Photography Tips Guide

Posts Tagged ‘Professional Photography’

Our industry is broken

I took some time to really look at the state of the professional photography industry today. I looked at it objectively as both a photographer and as a client to really try to figure out the next direction for the industry.

We know as photographers the industry is under a great deal of pressure form different sources and different reasons.

One of the most radical changes in the photographic industry is the emergence of high-quality affordable equipment. Anybody with a few grand can go pick up a high end Nikon or Canon and hang out a shingle. Yesterday they were working at the Waffle House today they are a photographer. In the past these new photographers were relegated to the sidelines because they could not produce the quality of image that the buying public required. They were snap shooters. Nothing more and nothing less.

Today those snap shooters are using the same gear the full-time professional photographer is and delivering the same basic quality.

Because the amateur-pro has none of the overhead requirements (insurance, licensing, advertising and other such business expenses) they can comfortably undercut the full-time pro from a pricing standpoint. Sometimes considerably. And their customer is happy because in their mind they saved a boatload of money.

This brings up the next issue that I see. We and a industry do not get the point that the pricing paradigm has changed. Because of the abundance of competent amateur-pros out there, full-time professional photographers, no matter of how much we scream about it are at a distinct cost disadvantage.

Let me give an example.

I do a lot of event photography. I go to the event take the pictures process them and post them for sale. My 5X7 print is 15.50 (which I have been told is way too inexpensive by my peers).

At an event recently there was a amateur-pro there who shot the same show and posted images for sale. You could tell the distinct difference in quality of capture, exposure and use of available lighting. His prints 5X7 prints were $5.00. He outsold me by more than $500 on that show.

Customers look for the big “V” word when deciding where to spend their money. VALUE is the name of the game. And value is perceived by the customer not defined by the photographer.

Even in a studio setting I have seen this value paradigm play out.

I was in a mall over the weekend. And we all have shown our professional contempt for the mall studios but have we really looked at them from a purely economic point of view?

The studio that I watched was a independent operation. Not one of the mall studios that we all know. Their packages that ranged from $12 to $36. The “portraits” were shot on green screen (that was clearly not lit properly). They offered “hundreds of backgrounds” and their output was done on an inkjet printer. Not fine art photography by any stretch of the imagination. They had the store full and there was a 2.5 hour wait for a sitting.

I was able to talk to a employee of this operation and she gave me some insights on their volume. On a weekend they will do 300 settings and about 150 through the rest of the week 450 settings a week is a astounding number. Each setting takes about 5 to 7 minutes. They have 2 camera positions to maintain that volume. They use a commercially available software package to do the chroma key.

Their target sale is 20.00 some more some less.

If we stop down and play with the numbers we can come up with a rough estimate on the profitability of this operation.

450X20 gives you $9000 gross a week and 36K a month.

What “conventional” studio would not love to have that amount of gross sales. And remember they are in a MALL location with all of the overhead attached to that.

The normal comeback for most studio owners is that these are low end customers that don’t spend money. Right answer they DON’T spend 300 bucks for a 8×10 but they DO spend money. The problem is that they want “pictures” and not “heirloom artistry that will be part of your family heritage for all time” They are a different customer that we as a industry have ignored. Moreover, we marginalize anyone that goes after that market because they are hurting OUR business. Nothing could be future from the truth.

We don’t want that customer. As professional photographers and ARTISTS that customer is beneath us. “We simply need to educate them on what quality is and they will come around” is a statement that I hear a lot … well that is poppycock they are never going to come around to our pricing mix. So we forget about that customer.

36K a month… I’d take that.

As a industry we also are guilty of positioning our product in a way that doesn’t attract customers that have a higher value threshold.

I looked at the senior portrait market as an example. Most studios advertise this just as they advertise their other services. Go to most web sites that focus on senior portraits and they are the same boring pretty piano music with the same “family heirloom” catch lines. It seems that the attitude is that we are going to overwhelm with our class to get 17 year olds that shop at Abercrombie and Fitch and would rather be online that in the real world to come in for beautiful senior portraits.

The most successful senior portrait studios have geared their marketing to that segment of the population. They get it. Many of us don’t and we wonder why we are not getting senior business. We are positioning our advertising to a traditional market that frankly hates pretty piano music.

We need to look at our customer and be much more responsive to their wants. Having a few acid treated images on your website does not make you a senior portrait studio. It is about attitude and for most of us the attitude that we project is “naptime”.

I think that for the photography industry to awaken, we have some major issues to address. We must change our pricing paradigm as it simply is not getting customers in the studio. Change our attitude. Most customers want great pictures not family heirlooms. They want to be excited and have a experience not bored to tears in studio

I think if we start there we will be well on our way to recovering a once great industry.

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In the internet it can be said that Nude Photography has the most lucrative and burgeoning market today. The good show of skin as well as good looking models creates a good demand when these materials are published on web sites. Selling your work to sexy pulp newsletters is also very easy.
In quality nude photography, you should try something special to show your work as distinct from other nude works. The kinds of nude work to be pioneered in has to be distinctly clarified.
There could be a few nuances by which you could accentuate your works in front of the works of experienced specialists in the field and have a break through. Here are some tips of the trade with which you can commence your career in the field of nude photography.
1. You have to decide upon the type of nude photos you want to pursue in and more importantly you must know how to take nude snapshots. You should be mindful of the fact that there is a stark variation between viewing the naked model and viewing the naked shot.
2. It would be very helpful to examine the works already done by experts in the field to get an in-depth know-how on the use of angles and backdrops and also to extract the full potential of the posing bodies. Owing to the emotional concentration flowing from the bare skin facing the Kodaks often it can be very demanding to photograph the nudity.
3. The interest and the intention with which one came into this field of photography should be well defined. The in-crowd should take upon themselves the knowledge that their works must display a unique and unparalleled approach to work.
4. A portfolio of one’s own should be designed in order to earn early recognition from the industry. The portfolio can be added to one’s own nude photographs for emphasis of the work completed.
5. Attending art classes on life-drawings would prove very helpful for the profession so that one can learn in-depth on how to concentrate on the curves and shapes of the posing model.
6. The conventional approach towards this major is to find an attractive model to pose which is believed to stimulate the viewer’s senses. This is commonly found in all glitter and glamour magazines. The photographer can try in this school of thought and can try specializing with artistic photography.
7. One must always try and publicize and capture a market for his artistic works in places like exhibits and conventions by striking good and tasteful conversations with people who have a thing for nude photography. In such places one is sure to come across people who are interested in nude photos and snapshots as a passion of theirs.
If one wants to be a good nude photographer, go out there and live your dream and follow your passion. However it should be kept in mind that it is always vital that you assess your strengths and improve on your weaknesses in order to get to the top of the field of nude photography.

We present some useful and practical tips from been there, done that professional photographers who have taken to practicing their art underwater for a reason, whatever the season and bring you these handy hints to excel in a specialized segment of nature photography, here! Take a look –
The nature of underwater photography has undergone a vast sea-change (and there truly is no pun on that) in the last 3 decades: while the mid eighties saw photographers taking to the waters with video and still camera lenses covered with plastic to prevent seepage entering and spoiling their sensitive parts, the nineties saw the development of water-resistant lenses and later water-proof cameras that enabled one to capture moving shots of sea-creatures and underwater life along with flash-enabled lighting. Moving to the year 2000 and beyond, there were lots of improvements in the field of science and technology, which yielded great results for the field of Digital photography; for the whole new burgeoning world of amateur and hobby photographers who were also keen on sea-diving and other water related sports, this meant being able to take photos in hitherto unexplored places and in a candid manner!
Being able to go where few have gone before and get consistently good results from advanced features contained in latest underwater digital cameras supported by long-life batteries, artificial lighting that enhances the focus of underwater subjects and practiced photography skills are some of the advantages modern photographers of today have for themselves.
Underwater photography is now a singular segment warranting its own special techniques, equipment and group of professionals. Apart from naturalists and botanists studying underwater plant species and animal-life, even historians studying wrecks and anthropologists studying life-forms and people giving birth underwater etc are groups that have interest in underwater snapshots besides of course, scientists and biologists who photograph and study marine life.
To ensure your underwater photographs turn out better than usual, there are a few points you’d do well to remember:
• Invest in a basic digital camera meant for underwater photography as you can spoil your normal digicam if you just cover it with plastic to use underwater. Underwater cameras come equipped with special parts that prevent it from getting spoilt even when submerged in murky waters and still manage to give good shots in limited natural light, depending on their quality.
• Always follow the guidelines given with the underwater camera for best results gained by the device as straying from these can result in causing major damage to your precious piece of photographic equipment and be hard to repair, thus cost you dearly.
• Always remember that the deeper you go into the waters, the poorer light conditions you will have to face, so learn the techniques of underwater photography as best as you can to be able to use white (natural) light or some type of artificial ones to counter this issue.
• You can avoid using zoom feature when taking shots underwater and turn off flash wherever possible so the quality of photos is higher and not blurry, which is what it tends to be when flash is used underwater.
• Check for warranty of your underwater camera and do so at the shop if possible – submerge it underwater to check for leaks and get it replaced instead of waiting to try it out on an expedition and then getting disappointed if it doesn’t measure up and ruins the fun of taking underwater shots and your mood.