Your vision is your number-one competitive advantage. Not your gear, not your fancy camera strap or your quirky logo or company name. You and your work. When someone lands on your site, they are drawn in by your imagery. Next, your personality comes into play. You nail those two things, and you will book the job. So, what does this all mean? How do you translate any of this into something actionable? Let’s get started.
I review a ton of photography websites and see a lot of failed attempts to search-engine optimize blog posts. I see SEO techniques from 10 years ago. In this article, I uncover bad SEO trends and provide guidelines for optimizing a blog post.
Welcome to the end-of-year change of pace. For most photographers, this is the time when business is slowing down and daily to-dos start to shift from being out in the field on photo shoots to hibernation in front of our computer screens. Now is the time to hunker down and plan for the success in the year ahead. It’s too easy to get lazy instead. Slacking off will hurt your business because busy season will return faster than you imagine. Here are a few ideas you can implement to make the most of your down time.
I covered the basics of beauty lighting several months ago. This month I take you on a deeper dive into beauty lighting. We’ll look at a more advanced setup I used recently to produce two killer looks for the same model. There are constants in beauty lighting: a strobe with a beauty dish acting as the keylight, a reflector or second strobe to fill in the shadows from the keylight, and classic clamshell lighting. Add a stellar creative team, additional accent lights to amp up the look and maybe some colored gels for that extra wow factor.
How to create warm beauty portraits using the Profoto A1 How to create warm beauty portraits using the Profoto A1. I have had the ability
Yes, my name is Sal Cincotta and yes, I was the first photographer in the world to really put the Profoto A1 to the test
As many of you already know, I am a huge fan of the Panasonic GH series, and have been onboard since the GH3. I love the quality and price point of the video that comes off these cameras. It’s incredible. The recently released GH5 is already a workhorse in our studio.
I love Flex lights. They are easy to use, very powerful, cost-effective, they throw great light and they’re extremely portable. They are not just for video. Read my article on commercial shoots in this issue, where I talk about how we used two of the 1×1 Flex Panels to light some food photography.
There is no substitute for speed. Investing in a f2.8 lens is a must for any photographer working events, weddings or portraits. It gives you that extra stop or two of light needed to work in low-light situations. More importantly, it gives you shallow depth of field, so your subject pops off the background. If you are looking for a cost-effective, fast-performing lens, the new Tamron 24-70 f/2.8 zoom is a great all-around lens.
Every time I look at a project, I ask myself, “What’s the story?” In commercial photography, a team of creatives conceives stories around a concept to sell a product. In editorial photography, the subject is the story, and I collaborate with a writer and photo editor to illustrate that person’s story. Then there are personal projects, where I have the opportunity to mix those worlds together. Whether my job is to adapt a story into an image for a client, magazine or myself, or to simply photograph what or who is there, my process involves an interplay of three equally weighted components that make an image work: light, subject and context.
In today’s competitive landscape, quality online photography training and education is priceless to your growth. Unfortunately, most publications contain a ton of fluff. No real meat to their content. Not at Behind the Shutter. We are committed to the photography community and improving professional photography by providing current, insightful, and in-depth educational content.
Training topics include photography lighting techniques, photography off-camera flash tips, photography posing guides, photography business concepts and marketing strategies, Facebook for photographers, boudoir and glamour photography training, high-school senior photography concepts, IPS (In-Person Sales) strategies, family photography, Lightroom tutorials, Photoshop how-tos, and much, much more.
