o._wagner

I was contemplating purchasing a desk calendar template set to sell to my clients. The template would feature

the photos from their session. I am wondering if anyone currently offers these to their clients and if they sell

well.

I am shooting my first destination wedding in Cabo in a few weeks. I plan on

traveling with one carry-on camera bag packed with my equipment (2 bodies,

lenses, etc. and a laptop). My assistant is starting to research and is

hearing bad things about customs at the airport and how they will try to

distract you and steal your stuff, also how you can't have more than two CF

cards or they will confiscate them. Does anyone have any first-hand experience

with travel there, especially recently? I am curious to hear how big of a pain

it's going to be and if our gear will be safe.

 

Thanks!

For wedding photos, they are basic color corrected on their DVD. If they want extra PS enhancements (which I provide before and after samples of), they have to order prints a la carte.

To me, a blog is free advertising. It is the first time that my clients get to see a sneak peek of their photos. They anxiously stalk my blog and once they're up, they pass the link on to their friends and family, who are potential clients. I blog about personal things as well so that people can get a little feel for who I am. This is great because then my clients and I have lots to talk about when we meet. After all, in this business it's all about building relationships because with all of the photographers out there there's plenty of people to provide the service. I truly believe that you can be an average/decent photographer but people will book you if you can make a connection in some way. You'll also get repeat business this way.

 

If you have no desire to do it or keep up with it, it's not for you. It should really be a reflection of who you are and not who you think you should be. You really don't have to say much as long as you're consistent.

 

It has helped my business tremendously and I have many self-proclaimed "blog stalkers" so it's fun to me to be able to give them something to see or read about. I'm keeping my business fresh in their minds I feel clients are booking me for me, which is a great feeling. It works for me!

Thanks for the legal aspects, there's obviously things I need to look into.

 

John- Like I said, in 3 years I haven't had this come up. In fact, my clients know that images are posted on my blog and after our session is done they ask me how soon they will get to see them there. Going forward, I will make sure they are okay with it.

For the first time in 3 years of photographing children, I had some parents

disapprove of me posting a preview of their session online. I always post 10

images or so of my client's session on my blog and I had a mother write me and

ask me to take them down. Naturally, I apologized to her profusely and took

them down, but I am just wondering about my right to use them on my website or

in print form for my portfolio? I got some wonderful images of their baby and

would be sad to never be able to use them but I totally respect their privacy.

 

Is this something that I would need to write up in a contract beforehand and

make them sign? I just assumed that when a photographer takes a photo, they

have the rights to use their own work.

I am wondering if anyone knows what program was used to create this collage.<div></div>

George- wow, sounds like you have great success! Well, I am not a complete stranger to weddings, I shot 10 this year and of those which were actually booked last year, only one booked right on the spot. I have raised my prices for next year so I am in a more competitive price range now (no longer "budget"). I have booked 3 so far with my new pricing. Things were looking pretty good when I got so many meetings, but now, I'm not sure. I understand trying to connect, but it's challenging when they just want to get down to business and ask questions. I always try to have casual conversation first and ask them about their wedding plans, engagement story, etc. I am not a pushy person, so I can't see myself trying to close on the spot. Most people seem to be checking out a few photographers and want to get back to me.

I have recently met with 8 brides regarding their 2008 weddings. All seemed

very interested to meet with me and were all referrals. The meetings went well

(or so I thought) and I am still waiting back to hear from them. A few were

very recent so I'm not yet concerned with them, but the others have been 2-3

weeks when most of them said they'd let me know within a week or two. Do you

follow-up with your brides/grooms that you meet with? It would be great to hear

anything back, even if they decided to go with someone else. I did email the

first one who I met with because it had been 3 1/2 weeks. She has not emailed

me back yet. I am assuming she went with someone else. I am wondering if this

is pretty common not to hear back.

It wasn't a comment, it was a direct email so I'm not concerned with having to delete it. I strongly disagree with everyone. My website is professional, my blog is personal. It's not as if I wrote in my posts, "Hi B*tches!" That would obviously be offensive. He did not claim to be offended, he was just "irked." I simply used a slang term. There's a thing called freedom of speech and I have the choice to write what I want. He has the choice of whether to read it or not. What if a random person wrote to you and said, I love your website, but please make it blue instead of black because black irks me. I think that THAT is inappropriate. Maybe you're not seeing my point of view so I'm not even going to try to win this argument.

Thanks Patrick- it worked out perfectly. Thanks for contributing your expertise!

Those of you that keep a blog, do you get rude comments? The whole point of a

blog is to have your own means of communication, show your work, etc. It's YOUR

blog, you can do whatever you want. Every now and again, I'll have someone

email me in response to a post and say something very rude. For instance, the

father of a previous client just emailed me and told me he enjoyed the shoot,

and enjoys reading my blog. Then he went on to say that I need to stop using

the word "guys" when referring to a generic group of people. Apparently, it's

really "irksome" to him. I just thought that was unbelievable. Just wondering

if anyone had any similar experiences. Obviously I'm going to ignore his

comment and my life will go on, but I'm very surprised he had the nerve to do that!

Hi Patrick, your method seems to be great and I love your example, except I see no "Black and White" option under Image/Adjustments... I have CS2, is that why? So, I still can't figure it out!

I have a client who wishes to have a photo tinted sepia and then have the pink

in her little girl's dress and bow to be brought out. I know how to do

selective coloring using desaturate and going back in with a paintbrush to

colorize. But how would I do this after first changing the picture to sepia?

I'm not super proficient on PS, so a step by step explanation would be great!

Thanks guys, I know this is the lighting forum, my original question was asking about light placement or settings to try to hide flaws. Would I light the background or would that just make flaws more apparent? I was hoping to find someone with personal experience lighting gray.

I am fairly new to studio lighting and recently picked up new gray seamless

paper. I had primarily been shooting with white so it was pretty easy to light

it to cover up flaws. For the gray, I want more of a deeper tone to it and

would like to be able to hide flaws in the paper without doing extensive

Photoshop. Is there a way to do this with light placement or settings? My

space is small so I can't place the subject (children) more than a few feet in

front of the paper. I am using a giant softbox on an AB800. I also have a an

AB400 available with an umbrella or a grid. Question #2- what is the best way

to Photoshop the background to hide flaws? I am no PS pro- I primarily use

Kubota actions.

 

Thanks!<div></div>

Thanks for all of the advice- I will consider it all. Especially OWC, I had never heard of them and I'm glad to hear nobody has had any problems with them. That's a much better price than crucial's $350.

I saw the 2GB sticks on crucial's site. $350 for 4GB!

I just got a new iMac 20 with the standard 1 gig of RAM. I am bored with it's

speed running CS2. I'm wondering how much RAM will make a noticeable

difference? Will 2GB be okay or do I have to get 4GB to see the big difference?

I just went to crucial.com and saw that they only sell 1 GB bundles and didn't

see an option for 2GB sticks. Any other ideas where to buy, besides through Apple?

I am probably the only photographer who still uses a PC! I am thinking about

making the jump to a new iMac and am wondering how I'll be able to transfer over

software (CS+ Kubota actions), files, etc. Basically everything from my PC to

the new iMac. Are there problems I could come across? It's kind of scary for

me to think about all of the logistics even though I know I will be much

happpier in the long run.

I want to put up a single roll of seamless paper in my studio. I'm looking on

B&H at all of their different mounting systems and I'm confused. I don't want

to use stands because space is an issue. I want to do a wall mount, but not

motorized, $ is also an issue. I saw Bogen super clamps, U-hooks, and a

crossbar, would that work? I'm not sure how super clamps work. Or do I just

get the crossbar and go to a hardware store and find some sort of brackets?

Any help would be appreciated!

I started a small children's studio and want to expand my lighting. Right now

I'm just using a AB800 and a giant softbox. I'm using a white background and

am sick of photoshopping to get a true white.

 

Here are my questions:

 

Do I need one or two lights to light the background? (It's a very small space)

What do I put on my background light, a grid?

What do I set my background light at? My main light I'm using on 1/8 power and

generally 1/125 at f/8.

 

Thanks, I appreciate your help!

Lightroom was too complicated and putzy for me. Some people swear by it. Try Photo Mechanic (www.camerabits.com). They have free trial versions. It's great for viewing and organizing (lightning fast for 1000's of files). It has a great feature where you give each photo a color class and arrange photos by color, batch rename, etc. I open my folder of photos, arrow key through them and hit "1" for the keepers. Then I click on arrange by color class, and delete all the rest. Thumbnails are viewable instantly, vs. other programs that take forever to load up. I then use PS for color adjustments.

Also, keep the lens level to the bridge of the nose or the proportions will look distorted.

I know there have been a lot of inquires about alien bees foldable softboxes.

I just ordered one and so far it's great! I still have to try it out in the

studio, but as far as ease of set-up, it was very quick, seems sturdy and did I

say it was very quick? I work with a pro that has a giant softbox that I have

to set up manually and it's such a pain compared to this!

 

I do have a question- I ordered the Large (32x40) by mistake, I had originally

wanted to order the Giant (30x60). I know the large is ample for its main

purpose (main light for children's studio), but I had wanted the Giant for

group wedding formals. It's kind of a pain to have to do an exchange so I'm

wondering if you think I can get by with the 32x40 for altar formals.