The Pro Photo Business Forum

Business comes and goes, and sometimes we find ourselves staring at a sparsely populated calendar for a given week or month. So what can we do with our itchy trigger fingers? Volunteer! Find something that you like to do and volunteer your photography skills. I have done this several times and it has always been a satisfying way to (1) productively spend time that may otherwise have been wasted, (2) give back to the community, and (3) get into a situation to possibly drum up some business. Win-win.

Bryan Lindsey is an award-winning photographer based in Houston with professional experience nationwide, and he is the lead photographer for BCL Photography. To see more of Bryan’s work, visit www.bclphotography.com.

The business of photography is like a treadmill – if you’re not moving forward, you’re moving backward. Especially in today’s marketplace where all you need is a DSLR and a website to call yourself a professional, it is our tenacity, our “drive,” our stick-with-it-ness that will ultimately determine our success.

This is not a new concept for business owners. The dream of owning and operating a successful business is not without a price – long hours shooting, editing, refining skills, marketing, accounting, album designing, meeting with clients, etc. When many would-be photographers find out about this “price,” they will shy away and receede back into hobbyist mode. There’s nothing wrong with that – I myself am not willing to pay the price to be a full-time professional photographer. But realize that the difference between success and failure is likely our perserverence, our tenacity.

Bryan Lindsey is an award-winning photographer based in Houston with experience nationwide, and he is the lead photographer for BCL Photography. To see more of Bryan’s work, visit www.bclphotography.com.

I read something today in Modern Bride that caught my attention:

“We only had a professional photographer for the ceremony and formal pictures immediately following. In our invites we asked guests to bring their cameras, and our favorite shots ended up being the candids they snapped throughout the evening.”

Yeah. What did you expect? The ceremony shots and formals are pretty straightforward. Photographers are usually not given any artistic license during these events. So it stands to reason that the most fun shots are not going to come from the ceremony or the formals – OF COURSE the reception photos are your favorites.

The question is: who do you want taking your reception photos? If the bride quoted above had only compared professional images of her reception with the snapshots that she got, I bet she would be over-the-top thrilled with the professional images. The point is that the role of the photographer should not be underestimated – after the dances have been danced and the cake has been eaten, all that is left is the pictures. In 10, 20, or 50 years from now, what will you have to show your children and grandchildren from your wedding day? A quality wedding photographer will provide timeless images that you will treasure forever.

BCL Photography

So I’m shooting this wedding a couple weeks ago. Ceremony is over, I am all set up for formals – manual mode, low shutter speed, camera on tripod. Just waiting for the family to get themselves rounded up. Over to the side of the altar, the bride begins interacting with the ring bearer and flower girl (both about 4 years old and super adorable). One of the bride’s aunts (or something) looks and me, points at what is really a great (albeit fleeting) photo and says “take a picture of that!”

Sigh. You and I know that as soon as I remove that camera from the tripod to take a picture of people who are moving, that 1/20 shutter speed will not hold up. Not enough time to get the settings right before the moment passes. Can’t shoot that scene with the camera on the tripod, or else you get the tops of everyone’s head.

So what did I do? I told the truth. ”I am all set up for the formals, by the time I set up to take a good shot of that (referring to that cute scene off to the side), it will be too late.” WRONG ANSWER. She looked at me like I was the dumbest photographer she had ever seen. How could someone charging thousands of dollars not fulfill such a simple request?

What SHOULD I have done? Taken the camera off the tripod and tried to take the shot. Click click, flash flash. Would the shot have come out in-focus? Maybe. Would it be completely blown out? Maybe, maybe not. But who cares? If it didn’t come out, the only person who really CARED about that shot was Aunt Bessie, so the future risk of “where’s that candid of the bride and kids?” was low. And even if they DID ask, the answer would THEN be “I was set up for formals and I did the best I could to get the shot, but the moment was too fleeting for me to change my settings and the shot didn’t come out.”

On rare occasions it is just easier to fake it instead of offering an explanation. Just don’t fake it when something really important is on the line.

BCL Photography, Houston Wedding Photographer

Your client has hired a professional. What does that mean in their mind? Several things.

1) A professional is a technician. The quality of your images needs to be greater than that of the guests with their point-and-shoots and DSLRs.

2) A professional is an artist. You need to see things that others don’t, providing images that the client will perceive as fresh and unique to them.

3) A professional acts like a professional. On the wedding day he/she speaks to others with professionalism and tact, even when things aren’t going well. The professional photographer is kind but firm when the situation calls for it (formals come to mind), and he/she stays out of the way and avoids drawing undue attention to themselves.

If we focus on these three aspects of being a professional, we are sure to receive many compliments on our work before, during, and after our weddings.

Bryan Lindsey, BCL Photography

At the very VERY basic level of professional photography, we must provide “photos that don’t suck.” From there we can move to good photos, then great photos, then ground-breaking earth-shattering photos. But first, we must make sure that EACH photo we provide doesn’t suck.

For example, I’ve recently had several weddings/receptions held in venues with high, dark ceilings. It’s relatively easy to take great pictures when the venue is conducisve to photography, but more of a challenge when conditions aren’t great. So, I have adopted the following mantra: “Grainy” is acceptable, “blurry” is not. Direct-flash is acceptable, washed-out is not.

Now don’t get me wrong, I absolutely do NOT want to provide my clients with grainy photos, and I want to use lighting techniques that make folks say “wow.” I want every shot to be technically sound as well as artistic. But you could spend half a reception trying to set up and balance lights without really helping yourself. At the very VERY least you have got to end the evening with a card full of DECENT shots. If the client complains about high ISO or direct flash, you can explain the situation. How will you explain hundreds of blurry or severely underexposed shots? It may not be perfect, but get the shot.

Bryan Lindsey, Houston Wedding Photographer

Spray and Pray
by: Bryan Lindsey
Visit us on the web: Houston Wedding Photographer
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We have all probably heard the term “spray and pray.” It refers to the setting of the camera on an automatic mode and then taking as many pictures as possible in the hopes than some of the images will be good. As amateurs, this may be how we got our start – while taking pictures of this and that, every roll of 24 exposures had one or two images that made our friends and family say “wow.”

I cannot think of a worse strategy when it comes to photographing the biggest day in someone’s life. When the big moments arrive we need to be meticulous, steady and sure of ourselves and our equipment.

But can we deploy the “spray and pray” model in other areas of our photography? I argue that we can. Consider these two scenarios: First, we walk into a bridal session. The bride is stunning, the dress is perfect, the light is good, but…the location is terrible. As a pro, we should be able to make this work – we should be able to create art, especially with all the variables that we have going for us. But it just doesn’t come out spectacularly. Maybe we couldn’t connect well with the bride, maybe we couldn’t get creative enough, maybe we got rushed out of the venue, or whatever. The shoot is good, but not the greatness we were hoping for. The second scenario is a thrown together engagement shoot (maybe even a TFC with friends). Two folks show up, not particularly nicely dressed but very much in love. You walk out the front door to go play around, and you come back with portfolio-worthy images.

I’ve experienced both of these scenarios, maybe you have too. The point is that we don’t always know where those killer shots are going to come from. So if we can rein in the “spray and pray” process and make it mean “shoot several different poses” or “shoot several different locations” or “shoot several different sessions,” we can’t help but increase our chance of taking great photos. I honestly believe that every time I bring the camera up to my eye, I have the chance to take the greatest photo that I have ever taken – and I bring that attitude to my sessions and weddings.

So don’t spray and pray in the sense of randomly snapping away without applying photographic principles. But you might be pleasantly surprised at the images you “stumble upon” while you increase the quantity and quality of your shooting.

Who is Bryan, and why should I care?: Houston Wedding Photographer

Arts and Crafts
by: Bryan Lindsey
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Most people are familar with the term “arts and crafts.” It usually brings up images of cutting and pasting construction paper, painting ceramics, or sewing a quilt. But “art” and “craft” fit photography perfectly.

First, we MUST get the “craft” piece. To craft something means to make it and then modify it, to make concious decisions to get the form that you want. Kind of like molding a clay pot or cutting a pattern out of fabric. You can look at what you’ve crafted and discern if it is acceptable – Are the edges straight? Is it the right size? Is it the right shape? Texture?

Similarly, we must always mind the “craft” of photography: exposure. We need to get the best exposure possible in ever-changing situations. Inside, outside, daytime, nighttime, tungsten, fluorescent – this is a challenge, to be sure. We must familiarize ourselves with all of the tools available to help us repeatedly, effectively, and efficiently get the right exposure. And, just as a carpenter needs to know the right tool to use and when to use it, we need to be well-versed in how our camera sees the world and how it makes decisions. We need to practice, and we need to talk with individuals who do understand these principles forward and backward. Regardless of the subject being photographed, there is good exposure and bad exposure.

Second comes the “art” – composition, color, posing, facial expressions, etc. Just as we might paint a clay pot or “bedazzle” our t-shirt, we put our own stamp on our photos by the composition, background, and lighting of our image. Some of these stylistic elements are fairly subjective, and not everyone will “get” everyone else’s art. But this is the piece that makes things fun and interesting.

So go out there, hone your craft, and create some art!

Who is Bryan, and why should I care about what he has to say?: Houston Wedding Photographer

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Black and White – The Tone Zone, Part 2
by: Bryan Lindsey

So, here are a couple tips for converting your color images to black and white (using Lightroom software). First, look at the tonal histogram (aka “tone curve”) – this shows you how much of your image is “highlight,” “light,” “dark,” and “shadow.” When you first convert your image to Grayscale, you probably won’t have the best contrast possible. By playing with these sliders, you can adjust overall tones to give your images the contrast that you want.

We can get even more fancy and play with color channels. Say that you have a brilliant black-and-white image, except the subject is wearing dark blue pants against a dark brown background. Not very contrasty. You can lighten the blue channel only, bringing up the blue tones (just be careful that you’re not unintentionally lightening other blue pieces of the image, like the sky). By using these sliders, you can fine-tune your tones even further.

Meticulously editing your black and white images does take time, but it’s worth it to get those portfolio images JUST right!

Does Bryan know what he’s talking about? See his work at: Houston Wedding Photographer

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