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Marketing and Price Points

I do have one question from thie. Only one ross who says hi, lou, you are amazing. Can you please summarize what aboutthe light placement in itself plays into the softness versus hard shadows in this particular set? In this particular set up, we had harder light to work with, and usually I like to pair that with drama are dramatic makeup and dramatic poses a little more, I guess intensity to the overall feel of it. And somehow the power of the pot's makes sexy. When I soften up the light, it seems like it gives an overall softness to the person you sort of feel like. You know that person. This gives a little intensity maybe a little intimidation comes about, but gives strength to the shot power to the person I believe. And the poses also have a lot to do with that poses I would do in this circumstance compared to what we were doing this morning with a ray with smiles is totally the opposite, right? When to do the right light appear. The pose is kind of like having the whole perfect out...

fit on for a woman. The right color shoes, bag jacket, everything all matches you want to bring the right kind of light with it as well. Hope that helps you shouldn't actually answer another question from fashion tv from earlier so that was like a two for one right the next question up is from barney who asked if you composite images in photo shop ever or do you try to get everything in camera yes I do on but I don't do it on everything I look at that it's a trend or a look just like someone asked me about the ring light earlier you want to use those things here and there but you don't want to overdo it if everything looks like a composited shot then you sort of get washed into that kind of style and you disappear the image behind you guys there is a composited image and that's made from there's probably four layers in that image it was shot with split lining just like we did here with john on the first set in fact it was the exact same speed light set up and had a different background of course a little more quite light feel and I knew when I started into it I wanted teo look like I was shooting through crack ice or a frozen ice princess kind of feel so I planned ahead and then while I was shooting that I use some of the graphic authority time was two templates and then I turned around and used some of my own thing I have all these crystals that I had had in some of the other beauty shots that were paired up with that same story and I photographed those in and out of focus later those into the image. And then finally it was like, you know, I love still love that whole dark and the edges feel and comptel I was a black and white printer in my beginnings as a photographer, so I always go back in and touch up the edges and make it frame into the center of the story and by doing all those things, I think it brings a drama back in. So when I used the templates, if I layer them and were closed, I was make sure that I pulled back off and show the close. Even when you look at that image there you can see off the impact is there, but you still see the clothes every image I create. I know that several people might want to have it it's not just the person I'm photographing, but what about the person making clothes? And what about the people who did the hair? What about my uses? Other other examples? So I try to think ahead and everywhere possible how to get the most other image and the images were beautiful with nothing done to them out straight at the camera, but I chose to take that tone is part of the look so I hope that kind of helps if I do it with everything that it kind of all starts to look that way, and I like the first until you have more than trying to make everything look, I want finished look well of that. So we do about twenty minutes, and I know that you thought you might want to talk a little bit about business and about kind of how you work with head shots. Is that what you want? Do you think I think that's probably a good idea, and then we'll wrap it with questions from today because tomorrow we're going to go in a totally different direction than we were today? Head shots. I know. This morning I spoke to una said a lot of my commercial clients probably never even knew I was shooting all these headshots in the background, and when I say shooting all these head shots, I probably in the younger part of my career would have fifteen people a week call me I can shoot ten or fifteen people a day now, I wanted to, but that's not how I want to construct it. I'd rather make images with impact that make a bigger statement and maybe get a little more money for amit, then trying to run out like a hamster on a treadmill. No, I'm not into the fifty nine dollars a head shot I want to do a little more with that so I made it my specialty wider. I have the people that I construct my business around that are the women in my age range then I have to make a person and hair person there because they really want to be fabulous. I have the women that want to do facebook pictures we had a lovely conversation when we were in italy about the impact of headshots and how many people want to look amazing. Everybody hello, everybody wants to look amazing. So the best thing you can do to start out is to shoot a body of work of gorgeous riel people and start showing that you might wantto join some clubs a wine club, for example take your portfolio in your book your bag show it. Have you have your images on your ipad in your bag? Show it so you want to carve out three or four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten avenues of income string for yourself here and then put in your head. When can I do this? Whether these people must likely to show up for the shoot I should the women from ten to two during the week when nobody's around those of the women that wanna have launch and have you know I have time out from their family want to really look beautiful there's plenty of people that asked me to shoot facebook pages they don't I'm in initially telling me that but I can tell that's what's gonna happen before they leave down the block there already posted the pictures on their facebook and that's what you I want you want them to go raving out the door about the photo shoot they had with you so that's just one level you know, today we talked about the commercial applications of people who really need photo shoots there's doctors, lawyers there's all kinds of people who do annual reports where every year from you might want to look at the fortune five hundred maybe take top fifteen in your area companies find out why the marketing department sarko showing your headshots if you can't get some work from that um enjoying these groups and different events is another way of getting yourself out there find out who the pr people in your local area there's you know and atlanta area where I from I would see these people at all of the events and I would always be showing them things at the events even if it's let's split second a couple of frames if you're excited about something you have to show guess what's going to happen business will further come so those are just some little easy things that you can do to construct that business model around but people that are shooting headshots don't want to see baby pictures I don't want to see you two are pictures you want to kind of put all that stuff in his own little marketing rapper tomorrow we're going to talk about glamour and boudoir and that's a whole different person you're going to want to shoot beauty shots of those people because the lighting and everything will be interesting and deep and rich that's a whole other headshot leaning over to the glamour like you see here on the girl on the right to really pump that up while you're shooting that's also a future client. So what ends up happening to me is all the girls find out who I am and they start chitter chattering and if I say I'm doing a shoot or I'm doing any kind of a project all of these people come out then after they all leave more shoots happened from that whether it's a commercial job or an advertising job or I'm doing a series of head trauma we want to find out consultants are in your area there might be two there might be two hundred I don't how big the city is she's from los angeles area right close so I mean there's a big business in that and there's money flowing out to buy the costumes they got their money together just like a wedding and they know they have to have beautiful photographs, so in the bigger picture of what you need to prepare for it want to study making making character studies of each one of the little groups have showed you today and I don't I don't want to see two hundred pictures of pageant girls you've shot I want to see the top three or four that were amazing I'd rather see you and know you shot amazing than see this unknown amount of information you're showing it's out of control and not well organized that makes sense. Some people just have all their pictures in one big folder it was so much nicer if you can categorize them out little sections and then when you're sitting at the you know, playing golf with your girlfriends and you can show them all your new portrait you've done of your lady friends you never know who's going to your next client and that client is going to tell the next people as far as where you shoot and how you shoot and what you pay for it you want to have a fee for the whole thing it's going to vary from where you live from what the market will bear in the beginning it's going to be low as you become known you could raise the price up a little bit of time ten fifteen percent of the time and as you're growing with it, the quality will grow and you will start to discover who your clients are, what you're best hat I have one of my assistants took over a job for me, and this was a job I could not do when he was I'm going to say, fifteen years ago, and it was an annual report for a major company, I couldn't do the job, I was off shooting other fashion catalogs, he took the job and it's nothing but headshots and he's been shooting that fifteen, sixteen years now and it's like a week and a half of work, and within that comes other jobs, so be smart never say that there's a limit on these kinds of things because you'd be surprised at where the money will come from and that when you're shooting the head shots, you can also offer prince and packages if you're not good at printing miller's lab does a great job of prince, you just have to upload your raw images or the tiffs that you want them to retouch imprint for you if you're going to do it yourself and want to have them printed that's also an option, um, they're here to service you, I've got. Books and things I'm going to show you tomorrow from more more glamour oriented stuff I've done so you can touch and feel that you want to just constantly have new things that you can show and not just show things on your ipad. You have it with you. Your phone is with you that's, okay, but there's, nothing more visceral than holding something in your hand. So in the world, just like I was speaking earlier about holding the integrity of the experience together with having the hair and makeup people there in the styling people there most of my chutes or not anything is complicated is what we did today and trying to get as much out there. But sometimes they are there's all kinds of a rush of hubbub that I keep going on around it always have food sitting out and snacks water. Most of the girls I shoot for glamorous but boudoir usually don't eat the day they come in at six o'clock they've been there since the morning, if I don't feed them something there there's no energy coming from their face. So if I sit the bowl of m and m's out there, usually gone, but I try to have more than that healthier snacks out than that when I'm shooting itself. When somebody calls you for a headshot, you really want to be quick to call him back and organized in the thought of what you want to present them with have two or three things that you can offer them steer them to the most shot you want to sell up, sell everything where you can what's gonna happen is you'll shoot them in the natural, then you'll shoot him in something theatrical then you shoot something really amazing that's your chance to get in there with beyond other uses they might have they're going to see that and then say, oh gosh, maybe I should come back and she's more shots like that a lot of the women that you're going to shoot have never seen themselves made up I did a workshop this summer and the most amazing thing happened in this workshop and it was the first time I've ever done this I had to make up on the first day do everyone in the class and then I set up all the lighting and then we took each other through all of that and then they saw themselves first all the students for the first time with their makeup professionally done there were twenty six people in the class five people tell me they had never had their hair or their makeup down ever and then would never have the shoot down without it because it makes you feel great you know, not to mention it makes you look great, it makes you feel great. I have times when people come into my space and if they had to make up done and there sitting there shaking from the traffic or whatever the experience I had before they got to me lets all of that pass and filter off and kind of go away and then all I have to do is bring perfect and then I have usually just I'm not in the middle of that, so that keeps any kind of odd energy from being a part of me, so when I magically appear in front of them, then it's a totally cool, different experience for them same thing with guys still have, you know, the powder situation if somebody comes in, they have absolutely no hair, I'm not going to force them to have a makeup person, but I will ask them to go get their makeup done and by the powder, and I'll tell them what to go get, and the acting industry men have to be able to do their own makeup, and sometimes the women do somebody starts going well, I don't know if I could afford the makeup I don't know if I really did and I was like, how many times I've been down that avenue? I usually say, well, if we don't do it first your your photograph, if it ever had a chance of being a ten it's going to be about a six and a half here is going to be e flat there's not gonna be any wow about it, then I'm going to be retouching, and you're gonna have to pay the difference for all of that. So it ends up it's just a much better thing, always random it sell the whole package. I have the makeup listed on my website on my link as a fee that they can pay additionally, so they know what to expect, and I asked them to deal with that person directly if they ask to have a meeting on a run through with the person, I connect them directly and let them handle it on their own. But it does make a difference and how the whole situation comes across. So you have any questions about anything this's all about actually making this a legitimate thing that you've been do right, and you can, you know, all through my career, on the plenty of money doing it. I can't tell you how, when I was in my twenties and I would go sash, I wish one more commercial job would come in, and I'd have twenty three people on the head shot list, you know, and just you can even think about the lowest rate you'd be paid that's still enough to survive on really on it is a young person and as now what I do with the head shots as I only scheduled on the weekends they're kind of bunched up in groups I kind of look at it if I'm going rollo this out for one person I might as well roll it out for three or four so to usually take one long weekend a month and it pays for you not to always be available you have to say well, well only got saturday the twenty sixth open they don't know that's the only saturday you're shooting because you've got something else to do on another booking during the week or some other job you're performing at the same time just you know book your makeup artists out in advance and picked two days that's where you might want to start and try to fill it up give yourself about three hours for each one of them takes an hour for hair and makeup and about thirty minutes to be what you plan on shooting but then you're going to want to look at the pictures and then show them I usually position myself in the same room sometimes with my computer work on the images right in front of it and I showed them the wild pictures as I'm shooting builds up the energy and it just kind of brings the whole thing and each time they see themselves it's also cool to see them when they haven't had their makeup done toe watch them suddenly like themselves for the first time I had a doctor last year cry that was a very dear friend of mine she came in and she's like I'm surrounded with models and I deal with them all the time and I've never thought of myself as being pretty and I was like well, don't cry really rake up before the actual shit happens but you know you can kind of see how you making somebody feel great about themselves there's something amazing there so maybe just one final kind of scenario what about like the one difference I think is for like when you're shooting you know, twenty lawyers or a ceo was like that where you I literally have ten minutes for them how do you approach that differently from a shooting I personally think the key to any kind of success and we're leaving yourself the photographer of the pressure of chaos that can happen is to be totally set up before they get there if you're you know if you're going to work with speed lights the last ball from shoot I did the entire thing with my rogues I went into the law firm I picked the angle they told me the shoot would start at one I got there about eleven fifty park my car went inside and packed everything are we you know kind of worked the office and make sure there wasn't too many props in the background I judge the ambient light I set up a road for the background a rogue jail on my speed light for the front I did a little clam shell version for the girls and I had a little guy set up and I would just switch on and off from my trigger which well I don't want to use shut in one day and out of every twenty minutes I just worked this one little room so it was perfect and then after it was done they all call me back and ordered like four five shots one guy called the back as he photographed his family in this mother so I was totally set up you know these people are going to give you much more you got to get down we're in ten, fifteen minutes you can bring it if you think back this morning how long were you on is that each time that went by really fast? No no so you said a really amazing thing to me today that's important tio how you felt in front of the camera you guys need to know what that feels like so when you had the chance to shoot each other I have to do a full makeover on yourself I mean, there's, nothing more awesome than that, you know, shoot what you should for your work. Then take yourself up to that. Next, we'll try to find handsome or sexy. You're beautiful within yourself to what you feel that and you can't wait to do that for other people.