I just recently signed up for Flickr and spent about a weekend figuring out what gets you the best exposure and what gets many viewers to notice you. For me, Flickr is not only a place to display my photos, but also a marketing tool that links back to my main website (Imaginis Photography) and my blog. With a few simple rules to follow, I received more exposure than most people get after weeks of being on Flickr, which also increased the views on my other websites. Below are some guidelines of what worked for me.
Before we get to the guidelines though, feel free to check out my Flickr page: Sven Bannuscher on Flickr.
Add your Photos to Flickr Groups
After you upload your first batch of photos, search for Flickr Groups that match your content. As you can imagine, I joined many groups on Fashion Photography and Travel Photography. Once you are accepted into a group, start adding your best pictures to the pool of the group. This is your first step at making your work visible to others with the same interests as you. Just keep in mind that your photos need to stand out. Many groups have hundreds of thousands of images in their pools and you only have a few seconds to grab people’s attention.
Last night, I tried lightning photography for the first time with some amazing results. Since I was not sure about the proper exposure for lightning photography, I was playing around a little before I got the camera set properly to ISO 100 at f/8.0 with a 15 second exposure. All the pictures looked really good until a lightning struck just across the street from where I was located (see the image above). That strike completely blew the exposure by about 3-4 stops due to its intensity. Gladly I shot in Raw and was able to salvage the file. For the future, I will try to adjust the exposure as the thunderstorm moves closer. Something between f/16 and f/22 would have been perfect for last night, so I hope to be lucky enough to catch another one of those. To see more of my photos, you can visit my Portfolio or my Flickr page.
This shot was done with a Nikkor 18-55mm lens, as I really do not want to take more expensive equipment into the rain. I bought this lens from Adorama when it was still $180. Now it sells as a special for $99.95 on Adorama. If you use this link to buy your equipment, it does not cost you anything, but it will help me keep writing articles like this one. Continue reading Lightning / Thunderstorm Photography
Definition: What is a Sweet Spot?
Technically speaking, the sweet spot of a lens is the f-stop, where chromatic aberrations and vignetting are at a minimum and sharpness (resolution) is at a maximum from the center to the edges. Non-technically speaking, the sweet spot of a lens is the aperture at which the lens gives you the best possible image quality. I think it’s quite clear why you should know this. So it’s even more surprising that manufacturers do not tell you these things. The sweet-spots for the following lenses are from my own experience with those lenses and technical data from sites such as DxOMark. Please note that the sweet spot may differ slightly between a crop-sensor and a full-frame sensor.
In the following, I will list several Nikon lenses and their respective sweet spot. Please note that this is the average sweet spot between center and edges. The center sweet spot is usually one stop below, while the border sweet spot is usually one stop above.
Writing and researching stuff like this takes a lot of time and effort. If you find this page helpful, please use my links to Amazon, Adorama, and B&H Photo. I have been using these stores for years for their great customer service, quality, and low prices. Using these links does not cost you anything, but it helps me keep this site running and updated.
While writing this article, I found that Adorama had the best prices on Nikon lenses. That may change with time, so it’s good to compare.
Many amateur- and freelance models (and even some professional models) that I meet seem to have a problem with their expressions. While they may look outstanding, they fail to convey desired emotions with their face and their eyes. To help all of you out there who have such problems, here are some pointers to help you work on and improve your expressions:
Emotions
If you emotionally feel something, you will most likely look like it. That means that if you are or feel happy, you will look happy. If you are or feel sad, you will look sad. Some people can turn those feelings on and off at their will. Others need to use other techniques.
Scenarios
If you are one of those people who can not turn on a desired emotion at any point in time, you should use a technique called scenarios. That means you will either remember an event in the past that will bring back the desired emotion or you will make up a story in your mind that will yield that emotion. Even the story of the shoot alone may be able to instill a certain emotion in you.
Mimicking
Try to mimic expressions in front of a mirror. There are many people who do this but still fail to deliver those expressions during a photoshoot. Now there is a little trick to properly practice in front of a mirror. Take a look at the expression that you want to mimic and practice in front of a mirror until you got it. Now close your eyes and remember how your face feels, how the muscles interact to form that expression. Now relax your face and open your eyes. Close your eyes again and mimic that expression with your eyes close. Open your eyes and see how close you came. Repeat this until you achieve the desired result several times in a row. Then try the same technique on another expression until you are happy with the result. Then go back to the first expression, close your eyes and mimic it. Do this over and over with as many expressions as you like. Continue reading Modeling: How do I improve my Expressions?
If you are serious about your photography and want to book an outstanding model, your best bet is to go through an agency. Not only do most agency models fit the general requirements of the fashion industry as excellent clothes hangers, they also know how to pose and will certainly help you create better pictures than you would have otherwise and in a much shorter period of time. You may have seen freelance models charging rates over $100 per hour and may think that agencies must be so much more expensive, but they are not. There are several factors that come into play when booking an agency model, so I will try to explain them as easily and accurately as possible.
In General
Whenever you book a model through an agency, it’s subject to negotiation. While agencies have somewhat fixed rates for their models, they will vary them depending on the photographer and the model’s schedule. In addition, you will have to pay for extras such as commercial usage or travel time.
Base Rate
The base rate for an agency model can vary between $0 and easily run into the thousands of dollars per hour. If you are an approved photographer with an agency, it is very likely that they will let you shoot their new models for free and that you will receive a pretty good discount on their experienced models as long as you are not doing a commercial photo shoot. Otherwise, the average rate for an agency model is between $50 and $250 per hour (depending on the market and the agency) plus 20% agency fee. Naturally you will pay more for a model in a market like NYC who is signed with one of the better agencies. Some agencies will also charge more if the models has to be on set before 9 am or after 5 or 6pm. Continue reading Model Rates: How much do agencies charge?
Models frequently ask me if this or that agency is a scam or if it is legit. When there is a computer around, I can usually tell pretty quickly. If not, I can tell if I have worked with said agency or how the model has been treated. When contacted by an agency, every model should ask herself how legit the agency’s claims are. Just use your common sense. Let’s say you are 5′4″ and 130lbs. – there is just no way whatsoever that a fashion agency will sign you. The same applies if you are 5′10″, 32 years old, and have D cups. The mold for fashion models is very small and will not change anytime soon, no matter how high your hopes are and how great the things sound that the “agent” tells you.
Now let’s say you are 17 years old, weigh 125 lbs at 5′10″, and have a bone structure to die for. It’s very plausible that an agency would be interested in signing you. Of course a scammer would interested in signing you as well, so aside from common sense, you should do your own research and know how to identify the legit agencies and to separate the scam agencies.
Use Google to identify the Scammers
When researching an agency, before I do anything else, I follow a little five step plan that will disqualify most scam agencies within a minute:
1) Open Google or any other search engine.
2) Type the name of the “agency” with quotation marks (“”) into the search engine.
3) Follow that with the word “scam”.
4) Click the search button.
5) Be enlightened.
For those of you who can’t wait for the elaborate answer, here is the quick overview:
Commercial Photography sells a product. Fashion Photography sells a lifestyle. Editorial Photography sells a story.
Now for those of you interested to learn more, please read on. Just take note that the borders between those different types of photography are fluent and may not be as distinct as I describe them there. Nonetheless, I am sure that this article will help you to easily distinguish between them. First of all let me tell you that Fashion Photography and Commercial are usually summarized in the category of Advertising Photography, while Editorial Photography tends to be a category of its own. The reason being is that both Commercial and Fashion foremost try to sell a certain product, while Editorial Photography is more concerned with a story.
Commercial Photography
As mentioned earlier, commercial photography predominantly sells a product. Hence, the emphasis of the whole shoot is on the product. That means that the lighting, the styling, and the background are usually very plain (not in a bad way). Think of catalog shoots where the models is standing in front of a white or an off-white background with maybe one light above camera and slightly to either side of the camera, and very natural looking make-up. Continue reading Definition: What is the difference between Fashion Photography, Commercial Photography, and Editorial Photography?
A little while ago I had a discussion with someone about memory cards. In his opinion, all memory cards are the same and you should just buy the cheapest one. In my opinion, memory cards are different with respect to the manufacturing quality and the quality of the internal parts. In order to stop him from getting into a heated discussion about something neither of us had any statistical details, I decided to look up the difference between memory cards as measured in MTBF and operating temperatures. MTBF stands for “Mean Time between failures” and basically tells you how long a card will last till a card error ruins your pictures.
I have been using high-end cards like Delkin or Sandisk, because I believe that they offer the best quality for the money and I rather spend a few dollars more than lose important pictures. As it turns out, my assumption that the higher end cards would have a much lower failure rate and be operable at more severe conditions was spot on. Here is the data that I collected during my research: Continue reading Memory Cards: Low End vs High End
Dasha - One of the best freelance models I ever worked with
I constantly see this question: “I am a model. How much should I charge?” from amateur- and freelance models and most of them actually think that there is a general answer to this question. While agencies work with fixed rates and fixed commissions, the rates for freelance models can range anywhere from $0 to $infinite. Generally, a model’s rates are dependent on the model and his or her market (location). As in all business, the price is determined by supply and demand. Ideally, the price is set where supply and demand cross to reach an equilibrium. This is economic theory, but everyone who does business should be aware of the effects of supply and demand. If there is more supply (here: the model) than demand, the price is lower. If there is more demand than supply, the price is higher.
Market Competition
As a model, it is important to determine one’s own value and compare it with the competition in the market. There are several factors that will determine ones own place in the market:
1) How does your look and your stats compare with other models in the market?
While “look” is a very subjective issue, there is also something very objective about it. A 5′10″ model with a perfect facial bone structure and perfect measurements will generally be able to charge a higher rate than a 5′3″ model with bad skin and a round figure. When you look at different kinds of photography, you will quickly see that there are looks that are more marketable than others and can hence command a higher rate.
2) What kind of experience do you have with respect to modeling?
Models are mostly hired based on their looks, but it can help to have experience and a portfolio to show for it. Personally, I like models who know what they are doing and who understand the commands a photographer will give them. It saves time for everyone involved and adds more personality to the pictures, so it’s a good selling point.
3) What kind of photography are you available for?
Certain types of photography, such as fine art nudes can command a higher rate than other types of photography where the model does not take off her clothes. Some photographers call this stripper rates, but in the end it’s just the supply and demand cycle all over again – Less models are willing to pose nude, so there is a smaller supply which increases the price. Continue reading Freelance Model Rates: How much can or should you charge?
A little while ago, I wrote an article about the best Microstock websites for people to earn easy money with their photographs (here). I received a few responses from people asking me how to prepare their photographs for approval and how to use keywords, so I decided to write an article on this topic as well. Since the guidelines are very similar for Microstock and Macrostock Photography, you can apply them to both.
First of all: If you only use a digital point and shoot camera, the chances of getting your pictures accepted are rather low (not impossible), as the smaller sensor on point and shoot cameras is more prone to noise.
Choosing a Photograph for Stock
Before putting the work into uploading your pictures to one of the various stock photo sites, try to think about the potential value of the photograph. While a photograph may have a lot of value to you for personal reasons, it may not have the same objective value to other people. Photos that sell best are the ones that either have a concept or an idea or the ones that just have a good general use. On the one hand, a concept can be quite complex from a family over a dinning table with empty plates to show dieting, hunger, or poverty. On the other hand, it can be just an airplane wing with the clouds below to show how technological advancement brought us the freedom to travel to places. Good general pictures can be cloudscapes, as they can be interpreted in many ways. A dark sky can be interpreted as solitude or despair, while a bright sky with fluffy clouds may be interpreted as happiness and warmth. Continue reading How to prepare your pictures for Stock Photography
Several fellow photographers have been asking me about Stock Photography and Microstock Photography, so I found it time to write a little compendium. While I understand that there are several Macrostock photographers out there who dismiss the Microstock model, I feel like it has a not insignificant earnings potential.
While you need to upload at least 500 good quality images per month to actually make a substantial full-time income, I found that even uploading only about 10 pictures a month generates enough income to buy new equipment and to go on a nice vacation. Of course, this largely depends on the quality of your work and the sales potential of your pictures.
It is not hard to make money with Microstock Photography if you understand the basics. Your images need to be of good quality (sharp, no noise, no blur, etc.), be marketable (e.g. no snapshots of your cat), not infringe on any copyrights (such as brand names or labels in the picture), and last but not least they need to focus on what your photo is actually trying to sell (e.g. if your picture is about apples, make sure the apples are the main focus of the image).
While the judge made several unqualified statements with regards to photography and equipment, it still holds true that one gets what they are willing to pay for. While the market is flooded with photographers who are willing to shoot at very low prices, the quality you will receive from these photographers is simply below what a reasonable person would expect their memories to look like:
I bet many of you have heard a quote along this line before, usually followed by “Target only charges (insanely low amount) for a portrait.” I tell those clients to go to Target to have their portraits taken and come back to me when they aren’t happy with them. Other people ask, why I charge so much for an 8×10 print if they can get it at Costco for $2.
The answers to all these questions are simple. Target and other stores side-sell the portraits, which means that they sell them at a very low price, expecting that you will purchase other stuff in the store while you’re there. Despite that, Walmart closed about 200 in store photo studios last year, simply because it wasn’t profitable enough to an extent where they even lost money despite the customers buying other stuff.
When you buy a print from me, you not only pay what the print itself costs, but also the work I put into each print. While I charge fairly reasonable rates for the actual sitting, I have to calculate post-production costs into the print. That means for me that I have to deliver outstanding results every time, or else I will lose money, because the customer does not want to buy the prints. Continue reading Why do photographers charge so much?
First of all, if you don’t know the difference between touching and groping, you may want to look it up. Some photographers seem to be very concerned about touching a subject, I am more concerned to keep models from touching me. Just joking.
From my experience, touching a model or any other subject can ease tension and build a certain level of trust. Of course, you should not touch someone just for the sake of the touching, but to move the hair or help with the pose or expression. It shows the subject that you are trying to make him or her look the best. The subject is not able to see what you see and what the camera will capture.
Also, you shouldn’t just go ahead and touch someone, but instead make it known that you will fix something or ask if it is ok if you would fix something. There is also no need to grab someone if the slight touch of a finger is sufficient. Continue reading Model Photography: How touchy can or should you be?
While most professional models know how to pose and are very aware of their surroundings and the lighting, many amateur models are unaware of their bodies and have problems finding a pose that goes with their body type and your concept. Ideally, the model will pose on her own until you tell her to hold a pose for some minor adjustments.
The thing about posing is, we want it to look natural, which is somewhat of an oxymoron. Several books have been written about how to pose models and a few little tips and tricks. I will not concern myself or you with that now, but will cover some simple basics that are very often not covered in these books. If you have problems posing your models, I would recommend you to have a look at these books. At the end of this article, I will give you some personal recommendations on books. If you work with an experienced model, your job as a photographer will be significantly easier, but you still need to pay attention to some details. I realized that many experienced- and professional models while being able to move into astounding natural looking poses from one click of the shutter to the other, they often fail to pay attention to their hands. Sometimes you have a composition and a pose that really flows and when you look at the final image, you realize that her hand looks like she had a cramp. Look out for such details.
Basics
During a shoot it is always helpful to rest for a few moments and have a look at the images if you shoot digital. Let the model see the images as well and ask her what she would improve. Sometimes models have good ideas and they are often more conscious about their body and their pose than you would be. This way, the model will pay more attention to what she did wrong and improve herself as well as your images. If you can, transfer the images to your laptop or another medium that has a bigger screen than your camera. Continue reading How to pose a model
Photographing weddings is a tough job to do, especially if you have no idea where to start or what to take pictures of. If you follow a few simple guidelines though, and know at least the basics of photography, you should be fine. To help you understand the implications of wedding photography and the different steps involved in the process, I wrote this article.
Seal the Deal
The most important part is preparation, and since most couples book their weddings way in advance (sometimes years), you will have a lot of time to prepare yourself. Of course, sometimes you will get a call two days before the wedding because either the other photographer dropped out or because the couple realized that they do not want to rely on “Uncle Bob” to conserve their memories in pictures.
They will usually come up to you and ask you for a price. Of course, you could just tell them a number and hope they will accept it, but as a successful wedding photographer, you need a sales pitch to convince the couple why they should choose you, and why you charge more than the guy on the corner with his point-and-shoot camera with built-in flash. Continue reading How to photograph Weddings
Many of you probably have seen HDR (high dynamic range) images in the past. Oversaturated images with strong shadows and highlights that look very surreal. To do such a thing, simply go into Photomatix Pro and play with the adjustments. Doing so is not the purpose of this article though. We will be talking about creating realistic images with a high dynamic range in order to maintain detail in highlights and shadows and to properly adjust the exposure. To do this, you need a digital camera, a Tripod, Adobe Photoshop CS4, Photomatix (I use Photomatix Pro 3.0), and something to photograph.
While sitting over Thanksgiving dinner, a friend and I were talking about the dynamic range of digital cameras and how to improve images. As luck wanted it, we had a very dark red wine, very bright highlights on the glasses, a light colored bread and some other items. After we were done with the Turkey and the rest of the food, we started working on the setup. This friend of mine is a videographer, so we had a 1000 Watt video light, a 500 Watt video light, and my camera, a Nikon D200 with a 50mm f1.8 lens. Of course the other guests were not too happy about us holding the wine hostage, but it was for the sake of art. We used the 1000 Watt video light as an overhead and the 500 Watt video light as the highlight on the label of the wine. Continue reading How to create realistic HDR images
The following is from an e-mail I received from a friend. While it is certainly a good thing to know the current names of fraudsters, it is probably more important to know their schemes. If someone contacts you with something that sounds even remotely fishy, check that person’s references to make sure he or she is legit. An online search can also reveal much information about scammers. Please note that this is not legal advise of any kind and that I am not responsible for the following account.
I hope everyone is doing well this morning. As you all probably know by now, when I take valuable time from you and from me to write an email, I like to share positive news or invite you to an upcoming event. Unfortunately, this time it is to warn you about a fellow photographer. It is in all of our best interests to watch for this guy.
Many people have heard that one should never ever and under no circumstances photograph against the sunlight. Hence, most people shoot others with the sun hitting the subject’s face, which causes very off highlight-shadow combinations which usually come along with squinty eyes or grimaces.
My wife is not much into photography, when asked, she actually hates it. Not being much into a photography and having grown up with the belief that you should never shoot against the sun, we went to a family picnic in New York. While I was playing some ball with the kids, my wife grabbed my Nikon D200 with one of my favorite lenses, the Nikon 55-200mm VR (for the price, this is one of the sharpest lenses on the market) to take a few pictures of us.
She showed me her first pictures, which were taken the way she learned it, never shoot against the sun. The results were shadows, highlights, squinty eyes. I asked her to take some pictures the other direction, and voila, compare the results. The first picture was taken the “common belief” way, the second picture was taken the better way. Aside from cropping, both pictures are unretouched. Continue reading Photograph against the Sun
Last week I ran into a little bit of a problem. I wanted to install the latest version of DPP on one of my computers but I realized that during a clean-up, we had thrown all the Software CD’s away.
I went to Canon’s website and checked for a download link, but for some reason, Canon only allows you to download an upgrade, which means that you need to have an old version installed. Since I did not have time to wait for Canon to ship me the Software and I did not want to pay for their processing charges, I did a little bit of research myself.
Canon Japan’s website still has a link to an old version of DPP, which is what you need to get the upgrade from Canon USA. The only obstacle is that it asks you for the Serial Number from your 1D or 1Ds. If you don’t know which number is your serial number, it consists of six digits and begins with a zero, like 034579 for example.
Introduction
Hello and welcome to my blog, where I try to cast a bit of light on the business and technique of photography. My name is Sven and I am a professional photographer. If you wish to hire me for an assignment, please send me an email imaginis(at)svenler.com or visit my website Imaginis Photography.
or 
, 
, Photomatix (I use Photomatix Pro 3.0), and something to photograph.
with a 
. Of course the other guests were not too happy about us holding the wine hostage, but it was for the sake of art. We used the 1000 Watt video light as an overhead and the 500 Watt video light as the highlight on the label of the wine. 
(for the price, this is one of the sharpest lenses on the market) to take a few pictures of us.
Flickr: How to get noticed and increase your exposure
I just recently signed up for Flickr and spent about a weekend figuring out what gets you the best exposure and what gets many viewers to notice you. For me, Flickr is not only a place to display my photos, but also a marketing tool that links back to my main website (Imaginis Photography) and my blog. With a few simple rules to follow, I received more exposure than most people get after weeks of being on Flickr, which also increased the views on my other websites. Below are some guidelines of what worked for me.
Before we get to the guidelines though, feel free to check out my Flickr page: Sven Bannuscher on Flickr.
Add your Photos to Flickr Groups
After you upload your first batch of photos, search for Flickr Groups that match your content. As you can imagine, I joined many groups on Fashion Photography and Travel Photography. Once you are accepted into a group, start adding your best pictures to the pool of the group. This is your first step at making your work visible to others with the same interests as you. Just keep in mind that your photos need to stand out. Many groups have hundreds of thousands of images in their pools and you only have a few seconds to grab people’s attention.
Comment on the Photos of other Flickr Members Continue reading Flickr: How to get noticed and increase your exposure