Archive for creative
Are you Letting Thousands of Dollars Walk Out the Door?
Posted by: | CommentsYou are if you are not selling frames in your portrait studio.
I have heard countless stories from people who have never gotten around to actually framing their portraits that they purchased from a photographer. Not only are photographers letting thousands of dollars walk out their door, think about all of the artwork just sitting around, unframed, and not hung in people’s homes.
I used to work at a studio that sent out 8×10 images in an envelope. Larger portraits were simply wrapped in paper and leaned up against the wall. It felt so cheap. Our best sales attempt was, “Do you want a frame with that?” People just took their photographs home this way, who knows how long these went unframed. Or worse yet, if the images were framed properly.
I frame at least 95% percent of my portraits that are 11×14 and larger.
I have a plan for making sales and therefore I can make sales. A last minute, “oh by the way, do you want a frame for that?” has not ever been very effective.
My plan includes a few of the following sales tips from my Photographer’s Complete Framing Guide, for fast and easy sales:
- Make sure you have great looking framed samples on the walls. Your
clients will want what they can see so hang your favorite frames up. - Point out your frame displays at key points of working with clients. Have a plan when you will plant the seeds for a sale. Mentioning your framing service more than once builds awareness.
- Suggest the frame that will look good on their final portrait. I like to pick out one or two combinations of frames and mats before my client arrives.
You can learn more about my comprehensive framing guide by clicking here. I explain my entire process step by step just as I do it at my studio everyday.
I feel it is our job as photographers to help our customers go home with a portrait ready to hang on their wall and enjoy. Who is better than you, the artist, to help your customers? Do you really want someone less skilled picking out the final presentation for your photography?
It is easy to have a small selection of frame corners to show, a few simple tools, and a sturdy surface to work on. It can also be easy to sell frames without sounding salesy if you have a process for planting the seeds for that sale. Don’t let all of those sales walk out your door.
© 2012 Barb Gordon Photo Coach
I am on Pinterest
Posted by: | CommentsI made a board on my Pinterest for all of you subscribers! What is it? Pinterest is a visual social networking format connecting people all over the world based on shared tastes and interests.
Organize and share things you love like bulletin boards. You can browse pinboards created by other people to get inspiration and ideas about all kinds of things like wedding planning, decorating, and recommended reading.
To get started you simply request an invite with your email address from Pinterest or a current user can invite you. Luckily for me, Melissa was on-line and got me started fast.
There is a free getting started guide I found at http://www.hubspot.com/how-to-use-pinterest-for-business/ Download this before you sign up, it has some great tips.
Then you can go to www.Pinterest.com to set up your account. It is easy.
At any time Barb Gordon Photo Coach subscribers can now pin your favorite images you have taken to my board. Here is the link:
http://pinterest.com/barbgordonia/barb-gordon-photo-coach-subscribers/
I am excited to see what you have been doing. Remember, the image you “pin” must already be on the web, so take a look at your blog and see what you have there. But before you pin: There is also some concern about copyright and image use agreements with Pinterest.
I for one find all the legal jargon hard to understand with use agreements. So I did not think too much about it until I found the following links articles that got me a bit concerned. You might want to be get more informed yourself so here are the links to get your research started:
http://www.businessinsider.com/pinterest-copyright-issues-lawyer-2012-2
and
and
In the article “How to use Pinterest without breaking the law” on the Wall Street Journal blog located at http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2012/03/13/dont-get-stuck-by-pinterest-lawyers-warn/?mod=wsj_share_twitter Jonathan Pink, a California-based intellectual property lawyer with Bryan Cave LLP told the Law Blog, “if you are going to play it conservative and safe, you should never pin an image on Pinterest for which you don’t own the copyright interest or for which you have not obtained a license from the copyright owner.”
If you decide to proceed, make sure you go to http://pinterest.com/about/goodies/ to download the “follow buttons” to add to your website pages.
Get ultra creative with Lensbaby
Posted by: | CommentsA selective focus lens is a great tool for the ultimate 
in creativity and impact.
I played with my Lensbaby for the first time on a little photo safari to Conrad, Iowa. I found all kinds of neat things to photograph in this little town.
I really liked the effect on the piano guts I came across. (Don’t ask me why someone threw out the middle of a piano.)
Get more information on the lens at: http://lensbaby.com/lenses.php?gclid=CJui693C1a4CFcW8KgodwRMLgA
This type of lens isn’t for every session you do, but I have seen it successfully used at weddings.
Let me know if you have shot with and liked it. Better yet, send me an image from a session!
Tulle: The Best Prop
Posted by: | CommentsTulle gives you a lot of bang for your buck. It is inexpensive, light weight, stores easily, and comes in a lot of colors. I like the texture and interest tooling gives without distracting from the subject.
You can shoot through it. You can use it under and around babies. It is great for hiding legs or supports of chairs. You can mix colors together. Oh the possibilities are indeed endless.
I have used it as a “curtain” as you see in the photograph. For this portrait, I wrapped many strands of pearl like beads around the “curtain” as a tie back detail. My background poles are holding up the background, so the tooling is clamped onto my ceiling fan chain!
The Background Painted by a Child
Posted by: | CommentsUsing a child’s own artwork for a background of their own portrait will pull at any parent’s heartstrings. This also makes this a totally custom piece while being very easy to do.
The portrait I set up was this little girl drawing and painting. Mom and Dad had her do a few art pieces ahead of time so we had a more interesting, decorated scene rather than a lot of white paper.
One of her watercolors was most interesting to me so I took a photograph of it too. I just set it flat on the floor, and shot with my same light set up so it took only a matter of seconds.
During the photo session I took other photographs without the full scene to mix it up and hopefully sell other poses. One was perfect. I dropped out the background in Photoshop and replaced it with the girl’s own artwork. The result was pretty fun!
Albums are not just for weddings
Posted by: | CommentsI am the first one to receive the Riveli Albums 2012 product catalog from American Color Imaging (www.ACILab.com )! Mark Lane, the President of ACI, sent me his newest collection of albums while we were brainstorming our upcoming FREE call for you.
This is the most complete album line ever created by a photo lab. You can see more at http://www.acilab.com/products/press/riveli-albums/
The Premier line is from Italy. I asked him if he went to Italy to search and buy albums. “No, I brought them here!” he said. He even has a special machine, the only one in the US that makes album covers.
Mark said that in Europe people have beautiful albums for much more than weddings.
I loved the cases that come with the albums I saw in the catalog. (Pictured here.)
I have been invited to visit the lab and learn more on Valentine’s Day. So I will get to see all of the albums, the machine, and the materials. I will have much more to share with you then!
Oh, and I suppose we will work on the content for the upcoming free teleseminar also.
Better Portrait Sales using Less Props
Posted by: | CommentsMany photographers do promotions that involve special props. Christmas decorations, chicks, bunnies, and lambs at Easter are popular themes. Although these themes might be eye catching and make great photographs, these same props may be hurting your sales.
When an image has only one specific use that is all you are going to get out of it.
For example, a family needs Christmas holiday portraits for their Christmas card. If your family group arrives in all red sweaters, or you have very Christmassy props, what do you think the chances are for this to become a wall portrait above the fireplace in their very neutral family room? No, it will only be purchased as a Christmas card.
What about spring specials using little chicks? You may find that the chicks are quite popular and book a lot of sessions but is this wall image possibilities? Will this client hang a very seasonal image on the wall? Yes, a few might but my advice is to take a few images with the chicks and a few images without. Show both to your client and see what happens. You may find your sales are actually better without the chicks even though the original draw was the chicks. It certainly won’t hurt to give that a try.
If it is possible to create a more neutral, timeless image you will find you will get more sales from that image.
PS – Be sure to check into your local laws, licenses, or guidelines about working with animals before you bring them into your studio. You might be surprised to find out there are restrictions and what they are.
Holiday Family Portrait Tip of the Week
Posted by: | CommentsLast week I shared about how I photograph the parents alone when I do a family group photograph. So what about photographing the children alone?
Even when I photograph just the parents, I don’t always photograph just the children. It might seem like the same good idea but sometimes it might not be.
First of all, they came for a family photograph and I am going to use all of my energy and theirs getting a great family portrait. Taking a couple of fast and easy images of two adults who probably never get their picture taken is one thing; dealing with kids is entirely different.
So whether or not I photograph the kids alone does depend a little bit on how much time we have, the age of the kids, how they are behaving, and if I have been photographing the children on other occasions or not.
Once I am sure I have a wonderful family image, I might revisit the idea of photographing the children. By then I know if the kids have any more energy left. After all, they are already dressed to coordinate and that is good stuff for a potential nice looking wall grouping.
I prefer a few quick images of each child alone than all the kids together. The posing will look a lot different from doing another group. Also when children are different ages, they respond to humor differently. It is often easier to get great expressions individually than as a group.
Here is a big tip! If the children are eight years old and up, this is your time to lay the foundation for those kids to want you for their senior portraits. So make it fun. I might use the fan to blow their hair “just like I do for high school senior gals.”
