for Clients — 1 comment
03
Sep 10

Defining professional

Professional photographer: earns a living from photography. Consistently produces quality pictures to suit their client’s needs. Stands behind their work, takes responsibility for their actions, runs their own business and knows their trade. Worth more than they cost.

Amateur photographer: Has a day job. Produces pictures to please themselves. Nothing at stake, nothing to lose. Worth what they cost.

An amateur practices until they get it right. A professional practices until they can’t get it wrong.

An amateur might know how to fix mistakes. A professional knows how to avoid them.

A professional photographer has to be good all the time. An amateur has to be good only once-in-a-while.

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30
Aug 10

Poor quality media handouts

Earlier today, I was looking at some media handout pictures from a movie distributor which is looking to get publicity for an upcoming release:

• there were no captions, no names, and no IPTC data. You have to guess who the people are in the pictures and what/where/when is happening.

• photos were overexposed by about two stops and had far too much contrast. (Pictures were shot on an amateur camera using an auto-exposure mode).

• pictures were out-of-focus.

• the original 30MB images had been upsampled to 500MB (why?), which might account for some of the out-of-focus. Who needs 36″ x 54″ @ 300 ppi images?

• image size at least 20 times too big, file size about 13 times too big. Waste of download time and bandwidth, waste of editing time and computer resources.

If you’re going to produce media handout photos, make sure they’re media-friendly and that they meet all technical requirements. It’s not a guessing game.

When it comes to media handouts, every professional photographer knows what numbers they have to hit for tonal range, image size and file size. Every experienced photographer also knows what types of images that have to produce to meet aesthetic standards, (hint: having the film director out-of-focus and partially hidden behind an grossly overexposed camera is a waste of time).

If you want to get publicity so that you can make a strong impression on the public, then make it easy for the press to use your handout images. Make the pictures too good not to use, rather than too difficult to even mess with.

for Photographers — No comments
29
Aug 10

Riding a new path

If a customer needs a package to be delivered from point A to point B, they don’t care whether the courier* is talented enough to ride an odd-looking bicycle or not. The only value to the customer is the ability to deliver the package on time. The customer won’t pay more for a fancy set of wheels or any extra cycling skills because these have no value to the customer.

No matter how talented you think you are or how many awards you may have won, it’s the customer who determines the value of your photography. The customer’s perception is your reality. Unwanted value isn’t any value at all.

If customers aren’t buying what a photographer is selling, then that photographer needs to change the way they talk about their services. Somehow, the photographer has to increase the perceived value of their work. The best path for this starts with the photographer understanding their clients’ marketing needs.

(Unfortunately) no business ever says, “Let’s spend some money on photography today!” Instead, that company has to realize it has a problem and that photography is the answer.

The photographer’s own marketing job is to sell problems. Make potential clients aware that they have a problem.

And then…

The photographer has to be the solution.

For example:

There’s no point for a photographer to say, “I do great business pictures, hire me!”, if no clients are asking, “Hey, we need business photography, who should we hire?” The photographer is the answer to a question no one is asking.

But if the photographer points out:

• Not getting attention? A photograph with a print ad increases readership of that ad by 300%;

• Not standing out? Lack of credibility? No sociability with customers? Using real employee pictures on a web site makes a stronger first impression and can triple business credibility compared to using stock pictures of anonymous people;

• Low online sales? Good product photography on a web site can quadruple sales compared to low-quality pictures or no pictures at all. Bigger pictures sell more product;

• Keep reader interest and enhance brand image? Lifestyle pictures are best for creating an attitude, supporting a brand and creating interest, but not necessarily for selling product,

then perhaps a business will realize they have a problem which needs a photographic answer.

Sell problems first and then be the solution to that problem.

––

*The person in the photo isn’t a courier but a commuter in downtown Toronto.

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25
Aug 10

Photography pricing simplified

Nothing more to say except that it’s from the What the Duck cartoon series.

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22
Aug 10

A sporting chance

One type of photography I do is shooting sports events for corporate sponsors. The sponsors usually want good action pictures with their logo visible in the photo. These pictures are often used in corporate literature, web sites and media handouts.

Readers want to see an interesting photo. Editors want a newsworthy picture. Sponsors want to see their logo as part of that interesting, newsworthy photograph.

These pictures don’t happen by chance. An experienced sports photographer knows where to position themselves to best align a logo with the game action. This means knowing the sport involved, knowing how the game will unfold and knowing how the players will move about the playing field.

When a company needs pictures from a sponsored sports event, it’s far better to hire an experienced sports photographer than any other type of photographer.

A good sports picture which “just happens” to have a corporate logo visible will always trump a logo picture which just happens to have some sports activity visible. The former will have more than a sporting chance at capturing the attention of editors and viewers. The latter is a just waste of time and money.

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12
Aug 10

By the value

Of course the list of prices in the previous post, “By the pound“, is meaningless. No one sells a house by the pound, no one buys a car by the pound.

A house is priced on the subjective value of its location, the quality of design and workmanship that went into the house and the cost to build.

A car is priced on the subjective value of its brand, the quality of design and workmanship that went into the car and the cost to build.

But yet, some people expect photographers to price their services by the hour or by the picture, rather than by the value of the photography plus the quality of workmanship and the cost of production.

When some businesses try to find a corporate photographer, why do they shop price first, value second? The only products sold by weight or volume are commodities like fruit, vegetables and gasoline. Almost everything else is sold by value.

A can of Campbell’s vegetable soup is 99¢ and the No Frills store “no name” brand of vegetable soup is 63¢. Which would you buy? After tasting the thin, watery no name brand, you either go back to the higher-priced soup because it has more value, (better taste, more enjoyable), or you lower your standards and stay with the cheaper product to save money.

Same with photography. A business has to decide whether to lower its standards and use cheap photography, or go with higher-priced professional photography for more value.

for Clients — No comments
08
Aug 10

By the pound

Just for comparison sake, here’s the approximate cost per pound, (Canadian dollars, taxes not included), of a few items:

Nikon D3X camera: $2828

Apple iPhone (base model): $2200

Nikon D3S camera: $1818

Nikon 24mm f1.4 lens: $1527

Nikon 300mm F2.8 lens: $869

Nikon 14-24mm f2.8 lens: $847

Nikon 70-200mm f2.8 lens: $622

MacBook Pro 15″ laptop (base model): $330

Mac Pro desktop computer (base model): $75

Think Tank Airport Security roller case: $38

Porsche Boxster (base model): $18

House in Toronto: $1.06 (1600 sq ft., freestanding, single-storey brick house including foundation. Assuming $340,000 and 320,000 lbs )

House in Toronto: $0.71 (2200 sq ft., freestanding, two-storey brick house including foundation. Assuming $425,000 and 600,000 lbs.)

Now, do you have to ask why photographers charge so much?

Don’t even mention the cost of medium format cameras and digital backs:

Phase One 645DF camera + P45 back + 80mm lens: $5206

F-35 Lightning II fighter jet: $4780

for Everyone — 1 comment
08
Aug 10

Hiring for Dummies

There are many staff jobs available for editors and writers, but none for photographers. Well almost none: the only photo jobs are those for department store portrait studios, baby photographers and school photographers. These three are always looking for employees, which tends to indicate the quality of these jobs.

There’s a new business magazine about to start-up in Toronto. It has full-time paid job opportunities for editors, writers, designers and web people. What’s missing? Photographers.

Yes, the magazine is looking for photographers but these positions will be unpaid. The magazine does hint that it might consider some sort of honorarium for the photographers.

There’s a new online “city magazine” in Toronto. This business is looking for staff editors, writers, bloggers and designers. It’s also looking for photographers, but only photographers willing to work for free.

Let’s recap:

Editors, writers and designers walk in with the clothes on their back and they get paid for their work.

Photographers arrive with at least $20,000 worth of equipment and a car, and they don’t get paid for their work.

What’s wrong with this picture?

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