UPDATE ON MENTORSHIPS WITH MICHAEL ONEILL

March 3rd, 2010

Let me start by thanking all of you for your interest in the post on The Pro Spot offering mentorships here in New York. I received more than 100 emails from around the world in response to that offer. I was overwhelmed that some of you pledged to come from as far away as California, Canada and The United Kingdom for the opportunity to study with me. I am truly honored.

I must also apologize. As much as I would love to work with all of you I will be unable to accommodate everyone. I will only be photographing about 45 weddings in 2010. I have read all of your emails and visited each and every one of your web sites. I was truly impressed by the quality of the photography I viewed, again feeling honored that you think enough of my artistry to make the commitment to come to New York to study with me. I have decided that the only right thing for me to do is choose my pupils randomly so that no one feels that they were not chosen because of any shortcomings. That is not the case. I will be collaborating and sharing with photographers on all levels.

I will be contacting all of you within the next two weeks. I will be arriving this Friday afternoon in Las Vegas for WPPI 2010. Those of you that are attending should look me up when you are there. I will be tied up all day Saturday and Sunday judging the Accolades of Excellence 16 X 20 Print Competition. I’ll be on the “Wedding 2″ judging panel in room 302 of the conference center. (Read more about that here). Stop by and say “Hello” or look for me at many of the events, platform programs or on the trade show floor. I would love to meet each and every one of you in person.

Thanks again for all of your enthusiasm. I look forward to sharing with you.

Posted in Events, Phtographic Education, WPPI | 2 Comments »

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

February 18th, 2010

A lengthy post, but well worth the read…

I’m going to start this post by saying this is going to be just one of many features to follow on sales and marketing philosophies that will enable you to grow your business in 2010 and beyond. 2008 was a great year. So was 2009. 2010 is going to be a great one, too. I know those are tough words to swallow in these economically challenging times, but read on. I personally photographed 60 weddings in 2008, 54 in 2009 and will end 2010 with about 45 weddings under my belt. It’s a shrinking trend but it is exactly where I want it to be. Even though the number of weddings I photograph every year is declining, my revenues are steadily increasing. I have managed to raise my prices steadily through tough economic times while maintaining a strong client base. I’m willing to bet that every one of you would like to earn more money while doing less work so I’m here to share some of the things that will enable you to increase your revenue, attract a more affluent clientele and free up more of your time to pursue other activities in your personal life.

I will admit that I’m working harder at my sales efforts today than I ever had in the past. I used to book 90% of the potential clients I sat down with, now it’s more like 65%. The reasons are many. Yes, we’re in a recession and some clients are scaling back their budgets when planning a wedding. Some simply can’t afford my services and I accept that. Yes, there is more competition in our craft these days. The digital technologies we enjoy today, and the relatively low start up costs for photographic equipment when compared to film-based gear, has opened the floodgates of new talent into our industry. Over time myself and my guest authors will be talking about various ways to stay ahead of the competition and grow your business. Today I’m going to talk about the beginning of the initial sales consultation.

I’m going to preface this feature with a great quote: “It’s not WHAT you have, it’s WHAT YOU DO WITH WHAT YOU HAVE that matters”. For more than 20 years I had a brick and mortar storefront on the main mercantile road in my home town. I had a beautiful 2,000 square foot gallery with a magnificent 900 square foot camera room and I catered not only to my wedding clientele, but also to retail portrait customers, seniors, maternity sessions, editorial photography for magazines in the motorcycle industry, etc. In 2006 I underwent a complete reorganization of my business and changed my entire business model. I gave up my storefront and decided to work from my home. I gave up my retail portrait business to focus completely on high end wedding photography on location, my fine art photography and photographic education. I was apprehensive, at first, about being taken seriously without a boutique studio storefront, but have found that it’s my images and my personality that my clients are contracting me for…not my real estate. Here I am, not even four years later, grossing more revenue that I ever had in the past with none of the fancy storefront overhead eating away at the profits.

First Impressions are important and when prospective clients come to see me for the first time they walk into the scene pictured above. The small living room in my home is set up as my gallery. It is warm, inviting and showcases some of my favorite wedding images, hanging gallery style, on one wall. The room is eclectically furnished and kept spotlessly clean. An assortment of my fine art photography images are beautifully framed and showcased on walls adjacent to the gallery wall and two of my most prized possessions, two wonderful sculptures, are displayed on the mantle of my fireplace under low-voltage spot lights. The entire area is understated, intimate and reeks of my passion for art and my sense of design.

There is no television in this room…nor do I use any audio-visual programming in my sales consultations. I don’t deny the effectiveness of romantic slide shows or video presentations, they just don’t fit into my scheme of things. Let me explain…

I want my customers to feel like they’re sitting around the kitchen table with me. A great salesman once told me that the living room is where you entertain company, or the life insurance salesman…the kitchen table is where you hang out with friends. I don’t want my prospective clients to feel like they’re being force fed a professionally tailored sales program. Instead I encourage conversation and I make my clients comfortable. When my clients first come in I tell them to relax, to leave their checkbooks and credit cards in the car. I tell them right upfront that I have no intention of “closing a sale” and that I am just going to educate them and send them off to make their decision. A relaxed client is a lot easier to get through to than one who is on their guard. Under no circumstance should there be a desk between you and your clients…unless you want to make them feel like they’re about to square off with a car salesman.

Once seated I leave my clients to peruse some sample albums at their leisure. Again…no A/V presentations. I sell wedding photography packages that include custom bound albums of exquisite finished images. I need to show them those albums. Any photographer that is just shooting weddings and burning images to disc for their clients to tinker with is missing the boat. The proper enhancement and merchandising of your images in elegant bound albums will triple the revenue you receive over simply “shooting and burning”. If you’re serious about building a long standing, profitable photography business you can’t afford to leave this money on the table, and, more importantly, you can’t leave the production values of your images up to your clients. My images are not going to wind up at the 60 minute photo counter in Wal-Mart!

So what do I show my prospective clients? First I steer them towards a compilation album…a beautiful book full of my favorite images from the last year or so. Keep your samples current, folks. Hopefully you are improving at your craft every day…show your freshest work, not the stuff you were shooting years ago. Here’s a short video of what my guests see inside the cover of this first album:

The music for this video slideshow was provided by Triple Scoop Music. Photographers that are looking for an amazing source of licensed music for use in their video and slide show programs, as well as on their web sites, are encouraged to visit their web site.

This album, like all of my custom albums, was bound by the artisans at Leather Craftsmen, Inc. This particular album features the finest of Leather Craftsmen’s offerings: a striped edition cover of Distressed Brown leather and Sand Top Grain Cowhide, an inset cover photograph, branding in lieu of imprinting and cork end lining treatment. It is a work of art. Any photographer seeking to upgrade their album offerings should look no further than the folks at Leather Craftsmen, Inc.

I steer my clients next to a complete wedding album…a 255 picture design from one wedding. This particular album was featured on this forum previously in the post entitled “First And Foremost We Sell Images”. I invite you to read that post for more insight on our sales philosophies. I usually leave two or three additional wedding albums on the table for my guests to view.

When my clients have finished looking at my work at their own pace I return to the gallery and continue with the initial sales consultation. In a later post I will tell you what goes on next. For now I encourage you to take a good look at what you are doing at the start of your sales consultations and make sure that you are making a great first impression.

Posted in Bookbinding, Customer Relations, Leathercraftsmen, Sales and Merchandising, Triple Scoop Music | 6 Comments »

FREE WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY MENTORSHIPS WITH MICHAEL ONEILL

February 15th, 2010

The 2010 WPPI convention and trade show is just about two weeks away now. Last year I had the honor and privilege of presenting my platform program “FUNdamentals” to some of the more than 12,000 photographers who attended WPPI 2009. As a speaker you get to look out at your audience and see the desire to learn in their attentive faces. As rewarding as the speaking experience is, I was overwhelmed by what transpired after I wrapped up my presentation. Members of the audience rushed to the podium after I concluded my presentation to ask more questions and seek more answers to their particular challenges. A few offered to come to New York for the opportunity to assist me and learn from me on actual wedding assignments. I accepted some of those offers and they turned into the catalyst for some great 2009 wedding experiences. Photographers came in from all over the United States…Illinois, Mississippi, Massachusetts, California…to accompany myself and my team on a number of wedding assignments here in New York.

This year I’ll be returning to WPPI 2010 as a judge in the Accolades of Excellence 16 X 20 print competition. Though I won’t be speaking at this year’s convention I do have quite an eager audience nonetheless…more than 2,400 subscriptions to The Pro Spot and more than 4,000 friends on Facebook. So using this, The Pro Spot, as my podium I am extending an offer to any photographer who wishes to learn from me…on the job…on an actual wedding assignment here in the New York area…to contact me. Send me an email with a link to your web site and a brief statement of why you would like to work with me. I will choose a number of you and arrange a mutually convenient time for you to come to New York and work with my team. I seek no compensation from you for this experience. I just ask that you pay your own travel expenses and bring your camera gear, your enthusiasm and an open mind towards learning while creating some new and exciting images. (Stick around an extra day after the wedding assignment and you’ll witness my two hour editing workflow to finish 1,000 images and learn some of the Photoshop enhancement techniques I employ to create award-winning images). This is a win-win scenario for everyone involved. You will learn, firsthand, the posing, camera and lighting techniques I employ and will go home with some great images for your own personal portfolios. I get the benefit of having a second creative professional on my assignments; not only enhancing my client’s product, but also challenging me to perform at the top of my game.

The team at Michael ONeill Fine Art photographed 54 weddings in 2009 and will photograph a similar amount in 2010. Opportunities will be very limited so I encourage you to contact me as soon as possible if you are sincerely interested in spending some quality time in New York with myself and my crew. I expect the response to this post to be staggering and I apologize in advance as I certainly won’t be able to accommodate all of you. I look forward to creating some spectacular wedding imagery with some of you and to helping you grow your businesses in 2010 and beyond.

Posted in Camera Techniques, Customer Relations, Lighting Techniques, Photoshop, Phtographic Education, Posing, WPPI, Workflow | 3 Comments »

YOUR GUIDE (NUMBER) TO EXQUISITE SUNSET IMAGES

February 9th, 2010

In this post I am going to share a fundamental technique that enables you to create dramatic sunset images in your camera with little or no Photoshop enhancement. To get started you must know the manual guide number of your flash unit and how to use it creatively to achieve predictable results. I have found that nearly all guide number ratings are exaggerated by the manufacturers and suggest that you determine an accurate guide number for your particular flash unit and commit it to memory. A good flash meter is helpful in determining the guide number of your flash, but it is not essential. A few test shots in a darkened room will serve the same purpose.

Start by placing both your camera and flash unit in the manual mode. The guide number of your flash unit, at any given ISO value, is determined by multiplying the flash-to-subject distance by the aperture value required to make the correct exposure. As a simple algebraic equation: Guide Number = f stop X Distance. At ISO 400 my flash unit, a Nikon SB900, delivers a proper exposure of f22 at a distance of 10 feet. The guide number of my flash therefore is 220. It is important for you to understand that in a darkened room, with no ambient light affecting your exposure, your exposure will be f22 at 10 feet regardless of your shutter speed. When I teach Guide Number to my students I demonstrate this by making a series of exposures, in a totally dark room, from 1/8 second to 1/250 second at f22 with my flash 10 feet from the subject. In that darkened room all of the exposures are identical. In manual mode your flash output will be the same on every single shot, and, in the absence of any ambient light, all of your exposures will be identical, regardless of the manual shutter speed chosen.

Now the fun starts. Take your camera and flash out of that darkened room and point them at your subjects who are standing against the sky at sunset. In this image I have my assistant positioned 20 feet from my subjects. My Guide Number tells me that a proper exposure will require an aperture value of f11. Remember, Guide Number = f stop X distance or, in this case, 220 = f11 X 20 feet. (11 X 20 = 220…Simple). In this image I set my camera in aperture priority mode and the camera determined that a proper exposure, based upon the ambient light, would be 1/60 second at f11. The camera returned this image in which the background is properly exposed and accurately rendered. My subjects are properly exposed by my off camera flash unit positioned 20 feet away from them.

Knowing that my subjects will be properly exposed by my flash unit, regardless of the shutter speed, I am free to alter the ambient light in this scene to my liking. I put my Nikon D3 camera in manual exposure mode and select a shutter speed of 1/250 second. The shorter shutter speed underexposes the background by two full f stops while my flash unit still properly exposes my subjects with it’s predictable, constant manual output. This time my camera returns this dramatic image with a deep saturated (underexposed) sky!

I have employed this fundamental technique for more than 30 years. It worked with film and it still works in today’s digital environment. The digital technology we enjoy today has opened up new creative possibilities that we only dreamed of in the past, but they can only be fully exploited by those photographers that have a thorough understanding of the fundamentals. I encourage you to take your cameras and flash units out of the automatic exposure modes and practice some of the basics that will enable you to predictably create stunning imagery on a consistent basis. Guide Number is a great place to start…I’ll be sharing some more “secrets” in future posts.

Posted in Camera Techniques, Fundamentals, Guide Number, Lighting Techniques, Nikon, Photoshop | 11 Comments »

FIRST AND FOREMOST WE SELL IMAGES

January 28th, 2010

In today’s feature I have chosen to talk about a subject that I addressed during my 2009 WPPI platform program “FUNdamentals”. This traditional sales philosophy generated a lot of discussion during my program and I feel it is worth talking about here on this forum. Application of the principle I am about to discuss will certainly add to your profitability as a professional photographer.

We are professional photographers and the number one item we sell are our images. Seems simple enough, but in this digital age the marketing line sometimes seems to get blurred between our artistic efforts and our merchandising schemes. Today’s digital world has opened up a whole new arena for marketing add on items to the initial fee we charge for our photographic services. In the past we offered the bride an album, the parents an album of their own, and the occasional large wall portrait, often sold in conjunction with exquisite custom picture framing. Today there are literally countless new products borne of the digital age: press-printed albums and fine art cards, canvas gallery wraps, purse-sized companion albums and brag books, etc., etc. Yes, I offer these exciting new products to my clients but I maintain that the number one product I have to offer my clients is still my photographic work.

Back in the dark ages of film photography we used to produce 120-150 images on an entire wedding. Today I routinely shoot twice that amount during the bride’s preparations. On an average wedding assignment these days I’ll capture 800-1000 images per day or more. In the “good ol’ days” a finished album of 60 or more images was a big sale. Today I see some photographers offering starting packages that contain 100 or more images. This is a short sighted practice that undermines your profitability and dilutes the industry as a whole. Remember…we SELL images. My wedding photography packages start with a bridal album that contains 50 pictures…30 choice pictures plus a 20 picture/2 page candid composite panorama. Each additional picture a bride adds to her album costs $40.00 which may not seem like a large amount until you realize that the finished wedding albums that leave my studio average around 150 images. Do the math and you’ll see that selling (not giving away) your images is a lot more profitable than any add-on novelty.

Industry icon, Jim Garner, adopts a similar approach in his sales. His masterful “Story Shooting” lends itself to selling additional two page spreads in his award-winning albums. At his appearance at Skip’s Summer School in August 2009 Jim stated that “People want to spend. They just need to be led there. Show it…They’ll want it”. After the wedding Jim shows his clients mockups of two page spreads that he creates with his personal choices from the amazing images he captures. His clients want them and purchase them.

Here’s an album we recently completed for a client. I trust all of my finished bound albums to the artisans at Leather Craftsmen, Inc. As always they did a masterful job of binding this client’s book. Some add-on merchandising was done upgrading the client’s album from the 10″ X 10″ size they had contracted for to the 11″ X 14″ size they fell in love with. They then added a Euro Leather cover upgrade, imprinting on the spine, four pictures inset into the cover, copper page gilding and an Asian Rice Paper end lining treatment.

The biggest upgrade to the album, however, was the number of my images that they chose for the finished presentation. Here’s a short video slide show of the finished 255 picture album!

Resist any inclination to engage your competition on a price level. They know what their product is worth. Believe in your mastery and be compensated accordingly as an artist and a professional. I’ve had clients tell me that they would rather have 50 of my images than 100 of my competitor’s. Renowned photographer, Jerry Ghionis, said it best at Skip’s Summer School: “What is priceless tomorrow has to be expensive today”. Make your images the best that they can possibly be and sell them first.

Posted in Bookbinding, Customer Relations, Events, Leathercraftsmen, Sales and Merchandising, WPPI | 11 Comments »

WHAT MAKES A GREAT WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER

January 14th, 2010

For the first guest post on this forum I have called upon Bill Hurter to share his thoughts with us. Bill Hurter has been involved in the photographic industry for the past thirty years. He is the former editor of Petersen’s PhotoGraphic magazine and currently the editor of both Rangefinder and After Capture magazines. He has authored over thirty books on photography and hundreds of articles on photography and photographic technique. He is a graduate of American University and Brooks Institute of Photography, from which he holds a BFA and Honorary Masters of Science and Masters of Fine Arts degrees. With Bill’s kind permission I am reprinting, in part, the introduction to his fine book “100 Techniques for Professional Wedding Photographers”. When this book first came on the market in early 2009 I suggested that “What Makes a Great Wedding Photographer” should be required reading, not only for everyone who calls them self a professional wedding photographer, but also for every single bride-to-be.

WHAT MAKES A GREAT WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER?

CONSISTENCY. Those photographers that produce splendid albums each time out are well on their way to greatness.

LIKABILITY. A common thread among the really good photographers is affability and likability. They are fully at ease with other people and they have a sense of personal confidence that inspires trust. Maximizing these personal interactions allows the best wedding photographers to create animated, filled-with-life portraits…images that bring out the real personality and vitality of the subject.

COOL UNDER PRESSURE. To be successful, wedding photographers must not only master a variety of types of photography but also perform them in a very limited time frame. This means that, aside from technical skills, achieving success requires calm nerves and the ability to perform at the highest levels under stress.

UP TO DATE. To stay on the cutting edge, the leading wedding photographers also scour bridal magazines, studying the latest looks in editorial and advertising photography. These magazines are what prospective brides look at and want to see in their own wedding images.

A GREAT OBSERVER. The truly gifted wedding photographer is also a great observer. He or she sees and captures the myriad of special, fleeting moments that often go unrecorded. The great wedding photographer develops the knack of predicting what will happen next and making sure he or she is ready to capture it.

THE ABILITY TO IDEALIZE. The exceptional photographer produces images in which the people look great. Through careful choice of camera angles, poses, and lighting many “imperfections” can be made unnoticeable.

CREATIVE VISION. Australian wedding and portrait photographer, David Anthony Williams describes this perfectly by saying “Good wedding photography is not about complicated posing, painted backdrops, sumptuous backgrounds or five lights used brilliantly. It is about expression, interaction and life! The rest is important, but secondary.

IMMERSION. Great wedding photographers involve themselves in the event and with the people. It’s interaction and communication, but also a little magic.

There you have it. The short version of the introduction to this great book….a book that is a must-have for every wedding photographer working in today’s fast-paced digital world. The book is filled with extraordinary images from some of the most highly regarded wedding photographers working in the world today. The list includes Marcus Bell, Joe Buissink, Cherie Steinberg Coté, Mike Colón, Jesh de Rox, Dan Doke, Bruce Dorn, Jerry Ghionis, Greg Gibson, Kevin Jairaj, Claude Jodoin, Kevin Kubota, Charles & Jennifer Maring, JB & DeEtte Sallee, Ken Sklute and Yervant Zanazanian. I was truly honored to have my photographic work, techniques and philosophy featured in this book alongside some of the finest photographers in this industry. Bill’s book is available at Amazon.com, Amherst Media’s web site, Camerabooks.com and at the WPPI online store

Posted in Books and Publications, Customer Relations, Guest Posts and Features, WPPI | 6 Comments »

TWILIGHT BLUES

January 2nd, 2010

Here’s a very simple lighting technique that produces quite dramatic results. I call it the “Twilight Blues”.

I try to stage these shots shortly after sunset, when the sun is gone but there is still a little bit of light left in the darkening sky. I switch the color balance setting on my Nikon D3 camera to the tungsten setting and illuminate my subjects with a tungsten light source. I personally use the Lowel ID light. This light allows me to adjust the light pattern from a flood pattern to a tight spotlight pattern and also has a dimmer by which the intensity of the light can be varied. My assistant directs the light on my subjects in a tight spotlight pattern and dims the light to a level where it overpowers the ambient light. Exposure is correctly made for the lighted subjects and everything not being lit by the video light turns a deep blue shade due to your use of a tungsten white balance setting in an environment that is essentially still lit by daylight.

I find that the color temperature of the Lowel ID light drops as you dim it. This actually works to your advantage when creating a “Twilight Blues” shot. With the camera set in the standard tungsten white balance mode and the video light dimmed, the images will be much warmer toned than they should be. No problem. Simply make the appropriate color temperature adjustment when you process your RAW images. The flesh tones will come back to where they should be and the blues will get even deeper. I can’t imagine that there are any photographers out there that don’t shoot RAW, but if you don’t you can still employ this technique. You will just have to set up a custom white balance for the dimmed video light to keep the flesh tones looking natural.

Posted in Lighting Techniques, Nikon, Video Lights | 18 Comments »

LITTLE LIGHTS • BIG RESULTS

December 27th, 2009

For my first instructional post on this forum I have chosen to share a lighting technique I’m often asked about…How do I achieve that beautiful light painting effect on my detail shots? This one is so simple you’ll go out and get great results the very first time you try it. My assistant carries a Sunpak Readylite 20 in her pocket all day long and we pull it out throughout the wedding day for detail shots of wedding invitations, jewelry, flowers, shoes, menus…almost every little detail we wish to photograph.

Today’s high performance digital SLRs like my Nikon D3 cameras deliver outstanding high ISO/low noise performance. You don’t need a lot of light for these shots. The Sunpak is a twenty watt unit, but I’ve seen photographers get amazing results from small pocket-sized flashlights that you can buy at your local hardware store for 99 cents!

In the image below the Sunpak light is placed flat on the surface, to the right, next to the wedding invitation. It is pointed almost directly at the bride’s engagement ring as evidenced by the direction of the shadow being cast off of the ring. The light, being very close to the setup, simply streams across the invitation creating a swath of light that fades off very quickly on both sides of the beam. No burning or dodging in Photoshop required. This is how it looks right out of the camera.

In the following image my assistant held the Sunpak Readylite above and slightly to the right of the wedding rings. I used a 105mm f2.8 Micro-Nikkor lens on my Nikon D3 camera leveraging the camera’s high ISO/low noise capabilities and the VR (Vibration Reduction) feature in the lens. Shooting at ISO 1600 I was able to make this exposure handheld at 1/1000 second at f32! A little edge burning was done in Photoshop along with a bit of extra sharpening on the wedding rings.

In the next image the Readylite was held far to the left, slightly above the shoes creating deep shadows in the image of the bride’s shoes hanging on the back of her gown. I try to create deep shadows when I make this photograph to keep the designer’s label (inside the shoes) from becoming a focal point in the image. Once again, this image is right out of the camera with no Photoshop enhancement.

In this final image I used the daylight coming through a window above and behind to illuminate the bride’s shoes. I used a daylight white balance and had my assistant point the Readylite at the shoes creating a warm tone on the jeweled heels and casting an interesting shadow on the wall behind the shoes.

So there you have it. Some food for thought on getting big results from little lights. Go out and give it a try. E-mail me pictures and a description of your techniques and I’ll publish some of the best ones on this forum.

Posted in Details, Lighting Techniques, Nikon, Photoshop, Video Lights | 14 Comments »

WELCOME TO THE PRO SPOT

December 27th, 2009

I’ll keep this inaugural post short and sweet. We hope you stop by often and take advantage as we endeavor to make this a valuable educational and inspirational resource for the professional wedding and portrait photographer. The Pro Spot has been conceived to evolve more as a forum than a blog. We invite your comments. We welcome your contributions. We want to know what you would like to see featured here and we will strive to make it one of the most informative sites on the web. I will be sharing photographic techniques, image finishing artistry, album design approaches, sales and customer relations philosophies along with any other topics that our readers desire to explore. I will be relying not only on my 30+ years of experience as a professional wedding and portrait photographer but will also be featuring guest posts from some of the finest image makers in our industry.

“The Pro Spot” is a free resource. My sincere thanks go out to some of my preferred vendors who have helped make “The Pro Spot” a reality. Special thanks go out to my colleagues at Nikon USA, Leather Craftsmen, Inc. and Triple Scoop Music. My thanks also go out in advance to the other professional photographers who have pledged their support for this project. To the hundreds of photographers who pre-registered for a subscription to The Pro Spot I, again, thank you for your patience. New visitors are urged to use the e-mail subscription block to receive automatic alerts when new features are added.

Welcome to The Pro Spot.

Posted in Inaugural Pro Spot Post, Leathercraftsmen, Nikon, Triple Scoop Music | 10 Comments »