The more fun you have taking pictures the more pictures you’ll take and the more pictures you take the better you will get and the better you get the more fun you will have. – Damien

Great advice, thanks so much! I have some work to do…

best regards

Fiona

Thanks for your comments and questions. The venue for your 60s shoot can be anywhere that hasn’t changed much. A vintage railway would be fine too. It’s the hair, clothes, make up and accessories that set the date of a picture, not really the venue. Parts of the station we shot at would have looked quite modern in the 60s.

Make Up artist fees vary. It’s like asking ‘What is the going rate for a photographer?’ I suggest you get a make up artist onboard right from the off. Choose one with midweek availability and set out a strategy with them to grow your businesses in parallel. If you give them lots of work you can negotiate the price. Do some research and choose the MUA you are going to work with based on quality, convenience and personality. Definitely not price.

The Arri lights are robust, cheap and easy to rig. What you see is what you get. They are perfect for ISO 800, 1/60th at f/4, (tungsten lit interiors) lighting situations. The Arris have a particular look that is not easy to recreate without a lens and a filament. The next generation of HMI lights will soon be replacing the Arris I’m sure because they too are Fresnel, low energy and strong. A 150w HMI gives out the same power as a 650w Arri etc and can run for a long time off one of our new battery inverter power supplies. HMIs are daylight balanced colour and the Arris are Tungsten balanced.

The portable Bowens lights you mention might do the job you need depending upon the modifiers you have. Small Speedlights will do the job too to some extent if you have the necessary skills to rig them with control. Practice is what you need. Only you can answer your question. Rig your Bowens system and see what sort of pictures you can achieve, Do it at home, photograph a neighbour, etc. I shoot with lights 3 days a week and this gives me the experience needed to have control.

Practice, practice, practice, with your lighting then start charging for your pictures to recover your research investment. As your lighting skills improve your fees will do too. Remember, the general public can’t use lighting and don’t have the kit either so once you can, and do, you will have a sound foundation for a business.

Learn to use the lighting kit you already have to its limits. Then get the lights you need for the type of work you want to shoot.

I hope this helps,

Damien.

Great to read this and be reminded of the fabulous vintage cherish the dress shoot. What a great day that was!

I’m doing a practice shoot and the client wants to set the shoot in the sixties, and I’m finding it really tricky to think of venues. Any thoughts? Also, can you tell me a bit more about hiring makeup artists? What is the going rate for a makeup artist?

Finally, do you think I can use Bowens portable lighting system until I can afford an Arri etc? Or is it possible to achieve these effects just using off camera flash? I know on the shoot the flash was misbehaving a bit, but I’d love to hear your thoughts generally on why you prefer the Arri lights to flash?

thanks so much

Fiona

It all comes down to negotiation and life skills. Perhaps you could take some pictures for their website in exchange for letting you use the location. Longer term relationships have to be built on win/win financial strategies. Hire by the morning or day and not by the hour perhaps. Charge your client accordingly. A £250 shoot fee is quite normal for a location shoot and should cover the location fee as well as the make up artist and put a bit of money in your pocket before you start to sell product. Make it happen and start negotiating. If the venue wants £100/ hour asK yourself how much would you charge an hour to do a commercial shoot for them. You might come to the conclusion that the shoot fee is quite reasonable seeing as they need to provide staff to oversee and be on hand etc.

Kindest regards,

Damien.

Cheers
Heinz

Thanks for your kind words.

Each image was edited to be correct and well balanced in Lightroom then exported to Photoshop and further tweaked in the usual Lovegrove way. The resulting 16 bit tiffs were then batch actioned into another folder using my Vintage 2 action. I’ve been asked to sell my actions but I’ve always resisted. You can get them all for free by attending Marko’s Photoshop or advanced PP workshops.

I hope this helps.

Damien.

You didn’t mention the post processing, is this a lightroom preset you’ve created or is each image adjusted on its own merits ?