The Dark Side of Photography

Let's face it, photography is supposed to be about beauty, occasionally. There are times when we feel compelled to capture an amazing sunrise or sunset, the yawn of a cat framed against the streaming rays of the late afternoon sun, but then there are those times we have to capture reality: the harsh violence of war, the anguish of a mother or father who have lost their child, the devastation caused the hurricanes and tornadoes and droughts. Photography is a depiction of the world they way you see it. You get the idea.

A side of photography that many people don't think about is what I call the "darker side" or the business side of photography. I can already sense you yawning and about to click to another website. Don't move that mouse or your finger! Read on. This won't be a long post and anyway, I have some recommendations below :grin:.

Doing business is tough for me. It's not part of my nature, but if I am to succeed in my photography I have to do business. Basically that means I have to offer:

• Great customer service
• Knowledge
  
• Value for money
  
• A product that no one else offers, i.e. a draw-card for people to choose me over someone else
• Fair prices

Briefly, what entails great customer service? You have to have the interests of your client at heart. It's not all about the buck, but making sure that you client has images that they are more than thrilled with. You've gone the extra mile and both you and the client knows it. Customer service also means that you set up contracts to protect both the client and yourself from any unforeseeable mishap, and yes they happen. Customer service means you carry insurance, not only on your equipment, but liability insurance. What's more, you tell your client this upfront, so they know that they are protected.

Your knowledge, which is then translated into incredible photographs, is what sets you apart from the point-and-shoot photographer at the wedding you're photographing next Saturday, or the competition entry of food that you're setting up in your living room. Knowledge is power, but what I continue to be amazed at, is that so many great photographers are happy to share that knowledge with both noobs and pros at no cost whatsoever. Get involved in a photo club in your community, mentor kids at a local school or after-school programme. Share your knowledge and obtain knowledge from websites such as Fred Miranda, Open Source Photo, Strobist and many others, and let them critique your photographs. Don't settle for "oh that's great!" Improve. Get better. Push the limits. Light the baseball/cricket ball/orange differently! Get out of the rut of mediocrity. Btw, rut is just another word for grave!

Last night, someone asked me where they could find a place online that could tell them how much to charge for their photographs. I told them that there isn't any place like that. There are places that can guide you, BUT pricing your product is not simply about making a buck. It is a combination of your experience, demand for your product, combined with satisfying the client's needs. Price yourself too high, and you'll have no clients. Price yourself too low and you won't eat. What's more, if your prices are too low, clients will often wonder why your prices are so low. In other words, your price structure can put you out of the game before it even starts. Sometimes other photographers will share their information with you, or you can even find it listed on their websites, but if you're a member of ASMP or PPA call someone up in a city in another state with similar demographics etc, cost of living to yours and ask them. More often than not, they will help you, because you're not a threat.

Finally, what do you offer that no one else around you does? How do your photographs different from those of Jim Photographer and Mary Shooter? Why should anyone hire you for still photographs over Lee Videographer with his new Canon 5D II that shoots still AND video?

So, here are two books that I would highly recommend every photographer have as part of his/her library:


Please note that Harrington has a new edition coming out this coming October!

That's it for now folks!

Making an Idea come to Life

As I write this blog, I'm busy listening to the BBC Proms in the Albert Hall via the internet with music from the MGM studios including including The Wizard of Oz, Meet Me in St Louis, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, High Society, Gigi and Singin' in the Rain. The remarkable thing about today's music, is as the programme notes put it

...although the original orchestral parts were lost when the studio destroyed its music library to make way for a car park, [conductor John] Wilson has succeeded in reconstructing the scores by painstakingly transcribing each soundtrack by ear.

I can't imagine doing that, because transcribing 4 seconds of music amounts of days of work, but at the same time, Wilson's act made him far more intimate with the music that he would otherwise have been.

This leads me to wonder how many photographers stop to actually think about what they did to create a particular photograph, or do they accept a great picture as a fluke and hope it happens again soon? I've heard some people say that you have to shoot as many photos as you can (and you can do that with digital) and somewhere in that you'll have yourself a masterpiece. Perhaps. I know first-hand that some people have a very hard time relaxing for portraits, and I have to try all sorts of gimmicks to get a photo that shows something wonderful. Sometimes this is ever more difficult when I have to photograph people who I know well, and don't respond to my tricks. Perhaps I need a baby's rattle! Not a bad idea actually.

A photographer who painstakingly plans his shoots, and posts his lighting sketches is Joe McNally. Let's face it, planning a shoot tends to take away 'some' of the spontaneity, but more importantly, it reduces the chance of failure, helps organize your thinking, focuses your mind so that you can see the final product before you have ever started to capture a single frame.

Two months ago I was asked to shoot priest who had just graduated from seminary and had been ordained, but wanted to remember his time at the seminary. I happen to know that like any place of academic training, these guys have to worry about getting good grades, while at the same time learning how to spend time on their knees and becoming godly men. Somehow, most us pray when it comes time for exams, and then forget about the bargains we made when we pass. These guys can't! So what to do? Well, first off, I usually shoot with big lights, soft boxes and monolights and tripods. We were going to shoot in two places: outside in the hallway and in the chapel itself. First problem. How do I create the feeling that the "seminarian" is on his way to the chapel to pray at the END of the day at 11 AM and the sun is shining in all it's summer glory? Second problem. The chapel has awful lighting, for the camera at least.

The day before the shoot I visited the location at the approximate time of day that I would be shooting the next day. That gave me an idea of where the sun would be, and then got out a piece of paper and pen and sketched a brief diagram.

My rationale was this. I wanted to "pretend" that the sun was setting, so blasted light with 2 flash units 45 deg. behind him with full CTO gel on each flash head both on full power. This would give me a feeling that I had a setting sun somewhere. Next, I put 1/4 CTO gel on a flash head to his right to light up the side of his face. Finally I had a flash head without any gels coming from behind the camera. The camera settings, on the other hand, had to compensate for both the sun and the flash. Create darkness! Drop the ISO to 50, keep the aperture at something usable around f/8 or so, speed up time so that all the camera would see would be the flash settings which I fired off using nifty new devices from Pocket Wizard. The result...

Apologies for a longer than usual blog. I have the diagram for this photo somewhere and will try to find it. My next blog will show how I did the inside of the chapel. That's it for now folks!