The Weekly Wrap-Up features articles from this week on Photofocus. This week, Bryan Esler talks about pricing your photography, Vanelli shows us the best way to organize photos and Julie Powell introduces us to still life photography. Plus, Mykii Liu discusses the best resolution for your monitor and Bob Coates dives in to panoramic photography. Enjoy!
Photography Marketing: The pricing conversation - I’ve heard it too many times. Nightmare stories around pricing — a client understood this, we never talked about that and on and on. While pricing is often hard to talk about with clients, it really shouldn’t be. When everything is clear, it either works for them, or it doesn’t. Here’s how to avoid that grey area. DO NOT list your prices on your website Here’s the thing. If you put all your packages on your website, you’re immediately narrowing your client base. You might be too expensive for some of them or look too affordable for others (yep, that’s a thing). If you list your pricing, you’re essentially locking yourself into those prices, with no wiggle room available which is not a good place to be. I guarantee that if you have a pricing page, and check your Google Analytics, it’s probably the number one page before a client exits your website completely. Even putting a line such as “packages start at $500” is something I advise against. Because there might be that photoshoot you really want to photograph, so much so that you’d do it for little or no money. Don’t price yourself out before the conversation even takes place. DO NOT talk pricing over the phone This is when most of the confusion sets in at the client-level. You know your price list by heart. And to you, it makes sense. But to non-photographers, it’s like navigating the ocean. You never know what you’ll stumble upon. Your client-to-be won’t understand what we take for granted. So when a potential client asks you for your pricing over the phone, avoid it at all costs. I usually say something like “let me put together a line-item quote and send it your way in the next few minutes.” You can get away with saying “my packages start at $500.” But always follow that up by saying “let me send you a proper quote outlining everything for you.” This does two things. One, it lets the client know they don’t have to memorize your pricing scheme. Two, it lets you start a paper trail. A record of what you discussed. In essence, this record will eliminate or at worst, minimize any confusion. DO send an easy-to-understand quote As soon as you hang up the phone, it’s important to send off the quote. If you’re unable to, be sure to let the potential client knows when they can expect the quote from you. This lets you set expectations and doesn’t let them wonder when it’s going to arrive. In the quote, be sure to outline everything. Confirm the details of the photoshoot, and then go over each line item by line item. Is editing included? What is a sitting fee? Is travel included? Are any prints included? These are questions clients are sure to have. In addition to the quote you send, make it clear that you want to work with the person (if in fact, you do). This makes it easier for them to come back and ask if you can add something to the quote, ask for more details or ask you to meet a specific budget they have for the project. Finally, don’t just send a canned email. I always start with an email template I put together in Studio Ninja, but then I customize it for the client. This is especially important if it’s a new client. Your existing clients will be used to your pricing and understand what your quote will look like. But new clients will need, and want to be educated. DO follow-up The most important step throughout this whole process is to follow up with the person. If they don’t respond to you right away, give it some time. They might be gathering other quotes, or discussing with the rest of their team. Here’s a past column on what to do when potential clients don’t respond. For more on Photography Marketing, see my weekly column.
The best way to organize your photos - Organizing your photos don’t seem important until you need to find them fast. In this video from Developing a naming convention for your files from Learning ON1 Photo RAW by Vanelli (Me), I show photographers how to save time and frustration by creating proper folders and subfolders to organize and store images. Developing a naming convention for your files from Learning ON1 Photo RAW by Robert Vanelli
What resolution monitor should you buy as a photographer — 1080p or 4K? - When it comes to monitor resolutions, there are really two monikers that are being thrown around today — 1080p and 4K. While 1080p screens look good for monitors that are smaller than 27″, 4K tends to be what is recommended by the local Best Buy salesperson if you want a high resolution screen that is 27″ or larger. I can’t explain exactly why, but if I were to take a guess, I’d say it’s because the marketing hype is all about 4K or they don’t know any better. Dang marketing schemes. If you’re looking to buy a monitor, I’d throw another option at you: 1440p. Perhaps you’ve heard of it as QHD, Quad HD, WQHD, Wide Quad HD or even 2K, which are all synonymous references to the amount of pixels that the monitor will display, otherwise known as resolution, (2560×1440) which is around 3.2 million. That’s four times more than Full HD or 1080p. There are a million articles specifically on resolution, but if you want to know why you shouldn’t choose 1080p or 4k and why you should choose 1440p, read on. So here’s the real deal Don’t get a 1080p display (unless you want to stay under 27″ screens) Images aren’t displayed as sharp as they could be Edges aren’t as smooth, it’ll look more granular or grainy Smaller workspace to move windows around Seems more affordable, but most are cheap and not super great quality Viewing angles may suffer Display panels aren’t as good of quality because of how cheap they can be made Loads of off-brands seem appealing due to cost by cutting out key features like color calibration Don’t get a 4K display 4K on a 27″ screen is overkill for most people out there. Causes more stress on video cards to produce what is on your screen — can lead to a large drop in performance. Typically requires a higher end video card if you want multiple monitors. If not, you’ll have stuttering graphics visible when scrolling or zooming in and zooming out. In short, it’ll slow things down. Windows and certain applications are hit and miss with support for 4K displays. Buttons and text may look blurry Cursor sizes may be too small or too large Scaling is horrible within Windows 10, and things become blurry If you don’t scale your screen (adjusting apps, text, and other items), everything will be super tiny. If you scale your screen, you’ve already lost one of the perks of having a larger resolution display — the ability to have more screen space to hold more application windows. Lower resolution images and such will not look as good when blown up to a decent viewing size. Seriously though, right now, 4K seems to be the standard for TVs, but not all of the content is even streamed in 4K. If you’ve ever seen the normal 1080p TV streams upscaled onto a 4K TV, you’ll understand. 1440p is the sweet spot for sharpness and performance It isn’t super strenuous on the graphics cards and most modern machines can easily support two QHD monitors Text, buttons and windows tend to still be readable without a magnifying glass Images are displayed sharp without any adjustment It costs less than 4K screens Built for specific audiences — gaming or productivity — so there is attention to detail to key features like high refresh rates, viewing angles, or color accuracy. Size matters, I know, but why 27″? As a photographer, you’ll want to see the detail of the images you take on a screen that isn’t super tiny or needlessly large. Smaller monitors will have better pixel density or more pixels per square inch, compared to a monitor that has the same resolution but has a larger screen. In my experience, 27″ is the sweet spot on cost, space, and ease of viewing. If you don’t have the space for a 27″, then 24″ would also do well at 1440p. If your monitor is further than 3 feet away from you, then maybe a 32″ would work for you, but because 32″ screens tend to be a bit more expensive, I’d rather position a 27″ monitor a bit closer and get the same effect. Doing video? You may want to go with something larger, from what I’ve heard, having a nice ultra wide monitor is pretty awesome when it comes to editing timelines and such — in which case, you wouldn’t get a 4K screen or even a 1440p screen, you’d do one of those crazy WQHD+ 3840×1600 screens in my opinion. Recap 1080p screens have the cheapest price tag. Cheap doesn’t always translate to what you need, but instead, what your wallet needs. There’s a plethora of enticing 27″ 1080p screens for anywhere between $100-$170. But know better! Those cheap screens are a pretty good deal if you’re in a pinch and need a monitor that works to play games uncompetitively or just surf the web and do finances, but you’ll want to spend a little bit more if you’re playing with pixels. 1080p screens at 27″ require the pixels to be larger to cover the area of the screen. There is a stat for that called pixels per inch (PPI) that companies often boast. The higher the PPI, the smaller the pixels, and in return, the sharper the image. 1080p screens roughly have 82PPI at 27″ compared to 1440p screens at 108PPI, resulting in a pretty modest amount of smoothness over the prior. 4K screens have 163PPI at 27″, which is quite impressive, but will make the text super small and requires scaling to be pretty usable. The best medium between the two is 1440p. It’ll provide enough ‘real estate’ for multiple windows, allow for more viewing area for the photos without a heck of a lot of upscaling, won’t be taxing on your video cards and will still allow for multiple monitor setups for laptops (via Thunderbolt 2 or 3).
An introduction to still life photography - The art of still life and styling starts long before we press that shutter button. In the below article I’ll talk about the secrets of what to do during the gather, shoot and edit. Still life — whether that is flowers, macro, product or food photography — is arguably one of the most challenging types of photography out there. But it can also be the most rewarding. Like a painting, you start with a blank canvas and build layer upon layer as you stage your scene until you reach the perfect balance of reality and art and capture it with your camera. Tell a story One of the main things to consider in still life photography is the story. The story really is everything. There is the story of the subject and then there is also the story with the props. Why is your main subject or hero there? The surrounding props tell what and why your hero subject is there at all. Experiment with creating varying heights, angles and different levels. There are really only a few camera angles in still life photography that you see again and again, but you need to make a conscious decision about the one you choose. Where you place the camera will affect the type of story you’re trying to tell. Think of the subject beforehand. Its size, shape, height and what’s unique about it. Then place the camera where you think best highlights these qualities. Lighting Light is key — there is no argument here — but acquiring a few tools to help you control your light will bring your photography up to the next level. Poor use of light will ruin your images, especially with food and will immediately turn your audience off. So making sure light doesn’t distract or detract will help out your photos enormously. Using diffusers and scrims, light blockers and reflectors can make or break an image. They do not have to be large or expensive, as the scale is often much smaller for still life. Composition With all these props and items in the frame, how will we ever get the audience to look at our subject? Well, bring on the trusty techniques of composing with lines and layers. You can use props to create lines and layered effects in your images. This is a compositional technique used by photographers to lead their audience’s eyes to the main subject. This is my personal favorite. I love hunting for props and backgrounds to put in my images. This could also have been my first big mistake when I was starting out. It’s great to have props that are colorful, but if you’re not careful that colorful prop can easily upstage your main subject and grab all the attention. Too many colors can also confuse the viewer. Keep it simple and harmonious. Do not completely discount a great black and white image either. While there is no color, you can work on the contrast and intensity of the blacks, whites and grays to add visual appeal to your still life images. Desaturated images, without total blacks or whites, can have quite a dramatic impact as well, it is worth exploring different options and seeing what visually appeals to you. Take out stuff you don’t need. Take out things in your scene that are distracting and pair down to just one main focal point. If the scene is too cluttered you will lose the viewer’s interest. When first starting out try to limit items in the scene to perhaps three layers which will convey depth and story. Background Your background can be so vital to the overall success of your photo. What is seen in your background can make or break your image, so it deserves as much attention as the foreground in your scene. You want to treat the background elements just as you treat the foreground elements. Think about how bright/dark it is, the colors, how much blur you want, etc. You will want to move yourself, move your subject and change your depth of field by getting closer or further away. Avoid anything that will be distracting in your background. If it isn’t adding to your story, remove it. Gear To get those razor-sharp crystal-clear photos you may need a tripod and a remote trigger to control your camera, this eliminates camera shake. You’ll see a huge difference in how your tripod can help you get those perfect sharp images, which can be very appealing. Investing in a good tripod is worth it, especially if you want to do beautiful flat lays. The integrated arm has totally changed my photography and saved my back. Remember though to make sure it is securely weighted down with sandbags or similar to avoid the tripod being tipped over with the weight of the camera and lens. Also make sure your tripod is suitable for the weight of your camera, as some DSLRs and lenses can be quite heavy and an overweight tripod head will get damaged very quickly. It can be disastrous for your camera. Continually look at beautiful imagery to see what excites you and inspires you. There are so many different styles and aesthetics in still life, I am sure there is something that will appeal to everyone. Above all, practice, practice, practice. Visualize the shot, be creative and pay attention to details and light. All are a must in photography, and probably won’t finish here … and then practice, practice, practice some more.
How to get high megapixel files with the camera you already have - Many photographers feel that they are limited in the final file size by the number of megapixels provided by their cameras. In a way that’s true. In this tutorial, I’ll give you a workaround to create huge, single-image files with the camera you are currently using. Go big or go home In another post, I shared getting a different look for your images by making panoramic photos. The idea here is to leverage that concept to the next level so we can have the size and shape photograph we would like, not just a long skinny image. The image illustrating this post can be printed at a 300 dpi resolution almost 8-by-3 feet without resorting to software interpolation to upsize. If we wanted to print at 150 dpi this scene would be over 15 feet with no discernible loss of detail. Cropped version You can see the cropped section below that could be printed from 6-12 feet in the header of this post. With an image this size, you can have many options for output. Above see another possibility that can be printed up to the 12-foot size and possibly beyond. Capture multiple images using a panoramic head The secret is to use a lens that captures less of your scene. A panoramic head allows the lens to rotate around the nodal point of the lens, which creates less distortion. Less distortion makes matching the details much easier when combining files, as all these files are combined into one large photograph. In this case, I am using the Lumix G9 with the Leica DG Vario-Elmar 100-400mm f/4-6.3 lens. The camera is mounted on the Neewer Professional Panoramic Gimbal Camera Tripod Ball Head with 360 Degree Swivel Panoramic Indexing Rotator. It includes a two-way rail slider and L bracket for a tripod. This is the entry-level option, perfect if you are only going to do stitching occasionally. If you are going to make this part of your workflow you’ll want to have gear that is a bit tighter in tolerances and durability such as Nodal Ninja, Really Right Stuff or others that make sense for your use and budget. Save some headaches When you are making a stitched image such as this you can save yourself a lot of headaches by working with a panorama head on top of your tripod. Overlap images from 30-50 percent. In this case, I made two rows and the top and bottom row were overlapped 50 percent as well. I started at the top left of the scene and made nine photos dropped down a row and made captured nine more going in the opposite direction. Find panorama image capture and processing tips here. One thing I didn’t mention when capturing the images for panoramic photos is to use Manual mode for exposures. If you use an automatic mode then when the camera sees different values of light and dark as the light values change. Images from Adobe Bridge and Photoshop Do initial light image processing to all your files and process in Adobe Photoshop without opening the files by pushing the Done Button in Adobe Camera Raw. Then in Adobe Bridge highlight all the files from the menu bar and click on Tools > Photoshop > Photomerge. Under Settings, Auto Click with checked buttons — Blend Images Together, Vignette Removal and possibly Content Aware Fill Transparent Areas. Sometimes experimentation can lead to a better result if you don’t get the image you need on the first go. Resulting image and layers palette Here’s the Photomerge image after it has done its work. You see that there was one image that didn’t get to play because of no detail and a bit of shifting where the captures did not line up perfectly. That’s where Content Aware Fill can be of some help. A word of caution when using Content Aware Fill either during the initial process or subsequently; some of the rendering can look repetitive and still need a bit of massaging with the Clone Stamp Tool to look right and proper. Finishing the image You’ll notice the image coming out of Photomerge was a bit flat. I like to do my color grading of an image after the panorama has been assembled. I process for color and sharpness using the Skylum plugin Luminar 2018 or the new Luminar Flex. But that’s a whole ‘nother post. Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
