STICKY:  How to photograph a high school Senior

You dont have to do all your sales through smugmug. Do your usual sales in person and then put the pics up online so family members can place orders. that way only a % of your sales will get dinged the 15% fee, not the majority.

phamster wrote in post #13986671

Manfrotto 032SET Auto Pole Background Support Set, Two Chrome Upright Poles below:

Manfrotto 0456 Background Holder Hooks, holds 6 Backgrounds $58.90 these are the ones on the wall.. attached to the wall and won't allow you to back light very well because your on the wall..

http://www.adorama.com …m_campaign=1poi​nt0product

Manfrotto 046 Expan Background Paper Drive Set with Red Plastic Drive Chain $57.00 this helps drive the drops up and down.. a requirement with this manfrotto system

http://www.adorama.com …m_campaign=1poi​nt0product


Manfrotto 032SET Auto Pole Background Support Set, Two Chrome Upright Poles (#2950) $174.90 this allows me to be flexible and can move this around anywhere in my studio. i got this because i wanted the flexibility to put lights behind the backdrop or side back light a subject with a snoot or grid..

http://www.adorama.com …_campaign=2poin​t0Product7

Manfrotto 0472 9' Alu-Core, Aluminum Core for Uncored 107" Seamless Paper (#2922) $44.90 used to hold the backdrops up, and is light weight and works seemlessly into the manfrotto system..

http://www.adorama.com …_campaign=2poin​t0Product7

here is the long side view of big wall in the studio.. i used 4 brackets to hold up 3 total back drops that are 9 feet wide each.. this allowed me to maximize my step.

and finally an image from all of this..

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …6939852411/in/p​hotostream

You are The Man!....Thanks so much for taking the time to post this!

Questions:

1. Am I correct then by saying you bought all the parts to this seperately and not the kit, http://www.adorama.com​/BG2961.html ...great setup!
My only issue with the outopole system is that I have a dropped ceiling...{lightbulb}.​..I guess I could remove a couple panels and extend to the ceiling beyond the drop.

2. Since I use alot of the vinyl Candysticks from BD Outlet, do you think a 3" sched 40 piece of PVC pipe would work in place of the Manfrotto 0472 9' Alu-Core, Aluminum Core rods? I was thinking I could just tape the one end onto the PVC pipe.

phamster wrote in post #13997189
New topic guys..

Client proofing.
Problem : clients wants certain crops but you don’t want them to come over again.
Solution1: send several crops in email, but this takes too long.
Solution2: set up a smug mug, or zenifold, or similar hosting but they charge you per sale, and annual fee, plus I just don’t like the name smug mug..
Solution3: have custom software installed in your website that have cropping capabilities and business like data base integration, sales report, names, address and real time feed back..
http://www.picturespro​.com/i/photo_cart/demo​/
I have found this software and recently purchased it and will give you guys feed back on this...
pretty sure this is going to stream line my flow 

let me know how most of you do client proofing flow..

thanks..
pham

I guess I have never had a client ask for certain crops. When my clients come in to view, I have their images cropped to a 5X7 aspect ratio. I try to shoot with cropping in mind. Therefore most all images will work no matter what size they order. So when they receive their prints, no one has ever asked for a different crop.
As far as the online part goes, I have an account with Zenfolio, but do not use it for my sales. I use it ONLY when I can't get a customer to order at the viewing session, or if it is an out of town customer that can't get all buying parties at the viewing session. But if I have to use it, I will upload the images and I have the online ordering turned off. The client contacts me with the images and sizes that they want. I am out the $100 a year for online galleries, but I am happy with how the galleries work. They are secure, I like the interface, and it is easy to use. So it makes it worth the $100 a year to me. Until I find a better/cheaper solution for unlimited online galleries, I will stick with Zenfolio.

jmalonear wrote in post #13997748
I try to shoot with cropping in mind.

Unfortunately, so do I. Which is why I lamented earlier:

charro callado wrote in post #13990385
I'm tired of worrying so much about certain compositional choices that are driven almost entirely by resolution issues.

Shooting with a FF sensor (4x6 aspect ratio) can be very annoying when you know your client wants 8x10 or 5x7 prints. Framing loosely helps retain flexibility but even at 21MP there is a substantial loss of quality when cropping any more than about 20% of the image out.

Part of me wants to institute a blanket ban on requesting aspect ratios. I give you what I think looks best, and you're gonna like it. But that's probably too draconian even for me.

charro callado wrote in post #13998137
Part of me wants to institute a blanket ban on requesting aspect ratios. I give you what I think looks best, and you're gonna like it. But that's probably too draconian even for me.

Everyone has different ideas of what looks good, if a customer really wants a different crop, why turn them down? sure its more work but its good customer service. Refusing may loose you repeat business.

umphotography wrote in post #13997263
Pham

I use photobiz. I really dont see why everyone is excited about smug mug. Your giving up 15% of your gross to sell photos through them.

Mike, I too use Photobiz, but lately It seems I have had a LOT of clients who "LOVE" their portraits that keep asking me to relist them. (Its really frustrating)
I have just about decided that in person ordering is the way to go. PROSELECT makes it easy as pie, and you get to cash in on the wow factor. (AKA the first time they see them)

PROSELECT is pricey, but you can use it for free for 30 days (in this time I believe it will pay for itself) Pham, it also allows you to crop right there and show your clients how big (OR SMALL) an 8x10 really is.

I have not done much in person ordering yet. I am still trying to capture a more local market, and I don't want to have to travel 10-15 miles again to the persons house, nor are they interested in traveling 15 miles to my house for a sales demo.

I use zenfolio, but I disable the net ordering and just have them email me the picture numbers they want so there is no commission, and I process the order myself. I REALLY push 8x12's instead of 8x10's so cropping isn't a factor.

For in person sessions, you can't beat proselect from what I have seen.

jb_browneyes wrote in post #13998632
Mike, I too use Photobiz, but lately It seems I have had a LOT of clients who "LOVE" their portraits that keep asking me to relist them. (Its really frustrating)
I have just about decided that in person ordering is the way to go. PROSELECT makes it easy as pie, and you get to cash in on the wow factor. (AKA the first time they see them)

PROSELECT is pricey, but you can use it for free for 30 days (in this time I believe it will pay for itself) Pham, it also allows you to crop right there and show your clients how big (OR SMALL) an 8x10 really is.

Jen

What i do is show them the link for 30 days. I have not had a problem with crops. I get them in for the viewing and the ordering and crop right in front of them so they can see what they are getting or ill attach a file to their email, watermarked and suitable for Web view only if they get concerned with crops.

I get that there are a lot of ways to go, But, Ultimately, with the HS senior market and the wedding industry being as competitive as it is, costs have to be the primary concerns.

Pham

I like the product.

Question

Where are you hosting your photos, what are the costs to host them ? If the hosting costs are reasonable, this looks like a good solution ??

Thanks for posting this Pham

Lots of good work in here. Much better than I would be able to do as I'm not a senior photographer. Well, I am kinda... I'm a Senior and a Photographer, so I guess that makes me a Senior Photographer...

I do want to make one comment however...

There is an increasing trend towards shooting on railroad tracks. This is now occurring to the extent the railroads are taking notice and it there is a full page commentary on the subject in the April 2012 issue of Trains magazine.

Union Pacific Railroad (and this applies to other railroads as well) has issued a very firm policy about photography on their right-of-way. It can be found HERE and HERE. Of particular note is the last line in the photo/video policy and I'll come back to that later.

You might think "Well, we can hear the train coming." Guess again... Trains are not as loud as one may think and by the time they get into sight it's going to be too late. Once the engineers sees you on the tracks, he's not going to be able to stop in time...

If you're shooting on the right-of-way there are a number of things that might happen. You might get away with it, you might be told to leave, you might get a citation for trespassing, you might get arrested and all your gear confiscated or, worst case scenario, someone might get hurt or killed.

Sure, there are a lot of inactive rail lines in the country, but do you know if they are truly inactive? And even if they are, they still belong to someone, most likely one of the railroads and you're still trespassing.

And if you do get away with it, take note of that last line of UP's policy I mentioned above: "Union Pacific will seek removal from publication any photograph or video that violates this policy." I'm sure your Senior and their school would just love to have the railroad go after them to have all the offending shots removed from the entire yearbook run.

If your client absolutely has to have their picture taken on tracks, then seek out a rail museum near you and find out what it would take shoot on their property. I'm sure most museums would be glad to accommodate you in turn for a donation or the payment of a fee.

I work around trains a lot as a volunteer at a railroad museum and the best advice I can give anyone about shooting on the tracks is

DON'T DO IT!!!

Instaproofs is popular for hosting, ordering,etc, but they take 15%

Question/Poll for everyone......

What % of your pictures in your client gallery are portrait orientation vs landscape orientation, and what do your clients buy more of?

The Rail Police. Sorry couldn't help.

Way off topic - Does some one have stastics of how many folks die per yr from photogs shooting on (mostly abondened) rail road tracks?

holy crap, are those rail police stuff serious?

civil liberties /flushtoilet

God knows how many miles of abandoned tracks there are in my county alone.

Last time I was "on the tracks" I was about 200 meters from a tiny station in a small town. We accessed the tracks on a pedestrian road crossing from a park down the street. One of the workers at the station walked towards us and asked us to leave and kept saying "we can't photograph on the tracks." We were just about done, but I didn't feel like challenging this so we left. I have not been back since, but it's one of the only spots around here that provides access.

It is kind of scary when the trains come, esp when the model is laying on the tracks 30 feet from me (using a long lens), and watching my back!

I'll post some pics from the session later tonight.