Whats the equipment that "Picture People" use?

[CCericola]

Ok. I will admit this. When I was working as a product designer I worked at the Picture People over the Christmas holiday to make extra spending money as all of our extra cash was going to buy our house.

It was 2007. We used a 20D as the location had just switched from film (Mamiya 645) to digital. The lights were Photogenic. There was a main light, fill light and hair light. The main was a 60" octagon softbox, fill was a slightly smaller rectangle softbox, the hair light was a standard size hair light softbox strip. They were all Westcott. To trigger the lights we used radio triggers. I don't remember the brand or model.

The lights were set daily to flat, boring lighting. They were adjusted so we could shoot at F8 at 1/250th. The fill and main were set at the same output and the hair light was at 1/4 of that.

The camera stands were taken away along with the mamiyas. The camera was hand held and the lights were mounted on a rail system. The backgrounds are vinyl and I still remember the smell of the cleaner as they had to be washed every night.

It sounds like you only want to emulate their shooting style not their business model. Their model is ok but will take a bigger investment than you have. They are not going out of business. Yes, they have downsized ( the one I worked at is gone) but there are still 6 all within 20 miles of each other here in NJ. They are in the malls and are always packed.

It was an ok job. The best part was I didn't NEED the job so I pretty much did what I liked. The manager would try to talk to me and I would just stare and her and say "I don't care" I think I drove her crazy. Then I got a huge, unexpected bonus from my day job and I came in to give her 1 week notice. She gave me a hard time so I looked at her and said "fine! no notice! I'm leaving now! bye!" Then the next month they were closed. I like to think it was because of me as I had the highest sales . I know it's not true but it's fun to think that

You want to shoot in that style, get 3 strobes, three soft boxes, a background and a camera. You don't NEED a radio trigger. You can use a sync chord. They usually come with the lights. Make sure the lights have a built in slave so when you trigger the main light with the sync chord it sets off the other two.

Its not not rocket science. I think all the cookie cutter places use the same basic set up.

 

[CCericola]

P.S. I still have my Picture People black golf shirt.

 

[from_iowa]

Ok. I will admit this. When I was working as a product designer I worked at the Picture People over the Christmas holiday to make extra spending money as all of our extra cash was going to buy our house.

It was 2007. We used a 20D as the location had just switched from film (Mamiya 645) to digital. The lights were Photogenic. There was a main light, fill light and hair light. The main was a 60" octagon softbox, fill was a slightly smaller rectangle softbox, the hair light was a standard size hair light softbox strip. They were all Westcott. To trigger the lights we used radio triggers. I don't remember the brand or model.

The lights were set daily to flat, boring lighting. They were adjusted so we could shoot at F8 at 1/250th. The fill and main were set at the same output and the hair light was at 1/4 of that.

The camera stands were taken away along with the mamiyas. The camera was hand held and the lights were mounted on a rail system. The backgrounds are vinyl and I still remember the smell of the cleaner as they had to be washed every night.

It sounds like you only want to emulate their shooting style not their business model. Their model is ok but will take a bigger investment than you have. They are not going out of business. Yes, they have downsized ( the one I worked at is gone) but there are still 6 all within 20 miles of each other here in NJ. They are in the malls and are always packed.

It was an ok job. The best part was I didn't NEED the job so I pretty much did what I liked. The manager would try to talk to me and I would just stare and her and say "I don't care" I think I drove her crazy. Then I got a huge, unexpected bonus from my day job and I came in to give her 1 week notice. She gave me a hard time so I looked at her and said "fine! no notice! I'm leaving now! bye!" Then the next month they were closed. I like to think it was because of me as I had the highest sales . I know it's not true but it's fun to think that

You want to shoot in that style, get 3 strobes, three soft boxes, a background and a camera. You don't NEED a radio trigger. You can use a sync chord. They usually come with the lights. Make sure the lights have a built in slave so when you trigger the main light with the sync chord it sets off the other two.

Its not not rocket science. I think all the cookie cutter places use the same basic set up.

Thanks for the reply.You are exactly right, I wanted to understand their setup, not their business model and your reply has helped a lot thanks.
I went to a camera store today for the first time and told the owner I want something better than what the Picture People (40D with huge flash lights) are using and he set me up with the following:
Canon Rebel T5i
Tamron AF 18-270mm f/3.5-6.3 VC PZD All-In-One Zoom Lens for Canon DSLR, Model BOO8E Filter Size 062mm
ProMaster VL-1144 LED Studio Light x2
and some background stuff.

You guys think this would be a solid setup for professional grade pictures?
The only thing that scares me are those lights. They seem small and cost $800 for 2 of them. I'm wondering if these 2 LED continuous lights can beat the Picture People in the "light" department ...

 

[e.rose]

Ok. I will admit this. When I was working as a product designer I worked at the Picture People over the Christmas holiday to make extra spending money as all of our extra cash was going to buy our house.

It was 2007. We used a 20D as the location had just switched from film (Mamiya 645) to digital. The lights were Photogenic. There was a main light, fill light and hair light. The main was a 60" octagon softbox, fill was a slightly smaller rectangle softbox, the hair light was a standard size hair light softbox strip. They were all Westcott. To trigger the lights we used radio triggers. I don't remember the brand or model.

The lights were set daily to flat, boring lighting. They were adjusted so we could shoot at F8 at 1/250th. The fill and main were set at the same output and the hair light was at 1/4 of that.

The camera stands were taken away along with the mamiyas. The camera was hand held and the lights were mounted on a rail system. The backgrounds are vinyl and I still remember the smell of the cleaner as they had to be washed every night.

It sounds like you only want to emulate their shooting style not their business model. Their model is ok but will take a bigger investment than you have. They are not going out of business. Yes, they have downsized ( the one I worked at is gone) but there are still 6 all within 20 miles of each other here in NJ. They are in the malls and are always packed.

It was an ok job. The best part was I didn't NEED the job so I pretty much did what I liked. The manager would try to talk to me and I would just stare and her and say "I don't care" I think I drove her crazy. Then I got a huge, unexpected bonus from my day job and I came in to give her 1 week notice. She gave me a hard time so I looked at her and said "fine! no notice! I'm leaving now! bye!" Then the next month they were closed. I like to think it was because of me as I had the highest sales . I know it's not true but it's fun to think that

You want to shoot in that style, get 3 strobes, three soft boxes, a background and a camera. You don't NEED a radio trigger. You can use a sync chord. They usually come with the lights. Make sure the lights have a built in slave so when you trigger the main light with the sync chord it sets off the other two.

Its not not rocket science. I think all the cookie cutter places use the same basic set up.

Hey. I worked for Lifetouch for a bit.

Although, I'm sorry to say I wasn't as ballsy as you were, because I *did* need the job at the time... and also... I may be a relentless smarta**, but I generally try to behave myself around children.

 

[molested_cow]

You ever consider just renting the empty store out and put that rent income towards a photography class?

 

[Overread]

I went to a camera store today for the first time and told the owner I want something better than what the Picture People (40D with huge flash lights) are using and he set me up with the following:
Canon Rebel T5i
Tamron AF 18-270mm f/3.5-6.3 VC PZD All-In-One Zoom Lens for Canon DSLR, Model BOO8E Filter Size 062mm
ProMaster VL-1144 LED Studio Light x2
and some background stuff.

You guys think this would be a solid setup for professional grade pictures?
The only thing that scares me are those lights. They seem small and cost $800 for 2 of them. I'm wondering if these 2 LED continuous lights can beat the Picture People in the "light" department ...

Well the camera body is good enough, its rebel which means entry level, but in a studio condition with the right lens and lighting gear it should do well. The 18-270mm though is a bad choice. It's a superzoom covering a huge zoom range and as a result there are many compromises in its design along with its lower price point. The lenses I mentioned earlier would have been superior choices optically speaking.

You can certainly learn with the 18-270mm and heck in a studio with the right light at a short focal length it should do decently well, but with the budget you stated and the overall desires you aired earlier its not what I would have chosen.


The lights are anodd choice; continuous lighting is generally not ideal for stills photography and won't give out as much power (typically) than a flash light can. LED at least avoids the heat problem that regular continuous lighting offers; however I wonder if those will have the power to do studio work for stills photography. Experiment and find out because I honestly don't know and they are not cheap lights and so you've at least got decent over all quality. What you will want is umbrellas/softboxes to go with them to help diffuse the light.

 

[astroNikon]

Here's a lovely thread to read about another newbie going through nearly the same scenario. 2 years later she's back and looks like she's taking nice professional photos compared to what I read before. And she uses a Rebel.
http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/...ed-my-photography-biz-need-c-c-please-15.html

I'm not a pro by anymeans, but I was curious why you purchased such a low end lens and continuous lighting considering all of the advice you got earlier and a stated budget of $6k. You need to plan out that $6k in camera body, lenses, lights, modifiers, computer, editing software, printing requirements for in-house/external printing, booklets etc. Listen to the pros above that have done it. I'm not a pro but I'm probably well over $4k for a simple home studio type setup and most of my stuff I bought used (and I don't do any printing at all).


Might I add .. when I first started learning photography I knew nothing of how to interpret the technology terms. And the first additional lens I bought was a 55-200 /4.5-6 which was, for what I wanted to do, complete junk. It took me a long time to just learn the terminology to get the proper equipment - that excludes learning how to use it .. I'm still learning.

 

[robbins.photo]

Ok. I will admit this. When I was working as a product designer I worked at the Picture People over the Christmas holiday to make extra spending money as all of our extra cash was going to buy our house.

It was 2007. We used a 20D as the location had just switched from film (Mamiya 645) to digital. The lights were Photogenic. There was a main light, fill light and hair light. The main was a 60" octagon softbox, fill was a slightly smaller rectangle softbox, the hair light was a standard size hair light softbox strip. They were all Westcott. To trigger the lights we used radio triggers. I don't remember the brand or model.

The lights were set daily to flat, boring lighting. They were adjusted so we could shoot at F8 at 1/250th. The fill and main were set at the same output and the hair light was at 1/4 of that.

The camera stands were taken away along with the mamiyas. The camera was hand held and the lights were mounted on a rail system. The backgrounds are vinyl and I still remember the smell of the cleaner as they had to be washed every night.

It sounds like you only want to emulate their shooting style not their business model. Their model is ok but will take a bigger investment than you have. They are not going out of business. Yes, they have downsized ( the one I worked at is gone) but there are still 6 all within 20 miles of each other here in NJ. They are in the malls and are always packed.

It was an ok job. The best part was I didn't NEED the job so I pretty much did what I liked. The manager would try to talk to me and I would just stare and her and say "I don't care" I think I drove her crazy. Then I got a huge, unexpected bonus from my day job and I came in to give her 1 week notice. She gave me a hard time so I looked at her and said "fine! no notice! I'm leaving now! bye!" Then the next month they were closed. I like to think it was because of me as I had the highest sales . I know it's not true but it's fun to think that

You want to shoot in that style, get 3 strobes, three soft boxes, a background and a camera. You don't NEED a radio trigger. You can use a sync chord. They usually come with the lights. Make sure the lights have a built in slave so when you trigger the main light with the sync chord it sets off the other two.

Its not not rocket science. I think all the cookie cutter places use the same basic set up.

Hey. I worked for Lifetouch for a bit.

Although, I'm sorry to say I wasn't as ballsy as you were, because I *did* need the job at the time... and also... I may be a relentless smarta**, but I generally try to behave myself around children.

You? A smart alek? Huh. You know I've never noticed. Lol

Sent from my LG-LG730 using Tapatalk

 

[from_iowa]

Well I have not bought them yet, he said with everything I listed plus a copy of Lightroom 5 it would be around $2,500. I'm not sure im sold on the lighting, I couldn't find any real reviews for the ProMaster 1144, so I am not sure how its going to workout. The good thing is there is 15 day return policy so if it just doesn't have enough juice for still pictures I will take em back. And regarding the lens, he showed me many different ones but said this would be good because the single length lens have better quality but he said I would need a huge studio if I only had one size to do portraits and then maybe whole family pictures.

 

[astroNikon]

single lens versus multiple primes ... there's a thread on that. You stated the salesperson of a single zoom vs ONE prime ... which should be multiple primes.

here's an example thread of a single lens versus using multiple primes
http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/...me-vs-zoom-28mm-50mm-85mm-vs-24-70-2-8-a.html

 

[Overread]

Lighting wise I'd still strongly suggest going for a normal studio setup with flash light instead of the LED. LED might be "the future" but in my view its not ready yet - certainly if you're not prepared to pay a lot for high end systems. You're in a studio so a typical studio flash setup would give you the most power for the least cost. I can't recommend kits; but that is the path I would (and most photographers do) take.

Lens wise you don't want the 18-270mm; yes it covers a lot of range and as a generalist lens its a good option; but its quality is not going to be there. If you're serious about this then a 24-70mm f2.8 is what you'd want in a typical studio zoom lens. Canon version is very expensive now so I'd look to Sigma for a good high quality lens.
You can always start with that high end zoom and then branch out into primes as you get more experienced if you want.
Remember the lens reflects and directly controls the light that reaches the sensor; if its poor grade glass going through a lot of compromises it will be lower quality then high end glass.

Camera body wise I'm still going to push for you to consider a second hand 5D original or perhaps a 5DMII if you can afford it. New fullframe are expensive (cheapest is the 6D for canon at present). I'd also not advise getting a rebel camera body - they ARE good bodies don't get my wrong; but you can outgrow them an they've some control features that are not as fluid nor easy as middle range bodies can offer.
A 60D or 70D would be what I'd consider a newer budget option in body for a professional setup; ideally a 6D. If not consider that many retailers selling reconditioned and second hand bodies often offer warrenties by default for them and reconditioned bodies are as safe (if not safer) purchases than brand new. A 5D or 5DMII would be cheaper ways to fit into your budget whilst leaving good money for lighting, lenses and accessories (eg lighting modifications, software, props).

 

[usayit]

(I haven't read through the entire thread)

Picture people place in my mall seems to do well. They are a main competitor to Lifetouch studios found in various department stores as well as places such as FLASH!. Our FLASH! digital studio experience was ok but they closed because they simply could make a dent of the pre-established Picture People studio. The LifeTouch studio in JCP is surviving as it seems. Baby's R Us studio also seems to survive but its not core to the stores' business. They target middle to lower income general population that 1) Not necessarily people with discriminating taste in portraiture 2) Not necessarily interested in spending large on a traditional independent photographer 3) The convenience of documenting their kids as they grow. Quick in and out portraits for life events Catholic confirmation, Graduation etc.. These studios are the "fast-food" of photo-studios. I once didn't take them seriously but after becoming a father of 3, two of which are extremely active, fidgety, and suffer a lot of colic, I realize just how important it is to deliver easy access and convenience. So a lot of "judgements" made against them here is pretty unfounded and unfair considering the target intent, demographic, and price point.

As for equipment, they do use decent equipment with a simple setup. Large shoot through umbrella and fill close to the camera on a heavy support system. Nikon DSLRs (don't know the exact ones) with Tamron zooms. Flashes system is triggered with what looks like PocketWizards. Their staff are generally not photographically trained or knowledgable. What they are trained in is the cookie-cutter process of producing photos. A process that is tailored for speed, simplicity and consistent quality. They actually tell you not to stray too far from the process. They don't want you too. What they look for in staff is the ability to provide a good one on one interaction experience with the customers... especially being comfortable, confident, and patient with the very young kids. As for software, they use a package that manages the entire process in one single easy to follow process. From retrieval/archival, to process, to printing, and on to point of sale. I found it extremely interesting system considering I like photography and I am a software developer.

I would have to say that often the reason why some failed has a lot to do with other parts of the business. Targeting the equipment they use is oversimplifying the situation. If I were to guess, the primary reason for a business failure for these studios is either entrenched competition OR (and highly likely) the inability to bring in the right customer service oriented people to deliver the experience that would net a return customer base.

Oh yes... if you are wondering, I did my research. During a long unemployment time period, I seriously considered working for these studios to bring in some sort of income. My conclusion was these are not "photographic" jobs but rather jobs that are in the retail/service side. I figure it would be fun even if the pay was substandard.... time behind the camera too. I also don't mind interacting with customers. Fortunately, a better opportunity arrived soon after and I didn't pursue it any further than my observations.

 

[from_iowa]

Awesome! Thanks for the info. I think the best thing for me to do is to just go and have Picture People photoshoot and just write down all their equipment lol

 

[Derrel]

I have not read every single post here, but usayit's post above has some GEMS in it.

You want electronic FLASH for the lighting. NO LED's, no quartz, no incandescent-but ALL FLASH lighting. Seriously. You. Want. Flash. Units.

More than the equipment, you need to understand how to maximize sales by posing people the right way, and by splitting family groups into smaller components, and also how to shoot for wall display. If a family of five comes in, man, wife, three kids, that's MW+3k. Man, wife, 2 kids + infant is MW+2k+i. That is a gold mine if you shoot it well, AND shoot it "right".

Man; wife; man + wife; wife + kids; man + kids; kids together; kids alone; dad+ the boys; mom + the girls; and so on.

Do you understand THAT side of the business? Do you have any idea of how family dynamics work in selling family portraiture? Do you realize how CRITICAL it is to get good photos of the MAN when his woman brings him in, dressed up and cleaned up?

If you do not understand how to shoot families and how to break down the session into sub-sets, and how to POSITION people, your work will not sell well. THere are a ton of industry practices that you probably have no idea about.

 

[pgriz]

@ from_iowa: the basic problem is that you don't know what you don't know. This isn't a photography question, this is a business question. Who's your customer? What are they expecting to pay? What are they expecting to get in return? What's your profit margin? The last isn't so simple - it's how much effort and cost you have to put in to get what "they" expect to get. In other words, is your skill level equal to what needs to be delivered, in an efficient manner? If not, it doesn't matter what the equipment is, you're not ready. Let's move on. Assuming you now have the skills and the equipment, how many sessions do you need to book to break even? How are you going to get these people to line up at the door? Personally, I'd spend some time doing basic business research - what's the market, who are the primary competitors, what can you offer that they can't, what kind of numbers do you need to have to make this work? If, after doing this research you believe that there's a good business case, THEN look into the photography stuff.

On the other hand, if this was going to be a hobby, then by all means, spend your money and get happy making shutter-clicks.