We Love KISSes!

Wedding photographer Kevin Swan, one of the founders of the famous US album company KISS Wedding Books, has just launched the new KISS website. Right before the WPPI Convention in Las Vegas. It looks awesome! And the design reminds me something...

But the best part of it: On the design page they feature some sample designs. Including one of the albums that Raya from pink penny designed for me :) Have a look!



KISS albums are really a great product! The quality is outstanding and the customer service Kevin is providing is just the best I ever experienced. To make it even better, they partnered with pink penny for the design of the albums. And it's really a joy to work with Raya!



Thanks, Kevin and Raya, to give me the possibility to deliver these awesome wedding books to my clients. You rock the album world!

Joe McNally: Da Grip

Famous US photographer Joe McNally doesn't only have a website. He recently published a new book ("The Moment It Clicks"), started a blog and even a channel on YouTube. Did you think you knew how to hold a camera rock steady? Let Joe explain you what's his trick. Learn the basics. Watch 'Da Grip'.



Blog: www.joemcnally.com/blog
Videos: Joe McNally on YouTube
Website: www.joemcnally.com
Book: The Moment It Clicks



Worth to have a look at!

It's Just Photography

MediaStorm produces awesome multimedia photography projects. Have a look at this one about Cuba! **CLICK HERE** to watch the movie!

You can also subscribe to their video podcast on iTunes.

Open your Mind

I reworked the "concept" of Share your Power a bit. From now on I will host it every first Thursday a month. To be invited please send a request by email to get the details.

AND: It will be open to everybody who wants to connect and share. So, it's not just for photographers. If you are an art director, project manager for a NGO, a social student, a chef or run your own business. It doesn't matter. Open your mind, connect with new people and share your power and your vision!

Date: Every first Thursday a month
Location: Details on request
Kind: Open Mind Event

To find out more about Share your Power **read this post**

Join (Us)

Lately I received more and more emails from fellow photographers that were seeking some advice, help or just a personal contact to share some thoughts, ideas or the vision of our business in the future.

I enjoyed every single contact and thought it would be a good thing to meet all those nice people in person and let them connect with each other too. Best to be done while having dinner and a cold beer or a non-alcoholic drink at hand. I personally prefer a drink called "Hurricane". Don't expect it to be non-alcoholic :)

The date is set to March 13, 2008. The first host city will be downtown Bern aka "La Capital". If you need a place to stay over night, we will find you one. I expect several people coming from the Zurich area, so there will also be the possibility to share a car and have a warm-up chat on the way.

Just send me an email if you want to Share Your Power and I will let you know the details.

Hope to see you soon!

Drobo, transfer speed and backup workflow

Some photographers were commenting on my post about the Drobo I did some time ago. They were mainly pointing out that its transfer speed is to slow and the lack of Firewire 800 or an ethernet interface. So I updated the post with my own experience. Read it **HERE**.

If you are interested in a really bullet-proof backup workflow you should read these posts on the blog of famous sport and lifestyle photographer Chase Jarvis:

How To Back Up Your Photography: The Basics
Storage And Backup Solutions For Your Photography

That's the best I ever read about backing up your valuable images and I implemented the ideas in my own workflow. Of course it has to be customized to your own needs, but the basic ideas behind are the important thing.

Is YOUR valuable data safe?

Do I mind?

Yesterday I received an email from Beth. She's a photographer from Australia and currently based in London. She asked if I mind if she asked me for some help. Beth will be shooting a destination wedding in Switzerland for an Australian couple and needed some advice about the wedding photography market here in Switzerland.

Of course I do mind! I definitely wanted to help her and provided all advices I could :)

Beth, I hope you will have a great time shooting this destination wedding here in Switzerland!

By the way, Beth Jennings is an awesome wedding, portrait and travel photographer! Check out her website at www.bethjennings.com.au

Take Off

It starts working! Seems that I hit the nail right on the head. There really ARE more photographers in Switzerland that want to share!

Wedding and event photographer Philippe Wiget was the first one to contact me after I posted about my new little project "Dinner for One". Check out his website at www.photophil.ch

Welcome to the community, Philippe!

And because Philippe couldn't wait: Yes, I will organize a monthly photographer meeting in a host city in Switzerland. We will share our meal and share our vision.

Stay tuned for more details!

Join (Me)

Maybe you already noticed this new orange button on my blog and were wondering what this 'Dinner for One' thing is about. Here comes the truth.

Lately I get more and more requests from people that read my blog or enjoy my website. May be aspiring amateurs or pro photographers or just people that enjoy photography. They ask about what equipment I use, how I do post production, where I get my albums done, how to do online proofing and more.

I remember very well how difficult it was to find out all these things by myself when I started. It took me a long time for research and I had to go through some bad experience. Sharing is not really a common practice in Switzerland. At least not yet.

For my part I really like to share (read in this post why) and also enjoy to connect with new people. I think to have lunch or dinner together is the perfect occasion to socialise and network. Just have some good food and chat. Ever read Never Eat Alone by Keith Ferrazzi? If not, start now!

So, here comes my offer: Invite me for a 'Dinner for One'. You can ask me whatever question you like and I will tell you all the secrets (just business secrets of course, not my personal ones ;-)

It doesn't have to be an expensive restaurant. Just feed me! Once in a while I might even accept fast food. But it would be worth to take some more time, so you can ask all the questions you have. You can choose the location or invite me to your house if you are a good chef in the kitchen (please send some referrals before :-)

To share with me a 'Dinner for One' just write me an email or give me a phone call. I'm excited to meet you!

Best,
Daniel

Now it's getting complicated

Effective January 1, 2008, the Department of Transportation (DOT) through the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) will no longer allow loose lithium batteries in checked baggage.

These new rules affect nearly anybody traveling by plane because lithium batteries are used in laptops, digital cameras, video cameras, cellphones etc. So make sure you know the rules before you fly if you don't want to let your lithium batteries at the airport.

What it exactly means you can find out on the website of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and on the website of the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT).

Have a safe trip!

Before & After

If you are looking to hire a photographer it's not everything just about the price. Especially in wedding photography it is very important that you are in love with the (photographic) style of the photographer and that his personality fits yours. As the saying goes for a wedding photographer it is more important to be personable, than professional. Even if I think professionalism is very important if a photographer wants to be successful, his personality is the key.

Besides style and personality the price is the third important part. To be able to compare the different offers you get when looking for a wedding photographer, you have to see what is included in the price. You don't pay a photographer primarily for the hours he is working. You pay him for his experience, his vision and the (professional) services he delivers. And especially post production is an important part of it. Low-priced "Shoot-to-Burn" photographers (they shoot the wedding and burn the images from the camera/card directly to a CD/DVD without and post processing) can only work for such a low price, because they don't deliver any service.

A vital part of a professional service is also that the photographer has a backup plan. Ask for it! What if his camera breaks down in the middle of the ceremony or the whole photo equipment is stolen? How can he handle these situations? Do you really want to rely on your most important day on a photographer that has no answers for these questions? Just because you save some money? Then you can save even more money if you ask a family member to take the photographs...

Anyway, the final product of wedding photography is a wedding album. Not some images on a CD you can watch on your computer. An exclusive album with leather cover you can take in your hands, watch it and remember the emotions and feelings of this wonderful day. "Shoot-to-Burn" photographers don't do wedding albums. And I never saw a bridal couple that did it themselves. Even if they were telling the photographer that they will do the album on their own. It will never happen... That's just the experience.

So, the bottom line is, that it doesn't make too much sense to spend money on a good photographer and not order a wedding album. But that's the bridal couple's decision. I don't push anybody to order an album. I just give them something to think about and find their own decision.

Here just a simple example of a picture without and with post production, a before & after comparison:

Before


After

That's bad!

Did I mention before how important it is to backup your valuable data?
Yes, I did write about it last year in more than one post:

• Safe your life! Or your business. Or better both!
• Backing up
• Get you a robot!
  

But it really hit me when I read recently this message (image above) on the website of the Swiss National Broadcasting Corporation. It says that our national TV station lost a video server with all archives from the year 2005 and before and that they are currently not sure if they can recover the lost data!

How bad is that!? I can't believe it...

So, if you are a professional photographer or run any other business: Do it better than they did!

PS: I'm happy with my Drobo. Highly recommended!

Annie Leibovitz shot the Queen!

For photographers this is an interesting video about Annie Leibovitz photographing Queen Elizabeth II.

Annie Leibovitz is one of the most famous portrait and celebrity photographers of the world. She took the last portrait of John Lennon on the day he was killed and also the famous cover of Vanity Fair, showing pregnant Demi Moore.

Get you a robot!

[See the UPDATE at the end of this post!]

In a recent post I was writing about why it is important that you regularly back up your valuable data. Now I found a new great device to do so: Drobo, your personal storage robot!

Watch the video on Drobo's website that explains why this device is so awesome!

To make it short: Drobo has 4 drive bays. You slide in any SATA drive (no screwdriver needed), any make, any model, any size. Even when your Drobo is running! The data is stored redundantly, means your data is spread over different drives. If one drive fails you can access it on another drive. You don't even notice. Just that Drobo gives you a red light to tell you there is a problem with a certain drive. You buy a new SATA drive and replace the broken one. Drobo re-arranges the data. You don't have to do anything else than replacing the broken drive, Drobo does the rest automatically. And the best: your data is NOT lost!

If you need more space: You just slide in another SATA drive in an empty bay. Or if you already installed 4 drives in your Drobo, it tells you which drive to replace. Go to a shop, buy a (bigger) SATA drive and just replace the recommended drive in your Drobo. That's it. You don't have to copy around data from one drive to another. Drobo cares about that automatically.

To make it shorter: You don't have to care about your data anymore. Drobo does.

To make it shortest: Great! Highly recommended :)

UPDATE:
Meanwhile there is a ethernet solution for the drobo. You can get a "DroboShare" accessory that will let you connect Drobo to your network. Read more about it **HERE**

Because Philippe was commenting his concerns about the Drobo speed, let me shortly point out my workflow. I had the same concerns before I bought my Drobo. But infact Drobo's speed doesn't slow down my work in any way. It just makes it a whole safer.

Drobo is a backup solution. It holds my image archive. That's it.

When I'm back in my office after a shooting I first transfer all my CF cards directly to the drobo. This is the backup of the original RAW files. I never touch them again. Then as second step I transfer the CF cards once again directly to the internal SATA drives of my computer and import the images into Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. The images on the internal SATA drives are the ones I work with. I do my post production, Photoshop work etc. When the job is done, the CD burnt and shipped with the invoice to the client, I archive the job. On the Drobo. This is a background process and I don't care if it will take 20 minutes or 35 minutes to transfer the folder from the internal SATA drive to the Drobo. Later I have to access my image archive on the Drobo only very seldom. And even if I have to re-open and re-work an archived PSD file on the Drobo, I never had a problem with the time it took to access it.

In my workflow Drobo works great. With its redundant storage it gives me the best security and the least worry and maintaining. I will soon be buying another one.

I did myself a Firewire 800 test. I bought the fastest card reader (Sandisk Extreme Reader with Firewire 800 interface) in the meaning that I would save on valuable time while importing. Yes, and that was really proved in my test! As long as I just imported one image folder from the CF card to the internal SATA drive on my computer (just a plain copy-paste process done with normal OS capability). The transfer speed was between 20 and 30 MB/s! Wow! But then I did the test again. Not just copying the files onto the internal SATA drives, but at the same time also importing them directly into Lightroom. And the transfer speed dropped down to 10 MB/s. The same I normally got with my old USB 2.0 cardreader...

This test gave me another point of view of the transfer speed.

About the Firewire 800 speed, you may be interested to read this test and do your own test. Post your results in the comments, I'm interested to hear what you found out!

Adobe Lightroom 1.3 out and language trick

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom version 1.3 is out. It fixes some bugs and supports besides new cameras also the latest Apple Mac OS X Leopard.

One new feature I really like is that it is now possible to run the application either in Englisch, German or French. There's a new field in the preferences dialog to choose the language. The workaround I described in this post is not necessary anymore.

Well done, thanks, Adobe!

Wise Guy

If you are a blog stalker and always want to know what gear other photographers use, remember what a wise guy once said:

‘A typewriter never wrote a great novel any more than a camera took a great picture.’
by Someone Smart

Have a great day! :)

Safe your life! Or your business. Or better both!

Backing up your valuable data is vital if you run a business. John Harrington writes in his great book Best Business Practices for Photographers in chapter 20: "A University of Texas study reports that 43 percent of companies experiencing a catastrophic data loss never recover, and half of them go out of business within two years." Think about it.

Backing up your data correctly is important! The basics for a backup you can trust and will safe your business are:

1. You need duplicative storage. Your vital data has to be stored redundant. That means that you have always two identical copies of every single file. Should one storage fail, you have another one to restore the file.

2. You have to verify your backups. Just copying your files to an external harddrive doesn't mean that you are safe. Are the two copies of your data identical? Or were the files corrupted during the backup process?

3. Backups have to be up-to-date. If you are able to restore your lost files with a version that is one month old, it's better than nothing. But nevertheless you maybe will lose the work of one month (depending on the kind of data). Which can cost you a lot of money.

4. You have to store your backup off site, away from your office. What's the use of a backup if it will be destroyed in the same fire as the original files on your computer?

There are more professional backup strategies. Like backing up every day to another folder/drive to be able to have different versions from the last 7 days accessible. After 7 days the files will be overwritten. But the above points 1-4 are the basics you MUST meet with your own backup strategy.

For data verification I use zsCompare. This software gives me peace in mind and lets me sleep well. And it will cost you as little as USD 35.00 (there are 3 versions of zsCompare available, but you are OK with the Lite Edition). You can use it for data verification and backing up your data by synchronizing two folders (the local folder with your original files and the backup folder on the external harddrive). And the best is that it is a Java application, so it runs equally on Windows and Mac computers. I highly recommend it! But you can use any other reliable data verification software, if you like. But USE one, and BACKUP, BACKUP, BACKUP!

Workflow: Adobe Lightroom

Als Fotograf werde ich immer wieder gefragt, womit ich arbeite. Sei es mit welcher Kamera, welchen Objektiven, Computer oder Software. Bei der Software denkt jeder sogleich an Photoshop. Das stimmt natürlich auch.

Aber das Programm Lightroom von Adobe (offizieller Name: Adobe Photoshop Lightroom) stellt für Digitalfotografen zweifellos eine der grössten Innovationen im Software-Bereich in den letzten Jahren dar. Kaufen kann man das Programm seit Ende Januar 2007. Davor war eine Test-Version gratis erhältlich. Mit dem Feedback der Test-Benutzer und dem Input vieler Fotografen wurde schliesslich das fertige Produkt entwickelt. Nach der ersten Version 1.0 erschien im Juni 2007 ein Update auf die Version 1.1, die nicht wie üblich nur Fehlerkorrekturen, sondern auch viele wesentliche Verbesserungen und neue Funktionen (z.B. neue Werkzeuge) enthielt.

Tipp: Wenn man sich ein Buch zu Lightroom kauft, sollte man deshalb unbedingt darauf achten, dass es für Lightroom 1.1 geschrieben wurde und nicht auf Lightroom 1.0 basiert!

Im Gegensatz zu Adobes Photoshop, das ursprünglich für Grafiker gedacht war und dann über die Jahre auch zum Standard für Fotografen weiterentwickelt wurde, hat Adobe mit Lightroom bei Null begonnen und eine Software entwickelt, die erstmals den gesamten digitalen Workflow eines Fotografen abdeckt. Vom Import der Bilder von der Speicherkarte auf den Computer, über den Bildbrowser für die Bildauswahl, Tools zur Bildkorrektur, Konvertierung der RAW-Daten, Slideshows zur Präsentation der Bilder für Kunden, Erstellen von Galerien für die Website bis hin zum Ausdruck der Fotos auf Papier. Für weitergehende Bildretuschen wechselt man zwischendurch zu Adobe Photoshop und danach wieder zurück zu Lightroom. Das Programm ist besonders gut geeignet für Fotografen, die mit sehr grossen Bildmengen arbeiten müssen, z.B. in der Sport oder Event-Fotografie.

Verglichen mit Photoshop CS3 (ab CHF 1400.-) ist Lightroom richtig billig (ab CHF 260.-). Jeder anspruchsvolle Amateur-Fotograf, der etwas mehr aus seinen Digitalfotos machen will, kann es sich leisten. Und sollte es auch. Denn es ist ein absolut unverzichtbares, professionelles Programm für Digitalfotografen. Photoshop braucht man als Digitalfotograf wirklich nur noch zwingend, wenn man Bildretuschen machen muss, wie z.B. Falten abschwächen, störende Objekte entfernen u.a. Je nach Arbeitsbereich und Arbeitsweise wird Photoshop sogar verzichtbar. Es gibt schon Fotografen, die nur noch mit Lightroom arbeiten.

Tipp: Software kaufe ich meist in Englisch und nicht in Deutsch. Dies aus zwei einfachen Gründen:

1. Die englische Version einer Software ist die "Original-Version". Sie musste also nicht noch extra in eine andere Sprache übersetzt werden. Deshalb ist sie a) billiger und b) kommt sie oft früher heraus als die anderen Sprachversionen. Auch die Updates sind meist für die englischen Versionen zuerst erhältlich und erst Wochen oder gar Monate später für weitere Sprachen. Dies kann in der professionellen Arbeit ein entscheidender Vorteil sein!

2. Das Internet ist eine unendliche Informationsquelle, hier kann man sich gratis weiterbilden. Weil sich in den letzten Jahren Breitband-Internetanschlüsse so stark verbreitet haben, sind die besten Anleitungen nicht mehr geschriebene Tutorials, sondern Videos, die dem Benutzer die Anwendung eines Programmes 1:1 erklären. Besser geht's nicht. Vieles ist hier natürlich in Englisch: Tutorials auf Websites, Video-Podcasts, Bücher. Also ist es für mich einfacher, das Programm auch gleich in Englisch zu kaufen und zu benutzen, so muss ich nicht immer umdenken.

Mit den Büchern ist es übrigens dasselbe. Oft wird die deutsche Übersetzung erst Monate nach der englischen Originalausgabe veröffentlicht. Solange kann man nicht warten, wenn man eine neue Software lernen will. Also lese ich das Buch lieber gleich auf Englisch.

Hier ein paar Quellen, wenn man sich näher mit Lightroom beschäftigen will:

Website und Video-Podcast:
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Killer Tips (von Matt Kloskowski)

Blogs:
Lightroom News
Lightroom Journal

Bücher:
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Book: The Complete Guide for Photographers (von Martin Evening)
The Adobe Lightroom Book for Digital Photographers (von Scott Kelby)


HINWEIS: Will man Lightroom in Englisch auf einem deutschen Windows Computer installieren, muss man folgendes beachten. Die Installationsdatei enthält Lightroom in drei Sprachen (Englisch, Deutsch, Französisch). Während der Installation kann man zwar Englisch, Deutsch oder Französisch auswählen, aber das wirkt sich nur auf die Sprache des Installations-Assistenten aus und hat nichts damit zu tun, in welcher Sprache das Programm später läuft. Je nach den Spracheinstellungen auf dem Computer läuft Lightroom in der entsprechenden Sprache. Dies lässt sich nicht durch Einstellungen im Programm ändern.

Einen Workaround für dieses Problem findet man auf dem Blog von Adobe im Lightroom Journal: Fine Tuning Language

Ich habe lange eine Lösung für dieses Problem gesucht und heute obigen Beitrag gefunden.

Seit Mitte September ist übrigens die Version 1.2 von Lightroom erhältlich. Sie enthält einige Fehlerkorrekturen und unterstützt neue Kameras.

*****

The installer for Adobe Lightroom is the same for English, German and French, it's all included in one file. But there's no possibility to choose which language you want to install (actually there is a language choice but it is only for the language of the installation wizard, it doesn't affect the language of the program itself when it's running after you installed it).

Great tip: If you are working on a computer (Windows or Mac) with german or french operating system, but nevertheless want to use Adobe Lightroom in English, check this post on Adobe's blog Lightroom Journal about a workaround to achieve this: Fine Tuning Language

Post production

Clients often don't understand what "post production" means, why it is necessary and why they have to pay for it. That's why they negotiate to have the job done without. Normally just for the sake of saving some money. But would they be happy with the final result if they got the images without allowing the photographer to finish his work? I don't think so. They will say he's a bad photographer - while comparing his work with other photographers that certainly DO post production, of course! And they will neither book him again nor recommend him to other prospective clients.

So let's dive into the subject. Why does it need post production and what is it? Compare the two pictures below. The difference is called post production :)

This is the untouched photo straight out of the camera:



It's a nice, acceptable shot. Exposure, focus and colors are OK. But not more. That's what you get (or maybe less) if you hire just the cheapest photographer to cover your wedding or another high end event. Often they work the "shoot to burn" style: shoot the wedding and just burn the photos right from camera to a CD and hand them over to the couple, without any post production or retouching. It's obvious why "shoot to burn" photographers can offer their services for a very low price. They don't need expensive tools, not years of learning and acquire skills, no time at all after the wedding for finishing the pictures and no backup strategies. The photos are ready to deliver to the client at the moment they are shot. That's where their workflow ends.

And that's where the workflow starts for the "other" photographers.

This is what the picture looks like after some work in Photoshop, called "post production" (click to view it big):



The image has been lightened, converted to black & white, added some sepia toning and the texture of an old paper to give it the taste of an old photo. To make the picture something unique and special.

[Working with "textures" like this is very modern at the moment in photography, check out the website of the master of FineArtTextures, Jesh de Rox!]

In the previous post (open the link in a new window to compare the pictures "side by side") I used the same photo to announce the slideshow of Sibylle & Jan. The picture is in color but nevertheless did get some post production: lighten, color correction, contrast bump, a little vignette and sharpening.

Post production needs time, knowhow and sometimes special tools and software. That's what you pay the photographer for. Not just for showing up with his fancy camera for 10 hours at your wedding. Also cheap photographers can afford an expensive camera. That's not what makes the difference. It's the photographer's eye and creativity, his knowhow and professionalism and what the final result looks like. After post production (And that's also the reason why photographers are not payed for the amount of hours they are "on location").

If you're fine just getting average (or below) images of your wedding, go ahead to hire the cheapest photographer you can grab. But don't expect wonders and don't be disappointed afterwards.

If your main concern is the quality of your wedding images and the album, examine the photographers' work well and ask them the right questions before you sign the contract.

Every couple should choose the photographer that fits its needs, style and budget. And it feels comfortable with. It's OK to hire a "shoot to burn" photographer. If you know the difference and are aware of the limitations this might bring. But don't expect wonders. As everywhere else in business, what you pay is what you get! The choice is up to you.

Enjoy your wedding day! It will be an unforgettable moment in your life. Hopefully you picked a good photographer and will enjoy his work for a lifetime.

(If you are more interested in the photography business read John Harrington's great book Best Business Practices for Photographers or his blog Photo Business News & Forum.)

Improvise, save money and start sharing :)

Zubehör fürs Fotostudio ist oft ziemlich teuer, weil es ein sehr spezialisierter, beschränkter Markt ist. Mit etwas Improvisationstalent kann man jedoch Alternativen finden, die den Job praktisch genauso gut erledigen, aber nur einen Bruchteil kosten.

Vorgestern habe ich Schwangerschafts-Aufnahmen in Basel fotografiert. Nicht im Studio, sondern in der Wohnung der Kunden. Für den schwarzen Hintergrund (schwarzer Samt ist dafür am besten geeignet, weil er am meisten Licht "schluckt" und keinerlei Reflexionen oder Falten im Bild sichtbar sind) brauchte ich ein Befestigungssystem. Im Studio verwendet man dafür zwei sog. Autopoles von Manfrotto (Stützen, die man zwischen Decke und Fussboden einspannt) und je eine Klammer mit Haltevorrichtung für die Rolle Hintergrundpapier oder die Stange mit dem Stoff. Das kostet schnell einmal ein paar Hundert Franken. Nur um den Hintergrund zweckmässig befestigen zu können.

Man kann aber dafür auch Montage-Stützen (CHF 36.-) und zwei Richa-Klammern (wenige Franken) aus dem Baumarkt nehmen. Darauf kommt horizontal eine grüne "Bohnenstange" (CHF 6.90), die mit einem Gummiband oder Gaffertape fixiert wird. Die Stange hat feine Kerben, damit sich die Pflanzen besser hochranken können :) Daran halten die Richa-Klammern, mit denen man den Stoff an der Stange befestigt, sogar noch besser! Sie drehen sich nicht oder rutschen ab. Perfekt!

Beim Improvisieren sollte man jedoch aufpassen, denn das System muss trotzdem absolut sicher sein. Man will beim Kunden ja keinen Sachschaden anrichten... Ausserdem muss man es schnell aufbauen und den Verhältnissen anpassen können. Dies erfüllt das oben beschriebene System. Für unter 100 Franken... Von dem gesparten Geld habe ich mir einen neuen Hintergrund-Stoff gekauft :)

Equipment for studio photography is normally very expensive. But if you look around and are ready to improvise a bit, you will find alternatives that save you some hundred bucks :)

The day before yesterday I was shooting maternity pictures in Basel. On location, not in the studio. For the background I needed to put up black velvet (that's the best to make the background completely black, this fabric won't give you any reflections). Instead of buying 2 Autopoles by Manfrotto, I found something very similar in a DIY superstore. For a fractional amount of the price... I also found some Richa clamps (big and small) to hold the green "bean-pole" where I attached the black velvet. Perfect!

If you improvise you just have to be careful that the system is nevertheless completely safe (you don't want to damage the clients appartment) and the system is fast to set up and move around if you need to adjust for the shooting. My setup fulfilled these requirements. And that for less than CHF 100.- With the saved money I bought a new background fabric I needed :)

What cool improvisations do YOU use? Share it with other photographers by leaving a comment :)