Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #57166 in Books
• Published on: 2009-09-21
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 128 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781584282600
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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Review

About the Author

Customer Reviews

Well worth it for those needing a guiding hand in photo business.


Kirk Tuck's "Commercial Photography Handbook: Business Techniques for Professional Digital Photographers" is actually a mis-nomer: All applications in the book can be put to all areas of photography. I feel like this is the bare-bones guidelines to modern photography, with explanations of the tougher concepts and guides to where further information can be found.

Starting out, the images on the cover aren't your high art projects, those that would be seen on gallery walls or in coffee table books. That said, with the big "c" word on the front cover, they would be photos you'd see elsewhere: in food magazines, corporate brochures, billboards, and annual reports.

Kirk goes through various pieces of information, starting off with the history of photography in the commercial sense, and wades past the star-struck admiration of the "art" into describing photography as what it really is in the commercial world: a service. We provide art to match other's demands. That sets the tone through the entire book; as one might expect from the title, it's all business from there.

Wading through the vagrancies of "price," Kirk Tuck discusses early fallacies of photographers, from not planning out expenses, insurances, taxes, to the nitty gritty debate between day rates and fees. The greatest thing about this book, if you're reading this review and going "this sounds like the dummies guide to business, not commercial photography," is that Kirk goes and takes examples of what he does with these figures and equations and put them towards his craft. Examples include a multi-day shoot, from the bottom up in terms of figures, to a step by step walkthrough of a shoot, from the original phone call through comp comparison, to post processing and uploading to an FTP.

There's further detail in how to discover your niche in photography; how to graduate from being starry eyed by the big black lenses and discover what it is that you really want to do, and what to expect from each industry in a general sense, be it fashion, architecture, portraiture, CEO shots down to still life work. Equipment requirements, clients you might find, who you're going to end up shooting and where to find them, rates and expected earnings from those clients, and more are things that Kirk goes over in great detail.

There's little tricks included as well, from billing your own gear at rental rates to figuring out routes other than the American "dream" of going to school to learn what you need and then ending up a few hundred thousand dollars in debt while trying to kick a business into gear.

Marketing is covered in great detail, being an important part of the profession. Kirk goes into great detail on the differences between traditional marketing, email marketing, web work, and touches on when all of these are appropriate, as well as not getting too caught up in the intricate details that may or may not be important with websites, search engine optimization, and mass marketing campaigns. Covering the groundwork of what is necessary while not going into an overload of detail is a common theme in this book: it's not going to be your be-all end all, but it will be a good place to lay down groundwork.

The dirty side of self-employment is worked with as well, in terms of keeping in mind the effects of taxes, self-accounting, book-keeping, and the fun effects of interest, debt, and the IRS. All very important things that keep any business running, but are so often glossed over by the mass market at large when it comes to individual photography. Insurance, pricing structures, the difference between bids and estimates, and more are broken down in the base structures, with clear acknowledgement for minute details that the reader should consult local tax ordinances, and legal advice from those who make it their profession to know. Kirk finishes out the book by laying down firm financial strategies; these general mission ideas being much easier to understand after the base guidelines from above.

In closing, I guess that Kirk Tuck's book really is a course introduction. It's a basic guideline, a structure to follow, to be filled in by local circumstances, things that can't and shouldn't be put into a book when they change on a day to day basis. It takes the idea of an art becoming commercial from this unfathomable mystery, and making it much more easily grasped. This is a primer for those to get started with.

Arrrgggg....
I wish he had written this book first! So much to learn, so little time. Fortunately, Tuck writes in a direct and engaging style so that it doesn't take much time to read and comprehend his books. Also, this is yet another book full of wonderful photos that help visual learners like myself. But why did he wait to make this important handbook on the business of photography his third book instead of his first one? Dang!

This is a very, very good book for people who want to make money in photography
Even if you are an established professional photographer working in the national markets you will still find this book very worthwhile. The sections on marketing and business practices are great reading and well worth the cover price. I find Kirk's writing easy to read. It has a nice, almost narrative flow. But it's the information that you will find valuable. I'm finding it to be a great resource.

In the interest of full disclosure I must mention that I am profiled in the book along with two other central Texas photographers, Wyatt McSpadden and Paul Bardagjy.

If you are just starting out in photography this book could save you years of expensive trial and error.