Hacking Photography - one Picture at a time
If you’re an aspiring professional photographer or even an existing pro who wants to get better-paying, bigger clients, then it makes sense to start small and work your way up the ladder, right?
Well, according to Scott Chouciño from Tin House Studio, that advice is completely wrong. Not only that but following that popular advice could actually cause you more problems in the long run and prevent you from realizing your goals.
Creating a commercial shoot from scratch is somewhere between business and art. On the art side, you want to make sure you are proud of what you have created, and on the business side, you have to meet a deadline, keep a budget and deal with a client.
There is a lot to be said on how to manage the business side of such a shoot, but today I want to focus on the artistic side. Specifically, I want to talk about creating a winning frame while keeping budget in mind
As a creative, more specifically as a Photographer/Film Maker, we tend to get gigs all over the city. From big Production to small, low-budget clients, our commute can be taxing, especially with increased gas prices. Electric cars are surfacing, from trucks and sedans to SUVs; you’ll pretty much see electric vehicles at every corner. This is why I purchased a Tesla Model Y; it’s efficient and roomy for all the gears and equipment I own.
The colour options Tesla provides are minimal. Since Green is my favourite colour, I had to figure out how can I acquire this colour. I have two options: get the car professionally painted or have the vehicle wrapped. So this is when my creativity started to develop a concept. We have seen many sports cars getting covered in a specific colour, and most of them have been eye catchy, so we decided to call them wrapped instead.
One of the above images was created using a camera and modern commercial lighting with familiar retouching techniques using software such as Photoshop. The other image was rendered using CGI using software such as Blender. They are both top-notch product images, but can you tell which is which?
I won’t tell you the answer just yet (sorry, I know you’re just dying to find out!), however, the use of CGI in product photography is becoming ever more prevalent as technology improves, making the 3D rendering more photo-realistic, faster and subsequently cheaper than traditional commercial photography.
Active-wear brand Gymshark has provoked anger after a behind-the-scenes image from a recent photoshoot was leaked on Facebook. The image shows 7 models, all of which are no larger than a US size 4. It has since caused an outcry from women demanding representation of larger body sizes.
The behind-the-scenes photo was leaked last week after the brand’s promotional photoshoot in London. Despite obvious efforts towards inclusivity, many commenters felt that Gymshark had fallen short in this aspect.
“What should I charge for my photography?” “Where can I go to find out how much to charge?” Commercial photographer and long-standing educator and mentor Don Giannatti says that of all the things he’s ever asked about photography, pricing related questions are by far the most common. He tells it like it is in this video about how to approach pricing your work.
The nightmare client. They are everywhere it seems, and if you’re working in any kind of creative business you’ve probably come across at least one or two. They always want more for less, they want extra or last-minute changes, they aren’t happy with the final result. One such client I had (let’s call her ‘Plate Lady’) even tried to negotiate the fee after I’d delivered the work and sent the invoice.
We might put it down to the fact that some people are just harder to deal with than others, and while that may be true, if it’s a commonly occurring issue for you then you need to look at the common factor, and that’s usually you. Scott from Tin House Studio has an interesting thought on why you aren’t getting your ideal client and has some suggestions in this video on how you can change that.
If I lay my cards on the table, in my personal and professional work I prefer to avoid the use of flash in favour of natural light. In an ideal world, I like nothing better than working with a fleeting beam of winter sunlight that glances across a face full of character, producing the type of photograph that would typically grace the cover of National Geographic.
The trouble is, as a busy corporate photographer, it’s much more likely I have to take a series of senior executive portraits from a basement office, generously artificially lit with horrible overhead fluorescent tubes, working to shoot directors who can spare about three minutes of their time and are itching to be off back to work.
It’s been said for years that CG is coming to take away jobs from photographers and in some respects, that may be true. We know that companies like Ikea use almost exclusively CG imagery in their catalogues now instead of actual photographs of the products. But this is nothing new. Back in 2014, 75% of their “photography” was CG.
With many photographers around the world unable to work in 2020, though, CG imagery has seen a fairly solid uptick, which would probably go a large way to explaining why stock photography company, Shutterstock has purchased Turbosquid, the world’s largest 3D model marketplace, for a whopping $75,000,000.
Filmmakers, rejoice: thanks to a court case from 2019, you may no longer need to get a permit and pay fees for commercial shoots in national parks. D.C. federal judge has just made the decision, ruling that it’s unconstitutional for the National Park Service to require a permit and charge you with fees.
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