"My wife and I have operated a wedding videography business for 5 years. She wants to start dabbling in wedding photography. She has a Pentax *istDL, a AF-540 flash (the pro-line that swivels), and I only can afford one diffuser at this time. Would you recommend the Whale Tail studio over the other diffusers if we are only going to purchase one?"
Adam,
Thank you for your question. I have covered 175 weddings with the Lightspheres. I use the Gary Fong Lightsphere Cloud about 80% of the time and the Clear for the balance. Generally, I use the Cloud when I am within 10 feet +/-. The Clear is most useful at greater distance, or in dim light.
In March '07, the Whaletail became available and I have used it for 12 weddings, and dozens of other jobs.
While I love the Studio model for in studio work, as well as on location portraits, I think the the Reporter is sufficeint, and more practical for weddings.
The above assumes a single, on-camera flash. Since the introduction ofthe Whaletails, I have been doing more work with multiple, off-camera flashes. In this case, I use the WT Studio as the main light and a combination of Lightspheres and the WT Reporter as slave lights.
Currently, I think the Lightspheres sell for $40, the Reporter for $80, andd the Studio for $110. You could have two Lightspheres (Clear and Cloud) for the price of a Reporter, and a LS Clear and a Reporter for just a little more than a WT Studio. The LS Clear and Reporter would be my choice for the most flexibility.
I hope this helps.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Monday, January 28, 2008
AN ESSAY ABOUT RECESSION-PROOFING YOUR BUSINESS
AN ESSAY ABOUT RECESSION-PROOFING YOUR BUSINESS - by Gary Fong
(I didn't write this. It was written and first published by Gary Fong, on his blog, yesterday -- there is a link at he end of the article)
I've been in business through two recessions. Business proceeded in a healthy way and my numbers continued to grow. I had to do some adaptation and what really saved me was getting prepared before the pullback arrived. Here's what I did:
1) Photography-related services - relationships are recession-proof. In fact, in hard times the referral base became even more loyal and devoted. Rocky Gunn gave me the simplest, best advice I have ever gotten in a single sentence... "nobody needs another salesman knocking on their door, but everybody could use a good friend". In rough economic times, good friends are even more valuable. My transcriptionist is really good. And I just wrote her an email and it said, "you're so good, I'm going to use you FOREVER!" Customer supersatisfaction is recession-proof.
Family is even more valuable. It is SO easy for a photographer to make a huge increase in revenue by simply adding new revenue streams to an existing business. Here's a great example:
I have a friend who is an amazingly successful photographer here in Los Angeles. His name is Joey Ikemoto. His business does close to a million a year. He has an unbelievably loyal clientele among the Japanese American community. He has been in business for probably 25 years and went through the same recessions I did.
One day I was visiting him at his former little studio in a strip mall, about 23 years ago. He had a huge staff of photographers, and he was doing something like 200 weddings a year with a healthy average. He shot many of these himself, and his business was all referral. While all this was going on, he actually had a full-time job as an x-ray lab technician at the local hospital! He was making something like $30,000 a year working this job, while his business was grossing in the many hundreds of thousands. I asked him why he had the job, and he said, "security". So I got out a calculator and said - OK, let's just assume you sell one additional parent album to each of your weddings. Say you had a $195 special for parent albums, and include some of the unused proofs in your orders. There's $40 grand right there.
It was wild, but that suggestion really registered with him. He quit his job, focused his energy full time on his studio instead and expanded it greatly with intensely higher profits. He now has one of the largest, and most beautiful studios in California.
If I were a photographer today, I would simply add new relationship-sensitive low-initial-cost portrait sessions to my offerings. If you have a loyal clientele anyway, who love you as a person as well as a photographer, then it is a super easy thing to collect them in front of your camera again. Missy brings her Canon with the L lenses to horse shows, and a lot of people come up to her asking to see the images online, which result in sales, completely out of nowhere.
I remember when I did children's portraiture. I did it differently, we would just go to a park with the mom, and I would make it a point to not shoot right away, and just talk to the mom. Ignoring the child at a playground is a guarantee that this kid is going to be a performer. The more I acted disinterested, the more they would go, "Hey Mom! Look at me go down this slide!" Then they would try harder and harder to show me how awesome they were. This is when I would start shooting, and I would get the most awesome photos of the kids.
While at the playground, I'd show the LCD of the image to the kids, who would go wow, and the mom would go wow, and the next thing that would happen is another parent would come up to me at the playground and ask for my card. I would give them my website address, and a link to today's session on Pictage. This would turn into another session - so long as the shoot fee was low. Then I would let the prints sell themselves.
In a recessionary economy - remember that people become very negative and careful with their wallets. So having a large up-front fee is most likely going to result in an empty calendar. I would much rather shoot on spec than with a large upfront fee. While that may work with the ultra high-end customer with a lot of discretionary dough, it's still risky. I remember that I used to do engagement sessions for $15. That's right, fifteen bucks. And I always sold nearly $300, and it took me not even half an hour to do. Same with weddings. Having a low up-front fee and selling a large volume of images once I 'owned' the right to sell them exclusively was my ticket to prosperity. Later, I would do high-end stuff, but that took years to earn that clientele. I had it great from the very beginning by starting with a low fee, predesigning albums, and selling reorders. My calendar was completely full, and my average sale was multiple what other studios were getting.
Another thing I want to add, I never paid to advertise my studio. I never did ads or bridal shows. Those are so expensive and what they do is bring you a skeptical prospective customer. They're skeptical because they found you through advertising. So not only are you spending money on attracting the wrong kind of client (the client you REALLY want is the one who heard that you are the best friend they never had, with a camera and a smile!) Who would you rather meet with? The awesome person who shot your best man's wedding, or someone who you saw in an ad in a magazine? Exactly!
When things got hard for me, I put extra effort into improving customer satisfaction. If every client who uses you drags two people by the ear into your business and insist that their friend use you, your business will grow regardless of the economy. Think about it - we all know a business or service that we swear by- tell all of our friends about, right? BE THAT BUSINESS! And you will have a clientele that will remain solidly, stable and growing.
I know how to play a recession, even a deep one. The first thing I did in my products business was start to develop lower-cost products like the $19 Puffer or $29 Origami. Sales were up 194% YOY for GFI because of this. I knew that there would be a risk with higher-end pro lighting attachments like the Whaletail or Lightsphere, so I started preparing to market smaller trinkets.
I would do the same with photography. I'm not saying lower your prices in response to a recession, I'm saying buffer up the consumer fanaticism (loyalty) by endearing yourself to your clients. Foster that referral, and then have products which have a low-cost entry point. Once you produce beautiful images, sell the images and not the session. Increase the volume, diversify your offerings into more types of portraiture, and you will be fine. In fact, overall I would say you could prosper in hard times.
With all sincerity,
Gary
www.garyfong.com
(I didn't write this. It was written and first published by Gary Fong, on his blog, yesterday -- there is a link at he end of the article)
I've been in business through two recessions. Business proceeded in a healthy way and my numbers continued to grow. I had to do some adaptation and what really saved me was getting prepared before the pullback arrived. Here's what I did:
1) Photography-related services - relationships are recession-proof. In fact, in hard times the referral base became even more loyal and devoted. Rocky Gunn gave me the simplest, best advice I have ever gotten in a single sentence... "nobody needs another salesman knocking on their door, but everybody could use a good friend". In rough economic times, good friends are even more valuable. My transcriptionist is really good. And I just wrote her an email and it said, "you're so good, I'm going to use you FOREVER!" Customer supersatisfaction is recession-proof.
Family is even more valuable. It is SO easy for a photographer to make a huge increase in revenue by simply adding new revenue streams to an existing business. Here's a great example:
I have a friend who is an amazingly successful photographer here in Los Angeles. His name is Joey Ikemoto. His business does close to a million a year. He has an unbelievably loyal clientele among the Japanese American community. He has been in business for probably 25 years and went through the same recessions I did.
One day I was visiting him at his former little studio in a strip mall, about 23 years ago. He had a huge staff of photographers, and he was doing something like 200 weddings a year with a healthy average. He shot many of these himself, and his business was all referral. While all this was going on, he actually had a full-time job as an x-ray lab technician at the local hospital! He was making something like $30,000 a year working this job, while his business was grossing in the many hundreds of thousands. I asked him why he had the job, and he said, "security". So I got out a calculator and said - OK, let's just assume you sell one additional parent album to each of your weddings. Say you had a $195 special for parent albums, and include some of the unused proofs in your orders. There's $40 grand right there.
It was wild, but that suggestion really registered with him. He quit his job, focused his energy full time on his studio instead and expanded it greatly with intensely higher profits. He now has one of the largest, and most beautiful studios in California.
If I were a photographer today, I would simply add new relationship-sensitive low-initial-cost portrait sessions to my offerings. If you have a loyal clientele anyway, who love you as a person as well as a photographer, then it is a super easy thing to collect them in front of your camera again. Missy brings her Canon with the L lenses to horse shows, and a lot of people come up to her asking to see the images online, which result in sales, completely out of nowhere.
I remember when I did children's portraiture. I did it differently, we would just go to a park with the mom, and I would make it a point to not shoot right away, and just talk to the mom. Ignoring the child at a playground is a guarantee that this kid is going to be a performer. The more I acted disinterested, the more they would go, "Hey Mom! Look at me go down this slide!" Then they would try harder and harder to show me how awesome they were. This is when I would start shooting, and I would get the most awesome photos of the kids.
While at the playground, I'd show the LCD of the image to the kids, who would go wow, and the mom would go wow, and the next thing that would happen is another parent would come up to me at the playground and ask for my card. I would give them my website address, and a link to today's session on Pictage. This would turn into another session - so long as the shoot fee was low. Then I would let the prints sell themselves.
In a recessionary economy - remember that people become very negative and careful with their wallets. So having a large up-front fee is most likely going to result in an empty calendar. I would much rather shoot on spec than with a large upfront fee. While that may work with the ultra high-end customer with a lot of discretionary dough, it's still risky. I remember that I used to do engagement sessions for $15. That's right, fifteen bucks. And I always sold nearly $300, and it took me not even half an hour to do. Same with weddings. Having a low up-front fee and selling a large volume of images once I 'owned' the right to sell them exclusively was my ticket to prosperity. Later, I would do high-end stuff, but that took years to earn that clientele. I had it great from the very beginning by starting with a low fee, predesigning albums, and selling reorders. My calendar was completely full, and my average sale was multiple what other studios were getting.
Another thing I want to add, I never paid to advertise my studio. I never did ads or bridal shows. Those are so expensive and what they do is bring you a skeptical prospective customer. They're skeptical because they found you through advertising. So not only are you spending money on attracting the wrong kind of client (the client you REALLY want is the one who heard that you are the best friend they never had, with a camera and a smile!) Who would you rather meet with? The awesome person who shot your best man's wedding, or someone who you saw in an ad in a magazine? Exactly!
When things got hard for me, I put extra effort into improving customer satisfaction. If every client who uses you drags two people by the ear into your business and insist that their friend use you, your business will grow regardless of the economy. Think about it - we all know a business or service that we swear by- tell all of our friends about, right? BE THAT BUSINESS! And you will have a clientele that will remain solidly, stable and growing.
I know how to play a recession, even a deep one. The first thing I did in my products business was start to develop lower-cost products like the $19 Puffer or $29 Origami. Sales were up 194% YOY for GFI because of this. I knew that there would be a risk with higher-end pro lighting attachments like the Whaletail or Lightsphere, so I started preparing to market smaller trinkets.
I would do the same with photography. I'm not saying lower your prices in response to a recession, I'm saying buffer up the consumer fanaticism (loyalty) by endearing yourself to your clients. Foster that referral, and then have products which have a low-cost entry point. Once you produce beautiful images, sell the images and not the session. Increase the volume, diversify your offerings into more types of portraiture, and you will be fine. In fact, overall I would say you could prosper in hard times.
With all sincerity,
Gary
www.garyfong.com
Friday, December 28, 2007
Gary Fong Puffer
Don't want to get out an external flash and a big diffuser? But you don't want the harsh, direct light from the pop-up flash on your camera? Here's the answer -- the Puffer, from Gary Fong.
Gary Fong Lightsphere - Universal
Just a quick video on how to attach the Gary Fong Lightsphere-Universal to your flash. It's a one-size-fits-all (up to 2 x 3.5 inches) light diffuser, perfect for your hotshoe-mounted flash. Currently available only as a Cloud. Since it fits so many of the most popular flashes, you don't have to buy different sizes to fit all your flashes.
Saturday, November 10, 2007
Gary Fong Lightsphere or Whaletail
This question came in yesterday:
"Hi I am looking to buy two lightspheres for my 2 Canon 580EX II flashes that are mounted to light stands for quick off camera flash portrait setups. Would you recommend the clear or the cloud for this type of setup or would the whaletails be better suited for this. Thank you" - Tony
-----
Tony,
The whaletails give the most versatility. That is what I prefer for studio use. If you go with lightspheres, I would use the Cloud as your main light. Another Cloud or Clear is then your background or fill light.
One thing -- the Gary Fong website has an error. It lists the size 4 for the 580X-II. Actually, that is for the older , and smaller 580EX. Most people are getting size 2 for the mark II.
Gary just introduced a lightsphere-universal (has a one-size-fits-all mount), at PhotoExpo+, last month, in NY. It is only produced as a Cloud, but it will fit a variety of flash models. Unfortunately, he sold out at the show and won't have them in his eStore for a couple of weeks.
Whaletails are in stock. If you go that route, get a Studio for your main light, and a Reporter for the fill/background.
-----
"Hi I am looking to buy two lightspheres for my 2 Canon 580EX II flashes that are mounted to light stands for quick off camera flash portrait setups. Would you recommend the clear or the cloud for this type of setup or would the whaletails be better suited for this. Thank you" - Tony
-----
Tony,
The whaletails give the most versatility. That is what I prefer for studio use. If you go with lightspheres, I would use the Cloud as your main light. Another Cloud or Clear is then your background or fill light.
One thing -- the Gary Fong website has an error. It lists the size 4 for the 580X-II. Actually, that is for the older , and smaller 580EX. Most people are getting size 2 for the mark II.
Gary just introduced a lightsphere-universal (has a one-size-fits-all mount), at PhotoExpo+, last month, in NY. It is only produced as a Cloud, but it will fit a variety of flash models. Unfortunately, he sold out at the show and won't have them in his eStore for a couple of weeks.
Whaletails are in stock. If you go that route, get a Studio for your main light, and a Reporter for the fill/background.
-----
Monday, November 5, 2007
Using the Gary Fong Whaletail Flash Diffuser
I just had a question about using the Whaletail, outdoors at night. He was also concerned about getting the raccoon eye effect.
"I have two questions, what kind of shots can you get with the Whale Tail at night time outside, where you would not be able to bounce at anything, except for trees and whatever is hanging around. My second question is, what settings do you use in doing this? I have a D80 and a SB-600, I don't want the Racoon or the headlight shot effect in my pictures.
Craig"
First, let me talk about outside, in open shade. In this case, you are pretty safe with the flash on TTL and the camera on Program. Usually, you can keep both flaps closed, because you are only looking for fill flash. If you find that the specular highlights are too hot, you can add negative compensation on the flash. The idea situation would be to have the flash off camera so that you can move it closer or further away. with changing camera location. If you have a flash meter, you could meter for the sky or backgrond, then dial the flash it at a stop or two less.
At night, you are probably getting most or all of your light from the flash. In this situation, point the curved portion of the WT toward the subject and open the top - top flap straight up. Depending on distance, you may want to add the chrome/silver flaps -- or just line the flaps with foil.
Instead of shooting in program mode, put the camera in Manual, open to the widest aperture, and drag the shutter -- maybe 1/30. Also, shoot at ISO 800. The flash is on TTL. Since the flash is putting out 1/10000 - or faster - burst, you don't have to worry about motion blur.
The raccoon effect comes from the angle of reflectance being to sharp -- the angle that the light bounces of the ceiling is so sharp that it puts a shadow in the eye sockets, under the chin, etc.
This generally occurs when you are under a low ceiling -- like a home or office. The obvious solution is to back up - increase the distance between the flash and the subject. Unfortunately, that may no be possible, so the other solution is to reduce the amount of light that is being reflected from the ceiling. Do this by closing the top flap -- or trimming it (partially closing it) until you get the desired
result.
Remember, with the WT, the SOFTEST position is with the curved top pointing AWAY from the subject and the top flap straight up -- giving a large flat surface from the two flaps. The POWER position is to have the curved portion of the WT pointing toward the subject, with the top flap almost straight up.
Indoor settings are flash on TTL, aperture fairly wide open (2.8, 4.0), ISO 400 - 800, and shutter 1/60 to 1/30.
These are all starting points. You may want to modify some of them, depending on your specific situation.
I hope this helps.
"I have two questions, what kind of shots can you get with the Whale Tail at night time outside, where you would not be able to bounce at anything, except for trees and whatever is hanging around. My second question is, what settings do you use in doing this? I have a D80 and a SB-600, I don't want the Racoon or the headlight shot effect in my pictures.
Craig"
First, let me talk about outside, in open shade. In this case, you are pretty safe with the flash on TTL and the camera on Program. Usually, you can keep both flaps closed, because you are only looking for fill flash. If you find that the specular highlights are too hot, you can add negative compensation on the flash. The idea situation would be to have the flash off camera so that you can move it closer or further away. with changing camera location. If you have a flash meter, you could meter for the sky or backgrond, then dial the flash it at a stop or two less.
At night, you are probably getting most or all of your light from the flash. In this situation, point the curved portion of the WT toward the subject and open the top - top flap straight up. Depending on distance, you may want to add the chrome/silver flaps -- or just line the flaps with foil.
Instead of shooting in program mode, put the camera in Manual, open to the widest aperture, and drag the shutter -- maybe 1/30. Also, shoot at ISO 800. The flash is on TTL. Since the flash is putting out 1/10000 - or faster - burst, you don't have to worry about motion blur.
The raccoon effect comes from the angle of reflectance being to sharp -- the angle that the light bounces of the ceiling is so sharp that it puts a shadow in the eye sockets, under the chin, etc.
This generally occurs when you are under a low ceiling -- like a home or office. The obvious solution is to back up - increase the distance between the flash and the subject. Unfortunately, that may no be possible, so the other solution is to reduce the amount of light that is being reflected from the ceiling. Do this by closing the top flap -- or trimming it (partially closing it) until you get the desired
result.
Remember, with the WT, the SOFTEST position is with the curved top pointing AWAY from the subject and the top flap straight up -- giving a large flat surface from the two flaps. The POWER position is to have the curved portion of the WT pointing toward the subject, with the top flap almost straight up.
Indoor settings are flash on TTL, aperture fairly wide open (2.8, 4.0), ISO 400 - 800, and shutter 1/60 to 1/30.
These are all starting points. You may want to modify some of them, depending on your specific situation.
I hope this helps.
Saturday, October 20, 2007
Using the Gary Fong Lightsphere -- Video in Spanish
This is going to be Spanish Day on the blog - the first post is a video explaining how to use the Gary Fong Lightspher flash diffuser.
The second video is an explanation of foofing, by one of the top wedding photographer in the world -- Denis Reggie. If you've ever heard the term "foofing", here's the master:
The second video is an explanation of foofing, by one of the top wedding photographer in the world -- Denis Reggie. If you've ever heard the term "foofing", here's the master:
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