We're LOVING all of the questions we're getting from our photographer readers out there, so definitely keep them coming! We've got a bunch of FAQ posts coming soon that cover some topics in an in-depth manner, but a lot of the questions we get have somewhat brief responses, so that's what this is - a general place for reader questions. You can view all the reader questions we've done so far HERE and all our other FAQ posts HERE.
To ask a question, leave it in the comments, below!
Photojunction seems like a great program for design, but who do you use to print your albums?
"Great" doesn't even begin to describe Photojunction. It's amazing/fabulous/incredible/magical. Erin designs all of our albums in PhotoJunction, even though we offer three very different types of albums. The albums we offer are KISS, Couture, and Queensberry - KISS for digital flushmount, Couture for fashion-forward simple designs, and Queensberry for unique and elegant Duo albums. We've selected these three manufacturers out of the immense pool of album production companies because they share a few key traits in common: 1) they're the absolute best at the type of album they make, 2) their customer service is impeccable and 3) they're constantly pushing the boundaries of their craft.
If you're in the place where you're deciding which albums you'd like to offer your clients I think the biggest (and most helpful) question to ask yourself is WHY you are choosing a specific vendor. Don't just begin using a particular vendor off or my (or anyone else's) recommendation - do your homework and make sure that they're a good fit for YOU and your clients. I can, however, say that I stand behind the companies we work with 100% and I can also tell you that although we offer KISS, Coutour, and Queensberry albums the ones that sell the most are KISS and Queensberry.
How do you set your White Balance? Do you use auto or Kelvin?
Since we shoot RAW, we don't have to worry too much about white balance up front, so we shoot Auto White Balance and that typically gets the majority of our images pretty close to correct. Additionally, since our buddies over at Colorati are doing all of our color correction, they'll be sure to take care of making sure each image has the proper color temperature.
I firmly believe that while we're shooting on a wedding day our clients are paying for us to be shooting, not messing with a white balance card or color passport. Instead of spending time making sure the WB is perfect while shooting, I think our time is better spent being observant of moments as they occur and capturing them. Now I don't mean you shouldn't pay attention to what you're doing technically, because you DEFINITELY should be and you should really be getting things right "in camera." But don't miss important candid moments if you're paying too much attention to things like your white balance.
Sometimes, though, if I want to see how the image will look when properly white balanced, I'll manually set it using Kelvin. I do this a lot with scene-setting shots, particularly around twilight.
What do you think is the biggest secret to your success?
This is a tough question to answer, and I hate to sound vague, but the biggest "secret" to our success is no secret at all. Its simply relationships. How does any small, service minded business succeed? It's people. There is absolutely no software or album or website company out there that will do more for your business than loving people and building relationships. But you have to have an authentic attitude built around humility and service. Don't build relationships in order to get ahead in your business - that kind of attitude will hurt you more than you can imagine, not only in wedding photography, but in life. Build relationships in order to help other people. Care about other people. Work hard on your business and work hard at loving others. That's the formula for success - life success - in our opinion.
A really great book to read on this topic is "Love is the Killer App" by Tim Sanders. The book really focuses on how important truly loving others and putting them first really is. Highly recommended.
Do you worry about manually choosing a focus point or do you let the camera auto choose for you? Seems that manually choosing would be too time consuming.
Both Erin & I choose our focus point manually, for sure! The camera isn't smart enough to choose the right point, ESPECIALLY when shooting a very shallow depth of field (like f/2.0, for example) so having your camera in "grid" focus mode where it chooses the point closest to the camera is a good way to get a ton of soft images.
Setting the focus point manually is quite time consuming if you have the focus point selection method set to the default method, but if you use the custom functions of your camera (on a Canon at least) you can switch the method of selection to "Multi-Controller-Direct" which makes that little joystick on the back of your camera body select your point. Push the joystick in for center, right for right, up for top, etc. What this means for us is that I can be talking to a client, with the camera at my side, and be quickly selecting the left most focus point so that when I lift the camera up to my eye, I'm ready to compose the shot, focus, and capture the image without fussing around getting the right point selected.
This is available on all Canon Models, but the CF number is different. Check your camera manual for specific instructions on setting this up. I promise, this will change your life
Again, if you want to ask us a question, go ahead and leave it in the comments and we'll keep in mind for our next FAQ post. Happy Friday!
-Jeff
Be sure to check out our other FAQ Posts by clicking here.
7 comments
Steph - Thanks for the info on the focus points. I am a Canon gal but recently shot with a friends Nikon and loved how intuitive it was with being able to easily change focus points and my aperture. I currently have the Xsi which is part of the problem but I was afraid when I upgrade that the 7D wouldn’t have the same easy ways to change focus points, glad to see it does!! i normally center focus and recompose but have become addicted to shooting at 1.4 and I shoot lots of little kids that sometime move as fast I recompose and press the shutter down then *bam* I have a sharp nose and soft eyes.
jenna rowe photo - Hey Jeff!
ok. i give up. i sooo need your help. back to the question i think ive asked you before. what is the best most efficient way to get side by side (or collage) images into my blog? i know how to set it up in photoshop but not sure how to get them to look nice in my blog. the FAQ you had for importing images into your blog (batch, excel etc) was PERF!saved me a TON of time. which is why i come to you way too much. you guys have it down. thanks in advance!!!! see you soon at PUG!
Moniek - Hi Erin and Jeff!
Thank you for all your great tips and help to all of us learning photographers!
Moniek
I didn’t find an answer to how to get great black and white pictures in LR or PS. What are you to doing to make black and white pictures to look great?
Thank you for answering!
Tonhya Kae - Thanks for all the great tips!! And THANK YOU for all the blog love , seriously. It’s so nice to be supported by other photographers! You guys are AWESOME!
David Bjorgen - And just to add to the Multi-Controller-Direct tip, even when this function is enabled, users can always press the AF point selection button to re-enable the traditional AF functionality.
Dennis Bullock - I like that focus selection tip using the joystick! I will need to give it a go. I have been focusing and then recomposing and I think I am missing some sharpness that I could be achieving! Thanks
David Bjorgen - Nice tip on the Multi-Controller-Direct. That’s a good one.