For years I have been to meeting after meeting like this one for the Atlanta ASMP chapter, and the main topic is usually business practices.

I have written extensively on the subject and realize that all this talk is to help the artist and not the public. The public doesn’t care anymore about how much it costs you to take photos or a video than they do about how the sausage is made. If the quality is excellent and the service then they buy it. They even become repeat customers.

Almost everything I see on justifying pricing has more to do with educating a skilled artisan but no business sense.

There is always someone cheaper

However, one thing in business that many misses is that some intentionally price their products as high as possible.

The goal is to create the perception that the products must have a higher value than competing products because the prices are higher.

You may think that is wrong, yet on the flip side, when you price low, you diminish the value of your work just as much.

I am a strong proponent of premium pricing for service-based business owners. I think it is better for you as the business owner, and I know it allows you to provide the best possible service to your clients.

You need to understand not just your spreadsheets of costs and time but the psychology of buying.

No matter what you are selling, buying is an emotional decision.

As the service provider, you will make a much better living doing your best for your customer and giving them the best service and product.

When you do this, you must learn to name your products correctly to communicate their value. Just as a writer of good fiction picks the names of their characters, you should spend as much time with the name of your product.

Business is more than knowing the “Cost of Doing Business.” It is the art and psychology of selling.

Now the most significant flaw to this plan is if your work is the same as others, then you will appear to be a commodity, and then it is a race to the bottom for pricing.

Learn to be a craftsman of your trade. Learn to be a “service provider” who thinks of everything for your customer.

Go the extra mile

If your product looks the same and your attitude is the same as others, you will struggle for the rest of your life.

Not being able to travel during COVID-19 can get you down. So look down and pick up some of those leaves.

“And the sun took a step back, the leaves lulled themselves to sleep, and autumn was awakened.”

— Raquel Franco

I just went into my yard and picked up some leaves and took them inside to my copy stand setup. I put my light table on the base and just put the leaves on them backlighted by the light table.

“A fallen leaf is nothing more than a summer’s wave goodbye.”

Then I just clicked away.

Sometimes you don’t have to go that far to find things that can bring you joy.

Like snowflakes are all different, so too are the leaves each fall.

I have been mulching them each week, but today I just hit the pause button, picked them up, and enjoyed them.

“Autumn leaves shower like gold, like rainbows, as the winds of change begin to blow, signaling the later days of autumn.”

— Dan Millman

“I am asking for a friend. How can I fix thousands of photos with an error in the caption/keywords? Is there a way to do a ‘Search & Replace’ as you can do with Microsoft Word or other word processing software, but with all my photos?”

If you had used Photo Mechanic before the Plus version came out, as long as you had a folder opened and selected all the photos, you could easily search and replace to fix a caption.

There’s no search and replace anywhere in Lightroom, not even in the caption or titles where a word processor (or Notepad) – style feature can make lots of sense.

Now let’s say your friend has made an error over time. There are folders of images on multiple hard drives that all have the same error.

For Example:

In all your photos on the hard drives of “President George W. Bush,” you had him identified as “President George H. Bush.”

Another more common issue is that you had been using “John Smith” and found out later it should be “John Smith Jr.” You need to correct these images.

Now with Photo Mechanic Plus, it is a much simpler task. First, all the images must be included in the Photo Mechanic Plus catalog. If they are all there, you go to the database part of the program and search for how you put it in the photos in the catalog.

A little tip here is to be sure you use quotation marks [ “ ” ] around multiple words. This way, it will look for the phrase. Without the quotation marks [ “ ” ], each word is looked for and not as a combination.

Search the database for “President George H. Bush.”

Then select all the images. I use the shortcut ⌘+A to select all the photos.

Then Edit>Find & Replace.

Type in the words you need to be changed for the search field and the correction in the replace field.

You can have it search all the fields, or if you know it is in just one or two fields, you can narrow the selection. That can speed it up and keep you from accidentally replacing it in a field you don’t want to change.

In the case of a photo where you had both President George H. Bush and his son George W. Bush, you can narrow the search to not include one in the database search.

Now you can tell your “friend” how to fix all those errors in the photo’s metadata.

Research shows that our brains like choices. Read on to learn how pricing can help you sell more.

Before Pricing

One of the most important things to build trust is people feeling empowered. People like to feel in control of their decisions.

Without choices, we would be puppets. Even in faith, there is the concept of “Free Will,” which means you get to choose and have options.

Once a person loses these options, they feel imprisoned.

A binary decision is a choice between two alternatives, for instance, taking a specific action or not taking it.

Three choices enable us to avoid the ones that are too hot and too cold, too big and too small and select the one that is just right. 

I am sure you remember the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. There is one choice that is “Just Right.”

Binary gives choices, but once you go to three options, people’s brains believe they have all the choices. Just like Goldilocks, they feel like choosing between the three leads them to the perfect choice. They think this is all the variables, even when it is not.

Pricing

Now that you know the brain is wired to feel like three choices are all the choices try your very best when working on proposals and pricing that you create three options.

Now my uncle, Knolan Benfield, is the first person to talk to me about pricing. He was talking about his pricing list for his photography studio “The Benfield Touch” in Hickory, North Carolina.

He had been to many Professional Photographers of America workshops. One of them taught him about the “Whoop-De-Do” option. It is offering the 4th choice.

This is the over-the-top option. When he returned from the workshop, he tried this, and it worked.

How often did you have the bride’s father who would occasionally say I only want the best for my daughter? Not that often, but when he does, he will be the one who picks the 4th “Whoop-De-Do” option.

The workshop leader said once this happens, you should drop your lowest price, making your 2nd option the 1st lowest priced option. Then you add a new “Whoop-De-Do” option. This is how you can increase your prices over time.

Just look on Amazon or, for me, B&H or Roberts Camera; almost every product gives you options. Usually three choices or more. Look at how they are pricing the newest M1 Chip Macbook Pro.

For those of you who have always priced estimates with one price and wondered why you didn’t get some jobs, this might be one of the reasons. Give them three options from now on.

My personal experience is when given three options; they pick the middle one most of the time.

This is the speed test I ran using my ethernet. As you can see, that is pretty fast.

Why am I telling you this? Some will read this and say that it is obvious. From my time teaching at the University of Georgia and doing workshops worldwide, the students have one thing in common.

Understanding computers is not innate to humans. Many people I have taught have had to learn that they must empty their trash on their computers. They honestly didn’t know. Some of the students in the workshops had never done this, and for some, when we did it, they freed up some 300 GB of space on their hard drives.

So this is why I wrote this piece, not for you, that already know all there is to know about computers, but for the rest of the world that doesn’t know unless someone tells them.

Now on to the tip of how to speed up your internet connection.

To hook this up to my Macbook Pro, I used this Hub-Connector by J5create.

Now, when you have a home office, it is worth running an Ethernet cable from your router.

This is now using the WiFi Netgear RAX20 with the latest generation WiFi 6 technology.

No matter your router, you will get better speed with ethernet, and my test shows more than a 4X increase in rate. This varies depending on the ethernet connection and WiFi connection you might have.

Now for those photographers and especially those working with video, you want that speed uploading your files.

I just recently switched from Cable internet to ATT Fiber Optic. I went from 200 MB down and 7 MB up to what you see above, and I am saving about $20 a month.

If you have a home office, consider going wired.

Stanley, Dorie, Lucy, and Don Rutledge in front of their home in Midlothian, Va. [Chelle Leary took photo]

A few people helped me get my bearings in the world of photography. Don Rutledge had an incredible impact on my life. I think it has more to do with how much I admired his work and what he had done for missions.

Another photographer that made an impact was Ken Touchton. He was covering the same annual Ramblin’ Wreck parade before the Georgia vs. Georgia Tech game that I covered for more than 15 years.

Ken had started in photojournalism but also would expand into corporate and advertising. When I went freelance from being on staff in 2002, Ken was the guy who called me weekly. We talked about my goals and ambitions. Then each week, he screamed as my accountability partner.

My foundation started with my uncle, Knolan Benfield, Jr. He worked with Don Rutledge long before me at the Home Mission Board in Atlanta from the late 60s to the late 70s. He also worked with Ken Touchton.

Knolan taught me how the mechanics of the camera worked and how to use studio strobes and pose people. You could never be around Knolan when he ran the Benfield Touch studios in Hickory, North Carolina, and not hear him talking about business practices. He was proud of being a small business owner and was quite successful.

Each of these and many others I would meet through the years helped me develop my inner character. They taught me a worldview based on Christian principles of right and wrong and, most importantly, the importance of searching for Truth.

I learned that treating people with honor, dignity, and respect was the only way to be successful. Each one taught me how to listen with more than just my ears. Don and Knolan primarily taught me the importance of body language.

They helped me realize my social work degree was a real asset in the world of communications.

Late in my career of freelancing, I met Greg Thompson. He brought me on to work with his corporate communications team at Chick-fil-A. We helped each other grow in so many ways.

I was always going to Greg with ideas that I thought would help Chick-fil-A. Greg taught me more than anyone else that you start with the audience in communications. Why do they need to hear this story? How is it going to help them live more productive lives? At Chick-fil-A, the question was, “How is this going to help them sell more Chicken?”

Here is a quick list of topics they taught me

• How to make a well-exposed photo
  • Knolan Benfield
• Understanding lighting, composition, and communicating with a photograph
  • Knolan Benfield
  • Don Rutledge
• Your role as a photojournalist
  • Don Rutledge
  • Knolan Benfield
  • Ken Touchton
  • Greg Thompson
• Business practices
  • Knolan Benfield
  • Ken Touchton

Who are your teachers? Who is coaching you?

• What is the difference between:
  • Journalism
  • Documentary
  • Public Relations
  • Corporate Communications
  • Advertising
  • Advocacy Journalism

So many in the communications profession didn’t come through a communications degree program. Many are self-taught and never really had someone give them a good understanding of the different roles in professional communications.

When a reporter for the national news shows up when a tornado has hit a community, this is news coverage. It is journalism.

When I took this photo of a hymnal with it opened to the song “I Feel the Need of a Mother’s Prayer,” I didn’t put the book there and turned to a particular page. I took it as I found it. That is critical in journalism. Journal journalism must report the facts and don’t editorialize or create something or add to it.

When we were doing a Public Relations package for missionaries in Trinidad, they didn’t just find the people where they were and capture them. They interviewed them and even staged parts of their coverage. This was what their “Public Relations/Advertising/Marketing” package did.

Here the purpose is different. In PR/Marketing, you want a clear message and to get rid of any distractions. You even help the characters phrase their words to tell their stories. In journalism, you ask questions and edit the key phrases they say to tell their story. In PR/Marketing, you realize that how someone words something often is ineffective. You clarify with them if the way you are saying something is accurate, and if it is, you ask them to tell it this way instead.

If you go with a communications team to do a story, what is your role with the team?

One thing that many team members don’t realize – everyone on that team is responsible for the whole story. If you don’t understand the entire story, you will not be effective in your role.

You also know that you must talk with and communicate with the other team members when you are on a team. It would help if you had open and honest communication.

The teams that produce the award-winning content usually have the best communication amongst the team members throughout the process.

During a stock shoot I did for Chick-fil-A, I didn’t set up the photos, but I did use strobes to make the lighting look better. A purist would say I am manipulating the situation.

For years I never used flashes all that much, but when I was in the darkroom, I was burning and dodging. That means I was trying to do what I could have been doing with lights. I made the subject brighter and the stuff I wanted darker by not putting light on it.

Often I do photos where the food is stylized. This isn’t just as you would find the sandwich. It was never wrapped to not squish the bun.

This is where the scene is manipulated. We do this all the time in PR/Marketing. In journalism, you might have to blur inappropriate language that might be on a person’s T-Shirt due to FCC rules and live TV. In PR/Marketing we just switch out the shirt.

If you are a one-man-band communications professional, what does that mean?

It means you are responsible for everything. I believe this is the one thing many who start their career as part of staff often never learn what it means to tell the story. They are just doing one piece and not seeing how it fits together.

What are the advantages of working with a team of communicators?

It is great to have others to bounce your ideas off. Working with writers, designers, editors, photographers, and videographers has a different perspective. Sometimes they see and hear things you are not wired to catch.

What are the advantages of the one-man-team for communication?

The best thing someone can do for a part of their career is a one-band shop. You will learn much more by knowing the audience relies on you as much as the subject to connect them.

WHY is this the topic???????

So many have said they are self-taught. Many have never been coached or mentored before in their career. I believe one of the best things I feel could benefit from this is to give people a chance to get a taste of what mentoring\coaching can be.

Find a mentor/coach to help you grow and become a better communicator. Learn how to work within the ethics of the type of communication you are doing.

How do photographers add more value to their work so that clients love them?

Lightroom Classic CC 7.3 (April 2018 release) has been optimized for more accurate detection of faces in your catalog photos. This means it will search all the images in the filmstrip of a folder or what you have ingested.

After it has found the faces, it puts them in an “Unnamed People” section. Just click on the “?” and fill in the correct name.

This information is written to the Keywords and a field called the “Persons Shown” area, which I worked with later in Photo Mechanic Plus.

Here, that field is just below the Keywords in Photo Mechanic Plus.

Here is my “Digital Workflow” before the changes I say I need to make to add value to your already awesome photos.

Post Processing

Here is my “Digital Workflow” before the changes I say I need to make to add value to your already awesome photos.

Post Processing

1. Ingest to PhotoMechanic
2. IPTC information is filled out and part of the ingesting process
3. Select the keepers
4. Delete all untagged images
5. Import into Lightroom because I am shooting RAW
6. Using metadata, I select all the photos with the same lens.
7. Select all with the same lens
8. Go to Develop Module “D” shortcut.
9. On the far right, go to lens correction.
10. Go back to Library, pick another lens, and do the same until all photos have been lens corrected.
11. Click on profile and enable profile for Adobe Color or select another more appropriate profile by using browsing in the menu.
12. Tip for selecting multiple images shot in the same scene and do a correction to all at once
13. Go to settings and then tell it to Match Exposure on all those selected.
14. ⌘D unselect
15. Go one by one and check those correctly. Repeat this step for different scenes
16. Correct for blown-out highlights
17. Pull in blacks if necessary.
18. I am often using the Dehaze and Texture sliders.
19. For sharpening, I use this technique.
20. Export all images to sRGB JPEGs Quality 80
21. Open PhotoMechanic
22. Upload to my PhotoShelter account for the client

After step 21, where I open the processed JPEGs, I now work on the IPTC metadata.

I select all the images and then use the shortcut “⌘+I,” which gives me the IPTC Metadata Master Template. Now I click into the Caption field and hit a few returns. I select “Append” from the pull-down menu on the left. Then I click on “Variables” down on the bottom, find “persons,” and click on it. It puts {persons} in the Caption field.

If I have other changes that would be easy to apply to all the images at once, I often do that here. Let’s say the same basic caption or keywords could be used. I go ahead and make those changes as well. Then at the bottom, next to “Close Template,” I click on “Apply Template to Selected.”

This takes all those identified in Lightroom’s Face Recognition and puts them into the caption field, making them easily searchable with any computer.

While Lightroom does put their names in the Keywords, I wouldn’t say I like that. So I overwrite that with my new keywords that I go and apply one by one or by selecting multiple images using the master template that I clear and apply each time if doing this to various photos.

If you are using the same changes a lot of the time, go ahead and save this template, and then you can load it when needed.

New Digital Workflow for Post Processing

1. Ingest to Photo Mechanic Plus
2. IPTC information is filled out and part of the ingesting process
3. Select the keepers
4. Delete all untagged images
5. Import into Lightroom, because I am shooting RAW
6. Use Face-Recognition to help identify people
7. Using metadata I select all the photos with the same lens
8. Select all with the same lens
9. Go to Develop Module “D” shortcut
10. On far right go to lens correction
11. Go back to Library and pick another lens and do the same until all photos have been lens corrected
12. Click on profile and enable profile for Adobe Color or select another more appropriate profile by using browsing in the menu
13. Tip to select multiple images shot in the same scene and do correction to all at once
14. Go to settings and then tell it to Match Exposure on all those selected
15. ⌘D unselect
16. Go one by one and check those correct. Repeat this step for different scenes
17. Correct for blown out highlights
18. Pull in blacks if necessary
19. I am often using the Dehaze and Texture sliders
20. For sharpening I use this technique
21. Export all images to sRGB JPEGs Quality 80
22. Open Photo Mechanic Plus
23. Select all Images
24. Append caption to include {persons]
25. Go through all images being sure caption [“Caption” field contains the specifics about a photo]
26. Using structured keywords apply them to each photo. [“Keyword” field is limited to generic terms]
27. Upload to my PhotoShelter account for the client

Please send a note with your images telling the client how they can search their images on their Mac or PC.

How to search on a Mac computer?

1. On your Mac, click the Spotlight icon in the upper-right corner of the menu bar or press the Command-Space bar. …
2. In the search field, type what you’re looking for—results appear as you type.

How to search on a PC computer?

• Click the Start button to go to the Start screen,
• then start typing to search for a file.
• The search results will appear on the right side of the screen. Click a file or folder to open it.

Any text put into the IPTC Caption or keyword fields is searchable, and they can find those photos.

Do this often enough, and they will no longer be calling your competition for those jobs. Why? They can find your photos and not your competition’s. That is how you increase your value to your customers.

I love shooting senior photos for a few reasons. One of the best reasons is meeting young people ready to transition into adulthood.

Today I just enjoyed my time with Max Boggus. Last year at this time, I shot his older sister.

We enjoyed shooting these photos in the “Golden Hour of Light.” The next few weeks are prime time to do outside portraits in Atlanta.

We did take one photo with the mask to remember this year of COVID-19. No other generation has had this as the norm during their high school years since the “Spanish Flu.”

Do you have a senior? Do you have plans to get their senior photo?

I like to go to different locations that are important to a senior. Take some time and think of places that mean a lot to you. Here Max is in front of his school.

Be sure you take lots and lots of photos when you schedule your time. This is once in a lifetime photo shoot.

Give me a call, and let us plan this critical time in your family’s life.

Bill Bangham is working as a coach/mentor with Jennifer Nelson on her story she is doing in Santiago, Chile, as part of the Storytellers Abroad Workshop. [NIKON Z 6, VR Zoom 24-105mm f/4G IF-ED, Mode = Aperture Priority, ISO 8000, 1/100, ƒ/5.6, (35mm = 62)]

Having children in your twenties allows you to do more physically than in your thirties; studies show that living longer gives you an advantage.

A 2015 study showed that women who have their last child after age 33 are more likely to live to 95.

“For the unlearned, old age is winter; for the learned, it is the season of the harvest.” 

~Hasidic saying

When I worked on communications projects in my twenties, I was trying to cover the basics. I didn’t understand how any of what I was doing was helping the bigger picture.

Financial experts tell you to put money away early because it compounds interest over time.

While we often only look at money, we have experiences that go into our “EMORY BANK” daily. That, too, is growing with compounded interest.

At the age of twenty, I am just learning to shift those gears, and now, in my fifties, I am looking around and seeing those around me in the race. I look for opportunities.

Clients

When you hire someone new, they have unique things to bring. Their youth and lack of experience are likely flexible because they are not locked into a process.

When you hire someone with experience, they bring all that to the table. They can anticipate your needs better than you can often. They have been there before. Just because they are older doesn’t mean they are not flexible. Usually, those with experience are more flexible. They made the mistake in the past of not listening to the client when they should have.

Creatives

Never be ashamed of your experience level. Use whatever you have to your advantage.

When you are young, you realize you don’t have experience. That is OK. Many clients want to give new people a break to discover new talent.

When you are old, let the client know you are taking care of them. In your correspondence, use all that experience to ask better questions to help the client achieve their goals and to let them know you are thinking ahead and anticipating them.

“Getting old is a fascinating thing. The older you get, the older you want to get.”

~Keith Richards

One of the most significant advantages I have found for using the Database of Photo Mechanic Plus compared to Lightroom’s Library is not having the original file connected to the computer when doing searches.

[!] is the symbol you see when your originals are not online when using Lightroom. While you can see a small thumbnail, you cannot zoom in and see details of the photo unless you have the original image online.

With Photo Mechanic Plus, if you have put the image into your database and it is not online, you get a yellow circle in the right-hand corner next to the filename as in the photo above.

When I look for a photo, I first want to know what the image looks like. While you can look at the picture in Lightroom as a thumbnail and full size for one photograph at a time, you cannot look at them at 100% unless you brought them into Lightroom at 1:1 in the “Build Previews” during the import.

The tips for Lightroom say: “The best option to pick is Auto. With Auto, Lightroom builds previews that match your monitor resolution. Lightroom takes longer to build Standard previews than to create Minimal or Embedded & Sidecar previews. But the benefit is that the Library module runs much faster.”

One of the main reasons so many photographers use Photo Mechanic with their Lightroom is that when it comes to culling RAW images, it is so much faster.

In my opinion, it is the same in the catalog.

I like that I can zoom in 1:1 even with the images offline.

If you want to do this with Lightroom, then you have to select 1:1 when you ingest into the Library.

I love the Catalog function of Photo Mechanic Plus.

I have found that when you take advantage of some features, Photo Mechanic Plus makes the images more valuable.

When you INGEST, be sure to rename your files to a system that works for you and, at the same time, apply what I call the IPTC template for your photo shoot.

Your camera may use the same file names over and over after each format. I recommend using the Date+Time shot as the file name.

Go to the IPTC fields and fill in all the fields you will use for all your photos. Things like your name, address, that you are the creator and most crucial copyright information.

I recommend that you use this function under the location if you have a camera that can capture GPS. It helps when applying the IPTC. You can now know where you took all the photos. I click on the world, and it will look for the GPS data when it is green.

Once you have all the essential information, go and save this as a template. I have many templates because there are some places I regularly go where I need to change a few things. Say you always shoot college sports. Then that location, some of the captions, and even keywords will be the same. Maybe you shoot a wedding at the same venue. Save that venue.

If you have been saving templates, your first step is to open the template and then modify it with the specifics for the caption, keywords, or something else. If you always shoot at the same wedding venue, go in and put the Groom and Bride’s names in the caption.

Under “Edit>Settings>Set Code Replacements,” you can select a TXT document. You have two columns. When you first type on the document, put in a shortcut like “bride” and then “TAB” and write the bride’s full name. Now imagine complicated spelling. This will save you a lot of time.

When you hit “RETURN,” the next row does the same thing by saying “groom.” In sports, shortcuts can be jersey numbers that will help you identify players and their positions in games.

Pay attention to the “Delimiter Character” left-hand corner of the Code Replacement screen. You put that symbol in front and behind the shortcut text. When you put the final symbol in, says the caption, the computer puts all that long text in. You can use a shortcut for a long sentence if you like. This is to save you time.

If you create a taxonomy of keywords using this outline without the numbering, this can be used in what Photo Mechanic refers to as a “Structured Keyword.” It will look like this below, minus the bullet points.

• North America
  • United States
    • Alabama
  • Mexico
  • Canada

You can use Microsoft Excel and create your list as well. A column and indent would be the B column and so on. If you save it as a TXT, it can be used as a Structured Keyword list.

Click on the drop-down menu on the right of keywords in the IPTC screen. Pick the Structured Keywords.

This is the default that comes with Photo Mechanic. I have written my own for different clients.

This lets you quickly add keywords to a photo.

When you have done this just once, the keywords will be under the Structured Keywords, so you don’t have to recreate it if you want to use the same or another one you created. It keeps those as another shortcut.

My last tip is that you can simultaneously apply any of these to multiple images.

Select all the images or selects and then CMD+I to bring up the IPTC. You change anything in this and then tell it to apply to your selection.

You can do the same thing by selecting images and CMD+M to rename all the photos you have chosen.

On average, going one image at a time can take about 5 minutes to write a caption telling us the Who, What, Where, When & How, as well as adding Keywords. But using code replacement, structured keywords, and applying those to multiples when you can–will save you an incredible time.

The last tip. Do this enough, and your speed will increase over time.