 Tarah J. Goff |
Starting up! I have a Canon Rebel XT and I have a large house which I have divided to have a Photography Studio. I have been taking pictures( I will post some on here soon)and everyone wants me to take their family photos, school pictures, etc. How do I need to go about getting my copyright signature and starting up my business.
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Denyse Clark |
HI Tarah, Boy that's a wide open question!! Copyright signature for proofs? Most everyone here does it in Photoshop. Search the threads for Copyright Symbol and see if you can find the instructions on how to do multiple files at once, I know there are threads that have it. As far as starting your business- which aspect do you mean? Have you registered with your town for a DBA? Do you have a Sales Tax number? Those will be important. Have you considered pricing? What can your area support? Do you have a professional lab to print your work? What kind of albums or presentation folders do you want to use for showing proofs? Lots of stuff!! If you can be more specific on what your needs are, you'll get more helpful responses. :) Denyse
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Tarah J. Goff |
Thanks Denyse for the response. I need to find out about what you said "Search the threads for Copyright Symbol and see if you can find the instructions on how to do multiple files at once" I have not registered or have a sales tax number. So I guess I need to get those. I have my prices. Since I am new in my area, I will be a bit cheaper than everyone else. I don't think we have a pro lab here.. I was looking at mpix.com . I am working of my albums and presentation portfolios.
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Denyse Clark |
When you click on the Forum, and go to the Q&A secion there is a search box. Type in "copyright symbol" and see what comes up. You'll probably find some discussions like this (threads) that give you specific instructions. Check with your town or city- they can probably give you the steps you need to take in your area to register. I am new in my area & have cheaper prices too, I think it's a good way to get started. I've never used mpix.com but I have read alot of good things about it here on BP. I get my albums and presentation folders from hubphoto.com Great customer service and great quality products. I use the Parade Album for portrait proofs, they hold 20 photos and I think they are SO classy (it's the last album on the page) They also have good folders for putting enlargements in, and folios if you're doing a smaller proof set like 8 photos.
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Tarah J. Goff |
Thanks again, I tried the search and it found nothing. But thanks for all the advice. I will look into hubphoto. So who do you order your pictures from?
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Denyse Clark |
Maybe you weren't in the right spot, I searched and got dozens of threads... here are instructions on how to put the copyright symbol on individual photos in Photoshop Elements (I'll look for the instructions on how to do many files at once): click on the text option. Place the cursor where you want the symbol to be and hold down the alt key and enter 0169 and you get the copyright symbol . .. © you can then go in and adjust the opacity of it if you don't want it fully visible and you can resize it to whatever size you need/want and place it in a place so that if they copy the photo they cannot crop it off without losing vital photo parts!
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Denyse Clark |
I have a pro shop about 5 miles from my house, they do all of my printing. They're awesome, and they use professional Kodak Endura Portra paper and they copyright the back of photos automatically. I don't much bother with copyrights on the front personally.
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Mark Feldstein |
Tarah, I think I answered part of your question by e-mail, but my question to you, before you get rolling too far down the road with this new endeavor, is who are you getting your liability insurance from? Like business insurance, property insurance, liability and personal injury coverage in case a light stand topples on someone, or they trip on a cord, or a lamphead blows up in someones face. And, if you're renting of course, your landlord DOES know about your running a biz from their home and the neighborhood is zone for it, right? I'm not being negative, just urging you to cover all your bases and also to have a flexible biz plan. Taking photos is a relatively small part of what professional photographers do, either in studio or on location. Denyse knows this. Some of us even learn how to cook TURKEYS. Take care.
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Denyse Clark |
haha. Lucky for me I rent from my parents, my insurance agent is one of my best friends, and my office job accountant hooked me up with the other stuff. :) Yeah, it's ALL boring compared to the photo part, but SOOOO important!!! OH- and get model releases and work with contracts. Just smart business!
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Tarah J. Goff |
Mark, thanks for all the info. I own my house.. so thats not a problem and I need to check into my insurance.(thanks for telling me that)! Denyse, I do have a picture release and model release form. what do you mean by work with contracts? Thanks for all the help.
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Denyse Clark |
A contract with clients that clearly states the costs and what's included. They sign, you sign. That way there's no confusion later "I thought you said I got (5) 8x10's with my package, not (2)" "I didn't know the proofs would have a copyright logo on the front of them!" Whatever- if it's in writing, it eliminates any communication gap. Doesn't have to be fancy, just something in writing. Wedding contracts are more complex of course.
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Tarah J. Goff |
Thanks for that.. I will make sure that I get those.
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