Business

Mark Seliger is one of the top portrait photographers in the world. His career spans thirty years and in this time he has photographed some of the biggest names in music, politics, business and entertainment. Interviewing him was fascinating. Who has inspired him? What would he say to his younger self if he could go back to when he was just starting out, and which photographer would he choose to take his portrait, if given the chance?

In the fight against online image theft there is a new player and they are coming into the arena with a bang! Pixsy is a new copyright infingement software that looks to help photographers around the globe tackle an issue that plagues the industry and for the most part goes unresolved. Fighting copyright infringement can be a long and costly ordeal and Pixsy hopes to be your one stop solution for fair compensation.

Perhaps it's only my opinion but I believe that one of the fastest ways to fail in business is to try to do too much, for too many people. Right behind that is producing a product that nobody wants, but we'll get to that beast later. When I talk with photographers looking to go pro, the first thing I ask them is what they intend to shoot. A solid 80% of the time their response is something like "well, some weddings, family portraits, maybe kids, and seniors too."

How would it feel to photograph Will Ferrell or Seth Rogen? How would you ever get to be able to shoot clients like these? How do you marry technical capability and develop your own style to deliver something unique? What if you could learn from someone doing this sort of work day in day out? Well, now you can, in this exclusive interview with Emily Shur.

Finding clients is a challenge all by itself so when we are fortunate enough to have some in our corner it is a natural reaction for us to go above and beyond the call of duty to keep them happy. While this is admirable from a customer service point of view it is not always feasible to say yes to every request. Here is how I have learned to overcome my fear of saying “no” to a client.

What sets you and your work apart? Having a clear idea of this is critical if you want to develop your work but when was the last time you actually thought about it? Shane Hurlbut is a veteran Director of Photography and today shares his thoughts on his career and success. Whether you work with stills or motion, his approach sets him apart and we can all learn from him.

“How to Market your Photography” is a wonderful resource which was written by the marketing specialists at Photoshelter.com and MadMimi.com. I found this guide to be very user-friendly, with just the right amount of information you’ll need to get going, weather you are just starting out in the industry, or a more established photographer, who is looking to update the approach you’ve been utilizing to generate business. I will quote some excerpts from Part 1 of this guide, which contains the most fundamental advice to those of us who find words like “strategy” and “marketing” as intimidating and stressful.

I still remember this conversation from several years back. A fellow photographer was about as stuck as you can get. He worked perpetual fourteen (or more) hour days, never got much of a day off and was struggling hard with a record-setting case of burn out. He was making good money, but it wasn't enough to justify the time being put in...and this had been the same story for years. From the outside he was a very successful photographer, but on the inside life was a dark and frustrating place.

You might have missed it, but last night, the earth cracked and shifted a little in the world of the photo community. The “Stand Out! Photographic Forums” launched and details the first of a series of events that promise to offer up some of the most exciting photographic speakers I’ve seen in a long time. Not only that, but the price is ridiculously low to hear them talk. Something special is afoot, read on to get the full scoop.

The Fstoppers series continues on over at the TogTools podcast, with the latest session bringing you fascinating insights from our senior writer, Noam Galai. If you regularly read Fstoppers, you’re aware of Noam’s compelling story known as “The Stolen Scream.” Noam speaks with co-hosts Stephen and Jess Robertson both about how his experience with the Stolen Scream has inspired him, as well as sharing his thoughts on building a successful career for yourself through a highly-engaged and ambitious work ethic.

Along side the announcements of the PL mounted Cinema and Production Cameras, Blackmagic has also supplied some updates and new software for videographers everywhere, including an update to their DaVinci Resolve system - a multi track color correction system for videographers. Alongside the announcement of the update to DaVinci Resolve, is an all new software suite, entitled Blackmagic Videohub.

Announced today at IDC, Blackmagic showed off a new Blackmagic Cinema Camera sporting a PL mount (For Arri and Red Camera systems) as well as a series of rackmountable interfaces, monitors and input systems. These additions to their lineup help prove once again that Blackmagic is ready to play with the professional level videographers.

It's no secret that most photographers are really bad at actually running a business. After all, the idea is to make a living making art and art doesn't require you to know what ROI means. All you need to know is how to create with your chosen medium right? Yes, if you love Ramen noodles. I don't know about you but I've certainly had my fill of them and despite the fact that I could easily win Iron Chef: Ramen...I'm not in any hurry to be that broke again.

Figuring out a fair rate for providing photography or video services can be a slippery slope, filled with pitfalls if you happen to price yourself incorrectly. But what's more complicated than setting a rate for services is how to approach setting a rate for someone who wants to license a piece of work you've already created. In this post I'll share my insight on the factors I look at, and my rationale for determining a fair fee for video and photo licensing.

How many times have you heard the saying "if you want it done right you've got to do it yourself"? Well, that is not always the best mindset. This business we are in is all about collaboration, and the sooner you embrace what others have to offer, the sooner you will put out work that is competitive. Collaboration has many benefits that can take your work to the next level.

Ed Keating, Pulitzer Prize-winner, career photographer of over thirty years and mentee and friend of Robert Frank (the most celebrated American documentary photographer probably ever), is one of the most fascinating people I’ve ever met. I filmed and edited this exclusive Fstoppers interview, as his insight was just too good not to share. No matter what type of photographer you are, I’m sure you can all take something of value away from this video interview.

We have been sold on the biggest myth of all time; In order to succeed at anything and have a lustrous career you must spend 4 years in an overinflated educational institution and spend a small fortune, which doesn’t include costly textbooks, supplies and living expenses. All in exchange for a fancy sheet of paper we call a degree… a piece of paper that gives us instant credit and a golden ticket to the gravy train. Right?

If music and EDM photography is your dream job, this next interview is just for you. The fourth session in the Fstoppers series over at the TogTools Podcast is finally up, and it's a very unique and interesting one. This week's guest is Fstoppers Staff Writer Rebecca Britt who is an amazing commercial and EDM photographer based in Texas. Aside from being with Fstoppers for a very long time, Rebecca is also a team member at Retouching Academy and runs the largest collective of EDM photographers on social media. In this interview, Rebecca shares her own story and gives a lot of useful tips on how to be a successful music/commercial photographer.

Let’s face it. From the first moment we decide to pick up a camera, call ourselves a photographer, and try to make some money at what we do, we are constantly trying to find ways to stand out from the billion or so other photographers in our our who are trying to do that exact same thing.

As many of you may know if you follow me on social media, I teach workshops and give lecture on photography and retouching all over the United States. Through prepping each workshop, I sharpen my knowledge and become fluent in the material I’m teaching. However, without fail, I always learn a million new things when teaching each workshop.

How do you achieve long term success? Whether you want to grow a huge photography or video business, or just improve your skills, it would pay to look at the dramatic failures of others rather than just the “success stories”. Why? Because long term success is the result of resilience and determination in the face of constant failure and almost insurmountable odds, and if we understand - and embrace - this philosophy, we can overcome almost anything.

With a saturated market for photographers, there are so many pitfalls a photographer can plunge into that can prevent them from being successful. Taking a step back to analyzing yourself and your business can be the first step to improve and guarantee chances of success for the future. Here are a number of things to look out for, these things can be what is preventing you from reaching your potential.

Turning the work you do on a personal project into something that makes you money isn't a new idea (just ask stock shooters.) However, the forethought required to concept a personally fulfilling shoot or production that will also have the chance to generate some income can be tricky to figure out. This past weekend I had three shoots, and they were all because of one personal project I created a month ago. And I actually planned for this to happen.

Quitting gets a bad rap. There is a certain stigma attached to the quitter as if they have somehow failed. We offer them compassion instead of congratulations. We imagine they are haunted by countless "what if's" and regrets. We muse that perhaps there were circumstances beyond their control. What if I told you that quitting can be the ultimate form of regaining direction and control in your life?

It's that time! We have the third session in the Fstoppers series over at the TogTools Podcast ready for you all to enjoy - and it's a great one! This week's guest is Staff Writer Adam Ottke. Adam shoots fine art and travel photography, but he also serves as the Art Director for a small creative agency he started called Curate the World. In this week's podcast, Adam discusses his love for gear, how he got started in photography and as a writer for Fstoppers, how to hustle in this industry and why collaboration is important for creating strong artistic ideas.

With a community of over 200 million users, Instagram has become a powerhouse of social media. It didn't take long before the realization that monetization of that user base was the key to continuing to grow. Instagram began the slow rollout of ads on feeds almost a year ago which has proven successful and as a result, they are adding analytics tools for businesses to get a better grasp of what their ads are generating.

IMGembed has been around for a while now, giving creatives a way to allow their images to be shared while governing what content users pay to use those images. One of my personal favorite companies as it applies the "Fair Trade" ethic to image use online, IMGembed is looking to grow as it asks for $100,000 over the next 28 days through a Kickstarter campaign.

Over the next couple of months, I am teaming with Jen Basford, owner of 3 girls photography and co-owner of Seniors Ignite. If you aren't familiar with Seniors Ignite, it is one of the best resources out there for senior photographers.

When it comes to diffusion panels, several companies have prefab "blades" intended for holding diffusion materials that fit nicely into grip heads and knuckles, but at nearly $100 a pop, buying several of them may not fit into everyone's budget. Earlier this week, fellow Fstopper Clay Cook put together an awesome post about building your own V-Flats. His post got me thinking about some of my own DIY projects.

Sure, you could go grab incredible live shots of an artist and post them all over the internet. Guess what? If those images aren’t in their manager’s hands when it is time to make the new round of posters or t-shirts, you’re no further along in terms of advancing your photography business than you were before you hit the shutter button.

It’s August. And if you’re anywhere in the Northern Hemisphere, you’re warm - hot even. So why not sit back and relive the good old days, back when our cameras were new, the exposure triangle was confusing, and the idea that photography could be something that could to take us to the ends of the earth and make us a lot of money in the process was still a far off dream.

What happens when you take a technology from the early 90's and use it in your photography business in 2014? Just ask Jeffrey Bennett, a professional wedding photographer based in Detroit who in 2011 decided to start producing GIF animations for each one of his engagement sessions and wedding nights, which resulted in many happy clients, a lot of interest from potential clients and of course beautiful results he can then share online.

In this day and age of social media we hear people rant about terrible customer service they receive all the time. Fortunately there are some good stories still out there, and after hearing about this one I just had to share. The wedding photography team of Easton and Laura Reynolds of LuRey Photography had their camera attached to a popular BlackRapid Strap used by many in the industry. Unfortunately the strap came loose causing Laura's camera to hit the concrete and damage their Nikon 24-70 lens. What happened next deserves to be heard.

What's the best way to optimize photos so that I can deliver quality to my clients while reducing the file size for faster uploads into the cloud? This has been a question I’ve been thinking about for sometime. I have tinkered with settings in Lightroom to try and find the right export recipe but it wasn’t till another photographer told me about JpegMini that I finally felt I had the solution. Using image optimization technology they developed, JpegMini was able to deliver maximum quality at minimum file size. I ran it through some tests and here are my results.

If you’re a professional photographer, being pulled in a million directions probably feels like a daily occurrence. There seems to be a never ending stream of tasks that we should be completing, some of which are paid, some of which aren’t. Our trade-off often involves balancing paid work - be it desirable or not - with unpaid tasks that we hope will provide business in the future. The question is, how do we know what’s going to be helpful and what’s going to turn out to be a waste of time?

Aerial videos that have been shot by drones have been flooding YouTube for the last few years, especially as the cost and expertise needed to get into it has come down. A birds-eye point of view can add a lot of production value to a video project, but where does one start when looking to get into aerial video? I spoke with Brent Foster who told me about the doors that shooting aerial video can open, as well as the challenges they present.

I know that there are many of us around who may not yet have the confidence to say, "Hey, I should be getting paid for this, because I'm awesome!" Jay P. Morgan from the Slanted Lens gives you the kick up the backside that you need and provides you with 8 ways to get yourself ready to start making money in photography... Now.

We are so excited to announce that the staff writers and contributors from Fstoppers have teamed up with TogTools to give you a new series with an in-depth look behind each of our businesses. If you aren't familiar with TogTools, it is an awesome resource for new and emerging photographers to obtain industry information from some of the best pros in the industry. Founders Stephen and Jess Robertson bring you in-depth podcasts with answers to questions you have always wanted to learn from some of your favorite photographers and videographers.

The largest ring light I've ever seen consists of 27 bulbs and is four feet in diameter. Six months ago, I built it. With so many questions left unanswered, I put together a short film that explains how I built it, why it was built, and why it's the most amazing light I've ever used to date.

When teaching workshops and talking to other photographers, I’m constantly asked how I market myself to gain more exposure and business. While there are no surefire ways to insure your success when it comes to marketing, I have found four really unconventional ways to better market myself.

Widely known among photographers for his role as founder and publisher of The Luminous Landscape, Michael Reichmann has been heading “LuLa” since 1999. After a decade and a half of writing, running workshops, and creating premium video content for photographers worldwide, Mr. Reichmann admits, “LuLa has grown up. And like any fifteen year old, it wants to start a new life.” Today marks the beginning of that new life with the official launch of The Luminous Endowment for Photographers, a not-for-profit charitable organization providing financial grants to aspiring photo projects.

With the announcement of Aperture's retirement, many of Apple's software users are seeking a new home for their image libraries. One of the most obvious choices is Adobe's Photoshop Lightroom. But moving those images from Aperture to Lightroom can be a little tricky. A new app has made it out of Beta and hit the app store that may provide an easier solution.

Having recently moved from a DSLR into medium format digital, I can affirm the transition isn't a cheap one. Besides shelling out tens-of-thousands of dollars for a body and digital back, you've also got to buy a new set of lenses which average around $4k each. Add tether cables, tripod mounts, additional batteries, and filters, you're in the hole for the equivelent of a home mortgage. Every once in a while, the manufacturers will offer incentives and/or savings and for Hasselblad, July happens to be one of those times.

Over the years I have been able to organically build a base of over 26,500+ people that follow my work on Facebook. In addition, while many complain that Facebook is only sharing their posts with less than 10% of their fan base, I am averaging around 40% of my fans that are seeing my posts. So what's the secret? Here's how I get my fans engaged and some tips that will help you do the same.

Flickr surprised us all (pleasantly) when they gave us an unheard-of free 1TB block of photo storage. Today, their platform is becoming even more powerful with "Curated Connections," a program that Flickr will start to help its users license their work.

We all have our own motivation for the images we choose to make. Every photographer has that little voice, that driving force pushing you toward the goal, or that feeling in your gut when you really nailed it.

Maybe that works to your advantage now, but at some point, it’s likely to break loose and run wild…for better or for worse.

As your photography archive grows, so does the need to handle and protect that data. What happens if your computer doesn’t boot, or an image file won’t open? What if your home or studio gets robbed, or worse, catches fire? What if your backup drive fails, or your laptop gets stolen? These are all questions I ask myself when planning my backup strategy.

I have only been shooting photography for a little over 3 years now. Things have progressed so quickly during that period of time that I haven't really had the chance to look back at the evolution of my photography. I had to think thing long and hard about the investments I have made over the 3 years and the things that really changed the game for me.

Early on, I faced some bullying from older photographers that viewed me as competition and tried to convince me to quit my budding photo career. Ever since, I have been particularly aware and sensitive to how photographers treat and/or handle each other. It's as if so many creatives are willing to try and crush others' work/reputations/jobs in order to get ahead. To many, it seems like a dog eat dog industry, but it doesn't have to be. I've put together some thoughts and tips on how to overcome those that may try to bully or discourage you.

Most of us approach our pricing with some apprehension and anxiety. It is a topic of much discussion and debate among creative professionals, but with a little ingenuity, you can break away from boring pricing and use it in a way that will excite your client and build a brand identity!