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Posts Tagged ‘Clients’

Mastering Family Portrait Part II: How to Deal with Clients

06 Oct

So you had your pre-shoot consultation, and you’re ready to go. You get to your location, and the family are all there on time, in happy moods, excited to shoot, and looking great. Except for that toddler who just wouldn’t go down for his nap. (Note: NEVER shoot a toddler during his naptime…EVER!!!) Or that grandfather who doesn’t want to Continue Reading

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Tips on How to Get New Photography Clients

27 Aug

Aaaaghhhh!!!! Why aren’t people knocking down my door to get me to photograph their most precious moments?!

We’ve all said this. We’ve all had those moments where we just don’t understand where the people are, or the ones that will pay us are. Or you’ve finally built a business and now it’s time to move. I get it.

MonicaDayDPSMarketing-01

I’m a military spouse. I move…a lot. I have to rebuild my business every two to four years. But I’ve done it, and so can you. You don’t have to be a military spouse to benefit from these tips. They can be applied to a new business, a new market, a new city, or a new focus of your business. I’ve implemented these and have been able to standout and be successful in the places I’ve lived.

So here are some tips on how to get new photography clients:

1. Get Involved

I’m sure you’ve heard it before, but I’m saying it anyway. Get involved. How will people know who you are if you don’t put yourself out there? Attend events, your children’s functions, community markets and festivals, and anything that’s going on in your target area. Talk about what you do.

MonicaDayDPSMarketing-02

2. Network

Networking and getting involved are close, but not quite the same thing in my book. When I network, I do so with others in the industry. This means that I seek out hair stylists, makeup artists, wardrobe stylists, designers, models, and even other photographers. These can be great sources of leads.  When I moved to Boston I hooked up with a hair stylist/makeup artist that I’ve worked with continually. I send her clients and she sends me clients. Most of the time we are working together, but I can also refer her to other photographers. This has helped her see the value in continually referring her clients to me.

Do you get your hair done? Your makeup or nails? Bring up what you do in a casual conversation with these service providers. They’ll remember…trust me.  Keep the door of communication open and use them when you can.

3. Build Your Portfolio

Portfolio building is great whether you’re brand new to photography or if you’re a seasoned veteran.  This is a great way to get people talking about what you do. It’s also a great way to find your favorite spots in the new area. I portfolio build whenever I get to a new area. I’m not shooting for free though. I will charge a very reduced price and run it as a special. Don’t give them everything for nothing but be sure to offer them a deal that can’t refuse, or won’t want to.

Whenever I’m portfolio building I have an end goal in mind. I will heavily style these shoots. I will pick out wardrobe, makeup, hair, and location. Use this time to get those key shots that will showcase your new city. Your keywording in blog posts will make much more sense when the images show the actually place you’re targeting.

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4. Blog

We photographers are always trying to figure out a way to move up the search engine rankings. Well here’s a tip. Blog.  That’s right. Blog, blog, blog. Blog about your upcoming move. Blog about your new business. Blog about your preparations. Blog about your work. Be sure to keyword your images and blog posts. Learn good SEO practices and implement them. While word-of-mouth has been one of the best ways I’ve attained new clients, my blog posts bring in quite a few too. People like to search for images, and when they see one they like, they tend to look up the photographer. You want to be that photographer.

MonicaDayDPSMarketing-04

5. Creative Projects

This goes along with portfolio building but is more focused towards shooting projects for fun. The ones that your clients might not “get”, but will get great feedback on Facebook and other social media outlets. These also help you keep your creative juices flowing while you’re building your business in a new area. I love doing “for me” project because there’s no pressure. There’s no pressure to please anyone but me.

So how does this creative project get you new clients? Well, you’re most likely working with hair stylists and makeup artists for this project. You actually put in work to find them because there’s no pressure. These new connections can refer their clients to you. You didn’t seek hair and makeup professionals? No worries. Your amazing photos will be shared on social media and increase your exposure. You’ll also be posting this entire experience on your blog. Your amazing images will catch the eye of new people.

MonicaDayDPSMarketing-05

This image was taken during a photographer shoot out. This image alone brought many new people to my page and brought exposure to more new clients.

6. Maintain Relationships

I get a lot of repeat business from clients from other areas. That’s right. I get repeat business from clients in other cities. One of the most lucrative things I do is the traveling session. I will host boudoir marathons, mini-sessions, etc., in cities that have a substantial group of clients. That way I can capitalize off of all the work I’ve done, and maintain these people as my lifelong clients. Not all of your clients will wait for you, but many will. It’s important to keep those relationships positive. This world is small and your past clients can be your biggest cheerleaders.

I have photographed this family 3 times. They are even coming to visit me in my new location for another family shoot.

I have photographed this family 3 times. They are even coming to visit me in my new location for another family shoot.

Try this tips out and stay in front of your target market. Remember, people won’t know you’re around unless you put yourself out there.

You can also read these dPS articles for more tips:

  • How to Get More Referrals Than You Can Handle
  • 36 of the Best Online Tools to Boost Your Photography Business
  • The Ultimate Guide to Going Pro as a Photographer

The post Tips on How to Get New Photography Clients by Monica Day appeared first on Digital Photography School.


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5 Steps to Building Relationships to Help You Get More Photography Clients

01 Apr

How to Build Relationships to Get More Photography Clients

So you’re trying to make a go of it as a freelance photographer. Maybe you are just looking for a few paid gigs on the side, or perhaps you really want to go pro. But the problem is actual paying gigs are still few and far between, even though you’ve tried everything.

Shooting every day. Doing free portrait sessions for family or friends. Spent hours and hours editing photos in Photoshop or organizing images in Lightroom.

So what should you do? Well, I have some good news – it may not be your photography. In fact, you may be an excellent photographer. But here’s the rub: being a successful freelance photographer takes more than artistic skills and technical knowledge. It takes something most photographers would rather not acknowledge is important.

Hang tight, because what I’m about to say may shock you.

By thinkpanama

Successful Photographers Know the Value of Relationships

Really successful photographers are good at developing relationships. That’s right, I said it. You need to focus on relationships. (I realize this is a photography blog so you can burn me for witchcraft now.)

You need to build the right relationships with key individuals who can help you to achieve your freelance dreams.

Now, this may not sit well with you, especially if you consider yourself a little shy. But the good news is you don’t need to be the life of the party to be good at developing key relationship to support your freelance work.

You just need to have some discipline and focus your energies in the right direction.

How Cultivating Relationships Can Support Your Freelance Photography Career

There are many ways in which cultivating and maintaining key relationships can help your freelance career. For example:

  • Clients like to hire service professionals they already know, like and trust.
  • According to public opinion surveys, 45 percent of people find work through other people. Thus, keeping in touch with a wide network is crucially important for landing gigs.
  • By keeping in touch with editors, publishers and clients, you’ll be top of mind when new gigs come up.
  • You may find out about photography gigs and projects that are not advertised.

Now, let’s turn to how you can be proactive about identifying the people who you want to establish relationships with and then go about nurturing relationships with them.

By Zuhair A. Al-Traifi

How to Establish and Nurture Relationships to Grow Your Freelance Photography Career

Below, I have laid out five specific steps you can take to start establishing, and building relationships that will help your freelance photography career.

1. Create a list of key relationships

By Eric Heupel

One of the biggest mistakes I see aspiring freelance photographers make, is they fail to think in advance about the types of people they need to be meeting and getting to know better. In other words, they let their relationships evolve naturally and organically. That works well for friendships, but it’s a poor strategy for if you want to make a living using your photography skills.

A much better approach is to sit down and proactively make up a list of at least 50 people who you want to develop a deeper relationship with over the next 12 months. I call this list your “Conversations List” because that’s really all you’re aiming to do – to have an ongoing conversation with people who matter.

Who do you include on this list? Well, picture yourself five years from now as a famous and in-demand photographer. Who is in your ideal circle of contacts? Who are the photographers, editors, agents, publishers or bloggers who you’d like to count as friends and peers five years from now?

Whoever you picture being in this group, write them down. These are the people who you are going to focus on getting to know better.

2. Choose your relationship-building tools

By zzpza

Once you’ve identified who you want to focus on getting to know, the second step is to decide on what tools you plan to use to develop and nurture relationships. These tools may include:

  • Lunches and coffee meetings. One of the best sources of getting new gigs is the simplest. Invite a person off the list you created in Step 1 to lunch or coffee. Get to know one another. Repeat.
  • Interviews. I am a huge fan of using interviews to develop relationships. For example, dPS’s own managing editor Darlene Hildebrandt and I got to know one another better when I interviewed her for my podcast and when she interviewed me on photography and the law. You also generate useful content that can lead to new clients finding you.
  • Business meetings. There may be local business community meetings (such as Chamber of Commerce meetings) that present a good opportunity for you to meet and connect with others.
  • Industry Conferences. You should identify conferences where you can meet and get to know people from the list you created in Step 1.

Next, let’s talk about your mentality as you do begin to reach out to others.

3. Give to others long before you ask for anything

By Brandon Warren

Steps 1 and 2 are critical, but may not be as important as Step number 3, which is to provide value to others before asking for anything for yourself.

Dr. Ivan Misner, the founder of BNI (Business Network International) says you need to make deposits into the relationship bank before you can make withdrawals. In other words, you need to help others before you can ask for help for yourself.

Too often, people try to make withdrawals before they’ve made any deposits. They ask before they give. That’s a recipe for failure. What you “give” of value doesn’t need to be big. It can be simple suggestions or recommendations of a restaurant to try or a new TV show.

For example, let’s say you manage to get to know an editor at a publication or website which just purchased some of your photos. You want to sell them more photos in the future.

You should try hard to learn as much about that editor as you can, so you can be as helpful to him or her as possible. In other words, be human and be useful, helpful and giving. As a result, the editor will have a positive feelings for you because you were so giving, and they will be more likely to want to work with you again.

4. Create an easy follow-up system

By slackorama

So far, we’ve identified who you are going to connect with, talked about the tools you are going to use to connect with them, and discussed a philosophy of giving value first.

Now, the challenge is to keep it up over time. If you want your connections to think of you first when a freelance gig comes up, then you need to always be “top of mind” with that connection. And to be “top of mind,” you need to have a good system for following up.

What does that entail? A follow-up system is simply a dedicated means for checking in with people in your network.

You can create a manual follow up system, or put reminders on your calendar, but neither works well. I suggest using a simple CRM (customer relation management) system such as Insightly or SugarCRM. I use a system called Contactually. Whatever system you use, following up is an excellent way to manage your relationships, particularly with people you do not see often.

5. Revisit and revise your conversation lists annually

Around once a year, revisit your Conversation Lists and determine who you should cut out and who you should add. You will naturally meet new people over time. You may decide that certain people on your list are not a good fit for you. And you may even decide to take your photography career in a different direction. These are all perfectly fine.

By revisiting and updating your lists annually, you can make sure you are developing and nurturing the right relationships, proactively, to support your photography career.

Now get out there and start meeting people

Now it’s time to put these ideas to work. The last thing I want you to do after reading this far is to give up now without acting on what you’ve learned.

So sit down and write out your list of the 50 people who you want to get to know better. Then use your chosen relationship-building tools to start developing relationships with them. And have some fun.

How do you nurture relationships to support your freelance photography career? Share your tips in the comments!

The post 5 Steps to Building Relationships to Help You Get More Photography Clients by John Corcoran appeared first on Digital Photography School.


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7 Simple Ways a Blog Can Get You More Photography Clients

04 Aug

By Ramsay Taplin

Are you a photographer who dreams of taking your photography business to the next level?

Well, one of the things that creative people (like artists, writers and, yes, photographers) forget is that you grow a business by marketing it – not necessarily by just being good at what you do. There are plenty of good photographers out there.

So what’s the problem?

Not all photography businesses have a huge budget to spend on marketing.

And that’s where a blog comes into it.

In this post I’m going to talk about how you can start a blog (or use an existing one) to get you more clients for your photography business. I don’t run a photography blog but I’ve got a bit of experience with helping small businesses grow using content marketing.

I’ll use a few examples from photographers I know as well as taking some sweet ideas from similar small businesses doing the same thing.

Not all blogs/websites are created equal

For the purposes of this article I thought it would be important to make a few distinctions.

And let’s start by highlighting the fact that a regular “brochure” website is not the same as a blog. Not by a long way.

What’s the difference between a blog and a website?
So what’s the difference? Well, a website is something that generally has static content – pages like About Us, Services, Gallery, Contact and so on. A blog is something that you update regularly with new content. The newest posts usually appear at the top. This comes with a huge set of advantages – some you might never have considered.

Can the two work together?
Absolutely. In fact, that is the ideal situation. The best way to set your photography website up is to make sure it has a blog integrated seamlessly with the rest of the website. Having a blog on a separate domain name is good but not nearly as good as building one under your main brand name. I’ll explain why later.

Where do I get started?
If you don’t have a blog (or a website) and want to learn more I’ve done a video and a full walkthrough on blog hosting that helps you understand how it all works together and how to get started the right way the first time around. You can also check out this Wiki later on for some hosting alternatives.

So how can a blog bring you more photography clients?

Now that we’ve got some of the preliminary stuff out of the way let’s jump into the meat and potatoes of the post.

1. A blog helps to build trust
The first thing to note about a blog is that it helps you build a lot of trust with your potential customers and clients. This is an extremely important part of growing a business these days because a huge amount of your customers will research you before they engage your services. In fact, some people say that one in three people look at the website before engaging the business.

Part of this means having a well designed website that showcases your work and part of it means showing your personality. This is especially important for things like wedding photography where your client will want to have a good relationship with you as it is such an important day for them.

LisaK

A few cool shots from Lisa K’s blog.

Tasmanian photographer Lisa K does this extremely well by having her blog as the homepage of her photography website. The articles she posts are about her daily life and family but always showcase some stunning photographs that would, no doubt, help to create an initial “buzz” and trust with a potential client.

2. A blog helps to increase your reach
The most important part of marketing a business is reach – you need to get in front of new people as often as possible.

This can be quite a difficult concept to understand because we are usually told that loyalty and repeat customers is the most important. Well, if you have five loyal clients who bring you the majority of your business but one drops off then you’re in trouble. A better scenario is to reach new people regularly and then convert them into loyal customers by providing a quality service. Reach is always more important than loyalty for growth.

So how does a blog help to increase your reach?

Well, it gives people something to share and a platform for you to promote all the cool intricacies of your business. People are very unlikely to share around just a portfolio site (unless it’s incredible!) but if you publish a quirky or unique blog post that’s different to your regular material you might find it makes the rounds on Pinterest or Twitter and brings you some new clients.

For example, let’s say you have some hilarious wedding photos of brides trashing their dresses. They’d look look good in a portfolio but imagine the difference it would make if you combined them into one blog post called 10 Hilarious Photos of Brides Ruining their Expensive Dresses. Much more entertaining and shareable.

3. A blog can get you more exposure locally
Google is now giving a lot of weight to local listings. What this means is that if someone types in “photographer” into a Google search they are going to get result from their local area. Here’s an example:

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As you can see, in South Australia I get a Wikipedia result and then the next few are all local South Australian photographers.

Now, a blog can help you take this to the next level in a few ways. The main one is that every blog post you publish will increase your visibility for local terms. For example, if you do a blog post called 25 Beautiful Landscape Photos from Around Sydney you are more likely to rank for terms relating to those photographs to people in Sydney.

Or, you might do a blog post about every photo shoot that you do with local businesses. When people see those photos on those businesses websites or marketing materials and then look it up on Google you’re more likely to appear. So you can piggyback off the success of your client and your quality photos to get more business.

4. A blog gives your website multiple new points of entry
This point strongly relates to the previous one but is worth mentioning on it’s own.

Every time you publish a blog post it (if set up correctly) publishes with it’s own unique web address called a permalink. For example, let’s say you do a post called 5 Interesting Photos from New York that post’s permalink would be something like www.yourwebsite.com/5-interesting-photos-from-new-york/

The great thing about this is that Google will index each post like this in the search results separately depending on what people search for, and how authoritative your website is. This is quite a complicated field we’re getting into now so if you’re interested you can read this SEO for blogs article or this list of SEO tips from Darren.

The main point, however, is that for every blog post you publish you’re creating a new set of keywords through which people can enter your blog.

A great real-world example is my mate Tim from SA TECHFLOOR who told me the other night that since he started blogging and posting photos of his flooring jobs he’s getting more and more phone calls every day. As each one has a different set of keywords (carpet, concrete, bamboo, timber, etc.) he’s got a lot of entry points he didn’t previously.

5. A blog can help your website rank higher
Now, one of the cool things about the previous few points is that if you do them all within your own website you can cause that website to rank higher on Google for important terms like “photographer in [your city]“.

Google likes to show results that are both fresh and of the highest quality. So if you have a small five page website with not much changing, Google might not think it’s all that useful.

If, on the other hand, your website has an active blog with lots of new posts, people sharing it on social media and so on, Google is likely to think it’s more useful for their customers (people searching) and thus rank it higher.

Organic ctr by search position 1 20 png

A graph of the click through rate of the top search results thanks to Search Engine Watch.

As you can see in the image above, this can lead to an immediate increase in business because the first result in Google gets over 35% of the traffic for that page. Worse still, the first page gets over 95% of clicks so if you aren’t in the first few results you’re getting overlooked.

6. A blog can help you form new collaborations
A good online friend of mine, Jamie Swanson, runs two photography blogs. One of them is embedded in her main business website and acts as a promoter of her main services. Her second blog, however, is called The Modern Tog and it’s all about running a photography business.

I wanted to mention her second site because it is a great example of someone who has set up something slightly out of the box and created a lot of new connections because of it.

For example, Jamie contacted me through Blog Tyrant about a year ago and I put her in touch with the content editor at ProBlogger. This lead to her writing a hugely successful post about Pinterest that, in many ways, has lifted her reputation online as someone who knows about photography and the marketing side of photography.

It wouldn’t have happened without the blog.

7. A blog can help reduce client friction
Client friction is what happens when they visit your site, like your stuff but for some reason don’t make contact. It could be because they don’t like your prices or it might be something a little bit more intangible like not really “feeling the vibe”.

James Field runs one of Adelaide’s best wedding photography businesses and has a great little video on his website that is a cool example of something you can do to get your clients to know you better.

Now, James’s video isn’t on a blog but it’s the perfect kind of cross-platform content that a blog is perfect for. For example, you could do a series of these types of videos showing how the wedding day pans out for your clients. These could then bring you traffic from YouTube as well as reducing client friction on your blog.

Tips for your photography blog

So now you’ve got some reasons as to why you might want to have a blog on your photography businesses website. But once you’ve got the blog what are some things you can do to make sure it succeeds?

  • Be personal
    People will love your photos (if you’re good) but they might not like you. Try to figure out who your audience is an, if possible, make sure you are personal and friendly.
  • Know your brand
    Know who you are targeting and what keyword they might be looking for on Google. This will help you craft the right content.
  • Make sure it loads fast
    People are getting less and less patient when it comes to websites. In fact, a one second delay can affect conversions by up to 7%.
  • Find a way to be different
    Don’t just publish the same stuff everyone else is. Take a leaf out of BuzzFeed’s book and use content we’ve all seen to come up with something fun, shareable and relevant.
  • Make your blog your “home base”
    In my guide to social media I talk about the fact that your blog should be your base for all your social media activities. This way, all the Tweets, Pins and Shares that you get go towards growing your blog’s traffic and rankings.

Do you run a photography blog?

I’d be interested to hear how many DPS readers have photography blogs and whether or not they’ve helped to get more customers vs just a static website. What has worked for you? Leave a comment and let us know!

Ramsay runs Blog Tyrant – a blog about trying to make a living from the couch and other internet marketing ideas. Find him on Google+ today.

Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.

Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.

7 Simple Ways a Blog Can Get You More Photography Clients


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Introducing Snapsation: Connecting Photographers And Clients

07 Jun

Every once and a while a site comes along that makes the rest of us think, “Well duh, why didn’t I think of that!?” Snapsation is the brain child of Chris Chabot, one of the founding members of the Google+ team, a developer for Google before that and a lead engineer for OpenSocial before that. It’s safe to say that Chris is an internet bad-a and that’s apparent when you look at this new website.

Screen Shot 2013-06-05 at 9.28.03 AM

 

Snapsation is pretty simple and straight forward. It exists to be a place for clients to find photographers for what they need. Simply do a search for your area (example: Fort Worth, TX) and you’ll find all the photographers in that area and their available offers. If the potential client sees an offer they’re looking for, they can click the offer to get more information about what’s included, ask the photographer a question and/or place an order. From the looks of it, no money will be collected up front until the work is done. I’m not sure how that works yet but I’m assuming once the images are ready from an event, the client will make a payment to Snapsation and then the images will be delivered.

How Do Photographers Make Money?

As far as money goes, photographers can link their checking/savings or PayPal account to Snapsation for direct payment. Whatever you charge for your services, Snapsation will add an additional 10% to the price for their cut. Seems plenty fair to me. If you charge $ 100 for a headshot, Snapsation will make the price $ 110. You decide how much YOU want to make, and Snapsation takes care of the rest.

Screen Shot 2013-06-05 at 10.27.06 AM

Changes I’d Like To See

I really don’t have any complaints right now, it’s too early to tell! The one thing I wonder about is if the website starts getting big, and tons of photographers from my area start using it, what’s going to happen to my offers? Will the eventually get lost in a sea of other offers? So far I don’t see any rhyme or reason to the ordering of the offers in a specific area. It doesn’t look alphabetical, it doesn’t seem to be sorted by price or person and it doesn’t even seem to give preference to photographers with good reviews. The site just launched and I’m sure things like this will get addressed eventually as more and more people start using it. I’d like to eventually be able to sort offers by things like price and average rating by customers.

Another update I’d like to see is the ability to update the number of items a client wants to purchase. That way photographers could offer things at an hourly rate or something like that. Not a big deal but it would be nice to have.

Finally, I’d really like the ability to tag my offers with keywords. I have two offers that revolve around teaching: A private workshop and a portfolio critique. Neither of which show up when I do a Fort Worth, TX search for the word “Lessons” or “Teaching.”

Conclusion

Snapsation is of course a brand new website. It was in BETA for a short time and officially launched on Wednesday, June 5th. The success of this website depends largely on the photographers using it, by telling others about it and helping to drive traffic to it. I didn’t receive anything for doing this review, I heard about it and set up a profile and liked what I saw. I think this could be a great resource for booking clients and am excited to see where it goes.

What are your thoughts? Have you set up a profile yet? If so, be sure to add me to your ‘Favorite People’ list by clicking the little heart icon on my profile and I’ll see you there!

Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.

Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.

Introducing Snapsation: Connecting Photographers And Clients


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Classic lines when clients want you to work for free

06 Jun

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If you’ve ever spent any time as a self-employed photographer, you’ve not doubt heard countless rationales from clients about why you should work for free, or at least lower your rate. PhotographyTalk.com posted a pitch-perfect list of five classic lines that not only ring true to those of us on staff with freelance backgrounds, but would be perfect punchline setups in an Aaron Johnson ‘What The Duck’ comic strip. Click through to see if any of them sound familiar. (via PhotographyTalk.com)

News: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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How to Help Your Clients Feel Comfortable In Front of Your Camera

09 May

Introduction

This article is an excerpt from the newly released and critically acclaimed Natural Light Couples Photography Workshop by SLR Lounge. This 8 hour workshop on DVD has been designed from the ground up to teach photographers how to create professional portraiture using just a camera, reflector and their creative eye. Master planning, posing, lighting, shooting and post producing beautiful natural light portraiture in this gold standard workshop. Learn more by clicking on any of the links above, or at the end of this article.

Article Overview

If you have ever shot portraiture, then you probably know how difficult it can be to get your subjects to be comfortable when in front of the camera. Probably one of the biggest challenges in creating a great portrait is getting your subject to emote the types of expressions that you want for your imagery. It is a challenge that every portrait photographers will face virtually on every single shoot, which is why it is such a large area of focus in our workshop.

We have found that the majority of people have a hard time in front of your camera for two primary reasons. If you can address and resolve these two issues, then you will immediately find an improvement in the emotion you are capturing within your subjects and images.

So, let’s jump in and discuss these two issues and how we can resolve them.

Reason 1. Clients Lack Basic Posing Experience

Professional actors and models are comfortable with being in front of a camera because for the most part they know how to act/pose in front of a camera. But, let’s be honest, as portrait photographers, the majority of our clients are going to be people that aren’t professional actors and models.

Instead you will generally have clients with little or no experience at all in front of a camera. Due to this lack of experience, your subjects are naturally going to be nervous because they do not know how to pose or what looks good in front of a camera.

The beginning of every shoot for our studio, Lin & Jirsa Photography, starts the exact same way. We start each portrait session by teaching our clients several simple posing techniques. We refer to our posing system as “Foundation Posing Framework” and we teach it extensively on the Natural Light Couples Photography Workshop and all the images that we will be showing here are from the workshop.

Now, when we instruct clients, we are avoiding a lot of the details and technical explanations. What we are doing, is simply giving them a foundation of what to do in general when posing. This Foundation Posing Framework creates a simple and common set of posing vocabulary making it incredibly simple to communicate poses to your subjects.

When starting the instruction, I ask my clients, “Have you ever wondered why celebrities always look good when they pose on the red carpet? It’s cause they know the posing basics! Do these things, and all your friends will wonder why you guys are so photogenic in every photo you take.”

Before teaching them the basics, I generally will take a quick photo of them. Once they have learned the basics, I take another portrait simply with the intent of showing them how big of a difference the posing tips made, and how great they look in the photo. Virtually every time my clients see that first great looking shot, they immediately and visibly relax. They now know that look great, and that they can rely on you, as the professional, for posing instruction. At this point, I remind them that I will be helping pose them throughout the shoot, so they don’t need to feel like they have to remember everything they just learned.

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Now this entire process only takes about 10 minutes. You will not only start capturing better photos and expressions from the start of your shoot, you will also find that about half way through a portrait session, your clients will start doing all the posing on their own! All you have to do is use keywords from the Foundation Posing Framework and say, “V-up and look at each other” and boom, they do it all by themselves!

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Reason 2. Your Clients Don’t Know You Yet

The second reason reason why your clients will feel awkward during the photo shoot is really common sense. It is simply because they are not comfortable with you yet. Hence, they will be more reserved with their emotions, (especially if they have just barely met you for the first time!) making it difficult to capture natural and genuine expressions.

The bottom line is that you will have to connect with your clients in a personal way, as quickly as possible, and have more than just a surface level “photographer-subject” relationship.

On the Natural Light Couples Photography Workshop, we show a lot of the interaction that I have with Ryan and Jackie. Ryan and Jackie are our actual clients, and this is my first time shooting them. So you can literally watch me build up this relationship during the shoot as I joke around and have fun with them.

Since each photographer has their own personality and shooting style, they will connect with their clients differently. I tend to joke around a lot with my clients, self-deprecate, poke fun, tell stories, etc. Anything I can to help them feel like I am their friend, not just their photographer.

Interestingly enough, I find that if I focus on the guy, making sure he is having a good time, the girl is quick to relax as well. This is because in general, we have found that guys generally are not into taking photos. Instead, the guy is going along with it essentially as a “favor” and the girl is constantly worrying about whether he is bored, having fun, acting natural, etc. So, once the guy is having a good time, the girl stops worrying about him and relaxes as well.

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When Working with Solo Subjects Repeat Everything Above

The same rules still apply when shooting a subject solo, whether it is for portraiture, editorial or fashion. Prior to the photo shoot, we talk about everything except for photography with the client. Instead, get to know your client and just have a good time. This conversation before the shoot helps to break the ice and will make your client feel comfortable during the shoot since your client will look at you as more of a friend, a real person, and less as a photographer.

Once you start the shoot, remember to still coach your subject and show them some shots taken at the very beginning of the shoot. Seeing great photos of themselves right at the start of the shoot will again help them to realize they already look great, so they can relax and have a good time.  

If they point out something that they don’t like in your initial photos, you can keep that in mind throughout the rest of the shoot and maybe show them images again here and there to make sure they are happy with the photos.

Conclusion & Learn More!

If you are interested in learning more, join us on the Natural Light Couples Photography Workshop. This 8 hour workshop on DVD teaches photographers how to create professional portraiture using just a camera, reflector and their creative eye. We cover how to:

1. Plan and prepare a moodboard with clients
2. Pose and instruct clients using the Foundation Posing Framework
3. Modify and perfect the scene’s natural lighting with a simple reflector
4. Work through 5 different scenes and locations utilizing different set props and activities
5. Compose and shoot consistent, creative imagery
6. Post produce a professional final product

Learn more by Clicking Here.

Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.

Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.

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