Stockland Martel Blog

At this year’s Palm Springs Photo Festival, Art Streiber will be giving a one-day workshop titled “The Editorial Photography Crash Course.” The class will span both business and marketing. Register here. Details below. To see an overview of Art’s editorial photography, click here.

 

 

ART STREIBER: The Editorial Photography Crash Course

Morning Session:

MANAGING A CAREER IN EDITORIAL PHOTOGRAPHY

Is it still possible to make a career in editorial photography? Yes.
But it’s more difficult than ever and you need to be armed with an up-to-date understanding of the current editorial market:

 

• How many media companies own the major national and regional magazines?
• How do I get hired to shoot for a major monthly or weekly?
• Which media websites should I follow and why?
• How do I make sense of a magazine’s masthead?
• What’s the difference between a design director and a creative director?
• What’s the difference between a director of photography and a photography editor?
• Should I sign the magazine’s contract?
• How is it possible that foreign editions of a U.S. magazine can republish my imagery?
• What are editorial budgets like?
• How do you manage editorial budgets?
• Can I get an advance?
• How long will it take to get paid?
• How much money should I have in the bank in order to float my shoots?
• Should I own my own gear? How much?
• Can I say “No” to an assignment?
• What if I can’t do the shoot for scheduling reasons?
• What if I don’t want to do the shoot because the subject doesn’t interest me?
• How do I plan a shoot? What’s “preproduction?”
• How much homework should I do?
• How early should I get to the shoot?
• Is scouting necessary?
• How do I get the picture that I want to take AND the picture that the magazine wants?
• How hard should I edit my imagery?
• Is custom printing or retouching important?
• How does syndication work?
• How do I work for foreign magazines?
• How do I avoid being pigeon-holed as one kind of shooter and shoot a variety of subjects?
• How do I shoot new work if I’m not getting assigned to shoot new work?
• What do I do when the phone doesn’t ring?

Afternoon Session:

MARKETING FOR THE EDITORIAL PHOTOGRAPHER

Marketing to busy New York photography editors is a very delicate dance. The answers to the questions below will arm you with all of the information you didn’t know that you didn’t know about marketing to editorial clients:

 

• How important is my website?
• How should my website be configured or organized?
• Should I put tear sheets on my website?
• What if design or reproduction of the tear sheet isn’t great?
• How often should I update my website?
• How important is my portfolio?
• How should my portfolio differ from my website?
• Should my work be on the iPad?
• When is the best time of year to go to New York and show my work?
• How often should I go to New York?
• How long should I stay in New York?
• Should I send printed promo pieces or electronic promo pieces?
• How elaborate should my promo pieces be?
• To whom should I send them?
• Should I write a personal note?
• Should I cold call photo editors?
• What should I do at Christmas?
• How do I get my new work in front of the photo editors?
• What makes me a “professional” photographer?