Highlights from The Photography Show

It is hard to believe that The Photography Show was nearly a month ago now. I still have a bag of literature to finish going through and notes to catch up on, but I am pleased to say that I found every single minute spent there to be extremely useful.

Here are just a few of my highlights from the show.

How to Colour Grade Your Pictures for Mood, Atmosphere and a Unique Style – Editing and Post Production Suite

This talk was the very first thing I attended when I arrived at the show on the Sunday. Glyn Dewis was the speaker and I found his style both informative and engaging.

It was a Photoshop session and Glyn explained that he had done a photoshoot with some World War II veterans. To suit the mood of the photos, he was looking to colour grade them in the same format as the War films we regularly see on television. A sort of ‘muddy’ look.

One of the pointers he gave was to find a film that you like the style/look of, find the behind-the-scenes editing of this film on YouTube and you will see how the screen is split in two in order to see how they graded it.

He then went through the whole process of colour-grading which I found fascinating and extremely helpful.

Affinity Photo Editing Suite

There are two reasons for including Affinity into this post. The first was the fantastic talk given by Jo Bradford showing how to use Affinity on her iPhone. This made her editing accessible anywhere and speeded up the process for her. She also showed the many benefits of using the editing suite.

I was aware that the programme was already a good price at a one-off cost of £48 but, they had a special show offer for £25. I was sold!

I am now looking forward to learning how to use it in full and see if I prefer it to Photoshop or will use it in addition to.

The Exhibition Stands

Aside from Affinity Photo, there were 3 further stands which stood out for me.

The first was nPhoto. I am constantly impressed with the quality of their products coupled with the offers that they provide. At the show they were giving people the chance to put samples in their online shopping cart at a fantastic 75% off. I am pleased to say that I am now going to be working with them on a regular basis.

The next was the Guild of Photographers. I had a fantastic chat with Nik Proctor on the end of the first day. He was very animated about the Guild and explained what a fantastic community they were. I had already heard great things about them from my friend, Lisa Wildgoose, and also from Jamie Osbourne since, so how could I not join?! So, I took them up on their show offer and saved myself £27.

Finally, I loved the Creativity Backgrounds stand. The lady I spoke to there (I think it was Amy – but so sorry if I got your name wrong!) was really informative and I was impressed with the variety and quality of the paper backgrounds they offered. They had two samples on offer at £15 each (normally £30) in Lagoon Blue and Spruce Green. I said that if I went around the rest of the stands and they were still there when I was due to leave for home on the Monday, then they were meant for me. And they were!

Professional Pricing

This is the first of two talks at the Monday morning Pro Conference which I would like to share.

The speaker was Nick Dunmur and he certainly knew his stuff.

He was speaking on behalf of the Association of Photographers and explaining that they provided a spreadsheet to help photographers work out their pricing, starting with your day rate figure.

He asked us to think about our price versus our value. He advised that it is difficult to raise your fees so you should get into the habit of not going too low at the outset. Your value is as important as your costs. Yes, you get quicker as you gain more experience but you are also investing time and money into training in order to improve. This should be taken into account.

There was so much information that I could probably write a stand alone post just on this subject!

Improve the Quality of Your Jobs

This was another session at the Monday morning Pro Conference and our speaker was John Nassari. Again, he was engaging and informative and I really enjoyed listening to him and the knowledge he had.

He explained that he put his USP forward as high-end weddings with pressure. His particular area is ballrooms. He told us that he had been shooting weddings for 10 years and initially charged £900.

He hit the publics attention with an image of a cyclist crossing in front of a wedding couple in Cambridge. There was a newspaper campaign launched to find the cyclist and it turned out he was late for a lecture! This gave him thousands of pounds worth of PR.

He gave us a number of recommendations including organising a styled shoot and working with different suppliers. John explained that he no longer needs to take part in styled shoots to help his business, but he still does them. This is because he likes to network and be a part of something. Plus, the other companies use your work and credit you.

Overall, The Photography was more than I expected it to be. Once again I felt myself wanting to be there for longer. Who knows? Maybe I could stretch it to all 4 days next year!

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Please note that I am working on the Influencer Campaign in conjunction with The Photography Show and I received compensation for this post.