In my last post I shared Going Pro lesson #2 on Photography Marketing and how to create a funnel to attract, communicate and engage with prospects and clients. If you only do a small percentage of what I’m teaching in these lessons…you will still be further ahead than most business owners out there.

Photography Marketing Mind Map

In The Going Pro Lesson #3 I’ll show you the (2) pillars that can help you connect and spread the word about your business without it costing you hundreds of dollars in advertising. Yes…it will take some work to get things set up, but once they are created you just need to post content for people to consume. You just have to be a real person who shares their passion. We are Photographers and we take pictures…right? These 2 pillars will allow you to share your talent and have others do the same with hundreds if not thousands of people.

The TOOLS

I mention some tools in the video, some free and some paid…but you need to look at these as tools to help your business grow. It’s like being a photographer…but you don’t have a camera. You need a camera to take pictures and you need a website or blog to market your business. You need an Email Auto-Responder to communicate with your list of prospects and clients. It’s the same thing. They are tools to help with a certain part of your business.

The Marketing Flow

This video will lay everything out for you to follow, so you understand how to create a community that will help promote your business. It will show you how to create content and syndicate it out to various platforms (The 2 Pillars).

Watch the video below that shows the entire outline and concept that anyone can follow.

The…Going Pro Marketing Systems

The Photography Marketing Funnel

OK..this post is going to pick up were we left off in Video #1 of this Photography Marketing Mini Series. I’m going to reveal 2 Pro Marketing Systems that are not being used by 80% of businesses. If you understand this process and how powerful it is…you will stand out from any other business in your area. You will have the ability to connect and build relationships with your prospects and clients. This Is HUGE!

Most Business Owners Are Lazy

Sorry…but it’s the truth. They don’t want to put the extra work in to set things up properly. I can’t tell you how important it is to build relationships first and then make the sale. Think about it for a minute. Isn’t it easier to be sold to by a friend or take their recommendation vs being sold to by a stranger?

Your Prospects Will (Know…Like and Trust) YOU!

I know women always develop a relationship with their hairdresser and trust that person with their hair. Then they continue to come back for future appointments and refer their friends automatically.

What I show you in this lesson will allow you to communicate whenever you want and start to build that relationship over time. This stuff REALLY WORKS!

Watch the video and you’ll see what I mean. The next lesson will build off of this and take it to the next level.

Note: If you missed Video #1 in this Photography Marketing Pro Series…Check It Out!

Click “Like” and leave a comment below!

In this video I’ll show you how I create more than one portrait from the same shot. It’s super simple to do and it only takes a few minutes to complete.

Watch the video below to see me in action perform these simple tricks.

Here’s the link to check out the Digital Creation’s CLUB!

I wanted to share a very simple way to create more than one look from the same image. I recently created these two shots for our Digital Creation’s club. and wanted to share these on the blog.

Here’s the original portrait (Golden Mountain View) in a horizontal shot.

Then I decided to create a close up of the two girls that would give the portrait  a completely different look. I wanted to go with a vertical layout and still keep some of the foreground elements in the final crop.

Here’s the simple steps I used to crop this image and keep the detail and quality to enlarge into an 8×10 and all the way up to a 20×24 inch portrait.

Step #1: Make sure you set you size and resolution before you crop the image.

Step# 2: Select your area by clicking and dragging with the crop tool

Step# 3: Use the “Thirds Grid” to give your crop the best site lines.

Here’s a few tips for cropping:

1. Never cut off hands or fingers
2. Never crop just below the knee
3. Cutting into the top of the head can be a nice touch

Few more examples….

Full Horizontal Original

Cropped Vertical Version

Extreme Close-Up From Same Portrait Session – Different Pose

I hope you can see that by cropping your images in a vertical or another site line…that you can create an entirely different look to offer your clients. It’s a simple technique that many photographers don’t use enough.

I hope this has inspired you and got your creative juices flowing

Club Members Login HERE!

I received an email the other day that I wanted to share with you from one of our Digital Creation’s Club Members. She is starting to have portrait parties and needed some advice.

So…I thought I’d share it with you, because most people…including myself have fallen into this trap.

Here’s the email she wrote and the advice I gave her.

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Hi Scott, my name is Bec,

I have bought and am using many of your backgrounds and am about to begin a party plan business using them. I will purchase many more from you in the future for this business.

Scott, I need some very quick advice please. I am currently charging $60 for a creation fee and in that the customer was getting 6 photos onto 6 different backgrounds of there choice + 6 small photos.

The problem I had with my first party was that everyone took the 6 free photos with the intention to scan them, so therefor I had not even 1 sale, an in fact was in debt from that party.

Do you have any suggestions please?

Bec
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Hi Bec,

First let me say…congrats on Taking Action! That’s the very first step and most people don’t even get that far.

Now…I would suggest tweaking and testing different ways to present your portraits. You could have a follow up party or meet with each person again to show them their portraits. Then you could sell additional items and possibly set up a future private session.

***It’s Not Always About Making The Sale!***

The other thing you need to keep in mind is that the portrait party is not all about making the sale. Yes…you can make some money, but it’s all about getting your name out there and setting up appointments for your full sessions.

You should be collecting their email, mailing address and phone numbers. That’s The TRUE Gold Here!

Then you can follow up with them to let them know of your upcoming Specials, Facebook updates, Blog updates….and Build The Relationship!

***Building Relationships….Is HUGE***

I can’t stress this enough. Building a relationship is HUGE for long business success. These people will become fans and promote you and your business for YEARS!

I know you said this may have cost you money…but it’s a much better way to spend money on advertising than just throwing an Ad in the newspaper. You actually met with people who are in your targeted market. You should have received their contact information for future follow ups.

So…if it cost you $25 to create these images, I would say that’s money well spent. Yes…you spent your time, but that’s business. If you want to be successful, you need to put in the work and the time.

I hope this helps to show how it’s not always about getting the sale. It goes much deeper and the price on a potential client and their contact information….is HUGE!

Keep your chin up and focus on creating beautiful images that Make People Happy and you’ll do FINE!

It’s all part of the journey. But…if you have a passion for photography and love making people happy by creating portraits, you have to keep pushing. The only one that can get in the way of your success…is you.

Here’s to your success!

Scott

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I hope you can see there’s that there’s so much more than just the initial sale and just because you didn’t get the sale today…you may receive one tomorrow.

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Resources:

Create Unique portraits month after month – Digital Creation’s Club

NPB Pro The Inner Circle – Photography Business Community

I wanted to post a short Constructive Criticism Session that we did for our NPB Pro Inner Circle Group.  I wanted to post this because it discusses some very important elements you need to use when creating your images.

We discuss Posing, Composition, Cropping and Framing the shot…so it can BE GREAT!

Enjoy the lesson and get out there and use this stuff

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< Share some LOVE and click the “LIKE” button below!

This short clip was taken from a podcast that we recently recorded for  NPB Pro The Inner Circle. It received a ton of response from the group and I knew it was POWERFUL!  I wanted to share it with the WORLD and post it on the blog

So…make sure you listen and leave any comments below. This story will help a Beginner or a Pro…it’s a Powerful Message. Enjoy

This was a small clip of what NPB Pro offers it’s members. Click Here to check out MORE!

The other day I was reading an interesting thread on our NPB Private Forum about getting new clients and being FRUSTRATED. The common thing being said was “I tried this one technique and it was a Big Flop”.

This isn’t the first time I’ve heard this from Photography Business Owners. We as humans want results….NOW! We think if we try something once and it doesn’t work, than it doesn’t work. We expect if we send out a postcard to people one time, they should respond.

WRONG!

The truth is that it can take 5-7 times (sometimes more) for people to see you and then respond. Sometimes the time isn’t right for the individual or maybe they just don’t know you or trust you. Maybe they are happy with their photographer at the moment.

But…who knows if they will 6 months from now. Things change as we all know…Right?

I wanted to shoot a video and explain why marketing is a lot like fishing or playing sports. I want you to see that you need to be persistent and willing to keep trying in order to be successful. If it was so easy…everyone would be successful.

I also wanted to remind you that the clients that you already have or get in the future, will be your best advertising tool…EVER! So many people want to find new clients, but don’t use their past clients to help promote them. This is the BIG picture. Finding clients and having those clients promote you with word of mouth advertising. Period!

Remember…it takes persistence and a desire to be successful. You can do it

Watch the video below!

Leave a comment below and let me know your thoughts!

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Here’s the transcripts from the video Joe and I did called Digital Photography Split Lighting Using Flash And Fast Shutter

SCOTT: Hey, folks!  Scott Voelker here.  I’m here with my good buddy, Joe Marshall.  Joe, how’s it going?

JOE: Okay.  We’re ready to talk about some excellent work by some of our students in our Ez Flash Workshop.

SCOTT: Oh, yeah.  This is a good one here.  And I’ve seen it; you’ve seen it.  And you went a little goo-goo on it.  You really just loved it and you commented on it.  I mean, it’s an awesome shot, and Derrick great job.  We’re going to tip our hat to you because you did a great job.

Thanks for sharing it, and I’m hoping that we can show this to other people and other people can try this.  And again, this is a whole nother concept, a whole different idea.

People usually think that you have to take an image and fully expose it, every shadow has to be filled in.  And this is a just a perfect example of the mood.  Now looking at this too though, Joe, you would think that the room was dark, but it really wasn’t was it?

JOE: Now these are all the things.  If you know your camera and you know the things that we’ve been discussing, you know in your mind’s eye what you want to accomplish.  Then all you do is you look at your camera and you say, “Oh, I know what all these controls do.

I know what the ISO does.  I know what the shutter speed does.  I know what the F-stop does.  And when you truly know that and you know what your picture is going to look like in your mind’s eye, it’s simple to just make your camera do these kind of tricks.

SCOTT: Yeah, no, this is perfect light.  It’s like you said too.  It almost looks like one of those images that you’d see on TV where they make the kids look kind of like sad and the donations.  I don’t mean to laugh at it, but I’m just saying it brings you into that mood.

I mean, I know when I watch them and I see the pictures that they have of these kids with the flies around them and all this, I’m the first one to reach into my wallet because they just grab my inner emotions.  And that’s exactly what it does here.  It makes you feel just like you’re drawn into that mood.  And that’s what you say.

You’re painting to create moods.

JOE: Well, this is a very commercial shot and what you want to do is—I like to say a picture tells a story.  And this one you get in your mind an idea that you want to convey, and this just might be his beautiful child, and it’s just a pensive look on his face.

But the commercial world eats this stuff up.  This is like you said, Scott already put his hand in his pocket to give to this.  This could be any organization that wants to use this shot.

I mean, Derrick really, enter this in contests.  Let people get to see this.  I mean, you’ve got black above it for copy.  Anybody can use it.  Donate here or Red Cross or any of this kind of stuff after a hurricane or a flood victim.  I mean, this just has so many possibilities.  This has to get into stock.  I’m falling all over myself, Scott.

SCOTT: I know you are.  All right, calm down.  Calm down, Joe.

JOE: But so early into our course for me to see this on our Facebook, and that’s what was so good.  I’m still working with people with one light, bouncing their flash.  And here Derrick Jones just overwhelms us here.

SCOTT: Yeah.  And let’s just break it down real quick too.  He writes in that it was shot with a SB-600 Flash with a wireless remote, shot in a well-lit room.  Did you hear that?  It was shot in a well-lit room.  And the flash was on the edge of the couch.

So it was off the camera.  And the shutter speed was a 320, so it was 3/20 of a second.  Then it was 5.6, ISO 200, and the focal length was 55mm.  And the flash was set at an eighth power with a Sto-Fen Omni-Bounce.  And do you want to just talk a little bit about those settings, Joe?

JOE: All right.  I mean, this is not expensive equipment.  It’s one of the smaller flashes from Nikon.  There are six.  They have an eight and a nine.  He just bounced it.  There’s a clear cap that comes with these.  It’s a diffuser cap.

And he just tilted his flash up, dialed down to an eighth of a power because at the close setting he didn’t want to get an F11, F22.  So he made sure that he got just a 5.6.  And if that meant dialing down the power, so be it.  He did it.  And he left it at ISO 200, which gives us a clean non-grainy.  Really good because like I said, if those goes to a commercial, this could be on a billboard or on a truck.

So it’s really big.  Now the well-lit room.  Yes, to his eye, he saw a well-lit room.  But you have to be able to use flash.  I know people like to use continuous light because they like to say, “What I see is what I get.”  But if you use flash enough, you also become adept at doing that too.

And he knew that if he put it on the side he would just skim the side of the face.  And he knew it had what we call “split lighting.”  One side of the face lit, the other side dark.

Didn’t use a reflector.  Didn’t want to bring up that fill side [05:14].  We wanted the strong impact of this.  And here’s the thing, folks.  F-stop gave him 5.6 but the darkness is because of the shutter he used.  And I’ve said shutter can be anything.

It’s the F-stop is the distance the flash is to the subject, and he dialed it down to get his F-stop.  But the shutter speed, he could have said, “What do I do?  I’ve got a bright room.”  Well, he went to the highest shutter speed his camera would allow.

Now I use a Nikon and I’ve gotten a 320.  Most of the Nikons say 200 or 250.  I know the D90 is 200 and the others are 250.  But I know that mine is 320 because I did it by accident and it worked.  And he did it.

Now what that does is the high shutter speeds darkens down the ambient conditions you’re in.  Now he said the room was bright.  If he went down to a sixtieth shutter or thirtieth, he would have seen all that brightness projected in his picture.  But by cutting down the light in his shutter, he made the room go black.

And that’s all I want you to know.  Your shutter speed can be anything, but if you know you want a high shutter speed to cut out the room light or do I want to let it open up.  Do I want a thirtieth or a fifteenth?  Do I want to get candles on a Christmas tree lit up in the background?

Maybe I’ve got to go down on a lower shutter speed so that the candles show back there.  So that’s important for you to know just what the shutter does because your meter already told you what F-stop.  Now you’ve got to figure out what to do with the shutter.

SCOTT: That’s great.  And I think right there everyone listening to this you should really understand that because it makes perfect sense.  And a lot of times people think that the F-stop is all about the lighting and getting the proper exposure.

And in a sense it is, but it really is more about your depth of field.  And I mean, so much more goes into the shutter.  I’ve even learned that just by going through the course with Joe.  I mean, I never realized it as much as I do now.  I knew it, but I didn’t really realize it was that powerful.  And this picture right here proves that it is.

So again, Derrick, thanks for sharing this.  Joe, again, I think it’s a great shot.  I know you do.  And I may even send this out to our subscribers just to let them see this and, again, show that you don’t have to have all of this equipment to get shots like this.

JOE: This is a moneymaker for you, Derrick.

SCOTT: Yeah.  Go with it and let us know on the contest that you enter too because you’ll have some fun with it.  And who knows?  You might win; you might not.  But you know what?  It’s a lot of fun.  And keep posting your stuff because we do really enjoy this.

And anybody else that is in our workshops, post pictures.  And even if you’re not in our workshops, send us pictures.  E-mail them to us.  Send us links to them so we can see them.  We’d love to see them.  And if we see something that we want to talk about, maybe we’ll include it in our podcast.

So that’s it.  That’s going to wrap up this little short video.  Again, great job, Derrick.  And anyone else out there that has anything that they want to post, please do so.  And we may just comment on it.

JOE: Let me just say, Derrick, get a model release.  If he’s your kid, obviously you can do that, but you’ll need that if you’re ever going to sell this picture.

SCOTT: Yeah.  Another great tip.  Thanks Joe.  Okay, so that’s going to wrap it up.  So again, go out there, keep shooting, have fun, experiment, and we’ll see you in the next video.  Talk to you later.  Bye.

Click Here to Check Out our Ez Flash Photography Workshop

In this video we’re going to talk about Portrait Studio Photography Lighting Tips and how to create Better Group Shots.

This was a picture shot by one of our EZ Flash Photography students and wanted some tips on how to make it a better portrait. So, we decided to create a video going over some simple changes to make it better.

When taking family portraits it can be challenging getting everyone posed properly to create an even exposure. Joe points out that adding just one simple light in back of the camera can make a HUGE difference.

Watch the video below and we’ll go over other important things, like clothing, posing and the triangle stacking method.

Click the play button below to watch this lesson.

Check out The EzFlashPhotography workshop…HERE!