Virtual Backgrounds
  • School
  • Portraiture
  • Event/Photo Booth
  • Green Screen
September  2015

A DAY AT THE BEACH
BY
MARK BARNETT

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Virtual Backgrounds enables you to shoot a beach picture right in the studio, without actually going to the beach.  You can create images like this 24/7 in a bedroom or basement or garage.  

SPY ON YOUR COMPETITION

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Is there a photographer in your area who seems to be doing better than everyone else?  If so, do you know why they are doing better? 

Find out what they are doing that you are not.  Spy on them.  It's not hard to do.  Just have to make the effort and be objective.  And remember, don't just automatically believe what other photographers tell you about their success.
A whole lot of stretching of the truth takes place.

Businesses do have secrets that they prefer to not share with their competitors.  Find out all you can about their secrets and them determine whether or not it makes sense to integrate their ideas into your business.


CINDY
BARCLAY'S
NEW KENTUCKY STUDIO ALSO SERVES AS A VB DEMONSTRATION CENTER

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Most photographers have heard about projected virtual backgrounds but many do not really know what makes this concept so important.  Now, if you live in the East, you have an opportunity to visit with Cindy Barclay at her new studio to see and try for yourself her projected background system...and see for yourself the work she is able to produce.

A great many photographers cannot believe what a phenomenal powerful tool virtual backgrounds actually is.  It is one of the best kept secrets in the business.  Now you can check it out for yourself at Cindy Barclay's place. 

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CINDY BARCLAY CREATIONS STUDIO

WANT TO CHANGE YOUR LIFE...
DISCOVER HOW

Step into a new world of ultimate creativity and adventure.  Discover what having projected virtual backgrounds can do for you.  Discover the Scene Machine. 

CLICK THE ARROW FOR A FAST PACED TWO MINUTE VIDEO THAT REALLY CAN CHANGE YOUR LIFE. 
TAKE A CHANCE.  INVEST JUST 2 MINUTES


 IMAGINE THE POSSIBILITIES

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The Scene Machine
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Now is your chance to get into Virtual Backgrounds for much less.  A complete system with refurbished background projector and background screen and 75 backgrounds to start
with for this
 
AMAZINGLY LOW
 WAREHOUSE SPECIAL
. 

Be Clearly Different,
Grow Your Sales,
Enhance Your Creativity,
Say Goodbye To
Green Screen Issues


 NEW LEASING PROGRAM...
ZERO DOWN

NO PAYMENTS FOR THREE MONTHS

Imagine being able to purchase a complete virtual background system for zero dollars down and a full three months before payments start giving the photographer plenty of time to start making new money with their new equipment.  

This is the newest program at Virtual Backgrounds to help professionals acquire the equipment that will help to make them clearly different from everyone else…especially in terms of creativity and product variety without having to leave the many advantages of the studio.  

In many ways, VB enables the professional to operate like a Hollywood studio…with phenomenal special effects all under the photographers
direct control.


VB also has their regular financing program…pay 50% down and 12 equal monthly payments with ZERO interest.

 Talk to a VB consultant for further information.
 

GET STARTED IN VIDEO PRODUCTION

Professional photographers have an opportunity to get started in producing videos for a wide variety of applications.  People don't want to read but they will watch videos.  But most people don't know how to make a video.  This is an exciting new opportunity for photographers.  Instead of fighting for diminishing portrait business the opportunities in making videos for the web, for pod casts, for operating instructions and so much more are unlimited.  And, the new digital virtual projected background system produces great results with both projected still AND moving backgrounds.  Call your virtual backgrounds consultant for more information.

A PICTURE IS WORTH
1000 WORDS

CLICK ON THE ARROW TO VIEW THE VIDEO

WHAT BUC-EE'S 
CAN TEACH EVERY PHOTOGRAPHER


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Every professional photographer can learn some important fundamentals from Buc-ee's to save and grow their business.  In fact most businesses can learn a basic fact from Buc-ee’s owner Arch "Beaver" Aplin.  BE CLEARLY DIFFERENT FROM ALL OTHERS.

Beaver opened a little convenience store In Lake Jackson Texas but discovered that he has tens of thousands of competitors…it seems like competition is almost on ever corner in every town in the United States.  Beaver wanted to be clearly different and came to realize that convenience stores had lousy often dirty toilets.  So he decided to build his empire around having the nicest cleanest toilets in America along with carrying a variety of unique products not found elsewhere. 

Today, Beaver has a whole chain of stores across Texas.  His largest location is just 12 miles from Virtual Backgrounds.  It has 68,000 square feet, 84 super clean toilets, 120 gas pumps, 31 cash registers, and 80 fountain drink dispensers.  Last year Bucee's was recognized as having the best restrooms in America!  

Beaver started a toilet revolution that is spreading across the country but he continues to lead, not only in toilets but also in all the unique products he carries, his customer service and his unique advertising.

Today’s severely challenged professional photographers who are all so nearly alike and competing for the business with lower and lower prices need to learn a big important lesson from Bucee’s.  CONCENTRATE ON BEING CLEARLY DIFFERENT,  PRODUCE UNIQUE PRODUCTS, PROVIDE A UNIQUE TOTAL EXPERIENCE, EMPHASIZE CUSTOMER SERVICE AND YOU WILL REAP THE BENEFITS.

Today nearly every photographer works on location taking what might be termed glorified snapshots, not that different from what amateurs can do, and as a result, very few are making serious money.  Instead of being just like everyone else, concentrate on being clearly special and unique.  Have a studio, even if it is in your unused bedroom or garage.  Have and use advanced technology to produce really different attention getting images others cannot do.  Give your customers a unique total experience, provide over the top customer service.

The use of virtual projected backgrounds is a fundamental tool, like Bucee’s beautiful toilets, that can play a critical role.  If you can’t afford the latest and greatest system, invest in a refurbished system that gets you operational and then produce the most creative and unique customized products you can for your clients.  Brag about how the special technology you use is clearly different.  


Learn as much as you can about Buc-ee’s and apply what you learn to your business.  Visit a Buc-ee’s in Texas or via the internet.  Buc-ee’s can change your life!
Google Buc-ee's for tons of information.



  LOST PHOTO OPPORTUNITIES
ARE LOST FOREVER
NO RECOVERY

If you have a building to rent and if for whatever reason you don't rent it, the money lost is never recoverable.  It is gone forever.

Much the same is true for professional photography.  If you do not take advantage of photographic opportunities that could yield big profits, they are gone forever.  If no one else gets the business, then no one gets it.  It's vapor. It's a total loss.

Whereas many of the old styles of photography and marketing no longer work, that does not mean that nothing works.

We sadly watch studio after studio, big medium and small closing up but does this have to happen or were there alternatives?  We all tend to get trapped inside a box and find it hard to see that there are solutions.  Today, amateurs can take dam good photographs but there are things they just absolutely cannot do.  For example, football players of all ages love what they do.  Can you come up with a style of photography that cannot be done by anyone unless they have a background system, whether it is green screen or even better, the advantages of a projected virtual background system?
Imagine a high quality portrait, properly lit, and properly posed, with a football player in uniform, with his OWN stadium as a background?  The stadium can even be filled with people in the stands making it look somehow as though the game was stopped so the professional photographer could get quality portraits of each player.  That will never happen for real but the true professional photographer can MAKE it happen; a whole variety of poses and backgrounds can be created in just a few minutes right in the professional studio.


Even if your local schools have a professional photographer under contract, the professional seldom does anything special for these groups.  It's open season on such unique specialty images… usually without competition.  

The same could be true for the cheerleaders…for members of the band…for members of the marching drill unit.  In many schools, the photographer could be photographing 100 or 200 individuals or more with handsome average sales.  Think of every sport…every group, and come up with a theme background that enables you, the photographer, to create unique images no one else can do.  They will sell.  But if no one does it, the business is lost.


There is a whole lot of business out there that just isn't being cultivated by anyone...go get it!

Using the football players own football field as a background has a special meaning to them and therefore enhances sales.

  THAT'S NOT MY STYLE OF PHOTOGRAPHY

Just like Canon makes a camera…to be used or misused by the user, VB makes the background system…to be used or misused by the user.  The fact is, the VB system works great but every user is different.  Some do shoddy work while some do great work using the exact same tool.  And every photographer who views the results has their own opinion.

The fact is, virtual backgrounds is a phenomenal tool that has many advantages over green screen and over working on location where every amateur also shoots..  But like a camera, the results depend on each individual photographer who uses it.  When you view sample images, ask yourself…did the system effectively produce a background?  If the answer is yes, then whether or not you like the specific image doesn't really matter because in your hands, you can use the technology to produce the images YOU want to produce.  

The basis for virtual backgrounds is simply this.  Every photograph you ever saw had a background…even if the background is solid black or plain white…it is a background. Virtual backgrounds enables the photographer to have infinite control over the background and then that photographer must stage the total final image…the subject, the pose, the clothing, the lighting, and the specific backgrounds that make it all work together.  VB is the creative photographers dream product that helps them produce results no one else can do.

HERE ARE 3 OF THE MANY BACKGROUNDS THAT ARE INCLUDED IN THE DIGITAL STARTER SET DVD OF COURSE YOU CAN TAKE YOUR OWN OF YOUR FAVORITE SPOTS.

ARE PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHERS
GOING EXTINCT?
MANY ALREADY HAVE!

The Perfect Storm has radically changed the world of professional photography…opening much of it up to anyone including the "do it yourselfers" who are perfectly capable to taking hundreds if not thousands of candid shots of a subject at various locations and with various casual poses.  Take enough shots and some are bound to be good enough.  And now, with the extension poles that are available for cell phone cameras, the subject can do even better selfies!   So, with that said, are professionals going extinct?

If true professionals follow the lead of today's consumer and take similar, maybe better, but nevertheless similar candid shots of their subjects here and there on location, how can they expect to be charging the prices they need to survive and get the business they need?  The answer is simple…most can't do it.  They are trying to follow a business model that will not work.

There is only one potential solution and that is to guide their clients to want a wide ranging style of photography that includes images that can only be done by the trained professional working in a studio environment and perhaps also working on location.  Think about it.  If the professional really doesn't offer much of anything the public cannot do on their own…and have fun doing it themselves…along with saving money…what is the reason for the professional to exist?  There isn't any reason to exist.
IT IS OVER!  

There is still one fundamental fact that can be used by the professional to gather the business.. People generally want the best looking images of themselves.  If they feel they can do it on their own, we're extinct.  But if we can convince them that we can offer them a better value…a wider and more creative variety of images than they could even begin to do on their own, then we have something to offer that they cannot do on their own.

But, we cannot just say, "Come to me…I will make you look better:.  That doesn't work very well. What works is to educate your potential customers to recognize that a true trained and talented professional with the proper equipment can indeed offer the public a decidedly better product that is worth investing in.  Of course this means going the extra mile whether one is working on location and/or in a studio.  It means bringing extra lighting, extra reflectors, props, and complementary backgrounds and using ageless defined posing techniques that enhance the ultimate look of the person but still not look stiffly posed..

Another solution to keep from going extinct is to move into specialty photography.  Most sports teams don't do their own photography because it gets complicated…but they are trying.  Most schools don't have some parent or general amateur do their school pictures but some are trying. Fantasy photography of children is a specialty that is still pretty exclusive to the professional because it requires a studio setting, studio lighting, costumes, creative posing, and fantasy backgrounds and props.   Another specialty is to follow the footsteps of Richard Sturdevant's highly manipulated composite images that are way beyond anything any amateur and even most professionals can do. But they are dramatic and salable.

You can read about the Perfect Storm that has overtaken professional photography in a little book written by Henry Oles more than 10 years ago…just as the storm was brewing.  Not only was the storm predicted but also there were many suggestions on  how to effectively deal with the storm which most photographers have not followed.  CLICK TO DOWNLOAD THE PERFECT STORM BOOK.     What was said then continues to be true today…the storm has come, it will never go away, and the only way to deal with it is to enhance your products to rise clearly above what the public and even many competing professionals cannot do.  Otherwise, professional photography of people will become a thing of the past.

This won't be easy.  It will indeed require educating the public that there is a difference between what the true professional can do compared with the do it yourselfers or the snap shot professionals.  It means educating the public about the meaning of certification and photography degrees.  It means showing the public what a true professional can do.  It means investing in equipment like virtual backgrounds to extend your potential and impress the public.  The storm has done a lot of damage but some will climb above and reap the benefits.


WHAT IS VIRTUAL BACKGROUNDS?

Virtual backgrounds, also sometimes called front projected backgrounds, is a unique process that enables the professional photographer to create an unlimited variety of creative complementary backgrounds for their clients.  It is a tool that was created for Hollywood.  It involves projecting an image with a special projector on to an ultra reflective screen positioned behind a subject.  The screen is more than 1,000 times more reflective than a normal white screen.  The background image is projected on both the subject and the screen but only what is projected on to the screen shows up on the final image.  It is a "live" process.  Unlike green screen, there is no boring time consuming post processing.  In fact the front projection process has many distinct advantages over green screen. Green screen is cheap to get in to (at least at the lower end) but not nearly as effective as projected backgrounds.

In 2014, the Virtual Backgrounds company introduced the first fully digital projector which not only made it more simple than ever to gather and use backgrounds for portraits but it also opened the door for photographers to get into video production with still and even moving backgrounds.  This is a whole new opportunity for a new profit center for professional photographers.

The virtual backgrounds process is as much a marketing tool as it is a creative photographic tool because it is something the photographer can easily market…a tool enabling them to create all kinds of unique customized images The virtual backgrounds process helps the photographer attract business and then because of the variety that can be produced, sales can go considerably higher.

Virtual Backgrounds of San Marcos, Texas is the only manufacturer of the projected background equipment.  The company was started by Henry Oles who purchased one of the early basic systems and was immediately thoroughly impressed with the results they achieved.  Many professionals often do not appreciate the power of the background to help set the direction of a portrait nor do they realize how important backgrounds can be in adding creative variety to a sitting…especially if the backgrounds can be personalized to the subject.  Generally, the more personalized the better.

Today the virtual backgrounds process is more important than ever to the professional because it is the only significant tool that the professional can have that the amateurs and lower level professionals do not have.  It is a clear distinguishing separator that can reinvigorate the professional.  Many owners report that VB is the tool that is clearly responsible for their success.



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101 Uhland Road #200
San Marcos, TX 78666
Phone (512) 805-4844
Email Address: info@virtualbackgrounds.net
Hours:
Tuesday - Thursday 8:00 - 5:00
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