around the net: volume 16, a little studio diy, lightroom 2.0 and the king
I was surfing the ‘net the other night, checking up on what prophotolife readers have been shooting and I came across this photo on reader Trent Palmer’s flickr photostream. Finally, proof positive that “Elvis ain’t dead”, he’s popping wheelies on a minibike somewhere.
While the existence of The King is some pretty big news it’s not the big news of the week, that would be the release of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2.0! You can download the software, order a boxed version or a get a 30 day trial version directly from Adobe. They still offer free trial downloads of most all of their products, which is really nice. I did drop some major cash on Adobe CS3 Premium last week at the studio: Premiere Pro, After Effects, Photoshop, Flash, Soundbooth…and a whole bunch of other apps I can’t remember. The only thing missing was, of course: Lightroom.
Speaking of software, what do you think Photoshop is worth? Brian at Epic Edits Weblog posted that question to his readers with some intriguing results. It turns out most respondents feel Photoshop is overpriced and, doing the math, Adobe would sell considerably more licenses with a reduced price. Check out Epic Edits Weblog for the interesting poll results.
Reader Matt Haines’ blog recently reported on his personal experience of shooting “a photo a day” for a week. It’s a good read, as is the rest of his blog, well written and enjoyable. Matt is a professional photographer that writes on everything from creativity to famous photographers to technical subjects. Hmmm, I guess that explains why we like each other’s sites!
Interested in product photography, diy photo equipment and well-written tutorials? A recent surfing journey led me to Keith Slagerman’s finely crafted Do It Yourself Studio Shooting Table. More photographers helping photographers: good stuff. Great attention to detail, Keith, it will be cool to see what you come up with next.
Speaking of photography and helping, there’s a doctor in SoCal whose large format landscape photography is used to soothe patients. He calls the medical practice “an art gallery where doctors just happen to treat cancer”. I found a link to the ABC-TV video here on Imaging Insider’s post “Healing Through Photography”. Our friends at Imaging Insider are always looking high and low for interesting photo links.
Now, two excellent posts on the business of photography. This is going to seem a bit schizophrenic, one title tells us that photography is worthless and the other tells us how to charge a fair price for our photography. But they are both relevant and timely resources. The bottom line is that the world is changing fast and the business of photography itself can accurately be described as a bit schizophrenic.
1. Why your images are worthless by Nikonian Martin Joergensen. Yes, the title commands attention and so does this very thorough article, a must read for anyone interested in selling photography. It’s a shame to try and sum up all of the information contained therein, but the major point is this: to create a career in photography it’s not enough to just do “the status quo”. Find a way to differentiate yourself, a point I wrote about in “when the going rate is too low“. Martin offers a number of suggestions for defining your career and creating value.
2. Is a picture worth $1000? How to Price Your Photography at hyperphocal.com. Okay, this article argues for the value of photography and so, judging by the title, it might appear to be a polar opposite to the previous article. I’m impressed by the collection of resources for photo pricing here, many of which have been mentioned on prophotolife in the past. But here they are, all together, collected for easy reference and digestion.
I think these two resources are a good pairing. If you are intent on success as a professional photographer, Martin challenges you to rise to a higher level. The resources at hyperphocal will help you determine just what those efforts are worth. It’s up to us, as photographers, to stem the slide of photography as a commodity. That starts with creating a genuinely valuable product and then obtaining the proper value for it.
Hey, if it were really that easy then everyone would be a professional photographer, huh? 
Have a great weekend, I have a new toy (strobe) to roll out in Monday’s video!
- Jim T.
In my opinion photoshop is overpriced, Adobe should lower it prices a little bit so it would be more affordable. Or they just do it as an open source, what do you think? lol
I saw Brian Auer’s Photoshop price poll and analysis too and thought the results were interesting. I don’t have Photoshop yet myself simply because it is so expensive, and I’ve found that Photoshop Elements doesn’t have many of the tools that I would want to use. Anyway, they do have a right to sell the product of their work and I know software of that type takes huge amounts of resources. Not sure what the best “solution” is though.
That shooting table does look interesting, and like it would be very sturdy. However, it is also very expensive for a DIY project. How much is an actual “photographic” shooting table anyway? I just use a card table with a 36″ wide roll of white paper for the backdrop. It seems to work well and was basically free.
Well, that should keep me occupied to the end of the work day. If I get fired, I’ll blame it on Jim
Re: Adobe pricing, do I think they charge a lot, yes. But they have every right to do so. Do I want them to make it more affordable for the average Joe, no. The price of Photoshop is well justified when you take in consideration the ROI.
Thanks Jim for another blog to add to my Google Reader… I like that table and it appears to be Keith has some other interesting stuff on his blog. I’ll keep checking back.
I’d love to see the price of Adobe software come down, especially Photoshop. Thankfully, there are alternatives out there that are cheap or free, like The Gimp. Granted, it doesn’t have all the same bells & whistles as Photoshop, but it works for me and numerous others.
Is a Pic worth a $1000, Well I guess the guy that Caught B Spears getting out of the Car got more than that but I’d rather be shooting the Grand Canyon for Nothing.
Photoshop is horrifically overpriced. They only care about their corporate clients.
But, what choice do we have?
Almost everything else is not photoshop.
I just read the two business articles that you linked to up above. Very interesting informations and viewpoints. They do highlight how things have changed and are changing. In some ways it seems easier to make some extra money as a hobbiest than ever before, while conversely it is getting more difficult to make photography a career.
I honestly don’t know where I stand on the pricing of Photoshop. But, as John says, there are completely (truly) free alternatives, like GIMP. The thing I find interesting is that with each new release of just about ANY software, there are features we feel we need…that 6 months earlier we got along just fine without. The world keeps moving faster and faster.
You nailed it, Craig: photography has become a very enjoyable and accessible second career for many people, a good way to earn extra income. There are increasing challenges to making it a full-time career, though. But, just like anything that requires dedication, those challenges can be overcome if someone truly wants it.
well gimp is usable for a few tasks but if it say takes 5 times as long to do somthing the hiden costs realy rack up should I spend a morning fighting with gimp when I could do it in half an hour in PS thats say 150/200 quid in terms of my charge out rate. do that twice a month and you quickly recover the cost.
I feel exactly the same way as Craig. For example, my fulltime job is as a Package Design and Development engineer and I do some photography on the side as a hobby. Recently though, I did a shoot in which I was paid to take pictures of a family in Ault Park. It felt great to make some extra cash on the side with something I consider a very cool and fun hobby. However, I also had co-workers that left the company to make their photography hobby a profession and they are doing quite well. One of them is Rick Lohre. He is a talented commercial photographer that is currently very busy doing gigs in his studio. So, I see how you can make it a profession if you really want it and are passionate about it.
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