Yes, The Professional Photographic Certification Commission does offer an exam to become a CPP or Certified Professional Photographer. Joining the PPA or SEP makes taking the exam considerably cheaper, so it would be advisable to do so if you really wanted the certification. We have looked samples of the exam over and it’s nothing you wouldn’t find on a college level photography exam. They even recommend the same book we used in all of the photography courses at Arkansas Tech; Photography by London Stone and Upton. The majority of the exam covers knowing how to use things like shutter speed, f-stop, ISO speed, etc. The majority of photographers I run across tend to use fully automatic cameras with auto focus, so I don’t see how such a certification would have much impact on their work.

Another option is the Professional Photographic Certification Commission (PPCP) exam. It is very similar to the exam offered by the PPA and covers the following:

• Camera, lenses and attachments
• Composition and design
• Digital production
• Exposure
• Meters
• Digital capture
• Output
• Light

It also requires to fill out an application and submit images for review, which is also done for the PPA certification. The courses we took in college covered the same material found on these exams and in many cases required the use of manually operated cameras for projects. The main difference is they encouraged creativity and/or thinking outside the box. In some of the courses we even had to shoot, develop, and print traditional B&W film in a darkroom. This was in addition to the digital side of said courses.

Both of these certifications seem dandy if you wanted to learn more about the technical aspects of photography (or if you were good at studying for and passing tests), but we fail to see much use for them in the field. At least not much use for the average modern photographer. Clients most likely won’t be seeking you out for one of these exams either, because the test has little to do with the style you deliver.

The best advice we give people is to disable as many automatic options as your camera will allow. If you can turn all of them off even better. This also includes auto focus. If you can’t resist the temptation to use auto features then purchase a manually operated film camera (we recommend the 35mm Asahi Pentax K1000 that you can easily find on EBay). When using a digital body we advise the use of a 3rd party split screen viewfinder and older prime film lenses with f-stop rings. These options will give you more control over depth of field and greater low light focusing ability.

We’re probably one of the few studios you’ll run across using fully manual film and digital cameras on our shoots. Certification or not, you have to understand how to use your equipment when it doesn’t have any automatic options to use as a crutch.

Read Another Article: You Should Always Sign a Contract

We were recently hired on as a second photographer by Nathan Crain of Nathan Crain Photography to capture a wedding. Upon trying to collect payment for services we were ignored for a number of days. In this article we’re going to be stressing the importance of signing a physical contract. Trusting your friends word when it comes to a business agreement will usually result in a loss of money and friendship.

Today (when we started this article) is Friday, June 18, 2010. The wedding we helped shoot was Saturday, June 5, 2010. Nathan Crain had 50% of the total he was charging the couple ($300 out of $600) two weeks before the ceremony.

Our verbal agreement before the ceremony was to split the money 50/50. Nathan Crain had also agreed to pay for gas, which we thought was fair since we were doing 100% of the driving on the trip and using our own vehicle to transport all of the equipment. After the ceremony, however, Nathan informs us he can only pay 25% and refused to pay for gas. We had to drive from Fort Smith, Arkansas to the sticks of Benton, Arkansas and back.

Keep in mind we designed, hosted, and maintained the Nathan Crain Photography website up to this point. Nathan finally did respond and paid 25% after we deactivated his photo gallery, blog, website, email, and ftp access for non payment. After paying for necessary equipment ($86.28), gas both ways ($24.21 + $28.90), four rolls of film ($3.99, $4.25, $5.49, $6.15), lunch ($8.27), and dinner ($9.83), we spent $177.37 and made $150. That’s a net gain of $-27.37 from the shoot. If we had received the agreed upon 50% the net profit would have been 122.63 even if we did pay for 100% of the gas.

While this may seem like an excellent deal for anyone in the market for a wedding photographer it’s not such a great deal for a photographer looking to eat.

This brings us to the main point of this article. If you plan on entering into a business agreement (yes, especially with a friend) be sure to write up an agreement and have all parties sign it. The agreement will protect clients, you, and any business partners involved.

Some nice things to include would be:

1. Names of the bride and groom
2. Description of services
3. Name and Date of event
4. Total amount being paid for event
5. Amount and % to be paid up front and when (IE Save the Date Retainer)
6. When remainder will be paid
7. Rights and usage; Photographers and Bridal Party
8. Conditions for business partners being paid
9. IE paid when product delivered, product delivered then paid, etc
10. Reimbursement liability clause incase photos/equipment/film is lost/damaged
11. Photo releases for rights; personal, commercial, etc

It would also be a good idea to sign forms when money exchanges hands. This way nobody can say they never got paid for services, never paid for services, etc. If you were planning on using any of the photos you shot for commercial purposes IE advertising then you’ll also want to get the wedding party to sign a release. This is can get rather complex depending upon the type of commercial use you were intending. Releases are generally not required to display shot images in your portfolio, but if you are hired by a photographer they can sometimes request you to sign a release that prevents using your images in any form. We’ll probably be throwing some example forms together here in the near future and posting them. Stay tuned.

Read Another Article: Photographer Certifications Options: PPA, PPCP, SEP.

While screening comments for the usual spam we found this on 07/04/2010: (It does contain foul language, so don’t look if you are easily offended).

Just for the record shouldn’t is the same as saying should not.As you can see, the posters IP address is 75.109.227.79. Digging through our old web logs from the time when we did design for Nathan Crain yielded the same IP. You can see a screen capture of that here:

From that you can tell he was uploading engagement photos from the same address. We also did a trace route to confirm as you can see in the next screen shot. The address right before arriving at his computer is rsvlcnta or Russellville.

We receive a large quantity of spam comments on a daily basis, so it’s important to use good filtering plugins. It’s also good to require administrator approval in order to prevent a malicious commenter, like Nathan Crain, from posting something you might not catch for some time. This is especially true when we’re talking about very old entries, as you may never look at them.

The image you see above is a cheap JCPenney Automatic Electronic Strobe flash unit powered by 2 NIMH AA batteries and attached to the Isolette 1 via the top cold shoe. For some reason it has a short cord coiled up under the flash with a plug that fits right into the lens of the Isolette. We fired it at 1/60 successfully using the settings listed on the back of the flash for distance and f-stop. The next photo shows the plug we are referring to. It also shows our sewn felt bellows cover that we use in the field. After fitting it to the camera we have had zero light leaks on shoots, even in broad daylight.

The following is a sample fired with the flash. ADOX CHS 100 Art pushed to ISO 200 at 1/60th fired with camera at F4,5 and around 12 feet. The focus is a bit off, but this is an example of the flash working.

Using the same shutter speed tests we used on the Polaroid J610, we came up with two different shutter speeds working on our Isolette 1.

25 and 50 on the dial = .016/.017 seconds or 1/60 of a second
200 or max on the dial = .004 seconds or 1/250 of a second

Upon doing research we discovered it is common for cameras of this age two have two separate mechanisms for high and low speeds, which would explain only having two speeds. We still have no idea why they would be so fast, but the solar cell doesn’t lie.

Another trick we have for you is how we cheaply and easily keep the shutter from sticking. Keep in mind it will still stick periodically, but all you have to do is give it a gentle push in the right direction and it fires fine. All we did was wrap a hair band around the that folds the bellows and lens out. What you’ll do then is cock the shutter and slip the band over. It should fire almost every time now. The top image shows the shutter ready to fire and the lower one shows it in the fired position.

We have a few more tricks (and some photos from recent shoots) in store, but are not entirely sure how or if the tricks will work at the moment. More to come as we explore a multitude options with this wonderful camera.

***Update***

We’ve taken some photos with the new setup and will be posting them as soon as the film is dry enough to scan. Of the two rolls we shot one of them turned out perfect. The first roll had some light leaks and didn’t feed correctly because we forgot to pack the spool holder. In order to fix the light leaks we packed some felt scraps around the bellows where they come out of the camera body. Apparently light was still making it past the sewn felt cover.

Click the image below to see samples from this camera. The first shot of Arvest was taken with Fujifilm Neopan Acros 100 and the remainder were Fujifilm Neopan 400 Professional. We’ll be taking more photos in the near future using a mix of Ilford and ADOX films.

This camera was from one of the local flea markets for 6.50 in the Polaroid leather case. According to Land List the J66 is a common Polaroid produced from 1961 to 1963 with a 114mm f/19 meniscus (single-element) plastic lens. The shutter is a pneumatic rotary system rated at 1/15 to 1/1000. Upon noticing a rattling noise and opening it up this negative (converted to positive) was still inside the camera. It’s most likely the last image this camera ever shot for the previous owner.

That being said one of the first things we did after the 120 conversion was attempt to shoot some film. The following photos are two examples. First we have Nathan Crain of Nathan Crain Photography. You can see some light leaks on the right from pin holes in the bellows. The second photo is of Sarah Walter (soon to be Sarah Latus) and Robert Latus. The cropping is a bit off, but you get a general idea of what a photo would look like without leaks. All we did to fix the bellows leaks was wrap the bellows with black felt. Later we came back and made a sewn form fitted stretch cover out of black felt. It may not be fancy, but it keeps the light out.

As you can see the images are quite long (or wide) at about 6×10.5 in negative size. Some people seem to like a 6×6 frame to get more shots and uniform images, but we just wanted the largest images possible. They are border-less, so you’ll want to crop the edges down a bit if you want them to be clean. Next up we’re going to take a look at the simple 120 conversion that we like to call the J610 due to the 6 by roughly 10 negative it produces.

The advance lever we ended up going with (after several failures) is a 1/4-20 Thumb Screw seated directly into the top of an empty plastic 120 cassette. Once you crank it down in there it’s not going to budge, but you’ll need to open the camera up in a darkroom to pull the film off the cassette after exposure. The bottom of the 120 cassette spins freely on a #10-32 bolt held into the body with a nut. On the left hand side where you advance the film from, we simply cut the old spool holder (held in by two small screws) off toward the bottom and put it back together with some electrical tape. A #10-32 bolt goes in from the top and bottom with a nut on each respectively. The tape and pulling the bolts back a bit allows you to easily feed in a fresh roll of 120. As for exposure we’ve figured out you can line up the arrow that goes from top to bottom to the far right. Advance the cassette and place the arrow directly over the right hand edge (to the left of the cassette you’re feeding it into). Closing the camera and crank the advance knob 5 full turns should put you into the first frame. After that advancing 2 and a half (2.5) turns should put you on the next frame. Advance it 2.75 if you’re paranoid about cutting into the last image.

Next up is how we managed to turn it into a fully manual camera. At first we simply wanted to replace the selenium cell with solar cells and a potentiometer to adjust ISO, but that didn’t work out very well. This process requires removal of the front of the camera. Once the bellows are extended you have to remove 3 screws from the back and once that comes off another 4 from the back of the lens assembly to split it in half. One of the 4 screws is the lever that locks your shutter into place when you cock it. It has a spring on it, but the spring is attached.

Once inside disconnect the red and black (or two wires if you have different colors) wires from the selenium cell. We don’t want it interfering with our new manual controls. At this point you’ll want to CAREFULLY bend the orange needle and the little meter bar so that the needle catches in the grooves on the bar. We have ours setup so you barely push it back to disengage and move from notch to notch. Each notch is a different shutter speed at F19 (providing you don’t use the front ring to darken it more). KEEP IN MIND that you can’t move the needle *unless* the shutter is cocked. Trying to do so will most likely BREAK IT. Now, put your camera back together and read on.

As you can see in the photo directly above this, the meter has notches in it that we have taken the liberty of measuring for you. Keep in mind that your mileage may vary, as your shutter may be faster or slower than the one in our J610. To test the shutter speed we placed a solar panel from a $1 LeWorld Dual Power Calculator (from Wal-Mart) on the end of a broken mono audio cable. Positive goes to the center and negatives goes to the outside ground sheath. What you do then is place the solar cell inside your camera up against the back of the lens facing out. You plug the cable into the sound card of your computer to record the wave that it makes when light passes through the shutter. We used a 4 AA flashlight placed directly in front of the lens to create our light source.

This a very low tech approach, but as you see in the photo above you get a wave in the noise as light passes through the shutter. This specific image is from having the needle positioned all the way to the left (maximum shutter speed). Pulling into a program that shows more decimal places yields .0025 for the selected wave, which comes out to about 1/400 for a shutter speed. We believe the needle could be moved further, but would require greater modification than simply cutting out some plastic and bending a few things. You may also want to bend the end up on the arm you lock the needle into. We found the needle had a tendency to stick on the far left and be rather hard to dislodge.

The following is a list of speeds we registered from our J610 from left to right looking directly down on the camera from the top and behind it. (as seen above):

Position – MS time – Estimated Shutter Speed

1 – .0025 – 1/400

2 – .003 – 1/320

3 – .006 – 1/160

4 – .018 – 1/60

5 – .019 – 1/50

6 – .028 – 1/30

7 – .042 – 1/10

These are very usable speeds for most photography and allow the camera to be used at nearly any ISO you would want. We’ll also be posting our shutter speed cross-reference charts in the near future that we use on shoots. Using the charts you can quickly cross reference your digital camera meter reading to acquire an EV rating for your Polaroid (or any vintage camera). Once you have that it’s easy to find the correct shutter speed for proper exposure.

Also on a side note the shutter sensitivity can be adjusted by messing with the bracket on the left hand side of the camera. You can unscrew it, push it up a bit, and tighten it back down for a hair trigger.

Did you like this camera hack? Hate it? Don’t really know what to think about it? Leave a comment below.

Click any photo you see in this post to view it in greater detail. You can click the back button on your web browser to return here.

In the above screen capture you can see where I’ve ftp’d into my server using the free FTP client Filezilla. Any of my clients with a Coppermine Gallery receive a username and password that dumps them directly into the Albums directory of their specific Coppermine install. This saves both time and confusion when adding multiple albums to your gallery. The folders you see on the right contain photos used in the gallery on the Vanessa ‘N’ Adam website.

Prepare some images that you want to put into your gallery and place them into folders like the ones highlighted in blue above. Upload them into the Albums directory (the directory the FTP dumps you into upon login for my clients). This may take some time depending upon the size of the images you upload. I often re-size images to 1600 pixels wide before uploading, but what size you use is totally up to you.

Login to the back end of your photo gallery through the login link. Once there you may have to enable admin mode, but it’s usually on by default. Click categories to edit your album categories. Here you can see I have Wedding, 2009, and 2010. You can create any categories or subcategories you want using the Update/Create category system. For example: you might have a Photos category with Digital and Film under it. Photos would be the Parent category in this case.

Right next to the Categories tab you’ll find the Albums tab. This is where you create and edit all of the Albums under your previously created categories.

To create a new album first select a category from the drop box, then click New. Select each New album and type a name into the box above at the bottom. You can select an album and use the arrows to move it’s position in the list. When you’re satisfied with the album names click Apply Modifications.

If you use the main menu to return to the albums, or navigate to the main gallery page, you should see your new albums listed. If they are under a sub-category then you may have to navigate inside that sub-category to see them.

Click the Batch add files button on the menu. You must be in Admin mode to see this. Click one of the new folders you added to the FTP earlier.

Hit OK to select the folder.

Select the Album you created earlier from the drop box. I try to create Albums with the same name as the folders I put onto the FTP just so I don’t get confused. You’re free to name them other things if you want to take a risk in having to delete a bunch of photos and start over. For clarification, when it says Put files of “Photographer Digital/” into Photographer Digital that means put the photos from the album on the FTP into the Album Photographer Digital on the website.

Click Insert selected files to start the process. If you have hidden files and folders visible on a Windows system you may have inadvertently uploaded Thumbs.db. There’s no need to worry about unchecking it, as it’s not a photo and will not be processed by the batch processor.

You should get a screen that looks similar to this one. As files are successfully added into your new album it will say OK under the Result tab.

If you’re uploading a lot of photos at once like I am your browser might time out a few times before finishing the task. If you no longer see waiting for ‘website address’ at the bottom of your browser window, or all of the files say click for details or to reload, OK, or PB, you may need to refresh the page. You’ll want to refresh the page and wait for all of the images to process. If you refresh and the page says PB next to every image then you’ve finished uploading everything successfully. For anyone reading this that isn’t my client you have to refresh many many times. Part of my setup is a mod that allows auto-refresh of the batch add process, so clients have to do less work to get photos up.

Click Album properties at the bottom of the page to edit information about your new album.

Here you can add a title, change the category, add a description, and change the thumbnail if you want a specific photo to show from the parent category. Now save what you’ve entered and click Edit files at the top.

This is where you can enter a title and description for each image in your Album. You can even change the album the photo is in if you change your mind. Keep in mind the description shouldn’t be too long, as it is shown when people open the album up. Click save at the bottom and go back to the Home page of your gallery to see your new photos.

Click on your album title to view the album (mine is Photographer Digital).

Opening the album up you can see thumbnails for your images as well as the title and description information you entered. Click on a photo with information.

The title and description are also below the enlarged photo. Guests can click the image itself to see a super sized version (again this is where sizing it down a bit might help, as they’ll be seeing the full sized image with watermark). Your image may or may not be watermarked. I install a mod onto all of my gallery installs that includes automatic watermarking on intermediate and full sized images.

I guess that wraps it up. Post any questions you might have.

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