Naughty but Nice Seminar

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Jennifer Nagy - www.exclusiveimages.com.au

Haley Richardson - www.haleyrichardson.com.au

This weeks seminar was held at Haley Richardson's Hume Studio. We had 2 models, Bec who was 5 months pregnant and Clare for the Boudoir style session.

We started with a slideshow of both Haley & Jennifer's work followed by a brief run through of the process from enquiry through to shooting.

Client Interaction -

Meet with client beforehand & show products.

Ask lots of questions about why they want the portrait, what are they going to do with it?

What they do & don't like about themselves

Decor of house, where will the photo hang?

Be enthusiastic honest & open.

Treat every job as a collaboration

Talk about the outcomes & make sure they bring a robe, variety of lingerie, shoes & accessories, ask about what they have to wear

Get them to sign a contract

Being able to sell your work & the experience is just as important as the quality

Have the products you are selling on display

Sell the shoot or put together a few packages that you think the clients would like in a variety of price ranges.

Don't sell high res dvd's until the client has spent a minimum amount

Most of the sale time is spent helping the buyer justify intellectually the emotional decision that has already been made, which is to buy.

Assume that your client always wants the best

Cost & size main things to overcome-wall portrait can be enjoyed by everyone where as a desk portrait can only be seen close up

Relaxing the Client -

Know what you are going to do, theme/look

Think about lights, props & background

Have model wear robe between shooting

Take your time

Communicate, keep talking to them, explain what you are doing, show them some shots to build confidence, give feedback

Confidence is sexy

Posing -

With each pose take a variety of shots with different facial expressions: serious, smiling, looking away

Lying on tummy with head near the camera

Lying on back with head near the camera

Kneeling with feet tucked under bottom

Lying on side

Head & Cleavage

Suggestive detail

Full length against wall/in doorway with heels to lift bottom & elongate legs

Different Body Shapes -

Focus on assets

Larger women- light from side & shoot bust up if front on use drpaes, arms or hands to cover tummy or slim legs

Flat Chest - arms above head, lying on tummy or back, use arms to boost cleavage & create shadows. Folding arms increase bust.

Saggy Breast - shoot front on, bra's & corsets for lift

Fat Arms - hold away from body, create a gap

WOMEN - recline the body, put on 45 degree angle, focus on assets, create a waistline, push arms back & create a gap.

MEN - use shadow, open the posing up, create big angles, hang the body.

Fusion Photography - Part 2

The Sales Process

Client Questions-

* Do I want to do business with this company?

* Can I afford them?

* Do I want to do business with this person?

* Are my needs going to be met?

* Is there someone else better

* What is the advantage of booking now?

* I need to make a decision

* Did I make the right decision?

The most important things to remember during client interviews is to connect on an emotional level, sell yourself & sell your expertise, reliability & confidence.

Qualify the Client -

* Can they afford us?

* Are they looking for what we do?

* Can we meet their needs?

Ask the right questions -

* Get commitment early & often

* Overcome their fear

* Inspire confidence

* Demonstrate expertise

The Enquiry -

* If first question is price say you are happy to give all the pricing info but you would like to get some details first.

* Ask about their location & comment on your experience with the venues.

* Ask about date/guests/bridal party

* Ask if they have set a budget, may be reluctant to answer as they either have no idea or unwilling to reveal just yet.

* Mention your starting price

* Ask them how that fits in with their expectations

* Ask for meeting, if object, need to check with fiance etc, try to make a time anyway and say you are happy to re-schedule if need be.

* Text reminder of appointment on the day.

The Consultation

* Meet at high end venue if you do not have your own studio.

* Keep everything clean & uncluttered.

* Create an environment client will feel comfortable in.

* Details are important, the client will look beyond the facade to try & work out the real you.

* What to wear, dress at a level your clients aspire to NO JEANS! Dress with style & to match your style.

* Refreshments - client is not likely to accept anything too fancy, water is fine.

* Set expectations, explain the purpose of the meeting.

* Get to know each other first before you talk about prices

* Number 1 selling tool - Passion. Show them you love what you do, passion & enthusiasm is infectious.

* First half of meeting should be to establish rapport - no photos or prices.

* Ask questions about the wedding, relationship, work, hobbies but be genuine not nosy.

* Don't talk continuously, portrays a lack of confidence.

* Ask what their perfect wedding album would look like, and show an album that reflects this.

* Observe them & their body language-are they a detailed person, romantic, relaxed, fussy?

* Be a resource - the more you can apply your expertise to their needs the more respect they'll have for you.

* The more value you provide the less price matters - give give give!

* Don't give slideshows-breaks flow, focus on album sales.

* Don't show albums while talking, they need to be focused for this.

Closing the Sale -

* Ask how that album fits in with the ideal album they discussed earlier.

* Explain prices clearly don't make excuses.

* Explain delivery process

* Ask how the prices fit their expectations

* Leave them alone to discuss

* Ask would you like to go ahead with the booking?

Selling - Clients love to buy

Sell additional products

Transition them to portrait clients

Fusion Phptpgrahy

Fusion Photography

www.fusionphotography.biz

This week our Seminar was by Ben Kopilow of Fusion Photography. Fusion is one of Canberra's leading wedding photography studio's.

Some statistics on the canberra wedding photography business -

130 wedding photographers

Less than 10% are full time

20K is the average income

Ben started photography in 2003, he is self taught. He won a floriade competition and then started selling stock images and prints and cards at markets. In 2004 he was asked to photograph a friends wedding. In 2005 he shot 50 weddings & 2006 he did 60 but made no profit.

He re-assessed his costs -

Marketing - $200

Camera Gear - $100

Consultation - $400

Miscellaneous Management time - $400

Electricity/storage/backup - $100

Insurance/tax/travel - $200

BOTTOM LINE - $1500 COST PER WEDDING

Once you work out this figure you need to decide what you are willing to sacrifice your weekend for?

2007 - 55 weddings @ $3600 - $198,000

2011 - 32 weddings @ $8000 - $256,000

Ben has a minimum charge of $5700, this is an 'artistic fee' and covers his time only.

Complete Packages -

Creates a mindset in client of no more to spend

Limits post wedding sales

Differentiate yourself -

What do you offer?

How are you different?

Branding is not enough - everything is a commodity

Own an attribute -

Price? There's always someone cheaper

Service

Quality

Product

Creativity

Leader

Woman

Tech Head

Romantic

Team

Artist

Expert

Outgoing or Shy

Fun or Uptight

Optimist or Pessimist

Emotional or Logical

Your best Attribute is You -

Your personality is what books the client, not your work. Show your personality in everything you do-website, emails, phone calls, studio, be consistent and keep it real.

Simplify -

People are easily confused, more buying decisions make more confusion. Minimise your product line.

How can you charge THIS much?

Go the extra mile

Let the client see the value, show them post-production etc

Look like you're worth it from start to finish

Educate them on priorities

Price is perception

Value is not in physical products, eg-Alex Perry or other high end designers sell because of the name not the product.

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Peter Coulson

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So wednesday 11 May in the pre dawn hours we set off for Sun Studios to spend the day with Peter Coulson.

It's been so fascinating to get to know the "celebrities" of Australian Photography. Both Peter & Alexia were so generous with their information & time.

I was encouraged to hear that Peter's technique is mostly to "keep it simple" - more lights = more problems. Use what you have, you do not need the most expensive latest greatest lights to create good lighting.

It was interesting to know that Peter's favourite light is full sun in the middle of the day. You can break the rules as long as you do it well.

Some tips from the day -

* Get it right in camera

* Skin - light it straight on slightly higher than the subject & slightly over expose it for the least imperfections

* To bring out texture in fabric light from the side.

* To bring out the colour in the eyes light from the side of the face.

* For Portraits-shoot landscape & For Landscape-shoot portrait = more options later on

* Shoot for yourself aswell as the client - most times client will love what you have done & forget what they initially wanted.

* Train models with ugly clothes-if they can make them look good they know what they are doing.

* Don't forget about subtractive lighting, can be useful in certain circumstances.

* Play & be creative, forget about what is supposed to be the "right" way & experiment.

Possible Background Ideas for the Pearls

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Pearls

Last watch advert - Raymond Weil

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This is the look I will be aiming for with the final watch ad.

Final Watches

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Dan O'Day

It was great to have Dan come and talk to us about Fine Art & Wedding Photography. He is so passionate about what he does and is so open to sharing everything he has experienced in the Industry, both good & bad.

He talked alot about the advantage of competitions & exhibitions and the opportunites that can come of these. It is best to keep a detailed list of these for your website/folio.

There are both advantages & disadvantages of being represented by a gallery and you need to decide the best option for yourself & your work.

Some Advantages - your work is exposed to clientele you would not reach if you were not represented by a gallery.

Your work is purchased by prominent collectors which can increase the value of your future work.

Some Disadvantages - The Gallery has an opinion on the work you may exhibit, can be restrictive creatively.

The Gallery is entitled to 5% of any prizemoney from any competitions you win with work they have exhibited.

It is important to read the contract and negotiate any points of concern.

Some galleries Dan recommends -

Stills Gallery (sydney)

Monster Children (sydney) Gallery & Magazine

United Galleries

Catherine Asquith (melbourne)

Online Magazines -

Blanket Magazine

www.watim.com

Melbourne Pixel

Light Journeys

www.visualarts.net.au

Some competitions to enter -

Avant Card

ACMP Projections

Moran Prize

Head On

National Photographic Portrait Prize

Weddings -

Dan gets alot of inspiration for his weddings outside of weddings. Movies & Music film clips are a big inspiration - Baraka (movie) & Sigur Ros (music)

Look at magazines as well as blogs for ideas, do not limit yourself to just looking at other wedding photography, find a point of difference.

Todd Hunter McGaw -

Todd spoke about the recent re-branding of his business and the success of it.

www.toddhuntermcgaw.com.au

The website and the branding being built around the robot characters is much more personal than his previous one and would appeal to clients as it is a bit quirky & cute and looks completely different to anything else out there, it also seems to reflect Tim himself so gives the client an impression of the person behind the lens which is important for wedding clients.

Both Dan & Tim spoke about the importance of being aware of whats going on around you, other than just the bride & groom, the guest are a big part of the day so don't forget about them.

Lastly Dan spoke about Personal Projects. Its important to pursue your ideas despite how busy you may be. Set aside time to get out there and do something just for you and the passion & inspiration that comes from it will flow on to your other work.

Amber Jewellery

So my idea for the Amber Jewellery was to use the Autumn colours and to keep the colour theme throughout the styling.

Amber is a natural resin made from tree sap so this works well with the outdoor "natural" theme.

My location was at Diddams Close at Lake Ginninderra. I used 2 speedlights off camera for my lighting, it was a dull overcast day so I didn't need to worry about any bright sunlight as I was shooting in the middle of the day.

The Narrative -

A narrative is a story that is created in a constructive format that describes a sequence of fictional or non-fictional events.

Tina is a high end fashion model in her Chanel couture gown. The first 2 images have very strong defiant poses. Whilst in a break from shooting Tina relaxes and has a moment to herself, closing her eyes, so the next 3 images are softer poses showing Tina enjoying the natural relaxed environment.

My intention with the jewellery is to show it can be accessorised with high end fashion yet still remain natural & organic.

Gavin Blue

Unfortunately I missed the Gavin Blue workshop, my Pop took a turn for the worst and I had to go to sydney to visit him, which I am glad I did as he passed away a few weeks later:(

I did have a look at the images that were taken at the workshop though and it inspired me to have a go myself, which I did with the shoot for the amber jewellery, I did only have 2 speedlights to play with though but I was pretty happy with the results.

Watches

So been spending alot of time looking at watch ads & thinking about how I want to approach these images. My initial thoughts were to go with locations and poses in the context of needing a watch, for example looking like you are running late or instances when you would look at your watch. I then realised I am not selling the need for a watch I am selling the need for the particular prestigious brand of watch. The majority of high end watch brands are associated with a particular celebrity - Longines has traditionally used Audrey Hepburn with the slogan "Elegance is an Attitude", more recently Aishwarya Rai & Kate Winslet have been used. As with all consumerism we associate brand names with those that represent them. So if you want to have an "elegant attitude" like Kate Winslet all you need to do is buy a Longines watch, right? Simple! So with this in mind I have found my own "celebrities" to endorse my watches. For - Longines - Anna is my elegant & sophisticated actress Frederique Constant - Lisa is my World Number 3 ranked Tennis Star Raymond Weil - Jad is my Champion Formula One Race Car driver Danish Design - this one I am taking a slightly different approach. The design of these watches are quite modern & hip, so I'm aiming at a younger market. I will be using 2 models, male & female and going for a sexy edgy look.

Alexia Sinclair

It was a really great privellige to have Alexia Sinclair take the time to come and talk to us about her experiences in the Industry. It was really interesting to hear first hand the positives & negatives of the commercial world. The following are Photographers Alexia is influenced by - Bill Henson Patricia Piccinnini David LaChappelle Erwin Olaf Oleg Dou Annie Liebovitz Eugenio Recuenco Tim Walker Jill Greenberg Dave Hill Alexia mentioned 'mood boards' which she creates to represent her ideas for her images, these are used for both commercial pitches & her fine art series. I guess these are like creative "spreadsheets", great idea for planning & organization. Alexia finds inspiration in all forms of visual stimualtion - magazines, fashion, film sets, costumes and drews on all of these for both The Regal Twelve & The Royal Dozen. I have found great inspiration in these series, maybe enough to follow through with an idea I have had in the back of my mind since first year, 2nd semester folio maybe. Shooting stock images was also another great piece of advice I will be taking on board, especially on my 6 weeks overseas in the mid year break.

Shoot #1 - Rings

So today I had the first shoot instore at Solitaire in the Canberra Centre. I am pretty pleased with the results and am pretty certain I have my first 10 images.

Test Shoot

So before I go into the Jewellery store for the real thing I had a play at home to work out lighting etc.

These are straight from the camera, I haven't bothered with editing as they won't be used. It was good to fing out what my challenges would be and come up with solutions before the real thing.

The biggest issue I have is myself & the camera reflecting in the jewellery, in some case this is unavoidable and will just have to be fixed in post production. It was also very obvious how scratched the jewellery was so lucky I will be using brand new stuff so I won't have this issue.

Research Task #1

A Thoughtful Reflection.............

Well if I think back to semester 1 year 1 I am surprised I am still here! I started the course because I was bored and thought it would be good to learn a few things. I had no experience whatsoever, didn't even know what aperture meant! I had travelled around europe and was bitterly disappointed with the photos I had taken. To me photos are capturing a moment that can bring back the emotions time & time again and I wanted to be able to do justice to the amazing places I had seen.

So I never intended to stay on for 3rd year, yet here I am. I changed my mind for a few reasons, but mainly I am here for my own satisfaction, to finally finish something I started! I am now a partner in T8 Photography with Tate & Doug, it's very exciting to be involved and we have big ideas for where we will take the business, the first step being a commercial office and studio in Mitchell we have just moved into. Exciting times ahead!

When choosing what to photograph for my folio this semester I wanted to do something I had limited experience with. So reflective small objects were the winner and after all diamonds are a girls best friend right!

So I have been lucky to get a jewellery store on board to let me photograph such beautiful items.

My brief -
10 studio shots of rings
5 watch advertisements including models
5 studio shots of other accessories
5 shots of accessories on location as a fashion narrative

More detail for the above are included in my Proposal as per emailed copy.