As a lifestyle photographer, it's not often that I get hired to do formal family portraits. However, when I do them, I enjoy the challenge.

Here's my thought process behind a recent family formal portrait.

• Subjects:  parents + their 2 adult children and one of their spouses

• Selecting the background: the parents live right on the Puget Sound. The grounds are immaculate - the grass almost looks like a putting green. I knew the background had to be the view from the backyard - no real discussion here, this one was obvious.

• The pose:  most photographers would probably set up a shot like this:

Now there's nothing wrong with this shot. If I had to shoot 30 family formals in 30 minutes (like at a wedding) I'd probably shoot something like this.  But the problem is that there is no concept behind the shot.  It's just a bunch of people standing in a row.

I wanted to do something more interesting. If the client does not have a particular concept in mind, then I just make one up of my own.

My concept for this shot: I imagined that this was, say, a family that ran a prominent business and a story about their lavish estate was being run in Town & Country Magazine.  I wanted a more 3 dimensional pose, which showed them in a more interesting and relaxing setting.

Here's my diagram of the final shot:

I set up two lawn chairs, one about 3 feet closer than the other, and placed the parents in the chairs. Then the "kids" went behind them. I wanted everyone to be relaxed, yet still in a more formal position than you'd typically see in one of my lifestyle portraits.

Using these chairs gave me 3 levels to work with: sitting on the chair, sitting on the arm, and standing. Placing the 2nd chair 3 feet behind the first adds a 4th level.  These levels contribute to the depth of the image.

The key, however, to any family portrait (formal or lifestyle) is to show the closeness of the family members, which is why I made sure they were touching each other. The smiles came from me just joking around with them.

Here's the final image. No Photoshop was required - this is straight from Lightroom.

Here are the technicals for the shot:

(1) Set the camera on manual mode, evaluative (matrix) metering.  I used the following as a default setting:  ISO 100, f8, 1/200 sec.  Camera was a Canon 5D with 70-200mm lens @ 70mm.

(2) Take a test shot, view histogram to judge exposure. In this case, my initial settings were just fine. It gave me about -1 stop of exposure, just where I wanted it. Why underexpose the ambient light by one stop? Two reasons: it really turns the sky a nice blue on a sunny day or makes the clouds more dramatic on a cloudy day. Second, it will really make your subjects pop out when lit with off camera flash.

(3)  My 580exII flash was on a stand to camera right. I did not use any umbrella or softbox. This was just straight, direct flash. Why no umbrella? To be honest, it was simply too windy to use an umbrella. However, because I had my flash pulled back some distance away from my subjects (to cover all of them without any significant light falloff between the nearest and farthest person), an umbrella would only have made a minor difference anyway.

(4)  I set my flash on manual mode, 1/2 power and took a test shot. It was slightly underexposed so I bumped up the power a bit, but I was still less than full power.

(5)  I kneeled down on one knee to get a low camera angle and fired away. I took about 6 shots from this position. Remember that a low camera angle always adds drama and power to a shot. Taken at eye level this shot would not have been nearly as interesting. Get down on that knee!

That's pretty much it.  When I opened the image in Lightroom, exposure was perfect. I did not have to move the exposure slider at all. The only thing I did was add a tiny bit of sharpening. Remember that a sharp lens, f8, and perfect light all contribute to an image that's already going to be sharp.

When I was shopping for auto insurance, I met with an insurance agent. I had intended to get some recommendations only for auto insurance, but he put together a package that also bundled together homeowner's insurance.  

In the end he convinced me to get a auto/home package that gave me better coverage for less money than I was spending before.  In short, he up-sold me.  Far from being annoyed, I was pleased. They key was that he was up-front about what he was presenting to me, and I ended up getting something better than expected.

That's the way it should be done.  However, just about every single wedding photographer I've talked to is leaving lots of money on the table when it comes to album sales. This problem is easy to correct.

Here's the way I do it:

(1)   Start out by including wedding album credits in your packages, not actual albums.  I learned this from Gary Fong. By the way, if Gary Fong is not on your list of photographers to admire and emulate, he should be. He was earning $10k + per wedding at a time when it was simply unheard of.

Okay, back on topic. For example, instead of including a 30 page, 10x10 album in your wedding package, include an album credit. If you charge, say, $40 per page for a 10x10, then include a $1,000 credit instead.

Why credits instead of actual albums?  If you include a 30 page 10x10 album in the package, then your clients will expect a 30 page 10x10 album. The "30 pages" becomes imprinted in their brains. They begin to think that a wedding album should be 30 pages, nothing more. Any attempt to get them to buy more pages will give them the impression that you're just trying to bleed them for more money. By contrast, an album credit leaves the # of pages to be an open possibility.

(2)  After the wedding, design the first draft without any client input.  Two reasons: first, if you wait for your clients to select images then you could end up waiting for a long time. In some cases - years. Second, your clients have never designed an album before so how would they know which images would make the best design?

(3)  I tell my clients up front that the 1st draft is my ultimate album design. The design I would make with the images if it were my own wedding.  A no-limits design.  My clients know up front that my 1st draft averages 50-60 pages. I also tell them that they are free to make edits, add or remove pages.

(4)  A few weeks after the wedding I email my first draft album design. I again remind them that they can edit the pages, remove pages or add pages. Usually they make a few image substitutions and also typically cut out a few spreads. That's okay.

(5) After a couple of rounds of changes, they are usually left with an album around 40-46 pages. Since my album credit included in my best selling package (your best selling package, by the way, should alwyas  be your "middle" package) is only enough to buy 24 pages, I usually end up with an after-wedding up-sell of about $1,000.   This is an extra $1,000 that most photographers leave on the table. And the client is never surprised or upset. They want the extra pages, because they have had time to emotionally bond with them. And they were expecting a big album up front.

That's pretty much it.  I'll be discussing this topic and many others in greater depth at my May 22 Starting a Profitable Wedding Business workshop.

Laurence Kim Workshops

May 22, Seattle, Starting a Profitable Wedding Business: seats available

One-on-one workshops available via Skype

Okay, I'll admit it, I'm the opposite of an early adopter.  I rarely use Facebook, and I've never Tweeted in my life. And I don't intend to. I just don't see the need to tell the world what I eat for breakfast every morning.

But there's one technology that is just too useful for me to ignore any longer.

I got on Skype for the first time last week, and I'm convinced it is the best way to do a remote workshop for photographers unable to travel to Seattle.

Why Skype?

• The calls are FREE. You don't have to tie up your phone or use any precious cell phone minutes.

• It's easy - sign up only takes a minute and you're ready to go.

• The sound-quality is much better than a regular phone call.

• Most importantly, using Skype my workshop students can VIEW MY SCREEN during the session, so now I can do more than simply verbally go over an emailed PDF presentation. I can now show my students in real time how I use Lightroom, Photoshop, design albums, etc.

Just email me to schedule a Skype session. Cost is $100 per hour and potential topics include (but are not limited to):

• Lighting:  natural light, on-camera flash, off-camera flash
• Shooting:  metering, camera settings, focusing
• Posing: kids, brides and grooms, seniors
• Color correcting and proofing using Lightroom and/or Adobe Camera Raw/Photoshop
• Portrait retouching using Photoshop
  
• Marketing: a system for bringing in qualified portrait clients
• Pricing:  how to design portrait price lists and wedding packages
  
• Products: what to offer, where to get it, how to price it
• Sales: how to dramatically increase your portrait averages and upsell your wedding albums
• Gear: what gear you need, what you don't need, and what to buy at every budget
• Building a wedding photography business from scratch
• Building a profitable portrait business from scratch

Building a Wedding Photography Business

Saturday, May 22, Seattle WA

Seats still available  

Part 2 of my wedding album series focus on how I lay out my album spreads.

I don't use any special album design software. I just use good old Photoshop. It's really easy and gives you the most degree of flexibility. With template software, you get boxed in by the template designs. In Photoshop, any design is possible.

Below is an example of how I lay out a spread.

Step 1:  Create a new Photoshop document

In this example I'm creating a 10x10 album. Therefore the size of the spread is 20x10.  In Photoshop, go to file/new and you'll get this dialog box. Set your document size to 20x10 at 300 ppi. I like to design albums on a white background so I set my background white.  By the way, all of my album designs are square. Why square? It's the most flexible because with the push of a button you can resize it to any size without worrying about a change in aspect ratio. I can make a 10x10 album for the bride and groom and at the same time make a 5x5 for the parents without doing any re-designing.

Step 2:  turn on grid lines

Go to view/show/grid to turn on the grid lines. These lines will not print, they are there as a visual guide only.

Step 3:  create guide lines

Go to view/new guide.  I create vertical guidelines at 5, 10 and 15 inches and a horizontal guideline at 5 inches. These guidelines will help you lay out your images evenly. The 10 inch vertical guideline also shows you where the center seam is.

Step 4:  Save this file.

I usually name it "template". You can save it as a jpeg. Every time you create a new spread you'll call up this file, work on it, and then save it under a new name (e.g. "page 07-08").

Step 5:  Now you're ready to start designing!  The first thing I do is to visualize what I want the spread to look like. I usually design the spread in my head.  However, you may want to sketch it out on a piece of paper. In this example, I'm designing the spread with the wedding details. As I mentioned in Part 1, I usually design the details as a collage with smaller images, since each detail is not - by itself - important enough to justify a really large image.

Step 6:  Pick and prepare images in Lightroom

Now I leave Photoshop and head back to lightroom.  My mission is to pick out 8 detail images for the spread. Once I've picked out the 8 images I'll use the crop function in Lightroom to crop. In this case - square.

Step 7:  Export the images

Highlight the 8 images for the spread then hit the "export" button and you'll get this export dialog box.  You'll see I have the resolution set to 300 ppi.  I also resize to 4.5" x 4.5".  Why this size?  Well, if I am going to put 4 images on each side that's 10" wide, then I want my total image width to be about 9".  This will give me some white margin along the sides. If I wanted the page to be full-bleed (no white space showing), then I'd size the images at exactly 5x5.  Lastly, I have a droplet that sharpens as I export. In this case, I'm running the Kevin Kubota Magic Sharp action on export. I wrote a tutorial here on how to set up a droplet for Lightroom.

I export the images to a temporary folder. As soon as I finish laying out the spread, I empty the folder because (1) I don't need them any more once the spread is finished and (2) always working with an empty folder means that as I'm working on a spread I don't have to sort through any images, I know that any image in this temporary folder is one that I'll need for the spread I'm currently working on.

Now I jump back to Photoshop. My template is still open. I open up all the images from my temporary folder. There should now be 8 images in the folder, all perfectly sized at 4x5 x 4x5.

Step 8:  move the images onto the template.

Pick the Move tool, which should be the first tool on your Photoshop toolbar. Click and drag the images onto your template. Using the blue guidelines, it should be really easy to line up the images.

Step 9:  complete and save the spread.

Here's the final spread, with the grid and guidelines turned off. It is critical that you save the file as a PSD file and NOT as a jpeg. Later on if your client asks you to substitute one of the images you'll have to start from scratch if you save as a jpeg. If you save as a PSD you can swap out an image just by deleting the layer that it's on.

Quick tip: name your file something like "page 09-10".  Do NOT name the file "spread 5".  Why? Because clients somehow get very confused about page numbers. Some of them somehow think that a two page spread is only one page. I'm not sure how they get confused, as every book they've ever read in their entire lives has been 1 page = 1 side.  Nevertheless, by naming the spread "page 09-10" it is absolutely clear that they are looking at - and paying for - two pages here, not one.

A couple more notes:

- You'll obviously resize the image in Lightroom according to your design. For example, if I want two vertical images on one side, then I'll size them at about 6.5".  For a full-bleed panoramic image I don't resize at all. You will probably need to grab a corner and make the image slightly larger to fit a 10x10 two page spread.

- Before submitting to your album manufacturer you'll need to convert the PSD files to jpegs. To do this I use Bridge. Highlight all the spreads, then go to tools/Photoshop/image processor to convert to jpegs. This will only take a minute.

That's pretty much it!

In part 3 I'll review my process for overall workflow and selling albums.

Laurence Kim Workshops

Starting a Profitable Wedding Business, May 22, Seattle WA

Workshops available by phone:

- Location Lighting 101

- Building a Profitable Portrait Business

- Starting a Profitable Wedding Business

So you have a bit of gear, you like photography, and your family and friends tell you that you're good at it.  You want to start making some money shooting weddings.  

After all, wedding photography can be a great business, especially for part-timers. Shoot one wedding per month and you've got your mortgage payment covered. That's pretty sweet.

Okay, so now what do you do?

This workshop is designed for photographers that are new to the wedding photography business. It is geared for togs that have 0-2 years in the wedding photo business (although I'm sure more experienced weddings togs could pick up some valuable info as well). It will take you step by step from where you are now to running a successful business.

Topics include:

• Gear:  what you need (and what you don't) to begin shooting weddings. How to build the gear you need at a minimal cost.

• Portfolio:  how to build your wedding portfolio when you're starting from zero. It's tough to build a portfolio when most established photographers won't give you a chance to 2nd shoot for them.

• Pricing:  how much to charge for your 1st wedding, your 2nd, your 3rd, and so on. How and when to move up the pricing scale. A la carte or packages? How to design packages. How to charge for albums. How to sell extra album pages.

• Shooting: although this workshop is focused primarily on the business side of wedding photography, we will review tips on how to quickly and professionally shoot the bride/groom portraits, wedding party and family formals.  

• Your website: how to set it up. What vendors to use. Understanding what makes a great website design.

• Music on your website? the pros and cons.

• Marketing:  how to book clients. How to network. The best places to advertise. Where to spend your money (and where not to)

• Selling:  how to conduct the sales meeting and get booked! How to upsell your albums.

• Booking policies:  how to book a wedding. What to say when a potential client asks you to hold a date without a signed agreement and retainer. What to say when they ask you to tell them if anyone else is interested in their date.

• Legal:  how to construct your wedding contract. We'll review my current wedding contract line-by-line.

• Workflow: how to efficiently process your wedding images.

• Vendors:  what vendors I use for printing and albums.

• Wedding albums:  how to design them using Photoshop. (if we have time)
  

Laurence Kim Workshops