Chairman of the Board
Doug Peninger dpeninger@SEPPAonline.com
President
George Singleton gsingleton@SEPPAonline.com
1st Vice-President
Kevin Jiminez kjiminez@SEPPAonline.com
2nd Vice-President
Mary Fisk-Taylor mfisktaylor@SEPPAonline.com
Secretary-Treasurer
District of Columbia
Florida
Janet Boschker jboschker@SEPPAonline.com
Salon Exhibition Chair Executive Director
Delaware
Jessica Vogel jvogel@SEPPAonline.com
Georgia
*** Paula Mignagna
***Anthony Maril Joe Tessmer
*** Martin Gudz Kaye Newsome
*** Spencer Smith Jason White
Rick Gibbons ExecutiveDirector@SEPPAonline.com
S out he r n E x p o su re
Souther n Exposure magazine is an online publication of SEPPA and is published monthly. Editor V ictoria Kelly vkelly@SEPPAonline.com 919.818.0726 Ad Sales & Business Manager Rick Gibbons ExecutiveDirector@SEPPAonline.com 866.982.4856
Maryland
*** Lidia Miller Steve Clark
Mississippi/Alabama
*** Wesley Ellis Gil Brady
North Carolina
*** Bruce Williamson Janet Boschker
South Carolina
*** Patty Hallman Gregg Martin
Article & Ad Submissions 5th of every month OnLine Publication 20th of each month SEPPA 3710 North Main Street High Point, NC 27265 866.982.4856 Acceptan ce o f a d v e r t i si n g d oe s n ot c a r r y wi th i t en dor se m e n t b y t h e p ub l i sh e r. Opi n i o ns expre sse d b y Sout h e r n Exp osure o r an y o f i ts aut h or s d oe s n ot n e c e ssa r i l y refl ect t h e p osi t i on s of t h e Sou theaster n Pro fessi on a l P h ot og r a p h e r s A ssoc ia t io n . Asso ci ati on f i n a n c i a l i n f or m a t i on avai la b l e up on re q ue st .
Tennessee
Virginia
West Virginia
*** Jeannie Forehand Barbara White
*** Jim Carpenter Robert Holman
*** Pat Dodd Brentv Kepner
*** state president SEPPA representative
Delaware
Mississippi/Alabama
District of Columbia
North Carolina
www.ppsgw.org
www.ppofnc.com
Florida
South Carolina
www.fpponline.org
www.ppofsc.com
Georgia
Tennessee
www.gppa.com
www.tnppa.com
Maryland
Virginia
www.delawarephotographers.com
www.marylandppa.com
SEPPA is a regional affiliate of the Professional Photographers of America and hosts an annual District Image Judging. To learn more about PPA, click HERE.
www.ppma.net
www.vppa.org
West Virginia www.ppwv.org
Let’s Be More than “Good Enough” Christine Walsh-Newton, M. Photog., Cr., CPP
I've written in the past about the “good enough” syndrome. Clients, in their quest for effective time and financial management have settled into a “good enough” groove for photographic services. They have bypassed higher-priced expert photographers to hire less expensive, less educated photographers that are “good enough.” Unfortunately, the differences between the two are not as apparent to our clients as they are to us. I recently touched base with a couple that had inquired about my wedding pho-
tography services. Since I no longer shoot weddings, I gave them some referrals. When I checked back with them, they had chosen a new photographer to the wedding industry. They explained that the new photographer was very excited to shoot the wedding and that “We'd rather have someone new and excited than someone old and boring.” So, “new and excited” is good enough? Alrighty then. Unfortunately, a lot of clients across the board have settled into this “good enough” mindset for the bulk of their photographic needs. I shake my head and
BUILD A PHOTOBIZ PORTFOLIO SITE.
WEBSITES EXCLUSIVELY
FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS.
Got Credits? Enter Them! You asked...we listened. You can now enter your credits starting with 2010 and forward on the SEPPA website. Visit www.SEPPAonline.com and click “SEPPA Degree” to start the process. You must enter your credits by December 31st to be eligible for receiving your SEPPA degree at SEPPA Live! 2015 in Charlotte, NC May, 2015.
Christine Walsh-Newton cont’d... wonder how well our attempts to educate our clients are working. As if this wasn't bad enough, it seems that photographers have begun to settle into this same mindset, as well. I received a message from a young photographer who was expressing disappointment in the technical questions he posed to established photographers. His quest for posing nuances and lighting refinements are being derailed by folks who are telling him that that level of perfection is not necessary. “Clients cannot tell the difference between short and broad lighting, so don't bother with it,” he was told. This makes me sad. I understand that the lessons I teach may not always be a part of a photographer's process. For example, my devotion to the light meter may not always be the same for my students and at some point in time they may learn to perceive their lighting needs by eye or via a histogram. That's ok. Take the basic lessons, learn them for now and then adapt them to your needs as your skill set changes. But for the love of all that is holy, do not instruct new photographers to skip this step and jump right into disregarding light meters altogether. I've watched a lot of successful photographers go this route, as well. No, the client doesn't know or appreciate good lighting or posing, but dang, they sure dig cool backgrounds and sets, so suddenly it appears that the only thing required for success is a variety of backgrounds and
fancy locations. Double points if the fancy locations are in the form of a shooting park. Suddenly the trend is less focus on the technical and more on the “wow” factor. Some photographers have backed off their efforts to shoot technically superior images since the client does not know or care. They've lowered themselves and their output to the “good enough” category. I think this is a dangerous route to take. For me, there's a right way and a wrong way to do things. For me. I will always know if I cut corners or winged my way through a session. The day a set of session proofs is filled with the same lighting and poses with only the backgrounds and clothing changes making the difference is the day I reconsider my career choice. That's just not part of my plan and I'd encourage new photographers to not make it part of theirs, either. It may be the easy answer to getting clients through their sessions quickly and making money happen. I'm not saying there's a thing wrong with making money, but if we are compromising quality to get images out the door, that's a concern. Your goal should not be “good enough” it should be “great.” Technical skills and refinements should be an ongoing part of your learning process. You should strive to be the best and not settle for anything less. The path to greatness does not include subpar performance.
“Just to be sure I understand...you want me to look through your 4200 images on the flash drive, select the images for the album, do any cleanup of the images and produce the book?”
when “DIY” becomes “OMG” Victoria Kelly, Cr.Photog., CPP
You should know that I consider myself a “DIY” kinda gal. Over the years, though, there are just some things that I would never consider doing myself like cut my own hair, do my own nails or attempt any electrical/plumbing chores around my house. Now…don’t get me wrong—I could purchase a pair of scissors, a bottle of nail color and a toilet plunger and consider myself a professional. But let’s face it…I have neither the skills nor the training to be able to do any of those things. And I’m okay with that.
Now that you have the history—I’ll share with you that I stopped photographing most weddings about eight years ago. I was doing lots of consultations and hearing so many stories about Uncle Jimmy, Grandpa BillyBob and Wanda’s best friend’s husband’s cousin who was “really good with a camera” I just decided that I would do weddings ONLY by referral. Fast forward to last fall…I had a wedding consultation booked for a wedding date in July of 2014 and the bride had been referred by a very good client.
Victoria Kelly cont’d... As we chatted it became crystal clear to me that I was not going to be able to meet her needs. Primarily she wanted (you guessed it!) digital files, no album and a minimum of 1500-2000 images from her special day. I took the time to discuss with her the album possibilities, how she needed to find a photographer whose style she liked and that she needed to realize that after her wedding her pictures would be the only thing remaining. She thanked me for my time and was fairly insistent that her best friend from college was going to photograph her wedding because she had a GREAT camera and had been photographing some amazing flowers. Imagine my surprise when the phone rang
just a couple of weeks ago and it was THIS BRIDE. The first words out of her mouth were something akin to “I should have listened to you and Mrs. Smith” and could she come into the studio and talk with me about an album. She came into the studio, flash drive in hand and promptly burst into tears while sinking into the sofa in my presentation room. Between sobs and hiccups I was able to piece together that her best friend photographer had presented her with a flash drive of 4200 images, her mother wanted an album and she was just clueless about where to start. And could I please help because I was just so nice during her con-
Victoria Kelly cont’d... sultation and she was convinced I could put things to right. “So just to be sure I understand…you would like for me to look through your 4200 images, select images for an album, do any cleanup of the images for the album, produce the book and let you know when it’s complete?” Oy vey. I very gently told her that while she wasn’t asking for the impossible she was asking for a lot of my time…sorting through images, selecting the images to give a beautiful flavor of her day, putting together the storyboard for her album and then producing the book itself.
And there in my presentation room sat one unhappy bride who had tried to take the “DIY” approach to her wedding photography and ended up with an “OMG” moment instead. And then she said the words no professional photographer should ever have to hear: “When you told me that the only thing I would have after my wedding were my pictures I thought that was pretty silly.” “Instead I have a flash drive with thousands of pictures I will never look at and no album.” Yes. You have learned a hard lesson early. Now...was I able to produce the book?
We finally decided to do an album with 125 images and I gave her an estimate of what the total bill would be.
Absolutely. And I’m fairly certain I now have a client for life.
Depth of Field Al Audleman, M.Photog.Cr., CPP, API, FDPE, FDAE, FSA, FED, GFD
The official definition of Depth of Field is defined as the distance between the nearest and farthest objects that appear acceptably sharp in an image. The key here technically is “acceptably” sharp. It is not an “exactly-defined distance.” The only area that is actually critically sharp is the “plane of critical focus.”
Sharpness is critical in any image as the eye is drawn to the sharpest part of the image. Why? Because our eyes continually focus on what we are looking at ... and as our gaze moves about a scene, the objects we are NOT looking at become soft.
By that, I mean from the plane of critical focus, the image sharpness gradually softens in both directions until it is no longer “acceptably sharp.”
We tend not notice this since our vision is concentrated on a single subject. Using the technique of Selective Focus, we “force” the viewer to recognize the subject of the image because it is the only thing actually sharp in the frame.
Understand that when you focus on a subject, it is not just that subject that is sharp. It is anything else in that “plane” defined as equally distant from your camera.
Depth of Field is controlled by three things: 1) Aperture (f-stop); 2) Focal length of the lens, and;
3) Focus distance (distance from the camera to the subject). Regardless of the amount of depth of field, it extends one third in front and two thirds behind the point of critical focus. Remember that this is the zone of “acceptable sharpness,” not critical sharpness! F-Stop/Aperture: The smaller the diameter of the aperture, the longer the depth of field. When the f-stop is set to a lower number, say f/2.8, the diameter of the opening in the lens is larger and the depth of field is less. If you set the f-stop to a high number, say f/16, the diameter of the aperture is much smaller and the resulting depth of field is much greater.
signer) wants to see all the details. Landscape photography is also very dependent on a long depth of field so the viewers can see all objects clearly from very close to infinity. On the other hand, using a long lens, like a 300mm set at f/2.8, the depth of field will be very short. This is effectively used when practicing a technique called “Selective Focus,” making the subject very sharp but blurring the background significantly. This forces the viewer to look at your subject. Making a good photograph of a single subject, like a portrait, where the surrounding environment is not important will usually be accomplished using this selective focus technique.
This principle applies to any lens even though the resulting depth of field of each lens will vary depending on the focal length.
It eliminates much of the distracting background while forcing the viewer to look at the subject.
Focal Length: The shorter the focal length of the lens, the more apparent the depth of field is. A wide-angle lens at the same f-stop as a longer lens will have a much greater depth of field.
Focus Distance: Regardless of the focal length of the lens and the selected aperture, the depth of field increases the closer to infinity you focus the lens.
Conversely, a longer focal length lens will have a lesser depth of field depending on the lens. For example, when shooting an interior of a room with a very wide-angle lens, an f-stop in the range of f/11 to f/16 will produce a great enough depth of field to make everything in the photo acceptably sharp. This is important in many cases like interior photography where there is no particular subject and the client (like an interior de-
Sharpness: While “Depth of Field” is the area of acceptable sharpness, when is a lens the sharpest? Some lenses are naturally sharper. Almost all lenses are sharper towards the center and softer towards the outer edges and corners. The sharpness of any lens is dependent on two primary and independent conditions. First is the quality of the glass in the lens. This is easy to control. You simply spend more money and you get better glass.
The second condition is the aperture setting. As a rule of thumb, most lenses are the sharpest two to three stops less than the widest aperture. This statement is in conflict with the primary accepted source for the CPP exam, London, Stone & Upton’s book Photography which states that the sharpest aperture setting is one to two stops less than the maximum aperture.
Don’t get hung up on a single aperture because it may not always be the best choice! You will also hear some say that f/8 is the best f/stop for sharp images. While not exactly true, it IS close enough in most cases, only being ⅓ stop higher than f/7.1.
That would mean an f/2.8 lens is sharpest between f/4 and f/5.6. However, most sources will define the sharpest aperture to be between two and three stops less than the maximum aperture. On an f/2.8 lens, that would be between f5.6 and f/8. Research and testing actually show that there is one specific aperture that gives the sharpest possible image and that is f/7.1. Just where IS f/7.1? If your meter reads f5.6½ (f/5.6.5), technically that is f/6.8. The “math” here is the difference between 5.6 and 8, which is 2.4. Divide that by 2 and you get 1.2. Add 1.2 to 5.6 (or subtract it from 8) and you get 6.8. So 7.1 is a bit closer to 8 than 5.6, actually ⅓ stop less than f/8. So if you need the sharpest possible image, set your aperture at f/7.1. But first, THINK! Is absolute, critical sharpness the most important thing? Or is it that everything is “acceptably” sharp? Sometimes you will need a higher aperture than f/7.1 to get everyone acceptably sharp.
About the author: Al Audleman is a Certified Professional Photographer (CPP) and PPA Approved Photographic Instructor. He is also an officially-recognized CPP Exam Preparation Class Instructor and former chairman of the Certification Committee involved in the revision of the CPP Exam. He has been instructing since 1996 and has taught at PPA affiliated schools in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Michigan, Texas, New England, California, Canada and the Bahamas. This article is an excerpt from his comprehensive CPP Study Guide The Road to Certification for Professional Photographers.” This 247-page book is available as a PDF file by contacting Al via email at al@asaphoto.com.
Send In The Clouds... Don MacGregor
If you’re ever out on location and the sky isn’t to your liking...no problem!
In this QuickTime training video Don takes you step-by-step through the process to drop in different clouds to make your image perfect!
Save the date And...this process can be used for other things, not just clouds.
Need to change a background? Yes, this process works beautifully, here, too!
SEPPA LIVE! Charlotte, NC May 1-5, 2015
Click HERE to watch the video: