karenmorelandphotography

<p>I have been a photographer for about 3 years. I am going to start teaching classes in about a week to beginners. However, I have some people who are interested in one-on-one lessons to learn a little more advanced things like editing. What is the going rate for such instruction? Is $30/hr too little? I have no idea what the average would be. I understand it may vary from region to region. I live in middle TN. </p>

<p>Thank you, Glen. I appreciate the input. I have done school portraits also, so this is a great suggestion! </p>

<p>Thank you to everyone who has continued to post on this. @Marc, since the responses to this post, I shot another wedding inside a church. I used on-camera flash and bounced it, which worked well. When the ceilings did not permit a good bounce, I used diffused flash. When I shot big groups inside the church at this last wedding, I just used diffused on-camera flash as there wasn't time to set up off-camera lighting. There was a lot going on, people coming in and out, very little time to do anything, and the on-camera diffused lighting worked out just fine. Not glare or harsh shadows, etc. I was also careful to not raise my ISO up past 3600, and in most cases, I didn't need to. I also shot in full M mode, which worked out great! So, thanks to everyone's suggestions and help, things definitely improved as a result!</p>

Thanks Bob & Marcus. Sounds like different people do different things and it's not customary but it is up to the photographer. I also have a milestones customer who has seen me every 3 months from her maternity session to her baby's first year and I'm thinking I should do something special for the 1 year shoot coming up since I've never given her a discount and didn't sell the sessions as a package. It may not be much but perhaps I can do up a collage that she can print or something special. My time in Photoshop is something I will charge extra for when it comes to special projects so I'm thinking that might be a nice gift.

<p>Thanks, Bob! Are you asking me to post something from this shoot that turned out well? Or something else?</p>

<p>Thank you, Shawn and David. I may not do anything, as I mentioned, but I'm glad to know. I did give them a little break on their engagement session since they booked that together with their wedding so that may be all for now.</p>

<p>Great to know! Thanks WW! </p>

<p>I've only shot a few (small-ish) weddings so I'm not sure how this should go. Is it customary for the photographer to bring/give a wedding gift to the bride on the day of the wedding like everybody else (like not photography related)? Or, to give them something extra for free as their gift later even (that may be photography related)? This wedding I'm about to go shoot tomorrow is a full day's event, and I charged full price. There will be a lot of work and I haven't promised the bride anything special, extra, or free. I'm just asking behind the scenes if this is something photographers do on their own or if it's a social norm I'm not familiar with. (For reference, I don't really know this girl who is getting married, but my mother-in-law taught her in grade school and thinks highly of her. I shot her engagement photos last week though and we got along great.) </p>

<p>Good to know, Marcus! I will definitely give it a try next time I'm out shooting. </p> <p>I did go out to the church the other day for this next wedding and used M for everything. I even did an engagement session with them at the same time in all those places so I feel much more comfortable now with using it. </p>

<p>Marcus, I'm not sure why the Av or Tv modes were not working properly. And WW, I normally use the center weighted average but I had switched it to spot metering in case I wanted to focus and recompose and not have my barn in the middle. With the bright background and the dark barn, I was hoping the spot metering would lighten up my barn better. Is this correct?</p>

<p>Thank you, Shawn! I sure will! And thanks for the props on my website. I haven't added any photos from this particular wedding yet, but I will soon. I was actually surprised how many great images I got from this session despite some of my indoor troubles. I hope I can look back in this and laugh one day because I KNOW I have some major progress to make! :)</p>

<p>Thanks to everyone for their continued commentary. I am getting some great advice, that is why I come to photo.net! @Dick, yes, the tripod is a great idea. My husband actually was in the balcony with a telephoto lens during the shoot and got some great shots, and I'm grateful because it salvaged some of the shots I had taken but that had poor quality. He was shooting with my 2nd 6D body and set his ISO to 3200 so they are all great even after cropping down. Also, I will be approaching the next bride about the use of flash during the ceremony. I hadn't thought about the ramifications of inconveniencing others with that. I would think the photographer takes precedence with whatever is needed to get the shot, not the guests who are merely attending. But I will definitely run it by her first!</p> <p>@WW, I think you are absolutely right, I have been nervous that I would not have the proper amount of time to make the correct adjustments in M mode, thus increasing the chances of me flubbing it up at the most critical moments, but on that note, I have an interesting follow up to all of this exposure learning that I'm doing... Yesterday morning I went out for a sunrise drive to shoot local barns, which is a favorite pastime of mine. While doing so, I experimented a bit. The conditions were outdoors, but because it was just before sunrise, the lighting was poor. So I set my ISO to a relatively low number (maybe 400 or 600 given the situation), then I tried Av mode to see what it would choose for my shutter speed. Although I'm not providing visual examples of my shoot yesterday, the camera actually WAY underexposed my shot! I bumped up my ISO and it still chose to underexpose things. That's when I decided it was the right time to experiment with M mode again. It was the perfect time to do so because no one was rushing me, etc. Once I switched it over, I once again moved my ISO down to a lower number and set my aperture and SS to reasonable numbers. MUCH BETTER! Even while moving from spot to spot in different locations on my early morning journey, I ended up getting some awesome shots and feeling a lot more confident with my selections over what my camera was choosing for my exposures.</p> <p>So, that said, I think I'm going to shoot this upcoming wedding in M and use on-camera flash with my lithosphere diffuser set to low (so it will be less noticeable). I will test it all out beforehand though. And the day I go up to do my test shoot and meet with the bride, she is also having me do an engagement mini session so I will also have the chance to really test my skills. I will tell you one thing, all this trouble has really got me learning quickly how to correct some of these issues I'm having and really forcing me to be more comfortable in full M mode to be able to fully control what I get. I really appreciate everyone's help on this issue!</p>

<p>Marcus, thanks for the input. I do have 2 6D bodies and 2 600EX-RT speedlites. I usually use a diffuser on-camera when not bouncing, and when off-camera, I usually shoot into an umbrella with a wireless transmitter. Studio lights are another story. I have 2 Profoto D1s in umbrellas and a wireless transmitter. I feel comfortable using my lighting most of the time, I guess I decided to try something new, and it was not the appropriate time to do so. </p>

Ok, thanks Michael.

<p>Thanks for the responses William and Michael. @William, do you suggest I shoot in Av or Tv for the next wedding instead of all manual since I'm nervous about changing all the settings every time? What would you recommend be the top priority in my settings? I would much rather choose some sort of auto (Av or Tv, not full Auto), but I'm also afraid something will be messed up that way! I guess for starters I'll just make sure not to bump my ISO past 1600 or so and use a fill flash. <br> @Michael, I agree! I was posting the full cathedral for reference. The customer will be receiving images shot mainly close up. I do like to just leave a little room though for print crops, etc. </p>

<p>Ok good to know, Michael. I will just have to practice more!</p>

<p>Thanks for the critique, Michael. I really appreciate it. I am definitely new to wedding photography. I've been shooting altogether for 2 years but mainly outdoors (and use a fill flash most of the time), or if I'm in my studio it's with powerful strobes, so this indoor stuff on location is a bit of a challenge for me!</p>

<p>Thanks, Bill! I really appreciate that! Yes, I will definitely be using the flash at the next wedding. It will be an all day/night event, so I certainly can't rely on the available light there. I'm glad you mentioned the shadows. They killed me in post! I couldn't pull them up for anything, even though I shot in RAW. I will also check out the gels. I have a Gary Fong Lightsphere diffuser that works great especially if I'm having to use it head on, so I will see how that can help. I'd rather use flash and get good shots than to be stuck in this situation again, delivering images that are subpar. Lesson learned! <br> I think I'm also nervous about shooting in full manual mode for a wedding because there's so much running around that I might forget to change some settings if I move locations. As it is, my nerves make it a little hard to focus on the important things in the moments I need to make sound decisions. I suppose that will subside after I get more wedding experience. </p>

<p>Thanks Marcus. Yes, I think I posted the histogram from the 2nd image instead of the full image I posted first. I started off at 5.6 and then by the time I changed it to Tv mode and tried to set it to 1/100, that's when it must've chosen f/22! I think I learned my lesson on using zoom lenses with Av or Tv mode indoors. Not good!! </p>

<p>Thanks, Ian. I will likely be shooting in manual mode for the next wedding and am going to used a fixed 85mm lens also. I think the zoom lens threw me off a lot. </p>

<p>I shot an indoor wedding yesterday trying to not use a flash. (I normally do use a diffused flash but wanted to try natural light.) Unfortunately, I ended up having to change all my settings to correct lighting issues in just about every shot. For starters, my equipment: Canon 6D, EF28-135mm f/3.5-5.6. I'm attaching 3 images to describe the situation. The first image is just to give you an idea of the lighting--tall cathedral ceiling, large open windows on both sides and from behind. The wedding was around 1pm, and it was overcast outdoors. The second image is just to show how noisy the shot is close up due to the ISO being so high. And the 3rd image is to show my settings. <br> I would never have used such a high ISO but I started out setting my camera to aperture mode at f/5.6 thinking that would keep my subjects in focus and create a little background blur. But that didn't produce enough light. So I kept bumping up my ISO until I topped out. Bad idea. Then of course, there were issues of the shutter speed being too slow to accommodate for the lack of light, so then I had camera shake issues. So I changed to shutter priority and set it to 1/160 and then of course everything else got thrown out of whack. <br> I'm preparing for another wedding in a couple weeks but am visiting the church and reception hall a week beforehand to test it all out this time. I will also be taking lighting with me. But as a general rule, how do wedding photographers do their indoor lighting? Surely photographers can't all walk around with umbrella flashes and even bouncing a flash may seem impossible when the ceilings are too high. Help!</p> <img src="http://www.karenmorelandphotography.com/img/s4/v9/p1870623357-3.jpg" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.karenmorelandphotography.com/img/s6/v143/p1864216320-3.jpg" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.karenmorelandphotography.com/img/s4/v11/p1656033711-11.jpg" alt="" />

<p>That's great, Alan! I will try that. And thank you to everyone in case I didn't get to respond to each of you directly. </p>

<p>That's great, Alan! I will try that. And thank you to everyone in case I didn't get to respond to each of you directly. </p>

<p>@Sabastian, I don't usually have any issues in close range (within 5-7 feet), it's usually 10+ feet away that I start experiencing focus problems. </p>

<p>Wow! Thanks, Mike. I have always been afraid to buy outside the brand for compatibility reasons, but clearly I need to do more research before buying my next lenses! </p>