Learn the Business of Photography

The Business of Photography School By Jeff Cowell – wichitaphotographers.com January 5 to March 23, 2009 12 Tuesdays from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. A 12-week, hard-hitting course about the Business of Photography         This School will be 24 hours of serious business. We will be covering a vast array of topics that you must be on top of if you’re planning to get into a photography business. This is a business school that’s been custom tailored to more specifically address the concerns of photographers. Your tuition includes a nearly 100-page book covering all of these topics:       Pricing my services How do I price my services? What is your time worth? Time before the job Time on the job Time after the job Time when there is no job So, how much per hour is all that? Considering the costs Consider the costs – all of them! The costs of shooting film The costs of shooting digital Additional expenses Advertising Rent or mortgage How many hours will you have to work? And the rest of the costs So, I’m charging how much? The products we sell What are my products? Pricing prints Making your own prints Lab closings Digital image sales Price your competition Equipment budgets On-site shooting What equipment do I need? Safety In-studio shooting What equipment do I need? Optional “stuff” Taxes, accounting and professional consultants Sales tax Understanding sales tax laws as they relate to your business Income taxes Self-employment tax Your personal tax burden Your tax burden as an employer Common deductions Mileage Other expenditures Depreciation and amortization Attorneys and contract building Consultants Accountants Retouching and post-production Printing, mounting and framing Revenues The home office Write-offs Bookkeeping Expense ledgers Chart of accounts Profit centers Job cost accounting Profit and profit margin Financial statements Delivering the product Proofs Contact sheets Online proofing The post-production process Image handling Raw verses jpg The editing process Getting the order Digital proofing Copyright Packaging and advertising Business cards Portfolio Letterhead, bags and folders Proof books Mass mailing Telephone directories, newspapers and billboards Television and radio advertising Targeting your advertising Website Email Newsletters Conclusions Photography is an art form Get involved with other photographers Go places Shop your local camera shops Adding fuel to the fire Your best advertising: hands-down Enjoy the journey           Register Early – Space is limited. This School is offered only once per year. So if you’re on the fence about it, just beware that you may have to stay on that fence for at least another year. Please come prepared to take lots of notes in addition to the textbook you’ll receive. I will lecture for an hour and a half each class and the last 30 minutes will be question and answers. We’ll do our classroom lessons for 2 hours each day in the lovely and well-appointed conference rooms at Office This on East Harry St in the old Wichita Mall complex. Please be prepared to be in the classroom and ready to go at 6:00 each Tuesday. We’ve got a lot of material to cover and we’ll need every minute we can get in the classroom.

REGISTER HERE

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©2009 Jeff Cowell, jeffcowell.com

Studio Lighting Workshop – December 19

Studio Lighting Workshop for Photographers

This workshop is an introduction to Photography Studio Lighting Equipment and Techniques. You don’t need any knowledge of studio lighting to attend and benefit from this workshop. There’s a wealth of knowledge available about lighting, everything from photo floods to the most elaborate studio strobes. You can find plenty of information on technical specifications, accessories and techniques, but it’s difficult to get this boiled down to the basic knowledge you need to get started in studio photography. In this workshop we’ll make an end-run to the information you need to get started as a studio photographer, or to simply gain a better understanding of working with flash. Because lighting is the most important factor in any photography that’s what we’ll concentrate on, but not just the equipment, the implementation too. We’ll spend time discussing the use of various equipment independently and in conjunction with other systems. You’ll learn ways to use studio lighting in almost any environment and achieve professional looking results. You’ll come away from this workshop with the confidence to go home or back to your studio and start shooting professional portraiture. Another critical part of this workshop will be the discussion about equipment budgets. I’ve found that much of the information you find in publications has no regard for your budget.  Learning from my experience selling studio lighting, I know first-hand that this is not a realistic way to teach on the subject. Because of this we’ll discuss methods of lighting as they pertain to a wide range of budgets too. We’ll talk about ways that you can start on a shoe-string budget and yet, have equipment that you’ll continue to use for years to come. I’ll show you ways to add to your lighting equipment while preserving your current investment.    Digital and Film Camera Users – you will learn how to use studio lighting with your camera. We’ll talk about various systems that work seamlessly with digital and/or film cameras, and ways of adapting to existing systems. We will likely be working with a model all day and lunch is included in your registration.  In this workshop we are going to go straight to work in the studio, so there will be NO classroom theory included.  We are going hands-on immediately and all day long. So bring your camera and the manual in case we need to lookup settings to get you working with the lights.  If you have lights, bring them if you want to and if we can, we’ll set them up and work with them too.  My plan is to have no more than 15 people in this session, so the note below about limited seating is very serious.  Many of you receiving this as an invitation have requested this workshop, and because of my tight schedule, this is the last time I offer it in 2009.  If this one fills up I’ll try offering it again, but if there are less than 6 people registered I will cancel.  If you know people who need to get with the program and attend you should get after them. Seating is very limited, so sign up early. We will be meeting in Studio C which is accessible through the Spruce Street side door of Douglas Photographic Imaging and the door will be locked as soon as the class starts.  So be there on time and be ready to get to work.

Here’s what the students are saying! I’m so glad I had the opportunity to attend your Studio Lighting Workshop. I learned so much and had a really great time. Thanks for all your help! ~Clare  Had a great time …, I learned a lot.  Michelle was a wonderful model and a pleasure to work with who made the day go by so quickly.  I attached what I think are my best shots from the day.  Almost everything there, including the editing, I have learned from your seminars. ~Matt Good workshop! I feel like my time was well spent! ~Marie

REGISTER HERE

 

Exposure – The absolute basics of photography.

Exposure – The Absolute Basics of Photography.

I often talk about specific areas of photography in this blog, but sometimes, I forget to cover the basics.  This post it is time to get back to the basics and make sure you remember the elements essential to good photography.  The most important thing to understand in photography is exposure.  It is essential that we capture the right amount of light to create a good photograph.  This is true in both film and digital photography; the rules apply equally to both.

Several components come together to create a proper exposure.  Although our cameras today can do terrific things with exposure in automatic mode, we’re here to help you understand how to do that on your own.  By learning to control your camera manually you’ll be able to be far more creative with your photography than running in auto mode will ever allow. 

For digital photographers it’s more important for you to get a good understanding of exposure than it is for a film photographer.  In digital you do have the ability to edit your photos before they’re printed, but it’s critical that you have good data in the image you capture.  That’s where it becomes essential to understand exposure and apply that knowledge to record a good quality image in the first place.

One rule above all others can help you learn to adjust exposure readily while you’re out shooting, the Sunny 16 Rule.  The Sunny 16 Rule: with your subject in full sunlight, use an aperture of f/16, at a shutter speed of 1/ISO.  By using this rule as a starting place for setting your camera, you can be very flexible in making well-exposed images, while maintaining your control over creativity.  This takes practice, so don’t get discouraged if you don’t learn it right away.

The elements that we must consider for creating a proper exposure are: 

• Amount of light on our subject. -  Sometimes we can control how much light is on our subject, and others, we’re going to deal with whatever light is available.
• F/stop (Aperture) – How much light we allow to come through the lens is controlled by our f/stop.  The f/stop is simply a method of controlling the size of the aperture (opening) the light is passing through as it comes through the lens.
• Shutter Speed – How long we allow the light to come through the lens.  We want to control the length of time we expose a shot to capture the right amount of movement, or to stop the action.
• ISO Speed – The speed at which our camera is recording the image.  ISO is directly tied to the quality of our images and we want to keep it as low as possible (i.e. 100) to maintain the best possible quality.  If we have very little light available and need a fast shutter speed, we may need to increase the ISO.  Just keep in mind that this will have a negative affect on the quality of the image.

I talked previously about using the correct f/stop for your subject (to control depth-of-field) and the correct shutter speed (to deal with motion), so this column is intended to help you bring it all together. 

If you want to make a portrait, you want to have very little depth-of-field, so you’ll want to use a wide open aperture, like maybe f/4.0.  So if you set your camera to Aperture Priority mode and set the f/stop to f/4.0, you can use the camera to take a meter reading on your subject.  Get near enough to your subject to NOT cause a shadow, point the camera and push the shutter release half-way down.  This will display the shutter speed in the viewfinder for you, so make a note of that display (yes, you need to read your manual to understand everything in that display).  Then switch your camera to manual mode, set the f/stop to f/4.0 and the shutter speed to whatever the meter reading provided on the display.  If your meter reading showed a shutter speed of 1/100^th of a second, then set the shutter speed to 1/100^th of a second.  Step back to where you want to shoot from and start shooting.  This will make your shots far more consistent than using an auto, or semi-auto mode.  Do the same thing with Shutter Priority mode if you want to use a particular shutter speed.  Once you’ve practiced this technique for a while you’ll learn to make adjustments on the fly fairly quickly, and you will be more comfortable over time.

The illustration I’ve included here might help you understand what you’re seeing inside your viewfinder.  Although this is a typical Canon display, it should be easy to translate to whatever appears in your particular display.

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© 2009 Jeff Cowell, jeffcowell.com

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The Business of Photography – an annual class

The Business of Photography School By Jeff Cowell – wichitaphotographers.com January 5 to March 23, 2009 12 Tuesdays from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. A 12-week, hard-hitting course about the Business of Photography         This School will be 24 hours of serious business. We will be covering a vast array of topics that you must be on top of if you’re planning to get into a photography business. This is a business school that’s been custom tailored to more specifically address the concerns of photographers. Your tuition includes a nearly 100-page book covering all of these topics:       Pricing my services How do I price my services? What is your time worth? Time before the job Time on the job Time after the job Time when there is no job So, how much per hour is all that? Considering the costs Consider the costs – all of them! The costs of shooting film The costs of shooting digital Additional expenses Advertising Rent or mortgage How many hours will you have to work? And the rest of the costs So, I’m charging how much? The products we sell What are my products? Pricing prints Making your own prints Lab closings Digital image sales Price your competition Equipment budgets On-site shooting What equipment do I need? Safety In-studio shooting What equipment do I need? Optional “stuff” Taxes, accounting and professional consultants Sales tax Understanding sales tax laws as they relate to your business Income taxes Self-employment tax Your personal tax burden Your tax burden as an employer Common deductions Mileage Other expenditures Depreciation and amortization Attorneys and contract building Consultants Accountants Retouching and post-production Printing, mounting and framing Revenues The home office Write-offs Bookkeeping Expense ledgers Chart of accounts Profit centers Job cost accounting Profit and profit margin Financial statements Delivering the product Proofs Contact sheets Online proofing The post-production process Image handling Raw verses jpg The editing process Getting the order Digital proofing Copyright Packaging and advertising Business cards Portfolio Letterhead, bags and folders Proof books Mass mailing Telephone directories, newspapers and billboards Television and radio advertising Targeting your advertising Website Email Newsletters Conclusions Photography is an art form Get involved with other photographers Go places Shop your local camera shops Adding fuel to the fire Your best advertising: hands-down Enjoy the journey   Register Early – Space is limited. This School is offered only once per year. So if you’re on the fence about it, just beware that you may have to stay on that fence for at least another year. Please come prepared to take lots of notes in addition to the textbook you’ll receive. I will lecture for an hour and a half each class and the last 30 minutes will be question and answers. We’ll do our classroom lessons for 2 hours each day in the lovely and well-appointed conference rooms at Office This on East Harry St in the old Wichita Mall complex. Please be prepared to be in the classroom and ready to go at 6:00 each Tuesday. We’ve got a lot of material to cover and we’ll need every minute we can get in the classroom.

Register Here Use the discount code “Matt” to save 10%

©2009 Jeff Cowell, jeffcowell.com

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2-Day Express Photo Boot Camp – Sept 19-20, 2009

Only a few days left to register for the 2-day Express Photography Boot Camp, Saturday and Sunday, September 19-20, 2009.  Don’t miss out, register now.

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Flower Photography and good lighting

Students often ask “what is the best way to light flowers?”  That question is a little difficult to answer, but it can also be extremely easy to answer at the same time.  First of all, you need to have plenty of light so you can maintain a small aperture, thereby keeping sufficient depth-of-field. 

The easy answer is, only shoot flowers on an overcast day.  The photo shown at the left was taken on an overcast day at The Hollow in Sedan, KS.  The details of the flower are very clear and easy to see because of the highly diffused light.  When the sun is diffused by the overcast sky it creates a very nice uniform light.  This light doesn’t create heavy shadows or sharp contrasty edges.  Light like this is great when you are trying to show a lot of soft details on a subject like this flower.

Although it is not always possible to shoot in overcast conditions, it is fairly easy to mimic this affect by using a diffuser.  Diffusers are available in many sizes from Camera Stores and Photographic Suppliers, and they are quite portable.  The trick with shooting in overcast conditions or with a diffuser, is that you will probably want to use a tripod for your camera.  You will also need to shoot at relatively slow shutter speeds, so wind will be a concern.  Using the tripod for the camera, while you hold the diffuser overhead, can be made easier by using a cable release to fire the camera.  If you don’t have a cable release you could also use the self-timer function on the camera.

There are times when you may want to have a little more dramatic light on your subject, like the flower shown here on the right.  In this shot, the details of the flower are not nearly as soft and gentle as the first example, so the higher contrast helps to accentuate these features.  You can see from the clouds in the background, that this was shot when there was a good deal more direct sunlight.  This could have also been shot using a diffuser to soften the details.

The bottom line is that you generally want to have plenty of light and might want the light to be as natural as possible.  Using an overcast day can be ideal for a lot of close-up and flower photography, but a diffuser can be a good substitute.  You can also use a flash on a cloudy day to add light and create more contrast when that is desired.  Consider your subject and watch the weather, you might be pleasantly surprised by the results you’ll get on a nice rainy day too.  On a rainy day the colors sometimes seem to pop better than ever for flowers.

Don’t forget to set the White Balance on your camera appropriate to the lighting conditions under which you are shooting.  Using the Cloudy setting for an overcast day will give you much better results than Auto White Balance.   If you are shooting on a bright sunny day, use the Daylight setting to maintain the best color.  If however you add a diffuser, use the Cloudy or Shade setting, since you are in fact creating a shady situation.

Your best bet is to join me for the 2-day Express Photo Boot Camp, where you can learn a lot of these tricks.

 

©2009 Jeff Cowell, jeffcowell.com

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Covered Bridge Photo Excursion

Bridgeton Bridge, Indiana

Many of you have seen plenty of my photos of the Covered Bridges of Parke County, Indiana and Madison County, Iowa: and now I’ve created a Photo Excursion for you to get out and shoot them yourself. 

This excursion has 2 options available, so you can shoot just Madison County bridges, or you can stay on and spend several more days shooting in Parke County, Indiana too.  We will also make a couple of other stops on this 7-day excursion including Pella, IA and Branson, MO.

This is going to be a great trip for photographic content, and is just as good as a straight sight-seeing tour for folks who aren’t necessarily into the photo aspect.  Check out all the details here.

©2009 Jeff Cowell, jeffcowell.com

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Kansas City Renaissance Festival – Photo Excursion

Each year I take a group of people to Bonner Springs, KS for a day at the Kansas City Renaissance Festival.  This event is chock full of photographic opportunities, and all of the actors who participate are more than willing to stop and pose for you.

We leave my studio in Wichita at 6:30 in the morning and stop for breakfast along the way.  We will be at the Festival from around 10 or 11 till 4 when we will head back to Wichita, stopping for dinner along the way.  It’s always a good time and everyone who has come has enjoyed the trip.  If you’ve never been to this festival it’s high time you got up here to experience all the fun and excitement.

Come and join us for a great day of fun and photography.

©2009 Jeff Cowell, jrcowell.com

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Express Photography Boot Camp: the 2-day solution

In this past year I have introduced a 5-week Photography School and 5-day Photography Boot Camp, both have been very heavily attended and are yielding great successes.   There have however been request for a shorter format, from those people who have had a problem committing 5 days or weeks in a row.  I have therefore created an Express Photography Boot Camp that will get all of the essential education into just 2 days.

The format for the 2-day Boot Camp includes 2 9-hour days.  What I’ve done is take the first four days classroom sessions and combined them with 2 hands-on sessions.  Each day will consist of 2 3-hour classroom sessions followed by a 3-hour hands-on workshop session.  Lunch and dinner will be provided both days, so we can optimize our time together and continue working through our meals.  The schedule will be from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. each day and we’ll take a few 10-minute breaks during each day. 

One of the classes that was included in the 5-day or 5-week format has been eliminated from the classroom time, but it still exist in the book that is included with your registration.

The first session for this new format will be on September 19 & 20, 2009 and registration is open now. Click Here for complete details and registration

©2009 Jeff Cowell, jeffcowell.com

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Express Photo Boot Camp survey

I have created a new Express Photo Boot Camp and would like feedback via a survey I’ve created.

You can see complete details of the Boot Camp here: Click here for details

Click Here to take survey