Rock the shot!

Off camera flash 1-2-1 photography training

Quintin — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 14:37:54 +0000

I recently mentored Retha, a Johannesburg Photographer on her off camera flash technique. The 2 hour session went extremely well and i think she picked up some great skills.

This is what she had to say about the session.

I would like to thank Quintin for his 1-2-1 photography mentoring session with me on how to use my off camera flash. He taught me so much about light and how it can be used and manipulated to create different effects in a photograph. He also gave me valuable information on the technical aspects of my off camera flash photography and I am beginning to really understand how to use it to my full advantage. Thank you for helping me and teaching me how to become a better photographer and how to work and understand light in its various forms. I can definitely recommend Quintin’s mentoring sessions to anyone wanting to learn more and become better at their craft.
Retha Wepener

Although I would not normally recommend it because of the need to focus on the technique and not the content of the shoot, Retha wanted to do a styled shoot. When i arrived she had prepared an area with some coo, goodies – it really looked pretty darn good :-)

Here are a few of her images from the day, i think Retha picked it up really quickly and did a great job. I can’t wait to see what she does on future shoots!

Off camera flash 1-2-1 personal mentorship

Quintin — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 12:58:04 +0000

Bruce recently booked me for a 1-2-1 photography mentorship session to go over his off camera flash technique. The reason I like these personal photography mentorship sessions is that it is the perfect way to get what you want out of the session. A workshop is great, but being able to improve on exactly what you need to is awesome :-)

Here are a few shots i took with the amazing Sam.

Winter photography workshops

Quintin — Tue, 15 May 2012 14:33:45 +0000

Whether it is to hone your skills before the 2012/2013 wedding season or learn to shoot with your flash off your camera, there is bound to be a workshop for you this winter.

Off Camera Flash:
June will see another in the series of Off Camera flash Workshops, the last two were really cool with an awesome location and those attending walked away with some pretty hot skills as well as some awesome off camera flash images – really, really cool!

So if you didn’t make it to the last workshop, get in touch with me asap so i can get an idea of numbers and dates that work for most people. If we have more people for a single workshop – we will add another date, so email me for more.

Workflow:
Photoshop and Lightroom have helped me to streamline my workflow and to spend more time shooting and on marketing than editing images. Get advice and tips on how to improve your workflow with the workflow workshop.

Studio lighting
And for those of you wanting to expand into studio photography, why not check out the studio lighting workshop info.

A new feature added to Rock the Shot, is Ask a Mentor. Do you have a question that will help get you further in your photography business – why not ask a mentor? The most interesting questions will be posted on the site for all to see and learn from.

Thanks, have an amazing day and Rock your Shot!

Photography Workshop | Off camera flash workshop

Quintin — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 11:05:06 +0000

A great model (Sam Klein) and some very enthusiastic participants made this weekend’s off camera flash workshop a blast. A few had never tried off camera flash, one had, but didn’t have the best results and another had tried but was too scared to take it to her weddings. So an opportunity to teach people a really dramatic set of skills that will improve the images they take!

This time round i decided to make the participants work a little harder and at each setup, they would have to go through the “Recipe” and work out the settings themselves – obviously i was there to guide them, but instead of sharing settings, going through the process themselves every time would help them to remember the process to follow when they were on their own time.

If you are interested in a photography workshop or personal mentorship, please signup to the mailinglist and receive the details of all the workshops.

I am still waiting for their images, but in the meantime here are some of mine from the day.

Thanks to:
Sam the model – she is amazing
Tasha De Sa Pires – Hair and Make up
Brett Lewis from Camerastuff for the load of some goodies

March 2012 Off camera flash workshop dates

Quintin — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 15:46:54 +0000

The dates for the march off camera flash workshop have been finalised. Please see the information below and let me know if you have any questions – i would love to see you there!

All you need is enthusiasm, your camera and an external flash, but if you do not have an external flash, no problem – i am sure we can get someone to loan you one.
If you have a laptop, bring it along to backup your images as well as choose and process a few images for the Q&A at the end of the day.

If you have off camera flash equipment, bring it along, but if not – really not a problem at all.

The workshop is a full day hands on workshop with limited numbers so you can get the most out of the time.

Click here for more info and registration.

Pricing your photography

Quintin — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 13:42:19 +0000

It is not uncommon for entry level photographers to feel uncertain about what to charge for their work. Many feel as though price structures are the most complicated area of their business. As a result, these photographers under cut themselves and unknowingly undervalue their work.

Don’t be overwhelmed. Take the guess work out of pricing your work by thinking through the following items:
Know your market:
What is the average value of photographers work in your area and speciality? Compare and decide where your work can fit in. Don’t forget to evaluate your service, quality of imagery, and professionalism.

Know your client:
Some people would rather pay more for a service if it means higher quality. Some people cannot afford anything but the basics. Determine what clients you want to reach and begin arranging your price structure from here. Take note: Unless you are in similar circles and arena’s as your potential clients, you may find it difficult to keep to a higher price bracket.

Evaluate your investment:
How much time to you put into a shoot or a wedding? Evaluate hours of prep, driving, shooting, editing, development, service, quality, and interaction. When you have an idea of your hours of investment per shoot, divide your price by this number. How much are you really making by the hour? What is your return on investment?
Sometimes it is worth more to be working at the local Mugg & Bean…

Determine your expenses:
Every photographer has expenses above and beyond the time spent on a shoot. This is where many photographers fall short of “making it” in the business as they have not identified the additional expenses of running a photography business.

Here are a few items that should be on your list.
Part 1:

Equipment costs.
Software costs.
Presentation, printing, postage and packaging.
Insurance.
Rent.
Telephone + internet.
Marketing (Website, hosting, mailers, adwords, SEO, etc)

Part 2:
Total your hourly rate, and your expenses. This is the number you need to shoot for when pricing your work. After you have totaled this number, divide it by how many jobs you would like per year. This final number is what you ought to charge for your sessions and shoots. Of course, you may need to adjust your pricing more or less, or increase the number of jobs you aim for. At this rate, you will be able to target the pricing of your work to maximize your overall profitability.

Here’s a little formula you might want to try out

Shoot Fee
(axb) + (c/d) – e + f = Shoot Fee

a = Time spent with each client – shooting, editing, travel, viewing etc., etc.
b = Desired hourly rate.
c = All annual costs including equipment, rent, travel, advertising.
d = Number of job per year.
e = Average profit for sale of products.
f = Additional costs specific to job – hotel, additional travel etc

Whew, why can’t we just take cool pictures :-)

Looking for inspiration, have you seen Pinterest?

Quintin — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 20:28:39 +0000

Besides the fact that Social networking has exploded onto the scene over the last few years and many photographers use sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ to showcase their work, network with others and to promote their businesses, Pinterest is just an amazing collection of images.

Pinterest is a site that has been growing a lot lately and which an increasing number of photographers are using, particularly as inspiration for their own photography.

Pinterest is an invite only community and is quite different to most of the other social networks out there.

Pinterest is a ‘virtual pinboard’ – a place where you can ‘pin’ websites’ pictures around different categories that you are interested in. The things you pin on your board come up as images from the sites you pin – and you end up with a pinboard filled with images.

There are a variety of uses for it – one friend that I have uses it as a way to collect all of the different ideas she has for decorating her home. In a sense its her personal scrapbook of ideas that she draws on around her interest. For others Pinterest is more about networking and sharing and finding cool sites in their different niches of interest.

When it started Pinterest definitely seemed to be targeting ‘creative types’ of people – and was very popular particularly with women – but lately I’ve noticed more guys on their too as its user base broadens.

A growing number of photographers are using it in a variety of ways too.

Inspiration – also in the Photography category there are a lot of images that are purely being pinned because they’re cool images. A quick glance through them and you’re bound to find a little inspiration for your own photography. If you have a photoshoot coming up and you’re looking for a little inspiration on how to tackle it – create a board just for that project and begin to pin photos and sites that fit the brief.
Mood Board – a lot of photographers (and other creative types) that I know keep ‘mood boards’ in their studios, offices and homes. These ‘mood boards’ are about having a little collection of things that inspire them for current projects that they’re working on. In many ways that’s what many people are using Pinterest for.
And for me… – I just love the amazing reference of cool stuff all in one place. Imagine all the best photography, architecture and stuff in the world is right at your fingertips. Welcome to your happy place :-). If you do sign up for Pinterest you can find me here.

Are you on Pinterest? If so – how are you using it, let us know by commenting below?

What would you like to learn?

Quintin — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 07:39:49 +0000

Seeing as this is a democratic society, i thought it would be a good idea to find out what you would like to learn more about when it comes to your photography.
If there is enough interest, it may end of getting added to the workshop list and one of the people who submitted the idea will win a spot in the workshop.

Please add your photography workshop ideas as comment.

Rock the photo!

Watermarking your images

Quintin — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 06:21:22 +0000

I love it when clients share my images with their friends on Facebook, it means they are happy with them. But what most of them would not know, is that once they do that, they give Facebook the following permission (And I quote from the Facebook terms and conditions):

“Subject to your privacy and application settings: you grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook (IP License). This IP License ends when you delete your IP content or your account unless your content has been shared with others, and they have not deleted it.”.

Now imagine you upload your amazing images that you are so proud of only to find them used in a campaign for Facebook or anyone they sell them to. Be that online, print etc. By virtue of the fact that you have uploaded them, Facebook may use them as they see fit.

Let me translate:

Non-exclusive (this one is kind of them, they will let other people also use them)
Transferable (They can sell / let a 3rd party have them)
Sub-licensable (kinda the same as the above)
Royalty-free (without paying you a cent)
Worldwide license (They can use these images anywhere in the world not just where you live)
The above ends when you delete your content on Facebook or your account (so you need to delete all your content or close your account)
…unless your content has been shared with others, and they have not deleted it. (and you need to get all your friends to do the same)

And that is just Facebook – unscrupulous wedding vendors such as florists, décor companies and wedding planners will also be able to copy those images and use them to promote their businesses.
And yes, I know that the interweb is primarily a low-res environment, but Facebook will upload the high res images if you upload them as high res images.

So where to from here?
There is a simple solution if you do not want others to use your photographs without payment or permission.
I provide all my clients both private and corporate with 2 sets of images. A low res “Facebook / Social Media” set with a watermark and a high resolution set without a watermark. If it has a watermark, it is harder for them to use the image and it is also a low-res image.

So remember to ask your photographer to provide you a low-res “Facebook / Social Media” set of images specifically for facebook.

As an exercise i did a quick search for wedding photography images – as you can see, there are quite a few without watermarks.

The following images were found when searching “wedding photography” on Google images. They are not mine! (for transparency and corporate governance i thought i would add that.)

How can I get into doing wedding photography as a career?

Quintin — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 14:05:45 +0000

One question I often get asked is “How can I get into doing wedding photography as a career?”. I think before even asking that question you need to really sit down and ask yourself “why do I want to do weddings”.

I think there can be hundreds of answers to that question, but there is no right answer. But I do think its a great exercise and gives your new business something a starting point. Creating a mission statement for your business can be a great way to get your vision down on paper and give your vision a purpose.

After you know the answer (that is right for you) the direction needed to make a career out of wedding photography is much clearer, be that creative photography, journalistic, traditional coverage, you can take steps to get training in that area.

So for anyone out there that really wants to get started in weddings, take some time to summarise in one sentence what the mission of your company is going to be. Get something down, put it up on your desk and have this guide you in how you are going to get started.