LUMIX 10 steps to Professional Photography
10 steps to Professional Photography
by Anthony Rock for ©Panasonic Lumix
1. The dream
Photography can take you to incredible places both above, below and beyond the farthest reaches of the earth. With this in mind, a good place to start your journey is to ask yourself where you are, where you want to go and where do you want to be. You have reached the point that your curiosity and love of photography has gone from a growing hobby to a rapidly evolving obsession.
You have responsibly taken a step back and assessed your skills and believe you have what it takes to create great images but you are keen to turn your obsession into a profession. When you get to this turning point in the infancy of your career, you must begin to focus your energy and begin to plan. You can never overstate the importance of planning your path as a professional photographer as it can be the most important and exciting journey of your life!
2. Understanding the business side of your art
Although we would all love to simply take photos and watch the bank balance grow, you must build and maintain a working process and framework for your business to grow and evolve. Taking a small business course or having a consultation with your bank will be invaluable as budgeting, pricing your work, cash flow management, staff management, equipment insurance and inventory management does not come naturally to everyone and an ill-maintained business will make it difficult for your photographic company to evolve.
3. Knowing your audience
Beyond the business plans, the ceaseless social media marketing and promotion, you must remember that above all else, the end customer whether it is your client or your client's customer, is the most important part of your business. This is your target audience. You must know who this is in order to be as effective as possible. Is your work relatable and does it speak to them directly? Does your audience need a translator and captions to be understood? Your job is complete when they no longer require hand-holding and explanations to be understood.
4. Choose your work, don’t let your work choose you
Unless it is your intention to truly specialise in one genre of photography, ensure that you are taking on jobs that are varying in order to not pigeon hole your work. Potential clients can only see what you have already produced. Balance your promotional material in order to attract a broader spectrum of work.
5. Choose the right tools to help you to express yourself
In order to capture and create the best content possible, you must understand your gear inside and out. To truly express yourself, you must not have barriers that stifle your creativity. Simplicity in photography comes from experience and practice. Practice, practice and then when you are done, practice some more. One of the most amazing possibilities afforded to us by the advent of digital photography is our ability to take infinite practice images limited only by our battery power supply. In the past, honing skill and practising photography entailed a long development process. Utilising every possible option to simplify your workflow will shorten the distance between the vision in your mind and the product you deliver to your client.
6. Choosing the right body
Before digital camera bodies existed, you needed to only worry about the basic format and then choose the film stock and ISO to match what you wanted to capture. This evolved to digital where nearly everything is done in the camera body. The exception has become processing options which can differ widely with camera bodies designed specifically to handle either stills or video. Capturing and processing high-resolution stills and video have different energy and power management requirements. In order for you to maximise your working efficiency and speed, it is important that you choose the right camera body for your work.
When you are primarily shooting video, use the 24.2MP LUMIX S1 which is optimised for motion image capture 4K 60P (50P) 4:2:2 10 bit HDMI output with 6-stop Dual Image Stabilisation. When you are shooting stills, use the 47.3MP LUMIX S1R for the ultimate stills capture with 6-stop Dual Image Stabilisation. Both camera bodies feature the fastest flash sync speed in its class (1/320sec) and 5.76 Million dot electronic viewfinders making viewing and selection a breeze. They also feature the most sensitive autofocus system (down to -6EV).
7. Choose the right lenses
Create the best possible content by using the right lenses to execute your brief. L-Mount lenses offer the widest range of options for every possible situation you may want to capture. Options from the Panasonic Lumix 70-200mm f4.0 IS S Pro L-Mount lens, Panasonic Lumix 50mm f/1.4 S Pro L-Mount lens, the Panasonic Lumix 24-105mm f4.0 Macro S L-Mount lens and many more!*
8. Clarity
Your client has requested your service because your work is beautiful and because of your unique selling proposition (USP). At this point, it is very important for you to truly listen to your client and deliver what you promised at your negotiation and consultation. Do not leave a consultation until you know what you need to know and you have answered all of your client's questions. Although your artistic vision landed you the project over countless others courting your client, it is now up to you to execute the brief and meet the agreed expectations. Being consistent in your delivery will ensure at the very least, a returning customer.
9. Professional back up
Always ensure you have your gear working perfectly, ready for your next project. Use LUMIX PRO designed to support the requirements of the individual with our hotline which ensures open communication with you, pick up and fast lane repair service.
10. Perseverance
Don’t ever give up. It is survival of the fittest but whoever gives up will not be there to compete with you for your client's eyes and ears. Before even picking up your camera, remember that the most important thing you have at your disposal is your imagination. Your perspective and point of view are unique to you and your experience. When you deliver your images, this will ultimately be what separates you from the rest of the world.
Further tips:
Utilise the Lumix status scope (in the Monitor settings) to check your horizons and stability.
Copyright information option allows you to digitally sign your images.
Use High-Resolution Mode (with after image motion blur minimisation) to create ultra-high resolution RAW images.
*L-Mount Alliance offers a growing array of professional Lenses to satisfy every possible brief such as options from Leica plus 11 new Sigma L- Mount Lenses
Author Anthony Rock for ©Panasonic Lumix