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Lesson Info

Albums and Storybooks

So now, in terms of your output options, you have the flat mount album options, which is the old school type of albums where it's genuine leather. I mean, you do get other types, but the times that I use are genuine leather got the pages and in the like rice paper into leaf, and you stick really photographs into those into those albums mounted, you can. You can really do whatever you like in terms of the presentation there, but you've basically got to two options in terms of giving a book or an album to your client. The one would be the flat mount album, and then obviously your storybook, which is yours. Stereotypical coffee table type of layout, where the images are printed on the pages and it's bound like a coffee table book. Now, a lot of people think that flat mount albums are old school, and nobody really does that anymore. But if you're going to shoot a really nice big wedding, and your clients wants to differentiate themselves between everybody else in terms of the affluent mark...

et, you've got, like, you know, two hundred fifty, three hundred images that you want to present to your client, if you put it into a storybook, it can look messy. You trying to cram as many images in your design can get a little bit busy a double page spread you know you think I can't double page spread but like well, you know you only have fifty available to you in the book now you're gonna do that that means you sacrificing other images so my clients get a flat mount album as their primary album and that is a big fat leather lord of the rings type book that smells like real leather and it's tactile and it's this substance they know this to sort of there's two different ways that I'm going to go about choosing images for for those albums because if I'm doing a flat mount album I need to know about the layout as I'm going along if we're doing a story book tell them I need to choose images that I like and then the designer is going to put the storybook tell them together with those images because I can't in my mind work out heart's goingto work because obviously you've got a lot more options within design and those type of product so that would trigger a question with regards to people think you okay that's not your only option you know with with regards to handing out your final product to your to your client so you've got your your storybook album or your flat band album now that is obviously going toe result in a debate with regards to shoot and share or your printed products do you give your discs to your to your clients and let them do whatever they want with them or do you upload them tio a site where they can see all the images and share it with their friends and get emotionally fulfilled like that there's an emotional fulfillment like that or do you supply printed tactile products now you know already what I what I do I do not give my digital files to my clients do not upload all of them to a shoot and share type of environment because I really believe that your client is then emotionally fulfilled they might share them with so many of their mates but what type of target market are they sharing them with a sharing them with an instant gratification move on let's go hot dog type of market so you're not in a position where you're actually going to make money out of that. Some of the some of the web sites have a facility we where the clients can order images off of them there's been a lot of publicity and a lot of debate about that you know there's bean um statistics out on that way a certain sighters said that they've had a certain amount ofthe shooting shea clients with them and then the prince that came from them were pretty much the same amount so let's just say for example argument's sake hypothetically that one hundred people uploaded to shooting share sites and one hundred prints were sold like that works out like one print per per upload so there's you know even though it is that facility the client is emotionally fulfilled why do they need to buy a print especially in this day and age where um right now it's all nice and fun and games and you're looking at your your ipad or your ipod and you've got all your images digitally available to you but what is actually up in your home and what what is around with regards to teo tactile products you know if you look if you look back I mean when you when you were a baby your parents obviously have images pictures from when you were a baby right not really have you had any any printed images from when you were younger yes there is two albums that still exist two albums that still exist physical printed albums do you have the negatives for those why not they have been lost along the journey okay so they've been lost along the journey what's gonna happen if you give your client a dvd give your client a usb stick or you upload to a shooting share website type of facility those type of companies might not be around forever they might be around for the next fifteen years next ten years but are they going to be around forever? This digital revolution has happened in the last what? Six seven eight years you know, I started shooting digital in two thousand two and that was pretty much the beginning ofthe it in terms of how things were progressing, but how do we know even you know the cloud? How do we know that that company is going to be around in five years time there's so many different options that you have with this count on that count and you know, this this uploading facility how do we even know if those company's gonna be around in a couple of years time? I mean, you would hope that they are, but we're not really sure about that you're saying you don't have the negatives, you've got printed tactile products and those for you are more valuable than the the negative and let's just look at negatives anyway, right long, long, long ago like in the eighties to remember you wouldn't know this symptom, but maybe you were calling do you remember they came out with it like that round negative and they had little squares on the corner and then they had that the hey is p or something that there was a different it went in a small kasit from the one side to the other and then there was thirty five mil and there's all these different if you had those old school one way you're gonna get a printed now how do we even know that in twenty years time a j pig is going to be relevant. How do we know that? We don't know that? But we do know we do know for a fact that tactile products are going to be around for a very, very long time. We've got them from two thousand years ago, we've held onto tactile products. So please, guys, tactile products don't give your files to your clients to do with what they like, and no that's going to prompt prompt a lot of debate, and we can talk about that in a little while. But you need your clients to have tactile products. They also have a sense ofthe value when they get something rather than a usb stick. As pretty as you can make that usb stick, it is still a usb stick. Okay? I mean, just just for interest sake collars. When dvds first came out, which was not that long ago. A recordable dvds. Two thousand to two thousand three. How much do you think? One dvd cost on printed dvd. A dvd to buy a blank dvd? Oh, there were at least about twenty five dollars, twenty five dollars for one that's insane, that's. Ridiculous, another like, three cents. Okay, so that does spark the digital debate, and I will talk about the files. I will talk about the the high res files and the rest of the files when I talk about my my pricing plan which will be this afternoon so I'm gonna talk about that we will have a have a discussion about that and I need to right now to know what your thoughts are about that and we can we can chat about it I throughout all of this I've never proclaimed that my way is the right way and my way works for me and it works for for my type of client a lot of people might think you've got to give them the digital files because that's that's what the market is dictate that that's what the market is demanding if the market is demanding hot dogs, that doesn't mean you can't open up a fine dining restaurant because there are certain people that are going to want to go to a fine dining restaurant. Okay, so questions about, uh, digital files and that kind of thing, you know? But we do have internet question as out your water marking procedures can you tell us a little bit about that? Okay, I'm going to talk about my post production process in in a little while, but basically I just put my logo on the bottom right hand corner I don't want to mark the image so that it's uh it's obscured it's still visible because I think that that does send out the wrong message as I spoke about a little earlier when I put it up on my web gallery for my clients to order prints from then I've got a watermark across it so that people can steal them, but that's different because that's an ordering process and it's under a different in your mind it's not a viewing processes and ordering process so it's on a different platform. So so that is watermark it's done purely in photo shop and just dropped in on top of the image great regarding digital files I think a lot of brides haven't been married before, so they don't know what to ask, which was testing right exactly, but where they get a lot of the information, but for they even meet with the photographer is from bridal magazines and blog's, and they use those reference guides as what to ask the photographer and what to request in terms of service and products and every is and this is happening right now in the chat rooms and the queues room. You know, how do you say no to digital copies? Because that's what they come in saying this is this is the checklist, this is what we want, so this is what everybody says we should have, so I want the digital copies and why can't I have them? Okay, now I'm going to use an analogy because that I think it's the easiest way to do it because we've been talking about hot dogs and fine dining for the last couple of days um when you go to a high, ah high end restaurant and you order the cappuccino, do you ask for a skinny cappuccino? Hazelnut? You know, the all these different combinations that you can come up with? Do you ask for that at a high at a fine dining restaurant? You know, you don't why not? Because you know that that's what? They don't serve that right? Because it's not that market, they're not they're not catering for that market, but when you walk into starbucks, you cannot come up with any combination just to try and confuse the barista behind the behind the counter because it's available tio you're allowed to do that, you know you're allowed to do that at starbucks, you also know you're not allowed to do that at a fine dining restaurant. Why do you know you're not allowed to do that the fine dining restaurant? Because that fine dining restaurant has a brand aura about it. You know the rules before you even go there, so if you project that brand with for your company, for your photographic company, people don't even ask me they know already they're not getting their digital files so I don't have that problem and when I'm going to talk about how to negotiate with the client as well because I still get those emails are still get asked you know, this is what I'm asking for and it's almost a cut and paste a situation where they have taken it from awaiting blogged and they have taken it from from magazines to ask those questions that you are talking about and I just answer the questions this is how I work you know if you want to book me that's cool but if you don't that's also call this is how I work so so yes you don't need to argue with clients you just need to stake the state the facts about how your company works arguing with clients you're not gonna win you know so don't get upset about it and just remain calm and stay true to your brand okay anybody else for a couple more yeah no, this is a big this is a big one I think this is the biggest question for every single photography workshop hey so sandy and danielle asked why do you choose a personal facebook page rather than a business facebook page I have I have both about okay I have both and I do use both for business a cz well as my personal page I use as my personal paige um but as you've seen everything I do is strategic so I never post things on my personal page that is not brand representative, so I'll post stuff on my page that is aspirational to my potential clients that is that I can connect with with regards to people that I educate with the foot within the photographic industry I'll put up stuff about my hobbies, but I would put up stuff that is attractive to the affluent market as well if I did things that if I was if I was doing things that were controversial let's just say hunting, I wouldn't be putting that up on my page even if it was something that I was very passionate about, I would put up stuff that resonates with the right market and I know that it's all very strategic, but that's, what life has become right you when you're on facebook and you have a little rent that's part of your brand, I never ever write anything negative on facebook I mean it's like what's what's the point really? You know, if I've got if I've got something that I want to get off my chest and I speak to my mates about e you know, and I think that, um there's so much negativity because of the anonymity off facebook, you can say what you like really even just for for effect, but I think it's really important to maintain a positive brand the way it is you think you follow up question for the facebook arena is from daniel coyne who says a with your clientele do you ever experience people cropping your watermark out or actually printing the images off of faces? That's why I only give ten or twelve if I'm going to give two hundred fifty that can go and make the whole album from my block, you know? So so yeah they're going to do that but I I I'm a piece with that because getting upset about it is not really going to solve the problem so yeah people have stolen my images, put them on their website and say that they shot that, you know then you know I contact them and kindly ask them not to but I'm not going to get upset about it you know there's too much going on in the world to get upset about things like that if it affects me directly, you know it's my brand my brand is going to be strong enough to stand up to teo all that kind of thing anyway, I think it is you know, it's not, but the more images I put up the more chance of god of people's taking them really, you know and I think it was something it's quite funny that people blogging images and then get upset that other people copy them so you don't want people to copy images don't put it out there you know I'm flattered when people copy my images I think it's you know that's that's so cool I really already think it's amazing you know on dh that's just from in terms of my my philosophy towards inspiration from the from the from the internet you've seen that I look at other people's work from the fashion industry and emulate their waiting nothing emulates a lot better than a copy yesterday you had us um actually saw you shoot the guests and you're saying that you have just declined my base right? So it's a gallery for this for your clients yes how did the guests by the prince out of the guest by the print they get the past it's password protected and they get that from the it's up on my website and the recent shoots they can click on that it says that this wass claire and chris's wedding type in a password they'll type in the password it will be wrong and they will say get the password from the client and there's an email to the bride so that you are requesting permission from the bride to access that log in so she can either email all her friends or put it up on facebook this is if you want to see my wedding pictures go to this website which I'm driving traffic towards my website so go to that web site this is the password log in and you can buy pictures if you like woman question do you choose the side that's going to be one more question, but of course you choose the images for the album has declined let's talk about that you put that up after they have purchased their album and after so you're not fulfilled like completely fulfilling that emotional yes yeah, so you're learning that's it, of course. So when do you provide that once I've delivered the ones out there till the final book to him because I want that wall factor we're not delivered to, I wanted to be oh my gosh, this is amazing, you know, I saw ten pictures on facebook, but I never expected this as opposed to I saw two hundred fifty pictures on facebook what what's this? Okay, who chooses the images? Who do you think chooses the images? Sounds like ugo right moving on? Of course I choose the images, you know you don't you don't go to a restaurant and tell the shift which ingredients to put into the dish, does the shift and choose choose the ingredients or do you choose the ingredients? Okay let's, just move on from that, you know you could have have a bride who is super into herself, you know really it's all about her if she chooses the images, the balance off the album is gonna lean all the way over to her or if she is a little insecure or a little bit self aware, then it's going to be about everybody else but you've got these amazing shots of her that she thinks, uh you know or not that are not that great, but I know that it's going to work in the story and I'm not going to spend the whole day shooting going okay, this side of the page that's out of the page I'm not going to spend the whole day doing that they send it off and she chooses one picture I'm like okay, well always its friend for that side of the page I choose the images I do send her a low res. Pdf if she's doing storybook but it's hardly ever storybook first if if she's doing a if it's a flat mount album, she gets the flat mount album like that if there is a situation and it sounds comical but it's the truth, if she's if there's a situation where her dad's I had an affair with her, you know, a family friend, but the family friends also it the waiting and the family, friends and the pictures there in the background and I don't know that and there's like we don't want a picture of that woman in the in the book you know when you've done a flat model them you can make adjustments afterwards not a huge amount but you can make adjustments obviously when you do a storybook you print and that's it so my client gets a flat mount album first bank ah while that's gorgeous that's amazing then after that that's where the up sell comes in saying right let's talk about your storybook album she's emotionally fulfilled she's all excited and then you say to her right now from this from what you've seen choose sixty five to seventy images will make you a storybook so that's where the up that's where the upscale comes in there always physical pictures that you've pasted in so how many would you have for page like two or four you can print different sizes so I would I would go up to a maximum of maybe nine on one side of the page and then uh you know you can you go from one to nine just send them smaller make a contact sheet thing will not cut them out with a guillotine them out now you gave about chef and the ingredients mix you know, complete sense but do you still have clients that you have to explain that to our no no I just know that that's how I work okay so the way it works, this looks like a bit of a mess, but this is a creative process. Basically, what happens is if I've got a flat mount album, yeah, I know that it's got one hundred twenty pages or one hundred pages, depending on the pricing plan that the client has chosen. I will sit there with my with my designer and we'll go through the images and I will say, right, let's, start off with the the details were gonna have this image, this images in this image on this side of the page, and then on that side of the page, we're gonna put this picture and we're going to go. We'll go through all all of those pages, and I can then see how the layout off that album is going to happen in terms of my timing so I could end up with I could end up being on basically page, say, thirty one or thirty four and I go are cramping a little bit here and need to spread it out so that it is a nice even flow off that off that book, because flateman albums are not as easy to put together as storybooks, because storybooks you can just drag and drop it if I just send it off to the lab to print in the lab. Brings back those images. And now you've got a pile of images. Like what I do with this, you slot them in, and that's doesn't fit him. Thiss method has worked definitely the best way for me.