l_e

Keep in mind they could process the images in a way that you think is awful. If they tell people you photographed their wedding then people will think that is representative of your work.

Tell them no, or give them an outrageous price for the Raw files. If the client is willing to pay the price they can have them. But, I have would have a different contract that states they can not tell people, in anyway, I photographed their wedding.

I think the site looks a heck of a lot better than most of the 'check out the site I designed for myself' posts. Further, it looks better than quite a few of the established professional photographers who post on this site. The design doesn't scream 'wedding photography' like a traditional wedding photography website. Which is only a bad thing if you want to do traditional wedding photography and not push the envelope a bit.

I would definitely try to get some wedding, bridal, or engagement photos up on the site. I think the images of the Kenny Williams Jr are some of your strongest work. Try to get more like those up on the site. The image of the blond girl at the play ground seems flat in comparison.

As the portfolio expands divide it into several portfolios - wedding, bridal, kids, bands, or whatever else makes sense. Remember it is usually best to have 15 - 20 of your very best images than 40 mediocre ones.

Lastly be BOLD!! Make your statement and do not go quietly into the night.

It is all flash. But there is an option to include Meta data about your website/pages that search engines can use for indexing.

Some of the bludomain site come with a html option, but I think they are only in the $400 range.

It is definitely worth thinking about. I know keep harping on it but for $200 you get the template forever and hosting for a year. Next year its just $100 for hosting.

Plus the marlowe template comes with a proofing gallery (with passwords), shopping cart, unlimited galleries, and some other goodies.

One negative to that particular template - there isn't a lot of color control. I can change the text and image border colors but not the main color of the pages. Other templates might offer that, especially in the $400 range.

Many of the photographers on that list have not been in business as long as you think. They might be established but many of them have been in business around 5 years or less.

The point is simply this... begin with the end in mind. Approach your business and your website with the mindset of where you want to be, not where you are now. Why not have a website like an established professional? When clients see that website they might automatically assume you (the new photographer) is an 'established' photographer. And that is a probably a good marketing technique.

And it is after all word of mouth (free and a direct testimonial) that is one of the best ways to advertise. My point was simply this - there are lots of wedding photographers who are very successful, who turn down a lot more business than they book, and who present their work in a very professional looking way - they also happen to use Flash websites. So... the above sentiment that Flash is no good because it will kill your business or hinder you to the point of failure is completely unfounded. As is my implication that a Flash website will make you a more successful wedding photographer.

As a service professional I want business to come from referrals to that I don't have to pay for advertising. My website is not for attracting new clients wandering around the web, but rather a way to showcase my work to people who are referred to my website.

Organic search results are great, but many people planning a wedding use directories and referrals. Search engine optimization isn't the holy grail of website design.

Many visitors to html websites (and Flash websites) will never see the content because they are turned away by poor site design (graphically speaking). I would look at graphic appeal because you want someone to be impressed by what they see when they find you. This can be accomplished with either HTML or Flash. But for $200 you can get a Flash website with 1 year of hosting, and Meta tags for search engines. Pretty hard to pass that up.

www.theimageisfound.com

www.susanstripling.com

www.thebecker.com

www.tracyturpen.com

www.almasyphoto.com

www.jasminestarphotography.com

www.jeshderox.com

www.raebarnes.com

All flash, all are busy, all charge at least $3500 for basic coverage (some much more than that).

Flash. There are few advantages to HTML, the above replies outline the advantages although they are a bit overstated in my opinion. Most web browsers people use support flash, most newer installations of web browsers come with native flash support (you don't need to install anything to view flash). If you use Metadata for text search engines can find and optimize your site just fine.

If you get a template site from a company like Bludomain you won't have any problems regarding search engine optimization. Search engine optimization is a big buzz word going around right now that is a great marketing tool aimed at website owners. It is important, but not as important as search engine companies make it out to be.

We use an all flash website, we are booked up for 2008 and we have several bookings for 2009. I don't think people are having trouble finding our all Flash website.

I have one. It is great, super easy to configure and change. My customer service has always been very good.

They had a huge explosion in website orders and really struggled to keep up for a while. Things have settled down and the service should just get better.

OSP is Open Soure Photo. It is David Jay's pet project. David Jay is a highly regarding wedding photographer who will admit he is not the best wedding photographer just really good at marketing.

I like OSP as well but you end up with two mildly annoying things - David Jay groupies and the underlying theme that you should by David Jay products. Some of the products are good and a few are a waste.

If you don't think 600 photos is enough for a wedding album you either want a very thick album no one will want to look at, or you don't have a realistic understanding of wedding albums, or maybe that is how things are done in your area.

Our largest album includes 150 images - which is a lot.

Consider how much time you save by switching between photomechanic and lightroom, is that considerable more than the time difference between using both photomechanic and lightroom? Do you need to move the picks to a separate folder and rename them? Consider with lightroom that you can select the images using the star rating, filter for the images you have rated, and then rename just those images in the same folder. You can always resort by capture time to get all of the images back in the original order.

If you are worried about the quality of the rendered views you are assuming the in camera software and processor is better than Lightroom and your computer processor. That may or may not be the case.

What camera do you have? If you have a 30d you probably don't need noise reduction. Noise is more obvious on a computer screen than on prints.

What do you mean by zeroed and how does that make presets more effective? Each time you open a jpeg file each pixel is rendered, but it is not rendered perfectly. Each pixels shade and color is a numerical value (far more complex than the 6 digit hex codes). Every time you save a file, export, import, or alter a jpeg in anyway the data the image is rendered from must be recalculated. Those numbers end up getting rounded off which 'degrades' your image. Technically speaking your images are 'cleanest' in Raw, 2nd cleanest after the first export to jpeg. If you are importing and exporting jpegs you are dirtying the images each time. If you are using a Raw file Lightroom attaches a 'sidecar' file of meta-data that tells lightroom how to render the file. If you are exporting and importing Raw files you really aren't doing that much because the Raw file itself hasn't been changed, neither has the sidecar file.

One last thing to consider if you get the image to about 95% satisfaction by step 6 is it worth the extra time to for the last 5%. More importantly is that last 5% noticeable to anyone but yourself?

I can't give costs because I don't know them. Did you pay him thousands for just the album or for all of the wedding services? If it was for all of the wedding services then you also paid for photographer time, album, plus anything else in the package. Photographers usually attach a dollar amount to each service and item (like almost every other business). So it might be reasonable for him to refund only the $600 if you are getting the proofs/negatives.

If you paid thousands for just the album the you were charged for the actual album plus artistic value and the design time. Artistic value is the the amount an artist thinks their work is worth. The catch is that it doesn't matter what you think it is worth, only what the artist thinks it is worth. If he is only refunding $600 from thousand for an album then he is refunding just the album cost - not the artistic value, design time, or any retail price assigned to the empty album.

You have a few choices - wait it out and see how long it takes, go to small claims court for more than $600, take the $600 and make sure you get the proofs (and negatives to make enlargements for the album).

It is absolutely worth it. I am not knocking photo.net or anyone who contributes to photo.net, but when I read the DWF I realized it was a whole different level.

Mainly you don't get the 'critique my website' and the 'shooting my first wedding' questions. You still get the website stuff, but it is usually from people who are making minor adjustments to their already established and professional looking websites.

Photo.net is a great place to start and keeping visiting, but DWF is a great place to go for expanding on your foundation.

-you can do steps 1 and 2 in Lightroom.

-Why noise reduction? If you need that for all of your photos you might want to consider switching cameras.

-what does re-importing into lightroom accomplish? You take the out of lightroom to reduce the noise and then immediately re-import them. I think you should be able to tell how the images will turn out without running a batch noise reduction.

From my standpoint you could do this....

1- select photos in lightroom. Be super critical and only select the best. If you aren't sure use the stars - none of duds, 1 for on the fence, 2 for definite. You can then use the filter in Lightroom to show only the 1 star images if you need to go back through them.

2- Set the filter for the images you are keeping and adjust the exposure and white balance, plus all other adjustments (fine tweaks)

3-export to Jpeg

4- use Photoshop only on the images that need those types of adjustments

5- rename (re-order)

In my example you use 2 programs (Lightroom and Photoshop). You make one pass of all of the images and maybe a pass of the 'on the fence' images. Skip the noise reduction - if you need it include it in my step 4.

If you have that many different areas - wedding, seniors, portraits, etc - you might want to consider different branding for each area. That could be something very simple. If, for instance, your logo has three different colors then you create 3 brochures (wedding, portrait, seniors) with each brochure a different color from your logo. That automatically steers your clients in the right direction. It also allows you to focus you advertising (brochure placement) in areas that each particular sub-brand are likely to frequent.

In my opinion the best way to discount photos is to do it by price. You could say if you spend $300 or more you get a 10% discount. Or, if you spend $300 or more you get a $100 print credit. Assuming you have a decent markup on your prints the print credit looks like a lot of money to the client, but it doesn't cost you a lot to fulfill.

The easiest way is to simplify your rates and make sure they are clear and concise.

Limit the number of packages you offer, limit the add-ons, and avoid confusing rate plans.

Bob - I hope beyond hope that craigslist wedding photographers charging $300 per wedding are not my competition.

By the way - to get referred doesn't require creative advertising. It requires no advertising at all. If you exceed the bride's expectations, impress her and her friends then you will get referrals.

How committed are you to your website? Bludomain has several websites that cost $100 and will host for an additional $100 per year. They have 2 websites in that price range with a lot of features - lots of galleries, shopping cart, client proofing section, and a more. They are easy to setup and customize, plus they look professional and slick.

It still baffles me that more people don't use this type of company. It will be the best $200 you spend on your business.

Give the clients a time line of the album process. Let them know if they take more than x months to get back with you about changes their album will go to the back of the queue.

Limit the number of changes they get free of charge. You can do what John suggest (using percentage of change) or make it 3 free changes for free. In the later a change could be anything from a complete redesign to cropping 1/8" off a photo. After that charge a fee - $15 is too cheap. You know how much you are worth per hour so figure out how much to you spend per album change. Obviously a full redesign takes more time than a minor change, but you will probably get more minor changes. So be willing to make more money on minor changes and possibly lose a bit on major changes.

Here is my advice -

1) don't negotiate. You have priced yourself fairly and competitively. Present your pricing in a confident way and make no apologies about how much you charge. If they don't like it or want a lower price recommend a few other photographers for them to meet. I know that sounds kind of bad but you don't want to work for less than you are worth.

2) Simplify your album process. Offer the least amount of choices possible. Lets say Package 1 doesn't get an album, package 2 gets a 9x9, and package 3 gets a 12x12. Each page in the album gets one images at a fixed size. They can have any cover they want - as long as it is black leather. For the images in the album - hook up some online proofing/shopping cart that allows clients to select a fixed number of images to appear in the album.

3) Hire an assistant/ office manager. They answer the initial phone calls and emails, distribute your materials, and deal with the bookkeeping.

Also, only check your work email twice a day once in the morning and once at night. Get a separate phone line for your business. Set business hours and turn off the phone after hours - unless you are expecting an emergency call around wedding time.

Outsource as much as you can - it costs money but it allows you to shoot more weddings and have more down time to enjoy yourself.

I am considering taking a different approach to naming packages. It has been my experience that grooms are often left out of the wedding decision making process. Fathers are some what more involved but usually only during the check writing part of the wedding. In order to appeal to men and put things in terms they understand I have renamed my packages as follows... Cup O'Noodles, Beer and Pizza, and the Hungryman. I actually have 4 packages but I dropped one because I couldn't decide on a universally understood name for it. Seriously, what meal comes between Cup O' Noodles and Beer and Pizza, or Beer and Pizza and the Hungryman? Maybe the All You Can Eat Buffet - but I worry it might be confused with A La Carte.

I had considered fancier food names but everyone knows the fathers and grooms want to get the most for their money.

L.E. Photography

"Easy.Efficient.Effective"