When you read title of today's' video, you probably thought I'm gonna to be talking about
framing and lighting and other technical parts of photography.
Well no.
Today's video will be a bit different.
I will point out 5 mistakes which can make you or break you as a photographer.
And this doesn’t necessary apply to only a new photographer.
If you are watching my channel first time, my name is Zdenka Darula and I am a photographer.
Photographer shows up with way too much equipment, looks like he is going to a war or something
and the end results are very poor… doesn’t know how to use all the equipment well, or
even worse, doesn't know the basic skills properly.
I am sure you know the saying “doesn’t matter the size, it does matter what you can
do with it”.
I cannot believe I just said that, anyways.
Well, this exactly actually applies in photography when it comes to camera equipment.
I’ve seen it mainly when it comes to event photography.
I've seen few new photographers showing up with pretty much everything they own.
If they were trying to be intimidating, that certainly worked.
From what I saw in years of doing this, they looked intimidating but when I saw the results,
I was stunned as they were actually pretty bad.
I also saw few other photographers which had very little gear, or just you know, their
camera in their hands, nothing else.
After seeing their images, I quickly realized I am dealing with senior, very experienced
photographer knowing their craft very well.
So before you pick up all the gear in the world, learn natural light and how to use
your camera very well, so when you look at the subject, you know your settings inside
of your head.
Not signing a model release.
I see new photographers posting photos of models on their website, on social media and
other places.
When I ask them if they have model release signed, they say “oh it is my friend, she
is OK with it, or I met this woman and we made verbal agreement, she is totally cool,
she is totally OK.
Well, it is not OK at all.
Imagine that the photo you posted online gets stolen, someone uses it inappropriately.
The model finds out, she will automatically think you gave them the photo and you get
in tons of trouble even though, it is not your fault.
OR, you took photos of the model, you worked on them few days or even weeks, retouching
and doing all that, little while later, she starts dating someone who is not happy that
she is doing modeling, so she will call you and asks you to take all the photos off your
portfolio…
OR she even tries to claim that she never agreed on allowing photos being showed in
your portfolio or posted online.
All of this can happen and it will happen when you work as a photographer, unfortunately.
Don’t trust anybody, protect yourself.
Have every single person you photograph sign a model release before you show the photos
to anybody or even post them online.
Keep all original model releases and make digital copies as well.
I just want to mention something here.
If you work as a model and thinking of getting a tattoo, make sure, you get a release from
your tattoo artist.
I recently took photos of male model for stock.
The whole set was great, unfortunately everything got rejected because a release from tattoo
artist was needed as well.
Focusing on your portfolio way too much, learning nothing about business or marketing.
How many times did I say : “I wish I learned marketing before I picked up photography.
I wish I learned that at school!”
You work and work hard on your photos.
Your close friends are telling you how beautiful photos you have…. and you are still not
making money.
Photography business can be really hard.
There are photographers popping up everywhere you look, as technology is developing very
fast.
So competition is very high and it is very difficult to make it out there.
I personally work very little on my portfolio.
I don’t do many creatives.
Most of my time is devoted to running business and marketing to make sure I keep my name
out there, people know about me and use my services.
So don’t focus on your portfolio, study business and marketing as well…. because
you are going to need it!
Taking on way too difficult shoots or tasks they cannot handle yet instead of keeping
it simple to learn lighting and framing right.
I’ve seen photographers in past capable of shooting portraits in natural light on
entry level agreeing to extremely difficult shoots.
If you cannot shoot portrait in natural light and know you can nail it perfectly every single
time, you are not ready to shoot something like for example a wedding.
It is better to progress slowly.
The key is to always get amazing photos and results for your clients so they remember
your name and recommend you further.
It takes years to build your name and reputation.
When you take on something difficult you cannot handle, and chance is that you might end up
with bad photos, so your clients are not gonna like it, your name can go down fast… we
are talking like skydiving fast.
If you really want to take on a difficult shoot, perhaps give it to experienced photographer
and ask if you can second shoot.
You will still be part of it, get the experience and also photos for your book.
File back up and camera back up…
If you are ready to shoot something like a wedding, so evens.
This mistake is repeated not just by new photographers.
Experienced photographers are doing this as well.
Here is what I do.
I shoot a wedding, I have camera which has 2 slots for 2 memory cards.
One memory card is my main one I shoot RAW and the other one is my back up.
And I also hire a second photographer to even have more back up.
Then I get home, I transfer all my images to my computer and also to external hard drive.
It is a big no no, to keep your images on only computer or just on external hard drive.
Something happens and all the photos are gone…
I mean like GONE… so if you have your photos stored on one thing only, make sure you change
that and make another copy somewhere else….
I've seen photographers shooting the entire wedding on one camera which has 1 memory card
only, there is no second slot… not having another camera, having only 1 flash, not having
a back up equipment.
So in that case, if you don't have all this back up equipment, or if you don't have a
back up camera, hire a second shooter.
This person would be your back up.
And you know it is kind of irresponsible.
Those people are paying thousands of dollars for their wedding, so they are expecting somebody
who can handle anything to happen.
I actually had my flash on my camera failed me once as well.
I was doing a wedding ceremony, fortunately I had a second shooter.
So, I was yelling, cover me, cover me... good thing I had that back up.
Something happens, you are in a deep trouble.
I hope you got some pointers from my today's video.
I hope I didn’t scare you with all the things I said here.
But you know I feel it is important and we should be talking about it because it is part
of photography business.
If you found this video useful please don’t forget to give it thumps up and subscribe
for all future videos.
If you have any questions, comments or would like to request a video on certain topic, please
don't hesitate and comment below.
Thank you for watching, I'll see you next week…
Cau.
Ahoj..