The 24-hour Candle

Speaking of burning the midnight oil, which I was just doing in another post, if anyone takes the time to read my accompanying ramblings, I will take this opportunity to teach a bit about what goes into the photographic process. While I am fortunate to pursue my passion, most folks simply don’t realize what kind of work and monetary investment go into providing even the most casual of professional photographs, whether they are imperfectly photo-journalistic or flawless portraits.

Now, I wouldn’t even begin to think that my own work is beyond benefiting from constant study, and that’s not the point. What I post on my blog is usually never flawless, but I post to share (the operative word being ‘share’ – meaning to give freely of one’s own self or stockpile) images of local events and happenings for those who enjoy such things. Like any professional, I am constantly learning and it’s a full-time study. All this stated, occasionally I offer an image here and there to folks while I’m getting my name out there. It pleases the recipient and I am always more than thrilled to do a good deed anyway, but niceties aside, I’m hoping to educate my reading public just a little bit because the whole world (minus you photographers) seems to believe our job is a cakewalk.

Defining the Moment

Truth is that many folks aren’t trained enough to be able to spot a professional photograph from one that was taken at the local corner shop, and I say that with no distaste.  Trust me -  I have no issue with the corner shop, where you go in and spend 5 or 10 minutes posing in front of a camera operator whose last gig was working at McDonald’s (“no experience necessary,” the ads all say).  We all have our place in the world, and that’s fine; just remember that you get what you pay for.

But if you are interested in working with a professional (or if you ever meet one), after reading this post you’ll have a huge leg up on the average person, who tends to approach a photographer and say, “Wow! It must be fun to be able to play all day.”

So, just for fun – and I say this nicely! – let me briefly explain  some little bits about our job and what it takes.

Investment

Your average professional photographer has invested in the following:

• At least $10,000 worth of high-end gear camera gear. (The minimum number of lenses needed for a pro outfit are three  – and most photographers have more – costing around $2K each for the basic triad. Additionally, he or she has had to purchase a couple of high-end cameras, going for between $1800 and $5K each, depending on the budget.)
• A likely minimum of $4K in accessories such as studio lights, I-TTL flashes, lighting stands, reflectors, backdrops and supports, necessary gadgets, monitor profiling gear and all kinds of stuff that no one is interested in but us.
• Between $1500 and $6K worth of EXTRA computer gear, including specialized programs, hard drives, etc.
• Classes, college, seminars, technical books, branding, designers, professional and association dues, and special Website programs, hosting, templates or themes and a Web sales outlet. Unfortunately, none of this is free, quick or easy.

Processing

When we photographers get home from a shoot (where we have to pull out the best of our subjects despite a myriad of obstacle ( including trees, elbows and an endless list of things that can get in the way of a good environmental photo ) and put down the 30 pounds of gear that we have been lugging around all day while likely having taken anything from 300-1800 photos (and if we’ve recorded them in both .jpg and RAW format, we have DOUBLE that number), we sit down at our computers and download all the images.

Once the downloading is finished, we begin to sort our photos, doing a quick run-through to identify the better images. Once we’ve done that, we’ll probably pull out the better shots from the group we just rated. Sometimes we might do a third or forth run-through, narrowing the pool on each pass.

I don’t know about you, but my eyes are not quite exhausted yet from squinting into cameras and staring at computer screens (which, by the way, we are supposed to look at in the DARK because we get more accurate perception for the color correcting process).

Now it’s time to start the actually processing the photos, which can take two hours or 20 or 30, depending on the number of images and how much we need or want to touch them.

Without boring you (and because I want to go to bed at nearly 5 a.m.), I’ll shortcut in describing post-processing, which is actually the longest process in the whole chain. Suffice it to say that the more anal of us often color correct nearly every photograph by hand. This requires addressing (whether the photographer actually does it or not) 63 different functions per photo in only ONE of the 2-8 programs or plugins that we are likely to use. In addition, there are about 100 other “things” we can look at and adjust when fine-tuning an image, and NO, I do not exaggerate. Furthermore, it’s all quite complicated, so don’t even ask me to explain. (That’s my humor folks, for those who don’t realize.) Anyway, when we are satisfied with the one image we just worked one, we finally export it three times in three different formats (for blog posting, for Facebook and for printing) and then hope that Warner Cable is uploading at a fast enough speed so that we don’t have to sit up all night long waiting.

The Business

…is just plain hard. Everybody and their brother think that because they have a $500 or $800 consumer Nikon (or a funky program on their I-phone), that they can now create profession-looking images. Now, I’m not suggesting that he or she won’t get a cool shot here and there, but not only does good photography take many different kinds of training, a lot of money, good gear and the ability to think under pressure, it also takes patience. As pros – and unless we are shooting in the studio – we know that 98 percent of what we shoot is likely lacking in some way, and we know precisely what the problems are with each image. We then either use our skills to fix the problem or move on to another image.

But…with all those little Nikons floating around out there, it’s sometimes hard to compete with your unborn brother’s third-removed uncle from his second ex-wife’s side of the family. That guy – his name is PAUL – has one of those little Nikons and for either $200 or for free, he’s going to shoot your niece’s wedding for, as I just mentioned, practically nothing.  And that’s fine. Like I said, we all have our place in the world, and it’s all good…

The Point is…

…That the next time you approach someone with a really long lens and tell her that, “Wow, it must be fun to play all day,” well, maybe you’ll think twice.