For Customers

Post-processing and Retouching

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Many photography clients ask about post-processing. What is it and why is there a fee for it?

Most professional photographers either charge separately for post-processing or they build it into their overall photo fee. Listing it separately allows a client to see exactly where their money is going.

Post-processing is the computer work required to change an out-of-the-camera digital file into a good usable photograph. Think of it as polishing a photo to help look its best. It’s one of the many things that separates professional photography from amateur.
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Connect the dots

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Why doesn’t a newspaper do this:

For each online crossword, sudoku or whatever daily quiz the paper uses, that is correctly completed by a reader, (within a certain time period), the paper donates, say, $1 to a local charity. The chosen charity can change daily or weekly.

Have the daily quiz sponsored by an advertiser which will make the charitable donation. The advertiser’s logo and message would sit right next to the quiz. Fifteen minutes to do the quiz means 15 minutes of exposure to the ad.

How many readers will take the time to complete the daily quiz knowing that it will do some social good in their community? How much word-of-mouth will this create as readers get their friends to join in and help fundraise for a charity?
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Eyes Buy

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Our brain depends on still pictures. Even when reading text, our brain processes the text as pictures of the words our eyes see. Our eyes really are cameras, taking many, many photographs every second.

We shop with our eyes and more importantly, we buy with our eyes. Sadly, we still pay with our wallets. This is why product appearance, the design of the store or office, the employees’ style of dress, the company web site and all other marketing efforts should work together to give customers the necessary visual information they need to make a purchasing decision.

This also means that many consumer decisions are emotion-based. Customers buy based on what they’re feeling and not necessarily on what they’re thinking.

Our brain attaches an emotion to things we value. Do you like the way the product looks? How do you feel about the salesperson and the store atmosphere? Do you trust the company behind the product? Will you be happy with the purchase? Will the product somehow make you feel better?
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Best of the worst

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Do you like buying cheap stock photos? Take a look at iStockHell, from the makers of Clients from Hell. Not sure if photographers should be laughing or crying.

*Added Dec 19: The iStockHell site may be down or perhaps even gone. The site did mention that it had received complaints from iStock but was trying to work around them.

*Added: Sadly, the iStockHell site is gone.

Being Different

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“Performance artist” may be the best description for Chinese artist Li Wei. Although “crazy” could also be used.

Take a look at the mind-boggling photographs on his web site. (The site doesn’t seem to mention the name of the photographer(s).)

Aha! They’re all fake! Photoshopped pictures!

Actually, you might be surprised.

While several of the images were edited to erase the steel cables or ropes that supported the flying people, not all pictures were altered. Apparently, for a few high-air pictures, Wei just climbed up and did his stuff.

Many of his floating head pictures have no digital magic whatsoever but they do use old centuries-old trickery. Some of the floating heads in the “Dream-Like Love” series must have been Photoshopped because there seems to be no other explanation.

The web site also has small videos which show some behind-the-scenes activity. In one video, while dangling from a 25th-floor ledge, Wei is suspended only by a rope handheld by two other guys.

While this work was done purely for the art, apparently Wei’s plan is to move into advertising. Do you think wildly different pictures like this might help get a business noticed?

Does corporate photography always have to be safe (and boring)? When should a business take a risk with its marketing photography?

 

A Monkey Could Do It

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A customer might ask: “Why does it cost so much? You just point the camera and push the button. Technology does all the rest. I bet even a monkey could do it.”

Well, apparently there is a monkey doing it. And, posting her pictures on her own Facebook page. And, Nonja the orangutan works very cheap.

No word yet if she’s available for editorial, commercial or corporate photography assignments. So working photographers can rest easy for now. :-)

When it comes to hiring a photographer, you get what you pay for. A professional photographer is not someone who knows how to push a button but rather they know when to push the button. A premium quality photograph gets its value not only from what it shows but also from what it doesn’t.

If your company’s photography needs don’t require experience or creativity, if your corporate image doesn’t matter, if your customers don’t care how your business communicates with them, then even a monkey could do it.

 

Cost of digital photography

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Who started this myth that digital photography is free or cheap?

Last week, two similar sounds passed by my ears:

(i) While chatting with a writer whom I haven’t seen in many years, he remarked that I must be happy with digital photography because it’s free.

(ii) After giving a quote to a potential client, he replied, “Why is it so expensive? You use a digital camera, right? It shouldn’t really cost anything.”

Photographers, feel free to make a loud and heavy moaning sound.

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