6 | TN Photography | CRM: Enquiries

Customer Relationship Management

Most customer enquiries are very similar. The most commonly asked question is, 'How much do you charge?' If this enquiry is written in an email, here is my method of response illustrated using an example email.

My methods are by no means 'the one and only correct method'. I'm sure the more I learn in business the more I will improve various aspects of my CRM. However at the moment, this is how I deal with clients and so far it seems to work well for my business. I try to be consistent with as much as I can however each client is different and I will always customise my methods and make decisions based on individual needs.

Client:

Hi Tina

I saw the photos you took for _______ and I love them! I am interested in getting a portrait shoot done for my family. When are you available and what is your sitting fee etc?

Thanks in advance

Client x

[From this email the client has already told you they heard of you via referral, and that you did a good shoot for _____ as they have already seen these results, so you already have an idea of what they expect/like. They probably also know how much you charged the previous client.]

Response:

Hi Client x,

Thank you for your email. If you would like to see my full portfolio please see my website: www.tnphotography.com.au. I will be available from December 1st for portrait sessions.

I have attached a quote for a general portrait session. If you would like to discuss specific requirements in regards to what you are after please do not hesitate to ask, I am happy to customise a shoot for your needs.

Looking forward to your response,

Kind Regards,

Tina Nikolovski

Tn Photography

www.tnphotography.com.au

[I always begin the email with the client's name. Thank them for their enquiry, direct them to your full portfolio (website) just in case they haven't already seen it. Answer their questions re. availability. Assure them that the pricing/package can be customised as this is my own USP - unique selling point or niche. Direct them to the quote, i.e. 'see attachments'. I send clients PDF's as opposed to writing it in an email for a number of reasons, see below.

Page 1 - COVER PAGE

Photos reinforce specific job. If it were a food enquiry, I would include images of food.

Page 2 - QUOTE

Itemised invoice shows client exactly what they are paying for and why the price is what it is. Most clients do not realise the work that is involved (i.e. hours of post production). This informs them without overloading them.

Page 3 - PRINTING & General Info

These are 'add-ons'. Price shouldn't be a surprise to the client, it is better that they know from the beginning so they know exactly what they are up for and what to expect. Providing this will answer a lot of further questions before they are even asked.

This section is also very important because it informs the client about a deposit, the copyright of images and that a contract needs to be signed, and that an assistant photographer is a possibility - once again, no surprises. This is just enough information to inform initially without scaring the client off.

Page 4 - FAQ

The 4th page answers generally asked questions. This not only helps the client but it shows them that you are experienced in your area and have already dealt with other clients who ask about the same things.]

5 | Working Process | Test Shoots

1| The Industry | Alan Benson | Primary Research

Alan Benson - Food Photographer

General Team

1. Photographer
2. Food stylist
3. Chef
4. (Sometimes the Graphic designer, client)
   

Equipment, Props

1. Camera
   
2. Tripod
3. Lenses
4. Pocketwizard
   
5. Flash
6. Towels
7. Reflectors
8. Black cards
9. Translucent material
10. White table cloths
11. Cuttlery
12. Flowers
13. Corflett - used as diffuser
14. Camera tethered to laptop, everyone looks at images until perfect
    

General Process of Food Shots

1. Test shot of bowl - lighting & composition
   
2. Chef plates the same bowl up properly
3. Real shot
4. Add olives, oil, attention to detail
5. Check that it is sharp after each shot - zoom into 100% LR
6. Everyone checks photograph on screen until they all agree that it is usable. All make suggestions

6-8 shots per day norm for food photography. Used to be 6. Now it is 8.

Overall

Alan Benson was lovely and a delight to work with/for. He happily answered our questions. Teri and I ended up shooting a bunch of product shots both to be deep etched and against various backgrounds. Our shots were mainly for web output. We ended up observing for 20-30 minutes and shooting for 3.5 hours. It was great observing Alan, and we were confident shooting what we were briefed on so we learnt a few things but also realised how much we already know and that we were trusted to get the shots anyway. The graphic designer (who was the one in charge of approving the shots) checked pretty much everything we shot before we moved on to the next product and she was pleased with our work, so, great experience! I love shooting food and I would consider specialising in this a some stage in the future!

1 | The Industry

Industry

The specific industry that I aim to work in is fashion photography. I am not particularly sure which subarea I want to work in (i.e. beauty, editorial, advertising etc). My immediate aims are to complete this degree and be industry ready when I leave CIT – meaning that I am as confident as I can be in direction, lighting, planning, etc.

Here are list of top fashion photographers that are categorised geographically;

Local

Nik Studio

National

Richard Bailey (Vogue)

Emily Abay (Syd)

James Broadhurst (Syd)

George Favios

Michelle Aboud
Henryk Hobaczewski (Culture)
Peter Rosetzky
Brooke Coffey

Montalbetti & Campbell (NY)
Stuart Miller

Steven Chee

Sebastian Kriete

George Favios (Syd, LA, NY)

International

Annie Leibovitz (US)
Russel James (NY)
Yossi Michaeli (NY)
Mike Ruiz (NY)

David LaChapelle (NY)
Dirk Franke (US)
Nigel Barker
Miles Andridge
Florian Schneider (Advertising)

Greg Kadel (NY)

Nigel Riches (UK)
Jez Smith (UK)
Andrea Klarin (Paris)
Karl Lagerfield

Greg Lotus

For a full list of top international fashion photographers, click here

Primary Research

Source: 2010, Top fashion photographers, viewed 24 March 2010, [http://www.top-fashion-photographers.info/fashion-photographers.html].

Advanced Research Development

The structure of my final report will be as follows. I have began naming my posts beginning with a number corresponding to which section of my report that post belongs to make it easier to finalise at the end. For example, '5| Working Process : Digital Workflow | Tn Photography'.

HEADINGS

[Cover Page]

[Executive Summary]

[Introduction]

1. The Industry

2. Inspiration

3. History

4. Arguments

5. Working Process - Shoots

6. TN Photography

7. Final Exhibition

8. Marketing

9. Goals

10. Self Evaluation

[Conclusion]

[Bibliography]

SUBTOPICS
Under each heading I have listed the main topics that will be addressed.

[Cover Page]

[Executive Summary]

[Introduction]

1. The Industry

(Industry; main photographers local, national, international; primary research)

2. Goals

(Concrete short and medium term goals and how I plan to achieve them)

2. Inspiration

(Photographers who inspire me technically and conceptually, critical analysis in depth particular photographers)

3. History

(How my own work is historically contextualised)

4. Arguments

(Cultural, ethical and aesthetic arguments around fashion photography)

5. Working Process

(Digital Work-flow, Lighting Diagrams + Planning, Techniques, Mistakes)

6. TN Photography

(Dealing with clients, suppliers, lessons learnt)

7. Final Exhibition

(Installation, frame/s, type of paper, size, arrangement, all decisions for final installation at High Court)

8. Marketing

(Logo, Website, blog, business cards, etc., summary of business plan including main marketing aims)

9. Journey

(where I began, what I learnt, where I’m going – summarise)

10. Self Evaluation

(Of my own work – what I’m about. Defining my style. Artist’s statement.)

[Conclusion]

[Bibliography]

9 | Goals | Initial Goals

My main aim this semester is to leave as a confident, technically able photographer. I am doing more test shoots this semester than ever, because I am tackling more advanced lighting techniques/ interesting techniques to add that extra element to my photography. I want to leave as a photographer, and not a student who studied photography at CIT.

I am in the process of developing my own book about Light. I always wanted to do this and when I saw it all together in Recher's book Light Architecure I realised I want to have my own lighting techniques as my reference. At the moment I have a lighting book where I record all the elements to my shots (models, props, fashion, location, etc), my planned lighting and my actual lighting. I also record what worked and what didn't in dot points after the shoot and if there is anything I would change, and a thumbnail image of the final photograph.

I have been saving photographs which I admire in terms of light and analysing how the effect was achieved. (I.e. what type of light was used, where the light is coming from, etc). I am also writing down all the different lighting effects I can think of now for my book, which I want to photograph. On the LHS I will have the setup, and on the RHS I will have the final shot (Raw, basic edits, final edits) along with notes on lighting. This will take me probably until next year to finalise. I quite liked the finish look of Nathan's food book so I will probably print with Snapfish. (That was the company wasn't it Nath?)

6| Tn Photography | Digital Workflow

The following is a simplified document of my basic workflow (minus PS). Of course workflow varies from job to job, but I aim to be consistent in my method which I have been developing since I began photography. At this point in time this method works for me, and I'm sure this will continue to evolve and develop in the future.

Click to make bigger:

6 | TN Photography | Copyright Issues

I have read the Information Sheet on Photographers and Copyright publicized by the Australian Copyright Council which outlines the key points of the Copyright Act which has been active since 1998. (Thanks Scot for giving me a copy of this, and thank you Nathan Scot and Georgia for your presentation in business!)

Key Points

• Act has been active since 1998
• Copyright applies to your photographs for your life plus 70 years
• As the photographer, you have moral rights to your photographs which means that: 1) As the creator you can no one can ever say the image is not yours, if you want your name to be published it must be; 2) You are able to take action if the above point is breached; 3) You have the right to take action if your work is distorted, changed, edited, etc.)
• There are loopholes
• Magazines can be scanned, billboards can be photographed, your digital files can be altered and used. Be aware of what where you publish your work and know the risks
• There are measurements that can be taken to minimise copyright - watermarks, transparent .GIFFs, segmenting, disabling right clicking. Below is an image that I have taken that has a watermark all over it but is very faint that it can barely be seen, so it does not detract from the photograph and if someone wanted to use illegally it they would either leave it on or spend ages photoshopping a 72 dpi file. See photograph below.
• Although you have moral rights to your images, the easiest and best way to handle copyright and avoid common problems is to use contracts
• Terms: limited licensing, rights managed, loyalty free
• Copyright can be sold, ''assigned''

Who owns Copyright first?

• For commercial photographs, that is, photographs taken with the intent of selling, the first copyright is the photographer.
• For private events (weddings, birthdays, etc) the first copyright belongs to the client unless otherwise agreed, so make sure you have a contract prior to the event!
• Government organizations own copyright first unless otherwise agreed

Example of Watermark

The watermark on this small example can barely be seen, click on link:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=4507429&id=253796429853

Bad Experiences

There have been about 10 separate occasions in the early stage of my business in which I have let clients know that they must publish my copyright when/if they use the photographs I have taken for anything and they have not done so. Even when simple contracts have been signed and explained these terms and conditions have been breached. My photograph was published in the Canberra Times on Sunday and did not include a citation. For a full discussion on these issues, click this link: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Canberra/TN-Photography/253796429853. I have now spoken to a number of other photographers and it seems that this has happened to a lot of us. What I have learnt from this experience is not to distribute my photographs to anyone without a contract. If they require your image, they will sign the contract. If not, do not give them the file, because what is the point if you are not credited as the photographer, especially if you are doing it for free, you will not gain anything out of it.

Today I was faced with the same situation by another magazine. However this time I handled the situation differently, see below.

Example of Contract

I sent this contract to a magazine that wanted to publish a photograph that I had taken in the conference. The editor sent this contract back to me, signed, within half an hour because he needed the photograph. From now on I will not be distributing any files without a signed contract.

6 | TN Photography | Retouching Methods

Digital Imaging - Retouching - Formative 1

Task

Take 2 fashion/advertising themed images... apply retouching methods... form a polished image ready for publication or presentation to an advertising client. You must record the project on your blog

1

TRIPTICH (Image 1)

The following triptych shows the original CR2 image, basic edits in Lightroom and the final photoshopped image.

Click image to make bigger:

Photo: Tina Nikolovski

The following steps were taken to produce a magazine quality retouched photograph. This is the method I use everyday when editing fashion based images.

PROCESS

1. Drag Image into LR

2. The following steps in LR:

3. Export Image as a high quality, 8 bit, 300dpi at maximum size .TIFF

4. Open Image in PS

5. Photoshop process: described in layers

6. Save as PSD

7. Save as JPEG, highest quality 10, optimised

8. Duplicate JPEG, open in PS, use crop tool to resize to exactly A4

2

(Steps 1-4 same as above)

5. Photoshop process: described in layers

(Steps 6-8 same as above)

TRIPTICH (Image 2)

1. Original

2. After LR Edits

3. Final PS Image

Triptich

6 | Tn Photography | Conference in Gold Coast (4th - 7th August)

From the 4th to the 7th of August I was flown to the Gold Coast to shoot a conference. I was the only photographer with over 1000 members and delegates and I was soley responsible for 'getting the shots'. Here are some things I learnt and some of what was involved:

What was involved

• I recieved an 8-page breif with what was required of me to cover at the conference. This was my Bible, I kept it with me the entire time and refered to it often. It listed the times of each event that took place, the names of speakers, delegates and what exact shots were required for the organisation.
• I used two lenses (24-70 and 70-200) and brought a backup body, along with a flash, card reader, laptop, hard drive, batteries, chargers, etc.

What to bring for next time

• Tripod (although I did not need this for the conference persay, there were some great opportunities to shoot lanscapes, architecture etc. for myself which I ended up shooting on high ISO.)
• A case on wheels - My back and neck were incredibly sore from carrying my backpack of equipment for 2.5 days straight
• 2 camera bodies that are similar - one with each lens on it - so I don't have to keep swapping the lenses and I am prepared for any shot immediately
• A bum bag to carry phone, breif, etc
• A flash on both camera bodies
• A mac laptop (as opposed to a PC - because I could see that the .CR2 files were there but I couldn't view them as the laptop did not have photoshop)
• 5D Mark II - desparately need better ISO, yes lightroom has noise reduction and it helps that I was careful in that I did not underexpose these shots but the noise is still visable

What to change for next time

• Do not shoot too much. I knew when I shot a lot of frames that they were not needed and that I shot way too much but I kept going, this will just increase my post production time and I know that I will end up giving the client 1/5th of the shots that were taken

Lighting

• This was by far the biggest challenge of the conference. The light was different everywhere. I was using high ISOs, direct diffused flash, bouncing flash. I tested a few different lighting techniques for the same subject and compared results in post production. Generally, if the lighting is similar to this conference (that is very dark inside, even darker in the conference rooms) the following would be ideal:
• High ISO no flash for conference photographs (the lighting crew had strong cinematic light on the speakers which was perfect with high ISOs (and yes I need the Mark II). When I used the flash for these shots it overrode the cinematic lighting and made everything look dull and washed out. It also didn't show the feature lights (eg. blue on the backdrop) that the lighting crew lit which looked quite effective. High ISOs were actually specified in the brief by the client because the main output for these images is web
• • On camera direct diffused flash for social pictures - these turned out the best. There was nothing to really bounce the flash on anyway as the ceiling was black. The room was almost pitch black so this technique was definately needed.

What I gained experience in

• Difficult and everchanging lighting conditions. See above
• Gathering big groups of people - being loud and confident and taking a few shots of each 'shot' so that I make sure there is one where no one's eyes are closed, etc.
• Approaching people and taking their photograph - I am starting to acknowledge myself as a photographer and not an experienced student who takes photographs
• Being as discrete as I could be when taking shots behind the stage, next to the speaker, etc
• Changing settings (flash, aperture, shutter) as quickly as possible when someone wants a shot and my camera is setup for something completely different

Overall

• The photographs were a mixture of candid, posed, detail, corporate, social and photojournalistic type shots.
• I haven't started editing but I have had a quick look over my shots and I am proud of myself for having done a good job with exposure and directing people. This conference was an amazing experience and as I get better I begin to enjoy conferences more (not as boring as the first ones I shot). This type of work may not be the most exciting but it is well paid and good to learn to work under the pressure of various lighting and direction of people.