The Pro Photo Business Forum

Each week the PPBF gives its readers a new challenge designed to help their studios grow. Sometimes the assignment involves shooting, and sometimes the assignment calls for a particular action to be taken. Whatever the assignment, you can be sure we will do our best to help you grow as a professional photographer, and not just as a photographer.

Congratulations to Last Weeks Challenge Winner, Jonathan L Golden Photography!

Jonathan has won three moths of free access to the PPBF and to the Swag Bag! In addition, Jonathan has also won a $50 gift certificate to be used on his next order to BWC! Congratulations Jonathan!

This Week’s Challenge: Round!

A simple project this week… or is it? Photograph a round object, but light it in such a way as to make it’s round shape greatly apparent.

We have two prizes this week!!!!

First Place Prize:  A FREE copy of “Social Media Marketing for Photographers” by Jeff Smith!!!!

In my book, Social Media Marketing for Photographers you will learn how to create content that reflect the right image of you and your business, while linking all of your internet marketing resources together to convert potential clients as quickly as possible.

- Jeff Smith

Second Place Prize: $50 off your next regular priced Leather Craftsmen Print and Bind Album. Offer expires 10/1/10. Contact david@leathercraftsmen.com to redeem.

How To Enter:

1) Complete the assignment and place the results on your own blog, linking back to the challenge post.

2) Post a comment on this blog entry that you have completed the assignment with a link back to your blog entry. A link will be posted at the bottom of this assignment pointing back to your blog entry, thus creating a reciprocal link and helping with your SEO.

3) The winner of the assignment will be posted in the following weeks assignment.

We would love it if you can place the Weekly Challenge Icon at the beginning of this post in your blog post to show your readers your participation in the weekly challenge.

Here are the entries for this week’s Weekly Challenge!

No entries have been entered….. yet. Be the first!

Each week the PPBF gives its readers a new challenge designed to help their studios grow. Sometimes the assignment involves shooting, and sometimes the assignment calls for a particular action to be taken. Whatever the assignment, you can be sure we will do our best to help you grow as a professional photographer, and not just as a photographer.

Congratulations to Last Weeks Challenge Winner, Michael Bromley Photography!

This Week’s Challenge:

Create An Executive Portrait!

When I went to college, I already knew I was put on this planet to be a photographer. My goal was simple. When I graduated, I wanted to be so prepared that I could take on any kind of photographic assignment. Food, architecture, family, landscape.

Well, this is what I want this month’s challenge to do for you. This is the PRO Photo Business Forum. If you are an amateur photographer, then this is going to bring you one step closer to becoming a professional, and unless you are an extremely successful professional photographer, you are going to need to take whatever kind of job comes your way. So lets get you prepared.

This week, I want you to photograph an Executive Portrait. Your finished portrait does not have to be created in a studio. It can be done in someone’s office, or wherever you like for that matter. It should be sellable.

Approach this assignment like a real shoot. Not that it is part of the contest, but I want you to also think about how you will be delivering this image to your client. Will it be on a DVD, or will you send them a link allowing them to download their image directly from their computer? How long a turnaround time will you promise your finished product in?

First Place Prize:  Three Months of Free Access to the PPBF.

If you are already a member, then your current subscription will be extended by an additional three months. Access will also be granted to all the goodies in The Swag Bag!

Our first place winner will also receive a $50 lab credit to BWC Photo Imaging! This can of course be used to produce prints for your client from your Executive Portrait session.

How To Enter:

1) Complete the assignment and place the results on your own blog, linking back to the challenge post.

2) Post a comment on this blog entry that you have completed the assignment with a link back to your blog entry. A link will be posted at the bottom of this assignment pointing back to your blog entry, thus creating a reciprocal link and helping with your SEO.

3) The winner of the assignment will be posted in the following weeks assignment.

We would love it if you can place the Weekly Challenge Icon at the beginning of this post in your blog post to show your readers your participation in the weekly challenge.

Here are the entries for this week’s Weekly Challenge!

Houston Photographer Jonathan Golden has completed the challenge!

You photograph a portrait session.  You sit down to review your work so they can make their selections.  The couple selects their favorite image, and leaves the rest.

“We really like all of them.  Can we just order this one for now and come back to you to order more?  How long will you hold our images for?”

Sound familiar?  Of course you make the sale of the one image, and you try to sell additional images, but there are times when it just doesn’t happen.

“I understand.  You would like to come back and order the other images you marked as your favorite at a later date.  Please understand, our policy is to only archive the images our clients order from.  There is no need for us to store images that no one wants.

Each week we continue to photograph more and more clients, and as we do we must make room on our server for those newly created images.  Out with the old, in with the new.  More than likely, at our current rate of production, we will have to remove your images in about xyz weeks time.  Would you like us to contact you a day or two before we have to remove your images from our server?”

“Yes.  Please please contact me.”

“Not a problem.  I would be happy to do so.  In fact, why don’t I go ahead and program an email to go out about four days before we anticipate having to remove your un-purchased portraits.  Would that be OK?”

On a bit of a different note.  Would you like a free eBook?

By Aric C. Hoek, owner and creator of Ten Houston Wedding Photographers

Many fledgling photographers out there often ask if they really need to have a blog, so I can only imagine what they would say to having a monthly newsletter. But the fact is, if you want to convert your past clients into repeat clients, then a newsletter is your first step.

Start your photography business out on the right foot. Add every client you have to your mailing list.

Here are some ideas of things you can put in your newslettert.

1. Offer a free family portrait session to the first ten people who contact you.
2. Show examples of an executive portrait you just completed.
3. Make a special on wedding album sales for people who did not purchase a wedding album.  Do you think you can sell a wedding album with a single email?  If you have a large mailing list, you may be able to sell more than one if you use the right language in your newsletter.
4. Create three annual family portrait specials, each in a different quarter.  Portraits in the park, beach, Mother’s Day.
5. Announce efforts you have done with a local charity.
6. Post an image from your last bridal, engagement, or family portrait session.  Talk about them in detail and educate people as to why it is a good image.
7. Create a photographic tour of your studio.
8. Have you acquired any new photographic equipment?

A newsletter reminds past clients that you are still out there.  While you may be extremely passionate about your photography and craft, the truth is they have already forgotten about you.  Your past clients are just as passionate about their own craft and have little time for anything else.  More than likely, they are not thinking about you.

Start a newsletter today.  Right now! I use Mail Chimp, and it’s FREE.

By the end of the day today, create a newsletter and contact your old clients and let them know you are thriving.  Provide links for them to refer you to their friends.  You’ll be pleasantly surprised what you can accomplish with a well constructed news letter.

You might even want to start a separate newsletter just to communicate with the other wedding vendors in your area.  Tell them about the continuing education you are doing.  Share vendor shots that you have recently taken.  Share links to entries in your blog that feature a certain vendor.

A newsletter can be a powerful tool, or, you can just go about your business trying to generate all new clients each and every month and forget about your past happy clients.

Your call.

By Aric C. Hoek, owner and creator of Ten Houston Wedding Photographers

Each week the PPBF gives its readers a new challenge designed to help their studios grow. Sometimes the assignment involves shooting, and sometimes the assignment calls for a particular action to be taken. Whatever the assignment, you can be sure we will do our best to help you grow as a professional photographer, and not just as a photographer.

Congratulations to Last Weeks Challenge Winner, Kristen Bourdon Photography!

Judging by PPBF Print Competition Chairman, John Tucker:
This week’s winner was submitted by Kristin Bourdon of Kristin Bourdon Photography.

The slightly out-of-focus, shirtless boy with sunburned cheeks, sunglasses, standing in the harsh sunlight against a blue sky while holding a sharply-focused crab with a wet hand, speaks boldly of summer fun at the beach. Without a doubt, I knew immediately this was a beach image. Nicely done, Kristin!

Runner-up, Leanne Wildermuth!

The sharply-focused bone with the dog staring intently and in anticipation makes me think this could be an ad for a particular dog treat. Well executed shot, Leanne!

Thanks to all who participated,
John Tucker
PPBF Image Competition Chairman
John Tucker Photography

This Week’s Assignment:

Create a portrait with two or more light sources!

I think it’s safe to assume that the participants in the PPBF Weekly Challenge are all professional photographers, or are striving hard to become one. This weeks challenge is gong to help push you on your way if you are striving to become a professional.

The truth is, if I worked as fast as I could, I could complete a very nice bridal portrait session in less than ten minutes, but this will leave my client feeling as if she has received no value from me. So, with each shot I take, I really examine how the light is striking my subject. Do you know the names of the different types of portrait lighting?

Broad lighting: The main light completely illuminates the side of the face turned toward the
camera.
Short lighting: The main light completelyilluminates the side of the face turned away from the camera.
Butterfly lighting: The main light is placeddirectly in front of the face and casts a shadow directly under the nose.
Rembrandt lighting: This is a combination ofshort and butterfly lighting. The main light is placed high and to the side of the face turned away from thecamera and produces a triangle of light on the side of the face in shadow.
Split lighting: The modeling light is placed tolight completely one side of the face while placing the other side of the face in shadow.
Rim lighting:The modeling light is placedbehind the subject and places the entire face in shadow.

Really think about lighting your subject as you are doing it. Let your client see you are thinking about the lighting, and you will instantly add value to your finished portrait before it is even created. Is the light bringing out the natural features in this subject’s face? Are you making sure to remove possible unflattering features by keeping them in the shadows?

I want you to use two or more light sources while taking a portrait. I want you to direct my eye using light. Don’t just make your portrait all about the expression of the subject as so many amateurs can only do. You know the portraits I am talking about? The ones where the entire frame is filled with the subject’s face, and the face is all smiles. Show yourself and your clients that you are a professional photographer, and that you know the secret to great professional portraiture is more than just expression…. it’s great light!

First Place Prize:  To Be Announced.

How To Enter:

1) Complete the assignment and place the results on your own blog, linking back to the challenge post.

2) Post a comment on this blog entry that you have completed the assignment with a link back to your blog entry. A link will be posted at the bottom of this assignment pointing back to your blog entry, thus creating a reciprocal link and helping with your SEO.

3) The winner of the assignment will be posted in the following weeks assignment.

We would love it if you can place the Weekly Challenge Icon at the beginning of this post in your blog post to show your readers your participation in the weekly challenge.

Here are the entries for this week’s Weekly Challenge!

Professional Photographer Michael Bromley has completed the challenge!

By Aric C. Hoek, owner and creator of Ten Houston Wedding Photographers

There is no such thing as time management. No one can manage time. There is only activity management.

Here is a great, but simple tip, on how to sort out all the things you have to do. It’s how I get so much done.

I have multiple to-do-lists, and each one has a ton of things on them. One list is for my studio, the other is for things I need to do for the community. I am on the board of the PPGH, so that most certainly gets a to-do-list. I have a to-do-list for my family needs (here’s my boy). And I even have a to-do-list for my intern. But there is one to-do-list that I like the most. This is my 24 hour to-do-list. This list only contains three items on it, and these items are taken from the other lists. Once an item goes on my 24 hour list it stays there until I have completed that item.

I start an item on that list, and I continue with that item until I have finished it, giving that item as much of my energy as I can. If I don’t finish it, it carries over until the next day. I don’t think about the things I have completed, and I don’t think about the other things I need to do. I focus on the activity at hand until it is done, and I give it my best energy.

To be great, just do single actions in a great way every day. Keep your 24 hour to-do-list small and manageable. Keep moving forward.

By Aric C. Hoek, owner and creator of Ten Houston Wedding Photographers

My eBook, Actions You Can Take To Promote and Protect Your Studio,  normally sells for $9.95. Receive it free by joining our mailing list to the right.  Please feel free to immediately unsubscribe from the list once you receive your eBook.  Seriously.  We understand that you don’t want to be bothered.  Our goal here on the PPBF is to educate amateur portrait photographers.  However, if you would like additional free photographic education, then you might want to consider staying on the list for a week, just to test out the waters.

For a limited time, as soon as you join our mailing list, we are going to send you a discount code good for 50% off a membership to our forum.

Once you fill our out form, you will be asked to confirm your subscription, and once you do you will be sent an auto responder with a link to download your free eBook.  Once you have your book, simply unsubscribe from our list.  Simple.

Just fill out our subscription form to the right to get started.

We hope you enjoy your free eBook.  Here are a few things people are saying about it.

“I‘ve been a professional wedding photographer for 14 years, and I can honestly say we have generated thousands upon thousands of dollars for my studio by using just one of the calls to action described in this eBook, and we continue to use this business technique today. The information is worth so much more than the price of the eBook!”
David Jones, CPP

“Aric quickly takes you to the next level in your profession as he shares his secrets of success.”
Alvin Gee
Master of Photography PPA
Photographic Craftsman PPA
Camera Craftsmen of America

“If you are even considering entering the Wedding Photography World, this is a must “hands on primer”. Read the book, study the book, then DO the book.
Aric has such great practical ideas to save you such headaches and heartaches, and well as the all important Money matters…..You should know this book like you know your camera manual!
Best wishes and blessings to all who strive to create such precious memories and stories for others.”
Carol Andrews
Master Photographic Craftsman,
Approved Business Instructor
SMS photographic Consultant and Instructor
PPA Board Of Directors

“These no nonsense tips aren’t just for beginning wedding photographers. Everyone can benefit from Aric’s insight. I wish someone had told me some of these when I was first starting out – it would have saved me a lot of trial and error.”
Brad Barton
A major contributor of The Texas Photo Forum with over 10,000 posts.

Do you feel like you are a business owner standing in a 50′ hole?

Would you like some helpful tips on how to conduct a wedding consultation? This talk is great for beginning wedding photographers looking to jump start their business, and increase the percentage of consultations which convert into clients. We discuss the physical aspects of your meeting as well as the language to be used. We also cover follow up language to be used should your consultation choose not to book your services during your initial meeting.

 

 Standard Podcast [75:22m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (1049)

Without a doubt, photography is a luxury product when it comes to wedding and portrait photography. This fact is unfortnately only magnified in a recession. So, we need to do things that will help maintain cash flow.

For those of you who sell the DVD from your sessions, here’s a simple and effective idea.

“I am so glad to hear that you love all the images from your session. You know, you have the option of purchasing a DVD of your portrait session for $xxx with files large enough to print 8x10s and smaller. And, as an added bonus, all portrait orders placed after the purchase of your DVD will be 50% off.”

Giving you clients this kind of value is an interesting approach. What is your goal for an average sale from a portrait session? Price your DVD at this price.

The client receives all their images, with the value of being able to make reproductions on their own, and you have stimulated the possibility of making additional portrait sales with the 50% off bonus offer.

There are three basic habits that you must do every day to maintain your cash flow.

1. Return all inquiries the day they come in.  Try to do this within two hours.
2. Return all phone messages.
3. Confirm all appointments for the next day.

Fail to do these simple things, and watch your cash flow have a hick-up. Complete these simple tasks daily, and watch magical opportunity fall at your feet.