Mentoring | Photography Questions Answered | Michael and Carina Photography

We received some requests recently to do another q+a session so here are answers to your questions! If you’d like to check out our first Q+A blog, you can find it here.

If you’d like to book us for a mentoring session, (where you can ask unlimited questions), we’re available in person or via Skype! Contact us for more info.

On average, how many images do you hand over for photo sessions and weddings?
Hi Kristen! It depends on the wedding, but an average amount is probably between 600-700 images for a full day wedding and about 100 for photo sessions.

I’d love to know more about your process regarding OCF during receptions? What’s your set up during that time? Do you use any diffusers on your off camera flash? Thanks!

Hello Lindsey! We love shooting with natural light, but unfortunately that isn’t always possible in receptions
(unless you’re comfortable with grainy/grainy black and white images – in which case go for it!). Flash to the rescue! We wrote a blog about how we utilize flash here. Sometimes we do use diffusors – we love our Wescott Rapidbox! It comes in handy especially when you cannot bounce the flash (like with dark ceilings) and is ridiculously easy to setup and break down. It depends on the situation. Personally, I (Mike) like the look of a bounced flash with a bare flash behind the subject as a rim light (as seen above, Canon 5d Mark III, 50mm 1.2 lens at f1.2, 2 Canon 600s, one on camera @1/32 bounced and one on a stand about 15 feet behind the subject @1/128). When we do use OCF we try to keep everything consistent by shooting “wide open” like we normally do.

I remember you sharing at the end of 2013 that one of your goals had been to “make it” as a photography team. I’d love to know how you jumped in and booked those first few weddings! Thanks – love your work!
Hi Allison, we kind of started from nothing in August 2012 when we moved to the USA. For a while, we didn’t get a single inquiry. To be completely honest, the first people who booked us found us on Craigslist. They didn’t pay a lot for us, but we did everything we could to make them feel that they did. Those first bookings yielded numerous referrals as a result, and so on, and so on… Over and over again, we’ve realized how important it is to treat your clients not just like “clients” but like people. We have paid for advertising and never received a single booking that way, except for one very small bridal show. Maybe it works better for other people. Most of our bookings come from either referrals or Google.
And thank you!

How did you begin with to get to know your cameras? I feel that there is so much I should know and try so that I lose my excitement soon. And there is a friends child I was asked to take photos from, but it feels a like a big task, although I know it is just for fun, can you give me some starter tips? =)
Sure thing, Maria! It’s important not to overwhelm yourself, and it’s easy to do – I know, I’ve been there. We’ve been there. Our solution was to give ourselves assignments with constraints (Tyler, if you’re reading this, this goes back to our conversation over dinner). Find something or someone you love shooting, take one camera, one lens, and take a series of portraits but limit yourself to 10 photos – that’s one example of a project where you’re limiting yourself and causing yourself to be more creative in the process. It causes you to think more about what you’re doing. You also usually end up discovering new ways of doing things that help you grow as a photographer. When it comes to shooting with people, if you need help, one of our favorite books might come in handy!

We don’t photograph children often, but we used to! (You probably know I (Mike) used to be a kindergarten teacher). One thing that is really important is to get on their level. Don’t just photograph them from above. Talk to them and get them comfortable on camera (if they are old enough to comprehend you), don’t feel like you have to jump into shooting. It helps if you try and see the world through their eyes and let them know you take them seriously. Be playful with them, especially younger children. Older children can be directed a bit more when it comes to posing, but it hardly ever works with younger children so why force it? Keep it light-hearted and easy-going and you should be fine!

hi michael & carina!! =) my question is: how did you start attracting brides in your business? what’s the best way to get WOM marketing going during slow spells if you shoot mostly portraits but would like to move to weddings? thanks so much!
Hi Paulina! There are a bunch of things you can do, but we’d say the first step is to figure out what type of client you’d like to attract. Who is your ideal client? Is your brand attractive to your ideal client? Once you figure that out, it’s easy to get in touch with a few clients by using social media – giveaways get a lot of attention. It doesn’t mean you have to give away a whole wedding- you could give away a “wedding planning kit” or a gift card to Starbucks. Once a client books you, just treat them like you’d want to be treated by your photographer. J

Hi friends! You knew this question would come from me 😉 : How do you get ALL of your images to look so consistent! No matter where the shoot is, what the subject looks like..it’s consistent! Your work is so beautiful!
Hello Katrina! Thanks so much – your feedback means the world to us! Shooting A LOT – even in “slow periods” helps you develop your own style. We have to remind ourselves of that just as much as anyone when we’re tempted to sit behind our computer all day answering emails or pinning on Pinterest boards. You should never be bored or complacent with your work, but even if you push yourself, shooting a lot just naturally helps you develop common threads of consistency in your work.
We also always look for the “perfect light” which helps our subjects glow.

Hey guys!! My dream is to shoot film and have it become part of my brand (still saving my pennies!). Hybrid shooting sounds really appealing to me and I love your work so much! Can you go over the benefits of being a hybrid shooter? I’m sure you’ve answered this before, but how often do you shoot film during a wedding and at what points throughout the day do you pull out your digital camera? One more!! How much extra are your expenses for one wedding since you’ve incorporated film vs. digital only…did you have to raise your prices? Thank y’all so much!
Shooting film can be expensive but it is SO worth it if it’s your passion. We just are happier and more satisfied with our work. Shooting a mix of film and digital naturally helps you save money, but that’s not the number one reason why we love it. Film is lovely, but that doesn’t mean “digital is dead.” Shooting digital in dark situations can really help where you’d be wringing your hands with most color films. That usually determines where we shoot film. If we want color images in dark situations, we use our digital cameras. In most situations where we can use natural light, we love shooting film. Our cost varies depending on how much film we shoot, but at the last wedding we photographed total film costs were well over $600 – and that’s nothing compared to some photographers we know. We shot film for a long time at a personal cost. We did this simply to become more experienced with it. If that’s really not an option for you, sometimes you might consider shooting with someone on a “test” basis, waiving the session fee and just charging the overhead for film instead. In September 2013 we changed our pricing structure to reflect the amount of film we shoot.

This is brilliant!!! First thank you sooo much for your time. Here’s my questions… What medium format film cameras would you recommend starting off with? What is the one thing you wish you knew when you first started shooting film? Lastly what kind of scanner do you like best? XxX
Hi there! We love our Contax 645s but they are hard to come by and/or very expensive. We hear great things about the Mamiya 645 and have personally shot with a Pentax 6×7. I wish I had known more how badly sunflare can affect a film negative. We once shot a whole test session on three rolls of film (luckily, as I said, it was a test session) and basically destroyed 2 of the rolls with too much sunflare. I also wish we had reached out to our developers personally early on for feedback. Be sure to reach out to your lab when you start shooting film, explain to them where you’re coming from, what you’re looking for… usually they are FULL of information and love helping! As for scanners, it depends on the film. We love the soft contrasts you can get with Portra 800 inside on a Noritsu scanner but we also love the deep, three-dimensional effect Frontier scanners have on Fuji400h outside:

Thank you guys for all of your great questions! We love interacting with y’all! We have a few blog posts in mind for the immediate future, but if there’s anything you’d like to see in more detail feel free to make a suggestion in the comment box below!

xoxo Michael & Carina