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 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? And, unless you're a gynecologist, in what other
profession can you ask a magnificently beautiful girl (or guy,
depending upon your outlook:) who you've only just met, to take
off her clothes, and have her do so quickly and happily? Huh?
AND get paid for doing it! Damn, I love photography! :-) BTW,
no matter what your models may look like, always tell them they're
beautiful/handsome; it makes them feel good about themselves,
helps them loosen up for the camera, and is absolutely true -
everyone has beauty, if only we have the eyes to see it. And
therein lies the secret of every great photographer: he/she has
developed the "photographic vision," the eyes to see
the beauty in everything.
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 truly 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
(along with the admiration of your friends and family). And at
best, becoming a successful photographer means fame, fortune,
and 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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