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Archive for October, 2019

Why Branding Your Photography is Important

30 Oct

The post Why Branding Your Photography is Important appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Anabel DFlux.

branding-your-photography

Being a photographer is awesome. You get to play with amazing equipment, capturing smiles and beauty. But if you want to do this for a living, your title of “photographer” gets hyphenated to become “Photographer-Business Owner.” No matter which way you spin it, if you want to be a photographer who doesn’t work under someone else, you become a small businessperson.  Businesses are made up of a variety of moving components, such as a business license, insurance, equipment, marketing, and… branding. It’s likely one of the most overlooked and forgotten-about aspects of a successful business. In this tutorial, you’ll learn why branding your photography is important to a successful photography business.

Business sense in photography

branding-your-photography

As much as I wish that photographers only had to worry about the picture-taking process, the reality is they need to develop a strong business sense to be successful. When it comes to the general running, management, and marketing of your business, it needs to be run a lot of the same ways you would run a clothing store, plumbing company, or any business.

You can think of your branding as your business’s DNA. It expresses your personality and who you are, and perfectly infuses it into your business. This helps attract the right customers and ward off the wrong ones.

As with any business, you will need to go with the flow and adapt to the tide of how society is expecting your small business to function. In the modern age of internet prevalence, society is looking towards businesses that have their aesthetics on-point.

Pleasing and striking imagery is reigning supreme when it concerns advertising your business and attracting new customers. You need to be recognizable to stand out from the sea of competition. This is where having a good brand is super important.

What is Branding? 

So, what is branding? I’ve heard so many people have different definitions for this one simple little word. 

In business, a brand is a name, term, design, symbol and/or any other feature that identifies one seller’s good or service as distinct from those of other sellers. As such, branding is a practice in which a company creates these features that identify their brand. Branding is what sets you apart from the other photographers in your area, in the nation, maybe even the world! 

Branding doesn’t even hold exclusive to just your name, logo, and slogan. Branding is prevalent in all facets of the business experience, from customer acquisition, customer correspondence, and advertising. Even just creating a custom business header for all paper documents that your client receives (such as the contract and invoice) is a form of branding for your business. 

Image: Patrik Michalicka

Patrik Michalicka

Why is branding your photography important? 

I’d argue that branding is extremely critical for businesses, despite being something that not all business owners concern themselves with. The legalities of running a business are very important to get squared right away, but branding should come pretty close after that. Without branding, your business won’t have a distinct voice, and that can cost you a lot in the end.

Branding your photography is important for these reasons:

Branding helps you gain recognition

Think of a brand as the face of your business. What do people recognize first when they see someone? Their face! Your brand – the combination of your business name, logo, and other identifying features – will ensure people recognize you, and your business stands out from the rest of the photography business tide. People tend to differentiate businesses by their logo first and foremost, and an appealing logo is a great way to garner attention.

Image: Deliquesce Flux Photography Facebook Page

Deliquesce Flux Photography Facebook Page

Increases your value

Did you know that branding can increase the value of your business? Branding can give a business more leverage in the industry and significantly improve client acquisition. The more clients you are able to acquire, the more valuable your photography becomes. As branding aids in recognition, which in turn leads to an establishment in the industry, your photography service becomes a more appealing investment for a client.

Can help you charge more for your services

I don’t think anyone has ever complained about making a little more money. Have you? Branding can help you when setting your prices. Having a beautifully tailored and professional brand can help vouch for your prices because you give a very professional impression. The amount you invest in your business can also justify the pricing set by you, and branding is a big part of that investment.

Creates trust

If customers see that you’ve invested the time, effort, and finances in making your business well branded and beautiful, they’re more likely to be convinced by the confidence you have in your own work. This generates deeper trust.

People are more likely to do business with a company that has aesthetically pleasing and well-polished branding. This gives an immediate impression of professionalism versus a lack of branding, which screams “amateur.”

Can create customer loyalty

Branding also helps with customer loyalty. Customer loyalty is the likelihood that the customer will keep coming back to you, referring you, and vouching for you versus going to someone else. 

Think of your own habits. How often do you go to either Coffee Bean, Starbucks, Joe’s Coffee, or some other coffee shop with a strong brand rather than going to a different coffee shop? This has to do with more than just the taste of the coffee and convenient proximity. It’s familiarity, and the familiarity is established with unique and recognizable branding the speaks very loudly.

Supports advertising efforts

Image: Deliquesce Flux Photography Voucher

Deliquesce Flux Photography Voucher

A big part of the business equation is advertising. If clients can’t find you or don’t know about you, how can they book you? Marketing is extremely important, especially in the social media age. Marketing is the act of spreading awareness about your business, whether it be through digital advertising, partnering with local businesses, or launching billboards!

Branding goes hand in hand with advertising, as your advertisements will portray your brand. Adding your business logo to all of your advertising material is fundamental, and that’s a part of branding!

Your brand can help you stay focused

Most of us have a crux of comparing ourselves to others within the industry. I know I’m guilty of looking at other photographers and wanting to do work similarly. Whether you’re a sunshine and rainbows photographer who is loving the moody, gothic look of another photography business and vice versa, sometimes we shift our work to match that of someone we like. However, this can sometimes be a bit bad from a business perspective. Having a brand helps you stay focused on the business you’ve created, and not stray to a business that really isn’t yours. 

Final thoughts

Image: Balázs Kétyi

Balázs Kétyi

Now that we’ve established that branding your photography is important, what now?

Review the brand you have and see what may need some improvement. Or, start thinking about creating your brand from scratch. A good place to start is your business name, logo, and slogan. Work with a professional designer to help you realize your vision for your brand. They will work with you to implement your logo across all of you print and digital collateral. This is their area of expertise, so utilize that.

It’s not a great idea to do your branding yourself, but if you have to do so, pick a font you love and then a color scheme. Be sure your font translates well across different mediums and reads well in both large and small formats as well as in print and on-screen. Don’t use too many fonts in your design either – this can look messy.

Your design should also translate in both color and black and white too because there will be times when your logo may be printed or used in black and white.

Then continue on to your website, marketing materials, price sheets, contracts, invoices, even email signature, and watermark!

It may seem overwhelming at first, but once you get going, you’ll find that branding your photography becomes quite easy!

Do you have any other tips for branding your photography that you’d like to share with us? Do so in the comments!

 

The post Why Branding Your Photography is Important appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Anabel DFlux.


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This app can modify Aperture and iPhoto so they will continue to work with macOS Catalina

30 Oct

Apple’s new macOS Catalina operating system added plenty of new features, functionality and performance improvements, but in streamlining the experience, Apple also killed off a number of apps. While plenty more apps (including all 32-bit apps) were killed off, two photo-specific apps macOS Catalina can no longer run include Aperture and iPhoto.

Thankfully, there are determined developers and programmers who are always looking for the next problem to solve. Tyshawn Cormier is one of those programmers who has created an app called Retroactive that modifies both Aperture and iPhoto so the apps are usable on Apple computers running macOS Catalina.

Aperture was effectively neutered back in 2014 when Apple announced it was ceasing development of the pro-oriented photo management and editing application. Despite this, many clung on to the last update, which worked until macOS Catalina. If you’re one of those photographers who has loyally clung to Aperture, Retroactive should ensure you can continue to use the app without having to avoid the latest macOS update.

Likewise, Apple’s iPhoto app can also be modified to run in macOS Catalina with Retroactive. The app has since been replaced with Apple’s Photos app, but whether for nostalgia purposes or something else, you can now run iPhoto.

In order to use Retroactive, you’ll need to make sure you still have a copy of Aperture or iPhoto still on your computer. If you do, it’s simply a matter of downloading Retroactive from GitHub, giving it the required permissions to alter the apps and letting it do its thing.

Not all functionality is salvaged, but by and large the apps still run without much issue. Specifically, neither Aperture nor iPhoto are able to play videos or export slideshows, but aside from that all former functionality remains.

You can download Retroactive from GitHub and read through a wonderfully detailed guide on how to install and run Retroactive on macOS Catalina.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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How to Photograph a Local Project When Traveling is Not an Option

29 Oct

The post How to Photograph a Local Project When Traveling is Not an Option appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Jeremy Flint.

how-to-photograph-a-local-project

If traveling is not an option, a great way to enjoy your photography is to go out and shoot a project in your local environment. Your local patch provides a wonderful opportunity for photography and is a location often overlooked and taken for granted. To photograph a local project is a hugely satisfying undertaking, especially because you don’t have to go far to achieve it.

Staying near to home also provides ample time to visit a particular place, and means you can reach a location with ease. As travel is minimal, you will incur lower transport costs and you can go back to a particular location as often as you like. Shooting locally is also a great way to practice and improve your photography whilst getting you out with your camera. Have you ever thought about what local projects to photograph and how to go about it? Well, here are some of the best ways to achieve this goal.

Choose a subject that interests you

Image: Blenheim Palace, Oxford

Blenheim Palace, Oxford

This may seem obvious, but the first thing I recommend doing is to consider and choose a subject that interests you for the project. This way, you will be more motivated to go out and shoot it.

Focus on one aspect such as a local landscape, a river, a local park, a zoo, a piece of coastline, a particular time of day, birds and wildlife in a wetland area, a particular season or even a famous building or local landmark.

Whilst finding and shooting a project close to where you live, photo opportunities can present themselves when least expected.

With a bit of luck, your timing can be greatly rewarding.

For instance, I recently shot some images of a local landmark ‘Blenheim Palace’ in Oxfordshire. It is a gorgeous historic building surrounded by wonderful parkland, manicured landscapes, and woodlands.

I planned to photograph the autumn colors during my visit and was fortunate to encounter a unique and unexpected exhibition of artworks by Maurizio Cattelan. The exhibition included these carpets of union jacks (pictured) which provided a unique point of interest in the images.

Once at your local destination consider the following:

Select a lens

photograph-a-local-project

Starling murmurations, England

The fun starts once you have found a subject for your local project and you are at your location.

Think about what it is you are photographing, and the best way to capture it. This will give you insight into the type of lens you should use. If, for example, you live in a city and have decided to do cityscapes at blue hour, you may opt for a wide-angle lens. That way, you can fit more of the city into one scene. It would also allow you to fit in large architectural buildings, or capture bustling street scenes.

Another scenario may be that you want to capture local markets where you live. In this scenario, you may opt for a wide-angle lens to capture the overall nature of the market, and a portrait lens, such as a 50mm or 85mm, to get some more intimate people shots or detail shots of things sold at the market.

You may also decide to challenge yourself by using just one fixed prime lens, such as a 50mm. You could capture a range of subjects that give insight into the area where you live.

Alternatively, you may choose a telephoto lens to zoom in closer to subjects such as distant wildlife or birds. A telephoto lens is a great way to compress perspective, bringing foreground subjects closer to the background like these starlings.

Experiment photographing your subject

photograph-a-local-project

Starling murmurations, England

One thing I recommend doing when you photograph a local project is to just experiment photographing your subject.

Try using different camera settings and techniques and see what works and what doesn’t. For example, if you want to achieve a faster shutter speed as I did to capture these birds in flight, you could raise the ISO.

You may also want to experiment with your aperture. Shooting in Aperture Mode (Aperture Priority) is a great way to do this (if you are not yet on Manual Mode) as the ISO and shutter speed automatically adapt when you change the aperture setting. I achieved a wider, more detailed field of view by reducing the aperture and increasing the f-number to around f/8.

You may prefer to make certain parts of your image sharp (rather than the whole scene) and throw the rest out of focus. You can achieve this by opting for a larger aperture (smaller f-number) such as f/4. This can give you some nice bokeh backgrounds too, especially if moving to an even smaller f-number like f/2.

Change your angle

Image: Starling murmurations, England

Starling murmurations, England

Once you have taken some shots, try changing your perspective to get a different angle on your subject. You may find a different vantage point results in a better composition and image. Another way to change your angle besides repositioning yourself is to move your lens in closer and change your framing.

If you are working with a tripod, vary the height of its legs to give a fresh angle.

Reshoot

The great thing when you photograph a local project is that you can go back and re-shoot anytime. This would be much more expensive and time-consuming if you had to travel to capture your pictures.

Sometimes you won’t get the photo you desire the first time around, so a good option is to return and re-shoot. Unforeseen circumstances and factors out of your control that may warrant a reshoot include adverse changes in weather, building works in operation, too many people and wildlife that may not be present.

photograph-a-local-project

Blenheim Palace, Oxford

Going back to reshoot is a good exercise and a great chance to practice your skills too. It can help you improve your photography by learning from your mistakes and offers an opportunity to capture your project in various lighting conditions. Why not time your reshoot with a different time of day to capture some different images for your project. Alternatively, capture the same images just under different lighting conditions.

Each return visit can provide something new to photograph too. That’s because you are likely to see something different on your return in terms of your subject or pattern of light.

You may also decide to change lenses for the reshoot, or decide to focus on close up details on one visit and wide shots on another.

Summary

So go grab your gear and get out there to photograph a local project. It is a great way to capture a subject of interest that is on your doorstep and is a brilliant way to hone your skills.

Be sure to experiment with aperture, shutter speed and ISO, vary your angle of view and reshoot to improve your pictures.

What local project are you thinking of photographing? Share your thoughts and images with us below.

 

The post How to Photograph a Local Project When Traveling is Not an Option appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Jeremy Flint.


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Sony a6100 review: Should it be your next family camera?

29 Oct

The Sony a6100 is a 24MP APS-C mirrorless camera, aimed squarely at beginners and people who want attractive photos but don’t necessarily think of themselves as photographers. A new, powerful autofocus system makes it one of the easiest cameras to use, if you just trust it to do its thing and concentrate instead on what you’re shooting.

The a6100’s specifications aren’t cutting edge, and it’s priced accordingly. But that simple, effective autofocus system means it makes it easy to get the photos you want, and hence, arguably, it’s better value than those less expensive rivals. On paper it looks a lot like the bargain-basement a6000 but in use this is a vastly better camera.

Our main doubts about the camera come if you want to get more involved in the photographic process.

Key features:

  • 24MP APS-C CMOS sensor
  • Advanced AF system with highlight dependable subject tracking
  • 1.44M dot OLED electronic viewfinder
  • 0.9M dot LCD tilting rear touchscreen
  • Wi-Fi for image transfer to smart devices (with NFC for quick connection)
  • 4K video capture
  • USB charging

The Sony a6100 has a list price of $ 750, a $ 50 premium over the launch price of the original a6000, which suggests it may take a similar low-cost position in the lineup, long term. It has a list price of $ 850 with the small but uninspiring 16-50mm F3.5-5.6 power zoom. A two-lens kit adds a 55-210mm zoom for an additional $ 250.

What’s new and how it compares

The a6100 contains many familiar components, combines them in a way that can be excellent as a family camera. After some initial setup.

Click here to find out the camera, its features and its rivals

Image quality

Improved JPEG color, a good sensor and sophisticated processing mean the a6100 delivers attractive images.

Click here to take a closer at the a6100’s images

Autofocus and Video

Autofocus is the camera’s great claim-to-fame, and its video is easy to capture.

Click here to read more

Conclusion

The a6100 has probably the most powerful, easy-to-use autofocus systems on the market. But there are a few too many inconveniences, we feel.

Click here to read what we found

Sample gallery

We think the a6100 can turn its hand to a bit of everything, see what you think of its performance.

Click here to see our sample gallery

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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New Loupedeck Creative Tool: Smoother Editing for Creative Professionals

29 Oct

The post New Loupedeck Creative Tool: Smoother Editing for Creative Professionals appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Jaymes Dempsey.

Loupedeck-creative-tool-announcement

Do you ever feel like you want more control over your photo editing?

If so, you’re in luck.

Because Loupedeck has just launched one of the most innovative editing products out there: a console that’s designed to speed up your editing workflow and give you a smooth editing experience.

It’s called the Loupedeck Creative Tool, and it’s truly unique.

How exactly does it work?

The Creative Tool is a photo editing console. It hooks up to your photo editing program of choice, and allows you to use many buttons, touchscreens, and more to achieve the photo editing workflow that you desire.

Loupedeck-creative-tool-announcement

Note that the Creative Tool itself doesn’t work in place of a computer and monitor. Instead, it works alongside your computer to provide an efficient editing experience like the Loupedeck+, another Loupedeck product.

Currently, the Creative Tool is compatible with Adobe Lightroom Classic, Photoshop, Premiere Pro, Ableton Live, Adobe Illustrator, and Final Cut Pro X. The company promises to integrate Autodesk Fusion 360 before the year is out, and you can certainly expect additional compatible programs as Loupedeck update the Creative Tool.

Here’s a video explaining how the product works with Lightroom Classic:

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Who’s it for?

Now, while the Loupedeck Creative Tool seems like an intriguing option, who should actually consider the product?

First, I’d recommend beginner photographers stay away from the Loupedeck Creative Tool. It’s a lot to handle, and doesn’t offer much benefit to anyone who doesn’t have a consistent editing workflow and very specific needs.

On the other hand, for more serious photographers (including professionals), the Loupedeck is a great choice. You’ll use the Creative Tool to enhance your editing. And it’ll enable you to edit faster without compromising quality.

As explained by the Loupedeck CEO:

The rise in popularity of professional editing within the digital workspace has sparked a new generation of creative professionals who require absolute precision, versatility, portability and endless customization possibilities in the tools they use, which was considered in the design and development of the Loupedeck Creative Tool.

If you’re one of these serious creative professionals, then you should seriously consider the Loupedeck Creative Tool. It’s available for preorder on B&H Photo Video, and the company will begin shipping on November 11th.

New Loupedeck Creative Tool: Smoother Editing for Creative Professionals

Now I’d like to know your thoughts:

Would you be interested in a product like the Loupedeck Creative Tool? Are you looking for increased customization in your editing?

Let me know in the comments!

The post New Loupedeck Creative Tool: Smoother Editing for Creative Professionals appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Jaymes Dempsey.


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Kipon releases two Mamiya 645 to Sony E mount adapters with electronic aperture control

29 Oct

Photography accessory manufacturer Kipon is now shipping two new adapters for mounting medium format lenses to Sony E mount camera systems.

The adapters come in two varieties: the M645-S/E E, which adapts Mamiya brand Mamiya 645 mount lenses to Sony E mount cameras while the M645-S/E ES adapters Phase One or Schneider brand Mamiya 645 lenses to Sony E mount cameras.

The two adapters are constructed of aluminum and brass, offer an infinity focus feature, and offer electronic aperture control through the camera. A previous Mamiya 645 to Sony E mount adapter has been available for some time, but it doesn’t offer the electronic contacts for aperture control and features a less pleasing design.

The M645-S/E E and M645-S/E ES are available to purchase for $ 289 and $ 389, respectively. Shipping dates vary depending on your geographical location.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Pixel peeping the everyday: Explore our Google Pixel 4 sample gallery

29 Oct

Google’s Pixel 4 promises many clever benefits thanks to computational photography, but what does that mean when you go out and shoot with it?

We’ve been using a Pixel 4 as our always-with-us camera for the past week, trying out many of the modes and unique features available to it, including ‘Night Sight’, ‘Dual Exposure Controls’, and multiple zoom ratios. We’ve captioned each image with the mode it was shot in. Have a look at what the results look like.

We’ve also included Raw files for download, which are the result of Google’s burst photography modes with its robust align and merge algorithms.

$ (document).ready(function() { SampleGalleryV2({“containerId”:”embeddedSampleGallery_0674242834″,”galleryId”:”0674242834″,”isEmbeddedWidget”:true,”selectedImageIndex”:0,”isMobile”:false}) });

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Sony Japan says the RX10 IV will soon receive real-time Animal Eye-AF via firmware update

29 Oct

Sony Japan has announced its RX10 IV superzoom bridge-camera will receive the company’s Animal Eye-AF feature via an upcoming firmware update.

The impending firmware will add real-time Animal Eye-AF support for still images, improve the reliability of the real-time Eye-AF already present in the camera and overall improve general stability. No definitive date has been given for the update, but Sony says it should be out before the end of the year.

Translated press release:

RX10IV main unit software update schedule

Target product: “DSC-RX10M4”

Software update contents:

1. Real-time pupil AF support for animals (still images only)
2. Real-time pupil AF operability improvement (Support for half-pressing the shutter button)
3. Improved operational stability

Scheduled release date for software updates: Scheduled for 2019

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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‘Pro’ (noun.), abbreviation of ‘Professional’: born 1798, died 2019, aged 221 after a long illness

29 Oct
We cannot stress this enough: There is no such thing as a professional AirPod user.

We are sad to report that the word ‘Pro’, an abbreviation of the noun ‘Professional’, has died, aged 221.

‘Professional’, meaning “one who does it for a living,” was first defined in modern English in 1798. it rose in popularity in the early 20th Century but in recent decades has been under near-constant attack.

Along with its abbreviation ‘Pro’, the noun form of ‘Professional’ had been showing signs of ill health for some time, but its decline accelerated in the mid-2000s, after which point it was routinely and arbitrarily appended to everything from computers and software to smartphone apps and kitchen equipment. Even then, it hung on bravely for a while, still managing to retain some of its original meaning in the face of determined misapplications which would have killed a lesser word years ago.

When Apple added ‘Pro’ to the name of its latest smartphone, friends were warned to prepare for the worst.

But the writing was on the wall. As a word originally created to describe a person that gets paid for doing something, it was clear by the end of the first decade of the 21st Century that ‘Pro’ had been tortured into taking an almost opposite meaning: Something that a person has to pay for.

When Apple added ‘Pro’ to the name of its latest smartphone last month, friends of the word were warned by etymologists to prepare for the worst.

Sadly, with the launch this week of Apple’s ‘AirPods Pro’, the word has finally been rendered meaningless, and as such, dead. Killed by professional marketing executives.

==

Published from my iPhone 11 Pro

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Adobe gets license from US government to continue offering Creative Cloud in Venezuela

29 Oct

Earlier this month, Adobe made the controversial announcement that its customers in Venezuela were going to lose access to Creative Cloud services as a result of an Executive Order in the United States. In an update on the matter shared on Monday, the company’s Customer Experience VP Chris Hall revealed that Adobe has been granted a license that will allow it to continue offering its services and products in Venezuela.

Customers in Venezuela who already lost access to the services they paid for will see that access restored ‘within a week,’ according to Adobe, which will do so free of charge. Adobe will give these reactivated users 90 days of access to the same products and services for which they previously received a refund.

For customers whose subscriptions are still active, Adobe says they’ll be able to continue accessing both Creative Cloud and Document Cloud like usual. ‘As always,’ Hall said in the blog post, ‘we continue to be deeply committed to powering creativity for all, and we’re delighted to have the ability to continue to do so in Venezuela.’

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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