Did You Know?

Did you know that a lot of cameras have an ambient light sensor which automatically adjusts the brightness of your LCD screen? The light sensor judges the amount of light in the room, and adjusts the screen brightness for the most comfortable viewing experience. I’m sure most of you are familiar with this handy feature on your phones, which I find very nice. So when I’m using the phone in a dark room my eyeballs are not going to melt out of my head from the blast of brightness from the screen. That’s great and all for phones, but for a camera… I would highly advise against this setting. Camera manufacturers thought is was more important to jeopardize the judgement of your photo exposure by dynamically changing the brightness of your LCD screen for the sake of retinal comfort. Um… why?

I hear photographers say, “I know how my photos will look based off of how they look on the back of the LCD.” I really hope that your LCD brightness is set to manual if you are making that claim, because if it’s not you are lying without even knowing it.

Why Manual?

Just like all accomplished photographers know, don’t shoot your camera in automatic mode, as you want control over your camera. So why would you allow the camera to have free reign over how photos should be presented on the LCD given the current ambient light levels in the room? The answer is – you don’t, take that sucker out of auto mode.

Not too long ago, I was working in the studio, doing some lighting exposure tests. It was one of the very rare occasions I was using a handheld light meter to measure light outputs. I snapped a couple pictures based off of what my handheld light meter suggested only to look at the back of the camera to see what looked like a dramatically under exposed set of images. What’s going on here? I adjusted the camera to allow another FULL STOP of light (twice as much light) into my camera and took another image, and at that point it looked properly exposed on my LCD. I took more light meter readings, and then tested with the camera. Trusting the light meter, setting my camera to the suggested exposure and snapping, all my images looked very underexposed on the LCD. Turns out that my $300 light meter was right on-target (as it should be), and what was wrong was my camera’s idea of how bright my LCD screen needed to be in the current light conditions of the studio (which was in-turn making me falsely think that I needed to bump my exposure by an entire stop of light, resulting in an entire set of images that were overexposed).

I expected the auto brightness of my LCD could fluctuate a bit, but I had no idea that it would have that dramatic of a difference on my judgement of my lighting exposure. And quite honestly, unless you happened to be measuring and comparing light levels between a camera, flash lighting, and a light meter, you’d probably have no idea either. After all, not many people even own a light meter now with the invention of the LCD screen (how ironic, right?).

How To Judge and Set Manual Settings

So let’s fix this, shall we? Get into your camera menu, and if your camera has an auto LCD brightness feature, you can disable it by setting it to ‘manual.’ After setting to manual, you’ll have the ability to then set the brightness levels of the LCD. This brightness setting will remain constant and never change, regardless of the lighting conditions in the given environments you’ll find yourself in. This… is a very good thing. Let’s take a step back a bit, and talk about judging where you should determine what the manual brightness level should be.

There are a couple approaches to judging where you should set you LCD brightness for judging “proper” exposure. Camera’s capturing set to manual mode, flash set to a manual power level, and in a controlled, static lighting environment, we are going to take some photos.

You can use a handheld light meter, measure the flash exposure with the meter, then take a photo using the meter’s suggested settings. Review the photo on the back of the camera. If it is seems under or over exposed on the LCD, get into the LCD brightness menu setting and make adjustments to the brightness until the image on the back of the LCD looks properly exposed. Go back and forth between the reviewing image and the menu until it looks good in relation to what your light meter says is proper exposure.

The second way is to use your computer side-by-side with your camera to compare exposure levels. Take photos, then upload them to your computer. Put the memory card back into your camera so that you can view the same images on both the LCD and the computer screen. Apply your default edits to an image on the computer, then set the brightness on your LCD to best match that exposure. This is a great way to set your LDC brightness, because ultimately you are wanting to know what your images will look like as a finished product. This will get you pretty close. Oh, and make sure your monitor is properly calibrated when you do this test (click here for a post on that).

I conducted both of these tests to find a brightness I’m happy and confident with. Please, don’t go out and drop a ton of money on a light meter just because you are paranoid of your LCD brightness, as the computer/LCD comparison will work well.

Why Not Use The Histogram and Highlight Alert?

Some of you out there might be saying all this LCD concern is mute, as you have other feedback tools like the histogram and highlight alert. Last time I checked, when the public view images, they don’t peek at a histogram reading and say, “wow, this is an amazing picture, there are no clipped pixels in that histogram!” No, they look at pictures for what they are… pictures. They are looking at pictures and judging them just as you would be doing by looking at the back of your LCD. There is no perfect histogram reading, and there will always be exceptions to any rule. The one sound,  tried and true method you have to check the quality of your images is that LCD feedback.

What about that ever so handy highlight alert function on a lot of cameras, it’ll ensure that my exposure is accurate in terms of not being too hot, right? I used to be in this thought mentality boat as well, thinking that as long as no pixels were flashing at me (indicating a blown-out pixel) that I had an acceptable exposure. There is a huge difference between just-under-blownout pixels (effectively not registering a highlight) and proper skin tones. Just because you are not getting a highlight alert doesn’t mean that your image isn’t “too hot,” your skin tones can still suffer even if pixels are not flashing at you.

Wiggle Room

Yes, with all of your photos being captured in a RAW format there is wiggle room for exposure, but your software is going to really struggle if your pixels are blown-out, requiring a lot of repair in post, which too much repair can give an unappealing look to skin tones. Having to put a lot of repair into walls, floors, and even that random tree in the background is tolerable, but when you start having to mess with people’s faces, it can get sticky pretty darn fast. So the “I’ll just fix it in post” mentality shouldn’t fly here, just like it shouldn’t fly anywhere else in your work ethic.

For years, the solution for powering AlienBees on-location was the Vagabond II. A 20-pound power rig, consisting of a power inverter and a large, very heavy battery to feed the lights. Picking the thing up and knowing you had to pack it into a remote location, along with another 150lbs of gear, was enough to make you second guess your lighting approach. “Hmmm, maybe those speedlites aren’t such a bad idea after all, besides… who needs F/16 from the light, I can settle for F/5.6, right?” It sucked. Just one more thing to pack, and it wasn’t going to great lengths to make my walk any easier either. I always felt bad asking someone to grab it and even pack it ten feet. “Hey, can you bring that cinderblock-of-a-battery over here,” as I watch their eyes grow wide as they pick it up. It didn’t make on-location work with strobes very fun. The only “plus” using the Vagabond II is having the ability to call your photo shoot a workout as well.

The summer of 2011 brought good news. Lighter, smaller, and almost just as powerful news, to be more specific. The Vagabond Mini was released. Compared to it’s 20-pound older brother, this thing promised almost just as many light pops, but came in a lithium battery form and weighed just over 3 pounds. The old Vagabond II provides up to 575 shots with a 640Ws light, while the new Mini gave 500 pops. That was good news for all of the AlienBee shooters out there doing location work. It weighed almost as little as some of my lenses! After discovering it’s release, I snatched-up a Mini. My power pack solution went from a complete pain to just another thing to toss in my miscellaneous gear bag. The Mini can handle up to 4 lights, while the original Vagabond can dish out power to up to 8 lights.

For smaller shoots (senior, family-style shoots), the Vagabond Mini is all I need to power my Bees. For commercial work, I still lug both my Vagabond Mini and II to shoots, as I’m using 4+ lights and they are often spread far apart. Having multiple power packs means faster recycle times and less extension cords running around. One thing the older model has over it’s newer, smaller sibling is faster recycle times. But… that’s something I can sacrifice when I’m asked to photograph someone a half mile in the woods.

Quickly after the introduction of the mini, the manufacturers announced the discontinuation of the Vagabond II, only making the Mini there on out. At the time of writing this article, you can special order the original, and even then it’s “while supplies last.”

Additional flexibility is added to the Mini with the ability to swap-out the battery pack on the unit. It’s lithium power source can be popped right off, allowing you to pop another fresh battery on the power inverter. This is great for those days where you will be pumping out a lot of pops, and don’t want to be caught out on-location with a dead battery and more pictures to take.

An amazingly simple, yet huge addition to the mini is the stand clip built into the body. This allows you to clip the battery right to the light stand, making light moves a lot easier. I’ve always hated having to double my movements with the old battery – move the stand as far as the light power cable will allow, walk back and grab battery, move it to under the stand. Now I can just pickup my light and move, battery clipped to stand and along for the ride. I attach the battery low on my light stand, effectively making it a power source and a 3-pound sandbag. This balances my light rig a bit more, making it less top-heavy.

We still live in a time where you have to make a decision that is a pretty substantial compromise – light with powerful, heavy strobes, or light with small, convenient, not nearly as powerful hot shoes. One thing is for sure, the gap on the decision making is closing. The Vagabond Mini definitely gets us one step closer to making the decision to go with big powerful lights that much easier.

Below is a couple shots of the two power packs. The mini is attached to the bottom of a light stand, with the older big boy where it belongs, on the ground.

Why Calibrate

Every single computer model, monitor, and operating system comes out of the box with default settings for levels of contrast, saturation, color cast, and brightness. Why is this a big deal? Who cares if your monitor present colors differently than anybody else’s? A little thing called standardization. If you want to deliver a quality, consistent product to your clients, you gotta hop on the standardization train. Unlike the color swatches you see in design applications, where clicking on a color box the designate colors for fonts, shapes, etc. where you know clicking that color box means exactly that (in terms of RGB levels), photographing the world as we know it doesn’t come with a color swatch. As a photographer, you pull up images on your computer and edit based off of sight, not a color swatch (swatches having standards across the board, ex. you don’t have to sweat what it will look like on another computer or in print, because the standard red in your color swatch, RGB value R:254 G:16 B:33 is what it is). You can throw all of that universal color reassurance out the window when you are editing photographs, because we are capturing light and colors, not making fonts and shapes and assigning color values to faces, backgrounds, etc. There is no standard color for the infinite combinations of colors and lighting tossed your way as a photographer. You tweak exposure, white balance, contrast levels, etc by looking at images, determining what settings best fit a particular image. So how do you know what you see on your computer screen will be accurately reproduced on other computer screens and more importantly print shops. How do you know what is a “proper” white balance on your screen isn’t completely off from industry standards? Ever edited photos, exported them to the web, and viewed them on another monitor only to see dramatic differences? From white balance to brightness, depending on the computer setup, things can look downright awful.

A poorly calibrated screen is like looking at the world through a pair of colored sunglasses. You can’t properly make accurate adjustments to your photos based off of sight, and you’ll end up compensating on your screen.

A poorly calibrated screen is like looking at the world through a pair of colored sunglasses. You can’t properly make accurate adjustments to your photos based off of sight, and you’ll end up compensating on your screen. For example, if you are unknowingly editing on a monitor that is displaying things “warmer” than it should be (more orange color cast), you’ll have to overcompensate with blue tones to present the image accurately on your monitor. That’s all fine and dandy until you look at your images on an properly calibrated monitor, or send your photos to print. You’ll end up with blue images, people looking like they are a long lost relative to Poppa Smurf. Does that make sense? To ensure you are making accurate edits, you have to have an accurate monitor to make these visual decisions.

You can’t sit and wonder how other people’s monitors are calibrated, but you can do your part and make sure your monitor is accurate. This will ensure that prints will look good. Besides, if someone else’s monitor is say… on the warmer side of things, everything they view will be warmer, so it’ll be… consistently… bad. Properly calibrating your monitor will immediately restore the confidence in your edits, and take the guesswork to if your prints will turnout. You need to edit for the world of monitors, mobile devices, and print, and how they will see it, not just your one monitor.

You need to edit for the world of monitors, mobile devices, and print, and how they will see it, not just your one monitor.

Preset and Default Color Profiles

Default color profiles on your computer don’t mean jack. I can’t say it any simpler than that. A very popular standard for example is Adobe RGB 1998. Every computer monitor will come out of the box with a different presentation of color, contrast, brightness, etc., so what makes you think you are properly displaying Adobe RGB 1998? The fact is you don’t. Your monitor might be close to industry standards, or it could be miles off. These profiles do not have any reference point to your make and model of computer or monitor, so this is the last thing you want to use for gauging color calibration.

Common Mistakes In Editing Due To Poor Calibration

Exposure and white balance are where I see most of the common mistakes of photographers. The kicker here is that it’s probably not even their fault, and are unknowingly using a poorly calibrated monitor. Exposure is obvious for most, as subjects will be way too bright or dark. I sit there and wonder as I thumb through their images, exposure so far off I being to speculate if they shot and edited with their eyes closed. White balance is an even more frequent problem. From what I’ve seen, most photographers in their first few years of photography wouldn’t know proper white balance if it came up and bit them in the ass. Some photographers never seek the information and spend their lives shooting and editing without a clue of the terrible edits being made. Not only will poor white balance leave images looking too warm or too cool, it does a giant disservice for color separation. It’s practically the same as if you were to put a sepia color filter on your images, turning everything to a brown color cast, with colors losing their importance. The same thing goes for standard white balance. If your images are too orange, it’s like you just put an orange filter on your whole image, and colors will lose their punch and separation.

Out of all the feedback I receive from my images, one of the top comments are, “wow, look at those colors!” Yes, I use high-end photo gear, which helps with contrast and saturation levels, but more importantly is the attention paid to white balance in post. Out of all of the edits I make to my images in post (which isn’t much), I spend by far the most time tweaking the white balance. I can shoot with a $6,000 camera setup all day long, but if I can’t nail my white balance in post, it’s all a loss, colors don’t pop, and everything looks bland. The age-old saying still holds true, you are only as strong as your weakest link.

Your Next Most Important Gear Purchase

It’s more important than your next camera body or lens purchase. It’s more important than any other upgrade you could possibly make to your photography. Somehow most monitors get neglected, it’s important of presentation overlooked and forgotten. You sweat bullets at your photo shoots, working as hard as you can to make photographic magic, only to completely crash and burn in post because you’ve overlooked the importance of a simple, hundred dollar purchase. Seriously? You are asking your clients to trust your abilities and “invest” and give you money to take their pictures, yet yet you can’t take the time to ensure your screen is even presenting the right colors? This reason (and many others) are why I laugh when I read a another photographer’s site and they are ranting and raving about investment and why you should make a deposit in their photo work. Most don’t even know the meaning of the word, and it would be more fitting to replace the word “investment” with the word “gamble,” because that is exactly what the photographer is doing in editing if they haven’t taken the right steps to ensure a professional product.

If you haven’t done so, this purchase will make the most dramatic increase to the quality and consistency of your work, even more than that big lens. Ya know, that lens with the red ring around the end of the barrel.

How To Calibrate

Simple. Buy a monitor calibration tool. This tool comes with both physical and software components. The hardware is required to provide the standardization that we seek, and it directly talks to software and makes the proper adjustments to your monitor. The calibration tool sits on your screen while the calibration software runs through a bunch of color and brightness scenarios. Hit ‘go’ and two minutes later your screen is properly calibrated. The hardest part was literally ordering the thing online.

A company called Datacolor makes a product called Spyder. There are a few different models, the only differences is the software that runs the calibration, with the physical calibrator tool being the same. You can pickup the Spyder Express for less than 100 bucks. This is what I have and does a fine job. I’ve used the pro models of the software and I think they are just gimmicks to get you to spend more money. The express model does a fine job.

Turn your computer on and wait 30 minutes before calibrating. This will allow the monitor to reach it’s regular operating levels. I don’t know if this wait time is even needed with the newer LED monitors, but I still follow this practice just to be sure. Besides, I’m going to be on my computer anyways…

Calibrate Often

Once you’ve purchased a Spyder, or like device, recalibrate your monitor every few months. A monitor’s presentation qualities shift with the age of the monitor. The most dramatic shifts will be in the first six months of a monitor’s life. The Spyder software can be set to remind you to recalibrate at designated intervals of time.

All Done

Now you can sit-back and relax, knowing your images are presented accurately, and your adjustments will present well in both the digital and print world.

These workshops are great for just about anyone interested in photography, a little something for everyone. Learn how to master your camera in the beginner course, or take your existing photo skills to the next level with an advanced course with creative off-camera lighting.

http://mattyworkshops.com

All-In-One

I will always recommend a convertible, all-in-one reflector/diffuser product. This type of tool is first and foremost a diffuser at heart, with a white diffusion material making up the body of the tool. It also comes with covers or skins, whatever you want to call them, that fit over the diffuser. These covers come in a multitude of colors, but most common are silver and gold, which will produce a different kind of reflective quality to the light. All lighting situations may call for a different kind of “feel” to the light, so it’s nice to have options. One of the covers will most likely have an all black side, which can be used to block or subtract light.

Buying a convertible setup will cost more than if you were to just by a standalone diffuser or reflector, as you can probably guess, because there is more included with the product, but well worth it. Photography is just like the rest of life (surprise!), you are always tossed curveballs and asked to perform feats of photographic magic in some of the most ugly lighting conditions known to man. You often don’t know if you’ll need to reflect, diffuse, or subtract light, so a convertible tool is ideal.

Form Factor

Reflectors come in all shapes and sizes, and this can play a critical roll in their effectiveness. Most reflectors are constructed with a flexible wire frame that will allow it to breakdown into a convenient size for packing and storing. The rigidity of this wire frame should be well-understood before purchasing (read reviews). Most reflectors are circles or a circular-like form and are… well… pretty darn floppy. This can play in your favor as you can twist the reflector and bend it to concentrate or scatter light. I look for this quality in a reflector when I want one to toss on the ground in front of my subjects. Regardless of what’s on the ground, the reflector will kinda just wrap around objects. The floppier reflectors will also play fairly nicely if held straight up and down. They will immediately become a pain in your ass the second you try and hold this thing at any kind of angle. It doesn’t like it, and does what it does best… flop and bend. It’s a two-hand job to keep the thing steady with anything beyond horizontal and vertical positions, which means you need a dedicated assistant, using both hands, if you want to ask anything beyond “simple” from this type of reflector.

If you are looking for a reflector that will perform well with angles, being clamped to a stand (due to lack of hands on-set), or even allowing you to hold the reflector with one hand and using the camera with the other (not the best situation, but sometimes you gotta suck it up and deal), well… you are in luck. Lastolite makes a reflector/diffuser product called a “Tri Grip.” These tools are triangular in shape, have a dedicated handle on them, and make the task of holding reflectors exponentially easier. They are a more rigid construction, and really do hold their form, no flopping over when held out at an angle, even one-handed. They do their job well, whether they are held by a single hand or clamped to a light stand. These also breakdown into a small size for mobility. The rigidity of the reflector will not take kindly to bending, and will fight you to spring back into the triangle form it loves to be in. Below are links to all of these tools I’ve mentioned.

When You Don’t Have a Reflector Holding Assistant

Speaking of hanging reflectors off of stands, there are tools specifically designed to make this task a little easier. All of us photogs get stuck out on-location without an assistant from time to time when you are in desperate need of an extra pair of reflector-holding hands. Looks like mr. light stand just pulled double duty. Of course, you can use just about any clamp out there to McGyver your own assistant-less reflector solution, some more elegant than others. A lot of the times, I’ll just lean the reflector against a light stand for a slight reflector angle. The Tri Grip will be your best friend in this assistant-less situation, just affix this reflector to a light stand using any kind of clamp right on it’s designated handle, it’ll hold true. The Tri Grip’s floppier cousin will require a lot more work to coax it into playing nice. There are a lot of different solutions for the floppy guys, and you’ll find that it’s best to just try and use these in a vertical or horizontal position. I’ll link a couple here at the bottom of the post.

Here is your standard convertible circle reflector/diffuser:

• http://www.adorama.com/FPPR5142.html

Here is a Tri Grip (these come in different sizes):

• http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/418586-REG/Lastolite_LL_LR3696_TriFlip_8_in_1.html

Various reflector grip adapters for light stands:

• http://www.adorama.com/LSPRFB.html
• http://www.adorama.com/FPPRB.html
• http://www.adorama.com/LTPRB.html
• http://www.adorama.com/PARB5I1K.html
• http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/250256-REG/Delta_46072_Light_Stand_Arm_with.html

Don’t underestimate the effectiveness of a well-placed reflector. Sometimes is all a photo job requires, especially when mr. sun is out in full force. Sometimes is just easier to take a hint from the sun and use it’s lighting power to your advantage instead of fighting it. Here is an example, a shoot where I only used a big circle reflector for lighting. I used a gold reflector because I wanted a little more warmth in this series. It was shot mid-day. Click here for that shoot. For this shoot I also had a dedicated assistant holding the reflector just off-camera (required with the floppy circle type).

The Tri Grips are more expensive, but I tell you what… would you rather spend less money on a reflector that you can’t/hate to use, or spend a little more on one that is applicable and usable on your shoots. I do have both kinds, I use them all, and for different jobs. I keep my tri grip in the back of my car, just in case, for spontaneous shoots. Spontaneous usually translates to shooting alone (sans assistant), and I can get away with even holding the reflector myself if I have to.

Do some poking around, read buyer reviews before just picking one, and spend more for an all-in-one.

Dress to impress, dress to perform, or somewhere in the middle. Does the event even call for you to fret over this? What’s the weather like? What’s your gear situation? What’s expect of you? Know your client. It always helps asking the client some details about the event, just to get your head wrapped around the basics, get the feel for things, and you can more confidently make a call. There are a lot of other questions that you need to ask yourself, from the perspective of your job tasks, which will drive your attire as well.

Of course we always want to look nice, but do you see cable guys, professional athletes, or landscapers working in business suits? Obviously not, and that is because they have a job to do. We all know why a professional wears what they do, attire is almost always driven by the job. It would be completely silly to intentionally hinder your work performance by making clothing choices solely based on the idea of trying to visually please other people. These people, who by the way, are not being asked to perform your same job, so let’s not lose that perspective. First and foremost, you have a job to do, a job you’ve been paid to be there to capture to the best of your abilities. This, above all, needs to remain as your primary driving factor for your clothing. I couldn’t imagine finishing a photo shoot and thinking I could have done better if it weren’t for clothing that got in my way, slowed me down, or made me lose focus.

Let’s start with the simple stuff. Casual photo shoots for a family portrait, senior photo, or other work that you might do in your studio or out at a location. Pretty much any other photo gig aside from an event where you might be concerned about guests and formal wear. To me, this is a no holds barred situation, anything goes. I can tell you this, the last thing you’ll find me sportin’ is formal wear. Why, why would I just bluntly toss that statement out there? Let’s look at a typical on-location photo shoot situation for myself, and everything that goes into it, then the answer will be as blatantly clear as my statement.

Trash the Dress shoot - Beach in Maui - shorts, no shirt or shoes

It’s the day of a photo shoot, I’m off to the studio to snag all of the lighting gear needed for the shoot. More or less, that typically ends-up being a full car load (a minimum of 4 lights, stands, cables, power packs, light modifiers, sandbags, oh, and my 60 lb. camera bag). My typical gear set will hover around 200 lbs., fun, right? It all gets bagged-up, packed out to the car, and we are off. By the time my car is packed and loaded, I’m already at least 15 minutes into my day of weighted bends, curls, and lunges (let’s call this the warm-up). Arrive at location, a brisk walk around the location, checking all options. Now it’s unpacking all of that lovely gear, trekking it sometimes up to a quarter mile from the car to the photo spot, and setting it all up. Another 30 minutes of unpacking, setting up, lifting, squats, and I’m ready to shoot. If I’ve made it this far without having busted into a full body sweat, I’m super pumped that I get to meet my clients without giving them a sweating handshake (but this is rarely the case, and I’m sweatier than Shaq after playing a full basketball game. Well, maybe not that bad, but still…). Photographing people at eye level, it’s critical for creating engaging and visually pleasing portraits. At 6’2″, I’m typically taller than my average subject. This means I maintain a squatting position for the duration of my shoot to get eye level with my subjects. When I’m not squatting, I’m usually stomping through bushes, rolling on the ground, climbing on things, whatever I can do to get interesting compositions and angles. When I’m done with a shoot, I usually look like 3 year old who just spent the entire day out on the playground. I’ve got pine needles in my hair, twigs hitchin’ a ride on my back, and God knows what on my knees and shoes. I’m effectively a homeless-looking mess. Oh, but wait, there’s more. There’s all that gear… oh boy… it’s packing time. I sure hope you didn’t think being a photographer was anything close to “glamorous.”

Middle of the horse field, stepping in God knows what

I don’t want this to come across as if it’s a total gear issue. You should be hustling regardless of your gear situation, even if you are only shooting ambient light situations with a single camera and lens. Ducking, squatting, lunging, laying, climbing… give me an action, and I’ve probably done it with a camera stuck to my face. The packing of lots of gear just adds to what should already be a very active job. If you are any good at photographing subjects and events, you should be in the same boat. You know those people you see with a camera, casually walking around with a client, always shooting while standing straight-up, never working the camera or burning one extra calorie to mix-up their composition? Yeah… contrary to popular belief, those are not photographers. These are probably the same people wearing formal clothes for every shoot…

You should be hustling regardless of your gear situation, even if you are only shooting ambient light situations with a single camera and lens.

More often than not, I am wearing shorts, even in the colder months of the year. This allows me to conduct my usual acrobatics without having to pull, adjust, twist, or any other form of correction of pants that tend to happen after only a couple minutes of activity. Ever run more than like a hundred feet in jeans? Yeah, it’s gross. You feel like you need to take a shower asap. I’m not going to knowingly force myself into this situation shoot after shoot. Most importantly, shorts keep the sweaty-Shaq-action to a minimum, and maximize my comfort level so that I can focus on my work. Accompanying my shorts are sneakers and an unrestrictive cotton shirt. I’ll layer the top half with jackets if necessary, but they don’t last long, I’ll be sporting only a t-shirt and shorts outside in December during the middle of a shoot, no joke. There hasn’t been a single portrait shoot where I’ve said, “gee, I wish I had more clothes on.”

Laying in the middle of a downtown Tacoma street

None of what I wear is solely choice, when it comes down to non-formal events, it’s purely a function decision. It’s important that I can work fast, efficiently, and keep focused on my job. I can’t do that in slacks, a dress shirt, and a tie. Aside from the obvious heat issue, the last thing I want on my mind are my slacks and shirt when I go to lay down on the ground or kneel, and if I’m going to ruin nice clothes. It’s a negative domino effect in this situation. I will not get the shots I want, I will not be able to move and position the way I want, and I will not be 100% focused on my work. It would go down something like this… “Here are your photos, Smith family. They suck, but hey, I looked really snazzy while I was taking them, right?!”

No joke, I have jeans that I have worn holes into the knees. A direct result of continually kneeling on photo shoots.

Getting eye level with model in pool.

The photo above is a great example of how just about every shoot goes, and that is something always unexpected happens. Unexpected is always a good thing. Spontaneous ideas feed new, fresh work, and I wasn’t going to let my attire get in the way of fluid thinking. Luckily, I was already wearing shorts, albeit they were not swim shorts. The ride home was a bit on the wet side, but I got the shots I was happy with.

On to the formal events. This is where you need to find a balance between your function as a photographer and the event’s guest-wear. It’s a balancing act that will always differ in importance depending on the event. Fundraisers, performances, weddings, dinners, ceremonies… they can all radically differ in dress, ranging from tux to Hawaiian shirts. Have a convo or two with the client who has hired you about the scope of the event. It’ll probably give you a good idea on attire, but if you need to, it’s not tacky to ask specifically about clothes. They’ll probably appreciate you asking, a sign of professionalism. Honestly, more often than not, your client couldn’t care less about what you wear, cause they are far more concerned about the job you have been hired to conduct.

I tackle formal events with a “blending in” approach. As the photographer, I am there to capture the event. I need to walk around at times when every one else is sitting, duck into places of high visibility, and more or less be the only thing poking around and moving when no one else is. This will naturally draw attention, but you want to minimize that, and similar attire can help with that. I try to blend in with the environment the best I can (this also helps with attempting to capture candid portraits). I received a wonderful comment during a wedding this last summer, from the parents who threw the shindig… They praised the fact that they didn’t even know I was there capturing the event. It spoke volumes to me, as it is very important to me that during such a special event like that, there isn’t a distracting photographer elbowing their way into the middle of the ceremony. I get the photos, they have a peaceful, distraction-free ceremony, and it’s a win-win. The ultimate compliment in that type of shooting scenario.

Even at a “formal” event, I never forget the functionality in which I need to retain for my job. That means I’m sporting a fairly unrestrictive dress shirt, sleeves rolled-up. Pants are a khaki or dark khaki pant, which is cotton-based. This allows minimal motion restriction. I can bend, sit, and run around, etc, and it is a fairly breathable, light pant. Sorry, no ties or really dressy shoes. Regardless the level of dress you decide to commit to, don’t pick anything that reveals sweat, cause you will sweat if you are doing your job right. I remember attending a wedding a couple years ago (as a guest), and the photographer was dressed to the nines. I’m talking slacks, shirt, tie, dressy shoes… the guy even tossed-on suspenders. Really? Anywho, the guy was an absolute sweaty mess, like… just out of the shower, wet. To make matters worse, all of his attire was a light tan, which… well, showed the whole world just how hard he was working. Now which is better? Underdress a smidge and keep your cool (literally) and functionality, or go all-out (knowing exactly what’s going to happen) and end-up looking like the poor sap who was chosen to work the dunk tank at the summer carnival? Can you manage a warmer, more restrictive wardrobe and still be effective at your job? Your call. It’s easier to say “oh well” if you wore the wrong thing for an hour-long event. It’s a little harder to shrug it off if you wore the wrong clothes and are caught in the middle of a 10-hour marathon event, miserable and not focused.

Prone position for steady shots.

There have been plenty of events where I am in “dress clothes” knowing that I’ll be soon feeling like a neglected radiator, but I have to bend enough to blend into the event. There have also been events where tasks required so much physical exertion from me that I almost completely disregarded the event’s dress code (knowing that going in). You must never forget the primary reason for you being there. Take photos, capture the moments, stay focused. You can’t do that sweatin’ balls in restrictive clothing. The next time you are at an event, look at what the photographer is wearing, what they are doing, and how well they are composed and performing.

Have you ever been looking at a set of photographs and thought, “hey this is a very nice set of images… but hey, what was the photographer wearing when they took them?”

Let me ask you something. Have you ever been looking at a set of photographs and thought, “hey this is a very nice set of images… but hey, what was the photographer wearing when they took them?” Pretty silly, right? The only time you are saying to yourself, “what was that photographer thinking?!” would be in reference to really bad photographs, not attire.

Here is a quick checklist that I run through my head for every event that might help you:

• Formality of event.
• Duration of event.
• Environmental conditions – if outdoor, what’s the temp?
• Amount of gear you will be packing around throughout event.
• Anticipated level of walking/running around, squatting, kneeling, etc.

After you’ve done your checklist and feel you’ve selected the right clothes, do another check:

• Range of motion – can you work easily in these clothes? Girls, you know a skirt really limits your available shooting positions, right?
• Blending in – Go with the Goldilocks method here, not to flashy, not too underdressed, just right.
• Shoes – are you wearing shoes that will leave your dogs barkin’ after only an hour or two?
• Are you willing to get these clothes dirty, even if that just means the knees for kneeling shots?

If you are working any lengthy event which is out of town, bring at least an extra shirt and leave it in your car. The last thing I like to do is wear the same shirt I’ve slow roasted and marinated with sweat for 8 hours for another two-hour car ride home.

Some readers might think this post is a bit over the top, as if a photographer’s clothing is nothing to think twice about, “just wear what all the guests are wearing.” I know a lot of folks who always give-in to the pressures of fitting in. I’m sorry, but that is a very poor choice, from a professional performance perspective. The evening’s event will come and go, but your photos will last forever. You have a job to do. Wear what makes sense, and go out and capture awesome photographs.

I spent a day capturing high school students in a number of activities (this series of photos called the “Pride Series”), the photos turned out very well, especially considering the day was a complete run-and-gun operation. I think we teed-up 8 photo shoots during one school day. We’d walk into a new room or sporting location, with never having worked on the photo ideas prior to that moment. Just show up, come up with something real quick, setup lights, pop the photo, pack-up and move on to do it again at another location. The photos received a great response, we made large prints and banners of the photos and hung them in the school. It was predictable that the photos would peak the interests of the high school students, as the photos were of them, however, there was a surprisingly positive response from both the middle and elementary schools. Prints were made for the other schools as well, and the kids loved them. Simply put, the photos did exactly what we wanted them to – generate interest, and ultimately getting the students online, where the website and forum we setup for this project awaited them, and get them talking and involved. You gotta take your information where the eyes are if you want it to be seen, and we all know that today that’s online. 

I decided the next round of photographic efforts should involve well-known community members. Our project had gotten great attention from EVERYONE in Toledo, both students and residents. We were getting feedback that a lot of residents loved what we were doing for Toledo, and wanted to help, they just didn’t know how to help. My thoughts on that… if someone is REALLY interested in doing something, they investigate, search online, visit websites, ask around. If you come up to me and say, “hey, this is a great movement you’ve started in Toledo, and I want to do something, what is it all about, and what can I do?” Well, then you clearly haven’t looked into it, and by default, I’m naturally led to believe you haven’t spent any time looking because you don’t have a true connection with the project. After all, we didn’t start this project just to prompt you to tell us that you “like it.” The whole project was about self-motivation, finding your own unique ways to help Toledo, and our website is very clear about that. Andy and I’s job was to simply inspire, inject/reveal the Toledo pride that had seemed to have gone into a deep slumber. Judging from how the photographs of the students got the students involved in the project, I wanted to take a crack at doing this with the adult residents of the Toledo community. Take photos of them, get them talking, get them involved… involved beyond the point of just asking a question.

We had the kids pumped up and wanting to do things for the town, but resources lay with the adults. Though we had a positive reaction from the adults, I didn’t feel that the resident awareness was even close to where it could be. Enter Project Showcase – Home Series. Focused on adults, for adults, and hopefully the answer to filling the gap between the students and adults. Something to spark the project awareness connection – students and adults alike, they are all a part of the same community. Kids filled with inspiration and ideas to help the community, adults with the resources to make them happen.

This last October, with my car loaded to the gills with photo gear, I travelled back down to Toledo with the residents in my sights. We identified a few community members we wanted to photograph. The concepts were put together in a crude fashion, only knowing the people and the rough locations of the shoots. The basic idea was to hit a few different demographics, lifestyles, etc. to reinforce the idea of diversity even this small town has. Time of day, exact resources, the way the subjects were dressed… none of this was planned (ya know, the things that are pretty critical for a photo shoot). It was very much like the first round of photos with the students, completely shootin’ from the hip. As we finished one shoot, we call the next subject, tell them we are on our way.

It was actually a really amazing day for myself. During the shoots I got the opportunity to converse with the subjects and learn a little bit more about them. I’d have to say the most rewarding part of the day for me was photographing Don Buswell, the older gent you see sitting on the tractor. To put it in perspective, Don is the father of one of my teachers I had while I was in school. Upon arriving to Don’s farm, he was busy making dried apple rings out in one of his sheds. The man is 89 years old, but you wouldn’t know it by the way he lives-out his days running his farm. Not only was this shoot my favorite out of the bunch, but it was also the most natural and unforced. Don first took us into his house where we got into conversation about all of the logging history he had up on his walls (photographs, newspaper cutouts, and maps). Don was heavily involved in the logging business, of course back then it was a boomin’ biz. I love old pictures for a number of reasons. I love the care-free, complete disregard for safety back then, and just overall realness to the photos. A bunch of guys in boots, a pair of jeans, and luggin’ around axes. It made me immediately take more pride in my job (taking photos). Of course I’m so wrapped up in making visually pleasing images, I tend to forget the importance of the documentation element.

I tend to look at photography as a sloping measurement of importance that shifts with time. Visual qualities and documentation being the two major important constants, and time as the variable. The moment the photo is taken, the importance of the photo lay in the visual quality, the photographic execution. As time progresses, all the little photographic details we fret over to make perfect every day when we take photos, tend to fade away. They fade away, leaving only the appreciation of a photo from time. 20 or 30 years after a photo is taken, family members don’t gather around to pour over the lighting execution. They are looking at how young they were, how a building in the photograph doesn’t exist any more, and how different things used to be back then. It’s interesting. I can only hope that all of my efforts I take every day to make photographs that much more powerful translate into making the viewing experience 30 years later a little more enjoyable.

Don and I headed outside, the conversation went something like this:

Don: So what are you wantin’ to do today?
Me: Take your photograph, doing something around the farm.
Don: Ah, hell. You don’t wanna take a picture of me, do ya?
Me: I sure do.
Don: Well… I gotta feed the cows, you want to photograph that?
Me: That would be great.

You don’t have much time to photograph older folks, their patience wore out like 30 years prior, and their poker faces are even worse. This translates to getting about 3 or 4 clicks of the camera in before the apparent discomfort is written all over their face.

I grabbed a light as Don fired up his tractor and pulled it up to the barn, where he kept the hay. 89 years old and this guy is still buckin’ hay bales, amazing. As he was in the barn, I snagged a photo of him. You don’t have much time to photograph older folks, their patience wore out like 30 years prior, and their poker faces are even worse. This translates to getting about 3 or 4 clicks of the camera in before the apparent discomfort is written all over their face. Don did a great job accommodating my rather large camera and light in his face. Better yet, he gave me “him,” and I feel that I got a couple of really genuine photos, albeit they are a bit staged. The very top photo is my fav. Don, on his tractor, loaded with hay to take over to the cows, and he is looking over to another person just off camera right, partaking in light convo. I quickly shot this low angle, loved his body position, and it ended up as this almost heroic pose. Here is the photo one more time. I really enjoyed the hour I spent with Don.

The rest of the photos shoots went about as smooth as possible, considering that lack of prep. This next set of photos are of the Wallace father and son team that run a very busy truck-stop business which sits right on the I-5 strip. This was actually the first shoot of the day, the fog stuck around for an unusually long time that day, hence the blankness of the background. I spent about 15 minutes setting up lights (this shoot was the most complex of the day, involving 4 lights, as I had to light both the people and the trucks for detail). When I was ready, I had the two meet me at the far corner of the fueling station lot. We flagged a couple truckers as they rolled off of the fueling line, asked them if we could steal their trucks for a couple quick shots. Total shoot time on this was 3-5 minutes.

When I thought about doing this photo series, I knew that I wanted to ensure I got a photo of an older couple in a relaxed setting. I wanted to make sure I had a photograph in the set that really spoke to a large demographic of Toledo, which is the elderly community. They are wise, very involved in the community, and most importantly, they care. I wanted to enlist them in the project’s efforts. The Springer couple was elected to be that duo. Highly respected and well-known, Gary Springer was a longtime principle in the Toledo school system – a home run, in terms of a figure to photograph to represent the community. I selected the local park in Toledo for the location this photo would take place. Not only am I trying to show people of the community, I wanted to capture them in very recognizable places of town which would, without a doubt, indicate these photos were taken in Toledo. Again, seeking to find ways to interest people in the project as much as I can.

By the time we got to this photo set, the fog had burnt off, and we had some pretty strong mid-day sun trying to blast it’s way into the photographs. This was another reason I selected the park for this shot, I knew that I could duck out of the sun with the cover of the big trees the park housed. I went for a “unaware camera” look for the couple, as if I wasn’t there, and they were on a casual visit to the park. I shot them in a couple different spots, and we got some good frames.

Not only am I trying to show people of the community, I wanted to capture them in very recognizable places of town which would, without a doubt, indicate these photos were taken in Toledo.

The last shoot of the day was the biggest. The idea of this shot was to use the ONE legit intersection in the middle of Toledo, and fill the photograph with representatives of the community of all ages and occupations. Included is the town cop, mayor, past principle, long-time daycare owner, teachers of different ages, and students from different school levels. The “main” intersection in town even has a light… well, a blinking light. In hindsight, it was a REALLY good idea we incorporated the town police officer, as we caused quite a ruckus. It being a small town, and the shoot taking place on the one main street in town, traffic was a bit of a problem. It seems residents of Toledo have never seen light stands and other photo equipment before, which caused traffic to come to a stop at times. I can say with confidence that we probably generated the first and only traffic jam this town has ever seen, thanks to our shoot (aside from your parades and such). With a group this large, creative photography is kinda tossed out the window, and you just aim for one look, one good frame where everyone has a good look on their face, eyes are all open, and all of my lighting technicalities are working as they should. Below is the resulting frame of the Great Toledo Traffic Jam of 2011.

These photographs were also recently printed as banners in the town of Toledo. We are still waiting to hear of their impact, as things seem to come to a stop during the holiday season. I’m looking forward further progression of Project Showcase, and I’ll share more info as it comes in.

1. Investing in Gear Before Knowledge

Man… this one is a biggie. More often then not, I’m approached by one or more people while I’m working an event, them wanting to talk about how awesome the lens I currently have mounted on my camera is. It’s a gigantic misconception that the bigger and more expensive the camera gear is, the better the photographer will be a their job. If this were true, the guy pictured up above is without a doubt the BEST photographer this world has or ever will know. This misconception not only dwells throughout the general public, but it also bleeds heavily into the photographic community as well. Newsflash, an uneducated photographer will take the same caliber of photos with a $10,000 rig as an equally uneducated photographer with a $500 camera rig. Better yet, a knowledgeable photographer can take that $500 rig and wipe the floor with the dumbass who is holding the $10,000 setup. I’ve seen plenty of fools proudly sporting top-end-super-huge-imagestabilized-not-to-be-out-done gear, but clearly not having the knowledge, as I see their photos from the event a couple days later (and I shake my head and giggle… what a waste). You don’t think you can borrow Eric Clapton’s guitar and play like him when you don’t know a lick of guitar, do ya? How about buying the most expensive hammer Home Depot sells and calling yourself a contractor? Does it matter if the tools which you were suckered into buying are “better” than others if you don’t know how to effectively use them in the first place?

We live in a point ‘n shoot world today, with a camera integrated into just about every device out there that has electricity running through it. Yes, camera manufacturers have done a fabulous job with technology,  wrapping cameras around computers, enabling the average person without any knowledge to take subpar caliber photos. And for the average person that worksout just fine. Very smart of the camera makers to do this, they sell a TON more cameras to the general public, but very stupid of you to think all you need to do is dump money into a camera, get a business license, and POOF you are magically turned into a professional photographer. Think I’m exaggerating? Just read an article the other day that was published by a large news outlet, which the title read ‘Need some extra cash this holiday season? Become a professional photographer.’ It went into detail about how simply buying a camera and offering professional photo services and you are now in the photo biz. Can you believe that? The word “professional” has lost ALL meaning. Like I said, the point ‘n shoot world we now live in is quite delusional, which by the way, also happens to be the same world which lives and dies on consumerism. Think about that for a second. I don’t know if there is a more disrespected, underqualified while oversaturated, undereducated “profession” than photography. Consumerism, we thank you (that would be sarcasm…).

All the gear side requires is money, that’s it. The knowledge side requires time, effort, and a tons of practice and patience.

Investment is like a weight scale – gear on one side, and knowledge on the other. All the gear side requires is money, that’s it. The knowledge side requires time, effort, and a tons of practice and patience. No surprise, the knowledge side will take longer to build. Only an evenly weighted scale will result in full-potential photographs. And no, reading your camera manual, as enlightening as that is, is not an education. With the insane abundance of information added daily via the internet, video, books, and forums, there is no excuse to be lacking in knowledge. Light and ways to capture it is a never-ending, life-long journey of learning. It doesn’t stop after one book, and it definitely doesn’t stop after the purchase of a DSLR or better lens.

Education doesn’t need to be all formal. Again, mountains of information await you online, in workshops, books, videos, and there is no reason you shouldn’t constantly being getting more of it, regardless if you just picked up a camera or you have 5, 10, 20 years experience in photography. It really is a continually evolving skill and understanding. The evolution of technology in this career field is also another important reason to constantly be riding the education train.

2. Seeking Out A “Style”

You hear it a lot, photographers trying to find a style, a “look” to form their photography around. This ultimately leads you to the net and other sources of imagery, where you scour over photos, other photographers, and figuring out what you like and what you want your photography to look like. This approach is completely backwards. It will quickly toss you and your work in a rut, with complete lack of refreshing images, as you are intentionally pigeon-holing your work by forcing it into some preconceived goal (which by the way isn’t your true self’s work). Pull the camera up to your eye and capture what speaks to you… this, this is your style. I’m hoping that you became a photographer to capture life from YOUR perspective, not aiming to be just like someone else and create work just like another photographer. Which quickly leads to the next mistake.

3. Replicating Other Photographer’s Work, Calling It Creative

This is very closely related to the previous “mistake.” If you’ve had your nose in photography for a while, I’m sure you’ve become a fan of a photographer or two. You like their work, their approach, style, the way the write their blogs, etc. A major pitfall people make are seeing photographs they like, which sends them out to recreate the photo. Um, why? And adding insult to injury, these same replicating photographers label themselves as “creative” and “fresh.” Really? We are surrounded by photographers, which is great, as it generates competition, inspiration, avenues to relate and contrast from one another. Use photographers work to analyze techniques and methods to push your OWN work. If you ever find yourself taking images and the photos you are creating remind you of another person’s work, you might want to re-evaluate your approach. I know of photographers while in “discovery” modes will set out to reproduce a photograph they saw to better understand a technique, and that is cool, as they then take it and make a photograph of their own with a sprinkle of what they learned while recreating and discovering things. But! By no means should this “learn by replicating others” be used in your true work with your own clients.

Your photographs should come from inside you, not driven from another photographer’s flickr account. This brings me back to the “style” mistake. Michael Jackson, Elvis, Michael Jordan, Jim Carrey… when these names come to mind I think “original.” They break the molds because they learned from those who came before them and then injected their own 100% completely original self into their passion. In other words, these people didn’t become great because they sought-out to be like anyone else, produce results like anyone else, or worry about having a “style.” They were themselves in the very purest form, and from that they birthed their own style. In my opinion, style can’t be found no matter how hard you look or try. Forcing a “style” will not be style at all. Every time I go out to take photos, I don’t say, “I gotta do this and that and I will have effectively photographed this to my style.” Create imagery that is pleasing to your eye, whatever strikes a chord inside of you at the time, and you have captured exactly what you are seeking – an original style which is 100% you. That is a portfolio worth looking at. Your style will reveal itself when you have captured “you,” and you sit back and flip through your portfolio.

All personal ambition aside, driving yourself to constantly making genuine original photographs will get the attention of clients, and the REALLY good clients. Believe me, you are not going to be getting the amazing clients because you were the one-millionth photographer to “come-up” with the idea of resting heart-shaped hands on a pregnant belly.

Replicating other’s work not only pertains to a particular photo composition, but I also see a lot of people bummin’ editing styles, down-to-the-tee lighting techniques, entire scenarios, etc. from other photogs. Again, emulate others for training, for a better understanding of how to mix a little of it into your own work when it’s finally “go-time,” but please… make original works. Strive to be different, something that deserves all of the titles you use to describe your photography (“professional” included).

4. Over Abundance Of “We” On The Website

Not a giant issue, but I see it all the time – a single business person using the word “we” in-place of “I” all over a photographer’s website. Why? To me, this comes across as you are trying to be something and bigger than you really are, and you are clearly trying to overcompensate for something. If your photo business is more than one photographer, then knock yourself out, use “we” until the cows come home, but if you are a sole photographer… don’t. Stick to using “I,” be proud of “I.” Besides, when read, “we” immediately is less personable, and makes your clients assume they are going to have to deal with a group of people and not necessarily work directly with you. You most likely are a one-man-show, as you’ll be the correspondence, business person, accountant, and photographer. Your clients already know that, and it’s a very personal experience all the way around. Believe me, your clients will appreciate that they only have to deal with one person, it’s easier and you form a better, more lasting relationship.

Don’t confuse this with third-person writing. Sometimes, due to contextual reasons, you may find it easy when composing text for a website, article, event, etc. to write in the third-person (ex. writing your own bio, it can go first or third-person). This should be used in moderation, and obviously things that are automatically designed to be more intimate reading experiences, like a blog, should always be in an “I” context.

5. The “Everything” Photographer Portfolio

Yep, you have a camera, you know how to use it… good for you, but don’t market EVERYTHING. How many clients are looking for a photog that can shoot products, cats and dogs, babies, mountains, bees, cars, an empty train cart on the tracks, your christmas tree, the cheeseburger you are about to eat… (should I keep going)? Sure, most skilled photographers can point a camera at just about anything and captured it decently. You have a love of photography and you like to shoot anything and everything. I’m right there with ya, but you need to understand that when someone is looking to PAY a photographer for a very SPECIFIC job, they are looking for someone who specializes in that area. This shouldn’t be a surprise. Your pretty photo of a bridge with a sunset is NOT going to directly relate to someone who needs their 3-year-old photographed, they’ll go to the photog who has a port full of kid photos.

As a professional, you’ll need to narrow down your spectrum of photo areas (ex. portrait, product, wildlife, landscape, etc), and market to those specific markets if you want good paying clients. Fill your port with ONLY photos of the markets you specialize-in and spend most of your time in. Your BLOG is where you can go wild and crazy with all of the other stuff, share your random photo adventures of your personal interests. Your blog provides your viewers with more perspective on you, get to know you better, and see that you do dabble in other things. You might get a gig or two because they read a blog post about something random you shot, but I wouldn’t hold your breath on it. Paying clients want specialists, your portfolio is the face of your biz, the first thing people should see, and it should be very focused.

I shoot portraiture, my port is filled with ONLY people and their faces. In my blog you’ll find just about anything, but mainly it is still focused on people and topics in that area. I take photos almost every day, a lot of random stuff, and 90% of it will never even see my blog, and there is a reason for that.

6. Lack of Editing Perspective

Post processing, editing, post, whatever you want to call it, there are a lot of people out there doing it wrong. Sure, there is a TON of wiggle room for personal taste and style when it comes to editing, however, there are some very simple rules that seem to escape photographers. I don’t know if it’s a lack of experience or being too wrapped-up in the digital side of the world, but a lot of photographers are not editing for PRINT. Yes, people still PRINT their photos. Of course media outlets like Facebook, email, other websites will utilize digital photos well, but I don’t know if I’ve had a portrait client not print ANY photos from their sessions. “Duh…so, Matt, where are you going with this…”

BLOWN-OUT images… I see more blown-out faces in images than I do “correctly” exposed skin tones in photography on the web. Blown-out, meaning an area of the image that is considered white, no-detail in those areas. Do you edit your images like this? If so, you probably haven’t seen a terrible amount of your photos in print. Why can I safely assume this? Because blown-out faces in print look like crap, and if you knew you were delivering that to your paying clients, you’d definitely change your editing approach.

You need to edit for the world, not your own computer screen. What looks good on your computer might look like crap in print, or even other people’s computers. A couple things to get you started: calibrate your monitor (need to buy a hardware/software combo, like Spyder), and order some prints from the print shops you send your client’s photos to so you can see what your edits look like as far as color/saturation/exposure. You should be using editing software that can tell you right away if you have loss of detail in the highlight areas of your photos, use that function, spot check all of your images.

Additional advice would be to make edits to a photo shoot and then walk away from your computer, or move onto something else, and then come back the next day and see if you still like the edits you made (all the way down to white balance, contrast, etc). Especially if you are fresh to bulk editing, chances are, you’ll want to re-edit a lot of your tweaks. Repeat this process until you can come back to the photos and not want to change anything. After you’ve done this process for a bunch of shoots, you’ll have a better hang of it and have the confidence to edit and export a shoot in one sitting.

7. Neglected Blog

Holy cow, this speaks so poorly for your biz. If you decide to have a blog, you gotta take care of the thing. It’s just like when you buy a puppy for your kids, you know you are going to have to take care of it. It IS a lot of work, so know that going in. It’s better to NOT have a blog if you can’t keep it updated. This doesn’t mean you need to update it every day, but if you are not making at least a couple posts a month, just X the whole idea, kill the thing, and put it out of it’s misery. The whole point of a blog is to generate new content to keep your visitors coming back for fresh/new content and info. Portfolios are usually only updated every few months (at best), so the only reason for returning visitors is to view your blog. If people keep coming back to see what’s new on your blog, and it doesn’t change visit after visit, you are sending a couple bad messages. One, you don’t have a lot of work. Two, you are lazy.

Additionally, if you do write a blog, then WRITE in it. I see a lot of photographer blogs which are pretty much photos with 1-3 sentences stuffed in the post. Really? Way to NOT make an effort. Your photos that are worth showing-off should already be in your portfolio, so unless you have something to say about your photos (like a story, the challenges for a shoot, the gear you used, something interesting), don’t write a blog. Without meaningful writing to go along with your blog, it’s just a duplicate, hard-to-navigate second portfolio.

If you decide to have a blog, you gotta take care of the thing. It’s just like when you buy a puppy for your kids, you know you are going to have to take care of it.

Of course there will be times that simply get so hectic that your blog can get a little sparse on updates at a couple points in the year, but one or two or six month gaps in your blog are unacceptable. Take care of your puppy or give it away.

8. Generic And Free Websites

Can you say “CHEAP!?” The very FIRST thing that pops in my head when I see a free website, a generic/mass public domain name, and a gmail contact address is “cheap.” Web and email services are dirt cheap any more (like ~$100 bucks a year for everything), so there are no excuses to not make the jump and get personalized domain names, website services, and email accounts. You are asking your  clients to “invest” a lot of money into your services, yet you can’t do one of the most basic things and stand-up a professional web presence? Who needs to do the investing? You don’t know how to set this up? Simple, hire someone. Yes, being a digital photographer curbs a lot of the expenses other career fields have to take-on, but that doesn’t mean you can’t spend a little money on your biz. If you want to be taken seriously, establish a serious web presence, get a custom-made site, ya know… something that took more time and effort than registering your name on a free website host. This goes for blogs too, get a custom install on your web hosting space, this will allow you to run it the way you want.

Even worse are the photographers who think a standalone website is unnecessary, or they don’t want to put in the work to make it. They rely on Facebook, Flickr, and smugmug to present their business. Let’s not get into this train wreck any further, but let’s point out that you are clearly not serious about your biz, so don’t expect anyone else to see it any differently.

9. Sparse Contact Info

The almighty contact form. It’s great, simple, and makes it easy for people to send you a message. But what if they wanted to call you or even want your email address to send a direct email? Are you really going to require them to send you a message before they are privy to your phone number? Yes, it sucks that the web is stuffed full of bots sniffing through every inch of the web, snatching-up any piece of info they can, and it’s not an awesome feeling that someone might snag your personal info. There are tricks around this. Bots can read info on plain text, meaning information on a jpeg is just a jpeg, and they can’t read it. Keep your contact form, but put your contact info in an image and add it to your contact page. Like this (click here). This will provide information clients will want to have. Give your clients a reassuring feeling by not hiding behind a form.

I know that we have all had issues at some point in life and we’ve hopped-on the web to find contact info to quickly contact a business. How maddening is it when there is no other contact info than a careless form for you to submit? No name, address, number, or direct email. If you are in a hurry and need info quick, you don’t even bother with the form, do ya? People visiting your site will do the same thing, just keep that in-mind.

10. It’s A Digital Business, It’s Cheap

This is on the fringes of the ‘website’ topic, but goes way further. Not only should you be able to pony-up the clams for a proper web presence, but so many other things. Yes, a lot of your business “lives” on the web, but it all ultimately comes back to the physical world. A healthy and reliable computer, professional-grade software tools, a backup solution for all of your digital files, renting studio space or access to indoor locations during bad weather (or in the PNW’s case, bad half of the year), the countless number of lights and accessories, the list goes on. Business operations have changed in the last few years, social networks have made marketing a truly free avenue, as you can reach just as many people as the most powerful companies in the world using tools like Facebook. Starting a digitally-based outfit doesn’t change a lot of the upfront costs to run a healthy business, it just takes a lot of the long-term operating risk out of the equation (which should further reinforce your want to “go for it”). It’s not like the film days with development, today pixels are free.

Final Thoughts

If you ask me, the “mistakes” spelled-out in-detail above, all come back to the first one – lack of knowledge and the false sense that owning nice equipment is the answer to a successful and well-ran, well-represented biz. I’ve just scratched the surface here with this list, but I wanted to keep it basic. If you are guilty of a couple of these, it’s a sign that you have not properly invested in yourself and your biz. If you want to be taken seriously as a photographer, you need to take it seriously, just as any other business owner out there (expect to get what you put into it). In my eyes, someone who understands and practices all of the above, yet only has an entry-level DSLR and kit lens is YEARS AND LEAPS ahead of the other guy who could afford a $10,000 camera setup and didn’t take in-account he’d actually have to invest time and money in knowledge and the rest of the biz (and this gap will only widen with time). Of course, attending a workshop or two, reading books, watching videos, and getting your questions answered should have patched-up most of these “mistakes” already.

This new setup provides a very thorough porfolio page, allowing you click on any photo to reveal more photos from that shoot, should you be more interested in seeing more. There are a lot more bells and whistles that this wordpress template provides that I have not yet leveraged. Maybe some day down the road…

I’ve gotten the 50 or so most recent blog posts properly fitted to the new theme, with the remaining post getting polished-off in the next day or so.

Enjoy the new site. Happy viewing and reading.

Beginner Workshop Video

Advanced Workshop Video