At the core of the photography business, whether it’s taking photographs or running the business end of things, my job is to be a problem-solver for the client. In order for me to solve their problems I need to ask questions. In this post I’ll mention three questions I find important to ask any new client. These inquiries naturally lead …

I’m surrounded by my own photographs all day long and sometimes I take them for granted. In the world of business it can feel like you’re only as good as your last image and then it’s time to move on to the next. But lately I’ve been taking time to look back a bit more at some of the photos …

There are a couple of ways to improve your photo studio lighting. You can buy a book (or watch a video, or read a website) that shows you exactly where and how to set up studio lighting. That’s a necessary part of the process and will definitely make you a better photographer. But to really master lighting, you need to …

Where a blog is going
So, just three months into this blogging journey, where are things? Well, my photo studio business is doing really well. The prophotolife videos are continuing to draw in viewers and people are asking my business partner, Bob, and me about doing workshops or seminars on everything from studio lighting to color management. So that means I’m …

In Monday’s video we tackle lighting shiny metal objects and the principles involved. Here was my challenge for this video: introducing a principle of physics (the law of reflection) while keeping everything simple and understandable. Now how was I going to tackle that? By photographing a cheese grater, of course. Doesn’t it all make sense? Tune in Monday to find …

Today’s post actually turned into two posts. In this installment: how prophotolife got to where it is. Tomorrow I’ll post the continuation: where prophotolife.com is headed.
“Today, on a very special episode of Around the ‘Net…”

This has been one of the funnest, busiest weeks of my (pro photo) life. The highlight was Tuesday night’s get-together here at the studio. The Ohio …

In answer to another reader question: what’s better, an umbrella or a softbox? Well, they’re both light modifiers that soften light and in many situations they can give similar results. Here’s a quick video to show some features of each:
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In the video: on the right, the Calumet Genesis 200 1-Light Kit (the strobe, 8″ reflector, 10′ light …

Portrait and wedding photographers usually have a price list. Want to know how much something costs? It’s there on the price list. Public relations photographers may charge by the hour. For commercial photographers it can get a bit more complicated because most every job is different. Sometimes it’s hard to know where to start and what questions to ask.

Last week …

This is it, the final chapter of the digital workflow series. Today we finalize our files and talk about how we deliver them to our client.
When we left off last week, our files had been completed in the working stage, saved as layered psd files. All the retouching and color-correcting had been done to the files at full resolution and …

Last week we looked at creating portraits with just one light. This week’s video is a natural progression, building upon the foundation of one light portraits. Adding additional lights should serve a purpose and here they help add greater detail and dimension, as explained in the video. There’s also a web gallery of the still photos that helps show the …