3 Habits of Successful Professional Photographers: Part Two
Posted in Latest News on 09/03/2011 03:07 pm by wpadminThis is the 2nd installment of our look at the three most important habits I see in the most successful, professional photographers who pass through the GlobalEye Stock Library each month. We covered Lighting and Patience in the first installment — if you missed that, you can check our sell stock photos blog — otherwise we’ll dive back in and look at technique.
For all the convenience of automatic-everything cameras, I sometimes wish they were somehow available only after the photographers had passed a manual photography course. Sadly, it is so easy and so handy, that most photographers who start out on automatic mode never go back and learn the way to control those settings themselves.
And that means there are a large number of photographers out there producing images that are nearly great … But because they have no theory and only very basic technical skills, they won’t ever know what’s holding them back and more importantly, how to correct the problems and make great photos.
I see this each week with the membership application submissions. Shots that could have been very marketable if the {photographer} had only turned off the center weighted auto focus and gave more attention to their point of interest. Shots that could have been spectacular if they’d turned off the preset exposure mode, and thought about their depth-of-field. Shots that could have been spot on if only they’d thought about the effects of shutter speed …
The other disappointment is those photographers who do not even take the time to read the manual that came with their camera so they’d take full advantage of the features open to them. Here are just a few problems .. And the photographer’s excuses … That I’ve seen just lately …
1. Great submission of photographs, but they all had a serious colour cast that even I (seriously color-blind) could spot.
“Yes, I saw something about setting white balance, but figured the factory settings would have it covered…”
2. Superb subjects & compositions, but too grainy to ever use …
“That’s probably because I keep the ISO set to 1600 so I haven't got to worry about flash using up my batteries … “
3. Amazing submission … Technically spot on & material ideal for stock, except they were captured as medium jpgs …
“I didn’t want to run out of space on my memory stick … “
The last one might sound absolutely ridiculous but is a familiar story around here … The photographer had a $2000 camera and was shooting tons of great images each week with real stock potential, if he would only splurged another $50 on 2 extra memory sticks. (The average point-and- shoot nowadays captures a better quality file than the one this bloke was saving!)
So my final idea here is, if your whole photography experience is digital-auto, each chance you can, switch off the auto-everything and learn to do it yourself.
Even better, call into the local second-hand shop and pick up an old manual film camera … They’re giving them away these days … And put a few rolls of film thru it. You may learn more from those 100 shots than a year with your digital auto-everything!
OK, that’s just a few general ideas to get you started. Next time around I’ll cover 1 or 2 more specific elements we see in the top selling pictures and a straightforward trick to be sure you get them right ever single time.
For now, feel free to visit our blog and post your own thoughts on what makes a photographer a professional!
Matt Brading is a photographer with GlobalEye Photo Stock Agency who prefers to sell stock photos using the direct contact systems and content-based photo marketing. He also published instant photo web sites using the photo site secrets method.