TO BEGIN - Part I
(Latin)
Incipere:
To Begin
I like learning. I particularly like learning new languages, even if I am not good at it (at all...) I will be starting each new blog post in this series with "To Begin" in a new language. Because, why not?
Inspire. Connect. Grow. Thrive.
You want to start a photography business. Now what? Here are some questions you must ask yourself and things to prepare for BEFORE you officially start your business. I will add a caveat - while you should absolutely THINK about all these BEFORE you start, you do not have to have it all figured out right away. This is a process, a journey, where accidents will happen, failures will happen, and each incident will help you grow and thrive.
Over the next several weeks, I will be sharing a little more in this journey of starting and building your own photography business. We will go over all the things you need to ponder and work out so you can connect, grow, and thrive. I am sincerely hoping to inspire you all!
Topics that we will include are below, although I will probably add more as I go. You will find I repeat some information in different sections - roll with it. There are many aspects to each part so sometimes, things will be said more than once. Roll with it.
- Skill
- Your Strategy
- Start A Business
- Running Your Business
- Your workflow
Let’s jump right in!
Knowing How to Work Your Camera
I feel like it shouldn’t need to be said, but I will say it anyway. You need to know your way around a camera and your lenses/equipment. Shooting in Auto won’t get you very far as a professional photographer, so you will need to know all the parts of manually making a photograph. Ask yourself these questions - write it down or copy and past and type your answers. Use this as a guide to inspire you!
- Do you know about shooting RAW vs JPEG why one is better than the other?
- Do you know which focal lengths are for what situations?
- Do you know what f-stops are?
- What about shutter speed?
- Do you know how to shoot in manual mode?
© Christina Miller Photography
How will you cull and edit those photos?
Once you have taken the photographs on your camera, you will need to go through them and pick the best ones, the ones that tell the story you are trying to tell, or the best of the best in terms of quality. If you are shooting in RAW, you will need to edit them.
- Do you have a program that you can cull the images and then edit them? (Do you know what it means to cull the images?)
- Do you know how to edit them?
- Do you want to use presets, know how to use presets, or do you like the full editing experience on your own?
- If you don’t like to edit, have you found an editor to outsource to that you like? Have you researched their fees and turn around time?
© Christina Miller Photography
Lighting
The word Photography literally means 'drawing with light" - lighting is ESSENTIAL to taking quality photographs.
- Do you know the basics of lighting?
- Will you be working with natural light, on-camera flash, or off-camera flash?
- What are you doing to keep learning about light and how it impacts photographs?
Bottom Right Photo © Christina Miller Photography
Practice
Practice makes perfect. The more you shoot, the better you will get. Try different things out, see what works and what doesn’t, push yourself to learn new techniques, in new situations, and see what you learn!
- How much practice do you have with your camera and equipment?
- In taking photos in general?
- What do you do to get practice during your week?
© Christina Miller Photography
A few last words...
Consider this your homework - read over this, as many times as it takes. Answer these questions and practice! Even if you have been doing photography for 20+ years, you can always practice more! Next week, we will go over more about what it takes to start and run your own photography business!
© Dubsado
