Hey all! I decided to do something positive with the time I was spending on airplanes, and in airports this year. I wrote a comprehensive guide of everything that I know about wedding photography.

I really want it to become the #1 startup guide that other photographers say to check out when asked ‘How to get into the industry,’ or any other questions people interested in the wedding photography industry might ask — anything from lenses, to business, to social media.

It’s all about laying the proper groundwork for a business that will make you happy in the future. This book will help you create a business that attracts couples that you really get along with, and have fun with.

Beyond that, it’s about creating your ideal lifestyle, as well as portfolio – and using social media (Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, Etc) to help grow your business.

Check out the main website here – or keep reading. New School Wedding Photographer

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The goal with this book was to write the book that I wish I would have had when I was just getting up and running. I’ve taken a lot of workshops over the past few years, and can easily say that you’ll get way more out of this book for the dollar value than any other workshop or seminar – that I’ve attended at least.

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Here’s the retail description:

Social media is changing the face of wedding photography. It’s now even easier to get up and running with a little help from Facebook and Twitter.

This is the book to read if you’re just getting started as a wedding photographer. It gives you the groundwork to launch a successful business that you can build from. It also details events of the wedding day, and the basics of how to go about photographing them.

110 pages are broken up into the following sections:
Part 1: Getting Up and Running (FAST!)
Detailed advice on how to set yourself up for success in the future.

Part 2: Shooting
Walk through a wedding day, and remove some uncertainty from the days events. Another perspective on how to professionally photograph a wedding

Part 3: Two Day Workflow
Don’t spend all of your time managing behind the scenes activities, and regain some of your life freedom

Part 4: A Few More Advanced Topics
General information about how to keep your business growing.

Part 5: Advanced Social Media and Online Marketing
Book more weddings by getting smart on the web.

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New School Wedding Photographer is written from my experience, and contains information about how I would suggest starting a wedding photography business right now.

If you want to order it directly from me:
Click here to order it via Paypal for $19.90 all in, taxes and shipping included! (within main land North America)

I figured, ‘Hey! I wonder what would happen if I fired a flash into one of these.’ (Alright, so that wasn’t my exact thought process)
After picking up a few pie tins for good measure, I ventured home.

From there I discovered that to use the roasting pan as a true ringlight…would take some work. My solution? Make it a beauty dish. (A close cousin to a ring light – I was mostly just after the circle catch lights they put in people eyes)

Stuck a flash in the back, and pointed it a reflective surface to bounce the light back at the dish.

My final arts and crafts project.

The result…a neat light.

Special thanks to the girlfriend, Kate, for letting me point this ufo-like-flash at her.

Don’t worry, I won’t bring this silver experiment to your wedding. However, if you do want a high fashion ish look… I will bring a real ring light.

I’m off to a quick meeting at http://www.kwweddingring.ca/
Bye for now.

First things first:
What exactly are you looking for from your wedding photographer?
- Do you want someone artistic, someone with talent?
- or Do you want someone just to press buttons?
- Do you just want a print it yourself package, where the photographer gives you a dvd?
- or Do you want an amazing album that family and friends will drool over?

There’s about 1000 questions, and somewhere in the process of meeting with all of these photographers, you might lose sight of what you were originally looking for.

My advice: start shopping early. A lot of the better photographers in the world are booking up 10 – 18 months in advance. Currently I’m sitting at around 20 bookings for 2009, and it’s only just out of September ’08.

You might have to do some digging to find your photographer. There’s a lot of good ones lurking in the shadows, you just have to enter the right search terms into Google. Don’t always settle on the photographers that your venue, caterer, or planner suggest.

Watch out for kickbacks!

A kickback is kind of like a commission for a coordinator, or venue, or anyone who profits out referring a photographer.
Ever go into an electronics store, and the sales person is really pushing one product on you? You’ve done your research at home, and you know there are better options…so why is this guy so adamant on selling you what he wants? Well, products that don’t sell, or need a little bit of a sales boost can offer the best commissions. So it’s in that sales mans best interest to sell you what’s going to make him money. Sadly, the same goes in the wedding world.

So now you’ve found a few photographers you like, and they’re available for your date.
Oh, side note: if everyone seems to be booked, ask the photographer who they suggest in the area. Photographers know other photographers, and know who does a good job. I’m aware of most of what’s going on in the wedding photography market around Southern Ontario – other good photographers will too.

Alright, back to business – you’ve found a few photographers you’re going to meet with. What do you talk to them about? You could bring a huge list of questions from that bridal book you picked up at the wedding show…but some of them look a little bit embarrassing to ask…so lets get straight to the important ones.

- Is it you who is going to be shooting my wedding?
This ones only really important if you’ve gone to a ‘studio’ where they have many photographers working under one banner. If you’re coming to a single photographer…say Taylor Jackson Photography..it’s probably a pretty safe bet that they will be the one shooting your wedding.
- Can I see a full wedding you’ve photographed?
- Do you have backup gear?
- and Can you control the weather?

I haven’t met any photographers that can control the weather. So, if they say they can, it’s probably safe to assume they’re a liar.

If you get along well with them, they’re within your budget (yes, couples meet with me knowing they can’t afford me), and you like their work, you’re probably in good shape.

From here you’ll likely have to sign a contract, and give some sort of down payment to secure your date with the photographer. If you got an engagement session, great! It’s time to book some time together. Hopefully after you see the photos from the engagement session, you know you picked the right photographer.

Hopefully my scattered thoughts here helped someone.  I’ve met with a lot of couples, and spent a lot of time analyzing every part of wedding photography. If you have any questions, just shoot me an email, and I’ll do my best to help — even if you’re not booking with me.

Taylor
Kitchener Waterloo Wedding Photographer

This is a basic overview of everything I know about concert photography, for big and small venues. I’ll hit the more important pieces with a more in depth post a little later.

For some inspiration check out www.jessbaumung.com

Equipment – cameras and lenses
You don’t need a digital SLR, but there are a lot of limitations that surround a point & shoot. When you crank the light sensitivity of a point and shoot, the photo will become ridiculously grainy – and you need a lot of light coming in the lens. It might look good at web size, and it’s also a great way to start to build your portfolio before going DSLR. I used a 3.2megapx Canon S1 IS for a year or so before deciding to invest in a DSLR – the Canon S5 is the much improved equivalent of that camera. They cost about $350 off of amazon and are perfect to learn on before deciding if you want to invest in a DSLR.

Some photos I took off of my Canon S1 IS:

As long as your point & shoot has full manual controls, it’s perfect to learn off of. You’ll learn what combinations of controls work, and when you feel the limitations of a p&s it’s pretty easy to step up to a full DSLR.
Rules for a p&s:
- shoot in venues with a lot of light
- try not to use your flash unless absolutely necessary (unless you’re doing rear curtain time exposures, more on that later)
- use manual mode ISO around 400 or 800 (whatever still looks good) aperture as small of number as you can get, and whatever shutter speed lets enough light in 1/50 as a minimum
- wait for the lights to get as bright as they can, and use the opportunity to snap a few photos.

DSLRs are under $500, and so beyond worth the money. You only need a barebones DSLR+lens to take great photos, it’s more about the glass you put infront of it.
Inexpensive DSLRS:
Nikon D40 DSLR with 18-55mm
Or
Canon Digital Rebel XT DSLR with EF-S 18-55mm
Would probably be your best bet. Don’t worry about the mega pixels, they don’t matter. It’s all about the sensor quality.
Both are great cameras. They come with a lens that will probably work for 80% of your photography purposes. It’s not a great concert lens, but is useful with a flash….but not the onboard camera flash.

The cheapest (and arguably best lens) you can buy for either of the camera above is either the:
Nikon 50mm f/1.8D AF Nikkor
or the
Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II Camera Lens

Both are extraordinary in low light photography. If you’re using them you can normally get away without using a flash.
Some of my photos from the Nikon version of this lens:

Currently my favorite lens to shoot with at local and bigger shows is the 85mm 1.8
Nikon version: Nikon 85mm f/1.8D AF Nikkor Lens for Nikon Digital SLR Cameras
Canon version: Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM Telephoto Lens for Canon SLR Cameras
Both are great lenses, and the Nikon is probably my most used lens when it comes to concert photography. They’re a little more expensive than the 50mm though.

Cheapest and easiest way to photo a concert:
- Basic body. (D40, Rebel XT)
- 50mm f1.8 lens.
Easy. Cheap. Awesome photos, just learn how to use your camera.

What I currently shoot with at shows:
- Nikon D50 body (it’s been discontinued, the D40 is a smaller, better version of this camera) or my Nikon D200 if it’s a bigger show.
- Nikkor 85mm f1.8 (I use this the most)
- Nikkor 10.5mm f2.8 fisheye (I use this the second most)
- Nikkor 50mm f1.4
- Nikkor 35mm f2.0
I shoot JPEG because I have the right settings on my camera before the show starts, and won’t need to correct a whole lot afterwards.

Starting out/Getting into the show/PR agents
So it’s hard starting out. You can’t afford to buy tickets to show 3 nights a week(and plus, if it’s a bigger show, they wouldn’t let you in with a DSLR..that’s one good thing about having a P&S. If you can’t get a press pass, you can still see a band you dig, and take lots of good portfolio photos…it’ll just cost you a few bucks.)

How to start getting into shows for photographic purposes(for free):
Pay for a few shows, get a bit of a portfolio together. Even photographing your friends jam sessions works. Just prove you’re worth the guestlist spot. Shoot the band a myspace/facebook/email message explaining the situation. I got lucky off the start, and started photographing for a webzine www.truthexplosion.com. So it was pretty was pretty easy to approach bands.

If you’re local area has a webzine, or just a group of people that put their photos on a site, contact them and see what it takes to photograph for them. If you happen to be involved with your highschool/college newspaper, this is a great time to let them know. (provided you’re able to cover the show for the paper)

If you make some great photos for a band in your area, other bands will see. Your name will start to spread. Just tag your photos with your name (and the bands name) or your website/myspace/flickr/wherever you promote yourself. Bands probably won’t be lining up to offer you money to come out and shoot their set, but when you’re good enough they might offer you a teeshirt or a few drinks – something to make it worth your time and gas money. If you can make them look like rockstars at a local dingy dive-bar, you’re on your way to becoming a pro.

Bigger Shows:
In Toronto these would be most House of Blues/Livenation shows.
If you’re wanting to cover bigger shows, and you have some backing (newspaper, somewhat important webzine, magazine, or just a stellar portfolio) you’ll normally have to go through the bands PR rep(or promotions company) for the headlining band. Things get tricky here. Even if you’re approved, you’ll only be allowed to photograph for the first 3 songs of the set, and you won’t be allowed to use a flash…but you’re not using a flash, right?

There’s always exceptions to the the 3 song, no flash rule, but in Ontario, that’s pretty much the going standard.

I’ll go into more depth here when I have the time, but more or less, locate the PR/promotions email, and say that you’re looking for photo credentials for the _____ show on ______ at ________ and you’ll be covering it for ______. If you have an editor that will take care of all of this for, awesome. Some bigger promo companies, and PR agents will require your editor to contact them. Especially if you don’t have an @YourMediaWebsite.com email address.

Local bands:
For the first while it’s pretty cool to be in the photo pit 3 feet away from Jimmy Eat World…or whoever you’re favorite band might be(you get a little shaky the first time), but for me…it got a little tiring. I started photoing local bands that I became friends with, and now I rarely make it to a larger shows. It’s just way more fun for me to go to a show, and hang out with some friends until they go on stage.

Sure, the lightshow isn’t as cool as a big venue, but you can make your own lightshow. http://www.stobist.com will tell you everything you’ll ever need to know about off camera lighting.

Maybe you’ll feel differently, and get into the bigger bands and stay there. If you live in a big city, this is way more likely. I live in Kitchener Waterloo Ontario (an hour from Toronto) and it’s hard to make it up there a few times a week to photograph a show. Not to mention, not a lot of tours even come to Canada (i.e. I end up in Buffalo)

Off camera lighting:
The simple version of it is: get a sync cable, or an ebay wireless trigger. Hold your flash in your hand – directional lighting is amazingly better than a flash mounted on your camera.
I think the first person I saw using off camera was Brooks Reynolds, and forever since I’ve been hooked.

Camera Settings:
Every venue is different. Shoot in manual mode only – i usually use manual focus, but that’s not necessary, AF is ok. Open up the aperture as wide as it can go (ideally f1.8 or 1.4 – but you can work with other lenses with more light..flash or ambient)
My usual settings:
- 1/150 shutter
- f1.8 aperture
- ISO 800 or 1600 or 400

Enough to freeze motion, but not override and flatten the ambient light.

If you’re shooting in a venue with absolutely no available light…or in ‘available darkness,’ and you need to use a flash. I normally shoot with direct flash from high above the left side of the camera. (Flash in my left hand) Settings are as follows:
- F8
- 1/250 or 1/500 shutter
- ISO 200 or 400.
- Flash at 1/8th power.
If there’s some cool ambient light going on, try something more like 1/150 shutter, f4, and a really low flash setting (1/64 or less)

Watch what’s happening:
The way I see it is, 1 great shot is worth way more than 25 average shots. Don’t just track one person around stage – learn to track them through the viewfinder, and keep your other eye open watching everything else that’s happening. It’s a little disorienting at first, but for local bands, it’s a skill worth developing. (It also lets you know what’s going on around you, and saves you from becoming a blind target to anyone in the pit) After a song or two of their set, you’ll start to figure out all the members movement patterns(ie. who moves and who sleeps) and you can start focuing a little more on them. That said, I do my best to get at least one usable photo of everyone in the band. However, I will track the higher energy members a little more.

Post Processing:
- I S-Curve almost all of my photos (in camera, or in photoshop)
- Get photoshop
- If you’re photo isn’t properly exposed, make it properly exposed.
- Calibrate your monitor.

Black and white conversions:
The best method I’ve found is (in photoshop) Image > Adjustments > Gradient Map – and let it to the pure Black and White gradient.

It’s easy, and rarely requires any revision after converting it. This is the method I usually use for weddings too.

Post Concert:
If it was a local show, email the bands the photos that leave the cutting room floor – probably with your name or website attached. It helps market your photography.

If it’s a bigger show, send a link to the photos to whoever got you the photo pass – or start writing the article you promised. If you email the photos back to the PR department of the band, sometimes they’ll find their way to the bands myspace, or website (with photo cred)

Pick your favorites and add them to your /portfolio, and start booking more photo gigs.

Will you ever make a living off of this type of photography? Probably not. Is it one of the hardest types of photography? Yep.

Conclusions:
With concerts, it’s different every time. Like a wedding, it only happens once – if you miss a moment, it’ll probably never happen again. You have to be quick on the shutter button (and why wouldn’t you? you’re shooting digital) and catch every moment you can. I shoot in 3 shot burst a lot, it’s easy to delete photos after the concert, but impossible to recreate the ones you missed. So snag a camera, and get to it. Even a point and shoot works.

Light has far more of an effect on a great photo than the piece of equipment you use to capture the light.

One last tip:
If you’re photos arn’t as great as you want them to be, you’re probably not close enough.

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Categories:
photography
photographer
concert
music
beginner
tutorial
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concert photography
music photography
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kitchener

There’s a lot of make money from home strategies on the internet – this one takes some work. And well…you have to leave your house to take some photos, unless you have a studio, or want to specialize in product or food photography.

More or less, you’re selling your photos to anyone that would want to buy them. Graphic designers to use in designs, bloggers to use on blogs, companies to use on their website. (Travelocity used one of my Las Vegas images) Or whoever else might have a need for images, but not the means, or the money to go take the photos themselves.

I had no idea one of my 4megapixel photos from a point and shoot would be featured on American Idol for a season and a half. If the image would have just been sitting on my hard-drive (Like it had been for 2 years) Fox never would have found it to use. That sale came off of a full stock website, but the same thing could easily happen with microstock.

They bought the image in the bottom right off of me, and added their logos and whatnot.

Don’t expect to make a living instantly on this, but it’s a nice side income that doesn’t require a whole lot of upkeep to keep paying off. People download images for a couple bucks, and multiplied out over a year, it turns into a lot of money.

As long as you have a camera thats around or over 5 mega pixels(and a pretty good sensor) you’re good to go.

Getting Started

So you want to make money from your photos. You don’t even need a digital SLR (It will help, but let your earnings buy one for you) and you might even see your photos in books, advertisements, websites, and on TV, among anywhere else a graphic designer might use a photo or texture. I put anything I can up for sale, and let them pick what they want to buy. Some photos will surprise you.

I’ll try to make this sound as un sales-pitchy as possible.

Earning Potential

Currently, I spend about 10 hours a month, and make $500+ a month on average on about 200 images that just sit there week after week – I’ve been doing this side of photography for 5 months. It took me a little more time to get up and going, but after that it’s just income that appears in your paypal account (or by check) every month. Maybe $500 a month doesn’t sound like a whole lot, but that’s 500 a month, every month even if you don’t do anything. And it’s easy to increase your income…just add more photos. Photos of anything. You’ll learn what sells best, and what sells worst. A brick texture photo I took (Yes, that’s a picture straight on of a brick wall) earns me about 15 dollars every month. If it keeps selling at that rate, that’s 180 dollars for the year for a photo of a brick wall. (note: sales of basic photos like this fizzle off pretty fast. If you want a photo to keep making you money all year, it has to be a little more creative than a brick wall)

You don’t make a whole lot per sale, but you’re making a lot more than if the images were just sitting on your harddrive.

It’s amazing to earn money from something you enjoy doing. When you start to realize that you could do this as a full time job if you wanted, it’s a great feeling.

First question – do you have a pretty good camera that’s in and around the 5+ mega pixels range, and a couple hours of spare time every week?

Recently the stock photography business model has been flipping around. A new market called microstock photography has opened up, which is an amazing place for someone who would like to be pro to become pro.

It doesn’t cost any money to get started (besides the camera of course) and you can easily earn enough income to pay for your camera (and the new camera gear you will want to buy). For the first few months I put all the money I earned from microstock back into my camera gear, and got everything I needed to get started in other parts of the photography industry.

It took some time to write this article, so be nice and sign up through my referral badges

So let’s go through the big companies in the business:

Dreamstime – Approx $100 per month I started here. This was the first place to approve my photos. They are a little more relaxed with what they will and will not accept. A little bit of noise is OK as long as it’s a well composed photo.

They’re hard on subjects they already have thousands of, so do something different. You will learn what is approved by stock agencies here and at Fotolia before moving on to my big 2.

Fotolia. – Approx $30 a month (I haven’t uploaded my full portfolio here yet)

Like Dreamstime, and excellent place to start that will continue selling for some time. They’re getting bigger, and will teach you the ins and outs of the industry.

Shutterstock. – Approx $200 a month

My best seller month by month (Closely rivaled by istock). Their subscription customers are allowed to download 25+ photos a day, so you get a lot of downloads here that you wouldn’t get anywhere else. They only pay 25 or 30 cents a photo, but the number of downloads you get is insane. When applying – these guys are real hard on noise. So look at your images carefully at 100% and make sure there’s no grain or noise. If there is, use Photoshop or your image editing software to do a noise reduction, or blur out the little dots.

IStockphoto – Approx $125 a month

You will make the most money on your best photos here. It’s annoying to use their upload system – but it helps designers find your images amazingly well. I didn’t make many sales here until about a month in, but then things here started taking off.

Big Stock Photo – Approx $50 a month

Another source of income.

Starting Out

To start, I would suggest getting an account at Dreamstime and Fotolia. After you have a few images approved, you can take your best ones and apply at Shutterstock and IStockphoto. They have more difficult application processes.

Uploading.
Photoshop has a lovely feature under File > File Info. You can enter keywords separated by commas or semicolons. This saves you from copy and pasting keywords for all your files. Buyers will find your photos based on keywords. Have a search for related photos and see what they’re using as keywords. I normally come up with as many as I can, then have a look at the 2 or 3 best selling photos and look for any keywords that stand out as important.

USE FTP UPLOADING!

I open the ftp:// address from internet explorer (or Firefox) and it becomes a folder that you can drag and drop into.
I open up all the ftps I’m uploading to in separate windows, and just drag all the photos into all of them. Come back in an hour, and they’re normally done.
After that you’ll have to log into your account at each of the sites, and put them in categories, then submit.

Some images will not be accepted, and it’s annoying. Some of the images I personally think best for me, simply didn’t make the technical requirements.

Have a look through best or better selling images, and see what people are doing. There are a few of people, but the majority of them are clean, clear, bright concepts.

Just start snapping, and see where it takes you(and your wallet).

Conclusion
You don’t make a lot of money per sale on microstock, but it’s better than not making anything. It’s addictive. I was checking my sales every 20 minutes once I joined shutterstock (Your first month or two here will be amazing compared to the others.

When I first started I felt like I was giving my photos away for not as much as I thought they were worth, but now that I’ve been at it for a while and check total sales numbers, I’m a little bit blown away by how much I’ve made off some simple photos of blueprints and buildings.

After you’ve been at it for a little while, you’ll inevitably move into real stock photography, and save your b string images for microstock. By this time hopefully you’ve made enough from your images to upgrade your camera equipment to near pro-grade, and getting accepted by the stock agencies will become a little easier. I’ve actually found them to be a little more relaxed on technical guidelines.

The Future?
I’m sure microstock is here to stay, but recently The Photoshelter Collection has launched. It’s too early to tell, but it looks like a pretty good business model, and definitely something you could survive off of as a photographer if you’re getting sales there.

I don’t think real stock photography will totally disappear anytime soon. If an ad department is doing a multi-million dollar campaign and they find the perfect image on a stock site (because you didn’t list it on microstock too…right?) they won’t mind spending the $1000-$20 000 on the image. Just these sales will become a lot fewer and far between.