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Selling Yourself as a Professional Photographer, Part 1
Being a family/wedding/portrait photographer is about much, much more than buying a fancy schmancy camera and learning the exposure triangle. Let’s face it – in this economy, people are talking and walking with their wallets – what are you doing to make yourself stand out from the crowd? What kind of photography experience are you creating for your clients – current and potential – and how are you guiding your clients through that experience? From the time your client stumbles on your website to the time they receive their portraits, their entire photographic experience is in your hands. For the most part, you’re their first introduction to custom photography.
This bears repeating.
You are their first introduction into custom photography. They don’t know what your process is like or what to expect. For many, their only foray into professional photography has been either at their wedding or sitting in front of a Sears backdrop. Your responsibility becomes to manage their experience. Here’s how to do it.
BEFORE THE SHOOT
- Get a website. This doesn’t have to be the flashiest piece of work, but think of the message you send when you have a site that ends in blogspot.com versus your own personalized domain. You don’t need flashy music-playin’ website, but if that’s what you want, make sure that your user’s web experience is coordinated from the first click. Make sure all of your links work and are readable, your colors are easy on the eyes and match from logo to background to font color. If spelling and grammar are challenges for you, have someone else who is good at it take a look at your site before you advertise your typos to the world.
- BLOG! Be appropriately personal – if you’re a parent, of course you’re going to want to share about your kid(s) – but maybe skip the excruciatingly disgusting potty training stories. Talk about your love of photography, your mission, and what a photo session with you is like. Blog well and blog often!
- Expectations. Think about what your ideal photo shoot would be – from time of first contact on – and write it down. What do you want your clients to understand about you? Go over it with your clients as a part of your contract and verbally review it with them. It’s really important. Things to consider:
- What will you or won’t you do? Are you a black & white only photographer? Only shoot pets, newborns, horses, stock footage? Make this clear.
- Your fees and prices. Finalize your prices (Jodie Otte wrote a wonderful article: pricing your photography, and if you’re really stuck, consider the Easy As Pie guide to help you put together collections and pricing that make good sense). Be ready to defend your prices in a professional way.
- Copyright – be painstakingly specific but professional. Make it abundantly clear – verbally and in writing – why it’s not cool to print your images you’ve published without permission and without a limited print release. Don’t ever “give away” copyright – but understand that your clients will want to share those images online. Address this now, before you have to hunt down clients later. Looking for something to base yours off of? Feel free to use mine.
- List, list, list. The day before the shoot, make a list and check it twice. Make sure your lenses are cleaned, your batteries are charged, your backup camera (don’t have one? get one!) and its batteries are charged, and your CF cards are ready to go (formatted and blank so you can pop ‘em out and run). If you bring portable studio stuff with you, pack your car with a (you guessed it) list or even the night before.
- This probably goes without saying – but be on time. “To be early is to be on time, to be on time is to be late.” Anticipate traffic. Make sure you have contact numbers stored in your cell or written down so you can call and check in if needed. Make sure you have the directions memorized or written down.
AT THE SHOOT
Once you’re at the shoot, take charge. Your clients will look to you for direction and guidance – even if they are super excited and have tons of ideas. Some tips to make the actual shoot go well from start to finish:
- Take five minutes at the start of the session to build rapport with your clients, if you can’t meet them ahead of time. If you’re shooting younger kids, use some time at the beginning before you even pull your camera out to introduce yourself just to the kids.
- If you’re worried about posing ideas, bring some along with you! Write them down on an index card and keep it in your pocket – pull them out if you’re stuck.
- Take charge! Find the light and don’t be afraid to move your clients around to make sure you’ve got the right light at the right angle.
- Give them a job. Tell excited parents what you want them to do while you shoot. Remind the parents ahead of time that the best thing to do is let you get cozy with their kids so you can work your magic, and tell them that when you need their help, you’ll signal them to come over. I always tell parents of toddlers if I need them to stand RIGHT behind my left ear so I have a way to get good eye contact with the kiddo.
- Exude confidence. Easier said than done, right? Just remember, the client hired YOU to take their family portraits. If something’s not working quite right (lighting is off, composition is weird), finish the shot and then move on positively. “Great! Let’s try this now.”
- Know when to pack it in. Don’t be afraid to take breaks for babies to nurse, hands or noses to be wiped – and don’t be afraid to say, “I think we’re done now!”
- At the end of the session, tell the parents what the next steps are – verbally – and then follow up with email.
We’ll talk more about what happens after the session – and beyond the session in general – tomorrow. Stay tuned for Part 2!
Casey Yu is a wedding and lifestyle portrait photographer in Tallahassee, Florida, where she is also a PhD student in Information Studies (i.e., Professional Geek) at Florida State University. She lives with her husband, Josh (another PhD student), and two kids, Matthew and Lindsey – the former only makes silly faces when she pulls her camera out; the latter automatically says cheese. Not entirely sure how that happened. Visit her photography site, her personal site, her Facebook page, or her twitter feed.
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Great post!!! Thank you for sharing!
Thanks for sharing! Great information.
Even for seasoned pro’s this article has some great tips. Thanks for taking the time for writing it.Scott Walter, Scott Walter Photographywww.scotttakesphotos.com
Very much looking forward to Part 2!Thanks for sharing 😀
Great article!
Awesome information!!!!! Thanks so much for the detailed list you made!!!!
Wonderful post! Looking forward to the second installment! Thanks for sharing! 🙂
What a great post!
Great article!
Great job Casey! Love how organized it all is!
Really useful article, thank you! All great tips 🙂
Great information, thanks for sharing!
Great article, Casey! Can’t wait to see the second installment!
Wonderful article! It’s like an entire checklist for how to manage a shoot. Invaluable advice. xoxo
Amazing information
Amazing article!!!! So many great tips and lots of useful advice!
Extremely well-written and informative, Casey! Thank you!
Awesome post Casey, very informative, captivating and helpful–thank you:)
Great article Casey! Such great advice….i usually forget a few of these and this reminded me!
THANK YOU!!! A very well written and informative article. I am bookmarking this!
Casey!!!!! This was an awesome post! I can tell you put a lot of thought into it and I can’t wait for your second one. Mwah!!!
Fabulous information. Definitely looking forward to tomorrow’s post.
fantastic, Casey!!!
Awesome post for new photographers!
Love this — it’s incredibly helpful. thank you, Casey!
Great tips. Lots of wonderful information here!
Love this! All good things to remember. And I’ve been meaning to write up copyright/sharing info for my site — your example was excellent!
Great post! Thanks for sharing. Looking forward to part 2.
Awesome article
Great advice here! Thanks Casey.
Excellent post! Your site keeps going from strength to strength.
Great post! One of my pet hates is a flash enabled site that automatically plays cheesey music!! Arrrhhhh!!
Hello from the Black Hills of South Dakota, this is a wonderful article and copyright example, thank you.Steve Reffey
I love reading all the blogs… this was really good read!