Month: June 2014

The fastest way to being a great photographer

by Stanley Learybusiness
Fuji X-E2, 18-55mm, ISO 200, ƒ/13, 1/180

The fastest way to become successful is to study a master craftsman’s work. A few things involve learning the master’s, not just being aware of their work.

Don Rutledge (photo by Ken Touchton)

Don Rutledge, my mentor and friend for so many years until he passed away in 2013, knew more about other photographers than anyone else I have ever known. I learned about a scrapbook he put together early in his career and continued to add for many years.

Don clipped magazines for many years and studied those photos that moved him, and this was in the early 1950s. Back then the magazines like LIFE and LOOK were on almost everyone’s coffee tables across America. He also looked at magazines like Mirror, National Geographic Magazine, and Sepia to add a few more names.

Don was studying psychology at the time and used many skills that he learned about observation and things like body language to analyze the styles of those early photojournalists.

Don was creating sections on different photographers like Eugene Smith and Robert Capa. He noticed many of these photographers had credit lines that showed Black Star, a photo agency based in New York City, represented them.

Read more about my mentor Don Rutledge in my blog post about mentors.

Fuji X-E2, 18-55mm, ISO 200, ƒ/13, 1/180

My collection of photographers’ work grew and continues to grow even today. As a result, my library of photographers is more extensive than most any library I have seen.

Don and I would talk for hours about the masters’ styles, how they could consistently shoot a particular manner, and why it resonated so well with the audience.

Shortly after coming to the Home Mission Board, Don spent six weeks photographing inside the Artic Circle, Alaska, in 1967. This photo was taken as Don, with two volunteer workers, visited an Eskimo house. The family was so happy to see their friends that everyone ignored Don’s click-click-click.

Here are a few tips that I think will help you start your scrapbook of the masters.

  • Find those photographers that are recognized historically as greats in the industry.
    • Read their biographies
    • Buy books of their work
    • Study their composition and figure out how this is so compelling
  • Look at those current photographer’s work that is in fad right now
    • Why is their work considered great today?
    • Read reviews by critics.
    • Hear them speak in person & if you are lucky, ask them questions
    • Buy their books
  • Copy their work. When you can copy another photographer’s approach, it helps you understand how to do it yourself. Unless you pull off another photographer’s style or technique, you may not just realize what other photographers are doing.
  • Buy prints of the masters and hang them in your home. The photographs will remind you that you are setting the bar for your work to match.
  • Learn to be a good critic yourself. Learn how to articulate each of the master’s styles and distinguish their work from each other.
  • Remember, even the masters shoot some crap. Learn to distinguish an artist’s pieces of work from other elements they produce. Be careful not to think that everything they shoot is excellent because they are big names. This skill will take many years to perfect for you.
  • Get together with other photographers and discuss the masters. Ask people to share their thoughts.

You see, the quickest way to success is to stand on the shoulders of those who went before you.

The Two Most Made Travel Photography Mistakes

by Stanley LearyPhotography
 

Batteries

The number one mistake I see most often made by people traveling with cameras is not having enough fresh batteries.

Depending on your camera and flash, you may need more than just one extra battery. For example, my Nikon D4 camera can go most of a day shooting still images with one battery; however, if I start to shoot video or spend a lot of time reviewing images on my LCD, I can drain the battery and need a second.

My Fuji X-E2 goes through batteries, and I used all three batteries the day before.

I recommend having at least one extra battery, and before you leave for the day of shooting, be sure to charge both batteries fully.

Every evening before you turn in for bed, be sure to recharge all your batteries. That way, they will all be ready for another full day of shooting your travel in the morning.

Memory Cards

Carrying a few extra memory cards on a trip is much easier than a laptop computer.

For a once in a lifetime trip, it is wise to keep all the images on cards until you have them all on your computer and backed up in another location before formatting your cards.

Memory Card Tip

Always format your cards in your camera and not on your computer. The camera will do a better job of clearing the cards and creating the proper directories needed for the card to work correctly with the camera.

Common portrait mistake made by photographers

by Stanley LearyPhotography
 
 
Fuji X-E2, 55-200mm, ISO 1000, ƒ/4.8, 1/500

When making a person’s portrait, people often end up with a photo like the one above. Instead, they are looking for an image like the one below.

 
 
Fuji X-E2, 55-200mm, ISO 1000, ƒ/4.8, 1/500

As you can easily see, the background in the first photo is quite distracting and competes with the face of the person. In the second photo, some people might even say the subject just “pops” out of the picture.

Notice the camera settings are identical.

The difference is the distance the subject is to the background. For example, in the first photo, the person is right next to the background, and in the next one, the subject is 30 feet away from the background.

If you have a very distracting background like the brick wall, move the subject very far away to be able to throw the background out of focus.

Even if the background is a plain solid color wall, pull the person away from it, so you do not see the wall’s texture.

Don’t be a Naysayer

by Stanley LearyPhotography
 

This photo is of the Mexico/US border in Douglas, Arizona. Many children are now crossing the Mexican border without their parents. You can read more about this here. Why? They are desperate to solve a problem they have, and even risking their lives in the middle of the desert is better for them than remaining in their situation.

I mention this to remind us that when people come to you with a problem, you are either part of the solution or not.

Naysayers

nay•say•er: a person who says something will not work or is not possible : a person who denies, refuses, or opposes something

For many years while I was a staff photographer, people classified me as a “naysayer” due to how often people came to me to ask me to do something, and I explained why it wasn’t possible.

I remember when it finally hit me how negative I was when my co-worker jokingly said that I always was saying no. While the comment hurt me, I realized he was right.

Are you a Naysayer?

My experience has been there are more naysayers on staff than freelance. You cannot grow your business by saying no. It would help if you learned how to say yes. Those freelancers who say no too often are soon looking for another career. However, being on staff is a little more protection than being negative. However, this has a time limit as well.

A good clue that you might be a naysayer is other people are starting to do what you perceive as your job.

“Why are they bringing in an outsider to do what I am supposed to do?” is a question you might be asking if you are a naysayer. While working as a staff photographer for a college, I couldn’t understand why the admissions office was hiring freelance photographers to shoot their recruiting catalogs.

Hiring an outsider is not always due to being a naysayer. Many colleges around the country have staff photographers who do most all the work for a school. However, when it comes to the school’s advertising, they are looking for a particular style. You should be fine if you offer to help them and the photographer is coming in to shoot.

If you feel threatened by this outside photographer, take a deep breath. Ask yourself if anyone has come to me and I answered them with reasons their request isn’t possible. If you did, then you should feel threatened.

Too often, people take the attitude that it is their job and the rules say I have this responsibility. But, unfortunately, you do have this until you become an obstacle to people in the company trying to get their projects done.

Be an Optimist

The opposite of the Naysayer is the Optimist. When people come to you with requests, learn how to turn their proposal into a reality. While someone’s request has some vast problems look first for something positive. A big clue is that if nothing seems good about their request at the bare minimum, you can start by being excited that they came to you with their idea.

“I am honored that you thought of me to help you with your project” is a great way to start on a positive note.

When addressing an obstacle, talk about a solution. For example, let’s say you don’t have a particular piece of equipment to make that happen. Tell the client if we can rent or buy a part you don’t have that would make it possible. Maybe you need an extra hand to make it happen. For example, for me to move the couch from this room to another, I need some help carrying it, would you or can you find someone to help? I am more than willing, but I am busy now and could use some service to find another person.

The trick is to let them know from your experience that we need to address something for success. I am more than willing to help you, but my boss has me working on these projects. So while I can ask them to let me help you, it would be better for you to request my time.

Remember Storyline

Looking at the storyline elements will help remind you why you need to be the Optimist and not the Naysayer.

The person coming to you has a Conflict/Task and is looking to you to help them as a Guide/Resource. If you say no, their issue doesn’t go away. Like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, she will move down the yellow brick road to find the solution to her problem.

The difference between the Optimist and the Naysayer is the Assignment they give to the person. Please give them the solutions [Actions] to help their story turn into a comedy, not a Tragedy. You saying no is just not an option for someone who needs to solve a problem.

When someone proposes a new program that will compete with your schedule, tell them how you want to help and need to understand their goals. Also, ask for their critique on how the current program you are doing isn’t meeting those needs. Don’t be quick to defend your program.

If you listen, you may learn that your program isn’t serving all the needs, or maybe you need to tweak the communication about your program to show how it addresses those needs. Either way, there is a perception that it is not meeting the audience’s needs.

Your role may change going forward, but learning how to listen and adjust makes you more valuable to them and the organization.

As long as you are helping the organization address the new issues facing it, you are part of the solution and will have a job in the future. If you try and protect and keep things as they are, you are not growing and slowly helping the organization die.

The most under utilized setting on a camera

by Stanley LearyPhotography
 

Your photos might look much better if they look sharp in the viewfinder. This dial is how you make sure they are in focus.

Most cameras today have a diopter adjustment dial near the viewfinder. For example, this arrow points to the diopter adjustment on the Fuji X-E2.

The camera comes with diopter adjustment in the rangeof  –4 to +2 m–1 to accommodate individual differences in vision. Rotate the diopter adjustment control until the viewfinder display is in sharp focus.

Fuji covers this in the basic setup of the camera, right after you set the date and time for the camera. It is more important than all the other settings like ISO, Aperture, Shutter Speed, and Focus settings. Why? You need to see the subject and know if it is in focus and read all the information they provide you in the viewfinder.

First Steps 

  1. Attaching the Strap
  2. Attaching a Lens
  3. Charging the Battery
  4. Inserting the Battery and a Memory Card
  5. Compatible Memory Cards
  6. Turning the Camera on and Of
  7. Basic Setup
  8. Choosing a Display
  9. Focusing the Viewfinder 
  10. Adjusting Display Brightness

The great advantage of the mirrorless Fuji X-E2 over a conventional DSLR is when looking through the viewfinder, you can do everything through it. So once you adjust the diopter, you don’t need your glasses to review images or change settings in the menu; use the EVF instead of the LCD screen.

To grow as a photographer you need constructive criticism

by Stanley Learystorytelling / visual storytelling
 
Fuji X-E2, 18-55mm, ISO 6400, ƒ/3.6, 1/210

Team Photo Story?

Today I saw the work of seven teams assigned themes and had to find a story on the Big Island of Hawaii to do as a team. I have never seen this done before. Usually, in photo schools, they give each person a story and work on it alone.

This class’s purpose is to give young people a Discipleship Training School, where they spend a month preparing to go to another country to work on a project. These projects include orphanages, sex trafficking, and other social justice issues.

To help teach everyone how to engage with people cross-culturally, they are using the camera to help guide this skill. However, most of these Discipleship Training Schools do not use photography.

Paul & Suzi Childers [Fuji X-E2, 18-55mm, ISO 6400, ƒ/4, 1/160]

Paul and Suzi Childers had this vision of using photography for a DTS. Suzie is a professional portrait photographer by trade and saw this would work to help teach cross-cultural skills and help the students make connections.

I taught this week how to get permission in cross-cultural settings to take photos and how using photojournalism techniques would help them get to know people.

Fuji X-E2, 18-55mm, ISO 6400, ƒ/4, 1/250

Working as a team, they could potentially shoot different angles and let one person concentrate on doing most of the talking. Then, another person could take notes and gather content using a recorder or video on their camera.

One group let the subject tell their own story, and they used photos that they set up to help illustrate some of the concepts.

One group used an illustrative/conceptual photography approach and combined this with reading the story to the group.

A few groups wrote captions, put those up on the screen, and then put the photos in a more photojournalistic sequence.

Fuji X-E2, 18-55mm, ISO 6400, ƒ/3.6, 1/220

After each group presented, their peers then gave feedback. Finally, the leader asked them to provide some positive comments and things they could improve. Please don’t say you don’t like the photo; tell them what they could have done to improve it.

Earlier in the week, I put up coverage of mine, which I didn’t tell them until we were quite a ways into the critique. I asked each person to look at a photo and tell me what they saw as something wrong with the picture. Each person commented that the others had not done earl8er.

Manny, one of the students, said one of my photos looked amateurish. Well, the point of the critique session was to teach them how to give constructive criticism. So I didn’t let him off without him taking the time to tell everyone why it was amateurish and what he thought would make it better.

Some of the students at first thought we were arguing. They all learned that sometimes you must ask someone to clarify their comments. Even when they are saying your photo is crap. Why is it crap?

Fuji X-E2, 18-55mm, ISO 5000, ƒ/3.2, 1/500

I would offer to them if they paid my expenses and make up for all the income for the next two months to join them and critique every day, but that isn’t practical. What made much more sense was to help them understand how to look at photos and discuss why a photo worked or didn’t work.

What they were learning was how to listen to feedback in life. Hopefully, this process will teach them how to build community and grow in maturity as they know how to serve one another.

I can’t wait to see their work from around the world. The group splits up to go to Panama, Turkey, Germany, Thailand, and China.

Low light can be sometimes the best mood light

by Stanley LearyHigh ISO
 
Fuji X-E2, 18-55mm, ISO 6400, ƒ/2.8, 1/6

Last night some of the students from PhotogenX were sitting around outside working on the projects they are presenting this morning. It was well past sunset, and just the lights from the court were in the background, but we were sitting where if it were not for the light from their laptops, we would be pretty much in the dark.

Fuji X-E2, 18-55mm, ISO 6400, ƒ/4, 1/13

It would help if you had a camera with an ISO of 3200 or better. I shot these on the Fuji X-E2 using AUTO ISO with the peak setting at ISO 6400.

I opened up the aperture to the widest setting, and since the lens has a variable aperture, as you go to more telephoto, the aperture gets smaller; I was shooting between ƒ/2.8 and ƒ/4.

Fuji X-E2, 18-55mm, ISO 6400, ƒ/3.2, 1/20

As the subjects got closer to the laptops, the screen light would get brighter on their faces. So the exposure changes just slightly when they lean it to see something.

What you will notice is the shutter speed is slower than usually recommended. 1/6 of a second is pretty slow. The subjects were not moving that much, which helped. Had this been some sporting activity, I could not have done this.

I am not using a tripod.

Fuji X-E2, 18-55mm, ISO 6400, ƒ/3.2, 1/20

The vibration reduction system designed for the Fuji X camera and lenses lets me hand-hold images almost 4-stops darker than without this system.

All this means is that as long as you remain as still as possible, the slight movement caused by your breathing and your heart beating will not blur your image.

If you have an older camera that the ISO goes no higher than ISO 1600, this is a great reason to go out and buy some of the newer technology. If you do, look for cameras that will shoot at ISO 6400 or higher. For example, my Fuji X-E2 will go up to 25600, which I have used a few times.

Photography is about anticipating

by Stanley LearyPhotography
 
Fuji X-E2, 18-55mm, ISO 800, ƒ/5.6, 8.6 sec.

I posted this photo on Facebook last night, and a friend said, “I love this photo. It looks like a postcard. What are the settings you used?”

The Facebook comment makes me want to say Patience Young, Grasshopper. If you are not old enough, in the 1970s was a TV show called Kung Fu. Here is the scene that I loved:

It would help if you had the patience to make the photo I created. So often, when people travel, they see a beautiful scene and take a picture, and few will return to the spot to take it at a better moment.

Fuji X-E2, 18-55mm ISO 200, ƒ/22, 1/10

While I love this photo just as much as the nighttime photo, I like it for different reasons. It has a different mood in the picture.

I also took this photo later in the week while in Kona, Hawaii.

Fuji X-E2, 18-55mm, ISO 6400, ƒ/5.6, 1/5

I realized that if I could wait and capture a car driving down the hill in the frame, I could have their headlights light up the road, and the red tail lights add just a little color.

I tried the photo with cars coming up the hill but felt the headlights were too bright. Maybe you like this better. Here is one of those photos.

Fuji X-E2, 18-55mm, ISO 800, ƒ/5.6, 7 sec.

To take the photo, I put the camera on a tripod and then timed how long it was taking cars to go down the hill. I wanted between a 6 to 10-second exposure to have the lights move enough through the scene. So I played with the ISO, ƒ-stop until I found something that worked to give me about 7 to 8-second exposures.

The other thing is that this must be done at dusk and not too late, or the sky will be black.

The lesson here can apply to all photography. You must find a good composition and wait for the action to develop. You are anticipating what will happen.

Nikon D100, Sigma 15-35mm, ISO 400, ƒ/6.7, 1/180

I arrived early for a basketball game to put a camera behind the backboard and four strobes in the ceiling to light the basketball court. I then had to wait for what I had anticipated would happen in the game.

Ansel Adams called this pre-visualization. I have seen many scenes before, and now I would plan to capture them.

What will you photograph today that will require you to arrive early and wait?

How using portrait in a photo story

by Stanley LearyNikon D4 / storytelling / visual storytelling
 
Nikon D4, 85mm, ISO 125, ƒ/1.4, 1/100

I made three quick photos of a student yesterday in class to help the students see two things they can do very quickly to introduce a character into the story.

We preferred not to have a posed portrait but rather something of her in action. Therefore, I did not take a photo to illustrate that point but did want to explain lens choice and aperture.

The first photo has a shallow depth-of-field of ƒ/1.4. Again, the emphasis is all on the lady.

Nikon D4, 85mm, ISO 12800, ƒ/14, 1/100

I then just stopped down the aperture to create a greater depth of field so that the map was much sharper.

Now I told the class that my purpose was to show the student in a class with photo students, and they would then leave the course and do stories around the world.

Nikon D4, 14-24mm, ISO 9000, ƒ/14, 1/100

For the last shot, I changed the lens to a wide-angle and then had the class behind her. We talked about how we can then introduce her in our story this way as well.

All three are good photos in their own right, but the question was which one does the best job of helping tell the story.

Today I will show them another technique, so stay tuned for that example.

Advice to photography students

by Stanley LearyNikon D2X / Nikon D4
 
Downtown Lisbon, Portugal [Fuji X-E2, 18-55mm, ISO 25600, ƒ/2.8, 1/160]

To get work, you need a portfolio, not a degree. So yes, you could have saved much money without earning a degree from a great school. But unfortunately, based on some of the work I continue to see by students graduating from photo schools worldwide, many have wasted a lot of money.

How do you start if you are not in a photo school? Well, that is the catch. You see, you need someone to help introduce you to the tools you need to master and to teach you some of the standards. However, almost every school does teach you how to operate your camera to get good exposure, and they teach you how to use the latest software as well. In addition, most schools do a great job of exposing you to the work of the masters in the profession.

‘You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink.’

I think this is what a good education will do for those who want to learn how to be a photographer. First, they show you what you need to do. Then, they give you assignments that teach you how to create those elements that will help you make a portfolio.

Passion not Assignments

Your portfolio must communicate to those you wish will hire you that your work will grab their attention. So no matter the subject, you need to SURPRISE the audience with your photos.

The First 100 attendees at the Chicago Chick-fil-A grand opening played Face the Cookie, where they used the muscles in their faces to move the cookie to their mouth. [Nikon D4, 14-24mm, ISO 9000, ƒ/10, 1/100]

Too many students are just shooting the assignments they are given and then pulling the best from their jobs and putting them into their portfolios. Why is this such a big mistake?

First of all, the assignment work given to you is seldom something that speaks to your passions. You then work hard at finding out the standards for the grading and then shoot to get a good grade. This process is enough for a few people to create an excellent portfolio image. However, the vast majority of the students are just going through the motions to complete the assignment. Often they waited till the last moment to shoot.

If you were not doing photography, what would be the one thing you would want to do? Maybe you would like to be going to soccer games and watch them. Perhaps you are a foodie. You like going to farmers’ markets and finding the local food and going to restaurants that buy local as well. Maybe you would be spending time working with a nonprofit and building wells worldwide.

Follow your passion and build your portfolio around it.

[Nikon D4, 14-24mm, ISO 12800, ƒ/8, 1/160

If your passion is music, then do more than go to concerts. Could you pick up an instrument and master it? Learn music theory, so you understand music at a much deeper level.

[Nikon D2X, Sigma 120-300mm with 1.4 converters, ƒ/6.3, 1/2500]

If you like sports, then play in a league. I used to play basketball three times a week in pickup games for more than 20 years.

Those that will hire you are experts already in their subjects. They will not respect you unless you show a similar passion for the subject as they do.

They are most likely aware of most of the best photography in their industry. To SURPRISE the experts will be hard to do. But, you have to, or they will continue to use who they have shooting for them now.

Show Me!

“Show me the money,” Tom Cruise, playing Jerry Maguire, said in the 1996 movie Jerry Maguire movie. The point was that talk is cheap to a football player who hired Jerry Maguire as his agent. He needed a good contract.

Please show me your portfolio is the same request your potential clients are asking you to deliver to them. Your work better SURPRISE them because they already have photographers shooting for them. You have to impress them to want to use you.

Passion NOT Assignments

The easiest thing to do is to give me your best effort for all your assignments. But, unfortunately, that kind of work seldom competes against a photographer who is passionate about their subjects.

School vs. Real Word

If your photo school ran all their classes like the real world, then every type would pass/fail. Everyone would hand in their assignments, and only one person in the class passed. The best photos for that assignment, as perceived by the teacher, would get a passing grade. Everyone else would fail.

My friend Dr. Bob Carey, department chair for the Department of Communications at Gardner-Webb University, said he toyed with the idea of doing just that for an assignment on creating an estimate. He said he did tell the students about his idea but wanted them to understand that is the way it will be once they graduate.

Mark Johnson, Senior Lecturer of Photojournalism at the University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, has created identical camera kits for each student. This way, everyone in the class is on equal footing when they have given an assignment.

Pat Davison, Professor, School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of North
Carolina-Chapel Hill creates workshops overseas to give real-world experiences to his students.

Dennis Fahringer, who runs the photo schools for the University of Nations, brings in working professionals to teach segments and takes his advanced photo school overseas for a month on assignments.

All my teaching friends work at taking those horses [students] to the water to drink. The assignments they give are typical. The problem for the student is seldom will they be as passionate about those assignments. So they need to provide a self-assignment on something they care about.

Please take what you learned in photo school and now go and apply it to your passions. Then you will have an outstanding portfolio.

Client’s memory is very short

by Stanley LearyPhotography
 
Fuji X-E2, 55-200mm, ISO 640, ƒ/4.8, 1/500

Friday 13th

Tonight there is a full moon, and it is Friday the 13th. For those that are superstitious, I guess this is a Freaky Friday.

The June full moon is frequently the one nearest to the summer solstice, which falls on June 21 this year. Unfortunately, because of a neat bit of galactic geometry, the full moon on Friday will be the lowest in the sky in 2014.

Something that I am starting to notice is how clients can be Freaky. Clients and people, in general, are very demanding.

Fuji X-E2, 55-200mm, ISO 6400, ƒ/4.5, 1/340 [photo by Chelle Leary]

While I have been on vacation and relaxing, I have had to give assignments to my friends to shoot for my clients. I never tell my clients I am unavailable without always finding someone to shoot the work for them if I am unavailable.

We can go back to Biblical times to see how the Israelites became restless when Moses went up the mountain.

Exodus 32:1
32 When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, “Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.”

Only Good As Your Last Job

You may have heard the old saying that you are “only good as your last job,” but I would say the lesson is to work hard at keeping new work in front of your clients. Could you not rely on them to remain faithful?

In the movie Ten Commandments, based on the Bible events, the people continue over and over to become restless even after significant miracles performed by Moses. For example, to get the Jewish people out of the slavery of Egypt, there were ten plagues. As they were on the run, Moses parted the Red Sea. Still, throughout their time in the desert, the people complained.

I cite that story to say, don’t be surprised when your clients move on without you, even if your work is the best in the industry.

Importance of personal project[s]

While one of my projects was a series of videos on a coffee cooperative in Mexico near the Guatemala border, I continued to shoot more videos all the time.

Blogging

While I continue to create new content by shooting daily and creating videos weekly, I also create new content on this blog three times a week.

eNewsletter

Each month I create an eNewsletter to connect with my clients. Here is a link to the most recent one that I sent out.

Phone Calls

I learned from my good friend Ken Touchton a while ago that calling your clients and prospects each week was a great way to remain in front of your clients. Ken told me that each Sunday evening, he took a few minutes and made a list of five clients and five prospects he would call that week. Two phone calls each day to a client and one to a candidate.

Doing this helped him to build a great client base that grew through the years.

emails

Today I also connect with clients by checking in with them through emails. I do this regularly.

Social Media

I also connect with and follow my clients and prospects through social media sites like Facebook, Google+, Linkedin, and Pinterest.

So what are you doing to remain in front of your clients? Remember, even God had a difficult time remaining in the minds of his people.

Going freelance and pricing advice

by Stanley Learybusiness / Photography / pricing
Fuji X-E2, 18-55mm, ISO 6400, ƒ/5, 1/100

Editorial Note: Writing to you while on vacation in Emerald Isle, NC. The photos are some from my time here.

Questions just this week

Question #1: if someone wants to buy a digital copy of a photo and not a print, what is the recommended price to charge them?

Question #2: I have always had a strong desire to shoot full-time on my own, so I am praying through if this transition is right for me. Would love to hear your thoughts.

First Pricing

I heard it put once very well when it came to pricing. The photographer was talking about portrait and wedding photography. First he pointed out to me that this is a luxury and not a need.

Since no one needs your photos to survive then you shouldn’t feel bad about your prices. He believed that you want to be known as the most expensive photographer just like a jeweler wants to be known this way. Mind you Walmart still sells more engagement diamonds, but unless you can be a volume discounter this is a hard way to realistically build your business.

The photographer then went on to tell me your goal is to get all the money you can from their pocket to yours. Sounds a bit greedy, but they explained this as you want to get the most you can for your work that they can afford.

If the people who are talking to you about your work are minimum wage workers barely getting by, then your prices that you can realistically charge are most likely not enough for you to live on. However, if the people you are talking to live in a penthouse on 5th Avenue in New York, then you are able to charge a larger amount.

Fuji X-E2, 18-55mm, ISO 6400, ƒ/5, 1/250

What must you charge?

Now we know you can charge just about anything depending on the ability of the client to pay, what must you charge? You need a minimum price that you need to charge or you lose money. Do this too much and you are out of business or even worse you go bankrupt.

Basically you figure out what it costs you to live plus what it costs you to run your business. This figure will be very different if you choose to live in Beverly Hills, California or in Lizard Lick, North Carolina. If you choose to drive a Rolls Royce or a Nissan Versa.

I break down the parts of an estimate here in an earlier blog post.

Here is another blog 9 things you need to do before going freelance full-time, which I also recommend for reading.

Must Charge vs What Can You Get

The Gap between what you must charge to pay the bills and what you could charge is where you negotiate your price.

In assignment work and stock photography the best place to help get some industry ranges is fotoQuote Pro.

When someone wants to use one of your photos, you don’t need a number pulled out of a hat, you need help to get paid fairly for your work. You need fotoQuote, the industry standard photo pricing guide for stock and assignment photography.

The fotoQuote photo pricing guide is the only source of photo pricing information for photographers that includes powerful coaching help for every category. The fotoQuote price guide not only helps you come up with a fair price for your image license, but it also gives you the negotiation information you need to help you close the sale.

Numbers by themselves don’t mean anything if you can’t convince your client that your image is worth what you are asking.

The license for each image can easily be copied so that you can embed it into the metadata for your image, illustration, or video clip. The license can also be pasted into an external invoice or document. It will look like this:

Usage: Magazine Editorial.Consumer
Circulation: 25k to 50k
Size: Cover
License Duration: 1 Year
Territory: US Only
Industry: Publishing-Periodicals
Rights/Exclusivity: One-Time Non-Exclusive
Release Information: No model release

The rate fotoQuote gives you for assignment work is what you charge on top of your “creative fee” or base price.

Hobbyist → Part-time Photographer → Full-time Photographer

Timing your transitions from a Hobbyist to a Part-time Photographer is much easier than going full-time.

First let me try and talk you out of doing this. Seven Reasons Not to Become a Freelance Professional Photographer

I highly recommend keeping your day job while starting your freelance business on the side. When your day job is REGULARLY getting in the way of your FREELANCE this is when you should consider going full-time freelance.

In 2002 I was laid off from what I considered a great job. Well truthfully I was very frustrated with the environment for the last few years I was on staff. While I enjoyed the opportunities to shoot a variety of subjects, I was finding myself out of sync with my coworkers.

I should have left earlier, but I didn’t think I could made it as a freelancer. I liked having people just give me things to photograph and go home and come in the next day and do it again.

When I got called in and told that my position had been eliminated I was devastated. I called my wife and friend to come and help me pack up my gear and books and move out. As we were packing up my things my friend was trying to comfort me and made a very profound comment. “Stanley if you put in the amount of effort you have been doing here in your freelance, you will be a very successful photographer.”

I thought about his comment a lot that first year of freelancing.  He had said it to me with such conviction that I realized he really believed it to be true. Later even my wife would comment and say that he was right.

My life did change and each day I got up and worked hard.

By the way my freelance was starting to really pick up before this happened to me.

Tips for the freelancer

  • Keep a similar work schedule to the one you had on staff. Get up and go to work. While you may not have to drive anywhere to commute, still get out of bed eat breakfast and then take that commute to another part of your house/apartment.
  • Get dressed for work. One of my friends Ken Touchton told me in those early days that he used to get dressed and put on a tie just to go to the next room. It helps put you psychologically in a different frame of mind.
  • Create a calendar of events. Just like you had in your last job, schedule time for different thing you need to be doing. You need to create; meetings, lunch dates, and find events from things like the Chamber of Commerce to attend in your community.
  • Create a database of clients, prospects, and family/friends. You may need to buy a list to add to your present list. You may need to go to the library and find those resources with contacts in them for your niche´. Remember this formula that for every 1,000 contact names in your database only 100 of them will be interested in your services. Of those 100 contacts only 10 of them will become a client.
  • Create a plan on connecting to those in your database. Another formula is to know that it takes about 6 – 8 touches with a contact before they remember you. Therefore you need to have a plan on how to contact these folks in a way that is positive and not annoying. I recommend mixing up your arsenal. I use: Phone Calls, emails, eNewsletters, Blogging, Postcards, and events as ways that I can make contact with my prospects and clients.
  • Develop an elevator speech. You need to be able at a moments notice explain to anyone what you do. Here is a link to mine.

Freelancing is like a farmer. You will be plowing the fields, weeding and doing a lot of work long before you will be able to harvest the crop. 

If the farmer doesn’t put in the time and investment then there is no harvest.

Just like the farmer you can do everything right, but there are things outside your control. Most of the farmers I know have a tremendous faith in God and know that while they can do everything right there is much out of their control. They pray for guidance and wisdom. Most of all they pray for grace.