green_photog

<p>What does a person learn from shadowing other than how to press the button hundreds of times in a day?</p>

<p>My usuall duo setup is 24-70 + 135. Can't imagine carrying a 3rd body as it is just too cumbersome. Maybe you are a bigger guy but to strap on two, not to mention three, is a chore already for me.</p>

<blockquote> <p>Normally I would do this out of courtesy and want to make sure my client is happy but I'm extremely busy at the moment and simply don't have the time!</p> </blockquote> <p>I suspect the reason you made them in B&W was the colors didn't work. So it will take time to get them in color and the result will be inferior to B&W. There're two things you can do, tell them you can't turn them back to color or do it at a latter day when you are not busy.</p> <p>The downfall about charging extra is that the colored version will likely not be as good as the B&W ones.</p>

<p>Outdoor harsh light, use the flash directly on the subject. You can't bounce the flash and back from the clouds. Some people use modifier but I don't as it cuts down the flash power.</p>

<p>My wording is "up to 8 hours of coverage - $1600 and $200/hr after 8 hours". I choose 8 hour because that covers most of my clients' needs and leave me room to upsell to those longer ethnic weddings. For the short 3-4 hour bookings I will give quotes close to $1,000 mostly.</p> <p>This was comminicated and written down on the contract but after 9 long months some people could forget they only get me for 8 hours and not 10 or more. When I remind them at the final meeting before the job, some were unpleasantly surprised. In reality, I only increase my final invoice if they were planning to be over by 2 hours. An hour or so more I'll just eat that myself.</p> <p>Micahel, photogs in NYC probably command more but most part-time shooters in my town stop at $2K and some even have to throw in prints and albums to get $2K a job.</p> <p>Katrina D. I started cheaper and I'm trying to keep my referral base. My average per job has gone up every year but not too dramatically so that I don't lose my referral base. What I don't want to see happening is a drastic increase in rate without any bookings.</p> <p>Still even at my price range, I see my inquires and bookings decreased over the years as my rates go up. But my overall revenues had remained almost the same so I'm happy to earn the same while doing less.</p> <p> </p>

<p>I have a wedding package pricing question I would like to ask for your help here. I have a simple package $1600 for 8 hr and $200 for every hour after that. Bascially, it's $200/hr but I bundled it for 8 hrs as that's about 80% of what my clients are aiming for.</p> <p>Some couples didn't know their exact wedding timeline. For those couples, I just assume it's from 1pm-9pm and if they wanted to add more hours after they have finalized the timeline, I'll adjust the final invoice closer to their wedding day.</p> <p>The problem is that they often forget about the fixed number of hours part 9 months down the road and it came as a mini surprise to them when I send my final invoice. Most of them paid for the extra hours and some chose to skip some parts of their wedding to stay within the agreed number of hours.</p> <p>I kind of think now that adjusting the invoice after the fact is not a good practice so maybe I should give them a higher estimate at the meeting. But then I am afraid I might lose their business.</p> <p>I just wanted to ask what is your take on my per hour billing practice, is that a good idea?</p> <p>The other way I can go about my pricing is that I pretty much know what kind of hours they'll need at the meeting within an hour or so accuracy. And I just quote the job according to that and stick with that unless there's major change. If it turns out I'm out of an hour or so, I'll just eat that and not bill the clients.</p> <p> </p>

<blockquote> <p>How many of your 40 came through Facebook?</p> </blockquote> <p>Good question, I've never booked any client through FB. One time I spend less than a thousand on FB advertising for a few months and didn't get on inquiry. Google search and referral are my main marketing tools. I think I've now answered my own question about the review function, thank you.</p>

<p>I always transfer it as CR2 using Canon gears, not sure why you need to make it DNG in the first place.</p> <p>When exporting it, max out all settings and choose sRGB with medium sharpening if space is not a concern. </p>

<p>Michael, I think I will just take it down. If this reveiw is buried on page 10, it's no big deal. But it's sitting on top and likely will sit on top until next May or so. All my prospective clients will see it now as I'm entering the prime booking season.</p>

<p>I have a facebook page review question. My ratings have been between 4 and 5 and the comments are positive.</p> <p>Three years ago, I did my first female same sex wedding and the couple wrote me after the wedding about the pictures and me - "the pictures are amazing and so are you."</p> <p>Last night, 3 years after their wedding, they gave me a 1 star rating and a review that said:<br /> - I was not comfortable taking their pictures<br /> - I asked what kind of photos they wanted<br /> - I didn't not blog their wedding</p> <p>I haven't responded to their comments but my rebuttal after looking at their set again was that I don't remember not being comfortable on that day. It was a short booking and we needed to get a lot done including travel so I might not be the most relax was all.</p> <p>They brought me to a place with a sign at the door so I asked if they wanted to include the sign in the pictures.</p> <p>2011 was a very busy year and I have close to 40 weddings and I didn't blog them all. And blogging weddings or not is not in the contract I sign with clients.</p> <p>What I didn't get was why after holding their peace for 3 years after tell me I was amazing and suddenly the 1 star review that is sitting on top of the panel now.</p> <p>The bigger question is that I think the FB page review isn't worth it's salt. I have enough references and comments on my FB page that I don't think the review is doing anything. I don't think anyone books me because of my review rating.</p> <p>So the big question I wanted to ask you guys is that should I take down the review app? Thanks.</p> <p> </p>

<p>Blurry images have little cure and candid shots, especially reception candid shots are the bane of my existence. You are either most likely shooting through other people's head or you can buge in the conversation circle. But by that time people will be looking at you and that shot ceases to be candid anymore.</p> <p>And in a dark reception hall with no flash allowed that makes it almost mission impossible. What I ended up doing most of the time is just to get some shots with people looking at the camera directly. That way you at least get people's faces right and whether that's candid or not, who can tell?</p>

<p>Many people have touched on weight and speed advantage of primes. I think the modern day zooms like the 24-70 f2.8 II is a bit as sharp as prime. </p> <p>But I still like my 35 f.14 because when I shoot prime, I have already framed the picture in my mind. I tend to be at the right spot more often than not.</p> <p>When I use the 24-70, sometimes I got lazy and didn't stand far enough before bringing the camera up. But I generally don't do that with the primes.</p>

<p>Thomas, there's a saying the camera has two viewfinders, one looking at the subject and one looking at you. I forgot if it is viewfinders or apertures but you got the idea.</p> <p>Basically, it just means that your photos tell more about you than the subjects you photograph.</p> <p>I kept this saying in mind when I make my look. Hope this helps you too. Good luck in your photographic journey.</p>

<p>Thomas, did you choose your focus point or you let the camera decide? You can fix exposure to some extend but a mis-focused picture has fewer to no cures. Also, you'll need to decide on your look. Some has the blown highlight, bath in light look and some don't. A set needs to have consistent look.</p> <p>Be weary of using wide angle, I think in some wide angle shots you were standing too close to the subject and induced distortion. Try not to use wide angle unless you make them really small in the frame.</p> <p>As far as shot counts, I always under-promise and over delivery. If you think you can deliver 400, promise 250, none of my clients every questioned by low balled shot count at the meeting. But when they saw 350 pictures, they were happily surprised.</p> <p>I think you far too many packages that's confusing for the clients to decide. The purposes of the packages are for the client to decide if you are the right photographer for them price and look wise so they'll decide to meet with you. A too complex pricing structure will deter them from meeting you and that defeats the purpose of the packages.</p>

<p>Very good suggestion, Rick. Thank you.</p>