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.

6 | TN Photography | Frames

I recently did a food shoot for a restaurant which invloved 6 food shots to hang on their walls. The prints were A2 and framed. It was a massive job because I made some silly decisions and I ended up making a loss but the learning experience has been very valuable.

1. DO NOT purchase cheap frames. DO NOT deal with retail outlets that sell cheap frames.

• The glass is very fragile and the client smashed the glass on the first frame by accident with not much force
• The wood is so weak that before I even opened the packaging on the frames, it had been chipped in different areas on each frame
• When you purchase frames wrap them in bubble wrap straight away ($7 from Reject shop buys you 10m long, 70mm wide) before transporting and make sure they are placed 'face to face' and not all the same way. If they are all the same way the hooks at the back will damage the wood at the front of the frame on top of it
• The glass inside of cheap frames is dirty and it takes forever to clean the dust off and put the print in.
• Cheap A2 frames are about $30-$40 each
• Custom made A2 frames are $110 or more each. Student discount of $90 per frame - this includes frame, glass, backing, string on back - no matte inside
• Overestimate the time that your client will recieve the goods, framing stores may not always be on time.
• Next job I will deal with the Discount Gallery Framing store and see what they have already got made up as that will be cheaper than custom framing. I will get a quote from them, analyse how long it will take me and what my own costs will be, add some profit and provide a total cost quote to the client. Clients want good quality frames but at cheap prices - this is not possible - explain this to them. The amount of time, effort, enery and money I have wasted with this job has been extensive, I have learnt so much and next job I will do things completely different.

8 | Marketing | TN Photography

These are the tools I use to promote myself as a photographer under the trading name of TN Photography. I did all the graphic design myself so I have had complete control over everything so far. My website was built from scratch by Doug Hall at Glossy FX who was fantastic to work with and did exactly what I wanted.

Trading name: Tn Photography

Approach: Simplistic, modern, uncluttered

Colours: Lime green, black, white

Font: Century gothic

Website

www.tnphotography.com.au

Blog

www.tnphotographyau.worldpress.com

Facebook Business Page

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Canberra/TN-Photography/253796429853?ref=ts

Logo

CD covers

Letterhead

Business Card

Services

Copyright Watermark