Tag Archives: Vancouver Photographer

Outsource the Retouching

Posted on August 26, 2010 by Raymond Chou

Vancouver Beauty Photographer

Retouching by Gabriele Monte

If you’re one of those professional photographers who are lucky enough to have more work you can handle, there’s at least two things you can do:

  1. Turn down extra work because of your swamped schedule.
  2. Hire someone to take care of certain tasks so you’ll have more time to either do the things you want or tasks that generate more revenue

All business components of being a professional photographer aside , two things that will invariably demand our time is taking pictures and the retouching that comes afterwards. While I do enjoy retouching images, if I had the choice to either shoot or retouch, I’d always choose the former, and I’d wager that most photographers would feel the same. If you make more money from shooting than retouching, then financially it’s a no-brainer providing you have clients coming in through the roof.

Though I haven’t arrived at the point in my business where I can justify hiring someone to handle all my retouching needs, recently I have been looking around for a retoucher to process photos that I myself would either find too challenging or far too long to touch up. I came across Gabriele Monte’s work on Model Mayhem and I was impressed to say the least. For the record my “before” images don’t usually require this much salvaging, but the makeup artist/hairstylist had to leave early so yea :(

I have to admit I was a bit hesitant at first about paying someone I didn’t know to retouch my photo, but I was quickly assured that I was dealing with someone who knew what the needs of photographers were, and I was more than happy with the end result.

I know that some of you have considered having someone retouch your photos too, and I just want to say, if you’re able to rationalize the costs, go for it; because if you can find someone whom you can work well with, you won’t have any regrets.

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Retracing Our Roots

Posted on June 7, 2010 by Raymond Chou

Richmond Photographer | Minoru ParkMinoru Park in Richmond on a cloudy day

A while ago back when I was still a photography student, one of my instructors said this to the class, “to take pictures for no reason other than doing it as a hobby is one of the best reasons to be a photographer”.

I didn’t fully understand the meaning behind that at the time. A victim of my narrow-mindedness, I thought there was no way that shooting as a hobby could beat doing that PLUS getting paid for it.

Here’s where I’m at now.

Having been doing this professionally for some time, I’ve experienced what it’s like to be fully caught up in the business side of things by treating photography as nothing but a means of generating income. I’ve experienced what it’s like to be drained and exhausted by the end of the week, not so much physically, but mentally as I feel both my motivation and passion wither as I ascend and descend from each summit, realizing that there’s only another one waiting.

In part this is due to the life of a freelancer. Often we’re called to put in a lot more than just forty hours a week towards making a living and growing our business. Don’t get me wrong, the feeling of having accomplished something is great, but if you don’t take the time to balance yourself by celebrating the wins and taking a day or two off, you’ll be wiped out, mark my words.

However, sustaining our energy and creativity demands more than just taking time off, in fact I find that taking a break from photography entirely is no solution. In his blog post on sustaining our creativity, David duChemin advocates that instead of laying our craft at rest for a period of time, we should instead try taking more photos, to “stir the paint” so to speak. The important thing is that this time we do it for no reason other than the act of capturing that moment, not for any audience or portfolio, but ourselves.

As artists who make a living from what we do, it’s sometimes necessary for us to retrace our roots, to rediscover the passion and joy which helped us to carve the path that led us to where we are now. Just because we’re lucky enough to reach a point where we can do what we love for a living doesn’t mean we’re no longer allowed to enjoy it just as much, if not MORE, then when we first began our journey as hobbyists. To have that taken away is nothing less than dealing a fatal blow to the artist inside us.

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Book Review | The Portrait Photographer’s Guide to Posing

Posted on June 3, 2010 by Raymond Chou

51FQsLfzWOL. SL160 Book Review | The Portrait Photographers Guide to PosingTitle: The Portrait Photographer’s Guide to Posing by Bill Hurter

Expertise Level: Beginner/Intermediate

My Rating: 4/5

Click here to view all my recommend books

Here’s to the first of many of my photography book reviews. I’ve read many books upon my journey, ones that were excellent and ones that were not so. May you, dear reader, take something useful away from them :)

I picked up Guide to Posing while I was on the hunt for a something that taught me how to pose my subjects, being a portrait photographer I felt that it would be a BIT helpful As it turned out, this book was exactly what I needed to start off.

What’s Inside:

The first chapter begins with an intro on the very basics of posing, literally providing hints on how to pose from head to toe, and from there the chapters become more focused on specific topics: expressions, the face, posing groups, etc. It also touches upon the basics of composition as well, covering techniques such as the rule of thirds, leading diagonals, creating shapes, etc, which makes it a perfect instructional book for beginners. For someone with years of experience, you may not get quite as much value, but you might also find some nuggets of gold in there worth harboring.

I have to say it was a challenge applying the techniques in this book right from the get go, but with enough practice and rereading, you’ll eventually have it all down.

As is standard for Amherst Media books, there will be photos featured from well over 30 photographers so you’re definitely going to see more than just Hurter’s work.

What This Book Will Not Do:

It is NOT a book that will have pictures of hundreds of different poses for you to duplicate, nor does it contain that many to begin with. So if you’re a fashion photographer who’s looking for an arsenal of different poses, you’re better off at looking at magazines (in fact no book I’ve read to this day teaches you posing techniques beyond the basics). Rather the principles designed in this book are meant to give you the very basics so that when you practice directing the more complicated poses you see in say fashion magazines, you’ll feel more confident on where to begin.

The Bottom Line:

Good buy if you know little or next to nothing about posing.


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