Harry Lim Photography's Blog

So you want to be a professional photographer? You’ve got a camera, a website with some galleries and you’ve even earned a few bucks on the side for your work. You have the passion, now you have a taste for the business. So it’s time to quit the 9-to-5, right? Not so fast. There’s a lot you need to think about first. Sure you can take money under the table, but if you want to be legit, if you want people to take you seriously as a professional then you have to take certain steps.

The first question a lot of beginning photographers struggle with, is how much to charge. There are quite a few sources to turn to for help with this question, but I’m going to save that for a later post.

Before you start charging people, you need to set up your business. The example I am about to provide is for my specific case in my state (Florida). I am not an accountant or attorney, so use this as a guide.

First, you have to decide if you want to operate as a sole proprietor or a corporation. Don’t tell Mitt Romney, but corporations are not people (more on that in a moment). As a sole proprietor you just run your business and pay taxes. A Limited Liability Corporation, as the name implies, gives you protection against debt and lawsuits. If you are a sole proprietor and the business goes bust or you get sued, your personal assets are at stake. Do you really want to lose your car, house and life savings because your photography business didn’t make it? As an LLC, debts and lawsuits are limited to the corporation and not your personal assets. In Florida, it costs $125 to register an LLC and $140 a year to file annual reports.

Speaking of lawsuits, you can buy commercial liability insurance and “errors and omissions” insurance. The first, protects you if someone gets hurt or property is damaged while you’re on a shoot. The latter is bridezilla insurance. Or in the case of one New York studio, a divorced man who wants tens-of-thousands of dollars to re-create his wedding. You can learn more about insurance for photographers from the PPA and ASMP. I got a quote from a company offering a 1-million dollar liability policy, $15,000 in equipment insurance and $25,000 errors and omission protection. The quote was for $625 a year.

Next, you have to get an Employer Identification Number (EIN) from the IRS. This is just a number the IRS uses to identify a business. If you get a W-2 from your employer, you should see the EIN number on the form.

Now you’re ready to pay taxes quarterly! Yay! Depending on how much you made and spent on business expenses, you have to estimate how much taxes you owe and send a payment every quarter. Since you work for yourself, you owe self employment tax. The current rate is 13.3%. Just like your wages are deducted for social security and medicare, the SE tax deducts 10.4% for social security and 2.9% for medicare.  Then there’s income tax. If you are married and filing jointly and make less than $17,400 you are in the 10% tax bracket. More than that but less than $70,700 you are in the 15% bracket. For singles, anything between $8,700 and $35,350 puts you in the 15% bracket. So in my case, I’m paying 28.3% in tax: 13.3% for self-employment and 15% for income tax.

There are, of course, deductions you can take. I pay for my own health insurance, so I can deduct that. If you bought a new lens or camera, that’s a deduction. You can even claim mileage at 55-and-half cents a mile.

[UPDATE 2/7/11]: Check out this post on special tax advice for photographers.

Let’s add it up so far: $125 for the LLC, $625 for insurance and 28% of everything I earn (after legitimate deductions) goes to taxes. Still think you can charge $100 for a photo shoot?

I’ll get more into pricing in the next post. For now I want to leave you with some resources. Check out Photoshelter’s Vimeo page for great videos with the “Tax Ninja” on taxes for photographers and three good videos with John Harrington. Harrington, of course, is the author of “Best Business Practices for Photographers” and the Photo Business blog. I’ll leave you with a video on the “7 Common Tax Mistakes Made by Photographers”.

There is no shortage of apps for photographers. While most of them focus on actually taking pictures, editing or adding effects with your phone I want to point out a few that are more utilitarian.

In a previous blog post, I told you about the LightTrac app. I’ve since discovered a similar app that allows you to track the direction and angle of the sun. It’s called Sun Seeker (the lite version is free).  It works similar to the compass on the Iphone. Just hold it up in the direction you want to shoot and you’ll see where the sun is going to be. Now, I don’t like it as much as LightTrac, because just like the compass tool, it’s prone to interference and you’re prompted to wave your phone in a figure eight pattern. Granted, this has happened before with LightTrac, but  it’s more often with Sun Seeker and I also don’t trust the compass 100%; I’ve found the direction can change depending on how I’m holding the phone. The one cool thing about the full version ($4.99) of Sun Seeker is the “augmented reality” feature. Using your phone’s camera, you get a display of the sun’s path.

Contract Maker Elite is a little pricey at $19.99; but if you’re an on-the-go photographer, you can create and edit contracts right from your phone or tablet. You can then have a client sign it on your device and email it to them as a .pdf, JPEG or both. The app comes with starter templates, including a sales receipt.

Easy Release is another time and paper saving app for the on-the-go photographer. If you need a model or property release, this $9.99 app lets you collect all the information you need on your device. You can even take a snapshot of your client and add embed it into the release.  Like Contract Maker, you can also email a .pdf or JPEG of the release.

Do you know of any other useful apps for photographers? Let me know…

I shot the annual Vacation Rental Managers Association (VRMA) conference at the Hilton Bonnet Creek Resort in Orlando last week and it was a white balancing nightmare! Truth be told, I shoot in RAW so I can always change the white balance in post, but I like to get an accurate representation of the image at the time of capture. It’s just a comfort thing, not to mention trying to get as much right in camera to begin with. Take a look at this image: (NOTE: for the images in this post, try not to focus on the content, but rather the color. These examples are pretty much out of camera with little or no editing)

You can see how “orange” or “warm” it looks. That’s pretty much right out of camera. The warmth is due to the tungsten (incandescent for you Nikonians) lights overhead. So I switched from “auto” white balance to “tungsten” and while the result was better, I knew I’d run into trouble if I wanted or needed to use flash.

In the image above I used fill flash with a 1/2 cut of Color Temperature Orange (CTO) gel. Putting an orange gel on your flash essentially turns it into a tungsten light. So if you set your white balance to tungsten (incandescent) then the two light sources will balance. If you look carefully, however, you’ll notice that the waiter’s face still looks a little “cool” or “blue” in comparison to the room. So I added another 1/2 cut of CTO which equals one full cut and that did the trick.

The next day, I turned to using custom white balances for each room and that really made a difference.

Compare the color of the walls in the image above to the very first image in this post. Actually, if you see that white board on the right side of the frame; that’s what I used to get a custom white balance.

I learned about custom white balancing as a news videographer right out of college. Back then, those big cameras didn’t have handy white balance settings and you couldn’t tweak it in post. You either set the kelvin temperature or you took a custom white balance every time you moved from indoors to outside and back.

In case you don’t know, when you take a custom white balance, you’re basically telling the camera what “white” is so it can set all the corresponding colors accordingly. Camera models vary, but to take a custom white balance, take a picture of something white that is getting hit by the light source in the room. If, for example, you have a mix of tungsten and daylight, take something white and put it where it’s getting hit by both sources. You might need to switch to manual focus because your camera may not find focus in something with no contrast. Next, go to your menu function for custom white balance and select the image you want to use. Then, change your white balance to “custom”. Don’t forget to switch back to auto focus.

The classrooms (pictured above) were the worst! They really did have this weird orange color that seemed warmer to me than regular rooms lit by incandescent lamps. Not to mention, I was expecting fluorescent lights at hotel conference rooms. Switching from “auto” to “tungsten” didn’t help at all. So I just shot the white door at every room to get a custom white balance.

Getting the right white balance is crucial if you shoot JPEG because you don’t have as much latitude in post processing to tweak it. It’s less important if you shoot RAW, unless you’re like me and want to see an accurate picture when you shoot it.

I shoot a lot of interiors and architecture. When I’m shooting the front of homes and pools, I need the sun to be just right. For exteriors, I prefer the sun to hit the front of the house. This not only makes it brighter, but it makes the sky behind it bluer.

North and south facing homes are the toughest to shoot because the front never gets direct sun.

For pools, I want the sun to be overheard, though an angle where it lights a covered lanai is helpful too. North or south facing pools are not a problem. But if a pool faces east or west, then I have to wait for the right time of day to shoot it.

Sometimes I’m shooting at twilight and need to know when and where the sun sets to get the best colors in the sky.

Well, there’s an app for that. It’s called LightTrac.

LightTrac is an app that lets you calculate the position and angle of the sun at any given time for any day of the year. It does the same for the moon as well as giving you the moon phases, sunset and twilight times. In the screenshot above, the yellow line represents the angle of the sun at sunrise. The blue line is sunset and the red line is whatever time you select by using the slider at the bottom.

This is extremely helpful to me because while I can usually tell which way is east and west, I don’t always know where the sun will be in the sky for any given time of year. This app can be useful to just about any kind of outdoor photography. Landscape? Speaks for itself. Portrait? Maybe you want the sun as a hair/kicker light. Wedding? You have one hour for portraits beginning at 5pm. Will the sun be in the bride and groom’s eyes?

There’s just one thing I don’t like about the app and it’s very minor. When I search for a new location it finds the location; but to calculate the sun angle, you have to save it to your locations. You then have to select your saved location and go to the home screen. I wish it would calculate the information after it finds the location without me having to save it. Saving should be an option for my favorite or most visited locations. Like I said, very minor.

The app is $4.99, which is the most I’ve ever spent for any one item on ITunes, but well worth it.

How would you use the app?

I’ve often told other photographers that they can learn a lot about lighting from watching TV. Pay attention to the color of the light and lighting patterns used on actors. In news magazine shows (60 Minutes, Dateline) they might cut-away to a shot of the interviewer and the subject. In this shot you can usually see the lights, flags and modifiers being used to light the person and often, the background.

I saw a great example on TV last night in one of those “The More You Know” PSAs on NBC. It featured Ken Jeong (The Hangover, Community) talking about saving electricity.  When he turns off all the lights except for one light bulb he says you can look “dashing and mysterious”. This emphasizes the importance of shadows in portrait photography and how it can affect the mood of your image. I once heard a photographer ask, “when is it OK to have shadows in your pictures?”. The answer is: ALWAYS!

Another photography point emphasized by the PSA is what you can do with just one light…especially up close. A light bulb is a pretty harsh light source because it’s so small, but that can work for a male subject. When it’s up close, the rapid fall off creates dramatic shadows.

Click the image to see the video.

(Note: I had some trouble with the link sending me to the right video. If that happens, look under the video player for a list of videos in the “environment” category and navigate to the very last one.)

With the 4th of July just around the corner, I thought I’d share some tips on how to shoot fireworks.

This is the time to shoot in manual mode. Most people assume that because they’re shooting at night they’ll need a high ISO, flash and a wide aperture. The opposite is true; you’re not exposing for the night sky, you’re exposing for very bright sources of light.

To begin, set your ISO to 100. The last thing you want is digital noise in the dark sky.

Next, set your aperture to a narrow setting; something between f/8 and f/16 to get a wide depth of field.

Your shutter speed will vary but something around 3-to-4 seconds is a safe bet. Or you can use “bulb” mode where the shutter remains open for as long as you hold the shutter button down. You’ll have to play with the timing. Do you fire the shutter when the rocket fires? Or maybe when it’s half-way up the sky? Or maybe as it explodes and another rocket is coming up. Experiment and see what you get.

With such long exposures a tripod is necessary and if you have one, a shutter release cable is very helpful.

Your lens should go to infinity on its own, but if you find your lens is having trouble finding a focus area, switch it to manual focus and evaluate the image on your LCD by zooming in tight. Do not rely on the image on that 3-inch screen to tell you if it’s in focus. At roughly 3-inches square your image may look sharp until you open it up on your 15 or 27 inch monitor.

If your LCD blinks at you it means those areas are over exposed. Don’t freak out. Ask yourself if it’s too overexposed. Remember, fireworks are very bright so you’d expect to get some overexposure. There’s not much detail in there anyway (imagine shooting a light bulb). Just look at the areas that are blinking and ask yourself if it’s acceptable. Or check your histogram. If the peaks are crowding too far to the right side, you’re blowing out highlights. Increase your shutter speed to get them back.

Typically this is my set-up: f/11, ISO 100, 4 seconds. That’s what I’ll start with. The only thing I’ll vary is the shutter speed.

There will be some trial and error as you find your settings. But don’t get so caught up in your camera that you forget to enjoy the show. So try to have some fun!

Awhile back I wrote a post about why sensor size matters when choosing your camera body/lens combination. In it I shared this video which demonstrates the difference in focal length between a Canon 5D MKII and a 7D.

Well just yesterday I had the opportunity to test it out first hand using a 5D and 40D. Here’s the set-up: I was shooting a bedroom with the 5D. I had it on a tripod to make sure I was shooting from the same position when I switched to the 40D.  I was using a 17-40mm f/4 L on the 5D and a 17-55 f/2.8 on the 40D. Below is the shot on the 5D. I thought I had it racked to 17mm but it was actually 19mm; but hey, I’m not gonna cry over 2mm!

f/10, 1/15, ISO 200, 19mm

 Next, I switched to the 40D and dialed in the same exact settings.

 

f/10, 1/15, ISO 200, 17mm

You can see how dramatic the difference is even without the 2mm discrepancy. I knew that a 17mm on a cropped sensor lens is about 24mm (1.6 x 17 = 27.2) so I put the 5D back on the tripod and set it to about 24mm to compare.

f/10, 1/15, ISO 200, 25mm

It’s pretty close I think (remember I’m off by 2-3mm). This is just another illustration of the difference between full frame and cropped sensor cameras. It’ not a bad thing or a good thing; just something to be aware of. With the knowledge you can take advantage of either a full frame of an APS-C sensor depending on what type of shooting you do.

I want to take a few moments to share a couple of related stories. First, a photographer friend of mine has a 35mm 1.4 and he wants the 24mm 1.4 to get a wider focal length. For an extra 11mm, I would take a step back when composing and save the $1700.

I was reading a blog about the 17-55mm f/2.8 and it said the lens gives you a wide focal length. I commented that it’s comparable to the 24-70mm f/2.8 but at a lower price point and with the added benefit of image stabilization (IS). The writer wrote back and said because it is an EF-S lens that the true focal length is 17-55. I referred him to some supporting documentation and never heard back. Just goes to show that just because it’s in a review or a blog (even this one) doesn’t mean it’s gospel.

Lastly, I’ve been asked if a full frame camera will deliver sharper images than an APS-C sized sensor. Sharpness is a function of the lens and your camera settings (shutter speed, focus drive etc.). The weakest part of a lens is typically the edges. Now imagine a circle inside a square. The square is your sensor and the circle is the image coming from your lens. Because the square is larger than your circle (full frame) you are going to see every part of the lens. This is why most lenses produce vignetting on full frame cameras but not cropped sensors.

 Now imagine a square inside a circle. Because the square is smaller (cropped sensor) you will not see the edges of the circle. So in general lenses perform better on cropped sensor cameras; but that’s not due to some design flaw in full frame cameras. It’s just the nature of the beast. The better the lens, the fewer the distortions. Again, I am generalizing and simplifying here.  Every lens generally performs better when stopped down from its maximum aperture. You really have to research a camera and lens and test drive it yourself.

Well let me leave you with the final edited image of that bedroom.

One question I get asked a lot is “which DSLR should I get”. Whether it’s a first purchase or an upgrade, the answer usually depends on what type of shooting you want to do and your budget.

About a year ago, I found a Web site that makes it easier to find what you’re looking for.  At Snapsort.com, you can learn about cameras, explore different types or just type in your budget and kind of camera you’re looking for; whether it’s a DSLR or point-and-shoot. But the tool I like and use the most is the compare feature.

[Disclaimer: Snapsort is holding a contest for anyone who blogs about the site, but that is not why I am writing this. I've known about the site for a while and I refer people there often. I just referred someone there a couple of days ago, so I thought I should let other people know]

What I like about the compare feature is being able to compare the specs of two cameras side-by-side. The site used to declare a “winner” which I disagreed with. Now it just gives each camera a score and gives a recommendation. I even take this with a grain of salt. You see, the “winner” or recommendation is based on specs; but your needs may be different. Compare, for example the Canon 5D MKII with the 1D MK IV. The 5D is full frame but shoots just under 4 frames per second. Where the MK IV has an APS-H sensor and shoots 10 frames per second. Which is better? It depends on what you shoot. A sports shooter would love the MK IV where a landscape photographer would choose the 5D. Still, being able to see the specs side-by-side for yourself is a quick and convenient way to decide. The cameras are evaluated on things like resolution, ISO, viewfinder coverage, LCD resolution, video capabilities and more.

Nikon and Canon’s Web sites let you compare its models; but the Snapsort site lets you compare any make with another. So you can compare Nikons with Canons or Sony’s etc. Apples and Apples or Apples and Oranges. Pretty handy if you’re trying to decide which brand to go with.

The comparison gives you reasons to consider each camera and gives you a list of competitors to consider.

To find the right lens, use the tools at LensHero. Simply input your camera, budget and what type of lens you’re looking for and it spits out recommendations complete with specs, prices and reviews.

So if you’re struggling with choosing the right camera or looking to purchase that next lens, these two stops will make researching a lot easier and help you make the right choice.

Super Moon on 3/19/11. (f/11, ISO200, 1/90th @ 200mm)

Get out those telephoto lenses! This Saturday, March 19, the moon will make its closest approach to planet Earth in 18 years and it’ll be full. At just 221,567  miles away, the moon will look 10-15% larger than normal.

While astrologers are predicting earthquakes and tsunamis, there probably isn’t a better time to shoot the moon.  So here are a few tips..

1.) Most people assume that because it’s dark out that they’ll need a slow shutter speed, high ISO, wide aperture or some combination. But remember, you’re shooting a very bright object surrounded by darkness. Your camera’s meter will react to the contrast. So you’ll actually need a narrow aperture (f11 or so), a low ISO (100) and a fast shutter speed.  The narrow aperture will also ensure that you have a wide depth-of-field which will bring out more detail. It’ll take a few tries, but just check your LCD to see if you are overexposing. You may need to use exposure compensation to under-expose by a stop or so.

2.)This goes without saying, but a tripod is a must.  A cable release would also help.

3.) Try different metering modes. In evaluative or matrix metering, your camera will factor any black sky in the frame. If you use spot metering, for instance, and set the focus point on the moon, your camera will expose for the brightness of the moon.

4.) Telephoto lenses work best, obviously, but pay attention to the angle of your lens. The first time I tried to shoot the moon with a 70-200mm lens, I had the camera fairly low, which meant I had to tilt it up. When I looked at my images, I noticed the moon had more of an oblong shape; like someone was squeezing it. So get the tripod nice and high.

5.) Try different white balances to get the color of the moon just the way you like it. Since the moon reflects sunlight, you might try the sunlight setting. But if it’s too warm, try tungsten. Too cool? See what “auto” gives you.

6.) Try shooting the moon around sunset. When the moon is lower on the horizon, it’ll have an orange tint to it.

Good luck and happy shooting.

I wrote a blog last May about Photography Education and Inspiration. In it, I point readers to web sites where they learn about photography. Another great resource is Webinars and Webcasts. Top industry professionals and merchants often give hour-long classes on various topics. Often, if you can’t watch it live, you can go back and watch a recording. The following is a list of resources in no particular order.

1.) Creative Live. This Seattle-based group offers workshops that span 8-hours over three days (usually Fri-Sun) on topics such as; wedding photography, studio lighting and children’s photography. They get top-notch pros like Jasmine Star and Zack Arias to teach the workshop live. You can register and watch it for free or pre-purchase the entire show before the workshop ends at a discounted price. Once the workshop is over, you’ll have to pay more for the download. There’s a workshop starting tomorrow with Vincent LaForet for photographers looking to move into shooting video with their DSLRs.

2.)Peachpit Photo Club. The publisher of many photography books also hosts live webcasts with the likes of: Canon Speedliter, Syl Area; wedding photographer David Ziser and Photoshop Gurus, Scott Kelby and Matt Kloskowski. You can watch past webcasts on the site or register for upcoming shows.

3.)OnOne University. OnOne makes Photoshop plug-ins so, yes, their webinars are a little biased toward their products. But you can still learn from top photographers and see their editing workflows. Check out this link for a calendar of upcoming classes.

4.) X-Rite Photo. This is another merchant that is pushing its product while spreading some knowledge. There’s a webinar scheduled for today, in fact, about getting started in Lightroom.

5.) Friday Photo School. Every Friday there’s a new class on topics such as off-camera flash, posing and portrait lighting. They do offer the occasional free episode and you can download them from the archive. Most of the classes, however, cost $10 to watch or $15 to download later. Be sure to check out the library for the free ones.

In past blogs, I’ve already mentioned Kelby TV, which is the central location for shows such as: Lightroom Killer Tips, Photoshop User TV, Ask Dave and D-Town TV. On Monday, Scott Kelby is launching a new live show at 12:30 EST called “The Grid”.  It’ll be available to watch later if you can’t make the live broadcast.

So there you have it. It’s like going to photography school without the tuition! Yes, it requires a time commitment, but if you want to be a better photographer, what better way to do it than to spend some time with the pros offering a free education?