Whether it’s a Lightroom preset for adding punch to your image or a Photoshop action for Holga-style vignetting, the shortcuts for easy post processing are everywhere. You snap a photo with your cellphone and with a couple of clicks, you’ve created a piece of art. Or you upload your files to your computer and run them through your HDR software, or your portraiture pack of actions for everything from soft focus to fake cross processing. But it’s not really art, is it? It’s more like one of those Fisher-Price toys, where a button with a cow on it plays a sampled ‘moo’ when pressed.

Don’t get me wrong, I think Fisher-Price makes some of the best toys out there, and we never get too old to play. But they are toys, not tools, and no matter how many times you push that button, it will be the same moo every time.

So, why am I telling people to put away their toys? I’m not. By all means, play your heart out. But you should learn how to manually get the same effect that your presets create for you. At least if you’re calling yourself a professional. There is more to it than owning the latest DSLR and a copy of Photoshop. If you rely on premade actions designed by other people, you are not being a very good photographer. Relying on your own home made presets is not quite as bad — just lazy. Either really do it or outsource it, but don’t automate it.

Of course, presets are not bad per se. It comes down to finding the right balance. Saving yourself some time by setting up actions that do simple tasks is a good thing. It stops being good, when you click a few buttons and voila, your work is done.

Presets and actions should be handled with care. Not only because each image is different and should be treated as such, but also because it’s in the details that your personal style will come out. Anyone can take a picture of a girl in a bikini top, but only you can make it look like one of your images. Not to mention the fact that it’s easy to take the processing too far, when you don’t have full control over it.

I started thinking about this shortly after the launch of The Best Camera. Basically, this is an iPhone app and website that lets you apply a number of pre-made effects to your photos and share them online. The presets are combined to make any photo look cool and artsy. I like that it makes it easy for anyone to create shots like that, and some of the pictures are truly magnificent. However, I quickly started feeling like they also kind of looked the same. The software has a lot of options, but naturally people tend to like the same ones, and suddenly everyone’s photos are processed similarly. Best Camera is obviously meant for fun, but there are tons of plugin packs, preset bundles and actions aimed at professionals too.

I use a few presets and actions to make life easier. I make most of them to add little things I use often. The few I have picked up from others, I’ve taken apart and recreated, to understand what exactly is going to happen to my photos, once I click the magical button. Occasionally, I’ll make an action/preset and apply it to an entire series of images, typically if they were all shot under the same circumstances. But even in those cases, I revisit each photo and tweak it.

There are countless ways to go about post processing and everyone has their own approach — until the day someone figures out how to make The Amazing Preset That Everyone Loves. Then we will all just use that and be happy. Right?

Photo credit: Me

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I’m guilty. Asking the person in front of my camera to say cheese is such a cliché, but I have done it many times. However, just recently I was struck with a violent disgust for it. It came from thoughts that had been rummaging around in my head, a mixture of overexposure through other people’s photos and hating every fake smile in my own work. The time has come to take a stand. Never again will I (knowingly) ask my subject to smile for the camera.

Before I go on, let me add that I love smiles. Real ones. They bring out so much of the smiler’s personality, it’s no wonder it became a crutch for photographers to lean on. But if it’s fake, it shows. So, why not concentrate on making your subject smile for real?

It’s not that hard, when you think about it. All you have to do is connect with the person or people you are working with. If you can’t do that, you should probably find another profession anyway. By its very nature, portrait photography is about capturing the essence of your subjects. If you’re good, you get what you need without staging it.

I want to be good. Or better at least, and that is another reason I am swearing off the smiles. That part of it is about pushing myself in new directions; which is the only way any of us learn. I want to work on being more empathic, because I know it will make my photography better, maybe even help set it apart from the masses.

This is not a spur of the moment anti-smile rebellion. It started when I read one of Annie Leibovitz’s books. She was talking about how smiling at the camera produces fake memories. When you look at photos of previous generations, wouldn’t you rather get a feel for the people in the images, than check the condition of their pearly whites? I would.

Leibovitz planted the seed, and soon I started noticing that many of my favorite photographers never seemed to have a single fake smile in their work. Finally, having had a recent influx of headshot clients, the seed finally bloomed into a full flower. This post is me picking that flower and giving it a good sniff. And I like what I smell.

I’m not saying you have to do the same to be a kick-ass photographer. Thousands of industry professionals ask for fake smiles on a daily basis and are both successful and happy. I just know, I could never be one of them.

Photo credit: Me

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Jack of all trades, king of none. I hate that saying because I used to believe it, and it was a curse on my self-perception for years. I seriously thought, that because I love writing, making music, taking pictures and pretty much anything else that involves creative thinking, and am completely incapable of limiting myself to one, that I was doomed to fail in all of them. Now, I declare war on this antiquated saying and way of thinking.

The saying implies that you have to specialize in something, or you will never find your full potential. It’s the hidden threat and slight air of superiority that appeals to my never-sleeping inner rebel. Who says you have to even think in terms of kings and jacks? I think that’s too limited, to be honest. If you really want to go with the playing card metaphor, why not go for being an ace? Or a joker? Or how about a whole hand – like a royal flush?

Being creative, no matter your field, is all about breaking down barriers, mixing up elements of the world around us and creating something new from it. If you’re good, you can capture people’s imagination with the result of your work. If you’re lucky, you might even invent something completely new. Leonardo da Vinci is arguably one of the greatest artists in history. He was also a noted inventor and scientist. No single card could possibly represent his work, and why should you and I be any different?

You might simply compare the Jack of All Trades label to that of finding a niche. A niche is a specialty. Mine, in the case of photography, is a certain type of portrait. It’s easier to get commercial success if you have a niche, that is no secret, but does that mean that you should limit yourself to that niche only and become its king? I think not. I think that if you do limit yourself like that, you will either burn out or become a one-trick pony. Like a band pumping out albums that all sound the same, even if they’re well played, written and produced. I’m sure you can think of plenty of examples. Instead, I suggest we all have many niches; maybe even one for everything we love to do.

In the age of social media and self-branding, if I was forced to choose, I’d rather be a jack of all trades than a king of one. Just like the saying implies that the jack will never be as good at that one thing as the king is, the reverse is also true: The king has a limited perspective and is bound to become more narrow-minded. However, I argue that the entire metaphor is outdated, and suggest that we outright kill the jack as well as his king. If you, like me, find that you are a set of jack, queen, king and ace on some days, and a mismatched five, two, eight and seven on others; invent your own game where all the cards are equally important. Solitaire, anyone?

I constantly look for ways to make a buck off of combining my many passions. Every time I succeed, I have discovered something uniquely mine and very fulfilling, and why shouldn’t we all do this as many times in our lives as possible? Trying to become a ‘king’ of only one field might build a better retirement fund, but I’d rather work hard till I drop than be a retiree who never explored life’s possibilities. The way I look at it, jacks and kings are all fine, but if life is a deck of cards, then it has 50 more facets, none of which should be easily discarded.

This post was inspired by a 3-year old kvetch of mine, Michael Nobbs’ recent post on a similar note, and the post by Seth Godin that inspired him.

Death to the jack and his king cohort, the world will be a better place to create in without them.

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None of us should ever stop learning. By attaining knowledge we grow both as human beings and as professionals, but there is learning and then there is information overload. With so many excellent photography blogs, magazines and communities, there is no shortage of advice on anything and everything related to the field. If you were to study all these sources, you would have no time left to actually use the information gathered.

One trick is to be critical of what you read. Not just in terms of technical merit (sidenote: I see more and more bad advice from people more interested in being cool bloggers than providing valuable or even correct information), but also the style and feel of the writing itself. If I have too many sources of information on a given topic, I tend to keep the ones that are well written, engaging and personal as well as informative. The rest are discarded.

I reached the saturation point several months ago, which is also one reason I haven’t written a how-to post in a while. learning new Photoshop tricks simply doesn’t do it for me these days. I’m looking for something a little more profound, and would much rather work on improving what really matters, namely The Eye. As in the skill of actually framing and taking a picture. It sounds simple enough, but of all the aspects of photography it truly is the most important one. You can be a post-processing rock star or a master of lighting and still produce boring work. On the other hand, you can have no clue how to process an image and still create beautiful pictures, if your Eye is leading the way.

The best method to train The Eye is to shoot a lot. Take a ton of pictures, play around, try different lenses and angles, locations and conditions. Do stuff with your gear that you’ve never even heard of before. Break free of all the rules and tips you’ve gathered from all those tutorials, articles and blog posts. One of the reasons I chose to put microstock on the back burner in 2009, was to break out of a specific way of thinking. I had limited myself to the stock standard for creating images and that had become so ingrained in my workflow, that letting go of it was getting increasingly difficult. Since then, I have worked primarily on personal projects, where the only rules are the ones I set for myself. And in that time, I have grown and evolved tremendously as a photographer.

My encouragement and the point of this post is to read less and shoot more. To step back and look for your own approach, rather than the one you’re supposed to have. Learn the rules, gather tips and techniques, then turn it all on its head and use that knowledge your way. Don’t ignore what you have learned, but don’t let it stifle you either. You’ll discover stuff no tutorial can teach you, I promise, and those tips and tricks will still be there when you are ready for them.

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It’s been kind of quiet around here lately. I’ve been busy with all sorts of good things, from client work to various personal projects. As faithful readers will know, I tend to have more projects going on than is probably recommendable, and every now and then, I will post an update on them here.

First and foremost, I am proud to announce the publication of ‘Ticketholders‘, a 68-page photobook based on the headshot event, I ran back in August. Turning it into a book was never part of the original plan. In fact, I remember thinking about it, and concluding that an entire book of similar headshots might be downright boring. But then I saw the ticket photos, which were taken just so I could tell each person apart. Held up next to the polished headshot, I now felt the ticket shots added an extra dimension, taking the whole thing to a new level.

So I went to work, deciding to mix color and black and white, inspired by the memory of an old photography teacher telling the class, that mixing the two was aesthetically a bad idea. In this case, I think it enhances the viewing experience. But don’t take my word for it. Check it out for yourself – there’s a 15 page preview available on Blurb.

My other book, the expanded print edition of ‘The Microstock Photographer’s Guide‘, is almost ready for publication as well. The copy has been given a once-over, and all I really need to do is add photos. I admit, I haven’t given it much attention in the last month, simply because I’ve been too busy with paying work, but it’s coming!

My ‘12 Seattleites‘ project is slowly moving forward as well. I’m talking to a few new subjects and finishing shoots with others. On the other hand, my retrospective book, first described here in March, has been shelved indefinitely. I wrote a first draft, but had a very hard time finding the right photos. So I took a step back, and I’m now in the process of going through my personal archives from 2005 till now. When I’m done, I’ll re-evaluate.

When working like I do, constantly testing new project ideas, some will fizzle out and others fail completely. I try not to get too attached to them, until I’ve done enough work to know. It’s all part of the whole creative ratio thing, I’ve talked about before. Besides, shutting down a project makes room for new ones. Waiting to get started, I have another two books sketched out and a brand new blog-based project as well. But I’m not quite ready to reveal any details yet.

In my last post, I talked about using online tools to set up my business, thus taking it out of the administrative stone age. I did this because I had a sudden influx of clients, and having tested my setup in the real world, I’m happy to say that it works. All the tools were found online for either free or a very low subscription price. I’ve never been a very efficient business person, which is one thing I hope better tools will help me improve on, and it is still very much an ongoing process. But you can certainly expect more updates on this down the road.

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Not all my tools have to do with photographs. Like every small business owner, I need tools to deal with the whole administrative side of things. So far, I’ve been doing it old school, with files neatly organized in some more or less obscure folder structure on my hard drive. We all know, that’s not going to cut it in the long run.

I’ve begun setting up the back-end of my photography business the way I’ve been wanting for years: Online. By that, I mean that I want to have access to all my office tools everywhere I go. Need to find a client’s e-mail? Send off a bid, an invoice or even a newsletter? Preferably, I want to be able to do it from any internet connected device.

Shopping around for the right tools to do this with is hard. I want something that costs next to nothing or less, but it also has to be scalable, should magic happen and I got really busy. This is what I have come up with so far.

I have set up Google Apps to work with my newly registered domain (I got tired of repeating the dot d k at the end of my old one). This means e-mail á la gmail, Google docs, calendar etc. is there and ready to rock. For free. Though it’s not optimal, I’ll be using Google to organize my contacts as well. Just to keep it simple.

One of the things I’ve been wanting to get started is an occasional newsletter. My blog is mostly read by other photographers, so I wanted an outlet geared more towards people I actually work with. Whether clients, models or other business contacts. Thus, I signed up with MailChimp. They have a free account which should cover me for a while, and upgrading is very affordable. Bonus: MailChimp integrates with Google Apps, Analytics, PayPal and even Twitter.

Another service which integrates with Google is the task manager, Remember The Milk. It’s basically an advanced to-do list, but because of those little extra details like repeating tasks and prioritizing, I like it enough to integrate it. Cost: Nothing, but there’s a pro version for $25/year which lets you sync with crackberries and stuff.

The most difficult decision for me, was picking a service to handle invoicing and the whole money handling side of things. I ended up signing up with Freshbooks. I like the way Freshbooks feels. It’s intuitive enough, that I don’t have to think too hard about how to do anything, and it has more features than I need (read: room to grow).

Freshbook’s subscription plan is based on your number of clients, so I’ll have to upgrade from the 3 slots you get with the freebie account pretty soon. Even so, it’s very affordable for a small fish like me. What finally won me over, was that after signing up, I got a phone call and e-mail from one of their representatives, offering to help me with any questions. Considering that I’m still on a free account, I think that’s pretty damn good service. One I’ll gladly pay a few bucks a month for.

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The headshot event was a success. That’s the most important thing, I have to say about it, so I’ll say it first. In one day, I happily serviced about 50 people, taking their portrait, so they could use it on LinkedIn, Facebook, with their acting agent or where ever a headshot might come in handy. It took me a while to write this final post about it, simply because I wanted to finish it first. Which I have. All the photos have been retouched and e-mailed out to the participants.

I originally offered 100 free headshots and later raised that number to 120, but I was happy to see that on the day of, there were no enormous lines, no chaos and thus, no catastrophes. Instead, there was a small initial rush of people who had been waiting around, followed by a slow trickle. Much more along the lines of what I had originally imagined, rather than the craziness I had feared, after news of the event had been on television.

I brought two assistants with me, Kelly handled sign-up, answered people’s questions and was my representative, while I was busy shooting. Justin took care of herding people, ran communication between me and Kelly, and stood by to jump in where ever needed. Once the initial rush was over, I could have probably done it with one helper, but again, I had no idea how many would come, and I was happy to be covered.

I set up two monolights and a fold-out muslin background on a tiny stage at the coffee shop. Behind the muslin were two windows, which we covered in paper, and to shield the shooting station from prying eyes, we also set up a roll of seamless paper as a wall along the side. By positioning the key light opposite of the white paper wall, that also doubled as a reflector.

I decided to handle the process of the photos like this: Each subject got 5-10 frames. I did not give people the option to pick their own photo, simply because the logistics of that would be overwhelming, and I would end up spending way too much time on the project. So, I picked what I deemed the best shot in each case. Photoshopping began with a rough RAW-processing, which I copied from one image to all of them. Then came the painstaking task of finalizing each image.

After tweaking the copy/pasted RAW adjustments, I then softened lines and deep wrinkles, particularly on the women, several of whom told me straight up, that they were worried about this. I also boosted the contrast using a pulled-back overlay layer, tweaked colors further to match the individual skin tones, and removed blemishes, zits and skin flakes. What I did not do, was to drastically alter the look of the person in front of the camera. If the hair was all over the place, I did not try to fix it. If there was a mole on the cheek, I did not remove it (though I did make sure it cast no harsh shadows). In other words, I cleaned up without changing anything. It took me two full days to process all the photos.

All in all, the charity headshot event cost me about a week’s worth of work and a few hundred bucks. Money was primarily spent on the muslin background and various signs, prints and accessories. Kelly deserves huge credit here, taking care of all the signage, including a customized ticket system with a print release on the back, and everything needed to keep the event organized.

I want to make it painfully clear, that I did not do this to get media attention. In fact, I never sent out a single press release. The only media I contacted directly was West Seattle Blog, who helped me pinpoint the venue for the event. However, my reasons for doing the headshots were not entirely selfless.

Part of it was to promote the 12 Seattleites project, which I have picked up again, now that the headshots are done. I needed to get the word out about this project to attract more volunteer subjects, and though I have yet to determine the degree of success with that, it did attract a few new names to my pool of potentials. And if the headshot event ends up attracting me a few paying clients too, I’m certainly not going to turn them away.

As a sidenote, it was kind of funny that three networks showed up to cover the event. Total overkill, considering its smallness, but if the news-reports can inspire others to give a little back as well, then it will have been worth it (see the report from Q13 Fox below). And on a related note, check out the Help Portrait project, launched right after I finished the headshots. The two are not related, except in spirit.

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My side project of offering up 100 headshots for free has quickly become my main project, thanks to the media taking an interest in it. The story was first picked up by West Seattle Blog, a hyper local news site for my neighborhood. This was quickly followed by a post on the Seattle PI’s ‘Big Blog’, and finally, local news station King 5 put the story [see video clip] on their morning show today, Friday. The event is on Tuesday (for details, see bottom of this post).

A friend told me ahead of time, that a project like this one would be bound to attract media attention, but I really hadn’t expected it to make it to television. Besides telling people I know and using twitter and facebook, I have not done anything to advertise the event. No press release was ever sent out. I’m thrilled, of course, that it’s taking off anyway, and slightly nervous. Which is just what I need to boost my performance on the day.

I expect it to be a very long, very awesome day of very hard work, followed by a lot of post-processing and e-mailing. But all of it is a labor of love, and I can honestly say, that even though there’s no money in it (except what gets put in the tip jar), this could easily end up as a contender for the ‘Gig of the Year’ title for me. I have a good feeling about it, I’m psyched and ready.

All I can do now, is hope my light/sync cable/camera doesn’t fail — and give it my very best.

The event begins at 11 am on Tuesday, August 25th at C&P Coffee Co., 5612 California Avenue SW in West Seattle.

Photo credit: Kelly Cline

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I am a man of many projects. As discussed before, I fully plan for most of my projects to either fizzle out or downright fail. One in ten is my personal success ratio, but instead of talking about the projects I have let go or failed on, I want to talk about what is going on right now. This, partly so I don’t lose track myself, maybe to give you some inspiration to work on your own projects, and of course there is the added pressure to get the work done, after I’ve published a post about it. Unfortunately, this is not a complete list. There are some projects, I’m not quite ready to talk about yet.

Charity Head Shots

Outline: Set up a shooting station at local coffee shop, create headshots for job hunters and e-mail them out. Free of charge.

Status: This one’s the big one right now. It was conceived as a small and easy project, but since my announcement of it, the project seems to have taken on a life of its own. The hyperlocal news outlet, West Seattle Blog, were the first to pick up the story, followed by the Seattle PI, and I have an interview scheduled with a reporter from King 5 news next week. I’m completely blown away by all of this, but also jazzed, stoked, excited etc.

12 Seattleites

Outline: Follow a dozen Seattle inhabitants around, documenting the city itself through its inhabitants. See website.

Status: This project is on hold until I’m finished with the charity head shots. One of the things I’m hoping for, is to spread the word about this project and find more potential subjects via the charity project. It’s all about networking, building up goodwill and that sort of thing.

Publishing the Expanded Microstock Guide

Outline: Add new, relevant articles to the existing guide, compile it all into one book and self-publish it.

Status: Almost done collecting the content. Next up is organizing and a bit of editing. I work on this on and off, when the mood strikes me.

Publishing ‘Den Store Plan’

Outline: Self-publish already written coming of age novel (in Danish).

Status: I’m currently talking to a designer about cover design. After that, I’m pretty much ready to go. Interested parties can join the Facebook page, dedicated to the novel.

Untitled Thriller

Outline: My second novel in English (first one available on Lulu), a thriller set in Seattle, main character a small time photographer.

Status: Currently writing the first draft. Approximately 10,000 words in right now, set do finish before the end of the year.

Retrospective Photo Book

Outline: A coffee table book about my first three-four years in Seattle, going from tourist to resident.

Status: First draft is written, having a hell of a time picking out photos. Currently on stand-by.

Call of Cthulhu Campaign

Outline: Socializing with friends through roleplaying, thus having fun and stimulating the imagination at the same time.

Status: Final stages of prep. First couple of scenarios are written, waiting for my players to get the their characters together.

If you’d like to follow these and more projects in something closer resembling real time, join my thePrint page on Facebook, where I post links, updates and things you might not find on this blog (at least not until later). There is certainly enough to do on all of these, and at this point, I have no idea how I’m supposed to make any money off of any of it. Thus implying that there are other projects, I should be working on as well (attracting more clients, adding to my stock portfolio, do more consultations etc). But I’ve never been good at prioritizing projects based on potential profit.

Photo credit: Me!

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The recession has meant that a large number of people have lost their jobs, and it occurred to me that many of these new job seekers would probably like to have a nice head shot of themselves to attach to linkedin profiles and similar. However, being unemployed also means not having a ton of cash to spend on frivolous things like photographers. So, I decided to give it away.

I found an ally in a local coffee shop, C & P Coffee Co., big enough to let me set up a small shooting station without laying claim to the entire café. The same venue already hosted a support group of people helping each other find new jobs, so throwing my charity project into the mix was a perfect fit.

When I’ve presented this project to others, most have been nothing but supportive and encouraging. The most common question I’ve received goes along the lines of: What’s in it for you?

Besides the feeling of having done some good for my local community, I’ll also be talking to a lot of people during the shooting, passing out as many business cards as I can. Basically, I’m advertising my services as a photographer, but of course, I will also be mentioning my other local project, the 12 Seattleites series, for which I still need more, good subjects.

Another question I’ve gotten a few times is: How do you know people won’t just come for a free headshot even if they are not unemployed? The answer is that I don’t know. I rely on people’s decency not to abuse my donated time, but at the same time, I actually encourage people to use the free portrait on social media sites etc. After all, I know people who have gotten jobs that way, so why not?

With so many people supporting the idea, it was very easy to set it up. If the session is a hit, I might consider doing it again. At this point, I want to thank C & P Coffee Co., West Seattle Blog, Nick Finck and Venkat Balasubramani for their help.

The Charity Head Shot Session is scheduled for August 25th at 11am. For this first-time trial run, I am limiting my sign-up sheet to 100 names. First come, first serve and all must be 18 years or older.

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