July 15, 2025 • 47 mins
#580 In Today’s Episode of the podcast I chat with YOU as I tackle listener-submitted questions for our monthly Photo Q&A session. We cover a variety of challenges that many beginner photographers run into—from understanding the difference between RAW and JPEG files, managing noise in corporate event shots, to building a strong portfolio through strategic “model calls.” I’ll also share practical insights on why your photos might look different across devices or editing programs, when to use settings like aperture priority or manual mode, and how to set up and communicate a successful portfolio shoot. Plus, we’ll get into deeper topics like how to price your work as a new photographer and whether AI editing tools are changing the value of getting things right in-camera.
KEY TOPICS COVERED
- RAW vs. JPEG & Display Differences - Raymond explains why photos often appear different on camera screens or phones compared to Lightroom. He outlines the technical reasons, including how cameras display a JPEG preview even for RAW shots, and how monitor quality and calibration affect perceived color and contrast. He demystifies RAW editing and encourages beginners to experiment with JPEGs if extensive editing isn’t required.
- Shooting Busy Events & Managing Noise - Responding to a question on noisy corporate event shots, Hatfield stresses the relationship between noise, ISO, and light quality. He recommends using manual mode for full ISO control and explains the importance of understanding light “quality vs. quantity” rather than relying solely on semi-automatic modes like aperture priority.
- Model Calls & Portfolio Building - Practical guidance is given for running a “model call” to expand one’s portfolio. Raymond highlights where and how to recruit volunteer models (or clients), setting clear expectations, the value exchange, and strategies to ensure you’re showcasing desired styles or filling portfolio gaps.
IMPORTANT DEFINITIONS & CONCEPTS
- RAW (Image Format): An unprocessed file that retains all data captured, offering maximum flexibility for editing, though often appearing flat until processed.
- Model Call: A public invitation (often via social media) for volunteers to participate in portfolio shoots, typically in exchange for free or discounted images.
DISCUSSION & REFLECTION QUESTIONS
- Considering your current portfolio, what “gaps” could you fill with targeted model calls?
- How does understanding RAW vs. JPEG workflows shape your approach to in-camera settings and post-processing?
- Reflect on your pricing strategy: What personal factors (time, opportunity cost) might you consider before setting rates?
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Connect with Raymond!
- Join the free Beginner Photography Podcast Community at https://beginnerphotopod.com/group
- Get your Photo Questions Answered on the show - https://beginnerphotopod.com/qa
- Grab your free camera setting cheatsheet - https://perfectcamerasettings.com/
Thanks for listening & keep shooting!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
raymond-hatfield_1_07-09 (00:01):
You're trying to get people in front of
your camera who can build yourportfolio in a way that will
help you get more clients in thefuture.
So have a plan for the shotsthat you need, for the style of
photography that you need,whatever holes your portfolio
has and need filled, have a planto capture those images.
(00:22):
Then once you get those images,then just have fun with them.
Hey, welcome to the BeginnerPhotography Podcast.
I'm your host, Raymond Hatfield,and today we are in for our
monthly q and a episode, whichis your opportunity to ask me
all of the burning photographyquestions that you have going
through your mind, swirling thatyou encounter while you're out
shooting.
(00:42):
You ask them to me and I giveyou an answer.
So let's go ahead and get oninto it.
But first, just a little FYI.
Our neighbors are getting theirhouse reroofed today.
So if you hear some banging, ifyou hear some, guys yelling and
screaming, I apologize for that.
They're just having a good oldtime though.
But, what are you gonna do?
(01:03):
We're in the height of summerhere.
So it's either, we deal with,the kids running around the
house and screaming and yellingor, our neighbor's getting our
house reroofed.
So just gotta make it happen atthis point.
Okay.
So, if you find yourself with,any, again, burning photography
questions, know that you canfeel free to ask me.
(01:24):
You can do so anonymously byheading over to beginner photo
pod.com/qa.
That's just qa, just the twoletters, and you can submit your
questions there and who knows,maybe I will answer it here on
the podcast.
And that's exactly what I'mgoing to do today.
So I got a collection ofquestions here for you, so let's
(01:45):
just go ahead and jump right onin.
My first question comes fromDaniel.
Daniel asks, why do my photoslook so good on my camera and my
phone?
But when I put it in Lightroom,it does not, where am I going
wrong?
How can I manage my noise whendoing busy corporate events
without having to change myshutter speed, constantly.
(02:05):
Is aperture priority a good fitfor this?
Alright, so this is a kind of atwo part question and I'm gonna
answer the first one first'causethat's typically where you
start.
Why do my photos look so good onmy camera and my phone, but when
I put it in Lightroom it doesnot.
So this could be, a few thingshere, Daniel.
(02:26):
One, let's tackle the cameraside first before we tackle the
phone side.
I would imagine that you'reshooting in raw.
Okay, so hold on.
There's actually a lot ofvariables, so let me just lay
them out.
One could be that you'reshooting in raw.
Two.
It could be that your computerscreen is not a very high
quality screen.
It could be, more of an entrylevel, say laptop or desktop
(02:48):
screen.
Not one made for colorreplication, color accuracy.
And, three, it could be also onthe camera side as well, that,
the brightness on that screencould be wildly off.
So let's kind of tackle themindividually.
One, you're shooting raw.
Okay.
So if you're shooting in raw,when you take a photo with your
camera, the display on the back,we will show the jpeg preview.
(03:12):
So if you're unaware, there aretwo main image formats.
One is raw.
One is jpeg.
A raw photo is what your cameracaptures, and it captures all of
the light and the colorinformation.
This is great if you intend onediting the image.
Typically the image is prettyflat.
There's not a lot of color.
There's not a lot of contrastbecause when it's flat, it
(03:33):
allows you to add in how much orhow little you would like.
JPEG is more of the standard ofwhat is shared on the internet.
It is a much smaller file sizeand therefore does not have as
much flexibility in editing.
So rather than being a flatfile, it has a, a color profile
applied to it, based on thecamera manufacturer or.
(03:58):
Based on, the settings that youchoose within camera.
Now, when you take a photo, it'sgoing to show the jpeg preview
on the back of the camerabecause that's the fastest way,
and what the camera assumes,what you're going to want an
edited version to look like.
so that's why it does that.
and then when you import it ontoyour computer, it is going to
(04:20):
use the raw file to show you anaccurate representation of what
you're working with so that youcan edit it according to your
vision however you want it.
So that could be one area ofdiscrepancy, right?
The way, if that's the issuethat you're having here.
One, you either just understandthat that's how it works.
And when you take a photo onyour camera, it's going to look
(04:43):
more vibrant.
It's gonna look more contrastythan what it will look on your
computer.
Or two, you decide to just shootin jpeg.
That is the decision that, Ihave made over the years.
Jpeg, I don't wanna say JPEGtechnology, but, JPEGs have been
getting better and better as faras their flexibility.
And I find that I still havequite a bit of range when it
comes to editing my images, butI also try to get them right in
(05:05):
camera.
So I don't need a lot when itcomes to editing.
So, I hope that helps.
I hope that that, that makessense there.
the other, issue is, what did Isay?
It could be your computermonitor, right?
Computer monitors come in a widerange of prices as you know, of
(05:25):
different, standards.
Some monitors cost less than ahundred bucks.
Some of them cost, 1500 plus.
So there's quite a wide range,and you would think, well, they
all just display what thecomputer's showing it.
But you're wrong.
In the world of photo editing,what is important is color
accuracy, right?
So creating a monitor that iscolor accurate and using a
(05:48):
monitor that is color accurateis extremely important.
Now if you have a desktop,that's great because you can
switch out the monitor forwhatever one you wish.
It's hard to give arecommendation on here because
monitors are always changing,and a few years from now, this
recommendation isn't gonna becorrect.
So, I have a Apple Studiodisplay that I use with my
(06:08):
computer.
And, it is extremely pricey, butI love it and I use it for work,
so it makes sense for me wherecolor accuracy is, is incredibly
important.
Dell also makes a line of,what's called ultra sharp
monitors, and I believe that allultra sharp monitors are color
calibrated from the factory.
(06:29):
AIS also makes a line ofmonitors called ProART displays,
and I believe that those arealso all color accurate
displays.
So if you're using a laptop andthe laptop was sub, 800 bucks,
it probably doesn't have thebest screen on it or one that
(06:49):
you can trust as far as coloraccuracy goes.
So plugging in a monitor wouldhelp you with that to be more
color accurate.
That is an area where I've seena lot of beginners get tripped
up because we just assume thatmonitors are monitors and that
they all work.
And before you get intophotography, it's like, yeah, it
works.
It shows me what the computeris, putting out.
However, again, that's not thecase.
(07:10):
And it becomes a lot moreapparent when you're working
with image files.
Photos, videos, things of thatnature, and therefore that could
be, another part of the issue.
So then the last thing here, ifyou're using a camera, is that
the brightness on your camerasdisplay could be wildly off,
right?
If you have it too high, it'sgonna show a very muddy image.
(07:32):
If you have it too low, it'sgonna be more contrasty, but,
not accurate.
So again, when you load it onthe computer, it's gonna look
different than what you thoughtthat it would look like.
what it looked like on thecamera.
So there is where somediscrepancies.
Could happen for sure.
now when we're talking about aphone camera, if you're using an
iPhone, iPhone, displays arefantastic.
(07:53):
They look great.
They marry the camera technologywith the display technology and
it just looks fantastic.
That said, again, when you getit on a computer, it could look
wildly different depending onthe quality of your.
Display.
So, that could be an issue ifyou're using an Android phone.
displays are all over the place.
(08:14):
There's like$50 Android phonesand$2,000 Android phones.
So again, the display technologycan be wildly different.
So I can't necessarily speak tothat, but I do know that there
are some Android displays thatare just like not good.
And therefore if you're taking aphoto with that and you see it
look not good and then you putit on a computer, it'll look
(08:34):
completely different.
So I hope that helps answer thatquestion right there.
But yeah, I think the biggestone that I see most often is
that photographers don'tunderstand that when you shoot
in raw.
It shows you a jpeg preview onthe back of the camera, looks
nice, and then you put it on acomputer, it's flat.
There's no contrast, and there'sa big difference.
(08:55):
And within Lightroom, you'lleven see that switch when you
first load it in, you'll seethat jpeg preview, but then
it'll go away real quick.
And that is, kind of annoying.
don't know what is going on, andthat's, that's what it is.
So hopefully, again, that helpskind of guide you in the right
direction as far as how totroubleshoot that problem.
Now the second question is, howcan I manage my noise when doing
busy corporate events withouthaving to change my shutter
(09:17):
speed?
Is aperture priority a good fitfor this?
This is a harder question toanswer because, I'm not sure
where you're shooting.
I'm not sure what your gear isas far as these noise levels.
But I will say that aperturepriority sounds like it's not
the right fit for this becauseif you're having noise The
problem is coming from your ISO,right?
(09:39):
So aperture priority only letsyou set your aperture, shutter
speed priority only lets you setyour shutter speed.
but what you need to do is lockin your ISO and this is why
manual is so, so, so important.
Some cameras have auto ISOswithin limits.
Say, your camera might go up to,ISO 8 million or whatever it is,
(10:01):
but you can lock it down to notgo above 3,200.
And then that depends on whatyou perceive as an acceptable
amount of noise in your image.
But the other thing is, is that,noise does not change based on
quantity of light.
It changes based on quality oflight.
I can shoot an image at iso,8,000 plus, but if the quality
(10:25):
of light of my subject is good,then the image isn't going to be
super noisy.
So start to learn thedifferences between quantity and
quality, because there could bea can light right above
somebody's head, and there'splenty of quantity of light, but
the quality of light isabsolutely garbage.
So start looking into that.
I highly suggest, and justlearning how to see light will
(10:48):
never do you wrong inphotography, so that's probably
the best thing to look forwardto.
But to directly answer yourquestion for shooting corporate
events, I would be shooting inmanual to fully allow me to
control my ISO to dictate howmuch acceptable noise is in the
image.
And then, adjust my aperture aswell and my shutter speed.
(11:09):
So again, Daniel, hope thathelps.
Lemme know if you got any followup questions.
Whew.
That was a long answer.
Hopefully we can, get throughthese with a little more.
That one was very technical, so,I don't think that these next
ones will be as, as technical.
The next question that we got isfrom Delaney.
Delaney was at our ChicagoBeginner Photography podcast
workshop.
Very eager to learn photography.
(11:30):
She's like a sponge, wants toknow so much and we were
together for an entire day atthe workshop and she even has
more questions, which Iabsolutely love'cause it shows
her dedication.
Delaney says, Hey Raymond, I'dlove to hear your thoughts on
how to start pricing when you'reready to start doing paid
shoots.
They say to charge what you'reworth, but how do you know where
(11:51):
to start?
Delaney, fantastic question anddefinitely one that, I think a
lot of people wonder as well.
I know that I had that questionwhen I first started doing paid
shoots, I tried to figure outlike, okay, well what are other
photographers charging?
And that's just the wronganswer, for so many reasons.
One being, you don't know whattheir setup is.
(12:12):
You don't know what theircircumstances are,'cause a
photographer who has kids, has amortgage, has a car payment, is
going to have different needsthan a young, I don't know, a 20
something who's in college who,doesn't have a lot of, bills and
just extras in life yet, right?
So, that question or that way oftrying to find an answer
(12:34):
doesn't.
Work for everybody.
so charging what you're worth,how do you know what you're
worth?
And I would say that knowingwhat you're worth is not about
the image quality, but it isabout yourself.
Okay?
And what I mean by that is, ifyou're brand new to getting into
photography, you have this idea,and I know this because I have
(12:56):
this idea too, that like being aprofessional.
Being a full-time photographeris like the dream.
You have all this time and youcan choose your own schedule and
your clients and you make allthis money.
And if you shoot weddings, youonly work on the weekends,
things like that.
But what you quickly realize is,oh, that's not necessarily the
case.
It does become a job from thecommunications to the editing,
(13:19):
to the just packaging things upnicely, putting it in an email,
writing out this lovelyresponse, going through leads
and investing time into them,and then they just ghost you.
So there's a lot of things inthe background that aren't as
fun as the actual shootingprocess itself, but you still
have to go through.
(13:39):
Okay, so what does that mean?
You have to charge what all ofthat is worth to you, not to
them, to you, because that's theonly way that you will be able
to build a sustainablephotography business.
Look, how much does it cost youin raw materials to go out and
shoot a photography session?
(14:01):
Well, nothing, right?
If you already own the camera,then guess what?
Then there's not much overheadunless you have to pay for
parking or something like that.
Maybe a specific prop, but otherthan that, you can get out and
shoot a session and it costs you$0, right?
I did this plenty of times forengagement sessions.
We just go to local parks or,places around downtown and we
(14:21):
would just photograph and Iwould leave and it wouldn't cost
me a dollar, but what it doescost you is your time.
For me specifically, it costs metime away from my very young
children.
It costs me time away from mywife.
It costs me time away from otherhobbies of getting things done
around the house of living mylife.
So the way that I would alwaysfigure out how much to charge
(14:46):
for a session.
And the way that I've beenrecommending for a while is
asking yourself, how much wouldit cost to take you away from, a
band that you really wanna see,right?
They're coming to your town.
If you live in this little town,like they're coming to your
town.
It's a band that you've lovedfor years, you really want to go
see them.
Oh, but this couple wants you tophotograph them for an
(15:08):
engagement session.
How much is that worth for you?
What would it cost for you tomiss this concert that you
really want to see, or, whateverit is an event, something fun
that you would look forward to.
How much would it cost for youto miss out on that and for you
to be happy?
Because if, if Fleetwood Macwere to get back together, with
(15:31):
Lindsay Buckingham and then theywere to go on tour with Rush,
and of course somehow Neil Pertwas there as well, how much
would it cost for me to missthat?
Wow.
Tens of thousands of dollars forme to be happy about missing it,
if that makes sense.
All right.
So in the beginning, maybe it's$250.
(15:51):
If you think to yourself, man,if I got$250, I think I would be
okay with missing that concertthen that's the number, right?
I know that there's lots ofcosts of doing business
calculators.
I know that there's moreprofessional ways about going
about this, but if you're justtrying to dip your toes into
taking paid clients, I thinkthat this is the best litmus
(16:12):
test because again, if somebodysays they'll do it for$75.
They're not gonna be able to dothat long term, right?
You're gonna have to raise yourrates.
And the last thing that you wantto do, because I know that this
is an uncomfortable situation,is to do shoots for$75.
That's where I started,$75 forshoots.
And then, well, now you gottaraise your prices, but you're
scared about upsetting all yourpast clients, so you only raise
(16:35):
'em up to$150 and now you feelterrible about this, but you're
still getting some bookings.
But there's been a bit of a dropoff, and then a past client asks
you like, Hey, will you doanother shoot?
And you're like, yeah, but it's$150.
And it's that weirdconversation.
If you start at a level thatyou're more comfortable with
that you know that you're gonnabe happy with for a longer term,
say$250, then it's gonna be aless awkward conversation.
(17:00):
You're gonna be happier aboutthe amount of money that's
coming in.
You're not gonna feel so feastor famine when only you know,
two inquiries come in per monthbecause you know that if you
book one$250 session.
Well, that's a whole lot easierthan having to book four$75
sessions.
So again, once you get to thatpoint, right, you start doing it
(17:22):
for a little bit.
Then you can look into moreprofessional ways of pricing
your photography for long-termprofit.
And that is where things likecost of doing business
calculators come in and thoseaccount for things such as how
much time does it take for youto communicate with each client
what is your booking rate sothat you can get paid
(17:42):
essentially for your time thatyou're communicating with
potential clients that don't endup booking you.
How much planning do you putinto each session?
How much editing time do you putinto each session?
Do you have a marketing budgetthat you have to account for?
What about all the subscriptionsthat you have for editing
software and your CRM and allthe things right?
All of those things have to betaken into account to know that
(18:04):
you're pricing your photographyprofitably.
But for now, just in thebeginning, if you're just
getting started, ask yourselfwhat would it cost?
How much money would I have tomake to miss a concert of one of
my favorite bands?
And that is gonna at least getyou going in the right
direction.
So Delaney, again, I hope thathelps.
(18:26):
Alright.
Next question here comes fromSarah.
Sarah asks, my question is, howand where do you put out a model
call to build up a specificportfolio?
What does the process entail?
What should the models expectfrom the process?
And is there anything that theyexpect to receive in return?
Okay, that is, that's a solidquestion.
(18:48):
In fact, I should have answeredthis question before Delaney's
question'cause I feel likethat's the first step of, of
getting into getting into doingthis.
But anyway, Sarah, you want todo a model call because you want
to build a specific portfolio.
Okay.
I'm going to use the example ofweddings because that's what I
did for so long.
If i'm looking for a new styleof photography to capture, to be
(19:11):
able to put into my portfolio.
I don't want to try outsomething new necessarily at a
wedding that is, it's highstakes.
If it doesn't work out now, I'vewasted the couple's time.
So doing a model call can beextremely helpful to building a
specific type of portfolio.
so where and how do you put outa model call?
(19:32):
for myself, I would put it outon Facebook, but really the
answer is wherever yourpotential clients are, if your
clients are, families, right?
Parents, they're probably gonnabe on Facebook.
If your client is a senior,they're probably not gonna be on
Facebook.
Maybe they'll be on TikTok orpossibly Instagram.
(19:52):
So figure out where your clientsare, and then, you can create
marketing material.
what I would do is not call it amodel call, is the thing.
If I saw a model call onFacebook looking for families, I
would think, well, we're notnecessarily model material where
just like average, regularpeople we're not models, right.
(20:13):
Maybe this doesn't apply to me.
But if a family photographer, soI guess I'm using the example of
family photography here.
If a family photographer postedsomething on Facebook that said,
Hey, I need five couples, whoare willing to try something new
in front of the lens, I would bemore interested to read more.
Right?
I need five families, kids agedbetween eight and 14, are needed
(20:40):
for a, a new type of session orlike, I'm working on a new
technique and I want to use yourfamily and in return, you're
gonna get some great images.
Right?
That's what I would do becausewhat you're doing by putting out
a model call is, it feels likeyou're kind of weakening your
position, by saying like, I needhelp.
I don't know anybody.
(21:00):
I need help.
I need help.
But when you say like, Hey, I'malready working on this thing.
I got it.
I just need some people to be infront of my camera.
Now it puts the ball in theircourt that says, Hey, not only
can I help out this otherphotographer, but we're gonna
get something in return.
That sounds much better.
Right?
So put an out out like that.
And then I would highly suggestputting a few dollars behind it
(21:22):
as well.
I would say a minimum of$5 perday because look, I mean it
takes money to make money.
If you're trying to build aportfolio, could you do it for
free?
Yeah, you could.
If you already know a bunch ofpeople, if you already have all
this stuff set up, like youcould do all this stuff for
free.
But if you're trying, if youdon't have a network of people
(21:42):
who you're close with who youcan call on at a moment's
notice, then you're gonna haveto put some money behind it.
And that's not a bad thing.
So put money behind this ad andtry to get them involved.
Right, and then explain exactly.
From there, you can do whateveryou want.
the process could just be, Hey,you show up here, I'm gonna take
two photos and then we're done.
I'm never gonna see you again orthe process could be exactly
(22:05):
what you would do for an entireportrait session.
I would suggest doing exactlywhat you would do for an entire
portrait session because notonly are you building your
portfolio, but you're alsolearning, you're dealing with
another person, a person whocould potentially share your
name with others as well andbring actual business to you,
and it gives you practice forwhat you would do during
(22:26):
session, how it would run, howwould you communicate, like what
are the next steps?
Things like that.
But again, you could do it,however you want.
So then lay out exactly what itis that you want to do.
So for weddings, what I would dois say, Hey, I'm working on this
new lighting technique.
I need some new couples who wereengaged, who's up for it?
They would then fill out a formon my website, letting me know
(22:48):
that they were interested.
From there, I would then tellthem, Hey, look, here's how it's
gonna work.
I'm working on this new thingthat you don't really even have
to get into exactly what it is.
It's just this new lightingtechnique, this new portrait
technique, whatever'causeclearly you're working towards
something anyway, so you'reworking on something and then
let them know.
We're gonna get together forsay, 45 minutes.
(23:09):
I'm gonna take your photos.
We're gonna have this funsession.
I'm gonna try out some newthings.
At the end of it, I'm gonna sendyou a link to all the photos.
You can, you get one for free,right?
Choose whatever one you wish.
You can have it.
I'm gonna send you a fullresolution file of that image.
And for engaged couples, what Iwould tell them is you can
purchase them if you wish.
(23:30):
Or if you decide to book me foryour wedding and you, you said
that the session was fun and itwas a good time and you want to
work with me, for your wedding,you book me for your wedding.
I'm gonna give you all theseimages for free.
And by the way, this is whereCloud Spot was so helpful
because I could send clients,their photos with a watermark on
the image.
But then if they decided todownload just one, then they
(23:52):
could download the image andthere was no watermark.
If they decided to purchase thephotos, cloud spot would
automatically remove thewatermark and then they could
download the full res images.
And then if they decided to bookme for their wedding, I could
just turn off a check mark thatsays, watermark these photos.
And then it just removes thehassle of having to manually
watermark the photos, uploadthem, and then worry that
(24:13):
they're accidentally gonna buyone of the photos with a
watermark on it.
And then that's just a hasslefor them.
It's a hassle for me'cause now Igotta rebuy the print or, or the
download and then.
So anyway, that's where CloudSpot was a huge help there.
But making sure that thatwatermark helps to ensure that
they're not just gonnascreenshot the photos and steal
them.
And if they do well, then guesswhat?
They got your watermark on itand that it is what it is.
(24:35):
So, yeah, explain what theprocess is going to be.
What should the models expectfor the process?
Now, if you're shooting fourmodels, like actual models,
maybe you're doing fashion orsomething like that.
I think that it's customary thatyou, if they're gonna give you
their time, because that istheir profession.
You give them your product,right?
(24:57):
As a form of payment.
If you're not gonna pay them.
However, if it's for families,if they're giving you their time
in in exchange, in the hopesthat you're going to deliver
something that they're gonna behappy with and that they'll want
to buy.
So it's two different audiences,right?
If it's photography for peoplewho are in the photographs, then
(25:17):
you can offer to sell them theimages.
If it's photography for a modelor somebody who is working, then
you just give them the imagesbecause they gave you their
time.
But ultimately it's, it's 100%up to you.
There's no hard and fast rules,so you can do kind of whatever
you want there.
So there you go.
That's what I would do.
I would put out, a post or an adwherever your clients are going
(25:38):
to be saying, Hey, I'm workingon something new and exciting
who wants to be a part of thisjourney for a, a free session?
And you'll even get a freeprint.
Let them know.
if you like the session, if youlike the photos, you have the
purchase to buy them all.
If not, guess what?
You get your one free photo andthen we just go our separate
(25:58):
ways.
No harm, no foul.
If you want to work further withme, I'm gonna give you all these
photos for free and there yougo.
I hope that makes sense.
Again, communication here isgonna be extremely important and
have a plan for exactly what youneed.
You're not just trying to getpeople in front of your camera
to be in front of your camera.
You're trying to get people infront of your camera who can
(26:19):
build your portfolio in a waythat will help you get more
clients in the future.
So have a plan for the shotsthat you need, for the style of
photography that you need,whatever holes your portfolio
has and need filled, have a planto capture those images.
Then once you get those images,then just have fun with them.
Try new things, experiment, andthen it becomes a time for fun.
(26:41):
So Sarah, I really hope thathelps.
Lemme know if you have anyfollow up questions there.
All right, next question here isfrom Elise.
So, Elise says, here's thething.
I work with A-D-S-L-R Cannon, aDDI have one speedlight and one
off camera.
Flash.
I.
Congratulations.
Good for you.
Off-camera flash is definitelythe way to go.
(27:02):
I want to be able to shootimages with light focused on the
main subject, but still givingmystery in the background.
Ooh, to achieve this look, areflashes feasible?
Or should I break down andinvest in continuous light?
Anything helps.
Can't wait to listen.
Okay.
Elise, I have a few questionshere for you, and unfortunately
(27:22):
I can't get an answer, so I'mjust gonna answer them to the
best of my ability.
Okay.
I want to be able to shootimages with light focused on the
main subject, but still givingmystery in the background.
Mystery, mystery in thebackground.
I guess I need to know what thatis.
What is mystery in thebackground?
Is mystery a dark background oris mystery an out of focus i.
(27:42):
Background, what is mystery?
So, let's tackle both just incase, right?
I wanna try to give you the bestanswer here.
If mystery is a dark background,then yeah, you can absolutely do
that With off-camera flash, whatyou would do is, I guess lemme
give everybody a breakdown ofhow off-camera flash works, when
(28:03):
it comes to portraits.
So, off-camera flash, increasesnot only the quantity of light,
but also the quality of lightbecause you can place your light
wherever you want, however youwant, and put in any sort of
modifier, like an umbrella or asoft box, to change the quality
of the light.
It's not just on your camerablasting at your people.
So if you're not using a modelike ETTL, which is like auto
(28:27):
mode, but for flash, but you'reusing, manual on your flash, you
yourself are deciding how muchor how little light the flash is
going to output, then what youwould do step by step is you
would have a subject in front ofyou.
You would then pull up yourcamera to your eye and then you
would meter the scene for thebackground, right?
(28:49):
However you want the backgroundto look.
If you want your background tobe super dark, then use settings
that are gonna make yourbackground super dark and don't
worry about your subject rightnow.
If you want settings that aregonna make your background
totally out of focus, then use alarge aperture to ensure that
your background is totally outof focus and is as bright as you
(29:11):
want it to be in the finalimage, so typically darker than
your subject.
So when shooting with flash,typically your settings are more
dark than what it would be ifyou didn't have a flash, because
you know that you're gonna beadding flash, which is going to
increase the quantity of lighton a specific point, which in
(29:33):
this case would be a subjectfor, say, a portrait.
Okay, so this is called,exposing for the background.
When it comes to flash yoursettings, you choose settings
for your background,specifically the background,
because you know that your flashisn't going to illuminate an, an
(29:53):
entire forest.
It's only gonna eliminate thingswithin like zero to, I don't
know, 20 feet.
Anything further than that isnot gonna be hit by the light
and therefore whatever yoursettings are in camera, that's
how they're gonna look in thefinal image.
Okay?
Now you have chosen yoursettings for how you want the
(30:13):
background to look, eitherdarker than your subject or how
out of focus you want it to be.
And now you bring in youroff-camera flash.
Now when using an off-cameraflash, you bring it in, you
place it where you want it to befor how you like lighting your
subjects and now you just adjustyour settings to properly expose
(30:35):
them in the image for how youwant the image to look.
So let me give you an example.
If you're shooting without aflash.
When you take a photo of aperson, you're gonna expose for
that person'cause you want themto not be too bright, not be too
dark.
You want them to be perfectlylit.
Right?
Now, if we're using naturallight, we can't control how much
(30:56):
light lands on that car in thebackground, or trees in the
background or whatever it is.
So the whole scene has to be atthat exposure.
With an off-camera flash, we canchange our exposure so that the
background is dark, and then ourlight ensures that our subject
is the correct exposure that wewould want in the image.
(31:17):
They're not too bright, they'renot too dark for the whole
scene.
So when you do that, what youhave is a person who is
perfectly lit and now they're inthis environment that is either
much darker than they are, orcompletely out of focus.
So that would give you a mysteryin the background, right?
It's either dark and you can'treally tell what's going on back
(31:38):
there, or it's totally out offocus and you can't really see
what's going on out there.
So yeah, I would say thatoff-camera flash is the perfect
thing for this because withcontinuous light.
Continuous light is helpful inthe sense that while you have
the camera to your eye, you cansee exactly what the image will
look like when you take thephoto, whereas opposed to flash,
(31:58):
flash fires while you're takingthe photo, so you can't really
see an accurate representationuntil you actually take the
photo.
The downside is the output oflight.
The quantity of light with flashfar exceeds, I mean, far exceeds
anything that continuous lightcan put out.
(32:18):
Just as an example, when I wasworking on film sets, we would
have massive, massive, massivegenerators to power the lights
because the lights werecontinuous lights.
You need continuous lights whenyou're making movies because
it's not just a still frame.
It's a movie.
And these generators were sobig.
I mean, you could kill anelephant by shocking it.
(32:39):
Like that's how powerful thesegenerators were.
That's how much power thesethings were putting out.
And with a single speed light,you can overpower the sun on
just four AA batteries.
The difference is, is becauseinstead of continuously needing
to put out an immense amount oflight.
(32:59):
A flash only puts out thatamount of light for one, 3000th
of a second, or 30000th of asecond.
So it's a much shorter blast,and that's why it can be more
powerful.
So if you're shooting outdoors,flash is the way to go.
If you're shooting indoors, youcould get away with some
continuous light because there'sjust less available light, but
(33:22):
you could buy a continuous lightand give it a shot and see.
See what happens.
See if it helps.
Who knows?
It just may, depending on yourstyle of photography.
So Elise, I hope that thathelped to answer your question,
but, from what it sounds like tome, flash is the way to go for
what it is that you're lookingto achieve.
You just need to play aroundwith it some to find that
(33:44):
perfect mix.
All right.
We have come down to the finalquestion, and the final question
here comes from Reid.
Ooh, this is a long one.
Okay.
Let's see.
You may, I love any questionthat starts with, you may edit
this any way you want.
Okay.
Reid says, you may edit this anyway you want, but I have a
problem and I'm looking for asolution.
(34:04):
I very much enjoy takingphotographs, but editing is
difficult and time consuming,and frankly, it takes the fun
out of taking pictures.
Amen.
I realize that that sounds likea grumpy old man.
Maybe I'm a grumpy old man.
I understand that we live in amodern world with all kinds of
photo apps and ai, but why doeseverything have to be perfect?
(34:26):
Why can't we learn to take goodto great photos in camera?
Seems to me we try to change thecolor, the sharpness, the
shadows, and remove somethingfrom the photo that we don't
like.
So what are we actually doing?
Is there a place today forsomeone that just wants to take
photos?
I guess the easier answer is totake pictures and don't worry
(34:49):
about it.
And is there a simple programyou can recommend for people
editing?
For people editing or recommendfor people who are editing?
I would imagine we're notediting people, so it's gonna be
for people editing.
Okay.
With Lightroom and Photoshop,they seem way too confusing.
I just need something simple oram I dreaming?
Thanks for reading.
(35:09):
Read from La Go Dodgers.
Go Dodgers, go Blue.
Number one in the West.
Let's go.
Okay.
Read.
Great, great question, man.
Wow.
We do live in a world of photoapps and ai and we live in a
world where we are able tocreate things that, with
relative ease would've takenteams of people and production
(35:34):
budgets to create just, I don'tknow, 15, 20 years ago.
And we can do this with ease onthe telephone in our pocket.
And, changing things likecolors, changing things like
shadows, changing things, likesharpness or removing things in
the photos that we don'tactually want in the image,
(35:56):
again, is easier than ever todo, but I do wanna stress that
they're not new to the digitalworld.
Photographers have always beenable to adjust color, adjust
sharpness, shadows and removethings from the photos that they
didn't like.
That's always been possible.
And it's always been done withphotography.
(36:17):
These things can be done in thedark room.
When you have a photo en largerto print your photo, you have to
put in different color gels to,get the color of your image.
So, adjusting things like timingand what colors you use for the
timing of exposing the, the fileand print image do affect color.
You can dodge and burn to affecthighlights and shadows.
(36:40):
You can remove things in cameraby painting on the photos and
then taking a photo of that.
Like these things have been donefor a long time, but it does
seem like they're happening moreand more often, so I get that it
feels like everybody's doing it.
But here's the thing, you arenot every photographer in the
(37:02):
world.
When you say things like, itseems to me like we try to
change the color sharpness, allthese things.
or adjusting the sharpness andshadows to remove something from
a photo that we don't like.
What are we actually doing?
I think you're talking aboutphotography as a whole, and the
thing about photography is thatit's very nuanced and there's a
(37:22):
lot of niches shows.
There are plenty of workingphotographers today who only
shoot on film.
There are plenty ofphotographers today who
everything that they create goesthrough heavy editing in
Photoshop.
There's a lot of photographersin between.
So rather than thinking aboutthe we, which is funny, I would
(37:43):
recommend thinking about the me.
Because I am not creating animage for you.
I'm not creating an image forsocial media.
I am creating an image for me.
And I understand that if you'resharing the photo, it feels like
you're creating the image forsocial media.
You're sharing the image for, oryou're creating the image for
(38:06):
another audience, but you arenot.
You are creating an image foryou, and whether or not anybody
else likes it is none of yourconcern.
I'm sure that there's plenty ofpeople who hate Picasso or
Picasso's.
There are plenty of people whodon't like my work.
And yet, despite that, I shotseveral hundred weddings and
(38:27):
couples who I shot for, loved mywork.
I'm not creating for everybodyelse.
I'm creating for myself.
And that is the only way thatyou're going to be, not only
successful as a photographer,but happy as a photographer.
And what that means is that youcan do whatever you want,
(38:47):
whatever you want.
And also, here's the thing withsocial media algorithms that I
think make it really difficultis that you don't know what
you're not seeing.
So you know what it is thatyou're seeing.
And sometimes it looks like it'sonly high production, highly
edited, high gloss type images.
You know where everything ispixel perfect.
But I promise you, I promiseyou, there's a huge community of
(39:12):
people who are taking photos.
No editing, getting it right incamera and just sharing the
photo of the moment of thesubject, whatever it is, and
they're doing their best to dothe best that they can in camera
to create amazing images, andthen they're sharing them.
I know this because I see someof those images in my social
feed.
(39:33):
I see images of photographerswho, this is an older thing, of
course,'cause it's, withPolaroid images, but you take a
photo of a Polaroid and thenit's called an emulsion lift,
where you open up the Polaroidand you can, the ink or the gel
inside of the Polaroid kind ofsolidifies and you can remove it
and put it on something elselike a piece of paper to create
(39:53):
these interesting kind ofethereal type images.
And that's done physically,right?
There's a lot of things that wecan do with our images.
Not all of them have to bedigital.
It's 100% up to you about whatit is that you want to do with
the photos.
One of the things that I like somuch about shooting Fuji Film
cameras was, I mean, in thebeginning it was just a smaller
(40:15):
camera, and I liked that'causenow I can kind of blend in more
at a wedding and not get suchcamera aware, smiles, cheesy,
fake, inauthentic images, butmore authentic images because I
can, again, blend in with thecrowd and take these photos that
they just thought maybe it's aguest taking photos.
(40:35):
But as I got deeper into theFuji film system, I realized,
man, I really like what's calledFuji recipes, right?
Within Fuji cameras, you canadjust the things like, how much
sharpness you want in the image.
how it renders blues, how itprocesses the image.
You can create these quoteunquote recipes and have them
saved in your camera for, oldlooking film simulations.
(40:58):
I have a film simulation, lookslike Ill for 3,200.
It's really grainy.
It's really gritty.
It's very contrasty, and I likethat style of image.
You can create these filmrecipes for something that looks
more, like a portrait 400,right?
So you can create these looks inthe camera that produces JPEGs
that in theory, look exactly howyou want them to be, no, editing
(41:22):
required.
Now, can you edit those imagesfurther?
Yeah, you can bring them into aprogram like Lightroom.
Give them an edit before youshare them.
But there is a huge, huge, hugecommunity of JPEG shooters,
shooting Fuji film because youcan get, you have a lot of
control over the image in camerato produce a photo the way that
(41:45):
you like, in the same way thathow in film days you would
choose a film stock based on thelook that you were going for.
You could choose something like,like a portrait 400, like an ill
for 3,200, like a portrait one60 nc.
Tons and tons and tons.
Fuji Film made up whole bunch offilm simulations, and that's why
(42:05):
you can create these, theselooks inside of a Fuji Film
camera that can emulate theseolder films.
And again, get closer to how youwant the photo captured in
camera.
And I love that because assomebody who, again, I feel you,
when it comes to editing, Idon't love it.
And if I walk you through myentire editing process, I think
(42:27):
it's a whole lot simpler thanmost people think that it is.
I don't look through every photolooking for the problems.
I don't look for things toremove.
I don't look for a certain colorto be able to adjust it in a
different way.
My editing workflow is starts incamera, get it as close to right
(42:47):
in camera as humanly possible.
And then the way that I seeediting is just simply putting
kind of my signature on it, myvisual signature.
I have one preset that I use 99%of the time.
And what it it does is, is it'smostly just a tone curve slider.
There's some slide adjustmentsthat I'm not able to get as
(43:08):
granular to tweak within my Fujifilm camera.
So again, it just brings mecloser to how I see the image.
I apply that preset to all ofthe images that I import, and
then I just make super minortweaks, a little bit more
exposure here, a little bit lesshere.
Bring down the highlights oftouch here, and then I'm done.
I can go through hundreds ofimages in a matter of five or 10
(43:32):
minutes, and they'll be ready toshare.
They'll be ready to do whateverI want with those images.
They will be done, but my job isgetting it right in camera and a
lot of images I don't reallyhave to touch once I apply my
preset to it, that, again,adjust the tone curve to a way
that I like.
A lot of the images are just,they're just done and that's it.
(43:53):
So read, man.
Photography is whatever you wantit to be, man, if you just want
to go out and take great photosin camera and you want to focus
on getting good to great photosin camera, man, do that.
I'm not gonna stop you.
I'm gonna applaud you for that.
That is fantastic.
But also if you want to go outand take photos that you know
(44:13):
that you're gonna compositelater into some heavily
photoshopped masterpiece, I'malso gonna applaud you for that
because that's what photographyis.
It's whatever you make it.
So are there a lot of photoediting apps today?
Yes.
Is there AI that can do somewild things in photos?
Yes.
Is it easier than ever?
And does it seem like everybodyis heavily manipulating their
photos?
Yes.
(44:33):
Do you have to do that?
No.
Not at all.
I want photography to fit mylife.
I don't wanna fit my life aroundphotography.
I don't wanna spend an hourediting two photos.
Now, the people who do that, manhats off.
You're able to create incredibleimages.
I love it.
That's just not me.
My wife is a nurse.
She tells me wild stories atwork, blood, bodily fluids,
(44:54):
gross things, bones.
I'm like, nope, not for me.
I'm glad that there's people inthe world like you, but that's
not for me.
Same with photography.
I'm glad that there's people inthe world who heavily edit a
bunch of stuff.
Magazine quality, hugecomposites.
Great, fantastic.
Love it.
Not for me.
That's not my style ofphotography.
(45:16):
Reid, you can go out there, man.
Shoot whatever you want, howeveryou want.
And guess what?
It's no more or less valid as apiece of art than anybody else.
So go out there.
Do not let editing take the funout of taking photos for you.
Learn to get it right in camera.
(45:36):
Learn a very simple editingworkflow.
And I promise you photographywill be much, much, much more
enjoyable because that's, that'swhat I have found it to be.
So I know that it's possible.
I kind of turned into a rant.
Somehow, there's a soapbox nowthat I'm standing on.
That's weird.
I'm gonna go ahead and get offthat.
And that's it, man.
So I hope that you enjoyedtoday's q and a episode.
(46:00):
That's all that we got for you.
If you have a burningphotography question, I would
love to answer it for you hereon the podcast.
You can submit your question byjust heading over to beginner
photo pod.com/qa.
Submit your question and whoknows, you just might get it
answered here on the show.
All right.
That is it for today.
Until next time, remember, themore that you shoot today, the
(46:21):
better of a photographer youwill be tomorrow.
Talk soon.
You're trying to get people in front of
your camera who can build yourportfolio in a way that will
help you get more clients in thefuture.
So have a plan for the shotsthat you need, for the style of
photography that you need,whatever holes your portfolio
has and need filled, have a planto capture those images.
(00:22):
Then once you get those images,then just have fun with them.
Hey, welcome to the BeginnerPhotography Podcast.
I'm your host, Raymond Hatfield,and today we are in for our
monthly q and a episode, whichis your opportunity to ask me
all of the burning photographyquestions that you have going
through your mind, swirling thatyou encounter while you're out
shooting.
(00:42):
You ask them to me and I giveyou an answer.
So let's go ahead and get oninto it.
But first, just a little FYI.
Our neighbors are getting theirhouse reroofed today.
So if you hear some banging, ifyou hear some, guys yelling and
screaming, I apologize for that.
They're just having a good oldtime though.
But, what are you gonna do?
(01:03):
We're in the height of summerhere.
So it's either, we deal with,the kids running around the
house and screaming and yellingor, our neighbor's getting our
house reroofed.
So just gotta make it happen atthis point.
Okay.
So, if you find yourself with,any, again, burning photography
questions, know that you canfeel free to ask me.
(01:24):
You can do so anonymously byheading over to beginner photo
pod.com/qa.
That's just qa, just the twoletters, and you can submit your
questions there and who knows,maybe I will answer it here on
the podcast.
And that's exactly what I'mgoing to do today.
So I got a collection ofquestions here for you, so let's
(01:45):
just go ahead and jump right onin.
My first question comes fromDaniel.
Daniel asks, why do my photoslook so good on my camera and my
phone?
But when I put it in Lightroom,it does not, where am I going
wrong?
How can I manage my noise whendoing busy corporate events
without having to change myshutter speed, constantly.
(02:05):
Is aperture priority a good fitfor this?
Alright, so this is a kind of atwo part question and I'm gonna
answer the first one first'causethat's typically where you
start.
Why do my photos look so good onmy camera and my phone, but when
I put it in Lightroom it doesnot.
So this could be, a few thingshere, Daniel.
(02:26):
One, let's tackle the cameraside first before we tackle the
phone side.
I would imagine that you'reshooting in raw.
Okay, so hold on.
There's actually a lot ofvariables, so let me just lay
them out.
One could be that you'reshooting in raw.
Two.
It could be that your computerscreen is not a very high
quality screen.
It could be, more of an entrylevel, say laptop or desktop
(02:48):
screen.
Not one made for colorreplication, color accuracy.
And, three, it could be also onthe camera side as well, that,
the brightness on that screencould be wildly off.
So let's kind of tackle themindividually.
One, you're shooting raw.
Okay.
So if you're shooting in raw,when you take a photo with your
camera, the display on the back,we will show the jpeg preview.
(03:12):
So if you're unaware, there aretwo main image formats.
One is raw.
One is jpeg.
A raw photo is what your cameracaptures, and it captures all of
the light and the colorinformation.
This is great if you intend onediting the image.
Typically the image is prettyflat.
There's not a lot of color.
There's not a lot of contrastbecause when it's flat, it
(03:33):
allows you to add in how much orhow little you would like.
JPEG is more of the standard ofwhat is shared on the internet.
It is a much smaller file sizeand therefore does not have as
much flexibility in editing.
So rather than being a flatfile, it has a, a color profile
applied to it, based on thecamera manufacturer or.
(03:58):
Based on, the settings that youchoose within camera.
Now, when you take a photo, it'sgoing to show the jpeg preview
on the back of the camerabecause that's the fastest way,
and what the camera assumes,what you're going to want an
edited version to look like.
so that's why it does that.
and then when you import it ontoyour computer, it is going to
(04:20):
use the raw file to show you anaccurate representation of what
you're working with so that youcan edit it according to your
vision however you want it.
So that could be one area ofdiscrepancy, right?
The way, if that's the issuethat you're having here.
One, you either just understandthat that's how it works.
And when you take a photo onyour camera, it's going to look
(04:43):
more vibrant.
It's gonna look more contrastythan what it will look on your
computer.
Or two, you decide to just shootin jpeg.
That is the decision that, Ihave made over the years.
Jpeg, I don't wanna say JPEGtechnology, but, JPEGs have been
getting better and better as faras their flexibility.
And I find that I still havequite a bit of range when it
comes to editing my images, butI also try to get them right in
(05:05):
camera.
So I don't need a lot when itcomes to editing.
So, I hope that helps.
I hope that that, that makessense there.
the other, issue is, what did Isay?
It could be your computermonitor, right?
Computer monitors come in a widerange of prices as you know, of
(05:25):
different, standards.
Some monitors cost less than ahundred bucks.
Some of them cost, 1500 plus.
So there's quite a wide range,and you would think, well, they
all just display what thecomputer's showing it.
But you're wrong.
In the world of photo editing,what is important is color
accuracy, right?
So creating a monitor that iscolor accurate and using a
(05:48):
monitor that is color accurateis extremely important.
Now if you have a desktop,that's great because you can
switch out the monitor forwhatever one you wish.
It's hard to give arecommendation on here because
monitors are always changing,and a few years from now, this
recommendation isn't gonna becorrect.
So, I have a Apple Studiodisplay that I use with my
(06:08):
computer.
And, it is extremely pricey, butI love it and I use it for work,
so it makes sense for me wherecolor accuracy is, is incredibly
important.
Dell also makes a line of,what's called ultra sharp
monitors, and I believe that allultra sharp monitors are color
calibrated from the factory.
(06:29):
AIS also makes a line ofmonitors called ProART displays,
and I believe that those arealso all color accurate
displays.
So if you're using a laptop andthe laptop was sub, 800 bucks,
it probably doesn't have thebest screen on it or one that
(06:49):
you can trust as far as coloraccuracy goes.
So plugging in a monitor wouldhelp you with that to be more
color accurate.
That is an area where I've seena lot of beginners get tripped
up because we just assume thatmonitors are monitors and that
they all work.
And before you get intophotography, it's like, yeah, it
works.
It shows me what the computeris, putting out.
However, again, that's not thecase.
(07:10):
And it becomes a lot moreapparent when you're working
with image files.
Photos, videos, things of thatnature, and therefore that could
be, another part of the issue.
So then the last thing here, ifyou're using a camera, is that
the brightness on your camerasdisplay could be wildly off,
right?
If you have it too high, it'sgonna show a very muddy image.
(07:32):
If you have it too low, it'sgonna be more contrasty, but,
not accurate.
So again, when you load it onthe computer, it's gonna look
different than what you thoughtthat it would look like.
what it looked like on thecamera.
So there is where somediscrepancies.
Could happen for sure.
now when we're talking about aphone camera, if you're using an
iPhone, iPhone, displays arefantastic.
(07:53):
They look great.
They marry the camera technologywith the display technology and
it just looks fantastic.
That said, again, when you getit on a computer, it could look
wildly different depending onthe quality of your.
Display.
So, that could be an issue ifyou're using an Android phone.
displays are all over the place.
(08:14):
There's like$50 Android phonesand$2,000 Android phones.
So again, the display technologycan be wildly different.
So I can't necessarily speak tothat, but I do know that there
are some Android displays thatare just like not good.
And therefore if you're taking aphoto with that and you see it
look not good and then you putit on a computer, it'll look
(08:34):
completely different.
So I hope that helps answer thatquestion right there.
But yeah, I think the biggestone that I see most often is
that photographers don'tunderstand that when you shoot
in raw.
It shows you a jpeg preview onthe back of the camera, looks
nice, and then you put it on acomputer, it's flat.
There's no contrast, and there'sa big difference.
(08:55):
And within Lightroom, you'lleven see that switch when you
first load it in, you'll seethat jpeg preview, but then
it'll go away real quick.
And that is, kind of annoying.
don't know what is going on, andthat's, that's what it is.
So hopefully, again, that helpskind of guide you in the right
direction as far as how totroubleshoot that problem.
Now the second question is, howcan I manage my noise when doing
busy corporate events withouthaving to change my shutter
(09:17):
speed?
Is aperture priority a good fitfor this?
This is a harder question toanswer because, I'm not sure
where you're shooting.
I'm not sure what your gear isas far as these noise levels.
But I will say that aperturepriority sounds like it's not
the right fit for this becauseif you're having noise The
problem is coming from your ISO,right?
(09:39):
So aperture priority only letsyou set your aperture, shutter
speed priority only lets you setyour shutter speed.
but what you need to do is lockin your ISO and this is why
manual is so, so, so important.
Some cameras have auto ISOswithin limits.
Say, your camera might go up to,ISO 8 million or whatever it is,
(10:01):
but you can lock it down to notgo above 3,200.
And then that depends on whatyou perceive as an acceptable
amount of noise in your image.
But the other thing is, is that,noise does not change based on
quantity of light.
It changes based on quality oflight.
I can shoot an image at iso,8,000 plus, but if the quality
(10:25):
of light of my subject is good,then the image isn't going to be
super noisy.
So start to learn thedifferences between quantity and
quality, because there could bea can light right above
somebody's head, and there'splenty of quantity of light, but
the quality of light isabsolutely garbage.
So start looking into that.
I highly suggest, and justlearning how to see light will
(10:48):
never do you wrong inphotography, so that's probably
the best thing to look forwardto.
But to directly answer yourquestion for shooting corporate
events, I would be shooting inmanual to fully allow me to
control my ISO to dictate howmuch acceptable noise is in the
image.
And then, adjust my aperture aswell and my shutter speed.
(11:09):
So again, Daniel, hope thathelps.
Lemme know if you got any followup questions.
Whew.
That was a long answer.
Hopefully we can, get throughthese with a little more.
That one was very technical, so,I don't think that these next
ones will be as, as technical.
The next question that we got isfrom Delaney.
Delaney was at our ChicagoBeginner Photography podcast
workshop.
Very eager to learn photography.
(11:30):
She's like a sponge, wants toknow so much and we were
together for an entire day atthe workshop and she even has
more questions, which Iabsolutely love'cause it shows
her dedication.
Delaney says, Hey Raymond, I'dlove to hear your thoughts on
how to start pricing when you'reready to start doing paid
shoots.
They say to charge what you'reworth, but how do you know where
(11:51):
to start?
Delaney, fantastic question anddefinitely one that, I think a
lot of people wonder as well.
I know that I had that questionwhen I first started doing paid
shoots, I tried to figure outlike, okay, well what are other
photographers charging?
And that's just the wronganswer, for so many reasons.
One being, you don't know whattheir setup is.
(12:12):
You don't know what theircircumstances are,'cause a
photographer who has kids, has amortgage, has a car payment, is
going to have different needsthan a young, I don't know, a 20
something who's in college who,doesn't have a lot of, bills and
just extras in life yet, right?
So, that question or that way oftrying to find an answer
(12:34):
doesn't.
Work for everybody.
so charging what you're worth,how do you know what you're
worth?
And I would say that knowingwhat you're worth is not about
the image quality, but it isabout yourself.
Okay?
And what I mean by that is, ifyou're brand new to getting into
photography, you have this idea,and I know this because I have
(12:56):
this idea too, that like being aprofessional.
Being a full-time photographeris like the dream.
You have all this time and youcan choose your own schedule and
your clients and you make allthis money.
And if you shoot weddings, youonly work on the weekends,
things like that.
But what you quickly realize is,oh, that's not necessarily the
case.
It does become a job from thecommunications to the editing,
(13:19):
to the just packaging things upnicely, putting it in an email,
writing out this lovelyresponse, going through leads
and investing time into them,and then they just ghost you.
So there's a lot of things inthe background that aren't as
fun as the actual shootingprocess itself, but you still
have to go through.
(13:39):
Okay, so what does that mean?
You have to charge what all ofthat is worth to you, not to
them, to you, because that's theonly way that you will be able
to build a sustainablephotography business.
Look, how much does it cost youin raw materials to go out and
shoot a photography session?
(14:01):
Well, nothing, right?
If you already own the camera,then guess what?
Then there's not much overheadunless you have to pay for
parking or something like that.
Maybe a specific prop, but otherthan that, you can get out and
shoot a session and it costs you$0, right?
I did this plenty of times forengagement sessions.
We just go to local parks or,places around downtown and we
(14:21):
would just photograph and Iwould leave and it wouldn't cost
me a dollar, but what it doescost you is your time.
For me specifically, it costs metime away from my very young
children.
It costs me time away from mywife.
It costs me time away from otherhobbies of getting things done
around the house of living mylife.
So the way that I would alwaysfigure out how much to charge
(14:46):
for a session.
And the way that I've beenrecommending for a while is
asking yourself, how much wouldit cost to take you away from, a
band that you really wanna see,right?
They're coming to your town.
If you live in this little town,like they're coming to your
town.
It's a band that you've lovedfor years, you really want to go
see them.
Oh, but this couple wants you tophotograph them for an
(15:08):
engagement session.
How much is that worth for you?
What would it cost for you tomiss this concert that you
really want to see, or, whateverit is an event, something fun
that you would look forward to.
How much would it cost for youto miss out on that and for you
to be happy?
Because if, if Fleetwood Macwere to get back together, with
(15:31):
Lindsay Buckingham and then theywere to go on tour with Rush,
and of course somehow Neil Pertwas there as well, how much
would it cost for me to missthat?
Wow.
Tens of thousands of dollars forme to be happy about missing it,
if that makes sense.
All right.
So in the beginning, maybe it's$250.
(15:51):
If you think to yourself, man,if I got$250, I think I would be
okay with missing that concertthen that's the number, right?
I know that there's lots ofcosts of doing business
calculators.
I know that there's moreprofessional ways about going
about this, but if you're justtrying to dip your toes into
taking paid clients, I thinkthat this is the best litmus
(16:12):
test because again, if somebodysays they'll do it for$75.
They're not gonna be able to dothat long term, right?
You're gonna have to raise yourrates.
And the last thing that you wantto do, because I know that this
is an uncomfortable situation,is to do shoots for$75.
That's where I started,$75 forshoots.
And then, well, now you gottaraise your prices, but you're
scared about upsetting all yourpast clients, so you only raise
(16:35):
'em up to$150 and now you feelterrible about this, but you're
still getting some bookings.
But there's been a bit of a dropoff, and then a past client asks
you like, Hey, will you doanother shoot?
And you're like, yeah, but it's$150.
And it's that weirdconversation.
If you start at a level thatyou're more comfortable with
that you know that you're gonnabe happy with for a longer term,
say$250, then it's gonna be aless awkward conversation.
(17:00):
You're gonna be happier aboutthe amount of money that's
coming in.
You're not gonna feel so feastor famine when only you know,
two inquiries come in per monthbecause you know that if you
book one$250 session.
Well, that's a whole lot easierthan having to book four$75
sessions.
So again, once you get to thatpoint, right, you start doing it
(17:22):
for a little bit.
Then you can look into moreprofessional ways of pricing
your photography for long-termprofit.
And that is where things likecost of doing business
calculators come in and thoseaccount for things such as how
much time does it take for youto communicate with each client
what is your booking rate sothat you can get paid
(17:42):
essentially for your time thatyou're communicating with
potential clients that don't endup booking you.
How much planning do you putinto each session?
How much editing time do you putinto each session?
Do you have a marketing budgetthat you have to account for?
What about all the subscriptionsthat you have for editing
software and your CRM and allthe things right?
All of those things have to betaken into account to know that
(18:04):
you're pricing your photographyprofitably.
But for now, just in thebeginning, if you're just
getting started, ask yourselfwhat would it cost?
How much money would I have tomake to miss a concert of one of
my favorite bands?
And that is gonna at least getyou going in the right
direction.
So Delaney, again, I hope thathelps.
(18:26):
Alright.
Next question here comes fromSarah.
Sarah asks, my question is, howand where do you put out a model
call to build up a specificportfolio?
What does the process entail?
What should the models expectfrom the process?
And is there anything that theyexpect to receive in return?
Okay, that is, that's a solidquestion.
(18:48):
In fact, I should have answeredthis question before Delaney's
question'cause I feel likethat's the first step of, of
getting into getting into doingthis.
But anyway, Sarah, you want todo a model call because you want
to build a specific portfolio.
Okay.
I'm going to use the example ofweddings because that's what I
did for so long.
If i'm looking for a new styleof photography to capture, to be
(19:11):
able to put into my portfolio.
I don't want to try outsomething new necessarily at a
wedding that is, it's highstakes.
If it doesn't work out now, I'vewasted the couple's time.
So doing a model call can beextremely helpful to building a
specific type of portfolio.
so where and how do you put outa model call?
(19:32):
for myself, I would put it outon Facebook, but really the
answer is wherever yourpotential clients are, if your
clients are, families, right?
Parents, they're probably gonnabe on Facebook.
If your client is a senior,they're probably not gonna be on
Facebook.
Maybe they'll be on TikTok orpossibly Instagram.
(19:52):
So figure out where your clientsare, and then, you can create
marketing material.
what I would do is not call it amodel call, is the thing.
If I saw a model call onFacebook looking for families, I
would think, well, we're notnecessarily model material where
just like average, regularpeople we're not models, right.
(20:13):
Maybe this doesn't apply to me.
But if a family photographer, soI guess I'm using the example of
family photography here.
If a family photographer postedsomething on Facebook that said,
Hey, I need five couples, whoare willing to try something new
in front of the lens, I would bemore interested to read more.
Right?
I need five families, kids agedbetween eight and 14, are needed
(20:40):
for a, a new type of session orlike, I'm working on a new
technique and I want to use yourfamily and in return, you're
gonna get some great images.
Right?
That's what I would do becausewhat you're doing by putting out
a model call is, it feels likeyou're kind of weakening your
position, by saying like, I needhelp.
I don't know anybody.
(21:00):
I need help.
I need help.
But when you say like, Hey, I'malready working on this thing.
I got it.
I just need some people to be infront of my camera.
Now it puts the ball in theircourt that says, Hey, not only
can I help out this otherphotographer, but we're gonna
get something in return.
That sounds much better.
Right?
So put an out out like that.
And then I would highly suggestputting a few dollars behind it
(21:22):
as well.
I would say a minimum of$5 perday because look, I mean it
takes money to make money.
If you're trying to build aportfolio, could you do it for
free?
Yeah, you could.
If you already know a bunch ofpeople, if you already have all
this stuff set up, like youcould do all this stuff for
free.
But if you're trying, if youdon't have a network of people
(21:42):
who you're close with who youcan call on at a moment's
notice, then you're gonna haveto put some money behind it.
And that's not a bad thing.
So put money behind this ad andtry to get them involved.
Right, and then explain exactly.
From there, you can do whateveryou want.
the process could just be, Hey,you show up here, I'm gonna take
two photos and then we're done.
I'm never gonna see you again orthe process could be exactly
(22:05):
what you would do for an entireportrait session.
I would suggest doing exactlywhat you would do for an entire
portrait session because notonly are you building your
portfolio, but you're alsolearning, you're dealing with
another person, a person whocould potentially share your
name with others as well andbring actual business to you,
and it gives you practice forwhat you would do during
(22:26):
session, how it would run, howwould you communicate, like what
are the next steps?
Things like that.
But again, you could do it,however you want.
So then lay out exactly what itis that you want to do.
So for weddings, what I would dois say, Hey, I'm working on this
new lighting technique.
I need some new couples who wereengaged, who's up for it?
They would then fill out a formon my website, letting me know
(22:48):
that they were interested.
From there, I would then tellthem, Hey, look, here's how it's
gonna work.
I'm working on this new thingthat you don't really even have
to get into exactly what it is.
It's just this new lightingtechnique, this new portrait
technique, whatever'causeclearly you're working towards
something anyway, so you'reworking on something and then
let them know.
We're gonna get together forsay, 45 minutes.
(23:09):
I'm gonna take your photos.
We're gonna have this funsession.
I'm gonna try out some newthings.
At the end of it, I'm gonna sendyou a link to all the photos.
You can, you get one for free,right?
Choose whatever one you wish.
You can have it.
I'm gonna send you a fullresolution file of that image.
And for engaged couples, what Iwould tell them is you can
purchase them if you wish.
(23:30):
Or if you decide to book me foryour wedding and you, you said
that the session was fun and itwas a good time and you want to
work with me, for your wedding,you book me for your wedding.
I'm gonna give you all theseimages for free.
And by the way, this is whereCloud Spot was so helpful
because I could send clients,their photos with a watermark on
the image.
But then if they decided todownload just one, then they
(23:52):
could download the image andthere was no watermark.
If they decided to purchase thephotos, cloud spot would
automatically remove thewatermark and then they could
download the full res images.
And then if they decided to bookme for their wedding, I could
just turn off a check mark thatsays, watermark these photos.
And then it just removes thehassle of having to manually
watermark the photos, uploadthem, and then worry that
(24:13):
they're accidentally gonna buyone of the photos with a
watermark on it.
And then that's just a hasslefor them.
It's a hassle for me'cause now Igotta rebuy the print or, or the
download and then.
So anyway, that's where CloudSpot was a huge help there.
But making sure that thatwatermark helps to ensure that
they're not just gonnascreenshot the photos and steal
them.
And if they do well, then guesswhat?
They got your watermark on itand that it is what it is.
(24:35):
So, yeah, explain what theprocess is going to be.
What should the models expectfor the process?
Now, if you're shooting fourmodels, like actual models,
maybe you're doing fashion orsomething like that.
I think that it's customary thatyou, if they're gonna give you
their time, because that istheir profession.
You give them your product,right?
(24:57):
As a form of payment.
If you're not gonna pay them.
However, if it's for families,if they're giving you their time
in in exchange, in the hopesthat you're going to deliver
something that they're gonna behappy with and that they'll want
to buy.
So it's two different audiences,right?
If it's photography for peoplewho are in the photographs, then
(25:17):
you can offer to sell them theimages.
If it's photography for a modelor somebody who is working, then
you just give them the imagesbecause they gave you their
time.
But ultimately it's, it's 100%up to you.
There's no hard and fast rules,so you can do kind of whatever
you want there.
So there you go.
That's what I would do.
I would put out, a post or an adwherever your clients are going
(25:38):
to be saying, Hey, I'm workingon something new and exciting
who wants to be a part of thisjourney for a, a free session?
And you'll even get a freeprint.
Let them know.
if you like the session, if youlike the photos, you have the
purchase to buy them all.
If not, guess what?
You get your one free photo andthen we just go our separate
(25:58):
ways.
No harm, no foul.
If you want to work further withme, I'm gonna give you all these
photos for free and there yougo.
I hope that makes sense.
Again, communication here isgonna be extremely important and
have a plan for exactly what youneed.
You're not just trying to getpeople in front of your camera
to be in front of your camera.
You're trying to get people infront of your camera who can
(26:19):
build your portfolio in a waythat will help you get more
clients in the future.
So have a plan for the shotsthat you need, for the style of
photography that you need,whatever holes your portfolio
has and need filled, have a planto capture those images.
Then once you get those images,then just have fun with them.
Try new things, experiment, andthen it becomes a time for fun.
(26:41):
So Sarah, I really hope thathelps.
Lemme know if you have anyfollow up questions there.
All right, next question here isfrom Elise.
So, Elise says, here's thething.
I work with A-D-S-L-R Cannon, aDDI have one speedlight and one
off camera.
Flash.
I.
Congratulations.
Good for you.
Off-camera flash is definitelythe way to go.
(27:02):
I want to be able to shootimages with light focused on the
main subject, but still givingmystery in the background.
Ooh, to achieve this look, areflashes feasible?
Or should I break down andinvest in continuous light?
Anything helps.
Can't wait to listen.
Okay.
Elise, I have a few questionshere for you, and unfortunately
(27:22):
I can't get an answer, so I'mjust gonna answer them to the
best of my ability.
Okay.
I want to be able to shootimages with light focused on the
main subject, but still givingmystery in the background.
Mystery, mystery in thebackground.
I guess I need to know what thatis.
What is mystery in thebackground?
Is mystery a dark background oris mystery an out of focus i.
(27:42):
Background, what is mystery?
So, let's tackle both just incase, right?
I wanna try to give you the bestanswer here.
If mystery is a dark background,then yeah, you can absolutely do
that With off-camera flash, whatyou would do is, I guess lemme
give everybody a breakdown ofhow off-camera flash works, when
(28:03):
it comes to portraits.
So, off-camera flash, increasesnot only the quantity of light,
but also the quality of lightbecause you can place your light
wherever you want, however youwant, and put in any sort of
modifier, like an umbrella or asoft box, to change the quality
of the light.
It's not just on your camerablasting at your people.
So if you're not using a modelike ETTL, which is like auto
(28:27):
mode, but for flash, but you'reusing, manual on your flash, you
yourself are deciding how muchor how little light the flash is
going to output, then what youwould do step by step is you
would have a subject in front ofyou.
You would then pull up yourcamera to your eye and then you
would meter the scene for thebackground, right?
(28:49):
However you want the backgroundto look.
If you want your background tobe super dark, then use settings
that are gonna make yourbackground super dark and don't
worry about your subject rightnow.
If you want settings that aregonna make your background
totally out of focus, then use alarge aperture to ensure that
your background is totally outof focus and is as bright as you
(29:11):
want it to be in the finalimage, so typically darker than
your subject.
So when shooting with flash,typically your settings are more
dark than what it would be ifyou didn't have a flash, because
you know that you're gonna beadding flash, which is going to
increase the quantity of lighton a specific point, which in
(29:33):
this case would be a subjectfor, say, a portrait.
Okay, so this is called,exposing for the background.
When it comes to flash yoursettings, you choose settings
for your background,specifically the background,
because you know that your flashisn't going to illuminate an, an
(29:53):
entire forest.
It's only gonna eliminate thingswithin like zero to, I don't
know, 20 feet.
Anything further than that isnot gonna be hit by the light
and therefore whatever yoursettings are in camera, that's
how they're gonna look in thefinal image.
Okay?
Now you have chosen yoursettings for how you want the
(30:13):
background to look, eitherdarker than your subject or how
out of focus you want it to be.
And now you bring in youroff-camera flash.
Now when using an off-cameraflash, you bring it in, you
place it where you want it to befor how you like lighting your
subjects and now you just adjustyour settings to properly expose
(30:35):
them in the image for how youwant the image to look.
So let me give you an example.
If you're shooting without aflash.
When you take a photo of aperson, you're gonna expose for
that person'cause you want themto not be too bright, not be too
dark.
You want them to be perfectlylit.
Right?
Now, if we're using naturallight, we can't control how much
(30:56):
light lands on that car in thebackground, or trees in the
background or whatever it is.
So the whole scene has to be atthat exposure.
With an off-camera flash, we canchange our exposure so that the
background is dark, and then ourlight ensures that our subject
is the correct exposure that wewould want in the image.
(31:17):
They're not too bright, they'renot too dark for the whole
scene.
So when you do that, what youhave is a person who is
perfectly lit and now they're inthis environment that is either
much darker than they are, orcompletely out of focus.
So that would give you a mysteryin the background, right?
It's either dark and you can'treally tell what's going on back
(31:38):
there, or it's totally out offocus and you can't really see
what's going on out there.
So yeah, I would say thatoff-camera flash is the perfect
thing for this because withcontinuous light.
Continuous light is helpful inthe sense that while you have
the camera to your eye, you cansee exactly what the image will
look like when you take thephoto, whereas opposed to flash,
(31:58):
flash fires while you're takingthe photo, so you can't really
see an accurate representationuntil you actually take the
photo.
The downside is the output oflight.
The quantity of light with flashfar exceeds, I mean, far exceeds
anything that continuous lightcan put out.
(32:18):
Just as an example, when I wasworking on film sets, we would
have massive, massive, massivegenerators to power the lights
because the lights werecontinuous lights.
You need continuous lights whenyou're making movies because
it's not just a still frame.
It's a movie.
And these generators were sobig.
I mean, you could kill anelephant by shocking it.
(32:39):
Like that's how powerful thesegenerators were.
That's how much power thesethings were putting out.
And with a single speed light,you can overpower the sun on
just four AA batteries.
The difference is, is becauseinstead of continuously needing
to put out an immense amount oflight.
(32:59):
A flash only puts out thatamount of light for one, 3000th
of a second, or 30000th of asecond.
So it's a much shorter blast,and that's why it can be more
powerful.
So if you're shooting outdoors,flash is the way to go.
If you're shooting indoors, youcould get away with some
continuous light because there'sjust less available light, but
(33:22):
you could buy a continuous lightand give it a shot and see.
See what happens.
See if it helps.
Who knows?
It just may, depending on yourstyle of photography.
So Elise, I hope that thathelped to answer your question,
but, from what it sounds like tome, flash is the way to go for
what it is that you're lookingto achieve.
You just need to play aroundwith it some to find that
(33:44):
perfect mix.
All right.
We have come down to the finalquestion, and the final question
here comes from Reid.
Ooh, this is a long one.
Okay.
Let's see.
You may, I love any questionthat starts with, you may edit
this any way you want.
Okay.
Reid says, you may edit this anyway you want, but I have a
problem and I'm looking for asolution.
(34:04):
I very much enjoy takingphotographs, but editing is
difficult and time consuming,and frankly, it takes the fun
out of taking pictures.
Amen.
I realize that that sounds likea grumpy old man.
Maybe I'm a grumpy old man.
I understand that we live in amodern world with all kinds of
photo apps and ai, but why doeseverything have to be perfect?
(34:26):
Why can't we learn to take goodto great photos in camera?
Seems to me we try to change thecolor, the sharpness, the
shadows, and remove somethingfrom the photo that we don't
like.
So what are we actually doing?
Is there a place today forsomeone that just wants to take
photos?
I guess the easier answer is totake pictures and don't worry
(34:49):
about it.
And is there a simple programyou can recommend for people
editing?
For people editing or recommendfor people who are editing?
I would imagine we're notediting people, so it's gonna be
for people editing.
Okay.
With Lightroom and Photoshop,they seem way too confusing.
I just need something simple oram I dreaming?
Thanks for reading.
(35:09):
Read from La Go Dodgers.
Go Dodgers, go Blue.
Number one in the West.
Let's go.
Okay.
Read.
Great, great question, man.
Wow.
We do live in a world of photoapps and ai and we live in a
world where we are able tocreate things that, with
relative ease would've takenteams of people and production
(35:34):
budgets to create just, I don'tknow, 15, 20 years ago.
And we can do this with ease onthe telephone in our pocket.
And, changing things likecolors, changing things like
shadows, changing things, likesharpness or removing things in
the photos that we don'tactually want in the image,
(35:56):
again, is easier than ever todo, but I do wanna stress that
they're not new to the digitalworld.
Photographers have always beenable to adjust color, adjust
sharpness, shadows and removethings from the photos that they
didn't like.
That's always been possible.
And it's always been done withphotography.
(36:17):
These things can be done in thedark room.
When you have a photo en largerto print your photo, you have to
put in different color gels to,get the color of your image.
So, adjusting things like timingand what colors you use for the
timing of exposing the, the fileand print image do affect color.
You can dodge and burn to affecthighlights and shadows.
(36:40):
You can remove things in cameraby painting on the photos and
then taking a photo of that.
Like these things have been donefor a long time, but it does
seem like they're happening moreand more often, so I get that it
feels like everybody's doing it.
But here's the thing, you arenot every photographer in the
(37:02):
world.
When you say things like, itseems to me like we try to
change the color sharpness, allthese things.
or adjusting the sharpness andshadows to remove something from
a photo that we don't like.
What are we actually doing?
I think you're talking aboutphotography as a whole, and the
thing about photography is thatit's very nuanced and there's a
(37:22):
lot of niches shows.
There are plenty of workingphotographers today who only
shoot on film.
There are plenty ofphotographers today who
everything that they create goesthrough heavy editing in
Photoshop.
There's a lot of photographersin between.
So rather than thinking aboutthe we, which is funny, I would
(37:43):
recommend thinking about the me.
Because I am not creating animage for you.
I'm not creating an image forsocial media.
I am creating an image for me.
And I understand that if you'resharing the photo, it feels like
you're creating the image forsocial media.
You're sharing the image for, oryou're creating the image for
(38:06):
another audience, but you arenot.
You are creating an image foryou, and whether or not anybody
else likes it is none of yourconcern.
I'm sure that there's plenty ofpeople who hate Picasso or
Picasso's.
There are plenty of people whodon't like my work.
And yet, despite that, I shotseveral hundred weddings and
(38:27):
couples who I shot for, loved mywork.
I'm not creating for everybodyelse.
I'm creating for myself.
And that is the only way thatyou're going to be, not only
successful as a photographer,but happy as a photographer.
And what that means is that youcan do whatever you want,
(38:47):
whatever you want.
And also, here's the thing withsocial media algorithms that I
think make it really difficultis that you don't know what
you're not seeing.
So you know what it is thatyou're seeing.
And sometimes it looks like it'sonly high production, highly
edited, high gloss type images.
You know where everything ispixel perfect.
But I promise you, I promiseyou, there's a huge community of
(39:12):
people who are taking photos.
No editing, getting it right incamera and just sharing the
photo of the moment of thesubject, whatever it is, and
they're doing their best to dothe best that they can in camera
to create amazing images, andthen they're sharing them.
I know this because I see someof those images in my social
feed.
(39:33):
I see images of photographerswho, this is an older thing, of
course,'cause it's, withPolaroid images, but you take a
photo of a Polaroid and thenit's called an emulsion lift,
where you open up the Polaroidand you can, the ink or the gel
inside of the Polaroid kind ofsolidifies and you can remove it
and put it on something elselike a piece of paper to create
(39:53):
these interesting kind ofethereal type images.
And that's done physically,right?
There's a lot of things that wecan do with our images.
Not all of them have to bedigital.
It's 100% up to you about whatit is that you want to do with
the photos.
One of the things that I like somuch about shooting Fuji Film
cameras was, I mean, in thebeginning it was just a smaller
(40:15):
camera, and I liked that'causenow I can kind of blend in more
at a wedding and not get suchcamera aware, smiles, cheesy,
fake, inauthentic images, butmore authentic images because I
can, again, blend in with thecrowd and take these photos that
they just thought maybe it's aguest taking photos.
(40:35):
But as I got deeper into theFuji film system, I realized,
man, I really like what's calledFuji recipes, right?
Within Fuji cameras, you canadjust the things like, how much
sharpness you want in the image.
how it renders blues, how itprocesses the image.
You can create these quoteunquote recipes and have them
saved in your camera for, oldlooking film simulations.
(40:58):
I have a film simulation, lookslike Ill for 3,200.
It's really grainy.
It's really gritty.
It's very contrasty, and I likethat style of image.
You can create these filmrecipes for something that looks
more, like a portrait 400,right?
So you can create these looks inthe camera that produces JPEGs
that in theory, look exactly howyou want them to be, no, editing
(41:22):
required.
Now, can you edit those imagesfurther?
Yeah, you can bring them into aprogram like Lightroom.
Give them an edit before youshare them.
But there is a huge, huge, hugecommunity of JPEG shooters,
shooting Fuji film because youcan get, you have a lot of
control over the image in camerato produce a photo the way that
(41:45):
you like, in the same way thathow in film days you would
choose a film stock based on thelook that you were going for.
You could choose something like,like a portrait 400, like an ill
for 3,200, like a portrait one60 nc.
Tons and tons and tons.
Fuji Film made up whole bunch offilm simulations, and that's why
(42:05):
you can create these, theselooks inside of a Fuji Film
camera that can emulate theseolder films.
And again, get closer to how youwant the photo captured in
camera.
And I love that because assomebody who, again, I feel you,
when it comes to editing, Idon't love it.
And if I walk you through myentire editing process, I think
(42:27):
it's a whole lot simpler thanmost people think that it is.
I don't look through every photolooking for the problems.
I don't look for things toremove.
I don't look for a certain colorto be able to adjust it in a
different way.
My editing workflow is starts incamera, get it as close to right
(42:47):
in camera as humanly possible.
And then the way that I seeediting is just simply putting
kind of my signature on it, myvisual signature.
I have one preset that I use 99%of the time.
And what it it does is, is it'smostly just a tone curve slider.
There's some slide adjustmentsthat I'm not able to get as
(43:08):
granular to tweak within my Fujifilm camera.
So again, it just brings mecloser to how I see the image.
I apply that preset to all ofthe images that I import, and
then I just make super minortweaks, a little bit more
exposure here, a little bit lesshere.
Bring down the highlights oftouch here, and then I'm done.
I can go through hundreds ofimages in a matter of five or 10
(43:32):
minutes, and they'll be ready toshare.
They'll be ready to do whateverI want with those images.
They will be done, but my job isgetting it right in camera and a
lot of images I don't reallyhave to touch once I apply my
preset to it, that, again,adjust the tone curve to a way
that I like.
A lot of the images are just,they're just done and that's it.
(43:53):
So read, man.
Photography is whatever you wantit to be, man, if you just want
to go out and take great photosin camera and you want to focus
on getting good to great photosin camera, man, do that.
I'm not gonna stop you.
I'm gonna applaud you for that.
That is fantastic.
But also if you want to go outand take photos that you know
(44:13):
that you're gonna compositelater into some heavily
photoshopped masterpiece, I'malso gonna applaud you for that
because that's what photographyis.
It's whatever you make it.
So are there a lot of photoediting apps today?
Yes.
Is there AI that can do somewild things in photos?
Yes.
Is it easier than ever?
And does it seem like everybodyis heavily manipulating their
photos?
Yes.
(44:33):
Do you have to do that?
No.
Not at all.
I want photography to fit mylife.
I don't wanna fit my life aroundphotography.
I don't wanna spend an hourediting two photos.
Now, the people who do that, manhats off.
You're able to create incredibleimages.
I love it.
That's just not me.
My wife is a nurse.
She tells me wild stories atwork, blood, bodily fluids,
(44:54):
gross things, bones.
I'm like, nope, not for me.
I'm glad that there's people inthe world like you, but that's
not for me.
Same with photography.
I'm glad that there's people inthe world who heavily edit a
bunch of stuff.
Magazine quality, hugecomposites.
Great, fantastic.
Love it.
Not for me.
That's not my style ofphotography.
(45:16):
Reid, you can go out there, man.
Shoot whatever you want, howeveryou want.
And guess what?
It's no more or less valid as apiece of art than anybody else.
So go out there.
Do not let editing take the funout of taking photos for you.
Learn to get it right in camera.
(45:36):
Learn a very simple editingworkflow.
And I promise you photographywill be much, much, much more
enjoyable because that's, that'swhat I have found it to be.
So I know that it's possible.
I kind of turned into a rant.
Somehow, there's a soapbox nowthat I'm standing on.
That's weird.
I'm gonna go ahead and get offthat.
And that's it, man.
So I hope that you enjoyedtoday's q and a episode.
(46:00):
That's all that we got for you.
If you have a burningphotography question, I would
love to answer it for you hereon the podcast.
You can submit your question byjust heading over to beginner
photo pod.com/qa.
Submit your question and whoknows, you just might get it
answered here on the show.
All right.
That is it for today.
Until next time, remember, themore that you shoot today, the
(46:21):
better of a photographer youwill be tomorrow.
Talk soon.
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