The Pro Photo Business Forum

For most photographer’s, their website is their primary tool for attracting new business. To help members improve their businesses and websites, we have a special forum dedicated to website reviews. However, the reviews that are given are based on the site’s ability to generate new business for the studio and not how esthetically pleasing the images are. When I give a review of a site, I like to create a five minute screen captured walk through. Here’s a fun example.

Art it seems is a term used loosely among photographers these days. Yes we would all like to think of ourselves as artists with our own unique vision of the world, that what we do has never been done before and that our prospective clients couldn’t live without us. But the truth is for the vast majority of photographers art is an alien word that is not completely understood. Think about it. When was the last time you actually painted with light? If you’re a studio photographer you do it all the time, but if you’re a wedding photographer working in the real world you may need to ask yourself if you have ever done it. The truth for wedding photographers is that theirs is a chaotic world. After all weddings are events made up of micro events which must be micro managed to be documented adequately, and for the wedding photographer this means running from one micro event to the next with no break until the limo drives off. So in all of this madness where is there time for art?

If you are a solo photographer you will simply wear yourself out trying to lug around the tools you need to really create and control the light by which we can take our imagery to the next level. (Trust me it’s exhausting!) So what’s the solution? Hire an assistant; see how easy this can be… Oh if only! Yes having someone to lug around all that gear will indeed make your life a lot easier and your time shooting much more enjoyable, but that being said, having all the gear in the world won’t make your images any better unless you learn how to use it. And by the way, turning your strobe to ETTL is not learning how to use it. In the coming weeks I will discuss in greater detail the lighting techniques I use for various images through out the wedding day. I will also go into detail of the post processing that takes place to finish off the image. But for now I will address what I think may take your images to a new level right away.

Though it is not a new concept, getting your strobe off camera will be like putting tires on your car. Yes you could drive on your rims for a while, but sooner or later your going to get tired of the lack of control you have. The same is true of getting your strobe off your camera. Direct flash always looks unnatural. But once you get your light source off axis you create depth, your create highlight and shadow, and you create contrast. Bounce the light you say emphatically! Well, yes you could bounce the light, if there is a wall or ceiling near buy, but often times there is not. Or what if the ceiling is dark wood and thirty feet high, then what? Solution – go out and buy yourself some radio slaves and take control of your lighting.

The Bridal image above was not taken in a studio; it was taken at the venue. (By the way, The White House Farm is an amazing venue especially for bridal sessions) In this image there were a few factors I took into consideration. (1) The chandelier over her left shoulder. (2) The abundance yet flatness of the available light coming from the bedroom to my left and the bathroom to my right. (3) Placement of an artificial light source. (4) I wanted to match the color of my strobe to the much warmer light of the chandelier. And finally (5) I needed to control the spill from my light source on to the floor and background.

(1) The chandelier. If your not careful these are easy to over look and over expose. A simple exposure check on my LCD ensured that this didn’t blow out.

(2) The available light was sufficient for fill but if used as only light would be flat and unflattering. Solution, introduce key light with a lighting ratio of 4 to 1.

(3) Artificial light source was a 580 EX II set high a top a light stand with shoot thru umbrella placed camera left at 90% angle to subject.

(4) Matching the color of my strobe to that of the chandelier. Here in Houston I’ve found it harder to locate color correction gels, but in LA they are abundant, however thanks to the Internet you don’t have to fly to LA to get them. Purchase yourself a set of these little gems via Calumet Photographic and it may just rock your world. For this image I used ½ CTO to balance my strobe, which burns between 5000 to 5600 Kelvin to the much warmer chandelier, which burns around at 7500+ Kelvin.

(5) How do you control your spill when using an umbrella? First remember I used a shoot thru umbrella not a regular one, I could also have used a small soft box but they take to much time to set up and time is of the essence. Second you will need to do one of two things or both in conjunction depending on how narrow you want your light to be. You can always zoom your flash head to 100mm or you can do like I did and place a set of SP video light barn doors over your strobe. If you’re a Strobist subscriber you know what I’m talking about. If your not you should be. (www.strobist.blogspot.com)

Finally I used a gold reflector on an assistant stand to camera right for fill. Mind you this is a venue I had never shot at before and I didn’t see this spot until we were heading into another room.

The post took about 5 minutes in Photoshop. Some levels adjustments, a little burn and dodge, and +10 in saturation. That’s it.

Original image capture RAW, Canon EOS 50D, 24-70 2.8L @ 24mm, ISO 800, 1/25^th @ f – 3.5.

Next time: “The Dramatic First Dance”

Join the Pro Photo Business Forum to talk with me further.

Scott Villal0bos
Houston Wedding Photographer – RSVP Studios

You need to set a good foundation before you start to attract prospects to your front door. Before you place your first ad announcing your services, or even if you are already advertising, you must have in place a system to track the results of your advertising, otherwise you could be throwing your money away.

You must be able to calculate if your actions are efficient or not.  When people say their advertising is working, they generally just know that they are receiving calls and booking weddings.  You must know more than this.

You must know if your marketing is efficient or not.  The best way to give yourself the answer to this question is through the use of statistics. As a business owner that wants to succeed, you have a responsibility to track the statistics of your business. Through marketing you begin to attract individuals to your business. These individuals are inquiries. Where did your inquiries find your contact information?  How many of your inquiries did you convert into consultations? How many of these consultations did you convert into paying customers? Out of these paying customers, how many of these paying customers have done business with you a second time?

The answers to these questions will show you where you’re the least efficient. If you see that you’re only converting 10% of the inquiries you receive into consultations, and 90% of the consultations you have are converted into paying customers, then you know you must change the language you use when answering your phone or replying to people inquiring about your services via e-mail.

Tracking each and every inquiry will also tell you where your paid advertising is failing or succeeding.  For instance, I know that the advertising I paid for in Premier Bride Magazine did very well for me.  That’s one of my images on cover displayed to the left.

You don’t need to really focus on the ads that are doing the best, until you have addressed the ones that are doing the worst.  Your goal should be to find out the “cost per lead” for each of the ads you have purchased. For example, if you paid $1000 for an ad somewhere, and you received 10 phone calls from that ad, your cost per lead is $100. Being able to find your cost per lead for each of your paid ads is essential to becoming more efficient.  This information will allow you to make educated decisions when the contracts for your current ads expire.  You will know which ads to keep, and which to drop.

Or you may decide to change the language in one ad to see if you can create different results.  Or you may decide to take the money from one ad and use it to increase the size of another ad.  But if you don’t have a system in place that allows you to track your cost per lead, then you’re just shooting in the dark, and wasting your money and time, and that’s inefficient.

Tracking your results will help to keep you on track.

If you’ve been a professional photographer for any amount of time, you’ve had friends and family ask you to shoot their wedding, birthday, or portrait. For amateur photographers, this can be a great opportunity to build a portfolio in a more relaxed environment. But for the working professional, this situation could end in a nightmare unless you treat it very carefully. For this reason, many photographers refuse to work for friends, afraid of repeating a bad experience that they or a colleague had. But if you keep a few things in mind, working for friends and family can be a rewarding experience that is beneficial for both you the photographer as well as your friend or relative.

Making sure the whole process runs smoothly starts when your friend or family member asks you to photograph them. Nothing is more critical at this first step than ensuring that you understand their true expectations. Look out for dangerous phrases like “snap some photos” and “take a few shots”. Very rarely does anyone actually want just a few snapshots. Otherwise they wouldn’t have asked you. A fellow photographer I am friends with recently spoke on the phone with another friend of ours about doing a few “quick” portraits of his daughter. What he described as “passport-style shots” turned out were going to be used as senior portraits. Had the photographer taken some boring passport photos, the girl would have surely been disappointed, and worse, would have expressed her disappointment to her friends. There’s a clear lesson in that story: ask questions, and don’t stop until you’re absolutely sure about your friend’s expectations. Whether they are direct about it or not, your friend is asking you to photograph them because they trust you. They trust you because they’ve seen your top quality work and level of professionalism. Don’t let them convince you that they are interested in anything but your best work.

More than trust, price almost always plays a factor in family and friends requesting your services as a photographer. Most people’s budgets are tighter these days, and you as their friend the professional photographer are a perfect way to fit in under budget for their wedding. There are several ways to approach pricing yourself in these situations, all of which are valid and depend on both your business and your relationship with your friend.

The first way is to charge your regular rate. If you are a busy wedding photographer and your friend’s wedding will fill a date you will likely get other inquiries for, this is a good option. Your second choice is to give your friends a discount. Lower your normal rate, and treat the discounted amount as your wedding gift to them. The third and final option is to only charge them for expenses, but not your time. To properly photograph an event, you’ll need assistant(s), possibly rental gear, and other items. Don’t ignore these or you may very well end up losing money by photographing them. This is only appropriate for photographers with low rates such that only charging for expenses would not be a huge discount. Notice that doing the event for free is not mentioned here. If your friend is not even willing to cover your costs, that likely indicates that photographing them will be far more trouble than it’s worth. When you don’t charge any money, you are no longer a professional, but a volunteer. If you cannot respect your business enough by charging friends and family members, they surely won’t respect the fact that you a professional.

Once you’ve agreed on a price, the worst mistake you can make is deciding that because you are such good friends, a contract is unnecessary. A contract ensures that both parties understand each other’s expectations and binds them to a set of terms. The same way a contract protects you in the event a regular client is unhappy, it ensures that you are not liable for anything outside of your friend of family’s expectations. What happens when your friend who just wanted you to take a few “family snapshots” at his wedding is upset that you haven’t delivered a stunning portrait of his bride? Photographers worry that insisting on a contract could upset their friend and damage their friendship. In reality, not signing a contract could do just that. Signing a contract and then having to use it to defend yourself to a friend is an unfortunate and uncomfortable experience, one that we all hope to never be part of. But having a friend sue you and demand that you pay for a restaged wedding and a new photographer will surely sever your relationship with that friend. Don’t opt to skip a contract. You’ll only be sorry later.

Photographing family and friends can be a fun experience. Because your subjects know you well, the session can be more relaxed and produce beautiful portfolio quality images. But if there is confusion about the expectations of the photographer and the client, it could also be your worst nightmare. A solid understanding of expectations and payment formalized in a contract will prevent future hassles. Be friendly, but be professional, but remember: make everyone’s expectations clear. With that in mind, have fun photographing your friends and family and providing them with beautiful images they will cherish forever.

Please leave a comment below, or join the PPBF to discuss this topic further.