Models Needed + Winter Vacation

Happy Tuesday!

Just wanted to pop in for a brief update! I have quite a few one-on-one mentor sessions coming up, and as always, we will need models :)

This time we are looking for couples! We will need two so when you email your photo for consideration, please indicate which of the two above dates you are available or if you are available for both.

The Feb 1 session will be taking place in Washington, DC around 1p and the March 1 session will be taking place in Alexandria, VA around 2p. Exact times will be finalized by the time the models are selected :)

The Feb 9 session will be taking place in Alexandria, VA around 2p. Exact time will be finalized by the time the model is selected.

For your participation, you will receive a complimentary digital gallery of your images and a complimentary 11x14 print. All participating models must be able to pay $70 for professional makeup application (your only cost).

Unfortunately due to the high volume of submissions, you will be contacted only if you are selected to participate. Thank you in advance! You guys always are so eager to participate in these and I’m bummed that I can only select a few.

What else is new?

Well I’m officially going on my first planned vacation in… I don’t know how long! Lol DFinney is heading west!

This weekend I will be heading to San Diego and Los Angeles with my girl Dori for vacation! This will be my second time visiting LA, but it’s been a long while! I’ve never been to SD so I’m definitely looking forward to it. This is also Dori’s early graduation trip because she graduates from UMD in the spring, so yayy! Early congrats to her!! :D

I will officially be “off the grid” workwise beginning Friday through the end of next week. You can follow our journey on instagram @dfinneyphoto as I’m sure we’ll be sharing tons of pictures :)

Have a great day loves!

-Danni

2014 DFinney Workshops | Natural Light Shooting

Happy Thursday loves!

As promised last week, details are finally here for the next workshop!

Workshop #2 for 2014 will be held on April 26 at a beautiful Washington, DC hotel for a full-day workshop all about shooting with natural light!!

This comprehensive workshop will teach you everything you need to know about how to take a well-exposed photo EVERY time with natural light! We will cover everything you can think of related to taking great photos with natural light- and some things you probably haven’t thought about :)  

• understanding the different elements of natural light
• the importance of correct color & white balance
• why calibration matters
• how to “find the light”
• how to best use natural light to achieve the look you want
• how to take a well-exposed photo EVERY time with no guesswork!

And much, much more!

This workshop will be $495 and includes:

• continental breakfast & boxed lunches
• natural light workshop booklet
• hands-on shooting w/ models
• post-processing instruction

We will meet up to discuss the basics, and not-so basics of shooting with natural light. After lunch, we will head outside and SHOOT so you can practice what you just learned. Models will be on hand so you can practice correctly photographing clients of varying skin tones. After shooting, we will head back in where I will discuss my post-processing methods.

This class will NOT touch on the business aspect of photography as it relates to building a business. We will, however cover photographer/client relationship pointers as it relates to being a natural light photographer. 

In order to make sure everyone is able to receive individual attention and have adequate time for questions, there will only be 10 seats available for this class.

Ready to book your spot?

EMAIL ME (danielle@dfinneyphoto.com) if you’d like to snag your seat while they’re still available! All spots require a $100 deposit to secure your seat.

I’ve gotten so much positive feedback leading up to this and I CAN’T WAIT to actually hold this workshop and share exactly what I do to get my photos to look the way they do. No secrets over here! My methods and workflow are very simple- but consistent!

I look forward to working with you!!

-Danni

New Photographer Ambitions | Photography FAQ

It’s time once again for another question! It’s week two and I’m going strong! I’m going to try to keep this as a regular feature as long as the questions keep rolling in :)

This week I will be sharing my response to a fairly often asked question from new photographers looking to start their own business. 

“I truly appreciate you taking the time to speak with me. As you know I am making an attempt to get my feet wet with photography as it is an art I’ve grown to love. I am interested in taking all kinds of photographs such as weddings/engagement, portraits, sports, and real estate.

What advice could you give me as a beginner? How do I go about shooting my first wedding, etc. and given that I am just starting out what should I charge my clients?”

Best,
Antarriey

Hi Antarriey,

Thanks so much for your message! You actually have quite a few broad questions that I unfortunately can’t answer for you :(

Each of the things you mentioned are very different and have their own challenges. I don’t do sports or real estate photography so I can’t really provide information there. I do specialize in portrait photography and I offer weddings as well. Both of those areas can be fairly good business in themselves once you know what you’re doing.

My most immediate suggestion would be to practice in each of those areas you mentioned to see which you absolutely love and are good at. It would also be beneficial to research how profitable each would be. From there you’ll have a better idea of what would be the most beneficial for you to specialize in. It’s much better to be a master of portrait photography than it would be to be a mediocre wedding, portrait, sports, and real estate photographer. Having a specialty or niche also enables you to be more direct and effective with your marketing.

Before beginning any business though, it is imperative to know what you’re doing. As a beginner, I honestly wouldn’t suggest trying to begin a business at this point as you may end up frustrating yourself more than anything. Since you are still learning, now is a great time to practice as much as you can, get to learn your equipment, develop your eye, and find your photography style. Once you get to a point where you’re able to consistently produce good images, then you’re ready to begin accepting money. Starting out, I do suggest charging a lower “portfolio building” rate to let potential clients know that you’re not selling yourself as a cheap photographer. This also makes them aware that if they choose to come back in the future, the rate will not be the same. Pricing is a whole other conversation though with many different factors involved… There are tons of helpful resources online to assist you in deciding what you should charge when you’re ready.

You don’t get great overnight so don’t get discouraged when you see someone else’s work and it’s awesome. Let it inspire instead of intimidate and push you to learn/grow that much more. I think the most valuable thing in anything is to love what you do. I am now in the 5th year at this professionally and I’ve learned tons of lessons during that time, but it always comes back to your passion. If you’re passionate about photography it will keep you inspired, push you to try new ideas, and always strive to improve. And if you don’t feel that way about photography that’s okay- maybe that just means you still haven’t found what your true passion is yet :)

Hopefully this helped!

-Danielle

If you have a photography-related question that you’d like to see answered here, email me! Let me know what you think of the new feature :)

Workshops, Minis, & Headshots In 2014!

Ok this probably should have been my first post for 2014 but I was so excited to tell you guys about the new feature this took a momentary back seat lol.

I am bursting with excitement as I write this! There are soooo many good things I have to share with you guys that I don’t even know where to begin!

BRANDING WORKSHOP: FEBRUARY 22, 2014

As announced at the end of last year, my first DFinney Workshop will be held on Feb 22 in Washington, DC and there are just FOUR seats remaining!  Email me to secure your seat today!

This class will be held at a beautiful Washington, DC Hotel in the Foggy Bottom neightborhood, just a few blocks from the Corcoran Gallery of Art.

 
Isn’t it gorgeous? I can’t wait to meet and work with everyone! I even have a few non-local photographers who will be in attendance representing Michigan, Louisiana, and Pennsylvania just to name a few!

Buuuut before that, I have mentor sessions galore in early February! Some local, and some not :) I’m super excited to announce that I will be taking my mentoring on the road!

February: Little Rock, AR (all slots booked)

May: Charlotte, NC (details forthcoming)

June: Atlanta, GA (details forthcoming)

GET EXCITED!! I already am lol. I’ve been cooking up some major things over the past couple months and I can’t wait until I can share them all.

Hmm… What else? I’ve decided on the date for my second workshop!

NATURAL LIGHT SHOOTING WORKSHOP: APRIL 26, 2014

Details are forthcoming, but I just wanted to give this to you guys as a save-the-date :) Full class details will be posted next week!!

I’ve been getting questions asking whether or not the workshops will be made available for those not local. For now, the answer is I’m not sure. I’m looking into possibly doing a webinar, but really how I’ve designed the workshops (the natural light shooting one specifically) is to be very hands-on so I will be keeping the class sizes small and actual photography will be apart of the course- I won’t just be talking the whole time lol. But I am keeping my non-local photogs in mind and plan to work up something so don’t fret :)

For my non-photographer clients, I didn’t forget about you! Spring Minis are coming! So that will be your next opportunity to book a mini (for those who aren’t already previous clients). Spring Minis will be held early May this year, and I will have more info on that soon so you can plan accordingly.

Aaaand finally, for my folks interested in headshots, or promo photos for their business, good news! I plan to do a lot more of that this year so email me if you’d like to start the year with a fresh new headshot for your LinkedIn page, website, or social media page! 

Don’t need anything that you just read about? Chances are you know someone who does so be a friend and SHARE this blog post with them! You can earn $50 for every successful referral and that adds up quick!

Whew! I feel like this was information overload- I’m sorry! I was so excited about everything that I didn’t know how to break it up lol.

Aren’t you excited about all this learning?!? I am! Lol I’m so pumped about exploring this avenue of my photography and I look forward to helping other photographers begin to finally capture magazine-quality images for themselves and see their businesses grow.

Let me know what you think of all the updates! And if you’re interested in more information on the Charlotte and Atlanta dates, please sign up for the mailing list so you can stay up-to-date on everything.

‘Til next time,

-Danni

Low Aperture Focus Issues | Photography FAQ

It’s January 1st guys!

I mentioned on Facebook yesterday how the move from one year to the next has begun to mean less and less to me over the years. Not to be a downer, but just expressing a thought I had. Mainly to say that you shouldn’t get too down on yourself if you find that you’re not yet seeing big improvements on things you’d like to change. Change takes time and you don’t need to wait for the beginning of a year, month, or week to start working towards your goals :)

And that made me think… I know folks have photography goals and I get asked a lot of photography related questions, so starting today, there will be a new feature to the blog! I will post the answers to photography-related questions! I’m sure others have wondered these same things, so I hope this will be a helpful new feature!

Today’s question? Low Aperture Focus Issues

“Hello Danielle!

I need some help if you don’t mind. I have attached two photos, both of which one or two people are in focus but not all and I really don’t know what I am doing wrong. I can never get everyone in the photo in focus. These where my settings for these photos: We were indoors ISO 640 50mm f 1.8 1/60. I have tried researching the issue but I don’t think I am coming up with the correct information.

Thank you for your time!”

-Dorothy 

Hey Dorothy!

So this is actually a fairly simple issue :) When shooting multiple subjects at such a low aperture, you’ll need to make sure they are all on the same plane or as close to the same plane as possible.

In the first photo, the father is too far behind mom & daughter, so he will be much more out of focus. If they were positioned so that the father & mother were sitting side by side (baby on their lap) and their faces down near hers, you could focus on the baby and since the parents’ faces won’t be so far back, they won’t be as out of focus. Similar to this:

Or both parents could have both been laying on their stomach on either side of baby girl and all 3 of their faces could have been on the same plane.

When I shoot small families like this, if the child is in the frame, almost always, they are where I focus and I just make sure the parents aren’t too far away or that they are positioned in such a way that their not being in focus is flattering. Maybe something like this:

Inevitably whoever is closest to the camera should be in focus so if you don’t want one person in the photo to seem more important than the others, either make sure everyone is on the same plane or raise your f/stop so that you don’t have as shallow a depth of field.

Hopefully this helped!

-Danni

If you have a photography-related question that you’d like to see answered here, email me! Let me know what you think of the new feature :)