Don’t spend too much money on Photo Gear!

As photographers, there is a tendency (more so for guys than for girls) to buy the latest, newest, biggest (or smallest), highest megapixel, most bad-ass photo equipment there is.  For the business, we say.   But if we are really honest with ourselves, is it really for the business or is it just to satisfy our techno-lust?

Once you have your basic equipment (SLR body, a couple of lenses, batteries, Compact Flash cards, tripod and flash) and a backup set, all the other stuff is really just gravy and sometimes unnecessary. 

Don’t spend all the money that you earn on photo equipment.  If you did, that would mean you are just working so that you can buy and you are a slave to your gear.

Don’t BORROW money (or use a credit card) just to buy gear that you cannot afford with the mindset that this little baby will get you a lot of clients so it will be worth it.  It doesn’t really work that way.

Most clients don’t really care much about equipment and cameras and such. 

Free Canvas from CanvasOnDemand!

Get a free 16×20 sample canvas worth $84 from CanvasOnDemand! 

https://www.canvasondemand.com/studio/

We just got ours and it’s awesome!  

Free Magazines for Photographers

Here are FREE magazine subscriptions for photographers. You have to be a photographer to qualify.

What’s the catch? No catch! These magazines get their revenue from advertisers.

Free Rangefinder Magazine Subscription

Free Aftercapture Magazine

Free Professional Photographer Magazine

Free Studio Photographer Magazine Subscription

You can also read all their articles online at the website. 

 

If you know of any other free magazines, please add it in the comments below.

Photography on radio!

You can listen to interviews with photographers on Inside Digital Photo.

Aperture tutorial

Here is a video that will explain aperture more thoroughly.

Depth of Field tutorial

Here is a great video tutorial on depth of field.

Know thy Gear

Here’s a great but boring-sounding tip:  Read your camera’s manual!  Read it from cover to cover.  Have your camera in hand so that you can see what the manual is talking about and try it all out as you read it.

It might sound obvious but honestly, how many of you have read through your camera’s manual?  Or your flash’s manual?  (Oops, come to think of it, I haven’t read my flash’s manual… so that’s why up to now I don’t know what GN means and what makes it different from TTL.  I have no idea where that manual is.)

It is pretty boring because you know a lot of the features of your camera already (presumably).  But what about the other parts of your camera that you never use?

Read your manual!  It’s like eating veggies: it’s good for you. 

Photo Album Suppliers

Here is a list of photo album suppliers. 

High end Coffee Table Albums
www.asukabook.com
www.zookbinders.com
www.graphistudio.com

Low cost photo books
www.blurb.com
www.mypublisher.com

www.storybookpages.com
www.artleather.com
www.albumsunlimited.com
www.caprialbum.com
www.cornerstonealbums.com
www.finaoonline.com
www.winkflash.com
www.exclusivealbums.com
www.hhcolorlab.com
www.leathercraftsmen.com
www.picaboo.com
www.pictobooks.com
www.proprints.us
www.proweddingalbums.com
www.queensberry.com
www.topflightalbums.com
www.thebookalbum.com
 www.wgbooks.com

The FIRST thing you need to do: Create a PORTFOLIO

Some people email me to ask if they can second shoot for me and when I ask them if I can see their work, they don’t really have anything prepared.

It is VERY important for a photographer to have a portfolio of your own work because this shows people your photography level and skill.

Make sure your photos are technically decent.  Meaning, no blurry photos, no snapshots, make sure you edit your photos in Photoshop to make them the best photos they can be.

Try to keep only your best photos in your portfolio.  On the other hand, don’t be so paralyzed by not having great photos that you don’t include any photos at all.

ONLINE PORTFOLIO
At first, it doesn’t have to be anything fancy.  You can create an account in the many photography sites for free.   Personally I prefer Flickr.  See my portfolio there at http://www.flickr.com/photos/silvasphoto/. 

Some people use their myspace or facebook account as their portfolio.

You can also use a blog such as WordPress.  Just make sure you can post BIG photos.  See my other blog at http://SilvasPhoto.wordpress.com .

The good thing about this is that you can just give people a link and they can view a lot of photos.  This is better than emailing photos because you are limited by the no. of attachments allowed by your email (which is probably around 3-10 depending on your email provider.)

Note about emailing photos:  if you absolutely have to email photos, make sure they are resized to a smaller size otherwise, when the person opens the photo, it will be too big for the browser and there is no way to view the whole photo unless you save it on the computer, then open it with a photo viewer, which most don’t people don’t like to do.

Eventually your goal is to have your own website that showcases your work.

Things to remember:

• Make sure your online photos have a watermark to prevent other people from using your work as their own.  A watermark is a semi-transparent text or logo on top of your image.  It could be at the center of the image or at the bottom or top.

PRINTED PORTFOLIO
When meeting people in person, you’d want to bring a printed portfolio.  The photos in your portfolio should be in a big size, such as 8×10 or larger. 

You should select a number of your photos to include in your portfolio.  15-20 images is a good number.  The portfolio that you present should be relevant to the job you are applying for.  Example:  if you want to be a portrait photographer, your portfolio should have portraits.  If you want to be a landscape photographer, you should have some landscape photos.

I have different portfolios depending on the client that I am talking to.  I have a wedding portfolio, a portrait portfolio, a landscape portfolio and a boudoir photography portfolio.  Now, I don’t want to show somebody who’s not really interested in landscapes some landscape photos since that is not relevant to them. 

Wedding Photography Tutorial

Here is a good wedding photography tutorial from photographersacademy.com.

Some other useful videos.

Fashion Photography

More from PhotographersAcademy

Professional Photography Secrets

Commercial Photography

How to price your Wedding Photography

Pricing your wedding photography is one of the trickiest part of being a wedding photographer.  How much is your time and effort worth?

In the beginning, when you are still trying to build experience and portfolio, you might work some jobs for free or very little money.  This is okay and extremely natural as it would be unethical for you to charge very high when you don’t have the experience.

But as you improve and your business grows, how much should you charge?

It all depends on a lot of factors and each photographer is different.

• Location.  The price of photography is different in a big city such as New York as opposed to a small town.
• Experience.  Are you just starting out or have you been in the business a while?

What most people don’t realize is that photography is a full time job even though they only see us on their wedding day, we are also working the entire week editing the photos, creating the albums, marketing, meeting with clients, etc.  So your wages should be at least what somebody working full time is making.

You should raise your prices whenever:

• when your expenses increase.  As your business grows, your expenses increase too so your prices should cover that.
• Whenever you get a lot of bookings.  This means that you are in demand so you can raise your prices a bit.  At first, the bookings will lessen, but you will be doing less jobs for the same amount of money.
• Whenever people tell you that you are affordable.  This means that you are worth more so you can charge more.
• Raise your prices at least every year consistently.  This ensures that your prices are keeping up with the increasing prices of everyday things. 

View this blog about pricing:  http://photolovecat.blogspot.com/2007/03/pricing.html

Celebration Studios filed for bankruptcy

Here’s the latest news in the wedding photo world.  Big wedding photography company Celebration Studios filed for bankruptcy and closed down, leaving lots of their wedding couples high and dry.  Most of them paid in full because they get a 20% discount if they do so but now they don’t have a wedding photographer. 

Celebration Studios services the tri-state are of New Jersey, Pennsylvania and New York.  Most wedding couples paid from $4000 – $6000 upfront.

http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=news/consumer&id=5898234
http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/299/ripoff0299561.htm
http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080117/NEWS/80117003

Here is the Yahoo Groups of the Celebration Studios brides and groom with over 1000 members.  They are planning some legal action (probably a class suit) so if you have been wronged by Celebration Studios, please join their egroups.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/wrongedbycelebrationstudios/
http://wrongedbycelebrations.freeforums.org/index.php

If you are one of these wedding couples needing a wedding photographer, please contact us at hontes@gmail.com or (843) 597-3518.  You can view our website at http://SilvasPhoto.com .   We only have a few wedding dates left in 2008 but who knows, we might be able to accomodate you.  We are South Carolina based but we do travel anywhere in the USA.

We also make wedding albums so if you need some wedding albums designed, we can help you with that. 

Unfortunately we are quite far from the PA, NJ, NY area so we can’t help as much as we’d like but if you go to this website and you were wronged by Celebration Studios, you might get a free wedding photography package.

 http://jasongphoto.blogspot.com/ 

This is one wedding photography website that offers discounts to those wronged by Celebration Studios:

http://www.1lovestudio.com/help.html

If you are a wedding photographer and would like to help, please post in the comments below.

Master Tips from the Wedding Photography Experts

Here’s some wedding photography techniques from master wedding photographer Yervant Zanazanian:

http://www.wedshooter.com/2005/12/20/soft-touch

Here is Jessica Claire’s photographer FAQ from her blog which gives a lot of detail about her equipment, techniques and workflow:

http://www.jcsphoto.com/photographerfaq.html

And here is her blog posts where she answers photographers questions.

http://jessicaclaire.net/index.cfm?catID=10

Photography Packaging and Marketing

Image is everything.  That is why branding yourself and your work is so important.

Branding and packaging increases the perceived value of a product.  Compare a stack of 4×6′s to a beautiful album of 4×6′s.  Compare an 8×10 print to the same 8×10 print, matted and framed. 

Your brand has to be consistent across all your products and packaging for it to be effective.  This means everything from your business cards, your letterheads, your photo folders, photo boxes, mailing postcards, brochures, envelopes, etc. have to have your branding.  Use a consistent font and color scheme to reinforce your brand to your clients.

Branding also reinforces to the client your professionalism and your commitment to your work as opposed to some fly-by-night operation.

Check out this great blog about how to market and package the photographs that you give out to clients.

Photo Packaging Blog

You can also view a PDF file about photo packaging.

Presentation Brochure