Category: Photography

If you love a photographer, then you’ll want to print a copy of this list. These are the most wished for books on Amazon. This means there is probably a book or two on this list your photographer would love. Save yourself some time by using this list as a shopping list. Your photographer will love you for it.

1. National Geographic Image Collection by National Geographic, Michelle Anne Delaney, Maura Mulvihill (5.0 out of 5 stars)

Behind National Geographic’s worldwide reputation as a powerhouse of photography lies one of the finest, most extensive, and most unique graphic resources on Earth: the National Geographic Image Collection. For the first time ever, readers will plumb the fascinating depths of this immense archive from the earliest photographs collected in the late 19th century to the cutting-edge work of today.

2. The Digital Photography Book, Volume 3 by Scott Kelby (4.3 out of 5 stars)

This book truly has a brilliant premise, and here’s how Scott describes it: “If you and I were out on a shoot and you asked me, ‘Hey Scott, I want the light for this portrait to look really soft and flattering. How far back should I put this softbox?’ I wouldn’t give you a lecture about lighting ratios, or flash modifiers. In real life, I’d just turn to you and say, ‘Move it in as close to your subject as you possibly can, without it actually showing up in the shot.’

3. VisionMongers: Making a Life and a Living in Photography by David duChemin (4.9 out of 5 stars)

A book for any photographer who’s ever felt compelled to combine their craft with the world of commerce and make the transition to becoming a vocational photographer. More like a sketchbook of ideas and wisdom than it is a system to get rich quick on photography, VisionMongers takes a look at the changing landscape of professional photography and the various journeys that can be taken to get there.

4. Within the Frame: The Journey of Photographic Vision by David duChemin (4.8 out of 5 stars)

A book about finding and expressing your photographic vision, specifically where people, places, and cultures are concerned. A personal book full of real-world wisdom and incredible images, author David duChemin (of pixelatedimage.com) shows you both the how and the why of finding, chasing, and expressing your vision with a camera to your eye.

5. The Photographer’s Eye: Composition and Design for Better Digital Photos by Michael Freeman (4.6 out of 5 stars)

Design is the single most important factor in creating a successful photograph. The ability to see the potential for a strong picture and then organize the graphic elements into an effective, compelling composition has always been one of the key skills in making photographs.

6. The Digital Photography Book, Volume 2 by Scott Kelby (4.6 out of 5 stars)

In Volume 2, Scott adds entirely new chapters packed with Plain English tips on using flash, shooting close up photography, travel photography, shooting people, and even how to build a studio from scratch, where he demystifies the process so anyone can start taking pro-quality portraits today! Plus, he’s got full chapters on his most requested topics.

7. The Moment It Clicks: Photography Secrets From One of the World’s Top Shooters by Joe McNally (4.2 out of 5 stars)

Joe McNally, one of the world’s top pro digital photographers, breaks new ground by doing something no photography book has ever done-blending the rich, stunning images and elegant layout of a coffee-table book with the invaluable training, no-nonsense insights, and photography secrets usually found only in those rare, best-of-breed educational books.

You don’t want to miss out on the rest of the list. Check out 10 Best Photography Books. I’m sure you’ll find something your photographer will love. And guess who gets the credit….you.

“I just love it. How did you know?”

There isn’t any doubt at all that today’s picture driven world of business and advertising having the best product images carried out is essential to success. There are simply too many company messages on the market bombarding us every day for us to absorb far more than a small percentage of the messages being conveyed.
That is why advertisers and marketers have been relying more and more on product photography to do the job.
Product photography is an art. Top photos, especially of three-dimensional items, are not easily achieved. For the amount of high quality needed for commercial product photography, a studio setting is useful and an expert photographer is essential. The critical importance are lighting, background, clarity, composition and context.
Product photographers use a variety of professional equipment to attain the desired result. Specialty cameras and lenses, a light box, light diffusers and a wide range of backgrounds and props are only a few of the items required to ensure high quality product photographs. Also, the pro product photographer’s ability and experience are invaluable.
Megapixel of over 10 is really helpful for camera and the ideal lens to use shall be 100mm macro. The light source is of key importance in your overall photograph shoot setup. Typically for indoor shots, you’ll want 2 light sources – one is the primary light for either direct light on your product, or it may be diffused indirectly, corresponding to utilizing a light tent. Then the second light source is often fill or reflection-diffusing light to take away from the shadow effect. There are two major lighting to use on product photography. Strobe light is very good for the sharp look on metal or chrome products such as jewellery and glass items. Ambient light could make a smooth look so long as the photographer is aware of methods to diffuse and reflect light source.
In todays competitive enterprise industry, a professional internet webstore is the important thing to achieve success. Your product is the life line between your online business and your client. Pro product photographers can achieve good colour and the sharp image look by bring up the products sharpness. Quality product photography is the key to business success.

A bridezilla usually has these symptoms:
-Someone who is pushy and barely gives thanks.
-Somebody who is very impatient and demanding.
-Somebody who raises voice often and screams unnecessarily.
-Someone who is usually stressed out below any situations.
-Someone who can’t handle their emotions well.
-Somebody who is impolite and disrespectful.

Usually women don’t plan to turn into a bridezilla when she first begins to plan her wedding. All of it starts from the voice in her head I want my wedding day to be perfect. Demanding perfection in your wedding day will only cause stress, because nothing in this world is flawless. Whenever you hear perfect wedding stories, it merely means that wedding was perfect for that particular individual as they were happy on that day. Surprising things might happen and something may go sideways, but why not take a breath and focus on having fun and make the remainder of the day a memorable one?
There are 3 common ways to prevent becoming a bridezilla.

1. When discussing wedding plans together with your fianc, try and substitute This is my day with This is our wedding. Without doubt guys have silly concepts like race car wedding cakes and soccer theme invitations, however this is because wedding is often not their forte. It is very important compromise concepts from both sides reasonably in order to have a successful and joyful wedding day.

2. Go out with your friends to enjoy a movie and new restaurants, have fun! Take a break from wedding conversation and spend an evening focusing on catching up on other people’s lives. You want your friends to be joyful for you from the bottom of their heart. Joyful bridal party can have a positive effect in your big day.

3. Be good to your wedding professionals. Impatient and rude brides easily upset those that would have gladly helped them. Even when it is not outwardly noticeable, professionals who she has disrespected may naturally give poor service at the end of the day. Respect your wedding vendors and lots of good stuff may happen. Your DJ might make an effort to do an extra nice job to heat up the crowd of the reception. Your venue could serve your guests well ahead of your expectations. Your photographer might make you extra beautiful with post production enhancements like photoshop retouch. Your floral could try to do an extra great job on decorating the scene. Your wedding planner might make an effort to have more endurance with you to organize the day. There are a lot of positive things that can occur behind the scenes if the bride is kind and reasonable to wedding professionals.

Juggling the day to day running of a photography business can take time & efforts on your part. This is the work which no one likes, paperwork, invoices, etc. Important thing is not to replicate and duplicate things, this takes up more time than we realise and lost time equals losing money. Every business (photography or not) needs to have a system in place. Keeping track of your contacts, equipment, jobs, sales, purchases, marketing, diary & products and a lot more.

Many photographers use a spreadsheet to run their business. Spreadsheets are fine if you want to crunch numbers and perform automatic calculations, create charts, ‘what if’ scenarios or keep track of simple list of data. However, you will end up entering the same values of information into multiple spreadsheets. This is not time efficient and you need to update different files if you are tracking related information in several spreadsheets. When you use a spreadsheet, viewing the set of data is not easy and quite often requires lots of scrolling to view it!!

Alternative to spreadsheets is a database management system which will simplify your work and allow you more time to do whatever you want, whether being behind the camera or with your family! A database will help you manage all your day to day business tasks with ease, answer questions and solve problems, link related data, view data in different ways and a lot lot more…

Here is what you need to do simplify your day to day tasks:

1. Keeping track of your contacts i.e leads, customers, suppliers,

2. Sending quotations and confirmations of bookings in a professionally laid out PDF format

3. Manage your work flow tasks / reminders for things to do on specific dates

4. Raising sales invoices / inputting purchase invoices

5. Linking expenses / purchases to jobs for precise cost analysis

6. Sending / creating delivery notes to clients

7. Sending remittance notes to suppliers for payment

8. Email marketing to get your message across

9. Keeping track of all your camera / lenses / software serial numbers

10. Mail merging and sending letters to clients & prospects

11. Creating reports to see your sales, purchases, expenses

12. Forecasting figures v actual figures

13. Keeping track of appointments with a diary

14. and a lot more…..

Can you imagine trying to do all the above with spreadsheets, you cannot. It is possible but you will end up replicating and duplicating things and is very time consuming. What you need is to get or create your own database which will speed up your administrative tasks. If you are good with programming, you can create simple databases, but this will be time-consuming for you or you can buy an off-the-shelf program which is made for photographers.

So if you are starting a new photography business or in need of getting organised. I recommend you get a database and see how it will transform your business.