Q and A Friday

Time for another Q&A! Today's question is one I get in various forms and always try to answer accurately and appropriately, but I got it again and thought it would be good to share on the blog:

I got a nice camera and everyone keeps telling me that I take really good pictures and that I should go into business. I want to make sure that I'm doing things right, and wondered if you have any tips or suggestions on what steps I should take to start a business, or if you have time to give me feedback on my images and tell me if you think I'm ready?

Okay, this is a long winded answer (I know, big surprise, right?), so bear with me. First things first, I'm glad you've found something you are interested in. For me, photography has been a wonderful thing. But I'm going to give you some honest answers, and I want you to take them for what they are worth.

Taking pictures is one thing. It takes a lot of time to learn how to do it correctly. There are many things that go into a beautiful image. I'm still learning, and I imagine I will still be learning the rest of my life. Do you shoot in manual? If not, I'd suggest learning to do that really well. Get fast at it. Understand what you are doing. You also have to learn composition, angles, finding good light, post production, the list goes on. When you feel comfortable doing those things you are in a decent position to call yourself a photographer. Even then, the learning doesn't end.

While creating beautiful images is something in itself, business is a completely different beast. I encourage you to take some business classes, if you haven't already. Accounting, marketing, and so on. There are concepts that you must understand in running a successful business. There are a variety of small business associations that you can learn from. Find them. Remember that when you start a small business you don't usually have the funds to hire someone for marketing, processing, accounting, customer relationship and time management, sales, etc. You have to be all these people! And if you do it successfully then you might get the opportunity to hire out some of those positions. And, solid business policies are important!

Another thing I strongly suggest is finding out what kind of licenses you need in order to be a legitimate business. I know you are in Utah, and there are a lot of battles here in this business. Many people do not operate legal businesses, and some customers don't care because they are getting a deal. Although you can say that you don't have to fight with that, in a way you still really do. Additionally you need to be comfortable collecting and paying sales tax on everything, including understanding the whats, whens, hows, and whys.

You also need to understand that this job, while completely filling at times, can also be a real drain emotionally. You put SO MUCH into it. It can become addicting in a way, and kind of take over your life. :/ So you need to understand how to set and follow boundaries for yourself so that you can still spend time with your friends and/or family. Understand you will naturally want to live, breathe and eat photography. It really does suck you in (ask any photographer, lol).

That said, if you do feel up to it and are sincerely interested in running a photography business (not just excited at the thought that people like your images enough to pay you), then I say you should do all you can to be successful. Join photography forums. Read books. Practice, practice, practice. You will know when you are ready to start charging, and when you are, get everything in order before your launch your business. Realize you will make mistakes, and you will learn some really valuable lessons along the way.

As far as looking at your images and providing feedback, I'm happy to look at one or two, but if you'd like a more in depth review, I do offer mentoring. Let me know if you are interested and I can provide the details!

Q&A Friday

I'm getting some good responses for the casting calls, but I'm still looking for some more! Please check the requirements and apply! See this post for details.

Time for another Q&A
Q: Photographing rooms. Sooo frustrating. I'm thinking my main problem is metering. The light coming from windows is just messing me up big time. How can I get a great, well lit picture? How can I specifically get a great picture of a whole window, without having my camera expose to the light coming from it and darkening the whole room? Arrrr.
A: Well, I won't claim to be an architecture or product photographer...there are things I do well and other areas that I'm not so polished in, but I do think I understand your overall question, probably because I've seen your awesome blog, so I know what you are trying to do! :) When you meter all over the room, your camera will likely try to meter off that window because it's so bright, so don't point your camera at the window. Instead, what you want to do is spot meter one of your walls, and then take your shot. If the whole room is overexposed, you'll want to adjust your exposure accordingly (up your shutter speed most likely so that you can keep your aperture to a good depth of field). This will blow out your window, but expose well for the room. It is OKAY to blow out your window if you are just trying to show off the decor in the room. If, on the other hand, you want to expose correctly for the window AND the room you will need to either bring in external lighting, and this gets more complicated. Or, you could take a couple of shots with different exposures and combine them in Photoshop.

How do you do that? | Utah Newborn Photography

Time for another Q&A:
How do you get the babies in the positions you do?
Well, I am the first to admit I am not anywhere close to where I want to be when it comes to photographing babies, but in the last few years I have learned a few tricks. And, I do feel like each session I do gets better and better. Newborns can be really tricky to photograph (not everyone loves to do them, because honestly, they can be hard!), but they are one of my all-time favorites (along with maternities and couples). So, the first thing you need, above all else, is patience! Lots of it. I schedule three hours for my newborn sessions, because babies all work on their own schedules. Often times being handled in ways, in environments and by people they are not used to, can upset them. So you have to take your time holding and shushing and patting and swaddling.

Now, on to your actual question. :D I assume you are talking about the position of getting the little baby feet up by the face. The thing is that not every baby will let you do that. I will work on getting a baby really asleep before I ever attempt that position. Many babies rebel at first, and it can take several minutes of gently folding them over on themselves. I MUST STRESS THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING GENTLE! You cannot just plop a baby down in this position. Although newborns are incredibly flexible, it still takes time to ease them down. As I said, I start by getting them good and asleep. After they've fallen asleep I start by putting their feet down on whatever I'm using to position them. Once their feet are down, I still hold their heads and upper bodies and work to put their face down by their feet. This can literally take ten minutes because the baby will squirm and we'll rework the position. Sometimes they will fold in half and then I'll go to take the picture and then they'll start fussing. The baby is more important than the picture, and if they are uncomfortable, they'll let you know! In this instance, I just don't get the shot. I try, but if it's not going to work, I move on to something else. Sometimes I get a baby that sleeps really well for me, and let's me fuss a lot with him/her and I get a ton of shots, while other times I only get a few because the baby doesn't want to be handled. Either way is okay with me. The important thing is to get the shots you can. Newborns change so quickly and Mom and Dad will cherish those little pics forever no matter what.

And here's a sneak peek from one of my latest newborn sessions. I was dying over this little one. So cute!


If you have a question, please email me at joannataylorphotography at gmail dot com.

And for those interested in my spring mini sessions, I only have 2 spots left! These make a great Mother's Day gift at an excellent price.

Q&A Friday

One quick question for today:
How do you get consistent bang on focus.....with one it is fine but what about three, four, five or more people?
Thanks for sending in your question. I know that a lot of people have trouble understanding how to get focus when more than one subject is in the picture. There are mathematical ways to figure this out, but I'm not a mathematician, so I won't bore you with that. :) However there are some things to keep in mind, and some general rules that you can apply to achieve good results, and I've listed them below.

-When you stop down your aperture (the larger the number), the better results you'll have. For instance, when you open wide (say 1.4) you have a very shallow depth of field (DOF). This means that your focus point will be in focus, with fall-off of sharpness in front of and behind your focus point. However, when you stop down (say F11) that creates more sharpness throughout your focal plane.

-Focusing on the front person of the group will give you better focus, because focus tends to fall backward, rather than forward.

-As a general rule of thumb you could use an aperture at a similar number to the number of people you have. I usually stop down one more just to be sure everyone is in focus. I know this can be difficult with a large group, and may require you to bump your ISO and/or use another lighting source to expose properly. However, with a group of three, you could easily use 4.5 and be fine.

-Try to get the members of your group to bring their heads close together so that they are on the same or similar plane. When you have someone far in the background, they are more likely to fall out of focus than if you bring their heads close to the heads in the front.

-The closer you are to the subjects, the shallower the DOF. Try stepping back a couple of steps and you'll be amazed at how much better the results are.

Some great websites to look at for this is can be found here, here, and here. They might seem a little confusing at first, but read them slowly and try to digest the information. You'll learn a lot! Also, if you have an iPhone, check out this DOF calculator you can add! I love that you can put in your camera and lens to give you accurate results on the go.


If you have a question you'd like me to answer, please email me at joannataylorphotography at gmail dot com

Q&A

FIRST THINGS FIRST:

I am going out of town this weekend and will not be back until midweek next week. I will be returning all emails and phone calls end of next week, so please be patient!

Now, because I need to get packed and ready I am doing Q&A Friday early! In fact, I think I may do Q&A's a little more randomly--just as the questions come in and I get a good number of questions to go over, so if you have them, send them in!

Now, onto the elusive sun flare:

Okay I have a Friday question. Sun glare. Love it. Tried it- - - it only works with my wide angle. (Of course). I've heard you close your aperture up to a high number-- say a 8 to a 12 or something? Shoot not directly into the light but maybe stick it in the corner of your shot? Not workin' so hot for me.

I admit, sun flare can be a bit of trial and error. And honestly, my sun flare doesn't always look the same. However, I have found that I can achieve it consistently as I want. So I'll walk you through what I do, and my thought process in order to achieve it.

First, and most obvious, you want to back-light your subject. This means that you want the light source, in this instance the sun (flare can also be achieved using artificial light sources) behind your subject.

Time of day matters. When the position of the sun is lower in the sky, sun flare can be achieved. This means morning or evening will typically be easiest (in the Salt Lake Valley, because of the position, height and proximity of the mountains to the east, it is much easier to achieve evening sun flare, because by the time the sun rises over the Wasatch Mountains, it's a bit too high). Of course sun flare can be achieved mid day, but your camera position will need to be very low.

One thing I have found is that when the sun is higher in the sky, I get a shower of rays from the top of the image, along with speckled geometric shapes. When the sun is lower I get more of a burst of light and circles.

It's typically taught that you want to use a higher number F-stop (between 8-16) and a lower number shutter speed. But I haven't found this to be true for me. I've had varying results with a large variance in settings. But what seems to work best for me is positioning the sun behind the subject, so that part of the subject clips the direct ray of light coming from the sun. Because the rays coming into the camera can create such an intense haze, it is sometimes difficult for auto-focus (AF) to lock in. Unfortunately I am crap at manual focus (different from manual exposure), so I like using AF 100% of the time I shoot. Because of this I need to clip that ray enough to get the AF to lock in on the subject. This can be a challenge sometimes, but my clients always giggle when I'm 'uggh'-ing and 'arrggh'-ing over the matter. And, we eventually get it. You have to have patience sometimes. My zoom lenses have a lot harder time than my fixed lens because there are more mirrors and space for that light to bounce around.

Another thing: it's really hard to see your settings in camera when you are attempting sun-flare, so try a setting, check your image on your LCD and change things around. I do suggest starting with the high numbered aperture and then working from there. You can position the sun in the corner of the viewfinder, just a smidgen of sun showing, or not at all...this will help to clip those rays. Move that camera up and down, back and forth, side to side. Play with it to see what you get. I have to frequently reposition my camera in order to get the flare. I often cannot be directly perpendicular to the sun, I need to be above or below it by a few degrees in order to achieve it.

Here are some examples of images I've taken that have sun flare, and because I know so many of you learn by seeing the settings and the resulting image, I've added those here for you. Three of these images are straight out of the camera, so that you can see what they looked like from the get-go. The other one I couldn't find my SOOC shot, but it's very close to what it looked like initially.

Notice on this first one I placed the subjects as more of a silhouette. This was achieved by the fast shutter speed.
F9.0, 1/2500, ISO 250, Lens 50mm 1.4




Look what happens when I slowed the shutter down for this couple. It let in a lot more light to the front of them.
F13.0, 1/250, ISO 320, Lens 24-105mm F4L IS, at 90mm




Here I needed a lot more light in her face, but still wanted the burst of sun. My aperture opened up to a much lower number, and her hand cut that ray enough to let me focus. I tried a little higher than this and it just didn't work. Notice how I'm underneath her.
F4.5, 1/100, ISO 320, Lens 24-105mm F4L IS, at 60mm

F4.5, 1/200, ISO 200, Lens 24-105mm F4L IS, at 55mm
Oh, and do me a favor: DON'T LOOK DIRECTLY AT THE SUN WHEN ATTEMPTING THIS!

Send your questions to joannataylorphotography at gmail dot com!

Q&A

Today's Q&A will be coming from a question I get over and over from clients. And it's this:

Why does custom photography cost so much?
This question comes in various forms ("I love your work, but I can't really afford your prices, can you cut me a deal?" or "Why do you charge that much when I can go to (insert chain store here) and get it for so much cheaper?" or "My neighbor just got a nice camera and will do my whole session and give me the entire CD for $50, why can't you do that?"). Yes, these are all questions I've been asked, and on more than one occasion.

I realize we live in a land of DIY'ers, bargain hunters, and a lot of SAHMs that want to earn a little on the side. I recognize this completely. I like a bargain as much as the next guy. But I also understand that I can't do everything myself (I'm terrible at painting the walls in my house, making beautiful birthday cakes, or fixing my own car, for instance), so I enlist the help of or hire people that will do a better job than I ever could. I recognize the value that comes in this.

I believe that the people asking these questions are simply uneducated in custom photography, and don't fully realize (maybe because they do have a neighbor with a nice camera willing to do their pictures for $50) that running a legitimate business is costly. It takes both time and money. Here is a very low-level overview of just a few of my expenses:
-Cameras ($2500 or more each)
-Good lenses ($1300 or more each)
-Lighting equipment (in the thousands already)
-Backdrops
-Props
-Education, workshops, seminars
-TAXES!
-Business licenses, etc.
-Editing software, including new updates when I update my equipment (in the hundreds to thousands)
-Professional memberships in organizations such as PPA and WPPI
-Wear and tear on my vehicle
-Time away from MY four beautiful children and my spouse, and my home, and all that comes with that.

And the list goes on. The time is not simply when I show up and when I finish shooting. It takes me time to prepare for a session, time to get there and back, time to edit and prepare a gallery, time to process your orders, submit them to my professional lab, and prepare them once I receive them. It take me time to deliver them as well.

But I do it because I love it, AND because I want to be successful. And I can't be successful if I don't take my business seriously. And I have to expect my clients to take it seriously as well. I know custom photography is an investment, but that investment gives you so much more than simply an employee-for-hire that has learned to push a button. This gives me a big opportunity to give you good customer service, to cater the session to your wants and desires, to offer you a piece of my heart in the way that I see you and the way that I see the world. My time is YOUR time and I work very hard to give you images that you'll be pleased with.

There is some excellent reading out there on this subject, if you are really interested in learning more. You can read more about custom photography here, here and here.

I hope this sheds a little light on why I charge what I do. I charge much less in Utah than I'd be able to charge in other states, because that's how the market is here. But I charge what I do because there are people that value what I do and are willing to make the investment. I am so grateful for the wonderful clients I have had, the return clients make me feel absolutely amazing because I know they appreciate what I give them. The referrals warm my heart to no end.

I know that there are some people that appreciate custom photography, but simply cannot afford it. I offer a couple of sales a year, so watch for those! Mini sessions are a great opportunity to take advantage of custom photography for a reasonable price. You can also earn a complimentary mini session with portrait parties.

Thanks for sending your questions in! Next week we're talking about sunflare, so be sure to come back! And if you are interested in having me answer any questions you have, please feel free to email me at joannataylorphotography at gmail dot com.

Q&A

Go ahead, call me a loser. I deserve it. I never got around to doing Q&A last week. I know! And I'm sorry, m'kay?

Onto those Q&A's:

How do you get consistent exposure? It seems like I'm always underexposing my images. Let me let you in on a little secret: I used to consistently underexpose my images by 1/3 a stop, and I still do sometimes. But this question, though it seems simple, can actually have a very detailed answer. Today I'm going to give you the Reader's Digest version (who here actually reads Reader's Digest, because I'm telling you, it rocks...especially the joke section. My MIL who lives with me gets it, and I steal it sometimes...shhh). Okay, so first of all, if you are new to photography a very easy way to start understanding how to expose your images is to turn your camera on auto. Yes, I said auto. Take a picture. What were the settings? Is the image exposed properly? If so, that's a good place to start. If not, that's also a good place to start. Assuming you understand what I mean by good exposure (no blown highlights or shadows so deep they've lost detail), you can now put your camera in manual, choose the settings that you were shown in auto, and tweak them from there to achieve better exposure.
Now, another good place to start (and often the way I begin my exposure) is by throwing that camera into manual, and looking into the viewfinder. I use Canon, so I'm familiar with that, but my Pentax was very similar, and I'm assuming most low-mid level DSLRs are the same. When you look into the viewfinder turn your little eye around and around until you see something that looks like this:

or like this:


You see the line in the middle? That's usually where you want to be. You see how on each of these there is one side that reads negative and one that reads positive? Well, by changing your dials around, you'll be changing your exposure to overexpose or underexpose from center. Generally lining your cursor up at the mid point gives you a reasonable exposure; however, this does not always give you a perfect exposure. This can even change if you change your metering options change (if you want more info on metering how to and options, let me know). Some cameras consistently underexpose when exposing to the center line, WHICH MEANS, it's up to YOU to change the exposure (overexpose) to get the perfect exposure.
Now, every lighting scenario is different. I shoot my exposure differently depending on if I'm in full sun, shade, a dark alley, a field of grass, overcast skies, or with external lighting equipment. This part of the subject delves much deeper, but one book I always recommend is Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson.


Okay, that's all I've got time for today, folks, but keep those questions coming! I'm getting a great list of questions going and I hope to put up a few each week.

Q&A Friday

1. Why is it advantageous to shoot in full manual mode? How does this help you? How come I can't just pick my own aperture and let the camera decide my shutter's speed (aside from bumping up my ISO when needed)? Okay, I'm going to try not to be too long-winded here. There is so much more than I'm going into here, and I'm writing this assuming most people asking this question have an inkling of understanding about the three, even if you don't shoot in manual. If you are a hobbyist, it might not really matter that you shoot in full manual mode. However, if you are a die-hard/perfectionist hobbyist, or an amateur and really plan on taking your images to the next level, I do believe that it's important to learn to shoot in full manual mode. For those that don't know, that means that you control three aspects of your camera. These include aperture (how big or small the hole is that lets light into your camera), shutter speed (the speed at which the shutter opens and closes, which also determines the amount of light that hits your camera's sensor), and ISO (which you can compare to film...the larger the ISO the more light that hits the film, in digital this simply translates to how sensitive the sensor is to the light it takes in. Note:Generally a higher ISO lends to more grain in your image and is used in darker situations). Think about it: each of those things has to do with light....Anyway, those three things, when combined, determine what your image will look like. If you want to create a specific look to your images, you can't always trust the camera to do that for you. The camera will read the light, and make it's best guess. Sometimes it guesses well, for a well exposed image, and sometimes it doesn't (reason #1 to know how to shoot in manual). But even when the camera guesses correctly, it might not be the result you want (reason #2 to shoot in manual). Remember what I said last week about knowing the long way around? This applies here too...you need to know how to make your camera work for you; how to manipulate the settings to get your desired affect. This doesn't happen if you are letting the camera take it's best guess. Now, that being said, once you DO know how to do this confidently, I see no harm in using one of the other modes to shoot with. I know that some photographers do, because they have a certain style of shooting, and are adding other light sources, and it works well for their methods. The key is that they know why they are shooting that way.

How much time do you spend processing your images?
I TRY really hard to get good images SOOC. It doesn't always happen, but I do my best and have gotten really consistent with the images I get SOOC. I also like my processing to be consistent...just one of those things, and I'm also not very big into manipulating images too much (I respect those that do...it's just not my style). So I usually do only a few things. First, I open my image in Light Room to make sure that I have a good White Balance (so that the color is pleasing and no color casts are there...sometimes I still don't get this quite right). In LR I add contrast, brightness and saturation. I then export the image and this is what I have:


My first step in this image in Photoshop is to clean up any blemishes (see forehead)and any spots on baby, as well as any lint. (not sure why the color is off on my print screens...sorry!)I use the patch tool (my favorite PS tool) or the bandaid to clean these up:


Next I usually run Portaiture and reduce the opacity until I see the pores showing through (I do my best to avoid plastic looking skin...sometimes I look back at when I started using it and cringe).:


At this point sometimes I'll add a slight S-curve to increase the highlights and deepen the shadows just slightly (giving it a little more vibrant contrast), but I don't think it necessarily needs it here.

I then simply sharpen my image for print and I'm done!

This was a simple image, and sometimes images take a little more. I'd be happy to show you some of my longer processes in the future, but for now, I hope you found this helpful! Be sure to email me your questions at joannataylorphotography at gmail dot com

And it's the last week to sign those contracts for your wedding (and referrals) for the complimentary 16x20!
Utah Photographer