Q and A, Verte Style

I reached out to some bloggers, crafters, shop owners, clients, friends... you know my Peeps and asked... "What don't you know?" then I clarified... about weddings, photography and such! Then I took the most popular, or uncommon and stuffed them into this post! Ok, some are paraphrased, or changed to protect the innocent.  But still... Enjoy!


Why are all my images blue?
If ALL the images are blue, outside, inside, with and without a flash then your sensor may not be working correctly. More likely you mean "why are my indoor" photos blue. Reason, you have lights where the color temperature is in that 4000-7500 K range... sometimes you find that in the "daylight" or "soft" balanced bulbs. Solution: Shoot with a flash, or find the WB mode and adjust it to balance your whites back to white! (by the way... this also answers the questions "why are my images red, yellow, orange, or green" it all has to do with the light your shooting in. More Help

Why do photographers charge so much?
1. Time.
2. Education
3. Equipment
4. Everything else.

Let's face it, we talked enough about why those big professional SLR's look better, but a "good" portrait lens can run easily 500-900$ and that's not even the "Better" or "Best". A professional photographer can have thousands of dollars in basic camera gear, not to mention bags, backgrounds, lights, props, rental space, advertising, oh and the computer and processing... not to mention having to stay on the frontier of an ever changing digital field now. Where do you expect that money to come from?

Since you don't do weddings... who would you recommended?
Let's just clarify.... I don't advertise for weddings... I don't want to tote around an assistant and deal with the choas anymore, I have done my time! However, if your throwing a party in Houston or Denver, I would totally talk to you about it! Small backyard or informal occasions are totally where my heart is right now.

However, if you want to go all out and really do it up in style. Nationally, hands down book Theresa J Photography. She and her husband Tim shoot as a team, they travel to you.. and they are the sweetest, goofiest most amazing people ever... oh yea.... and crazy talented! If I needed a photographer for myself - that's who I would call.

My daughter wants to be a photographer, where should she start?
In business school.
It is the best advice I can give anyone wanted to run their own business. You can pick up a minor in arts or photography, but the money you put in on a solid business education will hands down do you better then anything else! Most of running your own photography business is marketing, advertising and accounting!

I need help with my shop photography, what would you recommend?

1. Turn off your "camera shake" mode (that little hand with the shake marks) despite what the salesman told you it DOES not make your photos more clear. It has NOTHING to do with focus.
2. Add more light- I don't care - you need more I promise.
3. White balance is your friend. Use it.
4. INVEST in your products and just let me do them. (ok shameless plug) But, seriously up your prices $2 to cover the extra photography cost and stop spending time doing something you don't enjoy, are not good at, or are just plain frustrated with! Your clients, and new clients will buy more because they can see the quality of the product.
5. Stay tuned... I will be having many more posts on this subject coming up soon!


What do the numbers on my lens mean?
When you purchase a lens you will see numbers or the type of lens listed something like this:

AF-S NIKKOR 16-35mm f/4G ED VR

16-35mm is the Focal Length (the smaller number the wider view you will get. 50mm is considered "prime" or what your eye would see kinda like if you held your arms in a v in front of you. Everything over 50mm is telephoto. The Larger that number 100, 200, 300... the closer your lens can bring subjects to you or "zoom in" on them, if you will. 

Image from Digital Camera World

   

f/4G: This lens has max aperture of 4/f. That means that the aperture will not open more then that with this lens... so no matter what you do you wont be able to shoot at 2.8f with this lens.

Some show this as f3.5-5.6 which means the max aperture will vary depending on what focal length the lens is at... at its max telephoto it will only go down to 5.6 where at its widest focal legth (smallest number no zoom) it is capable of 3.5

You also might notice a number on your lens cap like 72mm or 68mm... that is the size needed for filters, or additional lens caps... good to know in case you lose yours! 

Clears that right up. 

Right?

 ok... that was a pretty tech answer... so here it is if you didn't understand the above

The first set 16-35mm control how much you can see zooming in and out. I suggest everyone start with a lens like 18-200 its a starter lens and all encompassing with wide angle, and good telephoto. 

The second set tells you how much control you will have over your depth of field. The smaller the number (or the first number if there is two) the more control you will have.

Easier huh! Now for my favorite question...

How many times can you get married and still justify paying for "amazing portraits"?

HA! As many times as you need to "get it right"! While in a perfect world this would mean getting married over and over to the same wonderful person (without the divorce)...  but well...
I do totally think you have to spend the money each time... because if you have to ask...well maybe the this time will be the one that sticks!

Now, there are a lot of other things we could dive into... on any of these topics! I will certainly cover more with lenses and aperture, along with product photography in the not to distant future.

I thought I would knock out some random ones on a Q and A format and see if you all liked it! So now it's your turn... let me know if I should make this a monthly / weekly post! Would you like to see it again? What questions would you ask!?