited to spend a day documenting someone's wedding. Weddings are very intimate events, and I'm usually the only outsider invited in with the bride and groom at times.<br>

When meeting with couples for the first time I often tell them that there are more things to consider when choosing a photographer, than say, a florist. The photographer will be with them all day, so they should not only like the style (and quality) of photography, but their photographer's personality as well. If you don't particularity like your florist, but they do amazing work, it really doesn't matter as they are just dropping off a product and not a part of the wedding day.<br>

Your post shows a real lack of respect for your clients, and I'm not sure why they would ever want you there with that attitude.</p>

<p>I use a Nikon 10.5 mm DX fisheye at most weddings (for a select number of shots). I'm not sure why you'd need a zoom fisheye though.</p><div></div>

<p>I have written a rather lengthy blog post about this very subject. I'm adamant that couples have an engagement shoot, and if it wasn't free (i.e. included in my wedding photography package) they would be less likely to do so. My post can be seen here: classicmaineweddings.com/why-do-i-offer-free-engagement-shoots/ from this you can see how serious I am.<br>

Nothing makes my job easier on a wedding day than having had an engagement shoot, since the couple is comfortable with me and my presence because of it.</p>

<p>Prophoto is exceptionally easy to use. I tried other cheap and free templates before I finally bought Prophoto, and I've never regretted the choice. I tried to cobble together a similar look to a Prophoto blog with other plug-ins and it was nothing but a headache and a big waste of time. Time is money for me, so the ease at which I'm able to update my blog is more than worth it. Plus, their product support is exceptional, their tutorials easy to use and follow, and the theme itself is infinitely customizable. I could really go on and on, but I have editing to do!<br>

The one caution I have is that if you're going to start blogging, you must keep blogging. Nothing looks worse to a potential client than a blog with four posts that are two years old.<br>

My blogsite if interested is: www.classicmaineweddings.com</p>

<p>Have you tried using social media, blogging, Twitter etc., to reach your market? Times are changing, and if you're not changing with them it might be something to think about. Maybe you need to reevaluate your offerings, are they similar to what others are offering? Are you willing to sell digital rights/discs to your clients? If not, are your main competitors doing so? How about a photo booth option, in my area those are very popular. How about your pricing (your prices might be too low, and sending the wrong message)?<br>

Have you had an objective critique of your website recently?<br>

In the past two years, I upped my prices, and went from a traditional website to a blogsite and bookings are way up. I'm doing double what I did a year ago, and next year is already half-booked. I have found that the blogsite has really helped keep me connected to brides, they love seeing recent work, and check back often since it's always changing. Just a thought, good luck.</p>

<p>Nikon D300,17-55 2.8 DX, iso 400, f8, 640th</p><div></div>

<p>Hi Gunnar-<br>

To answer you question, as a professional photographer, Lightroom changed pretty much everything for me. It's a very robust program that allows me to do so many things that I'm afraid I don't have the time or space to write it all down! With Lightroom my images are all organized, keyworded, captioned, color corrected, sharpened, etc., within one program. I can upload, export to different formats (and to Smugmug), back-up and catalog. I can correct dust, cropping, exposure, white balance, saturation, and more.<br>

I often come away from a shoot with 3000+ photos, and without Lightroom (previously using Bridge/Photoshop), the post-processing would take eons longer. I think you can download it for free to test, if I'm not mistaken. It really is an amazing and seamless photo organization and correction tool. I'd give up Photoshop if I had to, Lightroom, never! If you tell me specifically what tasks you use most, I'd be happy to let you know if Lightroom would work for you.</p>

<p>I know this doesn't answer your question, but all I can think of when reading these responses is how much time, effort and headache could be saved if you used Lightroom. Ever tried it?</p>

<p>Oops, here's the image:</p><div></div>

<p>I'm not sure of this counts, since it's technically a diptych. That said, it makes me smile, and I hope it makes you smile too. I shoot a lot of weddings, and I'm always looking for another way to 'see' them. I use diptychs a lot in my blog posts, and this is one I kept coming back to.<br /> Cake image: D700 24-70mm 2.8 at 32mm 400iso 1/80 f3.5 -1/3 ev, natural light<br /> Tie image: D700 24-70mm 2.8 at 56mm 400iso 1/400 f5 +2/3 ev, natural light</p>

<p>When I was a kid, I was given a camera. I took it apart to see how the aperture and shutter worked. When my father got a top-of-the-line AF SLR (one of the first made), I read the manual cover-to-cover and taught <em>him</em> how to use it (and he's an engineer). I was an 11 year old GIRL!<br>

I read Strobist. I have a four-year degree in photography from RIT. I have spent more time in darkroooms--my hands immersed in fixer-- than is probably healthy. I don't use auto anything, I light off camera, I own more bodies and lenses than I can count. Oh, and I HATE generalizations. Except perhaps that one above about men and nude photography ;)</p>

 

<p>I second what David said, I bring my laptop as back-up. I have my assistant downloading cards throughout the day, then I safely store the cards for safe keeping. When downloading to my laptop I also back-up to an external drive, which is a built-in feature in Lightroom.<br>

You can never be too careful. When I leave a wedding it means that I have the images in three places: on the cards, on the laptop and on an external drive. Additionally, having the laptop along gives me the chance to make sure everything is functioning as expected with my cameras. I can quickly check my images and get back to shooting with peace of mind.</p>

<p>I think she's talking about a JOBO Giga Vu, where you can download cards on the go without a computer. It's a portable back-up solution. Pretty nifty in fact. Here's a link to one on B&H: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/570181-REG/Jobo_GVX120US_GIGA_Vu_extreme_Stand_Alone.html granted, there are many other brands and models.</p>

<p>I think that the advice you've been given above may be good, but it does not take into account the real expectations that are being put upon you. Your equipment is one thing to think about, but there are bigger issues when talking about shooting for family. <br>

I shot a wedding for a family member several years ago. I had encouraged them to hire a pro (even sent them suggestions on who to hire), but they didn't. I only found this out when I showed up for the 'big day' that there was no pro there. That said, I am a professional photographer by trade, had cameras with me, and it was made known that I was expected to be shooting. I had planned on taking some fun pix as a gift, not working the whole day.<br>

While the photos were very good, the issues that arose both during the wedding and after made me feel taken advantage of. In addition, it has pretty much ruined the relationship that I have with them. They expected all the photos for nothing (being family right?), and I was not able to enjoy the wedding (which was in another state), because I was working! The comparison I often make is this: if your husband had given you a nice expensive set of pots and pans for Christmas would the couple have the audacity to ask you to cater the wedding too?<br>

I could go on and on, but I think you get the point. You need to decide if you want to be a guest or a photographer at this wedding. You can't be both and expect good results, plus you run the risk of potential issues down the line if they're truly not happy with the final product whether it be the quality, turn around time, posing or number of photo.<br>

An idea that I've used since the wedding I spoke of above, is to offer to pay for a pro as a gift, and take some fun pictures as a guest so that there is no pressure on you.</p>

<p>Not exactly the answer, but exposure compensation and/or bracketing while in M mode might be the closest you'll get to what you're asking for.</p>

<p>Mark-<br>

A sync cord can be had for under $10, at this point you don't need the fancy Nikon one, just get a regular old PC cord. This will allow you to keep your flash off-camera, and fire much quicker since you won't have to worry about a preflash. By shooting on Manual, all shots will be consistent too.<br>

One thing I forgot to say before, is that you can get your flash set up and shoot pictures of a soup can (or something about the same size as a puppy) in order to get your exposure right, assuming you don't have a flash meter, just use the preview on your camera and check your histogram if you know how to do that. If not, just use the preview on your camera's screen to eyeball the correct exposure. Once it's perfect then bring in the puppies!</p>

<p>You're making this much more complicated than it needs to be. I assume you're trying to accurate photos of the pups, not artsy pictures, right? If so...<br>

Increase your aperture to start, try f8 for more depth of field, which should help keep your focus if the pup moves a bit. Get a sync cord, so you can skip using CLS (thus eliminating any over-heated pop-up flash, and pre-flashes), especially if your camera is only a foot or two away from your flash. Put more lights on in the room so that you can eliminate the focus assist light, that is only necessary when it's too dark for the camera to focus normally. There is no need for rear curtain sync at all.<br>

If I were shooting this (just a start, since there are a ton of possible variables) I would start somewhere around iso 200 or 320, f8, shutter speed of 1/125th, flash on M 1/4 power. Use a sync cord, and make sure you're using single focus, not continuous. I'd bounce the flash off the ceiling. You're dealing with a very small 'set', so you don't need much light, but you don't want the light to be too harsh either. Don't over think this, imagine you were using an old manual camera, and a manual flash, master that first.</p>

<p>I think that both your flash is not getting time to be fully recharged, and also the pop-up flash has a safety built-in to keep it from over-heating. Too many flashes in a row and it needs to cool down. Also, if you're using a flash, you have no reason at all to be shooting at ISO 2500, that makes no sense.</p>

<p>I can honestly say there are no cons that I've found to their sites. The software is very easy to use, super customizable, and their support is unparalleled. I just upgraded to ProPhoto3 and they've added very nice new gallery features -- before I was embedding SlideshowPro galleries, and it was a bit of a pain, this new feature is worth the price alone. Feel free to see my blog-site at www.classicmaineweddings.com to see what mine looks like.</p>

<p>Make sure you time and date are synced on all cameras. Use custom file names for each event. Import all cards into Lightroom and viola!</p>

<p>I have a similar clause to Marc in my contract that says if I"m ill or unable to work I'll work with the client to find a backup and return any money received to date. I would also send my long-time assistant who knows my style, etc. I go over this contingency plan with all clients.<br>

That said, don't think the only reason you would miss a wedding is getting sick, what about injury, early labor, broken shoulder, etc. Also, a woman in my photographer networking group had her husband pass away unexpectedly a couple of days before a wedding, we all pitched in to help out where we could. She had kids to tend to, and a funeral to plan, shooting a wedding was the last thing she should have been doing.<br>

The key is the networking group, we keep an emergency email list of names, which also lists the photographer's style and usual choice of equipment.</p>