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Mr. Hartman emphasized that although many things are possible with digital tools, that doesn't mean that it
makes good business sense to do all those things yourself. Trying to do extensive retouching for example may not be a profitable use of your time. Likewise, digital output has many advantages such as control over
delivery time and quality, but for most studio production, "do it yourself" is not cost effective – you're often better off using a lab. He said, "Just because you can do it yourself, doesn't mean you should
do it."
Five reasons photographers are buying into digital:
* Create and sell new products that didn't exist before.
* Create ancillary add-on products and services.
* Bring outsourced work in-house.
* Shorten delivery time to the client (he said this does work for school shooters).
* Gain more control over quality.
Some money making digital products you can make and sell with less than a $3,000 investment (using a digital camera costing under $1,000):
* Business portraits: no
film or processing cost, and they often need just one print.
* House Portraits: John has developed a picture frame software CD as an accessory to Photoshop, where a simple photo of a house is cleaned up by
removing the background, adding trees and dropping in a blue sky if necessary, then printed with the software, using the predominant colors in the house to color the frame mat and sub-mat. The software includes not
only many textures for mats, but also many different frame styles and the same technique can be used with scenics, prom pictures, etc.
* Collages: scanning client's family snapshots, and arranging them in an
attractive manner, perhaps adding titles Copy and Restoration: long the province of the photographic artist, Photoshop can be used to do major repair work, changing backgrounds, adding or subtracting people, etc.
* Children's Portrait Art: using digital retouching to eliminate busy backgrounds, and then printing with HousePortraits software.
* Quick and Easy High School Seniors: no sending the film out for
process and proof, having subjects chose the pose, then sending the digital file out for printing. Extend your shooting deadline up to the day before the yearbook deadline!
* A Bonus: do panoramas with your
simple digital camera. Up to 360 degrees, and use available software to stitch them together.
John mentioned other digital applications:
* Adding signatures, logos and special effects to your photos
* Yearbook activity photos
* Yearbook ads: create your own ads for yearbooks; you can do better than those kids do!
Hartman's recommendations for digital tools? He likes the Olympus C-2500L camera,
an SLR with a 4x5 aspect ratio, the Epson Expression 1600 Pro Scanner with LaserSoft software, and either the Epson 1270 Printer or the new Epson 2000 Printer that features 200-year print stability.
John
discussed how to eliminate hours spent in selling wall portraits if clients are unable to understand how different print sizes would look in their home. Either by making a special trip to their home or while there
if taking the photo on location, John takes a "snap" of the most likely location for the portrait, such as the wall of the living room, with furniture, fireplace, etc. showing. Then he makes digital prints with
their photo in a frame dropped into the scene, and makes another one with a smaller size frame than he recommends, and one with a larger size, and they immediately can choose the proper size for their room.
John concluded with, the most important use for the computer in your studio is marketing. Let others do the digital work, if you are successful at marketing, you can do anything you want!
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