Good Glass is More Important

One of the things that new photographers battle with is gear purchasing. Many photographers on a budget, especially while in school have a hard time deciding on how to buy the gear they need.

One of the primary things new photographers needs to remember is although it’s nice to have the latest, greatest camera bodies, it’s not as much of a necessity as high quality glass. Whether you are a Canon or Nikon shooter, each company has different varieties of glass with different levels of quality, but this is where you should be spending your money as a new photographer. This first image I shot on Sunday March 5, 2017 at the Folds of Honor QuickTrip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. I did NO post processing, this image is straight out of my camera using the older Canon EF 100-400mm F/3.5 - F/5.6 L USM lens.

Camera bodies get updates almost every year, but lenses change less frequently and when it comes to camera bodies, unless the new model has some new technology that you absolutely need for your photography, you are better off spending your hard earned money on high quality glass. The reason for this is although Canon’s L lenses are really expensive, you can keep using the glass for a long time to come as it doesn’t become majorly outdated in just a couple years.

Even though Canon released a newer 24-70mm F/2.8 Mk II L IS or a new 85mm F/1.2 L USM, many pros are still shooting with the original models as they still take fantastic photos. I know when you look at say the 70-200mm F/2.8 L USM Mk II can sell for $2,000, you can often find the original one used in great condition for $900 and it will still work and make great images for years to come so you are going to get more out of that lens than you will $900-$2,000+ for a new camera body. This second image of Dale Jr's car being pushed from the garage to the pit area for the start of the race I captured with my 50mm F/1.2 L USM lens and again, NO post processing other than the lens profile correction in Lightroom.

There are many sites where you can buy good or even great condition previous model L lenses from reputable companies like KEH, Adorama, or B&H. If you are up on your lens knowledge you can also get good deals on Craigslist or eBay as well. If you want to try out a lens before you buy or be able to use one before you can afford to buy you can go ti sites like Kitsplit or Lumoid.

So, remember, before you spend that tax refund on a new camera body, look at buying newer, high quality glass for your current camera body and you will be amazed at how much better your images can be with high quality glass.



Comments/Questions

New iPhone 7 Plus Portrait Mode

Back in the fall of 2016 when Apple announced the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus they also talked about a new camera mode for the iPhone 7 Plus only, called Depth of Field Portrait Mode.

Using this new mode on the 7 Plus’ camera, you can shoot a portrait and have the great “bokeh” effect for the background while the subject is in sharp focus. At the time it was mentioned that the new mode would only work when the iPhone’s camera recognized a face, so it would only be useful for human portraits. I am happy to say that now that Apple has actually released this feature via software update that it actually works quite well even on objects.

Tiki character shot with Depth of Field Effect on iPhone 7 Plus

This past weekend I went out shooting with my photography club and I decided to try out this new Depth of Field Effect mode on my iPhone 7 Plus. During our photowalk we went to Constitution Lakes Park in Dekalb County, Ga. A man that did volunteer work at this park found a pit full of trash and decided to start using the trash to make art.

One of his pieces is a Tiki character attached to a fallen tree and when I spotted it, I thought it would be an interesting subject to test the new portrait mode on the iPhone 7 Plus camera system. As you can see in my attached photo, the new mode does work quite well even though my subject is not an actual person.

Fire Hydrant shot with the Depth of Field Effect in Sparta, Ga

 On Sunday I was out shooting for my Forgotten Pieces of Georgia series and stopped in Sparta, Ga to shoot some video of this small town which is turning into a ghost town. Before filming, I spotted a rusty old fire hydrant and decided to test the iPhone 7 Plus camera again and again it worked quite well with the bokeh effect.

Last weekend I was also visiting the family of my girlfriend Janice and while there, I used my iPhone 7 Plus to snap a photo of their hummingbird feeder using the new portrait mode.

Hummingbird feeder shot on iPhone 7 Plus

 If you have an iPhone 7 Plus, I encourage you to give it a try and see what kind of images you can create. It cannot replace your DSLR, but you can make some interesting images with this new tool in your bag.

Comments/Questions

Another Way to Improve Post Processing Performance

This week I want to write another article on ways to improve your post processing workflow from a performance standpoint. You'll remember I wrote a blog post about tweaks for Lightroom, well today's post will not only speed up Lightroom, but also Photoshop and anything else you are using for Post Production. How can I be certain this will enhance EVERYTHING you say, well because for my day job, I am an I.T. Professional of 25 years.

Some of you may or may not have heard of SSD's also know as Solid State Disks or Solid State Hard Drives, but you may not be sure what they are or how they can benefit you as a photographer. Well an SSD, unlike a conventional hard drive has no moving parts, there are no metal platters inside and no head that reads them similar to an old record player.

Crucial 500GB SSD MX 200 series

 A Solid State Drive is basically a giant memory card, so it can read and write data insanely fast compared to a conventional hard drive which can only read and write at the speed that it's platters spin at. When SSD's first came out 5-10 years ago they were extremely expensive as most anything in electronics or computers, but over time, they become more and more cost effective in comparison to their platter counter-parts.

How will an SSD speed up your Post Processing and workflow? Well, the latest SSD's are capable of reading and writing data at 6GB/s, that's 6 Gigabits per second compared to platter drive which can only write at upwards of 15,000 Bits per second and that's only if you buy the expensive SAS drives, which are usually used more in servers than home computers.

I went this weekend and bought a used Mac Mini Server as a second computer and bought a 2012 model as it is the last year Apple made them user upgradeable, allow you to add more RAM and to easily swap out the hard drive from the old style platter model that only ran at 5,200 RPMs. I then went to Microcenter and bought a nice Crucial MX200 series 500GB SSD in 2.5 inch form factor. The Crucial is the best in SSDs and they have been one of the leading makers of system memory for decades, so it only stands to reason that they would also make the best SSD's since, again, an SSD is nothing more than a massive memory card that plugs into the hard drive ports on your computer and doesn't erase when the system is rebooted or powered off like RAM does. The model I bought it 500GB @ only $149 and will allow either a Windows or Mac based system to boot from cold start to the desktop in 7-15 seconds!

Crucial 500GB SSD plugged into a Windows PC

An SSD will also allow your applications to load hundreds of times faster such as Lightroom, Photoshop, or even Apple Final Cut Pro X video editing software which I use for my DJI Phantom 3 Professional videos. Ever seen that dreaded hourglass or spinning beach ball in Window or Mac? Well kiss them goodbye with an SSD as those kinds of things never happen again. Even though your Windows machine will still need to be defragmented now and then, image your Defrag only taking minutes instead of hours.

Now I am sure a lot of you are thinking, "How can I get this in my current system?" Well if you are handy with a screwdriver, most people can replace a hard drive themselves and then just restore your Operating System and applications from backups or do a clean install. A Windows 10 install that can take an hour or more on a conventional hard drive can be installed on an SSD in 15-20 minutes! If you don't have the stomach for this work yourself, find a local computer shop that will swap out the drives for you for a reasonable fee. If you do decide to tackle it yourself, Google how to do it as many videos exist on YouTube that will show you step by step how to do it yourself.

Trust me, once you've gone to SSD, you'll never go back to an old style hard drive again and you'll certainly appreciate the boot in speed when doing your Post Production.

Comments/Questions

Don't Let Social Media Stifle Your Creativity

Social media sites like Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, 500px.com and others can be a great way to share you work as a photographer, but they are not the end all be all. Many times photographers get discouraged with the results they find on these sites, especially if they don't receive a large amount of "Likes" or "Shares" or "Favorites".

These responses are not an accurate gauge of your creativity or ability as a photographer, they are more the results of Social Media popularity contests. I have talked to and see so many photographers become discouraged with these platforms because they don't gets tons of "Likes" or "Shares", they think their work is not good enough or that no one likes they creative flare.

When it comes to your art and your work, you have to be the one true judge of your creativity and always strive to try new things and think outside the box. I can personally tell you from experience that I have posted photos on 500px.com and even on Facebook that got very little attention, but that same photo on EyeEm.com and Getty Images is selling like hotcakes.

Tybee Island Sunrise - Not liked at all of Social Media, sold 50 copies on Getty Images

 On the other hand, images I have posted that got scored really high or gotten lots of "Likes" and "Shares" didn't sell at all even though they were fantastic images and very creative and visually pleasing. The point is you are the best one to determine your best work and you can also get a more professional, objective opinion from your professors while you are still in college or from other professionals you are friends with or network with in the real world.

Social Media sites and platforms can be great for getting your work out there and noticed by a wider audience of people and perspective clients, but if you go into Social Media with the wrong mind-set, it can also suck the life out of you creatively. I find that a good way aside from the ones I mentioned a moment ago to have your photos honestly critiqued is to join some of the larger photography groups on Facebook that have been around for a while and have a large number of pros and seasoned hobbyists that are very active on there.

I personally created a Photography Twitter account that is totally separate from my personal one and have picked up quite a few professional photographers as followers and some of them are even nice enough to talk to me on there via Direct Message on a regular basis and are even kind enough to give me honest feedback on my work that I post there all the time. Some of your more famous photographers like Chase Jarvis and Zack Arias won't give you the time of day on there and most of them won't even answer emails either but there are still some pros out there that are more than happy to talk to you and even critique your work, such as Jared Polin from FroKnowsPhoto.com, Josh Schmidt from PhotoTipsHQ.com, Ken Rockwell from www.kenrockwell.com and Leigh from www.snapchick.com.

Wall of Light - Got tons of Likes and Shares, was used by AI for publications, never sold a copy

 I have also had personal exchanges by email with David Hobby and Scott Kelby as well, but they are a bit harder to catch up with as they are always so busy and get so much email, and I have never felt like bother either one of them for a photo or portfolio review/critique.

The point I am trying to make is you cannot let these sites pull you down and make you second guess your abilities or creative abilities as a photographer or artist. Take most of the response you get on Social Media with a grain of salt, I don't even let myself get overly excited when people gush over my work posted on there, but I do make sure I always thank them for their comments.

Comments/Questions

How to Make Your Camera Battery Last Longer

Most cameras these days can take quite a few photos on a single charge, but this week I am going to share some tips for getting more life and more shots out of the camera’s battery.

1.) GPS - This is a unique feature that a lot of new cameras have these days, but unless you need to tag your location during a shoot, keep this item off. In the course of a day, GPS can drain up to 20% on your battery.

2.) WiFi - Again this is another neat feature to have on a newer model camera, but unless you need to actually use it, keep it off. The last thing you need your camera doing during a shoot is constantly hunting for WiFi networks.

 3.) Sleep Mode - This is a nice item that is on most camera’s menus. Setting the sleep mode to the lowest time possible will allow your camera to save battery life in between shots and the camera wakes pretty much instantly when you press a button. Turning your camera on and off all the time doesn’t really extend the battery life any more than Sleep Mode but it takes a bit to boot back up and you could miss a shot.

4.) Review Time - If you are skilled at using your camera, you can set the lowest possible review time. I personally don’t use the Review at all on my cameras, and most Pros don’t either.

5.) Continuous Focus - Don’t use this if you don’t need it. It can make shooting harder if you need to recompose, but if you are shooting objects that are not moving, it just drives the focus motor constantly and drains the battery.

6.) Image Stabilization - This feature is very handy at have in your camera system at times, but if shooting on a tripod, it can actually impose movement where there should be none.

7.) Live View - Live view is one of the biggest battery drains on a camera system. The viewfinder is there for a reason, photographers got by for centuries without Live View.

8.) Silent Mode - If you don’t need it for the shooting you are doing, turn it off. My EOS 6D has two silent shooting modes and I love to use them when photographing wildlife as even the newest cameras have some clacking when taking photos. If I am shooting a car show or portraits, I turn it off to save battery life.

9.) Built-in Flash - I am not even sure why any cameras come with this these days because they are a huge battery hog, their performance is crap, so why bother put them on cameras to begin with?

10.) In Camera Post Processing - Again, not sure why cameras even have this as you can do a way better job with Lightroom or Photoshop.

11.) Focus Beep - It does not consume a huge amount of battery life but adds up over time and the beeps are annoying anyways.

12.) Light Optimizer and Noise Reduction - Again, not sure why either of these are in cameras to begin with and you can do a better job in your post production software.

13.) RAW + JPG - I know some people like having this ability but you are writing double images every time you press the shutter so you know this is sucking up memory.

Once you’ve turned these all off, you should see anywhere from a 20% even upwards of 40% increase in battery life and total shots you can take per charge.

Comments/Questions

Back Button Focus

This week I want to talk about a better way to use your AutoFocus on your camera. By default you already know that pressing your shutter button halfway down is how you get your AF lock. The problem is, if you release your shutter, your camera then needs to reacquire focus when you press the button down again. There is an easier way to get your focus and keep it and that method is called Back Button Focus.

The button in this shot circled in white is the one I like to use for BBF on my EOS 6D

Back Button Focus is when you program your camera in the menu to use a button on the back of the body to achieve focus instead of the shutter button. The advantage of this is you don’t lose your previous focus lock when you release the shutter button and then have to reacquire it again to take your next shot. Canon was the first camera builder to add BBF to their bodies back in 1989 and every camera has had it since that time.

To set up BBF on your Canon camera, go into the menu and look for “Metering Start/Meter+AF Start, which I know sounds confusing but that is the option you want. Most photographers that use BBF like myself will us the AF Lock button on the back of the camera. I switched to BBF about a year ago and I personally would not go back to using the shutter button and most pros will tell you the same.

On a Nikon it’s a bit more straight forward in the menu but varies from model to model, but you want to use the AE-L, AF-L button on the back for your BBF, yeah that button that you never use. Now that you know how to set up and use Back Button Focus, give it a try I think once you get used to it you will like it better than using the shutter button.


Comments/Questions

Do NOT Shoot for Free "Exposure"

One of the things that photographers get asked a lot is “Can I use your photographs for free and give you “exposure”?

This is always a bad idea and I understand that as a new photographer starting out, you might think, “Why not, I want to becomes known”?

The reason you should NOT let people or especially companies use your work for free “exposure” is it hurts the market for every photographer that is out there trying to make a living in this chosen profession.

One of my photos I had a company ask if they could use for free

A lot of times, the client wanting to use your photos will used the excuse that they cannot afford to pay you for your work, which is usually a lie, they just want something for nothing. I remember recently reading an article by David Carson, who is a professional photographer for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch where CBS News actually asked him if they could use some of his incredible photos for free.

David, as you can imagine, was insulted. CBS News is a multi-billion dollar company and they didn’t want to pay him for his work, they expected him to let them use his photographs for free for “exposure”.

It’s so funny how people and companies think photographers should work for free, but they would not do the same thing if you asked them to work for free or “spec”. A few months back I watched a great video put out by an ad agency named Zulu Alpha Kilo titled “Say No to Spec”. This morning I saw the same video re-shared by LightStalking so I thought it would make a good subject for this week’s blog post. You can view their video here.

So, remember, next time someone asks you to work for free “exposure” or spec, just tell them No and send them the link to this video.

Comments/Questions

Hosting Your Own Photography Site

This week I want to shift gears a bit as some students have asked about hosting their own photography sites. I know there are many sites out there like Squarespace, SmugMug, ZenFolio, etc that cater to photographers, but most of them are expensive and some even take a percentage of your sales, even though you pay them monthly or yearly for hosting your photography site.

Some students and new photographers have asked about hosting their own photography site and how they could do it. Well I have done exactly that and I am writing this post to share with you the reader. I was using SmugMug, which is an awesome site, but again, expensive at around $30 a month, plus they take a percentage of your print sales or digital sales. In the year I was using them, I only sold around $100 or so, so it was NOT cost effective to use them. I decided to switch to hosting my own site, since I already had hosting with GoDaddy for my personal blog site.

Fluxus

GoDaddy charges me around $200 a year for hosting but I have my own server, I can use as much bandwidth and storage as I want and I can host as many domains as I want. I then went and researched self-hosted site templates and determined that they best way forward was WordPress as their are some companies that make awesome photography templates for WordPress that will even let you sell your images and get paid via PayPal, Square and a few other payment systems. The nice part about doing things this way it you don’t lose any of your money. If I sell a print via my site, the lab that makes the print takes their payment, and I get ALL of the rest of the money!

There are two really good photography themes or templates for WordPress, one is called Photocrati and the other one is called Fluxus. Both of themes are awesome, Photocrati offers e-commerce integration, where Fluxus does not at this time, but Fluxus is a bit easier to work with and you can even use both, since in my opinion Fluxus has a better portfolio options and then use a sub-domain running Photocrati to sell your prints and downloads.

Photocrati

The tricky part about hosting your site yourself, is you need to know WordPress, which takes time to learn well, or you can hire someone who is a WordPress expert to do it for you and once set up, maintain the content yourself. WordPress also has tons of both free and paid plugins for SEO, Caching to make your site faster, etc.

I don’t want to make this article too long so I will close here but now you have something else you can consider, especially when starting out and money is tight.  If you want to check out my site, just pop on over to Liam Photography

Comments/Questions

Simplicity

A lot of photographers suffer from equipment paralysis. By that I mean they buy too much gear, especially too many lenses and drag too much gear with them out in the field, then they spend all their time thinking about their gear, their settings, etc and none of their time concentrating on their images. What happens then? They end up with crappy photos over and over again, and then keep buying more gear thinking more gear will make they images better.

Next time you go out to shoot, try taking only 1 or at most 2 lenses with you. This should be all you need and you will spend more time concentrating on your images and less time thinking about your gear and your settings.

I challenge myself and the members of my camera club all the time to go out on our monthly shoots and only take one lens to do all their shooting. Move closer or further away as the case may be to get the shot and the framing you need to make that awesome image.

The weekend I went to Ian Henderson's Antique Mall, I shot with nothing but my Canon EF 50mm F/1.4 USM

There is an old analogy I learned when I was a kid called K.I.S.S (Keep It Simple Stupid). A lot of professional photographers have learned to keep their gear streamlined and that is how they become so successful. I remember reading on SLRLounge I believe it was about a year ago about one of the most successful wedding photographers in NYC. He shoots ALL of his weddings with a pair of Canon 1Dx bodies and never uses more than a EF 70-200mm F/2.8 L IS USM and an EF 135mm F/2 L USM portrait lens and this pro makes 6 to 7 figures a year shooting weddings!

When asked during the interview why he used such a small amount a gear he said, “To be honest in most cases a photographer seldom needs more than a good 70-200mm F/2.8. It’s the number one lens sold for a reason. I also use the 135mm F/2 L USM because it creates amazing portraits with fantastic bokeh, which is something the majority of brides want in their wedding photos.”

Thinking and a simplified approach to gear is why real pros can shoot with anything, even and iPhone and take amazing photos.

Comments/Questions

ImagingUSA 2016

This week I wanted to write briefly about last weekend’s Imaging USA 2016 event put on by PPA here in downtown Atlanta.

Welcome banner at ImagingUSA 2016

Imaging as some of you may or may not know is a huge annual photography convention put on that draws huge crowds and the largest companies in the world of photography and photo equipment.

Companies such as Canon, PhaseOne, Millers, Denny’s were there as well as Tamron, Sigma and many others. Speakers included Julianne Kost from Adobe, Lindsay Adler, Sue Bryce, Landon Day, and Ty Fischer just to name a few.

Sigma Photo Art Lens banner

 There were tons of new photography tech items there such as an item called the Ice Light, which can be used for portraits and is nice and portable and can actually be held by the model wherever the photographer needs lighting. Another company, GroWing had a newer invention called the Lens Flipper, that allows you to attach two of your lenses to either side of this device and quickly switch lenses in the field while shooting.

Just a small sample of the crowd waiting to get into the expo opening day.

The expo had tons of things to see and do and plenty of give-a-ways going on every day as well. I was lucky enough to win a few 8 x 10 metal print from AdroamaPix as well as a free phonebook from another print vendor.

I didn’t not get to take in any of the speakers or spend as much time as I would have liked because of the car accident I was in back in October and still having a lot of back and neck pain, but I had volunteered to help out and didn’t want to leave them in a lurch so to speak.

Imaging USA is certainly something I highly recommend everyone take in at least once. If you are a photography student, you can sign up as a student volunteer and get to attend the entire event for free with a full access pass and attend all the lectures you want during your downtime. Volunteers are generally only scheduled to work 2-5 hours a day so you can take in a LOT.

Next year’s Imaging USA will be in San Antonio, TX January 8-10th, 2017.

Comments/Questions

A New Year, New Opportunities

With the start on Friday of the 2016 calendar year we are faced with new opportunities as photographers. This is a good time to reflect on the past year and what worked, what didn’t and what you can do to change things up in the New Year.

Maybe you have an idea for a new personal project, or want to have your first exhibit of your work in a local gallery. Now is the time to be making those plans and working on making them reality.

As photographers, we must alway be learning new things, trying new things and challenging ourselves to be better, more creative and more business minded if we want to do this as our chosen career. Don’t let yourself get caught up in the hype of new camera gear coming out in 2016 with new bells and whistles, remember my earlier blog post about it not being about the camera.

Build on the the skills you know, become a master at what you do, but also learn new things. Don’t let yourself become stuck in a rut only doing one or two things when it comes to photography. You need to learn to be versatile and ready to tackle anything new head on.

One of the things I want you to avoid in 2016 is changing gear unless it’s absolutely necessary to your business. I have read article after article on pros who have started out on Canon or Nikon and sold all they had and switched to the other, or to Fuji, or Sony, only to eventually switch back. It’s a total waste of money to do silly things like this, so unless you have tons of cash to burn, don’t do it.

Generally, you are better off once you choose the system you are going to work with, to master it and stick with it. If you invest tens of thousands of dollars in bodies and lenses and then decide to switch systems, you have to sell all your gear at a loss because it’s used and buy all new again. Stick with what you have and learn to make it work for what you need.

You did’t originally choose the platform with the best high ISO, low light capabilities, then get better glass, like F/2.8 or wider lenses to compensate for that. Better glass is always a sound investment as you can use it over and over again for years on body after body.
For me personally, since I was side-lined by a bad car accident in October, I am dedicating my time and energy into drone photography for now. With my back messed up, I cannot walk a lot or stand for hours shooting right now, so I am learning and studying drones as a platform. I have already been working with three different systems to learn and train on and will be buying my first DJI Phantom 3 this coming week, so look for more articles and posts on my work with this new aerial platform in the coming weeks and months.

I can work with the drone platform, especially the Phantom 3 platform as it has the most intelligent systems of any drone on the market for photography. It can be set to basically fly itself so I can concentrate on operating the camera to capture great stills and stunning videos. All while sitting fairly comfortably in a chair, allowing my back to heal from my surgeries.

So, for 2016, I want you to get out there and take the bull by the horns and move yourself forward as a professional photographer and business owner. Expand your horizons, learn new skills, make your clients happy and LOVE what you do!

Comments/Questions

Drones and FAA Registration

So this weekend I wanted to write about something a little different, drones. Drone have become more and more popular especially in photography because they offer a unique new perspective, allowing photographers to photograph from up high or in areas hard to reach by foot.

One of the most popular drones for photography these days are the DJI Phantom series and with good reason. The company that makes this particular drone has done everything in their power to make their drone the most intelligent model on the market. With smart take off and landing capabilities, “follow me” the ability to upload pre-determined way-points for the drone to follow, they have made flying this model kind of “idiot-proof”, so that you can concentrate on taking amazing photos or videos and not worry about keeping the drone in the sky and stable.

Now, of course with drones and their ability to go and photograph basically anywhere, they have caused some controversy, especially when it comes to people’s personal privacy and where drones should and should not be allowed to go and photograph or shoot video. So, now the FAA has stepped in and set up rules and guidelines for the use of drones, also known as Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) for short. For now, the FAA has set up registration for drones that are being used for hobby only via their website. For those that use them for business, you need to obtain a special exemption as they will not have the complete rules, regulations and registration system in place for business use until mid-2016.

Now as far as registration is concerned, it is officially open as of Monday December 21st, 2015 and is fairly basic. All you have to supply to the FAA is your name, address and email address. No information on the make or model of your drone or drones. When you register, you will receive a unique FAA ID number that you must put on ALL of your drones so that they can be identified. They will also email you a certificate that you MUST carry on you at all times when operating your drones, either a printed copy in your wallet, or the ability to pull up the digital copy on your smart phone or tablet is fine as well. The registration is only $5 for three years and if you register by January 20th, 2016, the $5 fee is refunded.

Under the new UAS laws and regulations, you cannot legally fly your drone without having it registered first, to do so you face up to nearly $300,000 in fines and 3 years in prison. Your drone only has to be registered if it falls between the weights of .55 pounds to 55 pounds. You can read more information on the rules and register your drone here,
FAA UAS Registration Page there is also a PDF document with some of the most common models of drones listed and whether or not they meet the registration guidelines.

So, now that you know more about drones and the new FFA registration and rules, get out there and makes some awesome aerial photos and videos and be sure to post them on PSPN!

Comments/Questions

Ways to Improve as a Photographer

This week I want to post ways that I think we need to use to always grow and improve as photographers.

Railroad crane shot at Southeastern Railway Museum

 1. Stop posting on photography forums. Too many times when lots of photographers post to the same forum the work starts to look too much alike. We want to always strive to be fresh and different.

2. Begin looking at art sites more often. Don’t always just look at photography sites, spend more time looking at art in other mediums for inspiration.

3. Start going to more museums and traveling exhibits, this is another excellent way to get inspiration.

4. Read and look at classic and contemporary art books.

Prayer bowls at Laotian New Year's 2014

 5. Force yourself to use a different lens each time you shoot. Often we get stale in our photography if we use the same lens all the time as we tend to always shoot the same kind of stuff.

6. Purposely stop taking the same kinds of shots when out in the field, recognize your habits and try to break them.

7. Start personal art projects, even if they aren’t popular with others.

8. Keep your eye on new technology, software and hardware, even if it’s not directly photography related. There might be a way you can use this new tech in your art.

9. Use your smartphone as a whiteboard to spitball ideas and possibly catch ideas and subjects that maybe you had not thought of before.

10. Ask “what if ___?” a lot and try to use your curiosity to come up with fresh, new ideas and projects to shoot.

I, and many others, find lists like this a great way to keep our work fresh and new at all times. Sometimes as artists, we hit a rut and then have a hard time coming up with new ideas for our creative outlet. By keeping a list like this handy, hopefully, we can always continue to come up with new things to shoot and work on and always keep things fresh and new.


Comments/Questions

Scott Kelby's WorldWide PhotoWalk

This week I want to invite everyone to participate in the Scott Kelby WorldWide Photo Walk.

Scott Kelby puts on this photowalk every year for the last few years and it’s basically a chance to get together with other photographers, walk around a downtown area and just shoot. It has a secondary purpose of raising money for The Springs of Hope Orphanage in Kenya.

The walk generally starts at 10am and lasts just 2 hours and then the photographers usually have lunch at a local restaurant or pub. I personally feel it’s a great opportunity to shoot and socialize with other photographers in my area and many of my photo club’s members are participating this year.

After the shoot, you can upload your best photo to the Photo Walk site and have it judged for possibly winning a prize and you can share all your images on the Walk’s Flickr page as well.

The walk in my area is lead by a local pro photographer in the Covington, GA area and is the only one really close to me as they only allow 50 photographers per group and the ATL one always fills up fast. Since the Covington group is getting to be fairly large as well I am contemplating signing up as a Walk Leader for next year.

It just a great way to socialize and raise money for a good cause as well. He only asks for a $1 donation and hopes to raise $50,000 this year to help the children in Kenya and I am sure you can probably use some of the shots for your class assignments.

You can find out more at Scott Kelby WorldWide Photowalk

Comments/Questions

Building Your Photography Site

 One of the big challenges you will face in your decision to become a professional photographer is building your business website. In order to better market yourself, you need to have one to showcase your work and have portfolios available for potential clients to view.

In this day and age, Social Media is king, it’s true, but without a proper website to go hand in hand with your Social Media efforts, you can be left out in the cold. When choosing your platform for hosting you photography site, you need to consider a few things.

1. Do they offer unlimited storage?
2. Do they offer unlimited bandwidth?
3. Do they have eCommerce capabilities?
4. Do they offer lab integration?
5. How much do they charge?
6. How do they stack up to the industry?

These 6 items are the main ones you should be concerned with when choosing your photography website platform for your new business. I am going to cover a few of them in this week’s post and the Pros and Cons.

SmugMug - SmugMug is without a doubt one of the big boys out there in the photography web hosting business. They have powerful servers and great uptime. They allow you unlimited storage and bandwidth, but only for the full one business accounts. They offer lab integration for selling prints without hassle and all the big labs are available. They offer price lists and you can make coupon codes for your clients. They also have the ability to create password protected or hidden galleries for your clients to view your work and they offer a wide selection of templates that you can customize. On the down side, SmugMug is not cheap at close to $400 per         year. The other big down side I saw as someone who used to use them is they also take a percentage of the money you make when you sell either prints or digital downloads.

Zenfolio - Zenfolio is similar to SmugMug, but to me their site looks a bit cheesy and needs a serious overhaul. They too offer pretty much all of the same features as SmugMug and like SmugMug, they cost close to $400 per year and take a percentage of the money you make when selling your work. Zenfolio offers an assortment of templates as well, but from what I have heard, they are harder to tweak and customize for non-web developers.

SquareSpace - SquareSpace is another of the heavy-weights when it comes to photography hosting, and they are extremely popular. They offer lots of customization that is easy to do and to my knowledge, unlimited bandwidth and storage as well. The downside I see to SquareSpace is they offer eCommerce, but it’s limited. I believe you can sell digital downloads easily, but they still do not offer lab integration and probably never will, and they cost as much as SmugMug and Zenfolio, both of which offer both digital and lab sales.

500px.com - 500px.com is a nice one as well, they offer unlimited uploads, storage and bandwidth if you are a paid member. Their plans are $25 and $75 per year, but they do take a good chunk of the profits to offset their cost. If you sell a Royalty-Free download, which is $250, set by them, you get $175 and they keep the other $75. The nice thing is, someone of their clients are major magazines and publishers, the downside of that is when you images sell, they will not tell you who bought them so you can see the final product.

WIX - WIX is a newer contender in this arena and they are free, but I am not sure if there is a catch as far as storage and bandwidth. I have a few friends that use them and like them, but they don’t offer any eCommerce at all, neither lab integration nor digital download sales. This one is a good option if you are short on funds and just need something to show clients to get started. Their templates are highly customizable and friends that I know that use them say they are easy to work with. Now WIX offers paid plans as well, and on the free ones, you have to put up with them running ads on your site.

This is just a small collection of photography site hosting providers, there is also FineArt America, and many others, but these 5 are some of the best known ones. When it comes to choosing your hosting provider you really need to do your research and compare them before pulling the trigger. I was using SmugMug for quite a while but didn’t like that they charge me monthly and take a portion of all of my sales, so I dropped them this week, as for me, I found a better option.

I personally already have a regular web hosting account with GoDaddy for my other personal sites and some non-profits I help out and I have moved my photography hosting to GoDaddy and built my new site using WordPress. WordPress is well known and been around for quite some time. I coupled that with a company that makes an awesome WordPress theme called Photocratic, that has eCommerce built in. Now, it’s not full blown yet, currently you can sell downloads or prints, but have to do the work yourself, but you don’t lose any of the money to them. Their theme is $59, one time purchase, on sale right now, down from $89. The theme is easy to install and customize and they offer awesome support as well. The plus side is they are rolling out the fully automated digital download eCommerce update next month and then following that up with FULL lab integration a couple months after that, so once both of those happen, I will be GOLDEN!

Now, I don’t recommend this option for everyone as WordPress and the theme system does require some coding abilities, but if you know someone well versed in WordPress, it might be the way to go. For me personally, I have been a developer for 35 years and am fluent in around 20 computer languages including HTML and PHP so the WordPress option was a no brainer for me.

Sorry this week’s post is so long, but this is both a large and important topic to cover. If you have any questions, please comment and I will do my best to answer them for you!

Comments/Questions

Need help? How do you find the right person???

First of all let me take a moment to thank everyone for checking on me when I elected to get really sick over the last few months! I'm almost afraid to say that I am finally out of the water but I think it is finally safe to say that!

As I had to put off many of the shoots that I had going on in the month of August including most of my charity shoots I'm holding off for a moment on talking about my charity shoot.  What I finally had to do was a bit different so I'd like to talk about it later in the month after a few people have posted their charity shoots. I also have something that has come from my shoot that I may want to talk about if something has 100% worked itself out by the time I write that post.

I did a fun Senior shoot in the end of July and it was the first that I used my Make up/Hair Stylist/ Stylist, Issy.. Several other photographers asked me how do you  find the right person to help you in this role that you can trust.

So that is what this Friday's Blog comes from.  It is all about choosing the right Assistant when you need to have one.  It was really a bit of a challenge that I had to take on until I found Issy.

                  Issy and I do some modeling test shots for lighting before my client arrived.

I am not going to start right away introducing you to Issy because she and I go way back and that is part of this story!  Let's just talk first in general about choosing help!

Step 1. - Know what you want in an assistant

This may seem a bit silly but do you know what you want an assistant for?  Is it for make up? If it is for make up do you want them to do do hair?  Do you just want someone to hold your reflector? Will they be shooting as a back up?

If you don't know what you need help with you can't pick the right person for the job!  So first sit down and write a list of what things you may need help with on a given shoot.

Step 2. - How much are you willing to pay and how will you pay them?

In the case with Issy, I require $100 fee for her upfront at the start of the shoot.  If I either state I have to have her for a shoot or someone elects to want add her on to the shoot she is paid up front by the client.

Will this be true of every shoot we do together.  No.  3/4 of the time if we are only doing Senior shoots, or modeling portfolio shoots yes.  As the shoots get more complicated her fee goes up and I add it into the cost of what I am shooting vs. the client seeing a particular number unless they want a fee break down.  

So it is important to know what you are willing to pay and how it will be paid before you start your shot.

Step 3. - Test your Assistants before you work with them.

You do not want to look bad with a client and your help can make you look that way.  You need to either screen your help well or test them before you are in a real shooting situation.  Asking other photographers for references is also a good option but you risk having to schedule your shoots around theirs if they use the same person as you.

Before using Issy I had tested out 3 or 4 different make up artists.

Important factors for me were as follows:

1. Timeliness

2. Friendliness / how well clients liked and trusted their decisions.

3. Attentive listening to my instructions as well as the client.

4. Products they used

5. Overall job quality.

Some of the other people I tested before Issy lacked some or all of these traits leaving a potential for disaster for me.  They are however, a good group who I can use as a back up if I know that Issy is already busy.  I just need to be aware of each of their flaws.

For me it only took 3 steps to know how I wanted to screen my MUA.  It could be less steps for you depending on the position you need help with it could be more depending on the job you have that you need help with.

In the case with the lovely Issy I have been working with Issy since she was 15 as a model. So I already knew many of these traits about her.  

After being frustrated with several people I tried I started paying attention to the fact Issy was always professional.  She was great at styling herself while we were shooting.  Her make up was always point on and she likes to change up her own look.

This first shoot was a test for Issy and she did brilliantly. 

                                2nd location after Issy touched up her make up.

 My client completely loved her. She did a great job on her hair and make up.  

                  Mobile Make Up Studio for on location shoot in this case was my car.  

She made her feel very comfortable.  She helped her pick out outfits that flattered her and even helped her with posing.  

Issy helps CJ learn how to stand in a flattering pose.

                             Issy makes last minute adjustments after straightening CJ's hair

I'm blessed to have found a great Make up Artist who will fill many roles for me while she is "just" doing make up. We are a good match.

Issy cheerfully making the last hair adjustments for this shoot.

Don't wait until the last second to go looking for the right person.  Start looking now for when you do need someone!

I look forward as always to here your thoughts and successes! 

Tripods

This week’s blog post I want to talk about a piece of equipment that is crucial for photographers. This item is the center of a certain amount of controversy, as some photographers will tell you that you never need one or your better off without one as it’s too much hassle to carry one with you. The item we are talking about today is the tripod and how it is used to make your photography more interesting.

Many photographers hate tripods because they are bulky and cumbersome to lug around all the time, but tripods are also one of the best ways to get great photos, especially in low light situations. Let’s say you want to shoot some long exposure images either in daytime or night, how are you going to use those long shutter speeds without having blurry images? Why use a tripod of course along with a cable or remote shutter release.

The reason long exposure requires a tripod is because you cannot hold a camera steady enough in your hands to shoot low shutter speeds. It doesn’t matter how small your camera is, let’s say you are using the Canon SL1 which is very small and light weight and even if you are a body builder by day, you cannot hold that camera perfectly still no matter how hard you try. The very slightest movement will cause the images to blur badly. Now don’t think I am picking on you, it’s just not possible to hold a camera steady enough for long exposure, especially since you have to be able to press the shutter without the camera even slightly flinching.

Wall of Light, Canon EOS 5D EF 40mm STM F/2.8 ISO 100 shutter 30 seconds on tripod

 A tripod is what will give you the strong, still platform with which to get those great long exposures that make water look like glass or a waterfall look like silk. The tripod is nothing more than a set of legs for your camera, three of them to be exact, and those legs will keep that camera steady. Now I am sure you are asking “What tripod should I buy, so that I can get a good one?”

I understand as students money is often tight, but you need to make sure you get a good tripod, one that will serve you well for years as a tripod is one piece of equipment that you do not need to upgrade all the time. If you are on a tight budget, I would recommend getting one of the lower cost plastic tripods from Amazon or Best Buy. Manfrotto and Sunpak come to mind as a couple of makers of some half way decent low cost tripods. You can get one of these tripods for around $50-$100. If you want to kill two birds with one stone, then buy a combination tripod/monopod so you get both camera mounting systems in one package. In this tripods, the center column (where you mount your camera) can be pulled out completely and used as a single leg monopod like this one from Sunpak.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/517979-REG/Sunpak_620_060TM_6601TM_Tripod_Monopod_with_3_Way.html

But there are a couple of other things to keep in mind with a tripod. The first one is really major and that is it’s weight rating. When buying a tripod, you need one that can support the combined weight of the camera body and lens you are going to shoot with. Say for example, I have the Tamron SP 150-600mm Di VC USD lens, which weighs 4.5 pounds on it’s own. I cannot buy a tripod that is only rated for 4-5 pounds as my camera also weighs 2-3 pounds with battery grip and memory card, I need a tripod rated for 10 pounds plus to be on the safe side.

Even if you are using a small lens like the EF 40mm STM lens also known as the pancake lens, which only weighs 4.6 ounces, your camera still weighs in at another 19 ounces without the battery or a memory card. Besides, even if you shoot most of the time with this kit, sooner or later you will run into a need to use a tripod with your heavier telephoto lens, trust me, it happens to the best of us.

EOS 6D EF 50mm F/2.5 Macro at F/4 ISO 100 Shutter 500 on Gitzo tripod lowered to ground

The second item I recommend you consider when buying a tripod is the weight of the tripod itself. Now the plastic tripods I mentioned earlier are fairly light weight, coming in at 4.2 pounds, but they can also only carry 4 pounds. If you can afford it, I would recommend an aluminum or carbon fiber tripod for strength. Both of these tripods can hold more weight and be completely steady for you. I have a Manfrotto professional grade tripod that can handle 18 pounds. I just recently bought a Gitzo carbon fiber tripod which only weighs 3 pounds but can safely hold 12 pounds. The Gitzo can do this because carbon fiber is very strong material, but there is a trade off, the price. My Gitzo cost around $700, but a good aluminum one can run that much as well, the difference is the aluminum tripods I have weigh a lot, like 6-10 pounds and the Gitzo is much lighter but can still hold a decent amount of weight.

The last thing I recommend when buying a tripod is get one with legs that allow you to drop the tripod to the ground. There are quite a few models that have releases at the top of the three legs that you press and you can fold the legs to the point where your camera is only inches off the ground. These tripods are great for Macro photography, or anytime you want to get a really interesting point of view. If you want one of the really good tripods for class (which you will need a tripod for some classes), but you cannot afford several hundred dollars for the aluminum or carbon fiber one, consider renting one. You can go to www.borrowlenses.com or www.lumoid.com and rent one for a few dollars a week and have a nice strong tripod for those classes that require one.

Now get out there and do some tripod photography!

Comments/Questions

Choosing the right charity for Art Giving Back August

I am sure the first time you picked up your camera the people begging you to shoot them started pouring in.  However, not all charity work is the right kind of charity work.  Now don't get me wrong I'm the first to tell you if I actually had the time I would take on every single charity I could find but the reality is we all only have so many hours in a day.  So that means that we have to be selective on what charity work you choose to shoot.  There is nothing wrong with choosing the charity that in some way pays you back. In fact, that is what I'm going to advise you too do.

When looking for a charity here are a few things to consider.

             1. Do I have time to take on the specific job this charity needs?

             2. Is this a charity that I am personally passionate about?

             3. What will I earn by shooting this charity.

I know that number 3 is going to be the one that will be hard to think about at first but you should be earning something from your decision to shoot that specific charity.  It doesn't have to be money.  I'll give you an example of a charity that I have shot for that has paid me back in different ways.

          Future Pro-Skater - Sikes Houlahan exhibits at the AE Art Complex in Canton, OH

If you look at the photograph above it is a bit noisy which I wanted it to be because I was testing out a new camera.   I was pushing it to it's limits to see how much noise it had at over 12,000 ISO. Testing this new equipment to its limits using a F/4.5 lens was part of my payment. Let me explain.

I always look for great charities. As  mentioned, Art giving back is very important to me as is helping our my local artist community.  One of the local band members invited me to a charity event at the AE Industrial Art Complex in Canton. The show was an charity art show where 70 artists had decorated skateboards.  They were featuring skateboarding in the building as well as bands.  This is actually a long event but with 3 special dates during that event with charity auctions, bands, and skaters.

I love extreme sports so they had me at art and skaters. When I talked to the owner of the AE Art Complex to confirm he was OK with me coming down to shoot I realized it was a very dark location. Since I frequently shoot in low light I decided it was the perfect time to test out a new camera I wanted to try.  So I was already getting something besides the chance to get some cool shots I could share back with the charity.

When I got there I fell in love with the interior of the building.  It is an old warehouse but one that has some great bits to it. This great wall behind the skater was painted that day by owner who is also an artist.  They have this funky wooden house they have built inside the building that you can actually go inside but that they hang art work on.  They have a great vintage wooden bar with bar stools and the mirrors behind it.  Plus they also just have some empty spaces.

I immediately thought to myself I want to shoot in here. I want to bring in models and shoot. Not only does it have great spaces but it also has areas where I could build my own sets and it's heated in the wintertime.  Before I left I told the owner Matt that  I   love his building.  I told him I'd love to bring in models and shoot in here. He said well you are welcome to come shoot here anytime you want. He told me they used to have a photographer who came in but she decided she thought it was dirty. I said are you kidding me. I love the grungy feel. I said I want to shoot like ball gowns in here! He laughed and told me it was my space anytime I needed it.

So my second reward from this charity shoot was making a great contact and getting a great space to shoot in.  I can see using his space alone or as a joint venture often. There is always artist there working which I love to shoot too.

The 3rd benefit for both him and I happened last week. This photograph is the only photograph I have shown him so far as I've been very busy shooting football.  He asked me if he could use the photograph in the flyer for their next event.  Now on one hand at this point I could have asked for pay yes, but remember this is a charity event and I've already earned a few things from this.  I said sure if you can toss me a copy of your flyer and give me credit in it, it is all yours.  He said awesome we are putting it in Pulp Culture Magazine which is a Cleveland Magazine.  I of course told him that would be great.

It doesn't hurt the charity I was helping with any of the 3 ways I got paid for helping them with photography.  Other charities I have shot for have included free meals and other magazine credits. I shoot our local Santa Breakfast which is great for exposure in our community even if it doesn't pay as much as I could earn shooting somewhere else.

Art giving back doesn't have to cost you anything but your time and it can pay you back in many rewarding ways!  So I challenge you to each find something amazing that pays you back in some way for our Art giving back August Photo Challenge!

I can't wait to see what you shot when you post your charity photos in September!

Jessi

Black & White Photography

I have had questions from students about the best way to do B&W photography. Is it better to do it in camera or using post processing software such as Photoshop, Lightroom or another similar program?

Different people will give different answers to this question, and there is no “right” answer to this question. Anytime you can do things in camera, it is considered the “ideal” way to do it but you have more flexibility using editing software.

Your camera can make fantastic B&W images but there is a catch, you have to shoot in JPEG only, because if you shoot RAW, the images will appear B&W when viewing them in the camera but once downloaded to your computer they will revert back to full color because RAW format records ALL details and pixels. I’ve had students ask, “what if I don’t have or cannot afford editing software?” Well, first of all, if you are a student at AI, you should have editing software as part of your degree program.

Shot in JPG using Monochrome Picture Style on my Canon 6D

Shooting B&W in camera will give you beautiful B&W images but since you are shooting JPEG, ALL extra data for your image will be discarded and gone forever, you cannot get that back. I, and most professional photographers will tell you it’s best to ALWAYS shoot in RAW for the very best image quality and then convert them to B&W. This gives you the most creativity and best detail in your final image. By editing to B&W in say Lightroom, there are a couple ways you can do it. You can use the Black & White option under the development module, or I prefer to use the Saturation tool and de-saturate the colors from the image, then tweak the contrast to create a more dramatic effect.

Shot in RAW on my Canon 6D and de-saturated in Lightroom

There are also nice third party apps and plug-ins you can use and I personally use quite a few of them to get my images just the way I want them. The NIK Collection is one of my favorites and comes with a great B&W plug-in called Silver Efex Pro 2. This software has a nice set of “recipes” for making different types of B&W images with varying looks, from High Key to Low Key and heavy contrast just to name a few.

Shot in RAW with Canon 6D and then converted using "Antique Plate 1" using NIK Collection

For any friends you have that are into photography and cannot afford Lightroom or Photoshop, there is a free, Open Source photo editor called GIMP, which is available for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. http://www.gimp.org GIMP is nice as it has ALL of the capabilities of Photoshop with no cost.
Now that you have more information on how to make great B&W images, get out there and make some great ones!

Comments/Questions

Internship - Week # 3 - Community Involvement

                      One of the "future" Silverhawks at the football camp hosted by the team.

Since the official season doesn't start for my team until June 6th, I thought I'd share with you what we did to give back to the community.  Last Saturday we hosted a football camp for one of the local youth football organizations.  Several of our players and the owner of our team all started in this organization so hosting this camp is a great way to give back to the community.

I did not have to shoot this event at all.  It wasn't required and I didn't need to get the hours in for my internship as my time shooting during the season will equal more than the 110 hours required for my internship.  However, I very much believe that art is supposed to give back.  So I volunteered to come out and shoot the youth camp for the team.

There are so many opportunities that can come up just by giving back to your community with your craft.  For instance this camp gives these boys a chance to see that if they love football they can still play even later on in life. They can coach. They could play semi-pro.  They could help out eventually with the same youth football league that helped them become the players they will be one day.

The players who came out to assist really enjoyed sharing this camp with the boys. While it was hard work with lots of drills it was also fun!  Even as a photographer the expressions and honesty that the boys get on their faces when they play were great to see and shoot.  Sometimes at the Semi-Pro level the guys keep more of a poker face so you can't see the determination, the frustration and or sheer happiness that happens when you shoot children.

              While this was just one of the drills you can see that both boys took it very seriously!

In a matter of 2 hours I shot over 1200 shots and I could easily have shot more.  I know that when we finally share these images with the players, their parents, and coaches they will appreciate them in a different way than my older players do.  It opens up a new market for me to shoot in shooting youth sports as well as Semi-Pro  I honestly wouldn't have tried to shoot youth sports before doing this camp.

It also shows the players who came to help out at camp another future. One where they are the coaches and not the players.  So some of the photographs I took highlighted them in coaching or mentoring roles too.

Not everything that you during an internship has to be expected or the bare minimum that you can do as I have said before.  The more that you take what is given to you in your internship and make it your own the more you will get from your internship!

Next up! Tomorrow.  We travel 3 hours away to play the Lima Warriors Football team.  I'll save what I did to make sure I was ready for this first game that starts at 7 PM for next week!

Any questions please let me know!

Jessi