For Photographers

Narrowing The Field

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You don’t have to be a great photographer, although that would be nice. Instead, you have to be consistently better than average. Over time, you will become more experienced which can elevate your skills to an expert level.

Being an expert is not about talent. It’s about putting in the time and truly learning something. For example, you can become an expert at portrait photography if you really learn about portraiture. This has nothing to do with raw talent or being gifted. It’s about putting in the time and effort.

As your expertise grows, so can your rates. The more you charge, the narrower your niche becomes. As your niche narrows, the more concentrated you become and the more your expertise grows. The more expertise you gain, the more you can charge.

It’s a cycle: expertise leads to higher rates, and higher rates lead to a more focused niche, fostering further expertise.

 

Give Your Photography Value A Nudge

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Price is set by you, the photographer, but value is set by your customers. Your task is to align the two. You have to align your prices with the perceived value of your photography.

Perceived value refers to the benefits a customer believes they will receive from your photography. The higher the perceived value, the greater the customer satisfaction. Additionally, a higher perceived value allows you to charge higher prices. Since a strong perceived value benefits both you and the customer, it’s essential to focus on enhancing it.

While price will reflect tangible factors like your time and costs, value is subjective. It’s emotional and varies from customer to customer. Value to the customer depends on:
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Understanding Photography Pricing

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Price is set by you, the photographer, but value is perceived by the customer:

Perceived value = Expected benefit(s) – Perceived cost

where Perceived cost = monetary cost + the effort needed to make the purchase.

If Expected benefits = Perceived cost, then value is zero. The customer probably won’t buy.
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How To Write Full IPTC

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(A very long post about a simple topic.)

Much to my surprise, one of the most popular posts on this blog is a 2018 article about how to write a photo caption. As a follow-up to that article, this post will explain how to fill out the other IPTC data fields found in most photo software.

IPTC refers to the International Press Telecommunications Council, a consortium of major news agencies formed in 1965. The consortium established, and maintains, universal technical standards for the exchange of news data. This means that some of the IPTC fields will apply only to news photographers and perhaps stock agency photographers. But there are several fields that every photographer should be using.
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Observations from Photo Retouching

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Lately, I’ve been retouching a lot of photos shot by other photographers. Some are really good and need only minor edits or some compositing. But others, not so much. A lot of my work involves fixing photographer mistakes, trying to salvage images marred by poor posing, bad lighting, or weak composition—issues that retouching can’t always fix.

Retouching Family Portraits

I recently worked on two sets of outdoor family portraits shot by different photographers.
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Getting Better All The Time

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New York Yankees manager Joe Girardi (L) argues with home plate umpire Bruce Dreckman in the eighth inning of their American League East MLB baseball game against the Toronto Blue Jays in Toronto, 06 June 2010.

This is another view-from-my-office photo.

When a photo job doesn’t work out the way you wanted, who do you blame?

If you blame your tools then the solution is to get better tools.

If you blame your customers then the solution is to get better customers.

But if the blame rests on you then the solution is to get better.
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Know When You Don’t Know

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A portrait of juggler John Doyle, circa 1902, by Canadian-born photographer Joseph Pasonault in his photo studio in Cando, North Dakota, (US Library of Congress). Another photo by Pasonault was used in a previous blog post.

True professionals may not know what they don’t know but at least they know that they don’t know.

You may have heard of the Dunning-Kruger effect which affects almost everyone. It’s a cognitive bias where those with a low ability at a certain task are more likely to overestimate their ability at that task. But people with a high ability at a task know that they don’t know everything about that task and may underestimate their ability.
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