morganb4 wrote:
Chuck, I know your trying to encourage Mohaimen but the thing is sometimes thats how people need to figure things out. Not everyone has such a crystal clear and bulletproof vision as Sergio does and yourself.
Just after I started shooting weddings, I joined FM and got seduced by these amazing images and thought 'thats how I want my pictures to look', quite ignoring the direction that I was already on. I took a step back last year and realised 'if I just follow what everyone else is doing, I will end up like everyone else' and I honestly though that the content of what I was shooting pre-FM was a lot better. So now some years later I am getting back to shooting the way I want to shoot and enjoy shooting & hitting post really hard
Now I appreciate a lot of what I have written is pretty much reenforcing your statememnt but here is my point: the questions and constant reading of FM has actually accelerated my rate of learning and I am 'going back to my roots' with a lot more understanding and knowledge than before. In short, standing on the shoulders of the giants here has helped me enormously.
Some of us hold the individuals in this group in very high esteem and their/your responses are very important us....Show more →
that makes a lot of sense. for sure.
i wasnt all that different. i looked at the work of others and tried to incorporate their style into mine. it wasnt until i stepped back and did my own thing that i got 'happy' (with my work, myself, and my vision).
i'm just trying to give advice that i wish i received earlier on to a guy like mo (who obviously has the interest in becoming better).
i guess it boils down to figuring out what you want and believing in your ability to go get it. until that happens, your vision isnt yours.
jneilosu wrote:
Morgan, don't you find it interesting you first justified Mo using the forums in this way, only then to admit you fell prone to groupthink yourself?
Yes I do, its kind of what I was getting at. I feel like I am emerging from group think but for me personally, it was an important part of it.
Sorry didn't see the last paragraph of your post. I can completely respect that.
Still, if Mo was my duckling, I'd drag him to a pond and throw him in. He's got some great images and is in a great niche market with a growing brand. He's at a jumping off point and has a great opportunity to make the next year go the way he wants in every regard.
jneilosu wrote:
Still, if Mo was my duckling, I'd drag him to a pond and throw him in. He's got some great images and is in a great niche market with a growing brand. He's at a jumping off point and has a great opportunity to make the next year go the way he wants in every regard.
I don't really care for the blue shadows and saturation clipping that's going on but that's me. If that is what your clients want and those clients are what you want, then go for it. I will, however, add some observations that I have developed after following the folks here on the wedding forum for some time:
- These color-tinting/saturation/contrast adjustment tricks are probably the easiest thing for other photographers to copy if they are so inclined. Not only are they easier to copy than composition, posing, client relationship/connection, and the business aspects of the photography biz, they are arguably easier (perhaps much easier) than "standard" post-processing that maximizes tonal information and correctly color balances the image. I just think that is worth thinking about regarding where to invest your time spent developing longer-lasting differentiators in your market.
- Doing these special effects appears to me to be a bit of a double-edged sword. On the one hand, you can have a look that is hot right now and some-what familiar to the cell phone/instagram crowd. On the other hand, you have turned your expensive DSLR into a cell phone. What is more important to you - differentiating yourself among several (hundreds? thousands?) pro photographers in your market or differentiating yourself among millions of cell phone users?
- Many of the weddings your shoot are very colorful. I suspect that your couples spend a pretty penny for those clothes and those colorful celebrations. It seems a shame to me to mess with those colors with funky processing. How would you react if you ran into a bride and groom that bought Dom Perignon for the reception and mixed it with kool-aid to be different and give it a funky color?
- The way I see it, when business people attempt to differentiate themselves there are 3 alternatives: 1) Different/better, 2) Different/neutral, 3) Different/worse. Even #3 can work if the market is bored with the status quo but:
* the longevity of that strategy has to be considered
* I am not sure that "bored with the status quo" is a good description for the photography market. I would be tempted to go so far as to say that there is so much diversity and experimentation with photography today that "different" is no longer a significant differentiator - particularly where post-processing is concerned.
- Finally, I am curious: In terms of your brand, what are you trying to transmit to the market with super-saturation and blue shadows? That you are "different" or does it go beyond that? If you had to put that preset into words that express your art, what would they be?
Thank you guys for the suggestions. I'm always glad I ask questions here. Reason I join this forum. With that said, I know it's my style and get where you guys are coming from about that. It's given me things to think about. Thank you
