Lessons

Lesson Info

Day 18: The Portrait Consultation: Designing & Planning Session

All right let's talk about the portrait consultation and we've talked about educating the client and leading them to this point we've done the first phone call we've asked them for snapshots of the walls and they're home now they've brought them sent those snapshots over to me just with a text message I'm giving them my cell phone number so they can just text them to me when I get them and I designed their their walls and preview I'm going to send him a text back and I'm going to say I've got some great things put together for you I'm super excited for you to see them when's the best time for us to chat and they're goingto send a message back we're going to get on the phone I'm going to email them over those wall snapshots right away and we're gonna talk about it also we're gonna walk through that just a little bit and talk about designing and planning the session and that's what the consultation is all about to me and that's the language that I used with my clients is we're going to d...

esign and plan your session together and I'm not going to do that until I have those snapshots of their wall and instead of saying it in that way and being negative I want to be positive and I want to have that yes for them and so I'm gonna let them know as soon as I have those snapshots from you, I'll be giving you a call to plan and design your session, so I'm telling him that has to come first and then we'll have this consultation call I'm letting them know that we're gonna plan to design their session together because I do want them to know that the session's not gonna happen until we plan to design it together. We've got a planet first and that's going to be the time when we go through this consultation that I'm going to start making clothing suggestions, I'm gonna make a background or location suggestion based on where we're gonna hang this portrait so let's go through this together, the portrait consultation basically for me, I want to prepare, prepare, prepare my clients want toby leading them through this process. I want to get them excited about what we're going to talk about. I want to get them excited about what we can do for their home. I wantto use the language that you know, we're going to do something that you can enjoy every single day. This is going to something that's really special in that you know, that dining area where you guys have dinner together twice a week, you know you're gonna be able to enjoy this every day if somebody is designing for the master bedroom, I will say to them this is going to be the first thing that you see in the morning other than your spouse you know this isn't the first thing that you see in the morning when you wake up this is gonna you're gonna love this every single day and a lot of times I'll have mom say to me my husband is out of bed by six thirty so it is going to be the first thing that I see you know where my husband travels a lot it's going to be the first thing I see and so telling them and planting those seeds and keeping that excitement going you know all leads to that final sale where were you know building the process through the entire thing in this whole thing and we want to make sure that we're adding value so using that communication using those words to make sure that we're just placing value really on the process and what we're doing and on what were the final product that we want to do for them so and then I've got prepare some more because you know our final thing because that's what it's all about is planning and preparing with the client I want them to be so prepared when they come to the session and when they sit down in our order room or I go to them what you whatever it is when we meet together they need to be very very prepared for that order appointment and just be excited to be there and start choosing their images for the walls that we've already planned for. So I'm going to show you a little consultation in a client's home and this is just me walking through with the client and I'll be explaining as I go so you'll know what's going on, but I've got the wall ruler tool there with me and we gonna put it on your walls, I'm gonna photograph the walls for her and then you'll be able to see some of the things that we designed for her yeah, we'll do is we'll take it into preview on, then we'll measure this, but then it'll give us ten dimensions for the entire wall, so pretty cool will be able it's exactly the size of your portrait hanging just like you're going to see them when they're finished. Nice wait. So sometimes we have to realize that our clients are going to go and get things from target or having a lot of your wherever emily actually bought this little lodge system here from red off lift, and we definitely want to be able to accommodate that as well. This is a lot of little prince that we can sell from a session, and this is going to be an easy thing for her to even switch out from session to session so she could keep it updated all right, so this was fun. I'm going through everybody's closets, and we decided this time to do something a little bit differently because way normally do black and white that has a concentration. We're going to color this time new fun thing and so kind of pulling together the colors of the season in our world and aplomb, and so you're really getting the trends so that's fun. I want everything to coordinate but not match because matchy matchy is not cool. You got a great color combination going on here. I like that you and mike are pretty subdued, and then the girls are just all tied in together, and we've got grace, a campbell and ireland and then piper, we've got the dress that matches this cute strike me stuff and so pull that in here and since it's going to be kind of chilly, we've got the blue jean jacket that's gonna tie in with the denim that we're gonna incorporate and this look, they can wait, so I really love to do something with this hallway, but two things. I'm not quite sure what I want to do and what you suggest, and also I wasn't sure how to photograph it being a long and skinny hallway. Yeah, well, that would be good if they always tell you stand straight here a while and take your snapshots. What I would want you to do here is just and I'll do the story since I'm here. But if if we do this again, just make sure that you're photographing so I can see the space. And even though you can't photograph straight on, we've got blank walls to work with, so I can pretty much just designed for that in the design software and then show it to you. And you can kind of envision it even though you're not gonna see it straight on. Perfect. Wait, wait can actually pull those frames that we built just right on the very day you can see this is gonna size them exactly how you'd see it finished. And then once we photograph them, of course we'll be filling the images in for this. But I think if you like this grouping do, we can go ahead and play it on this for way let's see, all right. And then this is, um, it's it's shorter. But this is going to show you this client I haven't photographing for years, so you're going to see some of the places in her home where she's got stuff already hanging. And when you when you see it you're going to think you know if you were a regular client you are going to think I've got a lot of stuff hanging up already what am I going to do where am I going to go with new portrait but then you'll see some of the designs that we put together you'll see the wall that I photographed with the with the wall ruler then you'll see the blank frames that I showed her and then you're going to see the final product on the wall so those are some of the past things that we've done going up the hallway that's just more art that she hangs on her wall but she's not gonna take away I've done all these things for her now here is the first place that I photographed there's the fireplace there's the blank frame that I showed her there's the bedroom there's the blank frames that she's going for for that new look in the room daughter's room suggestion um this is downstairs in their basement she wanted to dio something of the two of them together the husband wife hears that hallway another daughter's room and then two of the girls share a bedroom this is their room and that's what I suggested for them you can see a portrait on that other wall of something that I did before and this is just a few images from their session and all roll through those and, you know, when you know what you're shooting for, it makes it so much easier you don't have to do, you know, a two hour session and all these options, you know, exactly what you're going for when so then there they are finished the family above the fireplace, bedroom, walking to us, walking away, and then that's the one of the two of them that she wanted for downstairs and then in the girl's rooms that share, uh, she did exactly what I suggested to her there, there's the older daughter and there you have it. So is that helpful to kind of see that process? And even if it's on the phone, you know, we're going to do that same thing where we're walking the client through and a snapshot is just fine, it doesn't have to be a pretty picture. A snapshot is fine. I've had picture snapshots from my clients that I'm like, man, they don't even like I throw the junk off the bed, you know, and it's okay, and I actually tell them that I tell them, don't pick anything up, just stand story to the wall and take a snapshot with your phone's text it over to me, make sure something measurable is on the wall, that's all I need and so if I'm not sending them the wall cling ruler but I'm just asking them to take a tape a piece of paper to the wall if they don't even want to do that if they'd rather measure I'd rather take a piece of paper to the wall then go find a measuring tape if they want to measure and always going to tell him to measure whatever is against the wall because there's a different perspective on the the couch on this end so we want to measure against the wall and that's going to give us that right dimension so we can design exactly perfectly for the space all right we're gonna watch one more video and this is in a client's home again and you're actually going to see this session on tomorrow that were photographing with this client so this is just me talking to her in her home about what they're going to wear when I left and I started planning the session together she decided that she wanted to hang portrait in this room this is their living room upstairs and so what I like people to do is not only to take that snapshot of their wall that we're going to design and preview but I also want them tio lay out the clothes that they're planning on on a piece of furniture or if we're gonna do it in the master bedroom we're going to do it on the bed. You know, we wanna pick some elements from the room and tie those clothes in where we're going to hang the portrait, and she did a fantastic job pulling everything together. Yes, it was a big project, I since we have five kids just going through each challenge, figure out what they're going to go are aware, but I was just so glad it worked out, and it was help. It was so helpful. Have your youjust opinion, your thoughts? Uh, well, you had just about everything together, and we just pulled a few last minute pieces, and aye, you did exactly what I asked you to do with tying it into the colors of the furniture, and this is a pillow from the other couch, so we kind of worked off of that, and this is gonna look great in here. I'm excited. Me too, okay? And that's, basically what I'm gonna ask them to do, even if I'm out there, I'm gonna ask him them tio, if we're designing for this room, we're going to lay out our clothes on this this couch with thes pillows and make sure everything ties in coordinates with the room and the decor, so I'll even ask clients if they're taking a snapshot of a wall, and I don't see a lot going on, I'll ask them when you when you lay out your clothes, bring in something from the room so uh one of one of the clients you'll see an image of later I'm not sure what day, but they actually had a red clock in the room everything that I saw was pretty monotone, but she told me how we've got this cool red clock that I love and I said, throw that into and on the couch, so when you lay out your clothes, we can just make sure that everything is going to tie together and I am going to make suggestions to them. But the biggest suggestion is that we wanted to, you know, we wanted to go with the room decor, and I've got in our workbook we've got a consultation checklist a little planner, constipation planner and when I do this, I'm gonna go ahead and I'm gonna write down some keys I'm gonna write down what the room looks like with the style of furniture is I may have even asked mom, you know what style is in your home and get her to describe it? I'm gonna write down her wall colors, any other key colors in the home, and then I want to know what happens in this room and so I literally asked my clients that, you know, what's the most lived in the area home, what happens here and she'll tell me this is where the kids play er this is where we are together to eat this is you know, the master bedroom we don't want to know what happens there but you know, she's going to tell me uh sorry dad this's happened all day long but she's going to tell me what happens in that room and I'm gonna be able to use those tools as I'm working with her you know, if she says the kids play here then you know if I'm designing something her for for her for the kids play room I'm going to say the kids are gonna love this this is you know, this is their favorite room they spent a lot of time here they're gonna love seeing these portrait's of themselves having a great time running together throwing leaves in the air whatever they're doing, I can talk to her about that so use that little consultation planner and we've got one more little video here for you guys we're here in the family's basement and originally I had suggested to elicit that we do something over the big couch where everybody comes down that's the first thing that they see and she let me know that she's got a really nice big mirror a big piece coming in that's intended for that spot and so we're going to go for this spot here behind the other end of the couch and I'm gonna go ahead and photograph that, but I want you to really think about the advantage that you have if you're going right into people's homes, if you're on location or photographing in people's homes, you know, make sure that you take advantage of going in and really scoping out the best places for hanging the portrait's and make those suggestions. You've also got the advantage of choosing any personal props that you want to include in your images and, of course, helping with clothing suggestion. All right, so this is the house that I told you about earlier. I was upstairs with the skinny, cute mom and I just asked her, you know, would you mind if I just walk through your house a little bit? And I really, at the time wasn't even thinking, maybe there's another place to hang a portrait. I was kind of thinking I might want to shoot inside and so I want was walking through, and I was like, ah, blank walls and lots of them. I want to hang something here and so I went back upstairs and I just said, hey, what do you think about doing something downstairs and she said well I thought about it but I have this giant mirror that's coming this really beautiful piece that's going over the couch on this you know, the one side and I said well perfect let's do something for the other wall what do you think about that and she said yeah, I think I would like that and so I said let's plan a second set of outfits and this grouping here is actually that second set of outfits the first set of outfits was in color and you guys saw their color clothing laid out on the couch and we ended up with the portrait that's on the front of this box and there is that's the entire family on the front there in color in front of their house you're going to see this session happen on the back just the kids so we've got is that better hold it still s o you know it's two different things were going for two different looks two different locations on this one I just took him down the street to an empty lot and got up on a ladder and shot down so I didn't see any of the houses behind him and you're going to get to see all that happened but you know this is just taking advantage of walking through the house and saying who what about this and making that suggestion all right and then there is one more video here and this is another session that you're going to see later but this this client is building a new home and so one of the things that I want and I'll just let you watch it and then we have this big light fixture that's going to be in there. I love that that's cool here's the plans and the tv will be here. The sectional will be here, okay? And then we'll be a big dining room table here and then this is the kitchen. We're gonna have one floors. Yes. Come on, that's going great. So this is facing, um you'd be looking out towards the backyard, okay? And this is where we're this is where we're decorating, okay? And then do you have measurements of each of these spots? Yes. Okay. And those walls are actually done enough that I could have you just stand straight to them and shoot and then we can bring those into the designs software so I might have you do that. And then we're going to be pulling in yellows and graze in with the couch and perfect. So you planned yellows, blacks and and that for your color scheme for clothing today? Yep, perfect, perfect dude, it awesome! I love it. I think I can't wait to see it all finished too e can't help but notice the little girl just sitting there snuggling with you like that. I thought that was adorable. I love the way you establish that kind of relationship straightaway. It's awesome, yes, you know, most of our clients we have photographed over the years, and so we do establish relationships with them. This the client that you just saw, I always tell her and tell her mom that america has watched her grow up because she's been in every video that I've done her name's lucy, some of you guys might recognize her, um, that's little lucy, but from the time that she was a little bitty on up she's been model for workshops and all kinds of stuff, but it just to happen this time, it's almost one of those things where, oh, hate to use the same family over and over, but it just happened that they had a session scheduled when I needed to do this, so it worked out and they're thrilled to do it so that's awesome, but they do. They are moving, and they're moving to a new home, and a lot of times we let that be an excuse. You know, when the client says we're moving, we're not really sure, sure what we're going to do yet. And and you know, I'm gonna answer to the client, you know, I love playing interior designer and so either either they could hook me up with their interior designer and I'll plan with them, which happens a lot of times or I'll let them know I want to plant here designer for you you don't tell me what you're doing talking about the color is tell me where you were going to do you have plans done yet? If they have plans done already, I'll ask them, you know, you know what? Walls are going where and you can get a client that was in the beginning saying, no, I'm not really sure what I want to dio maybe we'll skip this time doing something for the wall to getting really excited about actually doing something and planning their entire room around what you're going to do for their portrait. And so, um, this this family was not that issue. They're super excited always about portrait's and they've got tons of stuff everywhere, which is awesome, but uh, definitely love working with the families that we get to work with over and over again and you'll get to see those sessions and, uh, tomorrow and the next day, I think, alright, so let's talk through how this consultation goes if we're going to do it over the phone you've seen now me in a client's home and hopefully you understand it starts making a little bit of sense that when we can get the client invested in this process when they're actually laying out their clothes with the couch or with the betting or whatever is going on that they're goingto you know if we're gonna hang in that room I want I want to shoot for that room and so I want their clothes I'll be coordinated you know when that makes a whole lot of sense when you start talking in that way instead of just saying oh go and pick up the cubist new outfront storm gap you know and which is what my clients used to dio you know, they used to go and get whatever fun that they wanted to get and match everybody up and you know, but it didn't make sense when it came time to hang the portrait a lot of times it did for me because I shot in black and white so it didn't matter so much but you know, if I'm not specifically planning for a location it makes a little a little bit harder to sell for that location and so now we're planning and designing the session based on where we're going to hang the portrait and it really starts clicking in and it's fun for our mom's teo plan in this way you know they are pulling out stuff and I've even had moms that have have change stuff around they've bought new pillows for couches just based on what they wanted to be wearing and their portrait and you know wherever as we started talking about things she's like oh my gosh I could do this or I could do that and so we you know, just row ideas around one of the other things on the consultation planner after I have put their grouping together I'm going to really sit and think through what I'm going to suggest to them for clothing or even ideas for their session I'm gonna think of you know, props or locations and I'm gonna have those down I don't always give them to the client cause sometimes they they do their you know already like oh yeah we know exactly we want to do and I'm not gonna change your mind on that but I'm gonna ask them do you want suggestions for clothing and I've already told her I'm gonna have you lay everything out we're going to coordinate with this room she may have those ideas already but many times they want me to give them those ideas and so I want to have them written down so that it's quick and easy for me to say you know for this room I'm going to suggest neutral tones let's throw in a little bit of red they throw in a little blue to go with that couch and you know, I don't want you to go buy anything new I want you just go through her closet and pull those colors together try to stay within a pallet of three colors were goingto stay within the palate of the room, you know, and sometimes it is just all neutrals and they don't want to add any color or maybe it's just mom pulling in you know? Everybody's got on tans and denham and mom pulls in a blue scarf and we're suggesting that blue scarf because there's something blue in the room you know, so just kind of fun it's like accessorizing based on your home decor and then we're decorating for the home with the portrait so it all makes sense so if I'm doing this on the phone I'm gonna walk them through and, uh, you know, some of this we've talked about a little bit, but I wantto continue the conversation, you know, that's harder that we want to continue the process and be walking them through, but we started on the first phone call what we've been texting back and forth about, you know, now is the next step in that client education process, so I want to build that excitement I want to keep talking about all the things that they're going to get teo, you know, experience with these images and with with this design that we've done I'm gonna walk through their wall concepts with them. I'm going to design one wall concept for every room that they send me. So if they send me four snapshots, I'm gonna put together four designs for them in preview and you know if they send me to its me, too, if they send me sixty six, usually they're narrowing down on on the phone call. So what happens next is I'm going to send them over and it's going to be an email when they send the text message to me and text me over their images. I pulled him into my dropbox folder on my phone so that drop box app I love love love and it makes it super easy to transfer. Then I can open up drop box on my computer so I don't even have to plug in my phone to get those images they're there in the drop box, so I'll add those to the dropbox folder. I'll go to my computer pullem into preview make those designs for them, and then I'm going to email them back over to them. Another option is to do a skype call with them. If I do a skype call, I can just do a screen share and I can show them what I'm doing, and a lot of times I'll do that if it is a client like eliza she's building a new home, and I might want it she's been a client for long enough, but I might want to pull it up and play around with it with her, you know, build a concept for her and you know what you think about this when you think about that and let her make some choices in some decisions on the things that she's doing for this new home? So a skype call is great for that, and, uh, you know, basically what I wanted I wanted to do is show them these concepts and get them narrow down to what we're going to be shooting for, and I have already told them, you know, whatever rooms we choose, I'm going to be making clothing suggestions for that room, and I'm gonna be making a suggestion for a location and or or a background and so it's going to be, you know, something different for each one of those different rooms, so I'm going to show him, you know, four different things let's say, and then she is going to say, it might even be on the first one that I show her she's going to say, how much is this going to cost me? You know, I love this, but yeah, you know, I really wasn't expecting this and that's ok, my first answer is going to be you know what? Let's just walk through each one of the rooms that I've designed for you and then we'll go back and talk about the investment in each and we'll start narrowing things down and uh you know, I don't even have moms don't get me with me at that point and they'll say you know oh yeah you know howto you know, drag me into this right? You know? And they don't joke around about and that's okay, but I'll go through a noshow on the next one the next one and the next one and then at that time I'm in a letter you know, go back to the price, huh think and so I'll go back to that first room that we talked about and if this is the room I'm going to say here in the living room with these what we got here five, six seven with these seven prints and seven frames we're looking at about and I give her the price and then however she reacts it doesn't matter sometimes it's you know, not good sometimes it's fine um if with this grouping and typically I'm honest, I'm going to start, you know, with something like this and maybe even worked down like into the daughter's bedroom where I might hang one and so I'm gonna start with the biggest thing and uh you know if she wants to start narrowing stuff out I want her to start narrowing out the little stuff and so you know, this needs to be that wow that habit thing the first thing I show her I'm gonna say these seven prints with e seven frames is going to be about blank if she doesn't react I'm going to move on to the next room in the master bedroom we've got three prints and three frames with that entire grouping together you're looking at about blank and we just keep moving through if she reacts and at the very beginning and says whoa, this is not what I was thinking I'm gonna tell her the same thing I told her the first time let's walk through reach room I'll give you the investment on each and then we'll start narrowing down and so we're gonna go back through those four again I'll tell her the price on each and by that time things they're startling starting to settle in and she is making some choices and they're hard decisions because most clients want everything that you show them because they did they stood in front of this couch and took that snapshot and then they went in the back master bedroom and they took that snapshot then they went in their daughters around when they took that snapshot and if they did that they're expecting to see something from you you know this is some place that I would consider hanging my portrait that's why they took the picture and so you know they want them all it is a decision making thing where they're starting to narrow down I will tell my clients I want to help you get everything you want so let me know if budget is an issue I can help you with a payment plan we can do one thing now and one in a couple months you know we'll narrow down that way uh some of my clients don't even ask some of them don't ever ask about price and you will have that happened as well no matter who they are, you'll have clients that just yep I love it and I want it and it doesn't matter to them what it costs, you know, and most of them will most of them have a little bit of you know, they they've got questions and they want to know when they want to know what to tell or not to tell their husband and so, you know, I do want to equip them with all that information because I don't want to give them that information for the first time when they're sitting on my couch I want to have walk through those things I want to tell him this is what we're looking at I want him to start making those decisions and narrowing down is there a time when I absolutely lose a client at that point? Yep, it happens it happens very rarely usually by that time I've gotten them pretty excited about decorating and almost every woman you know can get excited about decorating her home and when she's got somebody that she trusts telling her this is gonna look amazing in this room and here's how you're gonna feel every time you see it you know it's it is a really we want what we want you know will pay for what we want and we're all that way there are certain things that we have tohave it might be a certain pair of shoes that we save up for and we have to have that pair shoes it might be you know, jeans for you might be a car it might be a bedroom, you know, soon furniture whatever there are things that when we want it we will figure out how to get it and so they don't know they want it until I suggested to them and so that's, you know, that's what I feel like my job is and, you know, somebody said online earlier, you know, I can't believe every all the time you invest in these people but that's my job you know, it's not my job just to take pictures and walk away I feel like for me from me personally part of my calling for even being this in this is just celebrate relationships and celebrate family and I believe walking away from them before they have something beautiful to enjoy is that's I would not be fulfilled with that so it is hard work it's a lot of work but you know what pays off in the end if I invest a little bit more time with my clients you know it is it is well worth you know, I would rather photograph fifty clients here um I photograph about two hundred twenty but I would rather photograph fifty clients a year for a certain average then you know two hundred and walk away from them and not make that money you know, this is this is my job it is my business and so I'm willing to invest the the extra work so that's uh kind of walking through that we're gonna work through that wall planner we're going to plant seeds for additional products a lot of times I will have moms and just take you know everything that I showed them you know yes this is gonna be investment yes I'm gonna have to work for this no, I'm not telling my husband how much this cost um you know but they know they love everything sometimes they're narrowing down to just one grouping and that's okay to those air those are great people to work with too I'm also always always no matter if they choose one or they choose for or however many I'm gonna plant seeds for additional products for those albums for those image boxes even for the photo jewelry you know just the fun staff we're gonna plant seeds for those things gifts um you know I want to talk through all of those things so I'm gonna make the clothing suggestions the location suggestions all based on each one of the rooms that were designing for and you know and hopefully that makes sense and it makes sense to the client when you when I tell them we're going to be planning for this room so I'm gonna make some clothing suggestions do you want clothing suggestions you know she's going to tell me what she's thinking if it's not going to go with the room and she's got an idea I'm going to tell her you know what let's photograph that in black and white if you want to go with those outfits in those colors since that's not goingto you know work with that dick or style in that room or not the style but the colors in that room you know what let's photograph the session of black and white it would make sense to her it's good we know what we're going for and so it makes the session run so much more smoothly so much easier and I know for me you know, ten years ago I was running all over the place, trying to photograph a cz much as I could as much variety z I could, because I don't know what they're gonna like, you know? And so I'm photographing one hundred and two hundred images and overwhelming them with images where now, it's, you know, I go and I shoot for what I'm shooting for, and we're done it's it's awesome. So, uh, I'm showing them things like this. This is built in preview, so this is actually a preview room s so that's cheating a little bit, but this is just, you know, I have a blank file, a blank j peg that's on my desktop that I load every single client and it goes into these frames. And the reason that I do that is because previews going to calculate the cost for me. I don't want it to just calculate the frame cost. I wanted to calculate the print costs as well. So I'm dropping in a blank file. So there, you know, it's just white blank. What? They can see it, and I can see the concept finished. Um, this is a client's home. So this is above their daughter's bed, and you know what they ended up with? Main portrait in the middle and two on the other side so you know where this is the kind of thing that I'm showing to them I'm exporting these from preview and e mailing them over to them and then this is what we're talking about when we're on the phone together. Um, this is that client that you saw the consultation with, and she wanted one, and she let me know from the beginning, she wanted one main family portrait for this. Well, I did show her more than one. When I went back, I showed her something different for this wall. She went back to the one that's, okay, I wanted to give her the option. She narrowed it down and that's fine. So we ended up with the color image here, these air those clothes laid out on that couch, which you saw happen. And so, you know, so that's kind of the process of that. And, you know, really it's that same thing when you've got a plan in place and, you know, scripted for it, you're leading the client through it. This is how this goes. This is how this works. They come along with you, and most of my clients get really, really excited about the process and being able to be involved and take those snapshots and really plan with me you know, this is where this is going to go and we're laying out are close and you know, once a client goes through that they are very, very invested in the process and you don't lose clients it's that or that invested you know? So yeah and I'll show you the download and then we can answer a couple questions today's yeah mode is that consultation planner and this is just something for you to print out for each and every client they're working with to work through and you're going to be able to print that and, uh, you know, go through that as your building there wall collections and then on the phone with them fantastic, another amazing and download that is included when you do purchase this course so let's start with our studio audience if you have any questions on the segment, you talk a little bit to the person that may not because I know this is how I felt when I first started doing the designing I'm not an interior designer, so what resource is education? I'm even thinking like design cottage with, well sorbet for that person that doesn't know how to make the arrangement the proportions thie ideas well, in a lot of that is and that's a good question and I actually get asked that a lot, you know what did you study to do this? I think most of us when it comes down to it we might be afraid to do it the first couple times but when you start playing around with it you know what's gonna look good with your images you know? And you know, so if you just start playing around and one of the funds things with the tools like preview preview makes it super easy to build a grouping and then I could just click on it and change the frame color I can click on it and change the image in the frame I can click on it and change the dimension of the frame I can move him around, you know? And so it makes it really nice you just you build your projects, I build each one of these individually and uh and then I khun pull him in and move them anywhere I want teo and then if I want to change the size or change color or even, you know, take wild surveyed a traditional framing to see what that looks like in that room and so that would be my suggestion is just to play around, you know, in a couple of catalogs and I love our restoration hardware and pottery barn they they all show portrait's in their in their catalogs and so you're going to see an entire room finish and, you know, pick if you photograph kids, pick up kids, pottery barn, pick up kids restoration hardware and just go through it and see what they're suggesting for placement because they're awesome, you know, there's design magazines, of course, even pinterest right now, you can go on and you can see awesome wall groupings and, you know, just go on and search for decorating the portrait on pinterest and there's tons and tons of ideas there, but design cottage is definitely a great resource and design cottages, a little division of wild survey frames where they will actually design your wall groupings foryou and a lot of people are loving this service because either they don't want to take the time to do it, but they know its value before their clients or they just don't feel comfortable putting the groupings together and, you know, it's definitely a great service and you pay a little uh, I think it's a monthly fee and you get up to so many clients that they'll design for you so great resource one question and about what kind of father are going in different rooms you put family photo xena in the bedroom with the parents bedroom and the parent's bedroom just absolutely keeps photos yes, absolutely okay that's one quick question from be photo and this is related to something we were asking earlier be photo says lord, you plan your shooting for the specific groupings or do you shoot and then create the groupings? How many photos do show them in an ordering session? I know you've said you do plan it out with them and shoot for that, but then do you like when you talk about number of poses? Is that then just you just shoot for that image, and then you just shoot for the next image and you don't just get safety shots or anything like that? Yeah, and I, you know, safety shots, isn't it interesting word, but I it's not that I only shoot thes yes, I shoot some outtakes and they, you know, kids falling together, and even if I'm planning, you know, something like this, I might say, okay, I'm posing everybody and it's it's loosely posed. I'm never formally posing anybody, so we're loosely posing, but we've got this family together and then after I've shot what I've shot, I might say, okay, everybody fall into dad, you know? And so we've got those shots and I still want to photograph that, but that's, not what I'm shooting for this main portrait, it might sit on an end table as an outtake because mom has to have it. Or it might go in their album because mom has to have it, and so we're gonna put it in an album, and alums don't have to be hard. I don't have to be custom design. You can do one image per page on an album you could do digital matting and just do you know, a five by seven image in a digital matte on it, you know, eight by eight page and it could go vertical or horizontal, you can make it easy and still offer those products. Do your clients even if you don't want to invest in that design time, but as an answer, I am shooting for the concept, and I do know I want one individual of each kid. I want an outtake of the family and I want a main family portrait image, but that's not where I completely ended. We want to have those out takes and fun things that kind of tell a story as well. Great, I think we got one last question from the audience. Um, so, laurie, you know that we're in album studio and we focus on the album's first, I still want my clients to be excited and invested and feel like they planned something, any suggestions on how to do that with an album, since we're not necessarily decorating for the wall? Yeah, and what I would do with an album is kind of like what we do with video. And that is, give them a story, starter worksheet and let them tell the story of their family. How do you want the story of your family to be told and give them some ideas and some questions that can lead them? Tio, you know, just spending some time investing in what those answers are. And then you are able to communicate that with your camera and tell that story.