Second senior portrait job, lessons applied

[Josh]

My favorite photo from my second senior portrait job.  Lessons learned and applied include;

-use reflector wisely, don't laser beam subject in eye.

-take your time and have fun, relaxed you equals relaxed subject.

-discuss and settle on prices prior to scheduling session.

-meet subject and, in this case, parent and hammer out poses, clothing and style preferences: formal, casual, country, urban, traditional, contemporary poses etc.

-simple, simple, simple.  In the end I really believe most people just want a well exposed, flattering photo of their kids so keep the artsy stuff to a minimum until you (i tell myself) are consistent with the basics.

-large apertures are nice for soft backgrounds, but when you run up to get a closeup, stop it down a bit so you don't get the soft-eye   sharp-eye syndrome.

-paypal can be a good option for us beginners without credit card machines, increased orders with ability to use credit card to pay you.

-appear confident and in control as if you do this stuff everyday, even if you aren't....and don't get to do it everyday.

Hope some of this helps, if just a little bit, those of you starting out and dreaming like me.  ahhh...a nice big studio with nice tall ceilings!!

Josh



10:30am light with gold-side reflector off to left of subject.
Canon Rebel XT with 50mm f1.4
ISO 100 1/250 at f2.8
Sharpened

[Brad Bireley]

Josh,

I looked at your website & your work is nice. But I have one comment........raise your prices!! They are way too low.
Do you belong to a local PPA chapter? If not do so. It's the cheapest($) education you can get. Here in PA it costs me $200/year & I get 10 FULL days of seminars from the top photographers in the US.

Hope this helps,
Brad

[ImageMaker]

One problem with joining PPA when just starting out -- if you're like me, it was a struggle just to raise the funds for the state/local business licensing (cost me about $70, which is more than I spend on an average Freestyle order).  Like most businesses, there's a tremendous bias toward those who have a bunch of money to sink on it -- enough so that, overall, the vast bulk of business startup "failures" (i.e. the owner stops working the business after a period of time) are due to lack of capital, but beyond that an expectation on the part of other folks in the same business that I'll have a couple hundred bucks to drop here, five hundred there...

If one is starting out with equipment and materials already on hand, trying to capitalize on a promotional opportunity (as I am), professional association memberships have to be pretty far down the list, behind materials (film, paper, chemicals), equipment (lighting, even improvised, isn't free; nor are tripods/stands, etc., even foamcore reflectors, filters, and on and on), and promotion (my advertising, so far, is dependent on published photographs in a local weekly paper/magazine, which are compensated by a byline and free "filler" ad space).

However, I've resisted the impulse to undercut on pricing; my sitting fees are in line with those of other portraitists, because I agree that I'm doing no one any favors (myself, other local photographers, or even clients who'll get an inaccurate expectation of what quality portraiture costs) by setting my prices too low.

[cenelson]

PPA and APA are both on my list of things to do soon. Initial outlay might hurt, but as resources in Arkansas are scarce, I should be able to pick up enough work assisting to cover costs.

Josh, keep hammering away at it. I looked at pricing and saw nothing related to sitting fees. Perhaps a nominal sitting/shooting/booking fee of $75 to $100 - that covers your time - then sell the prints. Are you printing at home or shopping?

C.

[Brad Bireley]

In PA you can join as an "aspiring member". You have 2 years to make it a go. They don't require a state/local business license. I do not know what it is like NC. But, if it's only $70 to do it I sure would. I think I would make the sacrafice for some supplies in the beginning to get the knowledge. Or shoot digital, since you mention film as a cost.

One other thing is at the meetings you can also learn so much more just from networking with other photographers.

[ImageMaker]

Brad, I don't have a digital that will begin to do the job -- never had several hundred bucks for a DSLR and lenses (and my existing M42 glass is, at best, a pain to use on a DSLR), not to mention not wanting (just now) to invest the time to learn DSLR operation (I've never even used a last-generation film SLR; TTL metering is as sophisticated as I go -- or want to).  I'd look pretty silly showing up to a paid portrait shoot and screwing a Gateway DC-T50 onto my big, heavy tripod.  And sacrificing supplies is kinda silly, I'll need them for the jobs (assuming I get jobs, of course).  In any case, the niche I'm aiming for is large format film portraiture -- large format lets me use fast film, which lets me shoot environmental portraits with no or minimal added light, which in turn means I can start with the equipment I already have.  Shooting in B&W lets me do my own processing with confidence (I'm still building my confidence in home C-41), make my own silver gelatin prints, and still take scans to Costco or other agencies for C-prints for things like watermarked proofs, color toning, or manipulated images -- and work in a niche that has little competition, which is at least equally important.

The $70 I referred to was the cost of state and local business licensing -- in NC, I have to have a state "privilege license" at $50/yr (expires end of June regardless of issue date, bad timing but I figure one gig will pay the license and the second goes mostly in my pocket), plus not quite $20 (one time) to register my "assumed name" (other states would call it a DBA name -- required to use a business name other than my own legal name or that of a corporation I don't have).  Those are paid; the penalties for operating without them just make it senseless to try (and I can also stay legal with respect to state tax requirements -- income and sales/use tax -- by getting the right paperwork to file with the Department of Revenue).

I'm much more interested in being legal than I am in networking.  Perhaps this is just a personal bias, but my past experience with networking for any purpose has been uniformly negative -- I've gained nothing from it at all, just spent time that I could have better used improving my skills.  Maybe I don't know how to do it -- they don't teach that stuff in high school (or didn't in the 1970s, anyway) -- or maybe it requires a mind set I don't carry, or maybe I misunderstand what it's about.  In any case, spending relatively big money to join an organization ($200 is about what I spend on film and chemicals in an average half year, though hopefully that will change as I start to bring in some money with them) doesn't seem as good a use of (extremely limited) capital as, for instance, advertising -- I can get a lot of column space in the local papers for $200.

[Brad Bireley]

Imagemaker,
I can appreciate where you're coming from.
We do have something in common...large format environmental portraits. I've been wanting to do it with sporting art(hunters & fisherman). Actually I have a project I want to do which is to photograph the "famous fly fisherpeople of PA" ,there are both male & female here in PA , with my 4x5 Burke & James press camera.
Brad

[Josh]

My pricing list was just updated this past winter, with me doubling pricing.  I set these with the idea that, and I explain this to the customers, I have very little experience and was just trying to cover the costs for gas, time and prints.  I wanted as much practice as I could get without giving away too much financially.  Since most of my "customers" have been extended family members and their friends, through word of mouth, I didn't want to charge more than I felt the product was worth.  That may have been a mistake, and I have undervalued myself, but I don't think so.

Now...I am looking into legitamizing this project of mine and making a real go at being a portrait photographer.  This will include all the business forms, licenses etc. as well as producing advertising material and trying to get my name out into the general public.  The website I have up now was really a practice go for myself and my brother, who wrote the site.  The gallery needs cleaning and updating/simplifying also.  

CE

I'm using adorama for the prints.  I have been really pleased with the quality and consistency of the photos.  Once I ordered that first test image last year to match my monitor, everything has been dead on since.  I do very little manipulation to the photographs, so I don't worry about precision color management.  Eyeball monitor calibration has worked for me, and I check it every now and then with a couple of test images.

I have a session fee listed at the top of the pricing page, but it's only $25.  I'm starting to feel like some guy with camera outfit undercutting all the "real" photographers.  Really though, I felt I was charging a fair price for what I thought the quality and expectation of the photographs called for.  hmmm...

Josh

[cenelson]

If yer happy, who's to complain, right? I wish you all the luck in the world.

C.

[alan chin]

$25? are you kidding?

minimum should be $100.00 or $150.00

or even $200 and throw in a package of prints. Standardize.

a 50mm is nice but think about an 85mm or 100/105mm. those are great portrait lenses. more flattering to the subject

[ImageMaker]

Shooting digital (as I believe is the case here) that 50 mm is more like what we older film users think of an 80-85, so a nice portrait length.

I've seen what appear to be small studios charging as little as $50-$55 for sitting, no prints included, which is where I've set my rates (and of course there are "studios" like Olan Mills that charge no sitting fee and only a few dollars per print or sheet of small prints, but that's rather far from the custom portraiture end of the business -- it's under their lights, in their little box of a studio, with their harried and underpaid photographer who might never had seen a cable release before getting the job on sales experience).  I agree, $25 for sitting seems a little low, especially if not clearly marked as a temporary introductory rate, student discount rate, etc.

[grizzz]

$25? are you kidding?

minimum should be $100.00 or $150.00

or even $200 and throw in a package of prints. Standardize.

a 50mm is nice but think about an 85mm or 100/105mm. those are great portrait lenses. more flattering to the subject

He is using a 1.6 crop so the 50 works well. It looks like he is in Kentucky and you are in NYC. Could be some very large price differences there. Of course that sucks for Josh since he is using Adorama (NYC) for prints and most likely paid close to NYC prices for equipment.

Keep at it and I think those prices could increase some. I think the family will be very happy with that image. Have fun....