Photography Advice and Know-How

Several fellow photographers have been asking me about Stock Photography and Microstock Photography, so I found it time to write a little compendium. While I understand that there are several Macrostock photographers out there who dismiss the Microstock model, I feel like it has a not insignificant earnings potential.

While you need to upload at least 500 good quality images per month to actually make a substantial full-time income, I found that even uploading only about 10 pictures a month generates enough income to buy new equipment and to go on a nice vacation. Of course, this largely depends on the quality of your work and the sales potential of your pictures.

It is not hard to make money with Microstock Photography if you understand the basics. Your images need to be of good quality (sharp, no noise, no blur, etc.), be marketable (e.g. no snapshots of your cat), not infringe on any copyrights (such as brand names or labels in the picture), and last but not least they need to focus on what your photo is actually trying to sell (e.g. if your picture is about apples, make sure the apples are the main focus of the image).

In this compendium, I will give you a little overview over the Microstock sites ranked by their earnings potential in my personal opinion: (more…)

I just received a call from a friend of mine at B&H Photo that the Canon 5D Mark II is back in stock for $2,699.95. Just click the link below to get right to the camera.

Canon 5D Mark II

Looking at the current market, chances are high that Nikon will be raising their prices by about 15% in February due to the weak dollar. Canon already raised their prices in the UK, so we may see a price match rather soon.

Rumor from an inside source at Nikon has it though that they are coming out with a whole new line of lenses, which may explain why certain lenses are only available on backorder. My source gave me the following specs on the possibly new Nikon lenses:

Nikkor AF-S VR-II 200mm f1.8D
Nikkor AF-S VR-II 300mm f2D
Nikkor AF-S VR-II 400mm f2.5D
Nikkor AF-S VR-II 70-200mm f2.5D

As you can see, these are the fastest lenses in their focal range, and a f2.5 70-200 may as well be called revolutionary, as it may end the vignetting at f2.8 on those lenses.

I can not tell you if the price hike is going to be on those lenses specifically, but for some, it may be worth the added cost.

Last week I ran into a little bit of a problem. I wanted to install the latest version of DPP on one of my computers but I realized that during a clean-up, we had thrown all the Software CD’s away.

I went to Canon’s website and checked for a download link, but for some reason, Canon only allows you to download an upgrade, which means that you need to have an old version installed. Since I did not have time to wait for Canon to ship me the Software and I did not want to pay for their processing charges, I did a little bit of research myself.

Canon Japan’s website still has a link to an old version of DPP, which is what you need to get the upgrade from Canon USA. The only obstacle is that it asks you for the Serial Number from your 1D or 1Ds. If you don’t know which number is your serial number, it consists of six digits and begins with a zero, like 034579 for example.

Most places have the Canon EOS 5D Mark II backordered for several months, which is the usual wait time when a new camera comes out that is such an evolutionary step forward.

I just received word from one of my friends at B&H that unlike most other stores, they actually have the camera in stock. Just add the camera to your cart and ignore the initial “back-ordered” message and you should be able to order it from here: Canon EOS 5D Mark II

The Canon EOS 5D Mark II improves upon the EOS 5D by increasing the resolution by about 40% to 21.1 Megapixels and adds a Live View feature that allows users to preview shots on the cameras High resolution 3.0″ LCD display. It even incorporates the ability to record full motion HD Video with sound, so you can capture the action as well as superb images. (more…)

On February 14, it’s Valentine’s Day and if you have not yet gotten the perfect gift for your girlfriend, boyfriend, fiancee, husband, or wife consider booking a photo session with us. This year, we offer three different packages for every interest and every wallet. From classic over romantic to sexy, we have you covered.

The Basic package includes:

The Deluxe Package includes:

The Superior Package includes:

To book your appointment, send us an email or give us a call at 202-361-8696.

As a special offer, we will come to your location free of charge if you live in the Washington D.C. Metro Area or in Frederick (MD) if you book any of the above packages.

We look forward to give your significant other the gift of a lifetime.

Many of you probably have seen HDR (high dynamic range) images in the past. Oversaturated images with strong shadows and highlights that look very surreal. To do such a thing, simply go into Photomatix Pro and play with the adjustments. Doing so is not the purpose of this article though. We will be talking about creating realistic images with a high dynamic range. To do this, you need a digital camera, a Tripod, Adobe Photoshop CS4, Photomatix (I use Photomatix Pro 3.0), and something to photograph.

While sitting over Thanksgiving dinner, a friend and I were talking about the dynamic range of digital cameras and how to improve images. As luck wanted it, we had a very dark red wine, very bright highlights on the glasses, a light colored bread and some other items. After we were done with the Turkey and the rest of the food, we started working on the setup. This friend of mine is a videographer, so we had a 1000 Watt video light, a 500 Watt video light, and my camera, a Nikon D200 with a 50mm f1.8 lens. Of course the other guests were not too happy about us holding the wine hostage, but it was for the sake of art. We used the 1000 Watt video light as an overhead and the 500 Watt video light as the highlight on the label of the wine. (more…)

The following is from an e-mail I received from a friend. While it is certainly a good thing to know the current names of fraudsters, it is probably more important to know their schemes. If someone contacts you with something that sounds even remotely fishy, check that person’s references to make sure he or she is legit. An online search can also reveal much information about scammers. Please note that this is not legal advise of any kind and that I am not responsible for the following account. (more…)

Many people have heard that one should never ever and under no circumstances photograph against the sunlight. Hence, most people shoot others with the sun hitting the subject’s face, which causes very off highlight-shadow combinations which usually come along with squinty eyes or grimaces.

My wife is not much into photography, when asked, she actually hates it. Not being much into a photography and having grown up with the belief that you should never shoot against the sun, we went to a family picnic in New York. While I was playing some ball with the kids, my wife grabbed my Nikon D200 with one of my favorite lenses, the Nikon 55-200mm VR (for the price, this is one of the sharpest lenses on the market)  to take a few pictures of us.

She showed me her first pictures, which were taken the way she learned it, never shoot against the sun. The results were shadows, highlights, squinty eyes. I asked her to take some pictures the other direction, and voila, compare the results. The first picture was taken the “common belief” way, the second picture was taken my way. (more…)

I bet many of you have heard a quote along this line before, usually followed by “Target only charges (insanely low amount) for a portrait. I tell those clients to go to Target to have their portraits taken and come back to me when they aren’t happy with them. Other people ask, why I charge so much for an 8×10 print if they can get it at Costco for $2.

The answers to all these questions are simple. Target and other stores side-sell the portraits, which means that they sell them at a very low price, expecting that you will purchase other stuff in the store while you’re there. Despite that, Walmart closed about 200 in store photo studios last year, simply because it wasn’t profitable enough to an extent where they even lost money despite the customers buying other stuff.

When you buy a print from me, you not only pay what the print itself costs, but also the work I put into each print. While I charge fairly reasonable rates for the actual sitting, I have to calculate post-production costs into the print. That means for me that I have to deliver outstanding results every time, or else I will lose money, because the customer doesn’t want to buy the prints. (more…)