Photo
tip #56: This is perhaps the most
important piece of photographic advice I can give to any photographer,
amateur or professional (but especially amateurs), so pay attention,
gentle reader, pay attention! There are few things more frustrating
than getting back your prints (regardless of whether it's film
or digital) and finding an image that's absolutely wonderful;
everything is perfect, the lighting, the shadows, the exposure,
the background - absolutely everything is fantastic; everything
is phenomenal; everything is exquisite beyond description - and
then saying to yourself: "How did I do that?" The moral
of this story? KEEP NOTES! Write down your settings (camera,
lens, shutter speed, aperture, film used, distance from subject,
lighting setup, meter readings, etc.)! I know, I know, it's a
hassle; it's like backing up your important computer files every
day. Nobody likes to do it. But we all should. Here's what I
did: after going through this situation at least a dozen times,
I started keeping great notes, and whenever a "perfect"
picture came in, I'd I'd make an extra print of it, and place
the image into a scrapbook, where I wrote down all the settings,
right under the picture. After a while, I had a couple hundred
of these images and data in my scrapbook. Now, whenever I want
a certain effect for a picture, all I do is flip through my scrapbook,
find an image with the effect I want, and all the information
I need to set up my equipment is right there! Hey, when you're
working (or paying models by the hour), being able to get perfect
exposures - quickly - is money in the bank (and it's also impressive
to your subjects, too)! You have to remember that in addition
to being a photographer, you're also a business person,
and time is money! If you're doing product photography, the more
shots you get in a day, the more money you make. If you're doing
portraits, the more portraits you finish in a day, the more money
you make. The more images you make per portrait session, the
more prints you'll sell to your subjects. So take a bit of advice:
KEEP GOOD NOTES! Or do like I did: get one of Minolta's new Maxxum
7 cameras that will automatically save all this information (and
more!) for you for every exposure (awright, so I'm lazy:).
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The Business of
Photography - Selling Portraits:
We have our portrait session where we make dozens
and dozens of exposures (sometimes, we might even take a hundred
pictures or more in a portrait session; especially if we're working
with a family or group). Then, we send our clients home, telling
them that we'll call them as soon as their prints come back.
We then send the film or disk to our lab and have them make contact
sheets for us; when we receive the contact sheets from the lab,
we carefully examine each image, and pick out the very best 5
or 10 or 20 images (we never let our clients see ALL the images
- there are always a bunch of exposures that turn out terrible)!
There are those pictures where the client's eyes are closed (everybody
blinks, and sometimes they blink just when we press that shutter
button:); in other shots, the client moves their head or glances
away and messes up our carefully-designed lighting. So we pick
out the very best ten or twenty images out of all the pictures
we made during the portrait sitting. The client never
sees the imperfect images, only the very best of all our shots.
Then, we have our lab make an 11 x 14 print of the best image,
and then we have the next 5-10 best images made into 8 x 10 prints
for us. The, we make 4 x 6 prints of perhaps about next 3-5 best
images from the session. We then put the 11 x 14 print and maybe
3-4 of the 8 x 10 prints into beautiful frames. We set up all
the pictures in our studio and call the client in to see all
these lovely images (or we bring the pictures to our client's
home or office for viewing). Of course, there are some portrait
sessions wherein we make only a few pictures; perhaps a business
executive wants one picture of himself for the company annual
report, and isn't interested in any additional shots. But even
then, always make at least a dozen exposures; that way
we're sure of getting at least a couple of good images (just
try to imagine how embarrassing it would be to call our client
and tell him/her that we have to do the session all over again
because none of the two or three pictures we took turned out
good enough).
Why the frames? Because we also make quite
a nice profit on selling picture frames, as well as pictures
(albums, too)! The client ends up seeing only the most beautiful
images (and thinks we're phenomenally-talented photographic artists:).
They see how wonderful the pictures look in the lovely frames,
and end up ordering lots of prints, and lots of frames. Always
ask the client if grandma and grandpa would like some prints;
after the client orders the 11 x 14s, 8 x 10s, 5 x 7s and 4 x
6 prints, always ask how many wallet-sized prints they would
like. Write up a great order! Make a lot of money by making a
lot of people very happy. Can you think of any better way to
make a living?
Buy a copy of Popular Photography, and every
other photographic magazine you can find. Look for the ads that
all the custom labs always have running in these magazines; also
find the ads for wholesale suppliers of picture frames, albums,
calendars, custom mugs, and poster-size prints. Call, e-mail,
visit the web sites, or write to every supplier and ask for their
wholesale price lists. Choose the labs and photographic
suppliers you like, and compare prices and delivery times. Try
out a few different sources, and after a while you'll have your
favorite suppliers. You'll find that the prints and other supplies
are surprisingly inexpensive, and you'll have a great markup
for your profit. Wham, bam, you're on your way to a fun, creative,
and wonderfully rewarding way to make a living doing something
you love. What more can we ask out of life? OK, someone to love,
perhaps? If you haven't met him/her yet, there are few better
ways to find new friends (and lovers:) than through photography
(after all, making people look great tends to impress them favorably,
right?).
So give it a shot; there's no downside; if
it works for you as a profession, great! If not, at the very
least, you'll have a wonderful and creative hobby. And at best,
becoming a successful photographer means fame, fortune, world
travel, and the joys of the artistic creativity that accompanies
such success aren't too difficult to learn to live with, huh?
And don't forget about all the exquisitely beautiful / handsome
models you'll be "forced" to work with, either! :)
Hey, it's a tough job, but somebody has to do it, right? Life
has few guarantees, but one thing you can be absolutely certain
about is this: you can't possibly succeed unless you try.
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