conversations.from: human
conversations.value: a title for a book about Chicago, Tribune, Washington with the genre: Arts & Photography, Photography & Video
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: A title for this book could be 'Digital Wedding Photography'
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Give me the first three paragraphs for this book.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Digital Wedding Photography
  RAW files are unuseable for the average person. If you want your clients to have useable image files, you must use your RAW processing software to create a set of new images in the JPEG format. To do this, simply select all the images and click the Export tab. You will then be presented with a set of options that enable you to choose things like the file type, resolution, color space, sharpening, and the location where you want your new files to be placed. The process of creating new files is often called "rendering" because it takes all the color corrections and artistic touches you made when editing the RAW files and it uses those changes as instructions to render new image files in a format your client can use.
  Some specifics about this process include making sure you have all the JPEG output settings set appropriately. The main options are to set the JPEG compression quality to 100%, the color space to sRGB, and the sharpening to a fairly low amount. You should always use some amount of sharpening. All digital files need to be sharpened before printing, and you should assume (unless you know otherwise) that your client doesn't know a lot technical stuff about printing images. Your clients will almost always print the files you give them without any further sharpening. If you sharpen your files a moderate amount, they can print anything up to about 11×14 without any additional technical help and the output should be completely acceptable. Larger prints should be made directly from RAW files by a qualified technician — preferably you.
  Now that you're finished making changes to the images, it's time to make a backup. This backup set contains all the RAW files that survived the deletion process. If you're using Lightroom and you chose not to convert your images to the.dng format, then you'll need to export a separate Lightroom catalog for each wedding. The catalog will contain the RAW files, the image previews, and instructions for the adjustments you've made to all the RAW files.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Give me five more paragraphs.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: It is also important to avoid trying to get a sale by underbidding another photographer — do you really want to get business just because you're the cheapest? You might actually get a sale out of it, but word about that sort of practice gets around. I've had two clients tell me (right after hiring me) that a particular photographer was trying to get their business by insistently offering to lower his price so they would change their minds about me and hire him instead. The ironic part is that this other photographer only got that interview because he was on my list of favorite photographers. That list is a little shorter now. Never underestimate the amount of business you can get by having good relationships with other photographers in your area.
  At the end of the interview, if the couple says they still want to shop around, I've found it helps to act confident and not come across as too needy. If you act like you want the business and you expect to get it, you can let go of trying to make the client choose you. And you can get away from trying to beg for their business by lowering your prices or some other seemingly desperate tactic. Instead, I say something like, "I'd love to work with you, but if you still want to check out other photographers, let me supply you with the names of all the other good photographers in the area." Then I actually supply them with a list of all the other established photographers in the county where I live. At first glance this may seem counterproductive, but what it really does is make the client think I'm confident. Let's face it: They can always find these names if they care to look around, but when I supply them, it says "I know I'm good and I don't have to hide anything or beg for your business." It says, "The more you know about my competition, the more likely you are to choose me" — and that just reeks of confidence. I've actually had clients who seemed hesitant, but when I presented them with a long list of other photographers, they signed the contract right there. Others went home and looked at all the websites, then came back with a check in hand.
  As you come down to what should be the end of your interview, you have an opportunity to win points with both the new bride and groom, as well as with all the other wedding vendors in your area by asking the bride if she's still searching for any vendors for her wedding. Because the photographer is almost always one of the very first things a bride shops for, you'll almost certainly have the opportunity to pass along some contact information.
  As part of your wedding interview kit (which you should make) you can put together a collection of business cards, flyers from other vendors, and even vendor photos on your laptop like the one shown in Figure 17-4. If you discover that your bride still needs a florist and a caterer, pull out your little vendor packet and start talking up your favorite florist and caterer. Pull out a little notepad (part of your kit) and write down the contact info for the bride. This gives the bride a further reinforcement that you are an established pro in your area with long-term good relationships with other wedding professionals. And at the same time, the other wedding professionals will certainly take notice and start returning the favor.
  At some point along the way, you'll have to decide if you want to keep giving your referrals away for free, or if you want to make a more direct money exchange. If you have a favorite vendor who sends you about as much business as you send them, it may be fine to just trade back and forth and call it even. However, because you are often one of the first vendors a bride meets, you may find that you tend to give more referrals than you get. This will be especially true for vendors like cake makers and florists, who are often lower on the bride's list of things to do. If you do decide to work on a commission basis with other local vendors, it might be best to meet with them and talk about a deal that will be fair to all involved. Usually, this comes out being an agreement to pay 10 percent of net proceeds from the job, or a maximum of $500. This allows vendors to subtract expenses from the proceeds and then pay the 10 percent just from the profits.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Give me the last four paragraphs.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: So much of wedding photography is about learning to anticipate how something might happen and get yourself ready to shoot before it happens. This is true for both people and the light at the location. A simple image like this one could have been caught by any beginner if he or she were lucky, but no beginner can catch 200 "simple" images at a single wedding. The point is to stop relying on luck. As a professional, you have to develop the skill to create great images every single time you work — no matter where the wedding takes place.
  This image reminds me of the starship hitting warp speed. I took the shot while the bride and her father were waiting for the signal to drive up to the ceremony location. I asked if I could get in behind the seats of this convertible Mustang and shoot over their shoulders. Dad reluctantly agreed — if I agreed to take my shoes off first. So I got in behind them and shot several shots while the car was sitting still. We couldn't actually drive anywhere or the guests would have seen us, so I had to settle for the still shot.
  Back at home, I created the motion in Photoshop. I copied the image layer, and on the uppermost of the two layers, I applied a motion blur that focused down the street. No problem so far. However, when I masked out the sharp image layer, I discovered that every piece of the car (such as the window frame and mirrors) created a blurred version of itself. This bothered me because if the motion were real, the blur would only be in the background. I wanted the effect to appear as realistic as possible, so I very painstakingly cloned out the blur artifacts around the window, the mirrors, and the antenna until the window appeared to separate completely from the background.
  I used a wide lens for this shot and I leaned back as far as I could to get as much of the car as possible without including my own knees.