michael_novo

January 28, 2016

I did a bunch of testing and I figured it out. What I have is the sample hahnemuhle paper pack. With the profile loaded for the exact paper what I found is that in the Photoshop dialog box "Match Print" check box. After that I checked "Show Paper White" right next to it. That instantly showed me the familiar blue tone that my black and whites were getting. To solve that I could either try a different type of paper from the pack which helped. Or under color management I could select a different "Rendering Intent" finding that Perceptual or Absolute Colormetric were what got me the colors I was looking for.

August 4, 2012

Thanks Vail, I've done bridal shows and if you're not familiar with them then I'm not sure your feedback works :) The WeddingSalon bridal shows average bride is spending around $45k on a wedding. This is different than something like The Bridal Expo. I'm asking here specifically about the Wedding Salon show.

I've done bridal shows before and I have a booth and setup...that's not the issue. Oh and return on investment is perfectly fine from bridal show, you just need to know how to sell. I'm not the cheapest (usually one of the most expensive photographers at the show) and I book each time. I'm trying to do a comparison of a different vendor that I haven't worked with before.

Thanks for trying to answer though. Oh and before you let anyone tell you that it's not a good investment...bridal shows are great. If they are not working for someone then it's likely their sales or presentation techniques that aren't up to par.

July 31, 2012

I'm in the Chicago market and I got a call from a rep for the site and they have an upcoming show in Chicago. Some of the info seemed more promising than the average bridal show such as their charge for brides tickets is $50 which will weed out those just coming to browse and have some free cake. However their investment is higher starting at $1750 where other shows max out in the $1200 range. Anyone have experience with their shows?

June 10, 2012

Your suggestion is pardoned and pardon my tone as well. I see folks chime in with topics that have nothing to do with the actual question. If you re-read what I initially wrote, it asks about workflow for client proofing sessions. Even if I'm photographing or proofing, I've been working with portrait clients and brides long enough to know my scheduling. I understand how not to double book a client or that if a portrait session takes 30-60 minutes that you still leave a 2 hour slot so that no one is being rushed. That part is something that I understand.

A studio is not necessarily or generally a place where one is using a camera. Kevin Kubota does not photograph in his studio nor does he have a spot to photograph in. Same goes for Jerry Ghionis. A studio could be a place to photograph, develop/print, edit, meet clients, or conduct other photo related business. Regardless of what your take was of capturing photos there or not...still...again...it doesn't at all related to my question.

And in all honesty that's where my tone stemmed from. 2 cents were added that had nothing to do with anything. I asked for post session client work flow and was told to be careful not to get clients hammered and send them out on the road from one person and then some other nonsensical response about a contract being null and void if I'm taken to court.

I'm looking for responses as to what other pro photographers who OWN or HAVE OWNED studios do as their workflow or for general suggestions for client meetings to proof their images.

June 10, 2012

What do either of these responses have to do with the question? Do you honestly think that I would get my clients hammered, have them sign a contract with me and then mozy them out the door to end up in a car accident?

I wasn't asking about other couples waiting to be photographed. The studio location is only to meet clients and do proofings. I don't do in studio portraits...they're all on location. No one is going to be waiting. My question was about work flow of clients coming into professional studio...if you're not operating one...then I don't need the advise to not liquor up my clients :)

June 5, 2012

What Craig said is pretty much spot on. But it's not the taxes which would be your reason to become an LLC or a Corporation. For taxes you can simply claim the income and operate as a sole proprietor and it's pretty straightforward. Your business income just gets incorporated into your individual income.

The reason why it's beneficial to do something such as become an LLC is for your own legal protection. Let's say a light stand falls over on someone at a wedding and they decide to sue. They would sue you personally and your personal assets are at risk. They would sue and if there's a judgement then it would go against your personal name. If you are an LLC then that restricts what they can go after. The jist of it is that your personal money and possessions are protected when you operate as an LLC. There are exceptions to this, but they are not as common.

If you are taking jobs and getting paid for it then you should absolutely 100% become an LLC. I would not operate a day further as a sole proprietor.

June 5, 2012

From last year I've made the leap from being a "here's your disc" photographer to becoming much more involved with albums and prints. Discs and digital images are now a secondary thing which clients receive with print orders however they're not the standard in a portrait or wedding session.

I rented a studio space in a commercial area which I have setup as an office where I can do editing and I also set up a little screening room with a large projection screen tv for clients to view their images on.

My question is for those that have clients come in to their studio for proofing...what is your standard flow of the meeting? While I have had other clients in the studio since opening it last week come in to book sessions and see samples. Last night I had my first couple come in after their engagement session. They seemed to enjoy the experience, I keep a well stocked bar which the groom enjoyed greatly.

What I did was put together an Animoto slide show of all of their final images, played it for them and left them alone in the room when I did that. Then several minutes later I came back in and we went through the images one by one and I asked which ones they would like to include in their same day slide show for the wedding and made suggestions about printing clusters, canvas prints, and so on. We went over other wedding day details and the entire thing lasted about 2 hours but that's mostly because we chatted and had some laughs. While the clients were very satisfied with the experience, I'm wondering what other folks have as their "work flow" for proofing sessions.

July 13, 2011

Thanks for the response, and I think I was a bit unclear about the post session. What I meant there was a post meetup to see which prints they wanted to order.

July 8, 2011

I'm currently reworking my entire pricing section and making it into a package oriented format with a la carte options. The mid range package I'm looking to basically have the following:

8 hours

2 photogs

Mid level album

Engagement Session (will be in all my packages to get to know all my couples)

Slide show

Digital Negatives (these will be the unedited version of their processed images just as a negative)

Lower Rez / Facebook quality edited images (with print order)

1 Large print

*Discount on Post Session package (if I do print packages separately from the wedding booking package)

This is the jist of the mid level package, but I have not included any other prints other than 1 large print. My question is if anyone has gone the direction of having a Post Session package which would be a separate charge and have its own series of packages vs including X sets of prints in each wedding package. Any suggestions there?

April 5, 2011

It is a local business. They will be doing sales across the web, so local but multi-state. The shots will basically be web/online catalog.

April 5, 2011

I was thinking of a flat rate of $2000 and then taking on licensing from there. The difficult thing to gauge is how long it would take. 150 products posed 4 ways each is more work than one or two products even though the 150 products will all be posed the same way, still going to take time to lay them out (I plan on using playdough to hold them up on an angle since they're small usb drives).

As for equipment it will be all mine. I do have lights, modifiers, and a macro lens. If I book this quote then I'll probably build or buy a small lightbox that's a little nicer than the home rigs I currently use.

April 5, 2011

I typically do wedding, portrait, and studio shooting. This is my first request to quote a product shoot although I've done them on the side before for folks selling on ebay (non-commercial). Small startup tech company has a number of thumb drives they're looking to get photos of in a standard light box. They have about 150 products and would need about 4 images of each one. Any general suggestions or guidelines on pricing?

March 9, 2011

I'll take a look at some theme options but I do think I'll be sticking with black or dark. Maybe going to a brown or gray is something to consider. I see a lot of blogs that have a white backdrop or even look like this forum and (just me personally) I'm bored with that look a little and like the dark.

As for flash...in theory it's on the way out, but in reality the only thing it doesn't work on is iphone and ipad. Seeing as how flash is still heavy in the photo world I guess I'd be catering to the bulk of the market rather than the iphone users. But something that could incorporate them would be best I would agree there. Either way the display of the photos or color might need to be tweaked.

In terms of design, is flash outdated? Maybe, and some of the web developers I know say they don't prefer it...but the market isn't quick to catch on and really only Apple thinks it's outdated. I currently use an Ipad which is nice to show clients photos on, in fact the display is fantastic! But because there's still a tremendous amount of flash still out on the web I am actually looking to sell it and get a tablet that has flash support and USB slots. As much as I like the device, it's the web limitations that are frustrating to me as well so for now...I'll be switching to another device.

March 7, 2011

Just as a disclaimer, this post will have a link to my blog, but I'm posting it for input on the site and content rather than blatant promotion :)

I finally transferred my Wordpress.com blog to Wordpress.org and now host it myself. It's still fairly plain. But right now I do one of two things...either post photo results from shoots or small informational articles for my readers. The question comes in at images. Right now my format is to show a smaller size image than the original and limit it to about 10-15 images per post.

The site looks like this: http://novophotography.com/blog/?p=599

Or a couple people suggested as going with a thumbnail widget such as this, so that only one image shows at a time, but I guess I can display larger photos such as this...

http://bryanallenphotoblog.com/?p=2157

Until it was suggested earlier, I didn't think much about changing the formatting around. On one hand I limit the images to show the "better" of the bunch hopefully and show fewer of them. You also don't need to click on each photo and can simply scroll. But on the downside to my current layout a user may not want to see all of the photos and image load times might come into play for slower connections.

Suggestions? Any other style suggestions are welcome as well. I'm working on adding a header image to bring a bit of color to the darkness and considering changing the text color, but it does liven the site up a bit.

November 23, 2010

Well yes, the question on DP is mine. Is that not allowed or something?

So I ended up deleting the photo and didn't even bother to tell the bride since the subject and her husband are the only ones who appear. I'll mention it when I meet up with her to get the disc over to her but I figure that its not even worth debating. The gal whose photo I removed emailed me back saying "Thanks, you're now officially my favorite photographer." Considering she was in 100 or so shots as the bridesmaid, I figure her thinking that 2 are off is not that bad.

November 22, 2010

In a recent wedding shoot I encountered my first request from a guest/bridal party member to delete a few photos from the gallery. They claim that the photos make them look fat. Now I don't really have a problem with removing the images, however my contract and my work is between myself and the bride (and from time to time, the groom :) So receiving a message (as a comment on the photos) to delete them doesn't seem to me as enough to go ahead and remove them. My thinking is that I'll go back to the guest and tell them to have the bride request the removal of the images which I've had before and always complied with. I'm just trying to not be a jerk about it.

August 24, 2010

My last portrait session I wanted to get the shots and be able to properly cut out limbs. Some have told me "you should always do X and never do Y". The thing I want to be able to do is do it properly if it can be done. So below are a couple shots where I consciously cropped or framed out a part here or there trying to make it work. Do they work for you the viewer? More importantly would a shot where an elbow or top of the head is cut off ever work for you? To me the first shot below seems to be ok, but I can see where it might be distracting to others. Any feedback or if you have your own examples, I'd love to hear or see them.

The rest of her images here just in case anyone cares to check them: http://novophotography.wordpress.com/2010/08/24/katia-seidametova-theyre-not-done-yet/

A - Framed out elbows, they were bothering me when I had them fully framed within the shot, my eye kept going right to them.

B - Framed the shot with the elbow out rather than being at the very edge

C - Top of the head and shoulder here, the face seems to be framed nicely so this seems ok to me.

http://images29.fotki.com/v1013/photos/7/101317/9009433/KatiaSeidametova201008088-vi.jpg

June 5, 2010

Michael...I think that the importance of a smile is that it makes for a more positive or uplifting image. The key is of course for it to not be cheesy, but as you look back at memories in photos its nice to see some with a smile. Smiles (whether we like it or not) make us feel better and are uplifting. That's why I was asking about trying harder to get one out of the client next time. I think that as a photog I should at least try and get it.

June 4, 2010

My client whose images you see below told me that she doesn't really like to smile in photos, so most of the images she's got the serious seductive look on her face. I did try a few in getting her to smile but she really did seem to not work as well for those images. One eye would open up more than the other eye and it wasn't like something I could really correct like a pose. She did seem to genuinely laugh when I would crack a joke so maybe going the approach of joking then trying to go for almost a candid laughing look next time would be a nice attempt.

What do you do if a client has one style that they like and prefer? Do you still try to mix it up or just go with what works for them if something like a "smile" shot isn't working? I mean I think the images came out ok, I just personally wish there was a bit more variety. While she was very happy with them, I'm still wondering how I'll handle a situation like this next time.

Her shots didn't come out too bad, but some variety would have been nice.

(6 images below...more of her shoot posted here in case anyone cares to check out: http://novophotography.wordpress.com/2010/05/31/lika-shatrov-whistle-while-you-work/ ) Moderator: Please don't post long strings of images on threads. One image and a link will be fine.

April 26, 2010

Thanks Luke. I guess the key I'm trying to find is to pull the consistency out of each person I meet with. My subjects are not models. So what I'm trying to do is find that ideal way to extract the emotion and quality of images out of each person rather than simply have a bad shoot and hope for a person that connects better with the camera next time.

April 25, 2010

It's not to critique the photos. But the comparison of the connection of the model with the camera and the shoot when compared to my previous one in the thread that I posted. My question, is if the issue I had in my previous thread appeared to be corrected in this shoot. Not on the specifics of the photos.

April 25, 2010

Sort of. Wasn't as much of a technical critique but a "handling the shoot and managing the model" critique.

April 25, 2010

This is sort of a follow up to another thread where a few members here gave me some tips. Here was the previous thread: http://www.photo.net/portraits-and-fashion-photography-forum/00WHEk

Hey who said advice on forums doesn't help :) I pulled out some creative stops, tinkered with confetti, and think the shots this time around were much better when comparing to the more "senior portrait" shoot I did last time (unintentionally).

More photos: http://novophotography.wordpress.com/2010/04/25/molly-pierce-bring-it-on/ A <img src="http://images12.fotki.com/v236/photos/7/101317/8670152/MollyPierce201004233-vi.jpg" alt="" width="531" height="800" /> B <img src="http://images18.fotki.com/v457/photos/7/101317/8670152/MollyPierce201004234-vi.jpg" alt="" width="467" height="800" /> C <img src="http://images36.fotki.com/v1179/photos/7/101317/8670152/MollyPierce2010042324-vi.jpg" alt="" /> D <img src="http://images12.fotki.com/v539/photos/7/101317/8670152/MollyPierce2010042335-vi.jpg" alt="" /> E <img src="http://images18.fotki.com/v458/photos/7/101317/8670152/MollyPierce2010042336-vi.jpg" alt="" /> F <img src="http://images54.fotki.com/v242/photos/7/101317/8670152/MollyPierce2010042337-vi.jpg" alt="" width="531" height="800" />

April 19, 2010

Nice shots. Only one that doesn't work for me is the high contrast one. If there was more color contrast then perhaps it might, otherwise the big white blown out area behind her sort of leaves the eye a bit lost. I'm not at all against blowing highlights, just not sure it fits specifically in that shot. Instead all of the available detail and objects in the shot I might want to capture and saturate a bit more. But that's just my take.

April 19, 2010

This is somewhat of a critique request, however the purpose of my question is because a very very inexperienced and shy model came for a shoot. During our first few minutes as we began shooting I realized that it would have been pulling teeth to get anymore than 'senior portrait' shots. So I went with the very basics until finally (near the end) she became a bit more comfy and we got the wine glass and 'hair fire' shots. Has anyone else had to tone back some more creative ideas that you might conceptualize after meeting and speaking to a model in order to teach some basics before moving on? Initially it was a bit frustrating thinking that all I could do is some basic poses, but then decided to roll with it and sure enough she became a bit more comfy. In general, how do you guys deal with situations where the person is very camera shy? Time and patience seems to be my approach. No doubt if I had a second session with her we could get more creative. I wrote more details in my blog, but for those who don't like to clicky click I'll post a few shots below:

http://novophotography.wordpress.com/2010/04/19/laura-anne-martucci-my-first-time/

Sign In

Profiles

Forums

Blogs

Events

Downloads

Gallery

Store

Posts posted by michael_novo