Last Wednesday we had a conversation with beautiful girl Valeriya Maslova. She is having an exhibition in the upcoming days, so it’s no surprise the first thing we asked was about printing. I’ll skip most of the issues connected to the lack of infrastructure in our country (one cannot simply print photo online in Ukraine). But she maid one interesting point. It is an extremely valuable advice for people starting professional career:
I got it a long time ago — and it’s my golden rule — providing printed photos. Always. The thing is — people have different displays. I mean, I have a really good calibrated display at my home, but my client may have $100 screen with inaccurate colors and contrast. And I will inevitably get into situation when I made my job pretty well, the way I like it, and the client calls me and tells something like “What a hell I just saw?”. That’s the reason I always provide prints. I’m sort of telling “That’s the way it should look like”.
Then we asked her about photo delivery. Turned out she always meets with clients personally to give them CD, photobook, etc. Most of the guys we interviewed before tend to give people Dropbox link or else.
Yeah, when I have not enough time or clients aren’t in the city… or they want to see photos right away. Usually I try to maintain personal contact. It matters.
We talked with several other girls — they all tend to meet with clients personally.
Then we asked her about post-processing outsourcing.
No, I do everything by myself. I actually kind of concerned about the idea of outsourcing retouch. There are plenty of people that call themselves photographers as soon as they get their first camera and the same thing happens in a retouch. It’s very hard to find the people you can trust.
“Well, you can review their work and approve if everything’s OK.”
Maybe if I find a really good retoucher… But you’ve got to search him/her, test somehow, you doesn’t know how much it will cost to you. Nah, it’s too hard.
It’s very common. Teamwork in photography is today’s challenge. After that we told Valeriya about the collaboration we are able to build in the Pics.io. Since it is a web-service, moreover the one that stores files in the cloud, photographer can easily find remote retoucher and share the certain part of the catalog (f.e. particular session). This will let retouchers and photographers work and communicate in the common environment and will make collaboration as easy as pie.
The next question surprised our guest a bit. “What do you like to do more: shooting or retouching? You’ve got to choose only one.”
Oh, I think… retouching. The moment I open the program is truly magical. Imagination starts working. What you can do with the photo… That… And that… And when you finish the process, it’s very satisfactory.
We would like to thank Valeriya for her time and some valuable insights. We look forward to meet again during the private beta.
You can see other photos by Valeriya Maslova on her web-site or VK-account (login required).
Interview is translated into English.
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