How can I get more clients??

[Browncoat]

Very impressive (and totally accurate) anti-Adobe RGB rant, Derrel.

*golf clap*

 

[The_Traveler]

Make no mistake: you will have forum-based experts telling you that Adobe RGB and wide-gamut this and uber-wide-gamut this is "the way". Uhhhhh...no. That's the way anal-retentive, closed-loop, one-man band type shooters work, and they loooove to tell others how great it is to have those extra colors, you know--for "some day". Always worried about theoretical color spaces and infinite shades of esoteric, peripheral hues, instead of creating images that do not look like crap on everybody else's machines.

And this little extra paragraph, unnecessary except to vent some spleen, to discount other people's opinion.

 

[chuasam]

Derrel is actually right here


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[W.Y.Photo]

He is 100% correct about images intended for web display only. As I shoot for print I am more than inclined to disagree. But since this thread is about web-display images only I will keep my thoughts to myself so as to not confuse anyone.

 

[CameraClicker]

Thank you a lot for the suggestions! I've been having a lot of trouble getting the color on my photos to align with the way they look on my macbook and in photoshop. When I open my website on my iPhone or iPad the colors are significantly washed out. Even when I posted them here, the saturation significantly decreased in comparison to my original photos.

Set your camera to capture and tag to sRGB mode. Edit in sRGB. Export in sRGB. Issue mostly contained. Look into an ALL-sRGB workflow, start to finish. Seriously. If you work on the web, and show on the web, and advertise/promote on the web, and have prints made or sell discs with files that will be seen on the web, or printed by customers, you need to get a workflow that is sRGB-centric; that's the way the larger world actually works. Not the rarified air of people who shoot and process four files per day in the world's widest-gamut color space-Wooo-hooo!.

Read this as a start: sRGB vs. Adobe RGB

Save yourself a TON of headaches, and get your entire workflow and output/display/printing house in order and in accord with what is **expected** at the greatest number of points, across the widest range of devices, across the entire real world.

Make no mistake: you will have forum-based experts telling you that Adobe RGB and wide-gamut this and uber-wide-gamut this is "the way". Uhhhhh...no. That's the way anal-retentive, closed-loop, one-man band type shooters work, and they loooove to tell others how great it is to have those extra colors, you know--for "some day". Always worried about theoretical color spaces and infinite shades of esoteric, peripheral hues, instead of creating images that do not look like crap on everybody else's machines.

Well, the Canon manuals say you should set the camera to sRGB unless you have a specific reason to set Adobe RGB. But, the Epson folks say you should shoot to raw files, convert to the Prophoto colour space (larger than Adobe RGB) and once you are happy with your editing, you should boost mid-tone contrast and send the result to their printer, since it can handle the bigger space. If you are using a custom lab for printing, instead of Walmart, ask what they want you to provide. The majority of devices may only handle sRGB properly today, as time passes more devices are handling other colour spaces properly. Photoshop can be set up so one or two clicks does a final flatten of layers, final sharpening, conversion to the desired colour space, conversion to 8 bits, and saves the result in a folder where you can find it when you upload to the web. It's not really much slower to work with raw files, large colour spaces and 16 bit files. I do it because I like the results better.

This was a super brief summary. A professional should have at least a passing understanding of colour spaces.

What you don't know won't help you, either.

 

[KmH]

A professional should have at least a passing understanding of colour spaces.

And at least a passing understanding of the overall topic of color management.

Tutorials on Color Management & Printing

 

[W.Y.Photo]

A professional should have at least a passing understanding of colour spaces.

And at least a passing understanding of the overall topic of color management.

Tutorials on Color Management & Printing

As well as a passing understanding of when and where to use these systems and methods most effectively.

Color Systems and Spaces

 

[Derrel]

Make no mistake: you will have forum-based experts telling you that Adobe RGB and wide-gamut this and uber-wide-gamut this is "the way". Uhhhhh...no. That's the way anal-retentive, closed-loop, one-man band type shooters work, and they loooove to tell others how great it is to have those extra colors, you know--for "some day". Always worried about theoretical color spaces and infinite shades of esoteric, peripheral hues, instead of creating images that do not look like crap on everybody else's machines.

And this little extra paragraph, unnecessary except to vent some spleen, to discount other people's opinion.

Unnecessary? Spleen? Hardly. I write with passion, Lew. I studied journalism in junior high school, in high school, and at the university level. I studied editorial writing. I wrote many,many published editorials. I'm preparing my readers to confront the prevailing "wisdom" so commonly spewed by the idiotic one-man band forum types who rant up and down about the superiority of wide-gamut color spaces, and who are ignorant of the realities of shooting for a wider audience than one's self. I sell and shoot images that OTHER people have printed.

The anal-rententive, closed-loop, one-man band type of shooters, you know,"the forum types", the guys who never sell any images, or have any files sent to be printed outside, the guys who keep their work on their own hard drives, plugged into their own computers...those are the types who fill forums across the world, and who rant against sRGB. There's really nothing spleen-like about telling somebody seeking guidance in solving a very common and persistent yet vexing problem that what you are telling them runs strongly counter to "common wisdom" as found all over the internet. it's called writing with passion; it's called writing to make a point; it's called preparing the reader to accept a challenge to preconceived notions. What I did is part of being able to write at a high level--it's the type of technique one learns when one studies writing at one of the finest journalism universities in the USA. It's called writing effectively: it drew you into the fray. It got you off your butt. It caused an emotional reaction. From across the country.

Let me ask: what color space do you work in, Lew? Do you have a recommendation on this subject?

 

[tirediron]

OKAY... 'nuf's enough!! The OP asked about increasing her client base, NOT for a dissertation on the merits of one colour-space over another. Please confine all future responses to the actual question, mmmkay?

Thanks!

 

[lauraceja]

Can you elaborate a little more on the "about page"? Do you think it would be better if I had that page as a post on my blog instead? And do something slightly more simple on my webpage?

 

[astroNikon]

Can you elaborate a little more on the "about page"? Do you think it would be better if I had that page as a post on my blog instead? And do something slightly more simple on my webpage?

The first 3-1/2 paragraphs doesn't really do much to sell yourself to anyone, I think it does the opposite.

"yes" that is your life as it is today, but someone who wants a wedding photographer is looking for someone talking about their wedding photography and how they will use their experience to capture the moment and the event, not their life up to becoming a photographer from a hobby. I want a photographer, not a hobbyist. your first few paragraphs I get the distinct impression, as you say, this is a hobby.

Talk about your photography and why they should hire you.
and get a better self portrait.

btw, on your blog page about wedding photographers I get the concept that great wedding photographers are easy to find. Truthfully with that gigantic picture of a flower immediately following it that all I read. Instead, which is alluded too in the 2nd paragraph way down the page after the picture of a flower (?) not of a lady in a wedding dress .... you allude too a wedding photographer takes into account every nuance of a wedding to make sure the images captured are lifetime memories. And instead of listing what people should look for, why not tell them WHY you are great at wedding photography?

you basically give people a shopping list of what to look for in a wedding photographer, and basically tell them .. now go out and find yourself a wedding photographer. well, aren't *you* trying to get them to hire you as the wedding photographer ??

If you don't have a pic of someone in a wedding dress, find a friend with a really nice white dress, or someone who already got married, and take some shots.

 

[W.Y.Photo]

Can you elaborate a little more on the "about page"? Do you think it would be better if I had that page as a post on my blog instead? And do something slightly more simple on my webpage?

Everything astro said.

Your about me shouldn't be too long winded but if you want to entertain your viewers with some writing do it in a way that will make them want to buy you rather than relate to you. Like you said, thats much better done in a blog

Edit: This is not to say that being relatable is a bad thing. Just that it is better done in conjunction with things like "I take good pictures", "I have experience with photography", and "I won't screw up your wedding"

 

[CameraClicker]

Paragraph 1 says you don't plan ahead and aren't normal. Paragraph 2 says you were unsure about school. Paragraph 3 says you had a lot of doubts and photography was a hobby. Paragraph 4 you use the word "passion", which is the word every mom-with-a-camera uses. Paragraph 5 is pretty good, until you get to the part about anything you need photographed will be etched in your heart! The last paragraph is OK. You should probably re-write the whole thing. Mention your school, and your degree. You don't need to say when you went to school. Say where you are located, the city if it is small, or the area of the city if it is very large. Think about adding a few positive things about your life for human interest. Have someone write it for you if you are uncomfortable talking about yourself. It could be written like the Foreword in a book.

Your "Choosing A Great Wedding Photographer" blog reads like it was written by a wedding planner. The last line just needs to say "We can save you all that work by recommending a great wedding photographer." Scott Kelby frequently says flowers are naturally beautiful, if you are going to put them in your portfolio the photo has to be awesome. The photo that you chose for the blog has one of the saddest flower photos I have seen. The colours are posterized, the flowers are not healthy, the background has blurry dead blooms. So, where an exceptional wedding photo should be, there is a bad flower photo? If you are shooting weddings, your page should be limited to weddings, or perhaps also include portraits and baby photos. The only flowers should be at weddings: background gardens, bouquets, boutineers and table centre pieces.

Customers cover the spectrum from wanting the least expensive photos possible to asking for very expensive photos. They also cover the spectrum from not having any idea what a good photo looks like, to being quite discerning. Those spectrums don't always align, but usually those willing to pay more are also more discerning. There are lots of moms with cameras that are doing shoot and burn weddings who advertise very low rates. Some take terrible photos, some are not so bad. As the price goes up, so (usually) does experience and quality. There is a lot of competition at all levels.

Customers don't care how much you have invested, or what your costs are. Customers are interested in themselves. What are they going to receive, and how much will it cost them. If they perceive your fee is in alignment with your quality and your quality is acceptable, you will make the short list. If your fee is either too high or too low compared to quality, you will be discarded quickly. If the customer finds a few photographers in their price range with commensurate quality, they will choose the photographer who's photos they like best, or who is charging least, depending on the customer's valuation of wedding photos. Almost everyone puts their best photos on their web page. Customers will frequently want to see a couple of complete weddings to make sure you didn't get a couple of lucky shots.

If you are personable, priced for your quality and presenting reasonable quality, you should be able to attract customers.

So, decide what your best photos are. Run them through post processing again to make them look their best and make sRGB JPEG files to post. Then, try to look at all the other photographer's pages in your area and figure out where your quality fits in. Set your pricing accordingly.

 

[photog4life]

Thank you a lot for the suggestions! I've been having a lot of trouble getting the color on my photos to align with the way they look on my macbook and in photoshop. When I open my website on my iPhone or iPad the colors are significantly washed out. Even when I posted them here, the saturation significantly decreased in comparison to my original photos.

Set your camera to capture and tag to sRGB mode. Edit in sRGB. Export in sRGB. Issue mostly contained. Look into an ALL-sRGB workflow, start to finish. Seriously. If you work on the web, and show on the web, and advertise/promote on the web, and have prints made or sell discs with files that will be seen on the web, or printed by customers, you need to get a workflow that is sRGB-centric; that's the way the larger world actually works. Not the rarified air of people who shoot and process four files per day in the world's widest-gamut color space-Wooo-hooo!.

Read this as a start: sRGB vs. Adobe RGB

Save yourself a TON of headaches, and get your entire workflow and output/display/printing house in order and in accord with what is **expected** at the greatest number of points, across the widest range of devices, across the entire real world.

Make no mistake: you will have forum-based experts telling you that Adobe RGB and wide-gamut this and uber-wide-gamut this is "the way". Uhhhhh...no. That's the way anal-retentive, closed-loop, one-man band type shooters work, and they loooove to tell others how great it is to have those extra colors, you know--for "some day". Always worried about theoretical color spaces and infinite shades of esoteric, peripheral hues, instead of creating images that do not look like crap on everybody else's machines.

This just solved alot of my problems. I was one of the photographers that fell into this idea of Adobe RGB is the way to go.After producing one image with s-rgb exclusively I realized that the colors are WAY better on other screens such as my tablet. Just wanted to say thanks because you have saved me countless nights trying to figure out how to get colors to match up!

 

[pgriz]

Small businesses do well when they occupy a well-defined niche. Usually in that niche:
1) You are heads and shoulders better than the competition,
2) You have a well-defined client "type" that wants your services and is prepared to pay your price
3) You have an effective way to reach out to new prospects that meet the "type" you're going for.

So the business lessons are:
- know who your customer is, what they want, and what they are prepared to pay (also known as "customer profile").
- know what their hot-buttons are, what they are looking for, and how to get their attention (also known as "buying need" and marketing)
- know how to convince them you're the one (also known as "selling")
- know how to deliver on the promises made (production, delivery, collections)

This applies to your web site in that EVERYTHING about that web site needs to address the first three business issues. Anything that will distract or put doubts in their minds, is a negative. And you really need to be tracking the number of visits to the site, relative to the number of inquiries you're getting.