Visual Storytelling

Photo Tips For Camp Photographers

2012-05-26T19:18:00.001-04:00

When you drive into the WinShape Camp at Berry College in Rome, GA you will be greeted by lots of deer. I understand the ratio of deers to students is 8:1.

Friday I spent the day with WinShape summer camp photographers training them to get better photographs.

Here are some camera settings that we all made on the cameras.

Auto ISO on a Nikon

Quality of Image. We chose to set the camera to the largest JPEG file at the highest quality setting. (The camp did not provide the software for all the computers to use RAW)
Auto ISO. We all then set out cameras to Auto ISO and set our lowest ISO on the camera default preferences of either 50 to 200 ISO. We then set the highest ISO on what the camera is realistically capable of shooting. For most of the cameras this was between ISO 1600 and 6400. Both Canon and Nikon allow you to also set your highest shutter speed. We set this according to the situation.
Shutter speeds (Using auto ISO) The camera will raise the ISO to get the optimum shutter speed and will drop the shutter speed once it hits the maximum ISO.

If shooting under fluorescent or sodium vapor lights we recommended that shoot at 1/100 shutter speed, unless they had to shoot sports.
For shooting sports we recommended setting 1/2000 shutter speed
For general shooting we recommended 1/250 shutter speed

White Balance

We recommended getting a custom White Balance as the primary choice
Our second choice was to use a preset like Fluorescent, Daylight or tungsten for example
When we were changing lighting that affects white balance often we recommended using Auto White Balance

Aperture

For general shooting we recommended to not shoot wide open but use f/4 or f/5.6 so that you subject is in focus
When your subject can cooperate a little more with you then we recommended shooting wide apertures if you choose for artistic reasons. This is when f/1.4 is more appropriate. We have found the trend of too many shooters buying 50mm f/1.4 lenses and shooting all the time wide open and having very few in focus photos due to the shallow depth-of-field.

Inside Flash or when dark. Use a higher ISO to help open up the background. Here is an earlier blog post on how using the higher ISO helps open the background up.
Flash outside in daylight. When it is the middle of the day and the sun is straight up you are most likely to get dark circles around the eyes. I call this the raccoon eye look. If you are less than 10 feet away from the subject you can use either your built in flash or hot shoe flash to fill in those shadows. In addition to filling in the shadows you will get a nice catch light in the eyes. You can also use the flash when you back light a subject. (I wrote about this in earlier blog post here) This helps them from looking directly into the sun and squinting. Since the shadow side of the face is now towards the camera a flash can help balance the light.

Camp staff photographers are discussing ideas that they will be doing with the campers in a couple weeks.

Some of the camp photographers are photography students or recent graduates of photography programs, but not all the photographers were photography majors. Due to the range of talent we showed them settings that would help them get more photos in focus that are properly exposed and with good skin tones.

The staff of one of the boys camps shows their camp cheer that they will be teaching the campers.

After practicing with these settings we then covered the three stages of composition. I will refer you to my earlier blog on this topic about what we covered.

The last thing we did during our time was go out and practice shooting looking for photos that tell a story. Then we reviewed everyone's best 5 photos for our last hour together.

Staff plays some games with each other after dinner.

If you would like me to come to your organization and do this workshop for you just give me a call. I am doing the workshop in a few weeks for the Boy Scout troop that meets at my church. We meet for class time and then meet four weeks later after they shoot a photo story.

The really cool thing about WinShape camps is the emphasis on relationships. As you can see the staff really enjoy each other and this spills over to the campers.

Tips for making video/audio interviews

2012-05-22T16:23:00.000-04:00

Over the past six years I have been doing multimedia packages for my clients. Some of these are still images with audio and others are video with some still images. The one thing that is constant in everyone is the interview.

I have taken many classes from other pros and read many books, but most of my tips here are from what I use now for most of my packages.

I want to break down the tips into two lists: technical and content.

This is a Nikon D4 with the Nikon stereo microphone

Technical tips

Rode Video Pro Mic that I use on my Nikon D4

Use a good microphone and recording device. With today's iPhones and other smart phones you can use this as your recording device, but get a good microphone if you choose to use this. I prefer using a shotgun microphone on my camera/video and/or a lavalier microphone clipped onto the shirt of the subject.
Use headphones. You need to hear what is being recorded and the only way to do that is to put on headphones and hear what your microphone is picking up. This will also help you set the recording levels. This is when you will hear hums from electronics and air conditioning units to water falls. When you hear these things you can then see about moving or turning off electronics for the interview. This also will alert you to any short in the line of the microphone.
Pick a quite space. With your headphones on and testing your sound you need to listen and try and pick the quietest place unless you want the ambient sound of the background.
With video watch backgrounds. Look for a background that is simple or compliments the subject. Be sure it isn't distracting and taking away from the audio.
Back light with fill. I prefer when outside to back light the subject. This helps give them a rim light and then I use a fill light. The rim lighting separates them from the background and keeps their eyes from squinting. I use a fill light off to the side to help shape the face and fill in the shadows.
Set camera and have subject talk to you. I don't always do this, but it does relax the subject.

This is the LitePanel MicroPro that I use for a fill light or main light.

This is an example of a package I did for our church. I drove up to Chattanooga, TN in between other work jobs and shot this in couple hours and drove home. Posted it a little later that night.

Interview Techniques

Get to know your subject before interviewing them. This will not just help them be more relaxed but help you know how to interview them and perhaps help them relax.
Do the interview at the end of the coverage and not the beginning. I find it is easier to have someone sum up what we saw today than have them talk about a lot of stuff that by the end of the day I never caught on camera. This helps you from lacking in b-roll or images.
Ask the subject to summarize what you have seen that day. While you may not use all of this, it will help you with a starting place for the narrative.
Mirror them. Keep them going by nodding and smiling.
Ask your questions then be quiet. No noises to affirm them. Affirm with gestures. Your noises will distract from the sound quality.
Remind them what you have that they need not talk about. Often people will want to tell you everything not understanding you have visuals that will help the audience. You need them to tell the things that the visuals don't convey. While you have a visual that shows something happening, it often doesn't help the audience know why.
Keep them on topic. If you have two or more interviews in your package planned, then each person needs to know what they are covering. Sometimes I break it down as to let one person tell me why something happened and the other to explain what they did to make it happen.
Help them revise their comments. Often i need about 30 to 45 seconds of comments and a person may talk for more than 5 minutes. If I were to edit it later their will not be a good flow. I try and help them summarize what they just said or even edit. When I say edit--I mean cutting content.
Get variety. I like to often record a longer comment and then follow up with them making it really short. Sometimes I use the longer comment. Get another direction just in case. After doing this for a few minutes often this gets their minds engaged and they find a new way to articulate themselves. Allow for this to happen.

These are just a few tips of things I am doing today with my multimedia packages. I am now adding a second camera to add a variety of angles to interviews.

Before I get on a plane and travel to do a story, I have a good idea of what the story is before I take off. After I get there I listen and watch. Often the story changes and is modified. I go where the story takes me, but I am ever mindful of two things: the audience and the subject. I am trying to connect them to each other. What can the audience learn from the subject? Why should they care?

I am constantly looking and listening for ways to tell the story in the shortest and most effective way possible. I hope these tips may help you.

Print Size Matters

2012-05-21T09:36:00.001-04:00

My cubical

I have a cubical at an office I do some consulting and they asked me to decorate my cubical so people know it is used and not empty. I had some prints at home that I brought in and realized after putting them up I started something.

You see the prints that are up in my office are 20" x 30" prints. As groups go on tours through the office I have noticed they are paying attention to my cubical. I am helping everyone know what I enjoy doing.

A consultant's cubical at the same office

Now as I walk by other people's cubicles I realize you must actually go into their cubical to see their photos and know who is in them.

The reason you want to put up photos is not just for yourself, you are helping people know something about you.

This is true also with your home. You don't want people to have to walk across the room to see your family portrait or another image that you took. They should be able to enjoy it from across the room.

What size print? Use the face size as a guide. Have the face size the same as a clock face. If it were on your wrist then maybe a 4" x 6" print is fine. Same photo on a wall may require a 40" x 60" print to have the same affect.

One of the best ways to determine the best size is to project the image on the wall. The general rule would be in a normal size living room 20' x 24' is a face size of at least 3" to 5".

If the person is part of a scene you may need a very large print. If however the photo is a head and shoulder portrait then a smaller print will work.

My friend now has larger prints up of water projects she did around the world. She is always raising money to help drill wells to help in places there is no fresh water. What a great way to use photos to keep her passion in front of her co-workers.

Besides using photos in your office at work to help people know your passions, use photos throughout your office to help communicate your companies passions.

This nonprofit uses large photos of the children's lives it touches.

With people coming and going throughout your offices each day are you using the wall space to help communicate your story? You should and give me a call and I will help you have photos that tell your story.

Tips for the PR Professional when a photojournalist is sent to cover you

2012-05-19T20:11:00.000-04:00

For more than thirty years I have been a photojournalist. I started working for newspapers as a staff photographer and now work as a freelancer for the media.

Many times the public relations office is not ready when I show up. Most PR professionals love to show how much free space they got for their company in a magazine. They show this to the company leaders and then show them how much it would have cost to buy that space. This helps with their job security.

The smartest PR people know the value and are prepared. They treat this moment as if they hired an advertising agency to produce an advertisement for them.

Here I am traveling really light. Photo by Chelle Leary

Take advantage of this free publicity and invest in it. You will be glad you did.

While a photojournalists is trained to be truthful and unbiased, it is difficult not to respond to negative or positive behavior towards them. If you want the best story on you, then I have some tips for you.

This is what sometimes I show up on a job with in addition to a photo assistant. Getting this gear from my van to the photo shoot can be difficult. Help out the photographer by a good parking space, knowledge of where the elevators are located and handicap ramps to avoid stairs.

Tips

Have your subject ready. Often your photojournalist has multiple assignments during a day. You not being ready and delaying them will have them rush your coverage. If computers and technology are part of the subject, be sure to have them running before the photographer arrives. Too many times I have arrived nothing is setup and ready to go. I have spent 4 hours waiting for a researcher to set everything up.
Know where the subject is located. Too often I will show up at a corporation and be led around a building or property while they are trying to find the room we are to meet the subject. Do this before the photographer arrives. It shows you value their time.
Scout for options. Go a few days early and work with the subject. What is the best setting to help tell the story? Are there items that you may need to collect before the photo shoot? Be careful not to remove everything. Photographers are sent to you to capture the subject in their environment.
Take a few photos yourself. Evaluate the photos you take for what is in the background and can we clean that up for example. Check to see if you have enough room to move around while taking photos. Too often the subject is in such a small room that photographer cannot move to get a good angle. See if you can take photos without a flash. This may alert you to some lights that are burned out and need new bulbs.
Plan for parking. Often magazine photographers will bring lighting gear. Don't expect just a photographer to show up with just a camera and on camera flash. If they are showing up with a cart of gear, know where the elevators are in the building and where the handicap entrance is located. This will help them avoid carrying material up and down stairs. If you need a key to access the elevator, get the key before the photo shoot is to start.
Pay attention to clothing. Solid colors are better than patterns. Avoid white due to the difficulty of reproduction process for printing press. The one time you may want white is where the white lab coat helps add information to the photo. Avoid red if there is more than one subject. Red is such a dominate color that it makes the eye go to it first. This is why it is used for emergency lights and signs. Fine patterns like haring bone can create moiré patterns. (Here is a link to an earlier blog I did on clothing for portraits.)
Have business cards or printed names and titles of the subjects to help with accurate spelling.
Plan adequate time for the photojournalist. Let the photographer know how much time the subject has for them. Maximize their time if it is very small amount by saying the subject only has 30 minutes and since it is a limited time, why don't we just let you start and anything I can help you with just ask. This is better than you talking and taking away valuable time of them shooting. You can always help them with information after the shoot or if you know you have limited time be sure they know they can come a few minutes early and you can help them prepare.

These are just a few of the things that I have noticed over the years that would really help me get the shot needed for the media outlet.

Think of yourself as a host or hostess in your home entertaining guests. Make the photojournalist feel welcomed and treated as your guest, because they are your guest.

No Surprise: Sports Photography is a Deteriorating Market

2012-05-15T16:25:00.003-04:00

On SportShooter.com one of the hot topics these past few years has been USPresswire. While many are upset with them, to me they are just like Getty or Walmart. The business model is working for them, but taking out a lot of professional sports photographers in their wake.

Much of this blog is based on my reading of the book Beating the Commodity Trap: How to Maximize Your Competitive Position and Increase Your Pricing Powerby Richard Anthony D'Aveni. Read it for a more comprehensive understanding of avoiding being a commodity than I am giving here.

D'Aveni says, "The arrival of a dominant low-end player shakes up the market power of the industry, as Southwest did in the airline industry, Dell once did in computers, or Walmart is still doing in retailing. It is very hard for incumbents to compete with these disruptive players using their existing cost structures."

These are the signs of a Deteriorating Market for D'Aveni

A dominant low-cost competitor has emerged in your market, disrupting the status quo.
The economies of scale enjoyed by the disrupting company make it impossible for you to compete on price.
Customers are less and less willing to pay for additional benefits such as superior service and industry expertise.
Your margins are falling and you are losing market share, even though you have lowered prices and product benefits to catch up with the competition.

We have to concede the low-end price market and step aside. Photographer John Harrington talks about a client of his chose another photographer for something he did annually for them and were disappointed. The following year when they came back to John he realized he had a niche´. John not only got the job but he raised his price knowing they didn't want to get burned again.

I don't think there is a quick fix to the deterioration of prices being paid for coverage of sporting events.

I do think where there are no spec shooters and low ball photographers shooting events are places for profit to be found.

If we are not careful we will become like moths drawn to a flame. We need to remember the saying "Don't fall in love with the car." It will make it difficult for you to make a sound business decision.

If you have fallen in love with standing on the sidelines of sporting events with your camera, you are prone to helping deteriorate the industry even more. Once more you will deteriorate your own bank account to support your habit.

If what you offer (photography) is similar to a large group of photographers then you are just a commodity and the low price will always get the job. Basically, you can't tell the difference between one company's product and another's. When something is viewed as a commodity, it generally means that the only difference is the price tag.

If you cannot distinguish yourself from other photographers in a way that customers desire, you will have a very hard time making a living. Sometimes you may have to leave a certain niche´ due to saturation.

Most organizations need a stock photography library

2012-05-14T10:55:00.000-04:00

This photo can be used in many ways for this college. It can be used to show some of the facilities, the idea of small campus (not many people in the photos) and other ways.

One of the best things any organization can do is to create a stock photo library. These are photos people can use for a variety of uses.

If your organization has certain main themes or initiatives, then you need images to help illustrate the concept. "Seeing is believing," is the old saying we all know to be true.

Your company maybe in the service industry where you want to emphasize good eye contact with the customers. You would benefit from having not just a few but a variety of photos to use for your website, PowerPoint presentations, training manuals and even use these to drop into videos.

This college wants to emphasize they have trees and lakes at their campus. Even tho they are only minutes from downtown Atlanta, this campus offers a piece of nature and relaxation to its students.

Plan your photo stock shoots

Take some time to plan those photo stock shoots and you will be amazed at how much of a resource this will become for the organization.

Start by making a list of your major initiatives. Maybe your company talks about a certain value added concept you do that distinguishes you from your competition.

Create a list of things your clients are looking for that you address. High school students looking for colleges look for a few things. See which of these might apply to your organization.

This helps to communicate faculty to teacher ratio. It also shows they have the arts at this school and it shows off the facility.

Things schools typically show

Teacher student ratio. Most schools will try and have lots of photos of their faculty teaching one-on-one or in small seminar settings.
Diversity. Most schools not only want to show what they are, many will shoot stock photos to recruit for what they want to become.
Technology. Schools want to show their state of art labs and classrooms. This communicates to a High School student they have an opportunity to work with different technology.
Living Spaces. Students want to know where they will live and play. This is where you show dorm rooms, coffee shops, fitness centers and more to help entice students to your campus.
Community. While many schools do not show the community they are apart of, most of the schools who want to show all available to a student would want to show things from skyline shots, professional sports teams near by, the arts and anything that helps recruit their ideal student.
Extra curricular activities. Students want to know about flying clubs, sporting clubs or anything else that can compliment their time in the classroom.

This living space in a women's dorm is a little surprising to some folks. Looks very much like a home atmosphere.

Getting ready for the shoot

Recruit more models than you think you will need. The best reason to have more models than you need is many will have last minute reasons they cannot make it. another good reason is some models you picked just may not look all that good in photos. Rather than taking a lot of photos of students you will not use, switch people around. You not only get photos you can use, but more photos you can use.
Ask models to bring a change of clothes. Two or more outfits can really help you when someone is wearing something inappropriate or that is so busy or loud that it draws to much attention in the photo. You may want to have some solid colored polo shirts to offer as well.
Ask models to wear solids. Also, avoid red and solid white. The red draws your eye to much and the white can sometimes be difficult for printing later.
Plan locations and time to transition from one location to another. It would be easier to use the same classroom and switch out teachers and students than to move from building to building. Unless their are some very specific features in a classroom you are showing off, showing a class is about showing the diversity of your students, the engaging faculty and them enjoying themselves. Plan enough time for a photographer to pack up, move and then reset things like lights, tripods and light stands.
Give time for the situation to work. Give enough time that once the photographer starts to shoot for people to get into it. This means the photographer can shoot a while look at the images and suggest some changes (like switching out people) to get you usable images.

School showing their TV studio facilities.

Your Stock Images are Old

Be very careful to plan stock shoots annually or every other year. Hair styles and clothing styles will quickly date your photos. If your audience is pretty much the same you will need to update more often. Years ago colleges updated their materials every other year. They were mainly shooting for recruiting materials.

With today's internet, you need to have even a larger stock file that is replenished more often. One organization I work with puts a new photo on their home web page every day. By them rotating this every day the number of people going to the website has gone up. They are creating excitement by having people wanting to see what is new.

One photographer is having about 175,000 hits a day on his blog and the draw is a photo a day. Check out Trey Ratcliff's site Stuck in Customs. This is a good reason to have more stock images to help drive people to you.

Product shots

Don't forget to have fresh images of your products as well. You will help create a mood and ambiance of your product line with images.

Use as graphic elements

When it comes to photos, they can be used as much for their graphics as for their content.

Some of your products can just look cool. Be sure and get detail shots into your library.

Close-up images can really add impact to a presentation. You can use them as a background as well.

Keep it Current

One of the best resources for your organization is a good photo library that is kept up to date.

These photo shoots will become your way of having visual images to compliment the initiatives and messaging you need to be doing daily for your organization. Call me if you need help. I can not only help in shooting but help you create an on-line database for storage and searching.

Nikon D4: Tethering & 11 FPS Tips

2012-05-13T12:07:00.000-04:00

Nikon D4 with 85mm f/1.4

Photoshop is complex

Photoshop got its start with a father and his two sons Glenn, John and Thomas Knoll back in 1988. Not even the Knolls know all you can do with Photoshop.

It is quite common to go to some of the Adobe Photoshop users conventions and have a speaker show you how they got a result and on the same stage are the developers saying this is knew to them.

Nikon Cameras are complex

About two years ago when the Nikon D3S was just introduced, I was at a basketball game shooting with my new Nikon D3S. Next to me was Bob Rosato, who was a staff photographer for Sports Illustrated, getting a phone call just before the game started.

I could hear Bob saying he didn't know the answer to the caller. After hanging up, Bob looked at me and said that was Nikon calling asking him what settings he was using for sports.

This has been the case for many years with these new cameras that have complex computers in them. You have so many focusing modes to choose from. You can shoot is S, CL, or CH modes for how many frames the camera will fire when you push the shutter. Then you have which focusing modes you can choose from. Single, 9 group, 21 group, 51 group, Auto and then each of these in combination with the shutter mode gives you different results.

On top of those setting you have back focus settings for tracking your focus.

Who wants to be a millionaire?

Once you buy one of these cameras you will be heavily invested in learning all you can do the type of photography you do. This is important to point out that the cameras will do more than most any pro would ever use them to do. However, you must master it for your niche´.

Very quickly you will want to use a life line like they do on the TV hit show "Who wants to be a millionaire?" Sooner or later most pros will phone a friend to help them out. Even after reading the huge camera manual you will find yourself overlooking a detail.

So this week I get a call from my friend Paul Abell, a sports photographer, who shoots most of the pro teams and college teams in every sport. "Hey Stan, are you having trouble with your Nikon D4 follow focusing?" was the question from Paul.

Paul figured he had some setting in the camera not set correctly, because he knew Nikon would not introduce a camera with focusing issues after Canon had done so just recently.

I had not experienced the issue and told him I would look into it. Next day, I get another phone call from Paul. He had figured out the problem and wanted to tell me.

The answer is on page 112 of the camera manual.

Nikon D4 Camera manual page 112

My camera came from Nikon set on 10fps, but Paul's came with it set on 11fps. Once he switched to 10fps he was getting great results.

Camera manual stays with the camera

Most pros keep their new camera manual with their camera these days because of the situation Paul ran into. I don't know anyone who has memorized those huge manuals. My Toyota Sienna, which costs a lot more than my camera has a manual about half the size of the Nikon D4.

Until you have mastered all you need on the camera, keep your manual in the camera bag with you.

Tethering with Nikon D4

I have been tethering my camera to the laptop for studio shoots for many years. One of the main reasons l like to do this is with headshots. I may go to a company and do over 100 headshots in a day. The department hiring me wants to match each headshot up to a name.

I use the Nikon Camera Control Pro 2 when I tether. It lets me put into the IPTC fields the name of each person before I shoot and then every time I shoot a photo the name of the person is embedded into each photo. I put in the name of each person before I shoot.

When I got my D4 I continued to do the same thing. However, now I had to change something. Earlier I wrote how with the Nikon D4 you can now embed this IPTC in the camera. (Earlier Blog)

I have enjoyed doing this, but now when I tether I must turn this off or the IPTC I use in Nikon Capture Control Pro 2 will not embed.

Nikon does a great job of telling the camera owner about what can and cannot be done, but for those of us who have trouble learning by reading, you need to practice.

Practice before you perform

It is very important to sit with your camera manual and read everything that you need to do what you shoot. Then practice shooting situations that are exactly like you will do for a job.

Paul was practicing in the backyard with his kids running at him to check the follow focus on his Nikon D4. He was having trouble. He sat down with his manual and then walked through all the settings and this is when he say parenthesis around his problem.

I hope by me sharing here about what I and other pros are learning about their Nikon D4 cameras will help you get the most out of your camera. Read your camera manual and then practice shooting changing the settings to see how you can get the most out of your camera in any given situation.

Shooting under fluorescent requires you to slow down

2012-05-11T10:59:00.000-04:00

Shooting under fluorescent lights can give you very unpredictable results if you do not slow down.

Fluorescent lamps using a magnetic mains frequency ballast do not give out a steady light; instead, they flicker at twice the supply frequency. This results in fluctuations not only with light output but color temperature as well, which may pose problems for photography and people who are sensitive to the flicker.

When the fluorescent light is at the end of its life it can flicker more and for those with photosensitive epilepsy it can trigger a seizure.

Today there are a range of types of fluorescent lights. You may have gone into a HomeDepot or Lowe's and noticed displays showing you different color temperature fluorescent lights.

Color Temperature

Typical incandescent lighting is 2700 K, which is yellowish-white. Halogen lighting is 3000 K.

Fluorescent lamps are manufactured to a chosen color by altering the mixture of phosphors inside the tube. Warm-white fluorescents have color spectrum of 2700 K and are popular for residential lighting. Neutral-white fluorescents have a color spectrum of 3000 K or 3500 K. Cool-white fluorescents have a color spectrum of 4100 K and are popular for office lighting. Daylight fluorescents have a color spectrum of 5000 K to 6500 K, which is bluish-white.

On my Nikon D4 in the menu for White Balance you can choose up to seven different presets for fluorescent. There is a major problem I have found trying this method, it isn't easy to pick the right color, because the monitor on the back of the camera isn't that easy to see color in all situations.

Flicker problem

Incandescent lights burn constantly and therefore your color temperature is pretty consistent no matter your shutter speed. However, since fluorescent tubes are actually acting light a flash and flickering you will get an affect different than with flash where above your sync speed part of the frame is dark.

Look at these two different photos and see the color difference.

Everything is set the same (Nikon D4, ISO 12,800, f/5.6, 1/500) in each photo, but you can see the difference in color is due to the flickering of the fluorescent.

Now besides a color shift on the whole picture you may end up with a band across the photo. Personally this is more annoying since it isn't as easy to fix in post production. Have this happen a few times and you are screaming at that computer and camera.

Slow Down

You can get very consistent color under fluorescent if you shoot at 1/100 or slower shutter speed.

Anytime you are under Fluorescent, Sodium-Vapor, or High Temp Mercury-Vapor be sure you shoot slower than 1/100. You may need to shoot at 1/60 with some of the older model lights.

Why Strobes Are Used

There are times when shooting at 1/100th of a second isn't going to cut it. A great example of this is shooting sports inside under those Sodium-Vapor lights in most arenas. This is why many pro photographers are using strobes for shooting sports. They need a consistent color without streaks or bands of color shift in the photograph.

If it were not for this problem of flickering with these types of lights it would be a lot more practical with today's high ISO cameras to not use strobes.

Custom White Balance

The best solution I have found shooting under these lights that flicker like fluorescent is to do a custom white balance.

My favorite way for getting a custom white balance is using my ExpoDisc.

ExposDisc goes in front of the lens and then you use it to get an incident reading rather than a reflective reading of the light.

Notice the direction of the light hitting the subject. You move to the same position to get the light reading below.

Point the camera toward the direction of the light that is falling on the subject.

I have found if the subject is facing me and the light is from the side, I face the camera with the ExpoDisc on it so it is pointing towards the camera position. The chart above is to help you understand the concept, but you can modify it.

Now if you are shooting in an arena with Sodium-Vapor lights. Do a custom white balance. However, be sure you do the custom setting at a shutter speed lower than 1/100. You can then raise your shutter speed to higher than that for shooting, but this will give you more consistent color over your images. Even doing this will still cause you problems on about 5 - 10% of the images.

Now you know to slow down your shutter speed when shooting under this light source.

10 Year Anniversary: Lessons Learned

2012-05-08T11:24:00.000-04:00

In May 2002 these were in my camera bag. I had two Nikon F100 cameras and was shooting mostly with Provia 100F transparency film.

It has been ten years since I went full-time freelance. It is time to celebrate.

As I look back over these ten years I have made some really great decisions and not so great decisions.

Good Decisions Made

Digital Capture

Going digital from film was the best decision I could have made. The timing couldn't have been better for me.

In 2001 the Nikon Digital Camera at the time cost about $15,000. In 2002 Nikon introduced the Nikon D100 in the $1,500 price range. The timing was perfect to jump into digital. The cameras were rivaling the film of the day.

Back in 1993 I was using PhotoShop and scanning my images from film. This was very time consuming, but this helped me make the switch to digital capture enjoyable.

Even earlier in 1987 I bought my first computer and was active on CompuServe. I was enjoying bulletin boards before the World Wide Web which would take off in 1995 with Mosaic being introduced.

Laptop

As you can see I had already been using computers and digital imaging for many years before I went freelance full-time.

November 10, 2002 in Mossy Grove in eastern Tennessee a tornado hit. I was called and asked to go and cover it the next day. On November 11, 2002 I bought my first laptop computer.

While I new how to download images and transmit them, covering that Tornado was the first time I was transmitting photos from the field.

Cell phone as modem

In August 2004 I was asked to cover hurricane Charley. I would shoot images in the earlier morning at a location, jump in my car and edit those images. I then would transmit using my cell phone that was tethered to my laptop to transmit images. Since the computer just needed to run for a while, I would drive while it was in the passenger seat transmitting.

The client and newspapers all over the country were shocked that I was getting images out when telephone lines were down and power was out. I was building my reputation as the guy who was able to use technology before my competition.

Today I shoot with the Nikon D4.

Continuous Upgrades

I have gone through a number of cameras since 2002. I shot the Nikon D100, Nikon D2x, Nikon D2Xs, Nikon D3, Nikon D3S and today I am shooting with a Nikon D4. I did these upgrades to keep me giving my clients the best possible images I could produce technically.

I have upgraded software programs like PhotoShop, PhotoMechanic, Lightroom, Microsoft Office and more regularly. Each time the improvements and performance more than paid off over time.

Switch from PC to Mac

For many years I was a PC guy. However, during these years I also helped many people with their Macs. From 1993 to 2002 I had Macs to work with and due to this knowledge I was helping organizations on the side as their IT guy.

Two years ago I had another PC laptop give me a lot of trouble. I had learned I was loosing a lot of time trying to fix this, so I bought a new PC laptop with Windows 7 and it ran on i7 processor. It was fast. Less than a few months later the laptop screen went blue.

While I had everything backed up, I could not get that new laptop to work completely after reformatting the drive and starting over. I lost two to three weeks of long days trying to make it work.

Dorie, my wife, gave me the best advice--go buy a Macbook Pro. She had a Mac and knew I was spending more and more time fixing my computer and she rarely had to do anything with her computer.

It was the best decision I had made as far as computers. I knew I could buy a faster PC for about half the cost of a Mac and this is what kept me buying PCs. I was saving money.

Dorie pointed out to me my time was money. Lesson learned about how important my time was to our family and me.

My cell phone today. Motorola Razr Maxx. It lets me connect wireless to the web over 4G network in most places and lets me see my emails instantaneously.

Smart Phone

While on photo shoots in those first few years as a freelancer I would stop and take a break and check my email. It would take about 3 to 5 minutes to start-up my laptop to check those emails.

I was starting to also see a shift in the expectancy of customers for you to respond to the emails being timelier.

The cost of a smart phone like the PC verses Mac was expensive. The monthly financial commitment to the higher cost kept me from getting one for a long time.

Once again Dorie pointed out to me how important it was to get one for me. "It is a business decision," she told me. It will help you make more money if you can respond quicker to job possibilities.

She was right--as always.

Today I use the Motorola Razr Maxx because it is the fastest phone on the market with the longest battery life. I charge it at night and when I plug it in at the end of the day it usually still has 60 - 70% of a charge left. I am now able to connect my computer and iPad to the web using it's 4G hotspot. I am able to connect in many places at a faster speed than my cable connection at home.

Spouse

The best decision I have ever made was marrying Dorie. Having a spouse who supports you as a freelance photographer is very important. Her father ran his own business and I think she learned a lot just growing up in a home of an entrepreneur.

While I lost many nights of sleep worrying about how we will pay our bills, Dorie never doubted my abilities. She never told me to look for another job.

I have watched many of my friends whose largest obstacle for success is their spouse. Having a supportive partner can get you through just about anything.

Dorie is taken so if you don't have a spouse, be sure you find someone who believes in you and can walk by faith. I believe God helped me find such a wonderful wife and mother to our children.

Bad decisions made

Lack of Faith

My number one mistake that I continue to make is thinking that I am in control of my destiny. No question if I don't get up and work hard I will not succeed, but just because I do that does not guarantee success.

I really think it is my faith in God that has sustained me the most. I believe there is a God in control on the universe. I do not think we are all puppets either, but I do believe he works in peoples hearts and minds and due to this it is God who has helped me more than anything at all. My mistake is not acknowledging this daily.

Saving Pennies while Loosing Dollars

I grew up with a Irish and Scotch heritage. My parents watched every penny and I learned the value of a dollar from them.

My mistake has been that driving around town to find the cheapest gas can actually cost you more than you save.

While I don't have time to research expenditures made, I try to do my best to get the best value. My mistake has not to value my time as money. I believe outsourcing some of the things I do to those who can do it better or at least remove this from my plate is something I will be trying to do more in the future.

Staying with PCs too long

I most likely have lost months of my life working on my PCs trying to fix the registry and defragging my hard drives. You see every program on a PC interacts with all the other programs through the registry. I was using so many different programs and they ended up over time screwing up the computer.

My programs on my Mac do not interact through a registry like on the PC. They really don't affect each other and therefore over time I am not having the same corruption problems I was having on my PC.

Slow to my competition as my colleagues

Today I try to get together with other photographers as often as I can. I not only like to hear what they are doing, I am willing to share a good amount of what I am doing. Of course if I have something that gives me a competitive advantage I am careful sharing this.

Today some of my photographer colleagues are some of my clients. They get too busy and call me to help them out. I too return the favor.

Today I enjoy working with more people I call my friends than any other point in my life. How did this happen? I am now focusing on building relationships and this is how my business has grown. Prior to learning this secret I was trying to build me up.

Thanks for reading and being apart of my celebrating ten years.

Photo Tips on Covering Meetings

2012-05-07T13:28:00.000-04:00

While this photo shows everyone in a room at a meeting and even an interesting angle, you need photos showing people being engaged. This is a photo that is important to have. You need photos helping to show the size of the meeting and location. This helps establish how important this meeting is to the company.

If you were to calculate the cost of meetings it would shock most of us. Just how effective and important are these to your organization?

Meetings are important and help in business or they wouldn't be done. However, if you are the one putting one on you quickly discover how important it is to get all you can out of the investment.

Photography is one of the best ways to help stretch your budget.

Training a sales force on how to use the iPad with their companies resources. This photo is helping show what was presented and who was presenting. Also, it is important that you capture a moment where you can see the presenter is enthusiastic about the material. Just a shot with the elements will not inspire people. This is a medium shot which is needed to help bring the reader into the content. If you have an iPad or iPhone you will quickly recognize iBooks. You might want to know why is this being taught at a meeting. This will inspire you to read more of the text.

Improve Retention of Content

You can have a photographer cover your event and then use the photos to help put the content online for the rest of your company. It also helps those who attended review what was covered and improve retention of the material.

This is a good example of what a photojournalist can capture for you during a meeting. They will help capture moments showing people are interested and engaged in the material. Here the two sales people are helping each other learn how to use the iPad. This photo also celebrates your employees. When your workforce sees that others are interested this helps using peer pressure to get them on board. If you let the photographer know which folks you would like to try and get photos of doing this, then they can try and capture it. As you know some people showing interest will have more impact than another.

This is a photo that not only shows audience participation, but the face expressions shows genuine interest in the topic. You see interaction from all in the photo. A person talking, people listening and even getting two people to turn towards the person to hear better.

Celebrate your people

When a photographer is pointing a camera towards your people in a meeting, they know this is important or the company wouldn't have a photographer their. This is like the red carpet treatment for your employees.

People will sit up and pay more attention when they are on camera. They also get excited when they later see these photos in publications or online. This recognition can help them feel good about themselves and the company.

A good photographer is going to be aware of capturing these moments where people are engaged.

Having people look at the camera and smile is not the same as catching them in a real situation. This authentic moment will help communicate a message as well as authentically show them participating.

Having activities for the participants will help them retain information better than a pure lecture. These also translate into wonderful photo opportunities. Here the photographer is trying to capture the activity engaging the people.

Photographers will give you good detail shots as well as the personal interaction. This photo with the one above it will help talk about not just an activity, but what they company is now emphasizing. The detail shot in combination with the other photo now helps tell a more complete story. It is a faster read than had you written text about it. Also, the text would have a difficult time explaining how interested the participants are in the content.

Its about relationships

Your photos will help do something that cannot be done with text as effectively. It helps show the relationships.

Before the meeting is even officially started, you can see relationships that communicate the family atmosphere for your company.

While you think the photos are just to communicate what happened at a meeting, this type of photograph is something a recruiter could use to show how much people like working with the company. I can see this and the photo above communicating how the company is a place where relationships are encouraged and to create a family atmosphere.

Too often companies focus on the wrong type of photos. Sure you may want photos of people receiving awards, but other than the person getting the award who else would really want the photo.

This is a typical awards photo that happens quickly on stage. These are good photos to make prints and give to the person receiving the award.

Too many companies use only these award photos in their publications after a meeting. Do you think having 30+ of these award photos really is the best use of photography or do you think the other photos above can help you more? Why not make prints of all the award winners and give these to those in the photos?

You need both, but remember you can use photography to communicate and not just celebrate.

How to help your photographer

What is the purpose of the photography? You need to be able to give a clear direction on why you need the photos.
Who is the audience? A photographer needs to know the audience. Shooting for the media, your internal company people or to give photos to the award recipients makes a huge difference in approach.
What medium will it be used in? If all the photos are going to be part of a video later, then the photographer will probably shoot more horizontals than verticals. This is true also if it is primarily being used on the web.
Have someone assigned to the photographer. This is important for a new photographer working with you. They could benefit as to someone pointing out key people in a room. This person should not be a micro manager. Too much direction to a seasoned pro can actually stifle the creative process. They should help point out the key people that have been predetermined as important to the story. That is the CEO and this is the major donor can help the photographer then capture a moment where they may be interacting very naturally. This is almost always a better photo than when they CEO call them up and they have an official moment on stage. Having a photographer who you use regularly and understands you should be something you are willing to pay a little more for, because you will be saving costs on someone with them all the time.
When is your deadline? A photographer needs to know before the estimate is given when you expect the photos in your hand.
What is the deliverable? Will the photographer give you a DVD of high resolution, low resolution or a combination? Are you wanting these delivered as an online gallery where you can order prints and/or download high to low resolution photos?
What is the dress code? While most professionals will dress professionally, be sure they know this is a black tie event or if everyone is expected to wear jeans. Sometimes you may require them to wear all black since you are having video crews shooting and having them in all black when they are near the stage will look better.
Give them directions and time expectations. Be sure and provide parking close to the event. These photographers will be bringing tens of thousands of dollars of equipment. For their safety and security be sure they are not walking blocks back to their car after an event. Let them know when you expect them to be onsite. Do not assume they know you expect them an hour before the event starts onsite--tell them.
Give clear billing instructions. Be sure they know who is to get the invoice. If they need to provide a W-9 form to be paid, tell them to do so when they send the invoice. If there is a PO# required by accounts payable for them to be paid--get that to them right away.

Photographers should be capturing moments like this where the speakers are engaged on the topic and where the audience is also excited. Now the photographer cannot shoot what doesn't exist, but few employees would not want to look engaged when a photographer is present.

Good meeting photography will not be all smiles. Here you can see this guy is thinking and engaged. I think the reason for most meetings is to give people new material. Showing the employees digesting the material is showing them engaged.

Did you hire the right photographer?

If you did not provide the information to the photographer and they don't ask about those topics--it is a good clue you have a rookie or a clueless photographer.

When you get the photos you will also know if you got the right photographer. Do you see moments of people interacting with each other or only posed looking into the camera? If only posed--you hired the wrong photographer.

Hire a pro every once in a while, even if you shoot most meetings

Why would you hire a pro when you know how to take a photo? On the job training for one. I know many organizations that have so many meetings they cannot afford to hire a photographer all the time. Be careful not to never hire a photographer.

Try and hire a seasoned pro once in a while so you can learn from them. Your photography will improve when you see what they are doing.

Great Friends, Great Colleagues, Great Photographers

2012-05-05T14:35:00.001-04:00

Knolan Benfield in Hawaii with me helping teach posing to photography students with Youth With a Mission. (Photo by: Dennis Fahringer)

I don't do all I do alone. This is who I call my photo team. They help me as assistants or when a client calls and I cannot do the job. This is who I call regularly.

Photo Assistants

Today I use photo assistants as much as possible. The reason, the client gets a much better product whenever I do.

Now I have posted various things on lighting for example that for the most part I have an assistant helping me with setting up photos and moving lights. I often joke about assistants as VALS. That stands for Voice Activated Light Stand.

One of my favorite photo assistants to use is my uncle Knolan Benfield. He taught me so much about this industry and he has such a great personality that he makes me much better when he is along.

You can see some of Knolan's work on his website http://knolanbenfieldphotography.com/. Knolan is also a writer in addition to being a photographer and sometimes my photo assistant.

Laura Deas is another one of my photo assistants. I met Laura when she was a nanny while going to school for photography. I was most impressed with her people skills and work ethic. This was before I ever saw her abilities as a photographer.

Being a photo assistant requires a lot of lifting of heavy bags. You might think that it is a man's job, well I can tell you that Laura can out perform most any assistant I know.

One of the ways you first encounter her confidence is in her hand shake. It is amazing the confidence she exudes.

Laura shoots as well as a professional photographer. She does weddings, portraits, events and commercial. Here is her website http://www.lauradeasphotography.com.

More Photo Colleagues

Both Knolan Benfield and Laura Deas I call upon to do assignments when I cannot do them. It is quite common that a client will call me to do a job and due to another client already booking me I am not available.

I make it a priority to take care of my clients. I know most of the time better than they do who would be a good fit for a particular job. For the most part I go with someone who is near to them to help them out.

Robin Nelson is another photographer I like to call when I am unavailable. Robin and I have been both represented by Black Star agency in New York for more than 30 years. Whenever Ben Chapnick or before him Howard Chapnick needed someone in Atlanta one of us would get the call.

Robin has shot for all the major magazines you could think of and just about every other major media outlet. New York Times, Newsweek, Associated Press and the list could go on forever with Robin. He continues to get called back over and over for good reasons.

In my role as a consultant at Chick-fil-A for the past four years I have had to call freelancers to help us out. In corporate work how you handle yourself with people is far more important than the photos.

The first thing we want to know when we send a photographer somewhere is did everyone like them and would they like having them come again.

Second, we also need someone who can get the shot at the highest quality for the situation. This requires more people sensitivity. Sometimes using lights will be more distracting and cause undo attention. We need someone who can make it happen at the highest quality and looking for ways to always make it happen.

Here is a link to Robin's website: http://www.assignmentatlanta.com/

Gary Chapman is another person I like to hire when I am unavailable or maybe he is the best photographer for the job.

Gary never takes on a job that he will not deliver back to you at the highest level in the industry. He is often asked to speak at photographers conferences around the world because his ability to talk about why he chooses to work a certain way.

Many photographers can shoot, few can articulate and teach photography. Gary has a lot of patience with teaching photographers how to use very complex software like PhotoShop and Lightroom.

This attention to detail is why he has made a living in stock photography for most of his career. His stock photography is conceptual and helps visualize concept that are popular in what is trending. This requires photographers to know what is trending. The best in this industry like Gary are the ones who can anticipate the trends and have images ready for when clients are looking for something to help illustrate a point.

Gary's attention to detail shows not just in his photos but how he works with people. While many may think Gary is quite in conversations, he is actually thinking and wanting to join in. When he does it is like a flow of understanding people are so thrilled to hear. He cares not just about the topic, but how to discuss it with those he is in conversation with at that moment. He is sensitive to moments and cultures.

This sensitivity is why he is sought after by companies and nonprofits that work around the world. Gary's ability to capture moments is just as incredible as his ability to create them.

Gary is a humanitarian photographer, that uses photojournalism, documentary, portraits and even some of his stock style to help organizations tell their story effectively.

To see Gary's work go here http://garyschapman.com/

What do all these photographers have in common?

Why do I use these photographers when there are many others out there to choose from? There are many out there that even they would say are better photographers than them.

However, the thing they have going for them is the way they treat people. Each one has a good reputation as treating people with honor, dignity and respect.

Things not to do as a photographer

Rather than telling you all the good things these photographers continue to do, let me list a few things that some of what I thought my colleagues have done and I no longer call them.

Don't try and take a client away from a photographer, when you got the job because that photographer referred you to the client. You may always say to the client if the photographer is busy I am more than willing to help out.
Don't stick it to the client who is in a pinch and charge more than the photographer who recommended you.
Don't stick it to the photographer who recommended you and undercut their prices. Ask the photographer who is recommending you what they normally charge. Try to help them out.
Don't assume the next time this client called they checked with the other photographer. Try your best to tactfully as possible to see if they checked with the other photographer.

It is possible you are a better fit for the client than the other photographer. Call and tell the photographer that this client is calling you directly. You may want to turn down a job sometimes for the friendship that could come apart by taking the job.

My recommendation when a client calls like this is to be sure you are now more expensive than the other photographer. If you are less, then this is a good indication of you getting the job for undercutting and not because you are a better fit--you are just cheap.

Do you have friends that you can refer work to over and over?

The key to being sure you have someone to call when you need help is to be that dependable person to others as well.

Knolan, Laura, Robin and Gary are all still very successful photographers. I think the reasons they are successful is the same reasons I want to hire them.

If you have photographer friends and they never call you to help them out, ask them who they use in a pinch and why. There is no need to confront them on why they don't use you. It is valuable to see if they use anyone. Maybe they never call anyone because they are not that busy.

However, if they do use someone other than you, this might help you take some time for introspection to see what you can do to be more desirable.

So you wrote a great lead, but who's reading?

2012-05-02T10:59:00.000-04:00

This is how many writers are publishing their articles online--no photos. The photo on the right here is an advertisement and not part of the story.

Writing a good lead for a story frees you up to write the rest of the article. The lead announces and grabs the attention of the reader. It will help define the style of the writing to come.

If you are like many writers posting to the web you are examining the results of your articles. You are watching those page hits.

The Computer is a Clue

Here is a big clue as to why a lot of people are not reading your work. It is on the computer.

Macintosh was the first commercially successful personal computer to feature a mouse and a graphical user interface rather than a command-line interface. It was successful because most people prefer working with and looking at images rather than text.

A look at Church history with text

Let's go back even further to help make the point that people are not just naturally drawn to text. The first 300 years of the Catholic Church there was no Bible. In 1041 moveable clay type was invented in China.

It wasn't until 1440 when Johannes Gutenburg had his first workable printing press.

How did Christianity spread around the world those first 300 or even 1440 years with almost no text readily available to the masses? Not only was text limited, the masses were illiterate. There were no churches until 231 AD.

Early Christianity was primarily an urban faith, establishing itself in the city centers of the Roman Empire. Most of the people lived close together in crowded tenements. There were few secrets in such a setting. The faith spread as neighbors saw the believers' lives close-up on a daily basis.

It was during these times of no Bibles, when Christianity spread around the world.

Even Text Heavy Newspapers Changed

Today even the Wall Street Journal leads with photos on their website.

Pick your lead photo just like you pick your lead text

A good Associated Press Photo captures the story like a good lead does with text. It is telling the story with a picture that records a moment in time. It is the fleeting moment that in an instant sums up the story. The famous Magnum photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson called this the "Decisive Moment."

A good lead is more like a good question than a statement. The statement does not necessarily make you want to read the rest of the story. The lead may be a statement, but the statement of a good lead makes the reader ask a question. They want to know more.

Here is a page on Patch.com of my community Roswell, GA. of the six photos, which are acting like leads to a story one is an advertisement. Of the five remaining I defy you to have a clue as to what the story is about based on the images alone.

I am consistently seeing writers who are in charge of their websites totally clueless to how to use visuals. Like in the example above from Patch.com images are used only because they know they need images, but they have almost nothing to help you like a lead would to get you to want to read the story.

This is a closeup of one of those stories. The photo shows the back of a room that looks like a church with pews. I guess it could also be a court room, but this is what was picked as the lead to the story on the budget.

If I were to write what one sees when they are looking at a photo, would it be a successful lead? It should be if it is going to work.

Which photo would you use?

I shot these photos for a story on Mexican coffee farmers that formed a cooperative that is helping save their farms and community. Which would you use as a lead?

In my opinion any one of them could work. They all introduce the topic of coffee in some way, but they all make you want to ask a question about something in the photo.

Now here are some other photos I took on the trip that are nice photos that I often will see writers use to start a story. See if you agree.

They are all nice photos. Some are quite strong even.

Can you see why these do not even help you introduce coffee into the story? I even use these in my story, but they are not the lead photo. They do work in many ways to ask questions. You might want to know who the people are and why they are happy or what are they talking about.

You can take a look and see how I used them in the multimedia piece here:

Art for art's sake or storytelling?

So, are your photos good leads for the stories? Maybe this is a clue as to why the readership numbers on many of your stories is so low.

Remember, the biggest change for the computer was when Macintosh introduced a graphical interface that replaced using text as the main way to navigate on a computer.

Today people enjoy touching their screens of their iPads and iPhones to move around. They are clicking on what visually interests them.

When it comes to storytelling all the research shows that strong storytelling images will engage a reader far more effectively than text.

Now that you know how important a good visual lead is to a story, how much time and effort are you going to dedicate to creating them. Doesn't it demand even more attention that a good text lead? Your audience thinks so if you don't.

How much you can make as a photographer

2012-05-01T17:07:00.000-04:00

My stepson looked at his first paycheck and asked, “Who is FICA?” This was his first hard lesson about where the money goes - the cost of doing business.

A lot of the money we pay for a service doesn’t stay with the service provider.

According to Dun & Bradstreet, “Businesses with fewer than 20 employees have only a 37% chance of surviving four years (of business) and only a 9% chance of surviving 10 years.” Of these failed businesses, only 10% of them close involuntarily due to bankruptcy and the remaining 90% close because the business was not successful, did not provide the level of income desired or was too much work for their efforts.”

So many good photographers I know have to turn to other ways to make a living not due to any lack of photographic skills, but because of poor business practices.

Two things caused their businesses to fail:

they didn’t know their real cost of doing business and
they failed to promote themselves.

In 2001, I left a staff position and started full-time freelancing. My business has averaged a 20% growth rate each year for the past eleven years. Many of my colleagues ask me how I do it.

I speak often to photographers on business practices and many of these are students in college. When I teach workshops on the business of photography we do some very practical exercises to help them.

First, I require the students to calculate how much it costs them to live for a year. I’ve found that even the older students who have been on their own for a time typically do not know what it costs them to live.

No matter the profession, if you do not know your cost you cannot estimate what you are worth in the market place.

Once you’ve know your cost and decided how much net income you want to earn, it is easy to determine what to charge for each project in order to reach that goal.

Take a moment and think of everything needed to do your job. Here are some categories from the National Press Photographer’s Association list I use just substitute your terms for similar categories to figure your annual cost of doing business.

Office or Studio
Phone
Photo Equipment
Repairs
Computers (Hardware & Software)
Internet (Broadband, Web site & email)
Auto Expenses (Lease, Insurance & Maintenance)
Office Supplies
Photography Supplies
Postage
Professional Development
Advertising and Promotion
Subscriptions & dues
Business Insurance
Health Insurance
Legal & Accounting Services
Taxes & Licenses
Office Assistant
Utilities
Retirement Fund
Travel
Entertainment (meals with clients)

Add your desired net income to your annual business expenses, divide that total by the number of projects you reasonably expect to do in a year. The answer gives you the average per project you must charge clients so you can pay those bills, stay in business and live the way you want to live.

Dueling Pianos is OK when it is an act, but not when you are competing for a solo act.

Now you must find out if the market place will sustain this charge.

Let’s say you need to charge on average $1,000 for per project to reach your goal. If the services you provide are what people can get anywhere then they will shop for price. If the going rate in your community is $1,200 then you are in good shape. If the going rate is $900 then you need to look at cutting your overhead—your hoped for income or business expenses or both.

The key to earning what you want comes down to service. You must be able to demonstrate to potential clients that you offer something more if you want/need to charge more than other photographers do.

I have found that I need to know about the subjects I cover more than other photographers do. In addition, I deliver my images a good deal faster than most others do. I also listen carefully to what clients say they want and try to, not only meet their needs, but to go beyond their expectations.

When I first determined my cost and income goals, it was a revelation just as my stepson’s response to FICA and other deductions from his pay were for him.

I do my best to keep my overhead low, but even so close to 50% of my gross goes to business expenses. It was quite shocking for me to see what I must charge to pay the bills. This knowledge was the fire I needed to get me to put the time and effort into finding ways to make me more valuable to clients and to find those clients by seriously marketing myself.

Do you know what you cost?

How are you sharing your personal photos?

2012-04-30T10:56:00.001-04:00

On Facebook people are tagging their friends and this not only helps those looking at the photos know who everyone is, but when they are tagged they get an email alert letting them know they have a photo of them being shared.

How do you share you personal photos?

We have had a major shift in how we share photos with each other. The changes we have made have improved the experience for our family. Has it done it for you?

Business needs to pay attention

Today people are chronicling their family history in more effective ways than we ever did in the past. A tag links a person, page, or place to something you post, like a status update, photo, or an app activity. For example, you can tag a photo to say who’s in the photo or post a status update and say who you’re with. Tagging people, pages and places in your posts lets others know more about who you’re with, what’s on your mind and where you are.

Tagging a person in a photo is now one of the most powerful ways to make photos more valuable than we have been able to do up to now.

How to tag on flicker
How to tag on FaceBook

Kodak has even introduced cameras that let you do this in the camera. Here is a link to the story on it.

FaceBook Galleries

One good thing about using something like Facebook to share your photos is it forces you to organize them when you upload the photos. You create folders and with minimal effort you can Geo-Tag photos to let you remember and other know where you were when you took a photo.

If you are using your camera phone to take photos, they will not only capture the image, but they often will help you with Geo-Tagging of a photo. They use the GPS built into the camera to embed this into the photograph. This is great when you are traveling, but something you may want to turn off when you are taking insurance photos of your jewelry and other items in your home.

Business use: your company can create a business page and share images of your customers and celebrate them. This is a great way for you to build brand loyalty and help serve your Raving Fans.

Downside of Social Media for sharing

There can be a downside to using social media as the way to share your photos. If you use the default settings, then your photos are all downsized and no longer the size you need to make prints or use them later in photo books. If this is your on-line storage be sure and upload the high resolution photo so you will have it later if you need a print.

Not everyone wants to be tagged in your photos. This can cause some concern and maybe even strain some of your personal friendships. It isn't always about weather the photo is appropriate or not, it is often due to some folks don't like even the best photo of themselves being shared.

On-line storage

If you want to share photos but have more control over who sees the photo and make it easier for them to share, download and/or make prints then you need to look into something like PhotoShelter and Flickr. On my PhotoShelter account people can even order things like Coffee Cups, T-Shirts, Mouse Pads, Key Chains and many other things that have the photos on them.

I can upload the photo only once at high resolution and then choose how a person gets to see and use the photos. I can make it where they can only see the photos and not anything else. I can let them download a low-resolutions photo only. I can choose different resolutions sizes they can download. I can let them order prints. When I set up what prints they can order I can limit this to small prints or only gallery style prints.

If you really want your friends to enjoy your photos in more ways than just on their computer screen, then I recommend using one of these on-line solutions for your photos.

Business use: this is a great way for you to not just store your images for your business, but a great way to share them throughout your business. You can give rights to download high resolution images to your agencies, graphic designers and more. The great thing with this is your support can live anywhere in the world and as long as they have an internet connection they can download the images.

Prints

This is still a great way to share your photos. Giving prints to people after you have photographed them at some gathering is a great way to help them know you care for them.

I know many of my friends love sending thank you cards with a set of prints included in the mailing.

Business use: this is one of the most intimate things we do in our society--sharing photos. Your closest friends are the ones who send you prints and thank you for attending their events. Businesses help create a family atmosphere by doing this with their customers.

Photo books

One of my favorite ways to share photos is with coffee table books. Prices range from $11 up for a custom one time book.

The good thing with these books is no longer are they just something to order online for the coffee table. You can now share these as eBooks. Click here to see how to convert a book to one you can see on your iPad and even sell as an eBook.

You can order my eBook that is my portfolio if you like. Check it out here.

Go from personal to business

I recommend everyone to start exploring some of these options for sharing your photos with your friends. The more you do this the more you will start to see how you can use these tools to help your business. Start with your friends and get the kinks all worked out and then try some of this with your business.

Photos are one of the best possible ways to connect emotionally with others. Are you connecting?

Meeting expectations comes first

2012-04-27T09:29:00.000-04:00

Many in today's iGeneration have had a childhood of T-ball, soccer, and dance classes where if they just participated, they were given a trophy. I assume most people know there is more to life than showing up on time -- but you'd be surprised how often meeting minimum standards will put you way ahead of the competition.

I taught in photojournalism at a local college. Every project I assigned was designed to give the students a real-world experience. They had three assignments: an environmental portrait, covering an event and a photo story.

The students were asked to turn in their assignments as if they were submitting them to an editor. They needed a cover letter to tell me about what they were submitting. They needed a folder with their selects and another folder with all the images they shot. Each of the photos in the selects needed to have a caption embedded in the IPTC fields. Most editors enjoy being able to send a photo to the designer which already has the caption in the photo.

IPTC fields

This shows the Metadata panel of Bridge with IPTC IM, showing these fields are written to the file header. This screenshot shows the fields and includes a short description of what tags can be placed in the fields.

Some students forgot the captions, some forgot the cover letter and, yes, some were late handing them in. While most had everything done properly, we still had some where the captions were lacking the essential five Ws.

Who is it about?
What happened?
Where did it take place?
When did it take place?
Why did it happen?

I continue to hear horror stories from clients about photographers who didn't meet their minimum expectations. I even know of photographers who did the work and never handed in an invoice! It is amazing how just being sure all the elements are done for a project and turning them on time (or early!) will be received with excitement.
One of my favorite creative directors is Tony Messano. He gives sage advice. I can understand why he is asked to judge advertising work all over the world.

Tony expects a photographer to shoot the assignment the way Tony conceives it -- but his favorite photographers not only give him what he wants; they go beyond his concept and shoot it their way, too. Often, they will shoot it just as he says and then will push the idea a bit further with lighting composition or another element. They bring something extra to the table.

If you are meeting the expectations of your clients, you are doing better than most others in the industry. To rise to the top, go a little beyond the expectations.

Don't be satisfied with the trophy everyone gets for just showing up. Be the person singled out for going beyond the call of duty. Never stop looking for a unique approach or something different. The stretching will keep you youthful and nimble in today's ever-changing marketplace.

Second mile service assumes the first mile served

Today we hear so many talking about second mile service.

Second mile service is something that comes from the Sermon on the Mount: “If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles” (Matthew 5:41). In biblical times, a Roman soldier could compel someone to carry his pack for one mile, or 1,000 paces (two steps per pace). Jesus told his listeners to stop grudgingly counting their steps and instead to carry the pack a second mile.

Second mile service as Christ was trying to teach his followers is doing what is expected well and then doing even more. Christ’s earlier statement in the Sermon—“Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven”—was letting the followers know this not only brought favor on them but God was honored as well. This is a good lesson for today's marketing student about the power of branding.

You are building a good reputation by giving superior service.

What is expected in the "First Mile?"

Treating people with honor, dignity and respect
Listening to the request of the client
Meeting the needs of the client

Well exposed photos
In focus
Photos of what was requested

Delivered on time
Invoiced in a timely matter

"Second Mile Service" possibilities

Early delivery of images
Well packaged presentation of the images
WOW factor photos

Different angle than they have seen before
Maybe a print of a special photo
Coffee table book of the photos
Slide show

Hand written thank you note

What is the number one thing you can do? Listen

Recruiting photography for school that looks natural

2012-04-26T15:02:00.000-04:00

The cry of focus groups when they review most educational recruiting pieces seems to always say they want natural looking photos and not setup.

The problem is not setting up photos or trying to just grab what you can to get a natural look, it is hiring the right photographer. Also, it is a team effort of the school setting up the situations by having students, teachers and the right situations with enough time for moments to become "REAL."

Focus groups need the right questions

After having spent the last twenty plus years as a photographer shooting pure photojournalism, where you capture what happens in front of the camera to shooting for advertising pieces, where there are stylists arranging everything in a photo; my experience says most focus groups are asking the wrong questions.

“Do you like the photo?” is not as good of a question to see if the photo was successful as a question like “What did you learn from the photo?” You can even have a photo again on a questionnaire from your recruiting materials and ask, “Does the photo help you see what a typical dorm room looks like?” You could even have a follow up question “What could improve the photo to show you a dorm room?”

The reason I have come to this place about evaluating photos is my experience with truly “real” photographs. I have spent many years shooting “photojournalism” for magazines, newspapers and wire services. You do not change a thing in these photos and you do everything you can use composition, lens choices, lighting and timing to communicate the mood and reality of a situation.

Often a photojournalist’s photos are not “pretty” pictures. Photographers will even use their composition to create more conflict to add to the mood of the photo. Having a focus group evaluate war photos with the typical questions we ask “Did you like the photos?” will give you results which would say the photographers were not successful.

Often what you get by just grabbing shots here and there.

The difference with some planning and adding a light to the scene can make.

Make your photographic coverage strategic

How can you know the right moment to take a picture unless you have a fairly clear idea of what the subject means and what you are after? When you are interested in a subject, you want to learn more about it. You dig below the surface values to the truth beneath. That way you get to know it intimately and are able to photograph it understandingly.

Why are we taking this photo? Are we trying to show teacher to student ratio? Are we trying to show what a dorm room looks like? Are we trying to show diversity and how well everyone gets along on the campus? You need some understanding of what you are trying to accomplish.

Understanding does not necessarily mean a technical knowledge of the subject.

It is about seizing the right moment. It might be setup or as in the case I just floated into a meeting and shot.

Understanding is interest, sympathy, curiosity, the human element of the equation.

Are you photographing who you are or what you want to be?

While photojournalism will give you “real” photos, sometimes reality for recruiting will keep your institution on the same path rather than to where you would like to be.

This is where what I call the “sitcom” photography works best. We all know the sitcom isn’t real, but it can create such a reality we are all tuning in to see “Who shot JR?”

Spontaneous moments in a hall with two guys who are obviously close friends will communicate diversity better than sometimes setting something up. However, it needs to be prevalent on your campus or you will not capture it just because you have a photographer there. Plan for creating moments and letting the photographer have time to just capture things along the way.

This is the type of photography where the school has determined where they want to go and then create communications pieces to help them attain the goal. For example if you want to be more diverse in the future, you will need to show diversity. If you keep it real, you would then research to find those situations where diversity exists already. Then you would photograph those situations and play them prominently in your piece.

While this is setup, I worked hard to get the expressions to sell that they are a community with diversity.

As one person put it “You don’t want to be the lone raisin in a bowl of milk.” If everyone works to help the school to become more diverse it can be done.

As you can see there are a few ways to communicate your message using photographs. The ideal scenario is to have “reality” photos. If you had a photographer go to everything you did this year—then maybe you would get the reality you need.

Shooting at The Citadel and a Roman Catholic high school is easy as compared to the clothing problems introduced in most other schools.

Sometimes “reality” isn’t what you want to show. The student wearing another competing schools T-Shirt. A student with major over weight issues or skin problems can detract from the message. This is why so often we re-create reality like the sitcom. If properly planned, you will tune in and want to know more about your school.

Capturing joy of students makes students want to come to a place like The Citadel, where they will spend a lot of time being told what they will do.

Photographs are made of light, mood, texture, form, and line. The value of techniques lies in how they are used. Techniques by themselves are barren. To come alive with meaning, they must be employed interpretively. This is where I come in. Give me a call and let’s make your recruiting photos—REAL.

New Market for Photographers: Moving from complacency to success

2012-04-25T11:18:00.000-04:00

Four-star hotel in the Atlanta market.

Kemmons Wilson’s was on the cover of Time Magazine in June 1972. He was founder of Holiday Inn and they were successful with more than fourteen hundred locations all placed about a day's drive from each other. They owned the three-star market of hotels.

Complacency

By the mid 1980s they had more competition on the bottom and top. More two-star offerings were popping up and the number of four and five-star hotels grew rapidly. What was happening to their market was it was now a commodity in their rating. It was becoming more difficult to fill their rooms with so much competition.

Basic room in Merida, Mexico that I stayed in.

If we are talking about just having a room to stay in and something just clean and reliable then we would be just a commodity and wondering how can we compete.

Hotels are part of the hospitality industry which is huge. While Holiday Inn was loosing ground other groups were expanding. In 1999, Hilton acquired Promus Hotel Corporation, which included the Doubletree, Red Lion, Embassy Suites, Hampton Inn, & Homewood Suites brands.

The brand name Holiday Inn is now owned by IHG. On 24 October 2007 IHG announced a worldwide relaunch of the Holiday Inn brand. The relaunch is "focused on delivering consistently best in class service and physical quality levels, including a redesigned welcome experience [and] signature bedding and bathroom products..."

Comparing our industry to hotels hopefully with help us realize what we need to do to be competitive.

Hotel Plaza in Merida, Mexico.

Sense of Ambiance

As you can see just from these photos of properties they give a sense ambiance unique to them. What the hotel chains have done is realize they need to know where they fit in the market and then how to leverage their place.

Today you will notice many chains have similar floor plans but the experience is so different. Hotel chains have launched different product lines. The lobbies have different colors and decorations. One industry that sprung up to meet the needs of hotels is the scent machine industry. They sell the hotels machines and aromas that help them create a distinct aroma which they hope you not only associate with them.

This concept of scent has been around a long time. The Catholic Church has, effectively, used brand fragrance on its 'customers' - one in six of the world's population - for the last 2,000 years. Scent is very powerful and connected to ones emotions. In one test, altering a shampoo’s fragrance had a huge effect on how people rated its effectiveness, even though the product itself was otherwise unchanged.

Portillo's in Chicago

Restaurants also are competitive

The restaurant industry too is overcrowded. There are places like Portillo's in Chicago that are still thriving. Why? They have done a lot to make walking into their restaurant's an experience and not just about the food alone.

Cafe´ 360 in Freehold, NJ. Cafe´ 360 has free internet access allowing you to surf the web while you sip one of their house brand coffees or while grabbing a bite to eat.

In 1983, Howard Schultz (Starbucks chairman, president and chief executive officer) traveled to Italy and became captivated with Italian coffee bars and the romance of the coffee experience. He had a vision to bring the Italian coffeehouse tradition back to the United States. A place for conversation and a sense of community. A third place between work and home.

Schultz help to create the third place between work and home with Starbucks. With now free Wi-fi and comfortable seating area, people have more to go to Starbucks than just a cup of coffee--they go for an experience.

Just consider lighting alone in restaurants and you can see how this can influence how you feel about a place. Just consider how lowering the lights and putting candles on a table take a restaurant from casual dining to fine dining.

Consider the use of linen for napkins rather than paper. Fresh flowers on a table can also add aroma to the experience.

I can remember when Mrs. Field's cookies were first at the mall. I think the number one reason I bought their cookies at first was the smell of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies alone drew me to them.

Remarkable experiences

The best form of advertising is word of mouth. This week I received Jeffery Gitomer's newsletter and he addresses the power of the referral and how to get them. Just listen to him talk about getting referrals.

What REMARKable Experience are you creating?
You just went on vacation and you had a great time. You come into the office the next day and you can't wait to tell some of your office workers about an experience. Does this sound familiar to you?

This is what you need to concentrate on with your customers. Can you create an experience around your product that has them talking about you?

Once you create something that helps distinguish you from all the others in your field be prepared for it to be copied. Your competition will discover what you do and then not only will they copy you they will try and do it better than you.

Let's revisit Holiday Inn's relaunch of their brand.

"focused on delivering consistently best in class service and physical quality levels, including a redesigned welcome experience [and] signature bedding and bathroom products..."

Afterburner consulting

Afterburner consulting helped the Super Bowl Champions the Giants attain their victory, by helping them to concentrate on excellence. They helped them to focus on consistency rather than new plays. The Giants discovered that it was the consistency in their play that would help them win the Super Bowl.

If you are struggling now maybe you too became complacent like Holiday Inn. Maybe you need to find a way to create a niche´ like Howard Schultz did with Starbucks. But remember the key to all of their success was first by being consistent in their service.

Do you provide an experience that is remarkable?

Are you a good steward of the photographs for your company?

2012-04-22T14:27:00.001-04:00

Do you have an archiving system

Please take a moment and take the poll above, then check back in a day or so and see what others also checked. I predict that if everyone I know took this toll that more than half of all the companies would have no archiving searchable database for their photography.

Are you adding value to the company?

Take a moment and see if you can put your hands on the last couple of projects that you used photography. Where did you look?

Did you look in your top drawer of your desk? Did you go to someone and they pulled the Disc of images from their desk?

Maybe your office is really organized and they were in a project folder in the filing cabinet.

Historical Photos

Does your company have a place that all the historical photos of the company reside? Do you have copies of the ground breaking for the first building? Do you have the ribbon cutting photos from the grand opening? Do you have photos of the CEO and the board?

Back in the early 1980s Georgia Institute of Technology was planning their centennial celebration. They wanted to do a coffee table book of all that had happened since 1885.

So they started digging for images. They were going everywhere and finding very little. They didn't have a central location for their images. This sound familiar?

It was this process that led them to create a department that had photography. Up until then, most all the photos were from the students and an occasional freelancer hired by the school.

When I started with them some 10 years later, I was assigned the task to create a searchable computer database. We used the Cumulus software and shared the images on our internal network.

IT Department Lost it all: TWICE!!

After about 5 years of scanning slides and negatives we had a disaster. The IT department was in charge of the server and backing it up. They backed it up on a tape system. Well that system was corrupted and we lost 5 years of work.

You see we had the original file and a backup. You need three to be safe and they only had two.

We hired a new person that all they did for one year was to rescan and help us rebuild the database.

Five years after that disaster the same thing happened again. My trust of IT departments was at an all time low.

Cost of online storage

All electronics have a life expectancy and do not last forever. Today you can buy an external hard with 1TB of storage for around $100. Using the formula that you need a minimum of 3 different places for a digital file to reside for it to be safe would mean you need to spend about $300 for three 1 TB hard drives.

You can spend for just the storage alone from about $9 per month or $108 a year. They do the backups for you. So, for the price of a hard drive you can store all you need online for the same price as just 1 hard drive.

Sharing on-line

The best solution today is to have not just your images stored on-line, but searchable on-line. I would highly recommend PhotoShelter for most companies and individuals. There are different levels of service. You can signup for an individual or corporate account. The advantages of the corporate account is having many photographers, editors and more working all at the same time on the system. This is important on the back end where the posting the images to the system and organizing them takes place.

On the front end to those searching there is little difference between the two. You can give access to search your images based on three basic approaches. First, you may choose that anyone can see your photos or just you. Second, you can make it viewable by those with passwords or third they can see them by logging in with an email and a password just for that email.

Now there are many variables of those basic three concepts of access to the photos.

Search is King

The best part of having an online presence is the ability of people to search your images. Of course the key is you must put text with each photo. We do this through metadata. This is text that is buried in the image in code. Using software like Adobe PhotoShop, Adobe Lightroom, PhotoMechanic and other photo editing software you can embed photos with caption, keywords, photographers name, company name and more.

Most likely today you are working with images that were shot on a digital camera which also puts searchable information on every image in the metadata as well. They put things like date, time, f/stop, shutter-speed and things like even GPS into the metadata.

PhotoShelter makes this simple to search giving you some fields to help narrow down the search like keywords, city it was shot in and is it model released or not.

When you find an image

What can you do once you find an image--that depends on how you set it up. You can make it that they can only see the image, can download a low res or high resolution images, or they can order things like prints or items like a coffee mug with the photo on it.

Reuse

The key to all this online storage is that now your images that you had paid to have created are not just accessible by you, but you can easily share them with the rest of your company or even the world.

Every company and organization that I have worked with almost always says this is one of the hallmark services they now offer their organizations. Having all the images online helps them with using the material over and over.

They can now use the images: on their website more often, their social media, send access to the media to download images, to their employees to use in their presentations, and more places.

While the initial cost of hiring a photographer to shoot for your organization may seem costly, having this material used in more places to help promote your company makes the images worth a lot more to the brand.

One Use or Less

Are you using the photos one time that you hired a photographer to produce? What about all the similar shots that were not used. Do they go to waste or does your company use them in other places?

Two things will happen if you choose to use an online system that is accessible to your people no matter where they are in the world as long as they have access to the web. First of all you will start to get phone calls and emails from more and more people asking for access to your database of photos. Second, you will get emails saying people are not finding photos.

I can't find something

People will start to think that their are photographers shooting all the time for this database and surely there is a photo of something they need. You will soon be saying, no we don't have that image in the database, no one has shot that. Would you like to pay to have that done? Maybe you have the budget and say we can get a photographer to shoot that for you.

The demand will go up and your value to the company will rise as well. Make your companies brand stronger by making images available.

Advice for those going from staff position to freelance

2012-04-19T12:24:00.001-04:00


Landing in a sand trap is how I would describe my layoff. You don't want to be in one, but it is something you can get out of. (Nikon D2x, ISO 200, f/5.6, 1/750, 600mm)

In 2002 I was laid off from what I considered a great job. Well truthfully I was very frustrated with the environment for the last few years I was on staff. While I enjoyed the opportunities to shoot a variety of subjects, I was finding myself out of sync with my coworkers.

I should have left earlier, but I didn’t think I could made it as a freelancer. I liked having people just give me things to photograph and go home and come in the next day and do it again.

When I got called in and told that my position had been eliminated I was devastated. I called my wife and friend to come and help me pack up my gear and books and move out. As we were packing up my things my friend was trying to comfort me and made a very profound comment. “Stanley if you put in the amount of effort you have been doing here in your freelance, you will be a very successful photographer.”

I thought about his comment a lot that first year of freelancing. He had said it to me with such conviction that I realized he really believed it to be true. Later even my wife would comment and say that he was right.

My life did change and each day I got up and worked hard. I didn’t drive to downtown Atlanta every morning, but I did put in many hours of work. Here are the things I did and still do today. I call these tips for the freelancer.

Take your time and get your thoughts in order. Just like this golfer has to read the green to sink the putt, look at your goal and you too will see how you will need to plan some path to success. (Nikon D2x, ISO 400, f/5.6, 1/1000, 400mm with 1.4 extender)

Tips for the freelancer

Keep a similar work schedule to the one you had on staff. Get up and go to work. While you may not have to drive anywhere to commute, still get out of bed eat breakfast and then take that commute to another part of your house/apartment.
Get dressed for work. One of my friends Ken Touchton told me in those early days that he used to get dressed and put on a tie just to go to the next room. It helps put you psychologically in a different frame of mind.
Create a calendar of events. Just like you had in your last job, schedule time for different thing you need to be doing. You need to create; meetings, lunch dates, and find events from things like the Chamber of Commerce to attend in your community.
Create a database of clients, prospects, and family/friends. You may need to buy a list to add to your present list. You may need to go to the library and find those resources with contacts in them for your niche´. Remember this formula that for every 1,000 contact names in your database only 100 of them will be interested in your services. Of those 100 contacts only 10 of them will become a client.
Create a plan on connecting to those in your database. Another formula is to know that it takes about 6 – 8 touches with a contact before they remember you. Therefore you need to have a plan on how to contact these folks in a way that is positive and not annoying. I recommend mixing up your arsenal. I use: Phone Calls, emails, eNewsletters, Blogging, Postcards, and events as ways that I can make contact with my prospects and clients.
Develop an elevator speech. You need to be able at a moments notice explain to anyone what you do. Here is a link to mine.

Attitude Adjustment

When on staff you had a role. You would contact people asking if they needed your services. If this is how you worked then you need to change.

Your goal should be to develop friendships. You need to get to know people so well, that as they talk about their life, you can see ways you could help them. This is a lot of listening and offering good advice that isn't solicited. Once you are at this level in a friendship, it is much easier to give them suggestions of something that might help them.

With my best friends I listen and often if I have a suggestion to help them I am pointing them to a friend and not me. This is how I have learned to build my business. I am there as a resource and to help point my friends (clients) to solutions and other friends I have to help them.

My friends (clients) see me as someone looking out for them and helping them to be successful. When my friends do the same things for me I know I can go to them with even more things. I try and include them even more in my life.

We all have those acquaintances that are always trying to get us to use them. We do use them when they are a good fit, but we don’t go to them and talk about our life. We can’t trust them like our friends.

Continuing Education

You need to continue to get better and more relevant for your prospects and clients. Set aside time to do research on your industry. Find out what is next on the horizon. Go to associational meetings and hear what others are doing.

Join a professional association. Become friends with your competition and you will discover they are your colleagues. I am often booked and have just a few friends that I can trust with helping my clients and not trying to steal my clients.

Get involved in those professional associations by helping with meetings and serving as an officer. It will help you grow in knowledge and make you more valuable to your clients.

A team works together for the good of all. The practice together so they can perform flawlessly. (Nikon D3S, ISO 200, f/5.6, 1/640, 300mm)

Build a team

You need to find an accountant, lawyer, and maybe someone to assist you on a contract basis. As you grow you will need to farm out things that take up your time that can be done by someone else.

When you start out you need to consult experts. One of those should be a mentor/coach. Find someone who will help you navigate the waters of freelancing. They may live in another city. Whoever you find, be sure you regularly work with them.

Summary

Freelancing is like a farmer. You will be plowing the fields, weeding and doing a lot of work long before you will be able to harvest the crop.

If the farmer doesn’t put in the time and investment then there is no harvest.

Just like the farmer you can do everything right, but there are things outside your control. Most of the farmers I know have a tremendous faith in God and know that while they can do everything right there is much out of their control. They pray for guidance and wisdom. Most of all they pray for grace.

How to get rid of orange and green backgrounds with flash

2012-04-17T11:21:00.000-04:00

Nikon D4, ISO 3200, f/6.3, 1/80, 28-300mm, White Balance: Flash

Have you been getting photos like this with your off camera flash? The reason for it is you have a mixed lighting situation. The background is tungsten or 3200º Kelvin and the subject has flash or 5500º Kelvin.

Nikon D4, ISO 3200, f/6.3, 1/80, 28-300mm, White Balance: Tungsten

Now by doing everything pretty much the same except for two things are changed: the flash has an orange gel on it to match the tungsten and then the white balance for the scene is set to tungsten.

I prefer to put on the orange gel over the flash and then use my ExpoDisc to get a custom white balance by pointing the lens to the flash with the ExpoDisc in front to help me get an accurate skin tone for the subject.

Nikon SB-900 with the gel kit that comes with the flash and the two covers. One at the bottom holds the gels and the other cover is a diffusion filter. You can use the gels with the diffusion filter as well. There are two green and two orange filters. You can test these and depending on the lights in the room one may work better than the other.

The gel slides into the plastic cover and the hole lines up with a raised piece in the cover. When you do the the little white squares will automatically adjust your camera to the correct white balance when on the camera hotshoe.

Here you can see the cover snapped back on the SB-900 with the other gels off to the side in the carrying case.

I prefer not seeing the orange and green backgrounds in my photos when using flash. If you do use the gels as I am showing you here, then you will fly through the post production. Many people try and remove the color shift in the background with post production, but the time it takes to convert the flash to the correct gel combination if far faster than just color correcting one image.

Now imagine shooting a wedding or an event where you may have hundreds if not thousands of images to color correct if you do not use the gels.

Nikon D4, ISO 3200, f/6.3, 1/80, 28-300mm, White Balance: Flash

This is with regular flash under fluorescent light. There are more color differences from my experience under fluorescent lights than under tungsten. Just because you see a fluorescent light doesn't mean it is going to be green. Some of the lights are already daylight balanced and will give you proper color with a flash.

Nikon D4, ISO 3200, f/6.3, 1/50, 28-300mm, White Balance: Fluorescent

Here you can see the shift to a better skin tone and background not as green, because I used a green gel over the flash.

While this may take between 2 - 5 minutes to set up properly over time you may cut your time to 2 - 3 minutes to do. It is very important you see this in your over all workflow. 2 - 5 minutes once or 2 - 5 minutes for every photo you shoot to color correct it. It is your choice. Depending on the situation you might not have time. If you had the time and didn't do it you will be wishing you had during post.

Getting the moment

2012-04-16T09:56:00.001-04:00

Nikon D4, ISO 12,800, f/4.8, 1/50, 28-300mm

You have probably heard about "The Decisive Moment" coined by the famous Magnum Photographer Cartier-Bresson. What I think you need to explore when actually picking the right moment is more than just the subject.

As you can see in the first photograph the main subject is really animated and this could be a wonderful moment. If you were to get just this photo you might be really pleased with your results.

However, take a look around the frame. Look at everyone's expression in the photo. When you do that the photo above starts to fall apart.

Nikon D4, ISO 12,800, f/4.8, 1/50, 28-300mm

Now take a closer look at the second image here. As you can see the other people are in a better moment and even the main subject is better than the first photograph. I would have preferred to have more of the young boy in the photo on the left, but the expressions are still pretty good to carry the photo.

Nikon D4, ISO 8000, f/4, 1/80, 28-300mm

In this example the composition is OK and the moment is OK, but just not much energy here is there in the photo.

Nikon D4, ISO 8000, f/4, 1/80, 28-300mm

Now in this photo the expressions are more engaging and the musician is reaching out to the man in the blue shirt. You also can see the lady on the left being moved by the moment. Definitely a better moment than the photo above.

Nikon D4, ISO 8000, f/4, 1/80, 28-300mm

In the third example from the same situation you can see the handshake is more complete. The second photo the hands look quite awkward. The expression is not as huge as the first one, but the moment is much stronger because everyone looks good and no funny hands as in the second one.

To get the right moment often takes you to shoot just a few more than just one photo. You are shooting not just for the main subject as you can see in these examples. You are trying to capture everyone in the best possible moment when it all comes together. This is what "The Decisive Moment" is about. It is about getting all the elements in the photograph working together.

Off Camera Flash Examples

2012-04-14T09:14:00.000-04:00

Nikon D4, 28-300mm, ISO 100, 1/250, f/4.5, Off-Camera Fill Flash with Alien Bees 1600 and fired with Pocket Wizard Plus System.

Walk and Talk

This past week I was privileged to photograph on a college campus. I was combining two things that give me some of my best photos. By combining off-camera flash and having people moving I get two great results; great expressions and good color.

The very first thing I started with on the assignment was a group photo, but the best results as far as expressions was not when they were standing still, but when they all walked towards me. Now mind you I almost lost my photo assistant a few times. He was having to walk backwards and keep the same distance from the group constant. This was to ensure I had good exposures.

Nikon D4, 28-300mm, ISO 100, 1/250, f/6.3, Off-Camera Fill Flash with Alien Bees 1600 and fired with Pocket Wizard Plus System.

Since I had a good group and we finished early with the group photo, I then broke them up into small groups and then had each of those do what I call walk and talks. We assign one person to talk and the others to listen, not just with their ears but their eyes. So, the person talks. The others listen and then they all are walking towards me.

Thankfully we didn't have the assistant ever fall this week while walking backwards, carrying lights and watching the subjects to be sure the light was on them.

Nikon D3S, 14-24mm, ISO 200, 1/50, f/5.6, Off-Camera Fill Flash with 2 - Alien Bees 1600 and fired with Pocket Wizard Plus System.

Buildings

I love shooting buildings at dusk. The photo here of the building and the students walking is at 7:55 p.m. and sunset is at 7:58 p.m. I love this digital camera. You can see all the information, like what time I shot the photos. While the sky looked better at about 20 minutes after sunset, we had to let the students go to another commitment.

We had them walk through the scene a few times. The building is being lighted by my two Alien Bees 1600 on full power. They are being powered by the Vagabond batteries made by Paul Bluff.

Nikon D3S, 14-24mm, ISO 200, 1/1.6, f/11, Off-Camera Fill Flash with 2 - Alien Bees 1600 and fired with Pocket Wizard Plus System. The flash sync was set to Rear Sync to get the car lights behind the car and not in front of it.

The photo above was taken at 8:24 p.m. and as you can see the sky is much darker blue, but not black. I use the Alien Bees to light up the building since this campus didn't have lights on their buildings at night.

Fill flash in the woods

Nikon D4, 28-300mm, ISO 250, 1/80, f/9, Off-Camera Fill Flash with Alien Bees 1600 and fired with Pocket Wizard Plus System.

One of the ugliest lighting is under trees. You get a green cast due to the light going through the leaves. What I did here is used the off-camera flash with the Alien Bees 1600 to kick in light from the front to mainly offset the green light. I also benefited from having light in their face rather than raccoon eyes. Raccon eyes are caused by top lighting, which you see during the day and gives you dark circles around the eyes.

Fill flash in direct sunlight

Nikon D3S, 14-24mm, ISO 200, 1/200, f/13, Off-Camera Fill Flash with Alien Bees 1600 and fired with Pocket Wizard Plus System.

Why use a flash in direct sunlight? You need to avoid raccoon eyes and also if you want you can help drive the audience to the subject by the use of the light as I have done here.

Fill flash inside

Nikon D4, 28-300mm, ISO 3200, 1/125, f/6.3, Off-Camera Fill Flash with Nikon SB900 with the lightest green gel that comes with the system. Also, I am using the Radio Poppers radio transmitters with the Nikon SU-800 and Nikon SB900 so that I do not have to be in the line of sight for the infrared to work in triggering the flash.

When I am inside and people are working like this lady on her computer, you are just as prone to get raccoon eyes as outside. Why? The reason is the fluorescent lights above her are acting like the noon day sun. I have the photo assistant hold the flash and direct it to her face. The Nikon SB900 is zoomed to 200mm and therefore is light using a grid on studio strobes. It is directing the light to just her face.

To balance the flash to the room lights I used the lighter green gel that comes with the Nikon SB900 system. To get the correct lighting I took a custom light reading by using the ExpoDisc and had the assistant point the flash to the lens when I did this. I tried both green gels that came with the camera and the lighter of the two gave the best result in balancing the color with the rest of the room.

The sync speed was set to Slow-Sync. I shot the photos in Aperture Priority on Auto ISO with the maximum shutter speed set to 1/100 so I would avoid the color shift that happens with fluorescent lights.

Tips for Off Camera Flash for +/- exposure problems

2012-04-10T21:55:00.000-04:00

Off Camera Flash Setup with Nikon Speedlights

When I first wrote about doing off camera flash I realized I need to come back to this and highlight some points.

ISO, Shutter Speed, Aperture and +/-

There are a few things that will affect you getting a proper exposure. Let's set each of these on a Nikon so that everything will work.

ISO - Be sure you are not using Auto ISO. Start with the lowest ISO and adjust up for various reasons. You may want to up the ISO to help open up the background for example.

Go into the menu and set the Auto FP high sync speed to 250*. Auto FP High Speed Sync is a flash mode used for fill-flash photography under brightly lit conditions. When it is set you will be able to shoot faster than 1/250 sync speed and do this only with your Nikon Speedlight system.

Set the flash setting to Slow Sync or Rear Sync. I prefer Slow Sync for most everything. This will fire the flash and if needed the shutter may stay open for longer, but this will freeze the subject when you push the shutter. If you choose Rear Sync then the flash will fire at the end of the shutter cycle. You may not know when the flash fires using this setting.

Please refer to the older posts on this to know how to control how much light is on the subject and how to control the background.

Ambient Light and Flash Combined

Improve your Flash photos by not lighting everything

Flash Over Exposing

First be sure to turn the flash as far down as possible. Using the SU-800 it will go to -3 Stops.

If you still are over exposed it is usually your ISO is set too high. Lower your ISO setting.

Background is too dark

Crank up the ISO and double check to be sure you have Slow Sync chosen or you will be syncing at the lowest shutter speed of about 1/60. You may need to be slower.

Background is controlled by the camera +/- exposure compensation dial as well as ISO.

Flash is too bright or dark

Remember the control for this is the SU-800 or the master setting in the pop up flash on the models having this control.

Nikon D4 & Nikon D3S Differences

2012-04-08T14:17:00.000-04:00

While the cameras appear very similar, there are differences with shooting still images.

Now that I have practiced shooting the past few days with the camera, I have noticed a few changes I had to get used to. First of all I prefer to have two identical cameras. I like to not have to think about any differences between cameras while working. There are some button changes on the D4 from the D3S.

Due to the buttons not being exactly alike, I can see me making some errors. So, very soon I will try and replace my Nikon D3S with another Nikon D4.

The Nikon D3s is a great camera and if it were not for the changes in all the buttons I might have been able to live with the small differences in the still image shooting of the cameras. However, while the changes might well be great improvements having to adjust my shooting from camera to camera could cost me an image.

I think Nikon did think through this and still made the changes, because some of the functions I think are improvements.

On the back are more differences than the front. While many buttons appear to be the same, they are not all the same.

I am not going into every button difference here in this post. I just wanted to highlight some that I use all the time.

First of all the choice of metering modes is located in very different places. The choices are the same, but you now push the choice on the left top and rotate the thumb dial to choose the different metering modes.

I seldom use the average meter and am picking between spot and the matrix.

One difference is the choices with metering. The Nikon D4 has removed the dial on the viewfinder and moved it to the left top menu.

This is the back of the Nikon D3S

The next major change for me is the focusing modes. On the Nikon D3S you just flipped the dial on the back and depending if you had the camera in AF-S or AF-C you got different functions which were tweeked in the menu.

On the Nikon D4 most of the choices are now visible on the top menu as you push the AF button on the front and dial the thumb or index finger dials.

This is the back of the Nikon D4

This is the Auto Focus button on the Nikon D4. You push the button and turn the aperture or shutter dial to change functions.

This is the Auto Focus button on the Nikon D3S

Nikon D4 - When you push the AF button on the front of the camera and rotate the thumb dial on the back you change the AF from AF-S to AF-C.

Nikon D4 - When you push the AF button on the front of the camera and rotate the index finger dial on the front you change the AF-C to many different choices. This is the 3d choice.

Nikon D4 - When you push the AF button on the front of the camera and rotate the index finger dial on the front you change the AF-C to many different choices. This is the d51 points

Nikon D4 - When you push the AF button on the front of the camera and rotate the index finger dial on the front you change the AF-C to many different choices. This is the d21 points

Nikon D4 - When you push the AF button on the front of the camera and rotate the index finger dial on the front you change the AF-C to many different choices. This is the d9 points

Nikon D4 - When you push the AF button on the front of the camera and rotate the index finger dial on the front you change the AF-C to many different choices. This is the single [ ] that you move around.

Nikon D4 - When you push the AF button on the front of the camera and rotate the index finger dial on the front you change the AF-C to many different choices. This is the auto function that locks in on faces and other subjects based on algorithms.

Nikon D4 - When you push the AF button on the front of the camera and rotate the index finger dial on the front you change the AF-S to two choices, Single or Auto.

This is the dials on the Nikon D3S. The lock button has been changed on the Nikon D4 to the meter and the lock function is now in the menu and not a dial.

This the the Nikon D4. In some ways having the meter choice here is nice. I do miss the lock button from the Aperture and Shutter not being here anymore. It is still accessible in the menu.

This is the Nikon D4. You will notice a new red dot on a button. This is for the movie function as the start and stop function. The rest is the same.

There will be even more updates as I continue to get used to the new Nikon D4.

Nikon D4: Still breaking it in

2012-04-06T08:37:00.000-04:00

Nikon D4, ISO 500, f/5.6, 1/2500, 28-300mm

I am leisurely just getting use to the new camera. I like having some vacation days down at Jacksonville Beach, Florida shooting some photos for fun before needing to shoot a job with the camera.

It is very fast at locking in the focus. This is very impressive. Also, I am equally pleased at the buffer. You can shoot NEF Raw files as fast as you could shoot JPEGs on previous cameras--this is how it feels. I am sure technically there is a difference.

(Nikon D4, ISO 400, f/5.6, 1/2500, 28-300mm) This is an eagle's nest with the young eagle flapping it's wings waiting for mom to come back to the nest.

I was shooting a eagle nest and played with shooting it on high speed frame rate. It just zips through and you are almost creating a movie with just still frames.

(Nikon D4, ISO 900, f/5.6, 1/2500, 28-300mm) This is how my family got to see the eagle's nest that was in the marsh area of the coast. We took an air boat ride with Fl Crazy Fish Air Boat Ride. It was a lot of fun. The guy who took us out was a biology major and really showed us a lot of the marsh and told us about the wildlife.

I will continue to shoot some on vacation, but next week I will shoot a large job with it and then I will be able to know how it responds when I am shooting 2,000 - 3,000 images a day.

This is how I recommend starting with a new camera. Shoot some fun things that are not a job. Read the manual. Test some of the new functions that the camera manufacturer built into the camera.

You need to be fully aware of your equipment so that you are able to concentrate on the subject and not your gear. Get to know your gear so you can make it do what you need without much thought having to go into it, because you have already mastered the camera.