Archive for the 'customer service' Category

Ten ways to get your subjects to relax for you

Published
by
Tommy
on January 3, 2009
in Lists, advice on photography and customer service
. 2 Comments

Ever have problems getting your subjects to relax? Here’s a quick list of ten different groups and ways you can get all of them to loosen up a bit. After years of photographing each of these, I have learned what it takes to get each to relax for me, be themselves and even smile.

The thing you have to realize is that there is no set way to get any subject to smile, but the following ten groups will explain briefly how to get those individual groups to feel less nervous when in your presence. You think you’re nervous in front of your subjects? Trust me, they’re even more nervous than you! So here we go:

1 With friends or family - Remind them of something fun or funny that both of you would remember. Conjuring up memories that have fond memories work well. For example, “Steve, remember when you threw up on grandma!”

2 With your clients - Talk to them about their work. Also engage them about their families. If you dig enough, and I don’t mean that in a weird or intrusive way, but just talking in general will get your subjects relaxed and you can usually find something to converse about that you both will have in common.

3 With you young children - Pick your nose. Kids love when you’re willing to be silly and funny.

4 With pets - The best way for animals to relax is to exhaust them before you shoot. They behave best that way, so have their owners take them for a long walk before you photograph them. This advice complimentary of Cesar Milan aka The Dog Wisperer

5 With teens - Being silly, but not too childish will work. Though I am very silly and childish in my humor and teens do tend to appreciate it. I think however do not talk down to them or treat them like they are young kids. You can act silly but don’t treat them younger than they are.

6 Elderly people - Let them do the talking. They have a lot to share and lots of wisdom. Ask them questions about life in general or about their family and then let them take the wheel and steer.

7 With very shy people - Sympathize with them. If you’ve never dealt with shyness, then you have no clue, but if you have then you totally understand. Being shy really comes down to insecurity. So don’t do anything to make your subject second guess themselves. Just compliment and get on their level and make yourself very approachable and talk a lot. Talking more than them puts the pressure off of them to do the talking and this will usually relax them and help them open up to you. Also I find it helpful to “pick” on them a little and razz them a bit. I find if you don’t overdo it, it really helps them to loosen up a bit.

8 With babies and infants - It’s not that they are nervous, rather it’s that they’re fussy and need to be relaxed. Have mom cradle and soothe the baby. Take many breaks, as many as needed and give them all the time they need, but work quick. Timing is everything and if you miss the shot, you may not get it back.

9 With uptight people or those overly concerned about their appearance - These people can be a challenge to get to relax but the key here is to go with them where they’re going. In no manner, do you want to belittle them or their concerns. To them, whatever you may think is silly or overly concerned about on their part, is still big in their eyes. And after all, that is all part of being a good photographer, caring about what’s important to your subjects. However, engaging them in conversation can diminish the amount of thought they are putting into themselves.

10 Over protective mothers - Anyone whose photographed infants and babies before will know what I am referring to. Mothers, especially first time mothers and even fathers with their infant children, can be overly concerned that you’ll hurt their child or that they might get hurt in the process of being photographed. Other concerns may be that they will become cold if their children are being photographed with their clothes off. My suggestion to dealing with parents such as this, is to reassure them that you will keep their children safe and then actually do that. Take all necessary precautions to make sure that your studio is completely safe. Also, if you are photographing a baby nude, I suggest keeping the temperature up a bit by using a portable heater near the area where you will be photographing them.

I hope that this list, while simple and to the point has been helpful and beneficial to you. If so, feel free to leave a comment in our comments section. And join us again here on Pieces of the Picture, where we post at least three times a week with helpful, motivational and practical advice for portrait photographers.

The importance of quality

Published
by
Tommy
on December 2, 2008
in Business Advice, advice on photography and customer service
. 1 Comment

Quality is so important when it comes to portrait photography. The end product is what everyone sees and judges your work by.

If you want people to buy your work over and over again, don’t cut corners. Do quality work, from your professionalism with them, to photographing them, to processing their images. Do you think your customer will appreciate if they spend hundreds or thousands of dollars, even if you did a good job photographing them and then you hand them prints printed from the local drug stores dye sub printer kiosk…. I don’t think so!

All aspects are important, because they all reflect your quality. You can’t have quality in 90 percent of your steps and not the other 10 percent because the other 90 percent will suffer because of it. From the beginning to the end, be professional in your appearance and keep your quality high. If any of the areas have substandard quality, your customer will notice.

The following areas need attention so that quality remains high:

1. personal appearance
2. work ethic
3. customer service
4. good attitude with customers
5. good photographic technique
6. dependable and quality equipment that can perform the task at hand
7. delivering what you promise, when you promise
8. make your pricing and procedure clear for your customers
9. using good materials to produce and present your work
10. going beyond what your customer expects from you so that you not only meet their expectations but instead thrill them

These are only some of the things that you need to do to ensure your quality of work and service remain high, however if you work on these areas and become proficient in these areas, you will have very happy customers, which in turn will be very loyal to you.

Remember QUALITY from start to end!

Talk, Talk, Talk

Published
by
Tommy
on November 24, 2008
in advice on photography and customer service
. 0 Comments

Do you ever feel like photographing a subject is awkward? Like there is uncomfortable silence between you and the subject? That’s why it’s important to talk to your subject!

While you are photographing your subject, constant encouragement and praise will work wonders in loosening up your subjects. You want your subjects to have natural smiles, praise what they’re doing right, compliment them sincerely and talk, talk, talk! Talk about anything. Ask them about their family, work, hobbies. You don’t have to sound like your taking a survey. Just naturally engage them in conversation.

Even the most experienced models feel somewhat self conscience in front of a camera and new photographer; how many times more when it’s the the average joe or jane sitting in front of you!  If talking is not easy for you or you are not a people person, then portrait photography will be very difficult if not impossible for you, but you can help this by asking someone to join you that likes to talk. That will also help. Silence can kill a good mood quickly so talk to your subjects!

A thought about how you pose families

Published
by
Tommy
on October 9, 2008
in Thought For Thursday, advice on photography, customer service and families
. 0 Comments
Creativity in posing makes for much more interesting family portraiture.

Creativity in posing makes for much more interesting family portraiture.

Many of my readers are parents. For those that are, we all know how much we love our children. We know when our customers come in our doors that if they are parents themselves, they too love their children. This post will briefly examine the idea of expressing that love from the parent towards the child. For today’s “Thought for Thursday”, we will look at the ideas behind portraying families as they really are, famlies.

When many people think about a family portrait, they automatically have this idea of a composition of people looking towards the camera and smiling. This is pretty standard and there is nothing wrong with it. However, this doesn’t really show a relationship aspect of parent towards child, or child towards parent for that matter. So a quick tip for demonstrating this idea is to throw the whole idea of looking towards the camera and smiling out the window. It is not a new or genius idea. However, it is not the most common thing photographed when a family portrait is taken.

Showing the love between parent and child makes a much stronger portrait than the typical family portrait where both are looking at the camera.

Showing the love between parent and child makes a much stronger portrait than the typical family portrait where both are looking at the camera.

Try having a parent and child look at each other and photograph that. Have them interact somehow. Tell them to ignore the camera for a few seconds while they interact, so you can snap away. This may seem awkward for some, but for most, it isn’t awkward at all.

You can have them play games like closing their eyes until you say, “okay open your eyes on the count of three and have a staring contest”. Or you can suggest that they try to communicate with their eyes only towards one another without using words or any sort of facial movement, except for eye movement.

You don’t even have to have them look at each other. You can pose them where they’re hugging or where they are just doing something together. These make for very memorable photos that show the relationship that they have as loved ones.

In this day and age, families are not cherished and appreciated as they ought to be. They are not strong as they once were in our society. Though some may be strong, families as a whole are not the same and do not have the importance that they used to. So when there is a good strong family relationship, this is a wonderful thing. You, as a photographer, should strive hard to portray that in a good light and really enhance what’s there.

Do you see how photographing parent and child engaged in an activity increases interest in the family portrait?

Do you see how photographing parent and child engaged in an activity increases interest in the family portrait?

The family portrait is a beautiful and wonderful thing that we as photographers have the ability and privilege to partake in. We ought to do so with creativity, respect and honor.

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