Episode #5 What is the ACTUAL cost of being a natural light photographer?
Hello, and welcome to Episode 5, "What is the ACTUAL cost of being a natural light photographer?”
I teach photographers how to create natural-looking light with strobes and flash… and I have for a long time… and over the years, what I hear from photographers over and over again is that they choose to only use natural light because it’s free…
But what I know, and what I want to talk to you about today, is that natural light isn’t ENTIRELY free… there is a cost to it…. And it may be costing your business more than you realize.
So that is the topic for Episode 5 of the Beyond Natural Light podcast.
What is the ACTUAL cost of being a natural light photographer?
Follow the link here to have a listen.
I’ve been a professional photographer for a really long time. As of this recording, I’ve been doing this for 21 years… and the majority of that time I've worked with natural light…
Natural light is beautiful
Knowing how to use it is part of what we do as photographers
But the problem with natural light is that it isn’t always there
Some Days are dark
Sometimes it rains
Some situations are less than perfect
And then what?
Well, that was always my struggle.
When the light was good, my work was good. But when the light was bad, so were my photos
And I remember those moments vividly!
I remember watching the weather forecasts obsessively and trying to set my schedule around the weather.
Fall would come… which happens to be my busy holiday season… and trying to book around the weather was super stressful… and I would end up having to reschedule or cancel sessions. It was inconvenient for my clients… and it cost me money… I would miss out on making the revenue I needed to support my business and my family.
So to get around having to do that, I would just try to make it work… which from me meant, grabbing my digital camera, bumping up the ISO, shoot wide open, and at the lowest shutter speed that I could possibly handhold at… but that approach has it’s own problems
It's hard to photograph an entire family at 12. It’s hard to capture a toddler who's running around when you're shooting at 1/60.
And so my work suffered. I couldn’t consistently produce the quality of photos my clients expected and deserved to get from me…
And that affected my confidence… It made me feel like fraud… and it also really hurt my brand… The photos clients received from me in July looked VERY different from the photos my clients received from me in November… and inconsistency like that is the WORST thing you can do for your photography brand and business.
So that was my situation, and I know I’m not alone. So that’s why I say that working exclusively with natural light isn’t free… it has a cost.
And that cost is
Stress
Confidence
Limited hours
Inconsistency
It actually has a lot of costs…
And yes, there is an initial cost when getting started with artificial light… you have to buy some gear… you have to learn how to use it…
BUT what you’ll find is that your gain is SO much greater.
First of all, you say goodbye to stress and hello to confidence and consistency.
But it also can help you make more money in your business… because you are no longer limited to working around the weather, or the time of day.
There is one student, who took the Missing Link, shared in our group, how in her first year working with lighting, she was able to add an extra 38 clients to her calendar.
38! Think about what that means just from a revenue standpoint...
So it pretty powerful stuff.
What I want to ask you today is to sit down and be honest and ask yourself… is what is working exclusively with natural light costing you?
Does it cause you to stress
Does it make you feel like you’re not good and your job
Does it keep you from scheduling clients at certain times of the day or year?
Does it create inconsistencies in work and in your brand
And if so, is that impacting profits
And if you answered yes to any of those questions, then I’d like to invite you to download my free guide, to getting started with strobes and flash… It’s called Crafting Your Ideal Light… and it will walk you through some of the common mistakes to avoid, it links to my equipment list… and answers some general questions… so it’s a great resource and I’ll link that in the show notes.
And if you have any questions, you can always DM me on Instagram! You can find me at @sandracoan
Thanks for being with me and have a great day!
