An Aside: "10 Reasons Professional Photographers Charge What They Do"

I found a great blog article today about why professional photographers charge for a service that many people mistakenly believe anyone can do. Denver photography business guru Lori Osterberg puts everything into perspective and words that my lack of experience won't allow me to accurately express yet.

Since I've been working overtime editing the wedding photos that are due this weekend, I've had a lot of time to think about why someone would want to hire a professional for an event like this. There were plenty of other people who were taking snapshots throughout the wedding.

This article made me believe that I really am a professional and have a right to be charging for my work instead of feeling guilty about charging $100 for one framed photo. And if you ever need to explain to a potential client why you charge when someone on Craiglists said they would do it for free, put these tips to memory and heart and let them empower you to be compensated for the product and service only a professional can provide. And that professional is YOU and ME!

No. 6 really resonates with me right now. Mike, Jason and I may have only spent 8 hours shooting the wedding and reception....but I've spent countless hours editing the images so that they are more than snapshots but a professional product, talking to the client, taking orders and answering emails and phone calls.

"6. Professional photographers can spend hours producing one professional photograph. Time can include:

creating the marketing
answering emails and phone calls
meeting with the client to talk about the event
setting up for the event
drive time to and from the event
time for the actual photographing
running to and from the lab
meeting with the client for previews and decisions
processing the image
retouching the image
mounting the image
framing the image
packaging the image
dropping off final images
production work
follow up work

Add it all up, and you can see why one portrait session may include hours worth of work. It's impossible to stay in business if you only make a few pennies per client." - Lori Osterberg

Get the Job Done: Professional Portrait Session a Success

My last client emailed me today to say that she loved her portrait session! She chose 35 of the nearly 60 images I photographed of her, including professional shots she will use on her new business website (she is a professional errand runner), glamour portraits and artistic nudes. We are in the process of setting up additional shoots throughout the year for her, as well as surprise sessions she has planned for relatives and friends for birthday gifts.



This was the first time I took professional portraits, so I'm very pleased to be able to add these to my portfolio. I had my friend Dave Scott take a look at the images, and he gave me some suggestions. Dave hosts the Business for Photographers blog. One of his more successful niches is business portraits. Why? Dave says they are a great way to jump start your photography business because "nothing beats the business portrait for jobs that lead to more jobs."



Here are some of Dave's tips:

"I am always careful with my camera angle for business women. I
almost always use a camera height that is at her eye level. Lower
portrays authority and masculinity, higher feminine and submissive. I
like to keep the camera neutral for women for business portraits so
that male counterparts don't feel threatened by too much authority
and the businesswoman is not portrayed submissively."

Need more tips for business portraits? Preorder Dave's new eBook, "Shooting Business Portraits." The final editing is being done now and it will be released on May 20th 2008.

Tricks of the Trade: Subject Matter and Composition

I am introducing yet another new category that will run on Saturdays called "Tricks of the Trade," featuring insider tips from professional photographers in the field. This week I introduce you to Detroit DPA Instructor Don Werthman, a Native Detroiter who brings more than 25 years of imaging experience to Panasonic LUMIX, Digital Photo Academy participants.

AN APPROACH TO SUBJECT MATTER AND COMPOSITION
by Werthmann, Don

I frequently think of the camera as a sketchbook that allows me to practice compositional strategies and sharpen my awareness of how to organize space within the frame. When those moments in life that really matter occur — personally or professionally — I must have my camera ready, in addition to the lessons of how “studies” like these inform my approach to image composition. So when I happened upon this scene during a walk about on the grounds of the abandoned Delaware copper mine in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, I had to bring the Lumix L-1 up to it. The mid-nineteenth century structure has been in a ruined state for several decades, and so the tree growth present within its walls presented this stunning juxtaposition of natural world growth and industrial ruins. This scene compelled me to stop and study it for several minutes, and I proceeded to make fourteen different exposures of with the Panasonic Lumix L-1, with its RAW file format selected. Here’s why:




Organizing Space

The intuitive side of me saw order and possibility, and the thinking side of me immediately revealed a few keywords; “I see proximity, similarity, and closure here.” The proximity of the red brickwork window/door frames in the background becomes a group of information, which is easy to unify to the arched brickwork in the foreground. The similarity in the stonework in the foreground and the background provides strong unification by itself, but the fact that the bark of the birch trees are similar — in color and general design — makes the scene more intriguing. Finally, because the window frame visually cuts the top and bottom of each tree off, the viewer’s mind completes the rest of the information — this is called closure. If part of an object is subtracted, but still has enough information to be identified, then the viewer’s mind can mentally complete what is missing. It’s an effective technique, because the viewer doesn’t need to see an entire tree to understand what it is.

Shooting Strategy

Many people are bewildered when I tell them I shoot so many frames of a particular scene. A good habit of photography is providing choices from which to edit when returning home. Each exposure has a subtle correction of point of view, lens focal length, a tilt of the tripod needs correcting, etc. These comparisons, in the editing stage of a photograph’s life are what help the photographer determine the best rendering of the situation. I ended up choosing a frame with both the foreground and background sharp, which required f/16 to obtain this particular depth-of-field. I created other versions with selective focus and shallow depth-of-field with a wide aperture setting, like f/4 — some with the foreground sharp, some with it out of focus and soft — but in the end those don’t have the same visual impact. The Lumix L-1, by the way, handles much like my traditional film cameras do, with an aperture ring mounted on the lens, and a shutter speed dial mounted on the body. I really enjoy that.

Think of your camera as a high-tech sketchbook, and the really meaningful photographic moments that unfold in the future can benefit, because you did some prep work. Be ready for what can appear around the next bend on a walk, and what some hindsight thinking during the editing stage can reveal. Thinking one, or two steps ahead in the process can make a significant difference in the quality of the images made. When you’re lucky, be ready.