Day 1 Lighting Series: What Is the Actual Cost of Natural Light?
If you want to be a great photographer and make money, you must know and understand how to use light. As part of the lighting series on the podcast, I'll address some of the concerns and questions that come up most often around lighting. I want to put some of the myths that I hear about light to rest, and hopefully this inspires and empowers you to think about artificial light in a new way.
In this episode, I share with you the cost of bad light, like what dealing with bad light is actually costing you as a professional photographer.
HIGHLIGHTS
I used to schedule around the weather.
I started my business back in 1999 and didn’t start working with artificial light until 2011, so for the first 12 years of my business, I worked exclusively with natural light. Honestly, that was something I was really proud of! Natural light is beautiful, and knowing how to use it is part of the magic that we do as photographers.
However, the problem with natural light is that it isn’t always available. Some days are dark, sometimes it rains and some situations are less than perfect. When the light was good, my work was good. When the light was bad, so were my photos.
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. I would end up having to reschedule or cancel sessions.
It was inconvenient for my clients and cost me money. I would miss out on making the revenue I needed to support my business and my family. My work suffered. I couldn’t consistently produce the quality of photos my clients expected and deserved to get from me.
That affected my confidence, made me feel like fraud and 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.
I’ve been teaching this long enough to know that a lot of photographers have a similar story to mine. One of the reasons I hear photographers say they stay away from using artificial light is that it’s so expensive. I want to challenge you to reframe that argument, and instead of looking at the cost of getting started working with strobes and flash, look at what it’s costing you to NOT have this skill or know how to create your own light when you need it.
There's actually a huge cost.
Sometimes that cost is stress or confidence. The cost is having limited hours that are dependent on the weather or the season or the time of day. The cost is inconsistency—not being able to produce the images you are known for or look that you sell for every single client who stands in front of your camera. Sometimes the cost is having to cancel sessions because of the weather or reschedule when you and your family were relying on the session's revenue.
How is NOT knowing how to create your own light impacting you, and your clients and your business? What is the consequence of walking into a situation that you know is bad or less than ideal, and then scrambling to make it work?
My guess is, if you take the time to sit down and really look at all of those problems, those situations that I mentioned are real. Not only are they going to affect you, they’re going to affect your work, your clients and the bottom line—your business.
This is why I say when you are a photographer, lighting and business go hand in hand. If you want to have a successful business, you must have a solid brand. The foundation of having a solid brand is consistency, and the fastest, easiest and most cost effective way to bring consistency to your work is by taking control of your light.
If you can produce beautiful work with natural light, that is a skill you will always have. However, imagine how it would feel to be able to create the same kind of beautiful work when you don't have natural light to work with. Then you’re unstoppable!
For today, I just want you to think about what working exclusively with natural light is actually costing you.
Does it cause you stress? Does it make you feel like you’re not good at your job? Does it keep you from scheduling clients during certain times of the day or year? Does it create inconsistencies in work and brand? If so, is that impacting profits?
In the next episode of the lighting series, I'll be talking about common myths and misconceptions around lighting!
