Amber asked: How do you get your name out there when you’re just starting out with the market being so saturated already? i know this has been asked a million times by others to others but just wanted to know what you have to say!
The best way I got my name out there was meeting everyone I could that I thought could be a beneficial relationship for both of our businesses. For example, if you want to photography babies and kids, try to network with childcare centers, hospital baby departments, kids clothing stores… etc. Try to help their businesses, and most likely they will try to help yours out too.
Also, just treating your clients really really well and giving them an excellent experience worth talking about will spread your name like wildfire.
Amanda asked: How do you always get that PERFECT natural lighting, is it due to your lens type or the positioning of the model in accordance with the sun? How do you find so many different places to shoot at ?! haha!
Well… I don’t know that I always get the PERFECT natural light but with practice, you’ll start to see light differently and even if it’s not the prettiest spot to shoot, if the lighting is great, it’s where I’ll go to shoot. I always looks for natural reflectors everywhere I go. If the light is bouncing off a light colored building, putting the subject in front of that wall, with the sun behind them will create great light. You can look for natural reflectors on buildings, sidewalk, signs, anything that bounces light back on your subjects. I also always have a silver, gold, and white reflector on hand if the light really isn’t that great, or if I just need that extra little bit of light on my subject. I always try and shoot right after sunrise which really never happens because that is way too early, or I shoot a couple hours before sunset. The sun is low, very golden, and right where I want it to get the light I love.
I find places to shoot by just exploring all around. Matt and I drive around to take our dogs hiking and look for cool spots to shoot while were doing that. Some of my favorite spots to shoot are literally right off the road too. If I am driving and see a cool spot, I’ll stop right there and do a shoot!
So for the shot above, I had a reflector about 3 feet away from her, the person standing to the right of my holding it. And this location is pretty close to my house, right off the main road. Found it by exploring!
Maria asked: How do you keep an organized, archived collection of photographs? By date? By client?
I separate it by year, then month, then client name. In each client folder I have a folder for all the raw images, all images for my blog, and all edited jpegs.
This is what it looks like:
Sandy asked: My daughter plays a lot of sports. Which zoom lens would you recommend?
I hardly shoot any sports, so I might not be the best person to ask. Plus it totally depends on your budget. But I would recommend having at least a 100-300mm lens to get closer shots. For canon, there is a consumer lens less than $400- the 70-300, and that would do great for sports.
Kari asked: What are the detailed steps in your post processing? Trying to put a workflow together for myself and pulling a lil of this & that from everyone.
Oh goodness. In detail? Hmmm… well I upload all the files to a folder under the clients name. I back that up onto 3 hard drives. I open up photo mechanic and cull through all the images by rating them. I pull all the 3 stars (which usually is 10-15 images) into photoshop and edit those for my blog. About a week later, I open all the 2 stars into lightroom (15-25 more) and edit those for the client gallery.
As far as editing goes, in photoshop I have created my own actions that I use on almost every image. It sharpens, puts a specific look to the photo that is a mix of all kinds of actions (Totally Rad, Nichole Van, Paint the Moon, Kubota… etc) and then I touch up the skin with patch tool and clone tool, and sometimes burn around the edges to make my subjects pop a little more. In lightroom, I am just color correcting and sharpening. Hope that helps!
Annie asked: I want to ask what your settings are and advice for getting those beautiful sunset pictures when you can see the sun glare, etc? (is that a run on sentence?)
I actually wrote a whole blog post on sun flare here: http://blog.tracymoorephotography.com/?p=5834
Jennifer asked: How many external drives do you is! WHen backup photos and data on mac? Do you have 1 for time machine, then 2 drive for photos ( on site and other witch out) I am not sure How to do it or where to begin!
I have 6. 2 are on my Studio Managers Desk with all of our contracts, client info, and other things she needs. 4 are on my desk. I back up everything to 3 2tb drives, (one is set up on time machine) and I have a smaller one that I can move around a lot to transport pics and info as well. Pictage & Photocart also have all my edited files backed up online.
by Tracy Moore Photography
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