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If you’re like many photographers, you might find yourself up all hours of the night, trying to meet deadlines. Burning the candle at both ends is not the way to run a business! It is inefficient and all it will do is make you unhappy, run down and possibly sick. A solution is to improve your workflow.
It is actually easier than it sounds. First, you need to give up control of your “busy work” while maintaining control of the process – selecting the right outsourcing partner can help you achieve this. I know, I know, you’re an artisté and you feel like you need to touch every image.
The fact of the matter is:
1. Your client is unlikely to know the difference
2. If you select a Lightroom Catalog as your Output, we will upload the Lightroom Catalog to your account. You can then make additional tweaks, still making it your “own” and still saving a considerable amount of time
Once you are on board with the concept of outsourcing, put together a timeline that you use for every client that you have booked. You need to be diligent with this, in order to meet your deadlines.
Design Aglow has put together a fantastic chart to help you stay on track. It can be viewed Here.
You can use their timeline suggestions or alter them to suit your own. For example, it can read something like:
1. Welcome Email/Info sent
2. Contract signed/payment received
3. Information entered in address book
4. Event Shot and downloaded
5. Event Blogged/FB
6. Event Sent to PIE
7a. Received from PIE and sent to client
7b. Have PIE upload directly into my online gallery (i.e. Zenfolio)
From step 5, you can spend your time with family, networking, marketing, or just relaxing knowing that you have created the perfect business model.
In today’s day and age where there are constant distractions, we really need to “work smarter, not harder”. A good way to do that is to examine your productivity. Are you as organized as you could be? Are you as productive as you should be? Here are some applications and suggestions to try out.
Productivity Tools
Streak - a CRM in your Gmail inbox
Asana - web application to improve workflow
Trello – an application to help manage your team on projects
Organization Tools
Evernote - Save ideas, articles, and images
Remember the Milk - add your to do’s, prioritize your list, search for tasks and receive reminders
Keep it Clean
You’ve heard the old adage “Clean desk, clear mind?” There is a lot of truth to that. By keeping your desk (and desktop) clear of clutter, you will be able to focus on the task at hand, rather than getting distracted.
Sleep
Working hard and burning the candle at both ends will only cause a cloudy mind and eventually exhaustion. Keep your sleep schedule as consistent as possible and you will find that you will be much more productive than if you had worked extra hours.
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The Differences between Canon 5D Mark III and Nikon D800
The main differences between the Canon 5D Mark III and Nikon’s D800 is the image sensor. The D800 has a 36.4mp sensor and the Canon 5D Mark III has a 22.3 mp sensor. However, the Canon 5D Mark III has a native ISO of 25,600. The D800 is 6,400.
There are a few more differences. Here is a post with a specification comparison chart, for easy viewing.
If you are interested in finding out about the differences in ISO noise performance and video, here is an article that covers that as well.
If you have purchased the D800 or Canon 5D Mark III and are wondering if we can process the images for you, the answer is YES! We are using Lightroom 4.1 Beta 7. The latest and greatest version, which supports both cameras.
The only issue is that YOU need to have Lightroom 4.1 Beta 7 in order to read the LR catalog. If you don’t have this version yet and are not ready to upgrade, no problem. Just order the jpgs and we’ll be happy to send those to you also.
If you haven’t heard about Social Media’s wrath on photographer Megan Kunert, then let us fill you in.
Megan had been trying to build her business by using other peoples images and blog posts. When one of the photographers, Amber Hughes, discovered that Megan was using her images, she sent out a Tweet and it spread like wildfire.
By the next morning, Megan Kunert’s twitter account was gone, as was her website, Pinterest, Google +, Flickr and LinkedIn. She did have a Facebook page, where she posted an apology for her wrong doing.
Unfortunately, theft happens.
So, what can you do to prevent it from happening? Well, there are a couple of things.
Google Images
If you go to Google Images enter in your website url and click on the search icon, you will see your images. Hover over the images and it will display the site underneath. Cool, huh?
Watermark
Okay, this is not full proof by any means but placing your logo on your images might deter someone from going in and spending time removing it.
Copyscape
If you are worried about plagiarism, then this is for you. Simply go Copyscape to enter in the blogsite post URL and Copyscape will let you know if your blog post or article has been used elsewhere.
- Scout Your Location Ahead Of Time. Never show up to the shoot your subject or model without having permission from the owner of the property to be on their grounds. This is often over looked by photographers.
- Have A Signature Shooting Style and STICK TO IT! This is not just a business and branding tip but when you are at your shoot don’t deviate from your shooting style and get creative on location. The client is paying for your style. The style that you sold them on before the shoot. Don’t change it up just because you feel like it while on location.Ty talks about this in the video we will have out for you next week as well.
- Have The Model Or Subject Change On Location. Don’t have the model or subject change in their car. Not only is it unsafe but it is a serious time waster. Bring a wagon on wheels with you on the shoot with clothes in it and a pop up changing room. You can order a pop up changing room online for $50 bucks. Click Here on the Amazon pop up changing room link below to see styles and prices.
- Bring A Friend To Be Your Photo Assistant (PA). Working outside has some great advantages, mainly the natural light and scenery. There are also inherent disadvantages, like having to walk long distances to get to a particular spot, wind and manipulating the natural sunlight. Having a PA to help carry gear, hold reflectors and do some of the more labor-intensive work for you allows you to focus better on shooting.
- The Model Is The Subject; The Location Is The Compliment. Just because you’re outdoors doesn’t mean you need to forget about the model or throw the wide-angle lens on. Each shoot and campaign you do with models, or even just portfolio building will have a different purpose. More often than not you’ll need a location outdoors that
- Bring Your Own Lighting. The sun provides so much light you say, why should I bring more? Because the sun can only provide single direction light, and often times it won’t be in the direction you need it. Additionally, you’ll need to fill in shadows on faces from late morning through mid-afternoon sun. So bring your own lighting. Ty Fischer recommends some great lighting. Check out the More Grow More Profit video to see what he recommends. Stay tuned for the video! We will have it to you by next week.
Source: Fischer Inc. and http://www.lightstalking.com/shooting-models-outdoors
Amazon Pop Changing Room http://www.amazon.com/ePhoto-Portable-Outdoor-Changing-Dressing/dp/B0035HZKU0
What good is social media if it can’t help you grow your photography business? Below are some of our tips on how to use your Facebook to increase your client list.
– Have a system in place that helps you to post consistently. Consistency in posting will make or break your business page, and if your nonexistent for a while, so will your fans be. Take the time to create a schedule for the month of when you are going to post what. Don’t do images every single day or your fans will start to tune you out. Post the link to your blog post one day, then a few days later actually post those same images into your post. It’s great to engage in updating your status or personal commentary in between posting images. Look up online social media organizers that you can set up online so that it can post for you.
-Take advantage of shooting large groups of people. Then be sure those large groups of people know where to find the images that you shot on your Facebook page. Place an album on your Facebook business page of all of the images from this group and in the comments section; instruct them that they may “tag” themselves in the image by first “liking” your page. Be sure that your watermark is on every one of these images and they are tagged back to you. This is a great way to get a lot of people liking your page in a short period of time. Do you shoot weddings? Be sure to add the pictures from the reception and invite guests to tag themselves. Do you have a large event coming up? Be sure the attendees know that they can find the images online
-Create a landing page for your new visitors that are not yet fans. Be sure it has a call to action to “like” your page. Once they have become a fan, that welcome page can change to another page that gives great information as well as links to your website.
Source: http://www.mcpactions.com/blog/2011/05/16/5-tips-for-increasing-your-photography-facebook-fan-page-reach/
Top Reasons : Why You Should Outsource Your Post Production Needs
To Get Your Life Back
Think of how many more events you could be booking if you weren’t spending all your time editing.
Better Images
Here at ProImageEditors we are experts at color correction, album design, video editing and more. We take our time and get to know your wants and needs for your clients to give you the best results.
Faster Delivery To Your Clients
As post production experts we can more efficiently process yourpost production needs to give you a faster turnaround on all your jobs. That speed and quality is why your clients will refer you to more prospective clients.
Not A Bad Price
At 15 cents an image you can’t beat it! We believe we have the best pricing in the industry check out our pricing on our website.
Whether or not you choose to work with us or another post production company we believe you SHOULD be outsourcing somewhere. Go to Why PIE? on our website to see some of the other players in post production to see who is offering what services at what pricing.
Source: http://www.proimageeditors.com/piecomparison.htm
There has been a lot of buzz lately about the new Lightroom 4. Here at ProImageEditors we would like to give you “Our Top Pros and Cons” to the new Lightroom 4 everyone is talking about.
Our Top Pros
- Develop modules have been advanced and improved for dramatic changes. Unlike Lightroom 3 you now have the ablity to do more dramatic editing to your photos. As well as the orgainzation and functionality of the program has been upgraded.
- Lightroom 4 has new video mangement tools.
- Lightroom 4 has a new price. Before it was $299 now it is $149.
- Lightroom 4 has a new email capability for sending emails through the application.
Our Top Cons
- Can’t stich video snippets together.
- No Mac address book intergration for email.
- Interface can be confusing at first.
- Users have said that the program has an over all sluggishness to it, which makes sense seeing that the tech critics say that the program is “resource-hungry” which would slow the program down for the users.
We at ProImageEditors believe that the Pros do outweigh the Cons but you be the judge.
Source: http://tv.adobe.com/watch/whats-new-in-lightroom-4/lightroom-4-develop-modul
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