How to start a Photoblog
So you have a few photoblogs that you regularly visit (Hopefully Some Photographer is one of them) for a variety of reasons. Maybe one has a great “Photo of the week” post or maybe another one is a great news source. You say to yourself “I take pictures! I write! I can do this too!” Running a photoblog can be a lot of fun, but it can also be a lot of work. If you start to gather a following, there’s more pressure to write and you’d be surprised how easy it is to get writer’s block. So before you jump in and starting snapping pics and writing tutorials here are a few things to consider.
Who
What kind of audience do you want to appeal to? Beginners? Enthusiasts? Pros? It’s important to carve out your niche but to do so carefully – you don’t want to get in over your head. Most of the people that write blogs are pros, enthusiasts or beginners themselves and you can tell by what they write. This can also be reflected in the title of your blog. Take A Photo Editor for example – the titles says it all. Lou Lesko is allowed to use his own name as a title, because he’s well known enough in the industry. One day maybe you can name your blog after yourself too!
What
What sort of photoblog will you be doing? Whats the theme? The idea? Are you going to do daily posts like a 365 photos project? Are you going to post other people’s work as a way of showing the world great artists? Are you going to focus on industry news? Write tutorials? Or will it be all about you? Find out what would suite you best and stick with it. A combination of these themes can make your blog versatile and appeal to a wider audience, but it’s more difficult to keep up.
Where
There are a myriad of blog hosting services and websites you can use to set up your blog. You can buy your own domain name and have it that much more professional – or you can start out with a free service and see where it all goes. Most blog services have a free program that allows you to do all of the basics post-dating your posts, themes and looks for your blog, etc. Then they usually offer a premium service as well that allows more customization or storage space.
There’s a lot of things to consider when joing a blog service. Besides everything I mentioned above, you want a good community of bloggers, and bloggers who stick with it. WordPress is definitely the most popular blogging service, and you will find thousands of bloggers blogging about everything you can imagine. It might make your site a bit difficult to find, but if you tag and categorize properly you shouldn’t have a problem.
While I don’t believe that Blogger’s community is as dedicated as WordPress’, It is quite user-friendly and there are lots of ways to customize, even without a premium service. It’s affiliated with google, so you go straight to a search directory without any steps or registrations.
Make sure that whatever service you use has a lot of storage space for photos. Most places have at least 1 gig of storage, but you’d be surprised at how fast you can fill that up. You can always host your images through a different service like Flickr or Photobucket.
Flickr is easily the largest photo-sharing community and is aimed at photographers.
Photobucket is designed for mass photo-storage and sharing
When
So you have the theme, the host and the pictures – how often should you update? The answer is as much as you want – within reason. If your new at this and not sure what you want out of it yet, Once a week is a good place to start. Unless you’re doing a photo-a-day type blog, you won’t need to post every day – this gets tiresome for some readers. I would say even 3 times a week is a bit excessive. Twice a week is nice and comfortable, if you have a lot to write about. Spread out your posts don’t update two days in a row, get a schedule going so your readers know when to come back. And be consistent, don’t post 3 times in one week and then one time again a month later. No one will take you seriously.
Why
You’re probably doing this for one of the following reasons: (1) You have an opinion to share. (2) You have a lot of photos to share. (3) You have the inside scoop of the industry. (4) You like photo gear.
All of these reasons are fine – if you’re passionate about it, you will write well about it. A lot of up and coming professionals (like myself) get a blog to show potential clients that they can do more besides photography, and that they are diverse. Understand why you are writing and have a goal. When you reach that goal, make another one.
Etc.
Proper spelling and grammar is important. Readers will not take u srsly if u pst lik ths. Have a minimum/maximum wordcount. No one like s a rambler, but you should not have 50 word posts. I have a minimum of 250 words and a max of 1000. Use social networking like Facebook and Twitter or LinkedIn and Friendfeed to tie into your blog or advertise it. Don’t be excessive – nobody likes spam. Services like BlogExplosion work ok to get traffic initially – but if you want quality traffic you should stick with forums and websites for photographers to promote it on. Engage your readers – have polls and ask questions to encourage participation – it will stick in their minds and they will come back. Have links, lots of links. Links to other blogs, websites, etc.
So there you have it, the foundations to starting a photoblog. Have fun and experiment. Take risks – I am dangerously close to my word limit – and be consistent. Good luck and happy photoblogging!
Working Pro-Bono
So in the last few weeks that I have been in New Zealand I have been working with a musician named Darija Andzakovic for free – usually receiving nothing but gratitude or an occasional box of chocolate. Darija is a classically trained double-bassist who gigs around Auckland and gives lectures. She’s good friends with my girlfriend and she asked me to help her out with a poster which she already had the photos for.
The photographer she worked with initially had taken/gathered a number of photos and all I had to do was assemble them in photoshop and add text. She was very pleased with the results, and asked if I would photograph the event as well. With the time I spent working on the poster and the photos I took of the event, I could have been sitting on a nicely-paid job for some extra cash while I was on vacation.
Although monetary compensation was discussed, I decided to go for the chocolates. Why you ask? Darija has connections here that would take me quite some time to get myself. She has many friends in the creative industry as well as the music industry, and it’s always nice that when her peers check out her photos she will say “Rob Schultze took those photos.” Plus, I really like chocolate.
And then there’s the fact that I’m only here with a visitors visa, and they are quite strict about things like that.
Lou Lesko wrote an article that inspired this one, and I wanted to give my two-cents on the subject. I really like New Zealand, and so does my girlfriend. It’s always nice to have connections and word-of-mouth going around in a place that you may consider doing more work, if everything works out.
Concert Photography 101
I’ve shot easily more than 150 bands in my time as a working photographer including local acts and bigger names and record labels.
It’s a fun field to get into, you get to see shows for free, get to meet the band, and usually get free drink tickets. Bands are very difficult to shoot, usually the venues they play are poorly lit, shows are crowded, and the band moves around a lot. So how can you successfully shoot a band and get awesome photos of the guitarist smashing his instrument on stage? Why, by reading this tutorial of course.
Getting in
Some people will go to all sorts of ridiculous trouble to sneak their cameras into shows – stuffing it in jackets, down pants, etc.
Thing is, it’s fairly easy to get a photo pass. You can contact either the band or the record label and ask if they need photo coverage for the show, send them a link to your portfolio and wait for a response. It may not be as exciting as sneaking past security with a 200mm lens in your pants, but you’ll get into the show for free if you get the pass.
Gear
Pack light. You should only need about 4-5 things. Your camera should be able to shoot well in low light or have noise reduction software built in. At a typical venue you will need to shoot at about 1000 – 1600 ISO and you will still be shooting at a shutter speed between 1/30 and 1/125, if you’re lucky. If you think you will have room for a tripod, bring it – but at a small venue or club I wouldn’t even bother. This is where it’s important to have good lenses. I bring a 50mm 1.4, a 19-35mm 3.5 and a 70-300mm 3.5/4.8 – the faster your lenses, the better. And of course, bring the usual – extra battery, extra memory cards, etc. Before you pack up your flash unit ALWAYS ASK IF YOU CAN USE ONE. I cannot stress this enough. You could interrupt and ruin the whole show by using a high-powered flash if the band doesn’t know about it. And trust me, you do not want to be on the bad side of a crowd who’s paid to see their most favorite band EVER while you are carrying $5000.00 worth of gear.
Shooting without flash
When faced with the possibility of shooting in low light with no flash unit and no tripod, some may panic. They jack up their ISO and send the band black and white photos to hide the noise from shooting at 2500 ISO and call it a day.
Now, this is ok in some practices but for me the colors and lights at a venue or club really set the mood of a show – many bigger bands have their own light set ups, so it would make sense to capture that in all it’s glory, am I right?
Instead of relying on a tripod or high ISO I would just focus on learning to have a steady hand. This can be difficult when you’re in a crowd, so find yourself a nice spot either right at the stage or against a wall or support beam and prop yourself against it. Frame your shot, tuck your elbows into your rib cage, take a deep breath and when you breath out slowly compress the shutter button. If you have a high frames-per-second option, use it.
Focusing in the kind of flashy-glitzy lighting that live shows are known for can be tricky. It’s really up to what you trust more – your auto focus, or yourself. Either way, know how far away from the stage you are and how your focusing works so you can make quick adjustments.
Shooting with flash
If your shooting with any flash at all, be it on camera or off you will need to make the photos interesting. I have a bit of an unorthodox method myself. I use my on camera flash – blasphemous, I know – in combination with long exposures.
The flash freezes my subject, and the longer exposure (usually no more 1 second) will give me glorious light trails from anything reflective, which results in a high energy shot full of motion and color.
It will also allow you to shoot at a much lower ISO and smaller aperture, and if you focus correctly it will be nice and crisp too.
General Tips
Use your lenses. Come in with your 50mm and get some medium shots, use the wide-angle and shoot from above or below or other extreme angles, and use your telephoto for close-ups. If the band is letting you shoot on stage, be respectful and do not interrupt their show by stepping in front of them while the lead-guitarist does a face-melting solo. Be mindful of the crowd, and don’t shove your way around. And since you’re there already, why not get a shot of the adoring fans?
Common Sense
Before you shoot any kind of live show – especially if it’s a metal or punk show – get your gear insured. It costs what, 200.00 a year? If it’s that cheap, how can you afford to not insure yourself? I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had gear broken, beer spilled upon it, or had it get stolen outright. Don’t take the risk.
Utilizing Natural Light
At some point, you are going to ask yourself a very important question: “Am I a studio light or natural light photographer?”
Each type of lighting has it’s own characteristics and benefits. Studio lighting is customizable, professional, and allows you to capture nearly everything you need the lighting for. Natural light is beautiful, available, classic and impossible to replicate.
Unfortunately, each type of lighting has a downside as well; Studio lights are cumbersome and difficult to transport, they need a power source, they are expensive, and they take time to set up. Natural light is uncontrollable, so your at the mercy of your environment.
I’m a big fan of natural light – Something about it just feels so right, and like I said above, you can’t replicate natural light in a studio. Let me introduce you to the most common lighting situations you will face out in the world.
Noon Light
Shooting at 12 noon will give you very hot or orange/yellow light. Since the sun is at it’s highest point in the sky, you will get very bright highlights and very dark shadows. Not saying it’s impossible to shoot it – I’m just saying you will have a hell of a time getting decent detail in both the shadows and the highlights unless you use a reflector or a fill-flash of some kind or you’re willing to work a little photoshop HDR magic.
However, this type of lighting takes up a large chunk of the day – from about 10am to about 4pm, so it’s convenient to shoot in. Which brings us to our next type of natural light:
Dappled Light
If the mid-day sun is too much for you to handle, try moving your subject under a tree. It’s so simple – the leaves and brunches take out the intensity of the sun enough so your subject doesn’t have to squint, and you get beautiful patterns of light all over your photo. If you use these patterns properly – like placing a highlight directly on your subjects face, it can work very well for you.
Warm vs. Cold
The best time of day to shoot is bright and early – between 5 and 7am, and later in the day before sunset. Morning light is significantly cooler or bluer than evening light. And you won’t get the harsh shadows created by noon light. If you shoot about an hour before sunset, you will capture a magical mood – in the film industry known as the “Golden Hour” because everything takes on an angelic glow – it’s beautiful, but you have to be prepared and work fast – you lose light very quickly during sunset.
This photo was taken in a gazebo around 6pm:
And this next photo is the same model, but taken much earlier in the morning:
You can also get a similarly cold look from shooting in the shade or on a cloudy day. Each image cold and warm has it’s own feeling that you can utilize however you wish.
Window Light
I’ve saved the best for last. At any time of the day you can get what I consider to be the most beautiful lighting in the world… window light.
In all it’s simplicity, window light sure is versatile. You can place your subject right next to the window for more pronounced shadows and highlights or you can move your subject several feet from the window and get a much softer diffused light.
And depending on the time of day, the thickness of the glass, the weather, etc – it will all change, which makes it not only very accessible but also very exciting to work with. You’ll never really know quite what you will get, but it will always be beautiful.
Home-Studios: are they worth it?
When you start getting regular work, many of questions will come to mind particularly if you do a lot of studio work.
You may have been renting a studio or using a friends for some time now, but now that the work keeps on coming, you begin to wonder if it’s worth it have your very own. Here’s a few pointers.
Personally, I have an 8×10 backdrop stand with a black seamless, a white seamless and a gray seamless. That, along with a set of 3 hot-lights gives me all of flexibility for what I need to do.
About 75.00
The backdrop stands are about 50-75.00, my seamless is just the paper kind so about 20.00 per roll, and the hot-lights are around 10-20.00 each.
I can shoot still-life/product on this, as well as do portrait sittings for an overall cost of about 200.00 for the entire setup, which will pay for itself in about 1-2 jobs.
If I need to freeze movement and do something more dramatic, I can rent strobes. A strobe kit costs around 1000.00 for a 2 light setup with a power-pack, but you can rent one for about 125.00 a day. When you take into account how often you will use it, you can figure out if it’s worth it to buy your own.
If I’m shooting something a little more high-end, like something for an ad or a magazine, I’ll rent a studio. It’s just more professional to have an art director or client wait around in a studio than sit on your living room couch, and models will be much more comfortable in that setting as well.
Overall, I say have the bare essentials at your house (Backdrops, seamless, hot-lights) to do the basics with. You can always rent to do the jobs with a higher profile, and a higher budget.
Marketing 101
How to keep the work coming is a bit of an enigma to newcomers of the industry.
When the majority of your work comes from freelance leads, it’s very important to have a handle on what will get you work and what won’t. And sometimes – Most times – It’s simply a waiting a game.
Business Cards
Depending on what sort of work you do, especially if your into the wedding or event photography arena, business cards can be a great source of work, as you can simply hand them out while your working. Some other fields such as advertising or fashion won’t care much if you leave a card with them – especially if it’s how you make your primary income. There are a lot of places to get business cards made, you can go through your local print shop or you can order them online. I use Mpix.com, they make great cards at low cost, and you can use their nifty-design program to speed up the creation and order process.
The Mpix Software
Promos
Promos are mailers that you send to art directors or event coordinators, and they can be as simple as a 5×7 postcard. These people receive hundreds of promos a day, so if you really want to be noticed you have to submit something that is not only an excellent image, but is also creatively presented. This can be anything from a folded up poster with one of your images and your name on it, to a small book that showcases the best of your work related to the client. Personally, I use iPhoto to create my miniature promo-books, they make excellent mailers as they are small (about 2.5 x 3.5 inches) and light, and they are a great substitute for a business card as they fit nicely in your pocket. Sending mailers can be expensive, so it’s best to send your mailers only once every 3-4 months. Make sure you send fresh work each time!
Also, you can go the e-mail blast route – browse talent and ad agency websites, get contact info and about once or twice a month send them a nice image with your name on it and a link to your portfolio. Explain what sort of work you do, briefly. It’s important that you update the image often.
My last e-mail promo
You can read more about promos from the view of a photo editor HERE.
The Internet
You absolutely must have a website or online portfolio of some kind. You would be surprised the amount of work you can get because of it, especially in this day and age of electronics. You can use the internet in other ways too, newcomers and veterans alike post ads on Craigslist all the time to get freelance work, and it’s a good place to start if your new to the industry.
Also, take advantage of social networking like Twitter and update people on the work your doing, start a blog and show potential clients that you can do more besides snapping photos.
Be Flexible
When you send out promos and mailers, it is important to cater to the interests of the client you are sending work to. However, this does not mean you should strictly only do portraiture or food photography. If you can shoot Fashion alongside journalism, you will be that much more valuable to your clients, and will get more work because of it. It’s best to plan out a shoot to show your diversity. Get friends to model for you, travel to interesting locations, etc.
Word of Mouth
This is hands down the best – and simplest – way to market yourself. Be polite. Be professional. Be knowledgeable. If you make a good impression on a client, word travels fast.
Above all, it is most important to produce good work. If you combine that all of the above, you will see steady work and success. A good photographer’s work is never done – so once you wrap up production of that new promo or business card, you need to get right to work on the next one. Be creative, be original, be you.
Tips to go from Hobbyist to Pro
So you’ve been shooting for a long time now, you have six different cameras both 35mm and digital and you’ve just been asked to shoot a senior photo. “Wow, I can make money from this??”
Yes. Yes you can, and here’s how you can make more money in a much more timely fashion.
Get an Education
Now I don’t mean that you need to go get an MFA in photography, but taking classes can be as simple as going to your local Technical college or taking a correspondence course. The New York Institute of Photography has a very good, inexpensive certificate program, if you think you’re up to the commitment of a correspondence program.
Read, read, read. Time to ditch “Popular Photography” and “Shutterbug” magazine, it’s time to move up to the big leagues – top of the game is Digital Photo Pro and Photo District News, these will not only get you the typical gear reviews and feature-photographers, but they will make you aware of all sorts of news within the industry, as well as Juried competitions which offer some serious exposure to the winning party.
Other books such as Pricing Photography and Advertising Photography offer in-depth views on how to manage your business.
Get a website
If you want to make it in today’s world as a photographer, you will need a web presence of some kind. I mentioned this in my last post, social networking is very powerful today. Sites such as Twitter and Facebook all offer ways to stay connected not only with individual people, but with companies as well. You will be taken much more seriously as a professional though if you have your own website to show your portfolio on. Livebooks offers a great flash-based site that works great and looks really slick. And if you’re a student, you can get it for $100.00 a year.
A certain livebooks website.
Your website should be 2 things: Simple and consistent. Don’t have a lot of sidebars and complicated menus. Here’s a good test; show your website to your grandmother, and if she can figure it out you’re on the right track. Your work should be consistently good – clients know filler when they see it – so only put up your best work.
Network
I am a member of the APA as well as a Photoshop usergroup, and these are valuable resources not only for getting information, but the people you meet can mean some amazing connections and work in the future. There are so many clubs and groups out there, that it would be hard for you to not join one.
Look at other people’s work
This one should be a given. Weather it’s the latest Ansel Adams exhibit or pictures of your niece’s cat, you need to soak up as much inspiration as you can. Go to portfolio reviews and art openings – it’s a great opportunity to see who’s better than you, and how you can improve.
Put your gear on a leash
Now just because you’re calling yourself a pro and you have a few paying jobs here and there does not mean you should rush out and drop $50,000.00 on all the latest gear. I do all of my professional shoots with a 12 Megapixel Nikon D300, and I have never had any complaints. I would say that 10 Megapixels with a good resolution is plenty, because it’s not the camera that makes a good photo. Don’t buy a strobe kit – you can rent those for $100.00, and how often will you really use them?
This should get you a good start. The rest you will learn in the field, on your own. Still, don’t be afraid to ask someone who’s better than you, read old out-dated photography books and get jobs that are way over your head. This is how you learn.
