Finding out what people want

Part 6 on the business aspects of being a successful photographer by Ron Pybus MA ASWPP.

This particular article is based primarily at portrait photographers, although the same basics still apply to wedding photographers.

It is not sufficient in today’s marketplace to offer purely a standard package, especially when you are shooting babies and families. Yet there are still photographers who stick to a standard format, no matter what is actually required and a few make a good living because of the exclusivity they have created. The majority appear to be on a downward decline.

Having a standard range of poses is fine in an 'in-store' situation where there is little space and no chance of variety and all you a catering for is families who want a photograph (any photograph) of their little one, for as little as possible.

If you are working from a studio, be that in the high street or as part of the home, you need to offer something different to your clientele. Firstly, they can get standard photos of the baby in the store for a fraction of the cost; secondly, a wide range of different poses sets you in a different league; and thirdly it makes a sitting fun rather than boring monotony.

Just as in today’s wedding photography there has been a move towards reportage style in children’s and family photography. At the higher end of the market you will probably have a pre-sitting meeting where you are able to discuss the customer’s exact requirements over a coffee and advise them regarding clothing and agree a photographic style.

At the middle of the market, the planning is often done over the phone where customers are advised on what to wear and a style is ascertained. This is usually followed by a brief discussion when customers actually arrive for the shoot. I regularly use my website when chatting about a booking on the phone. I direct them to a page of hints and tips and also to my section on portraits at www.pybusstudios.co.uk so that they are clear on what to wear and my particular style of photography.

When customers arrive at my studio I always sit down with them, usually at child level if children are involved, and we go through a range of pictures of different styles in order to gain an impression of what they require rather than what I can offer. I use my actual camera room for this process so that they all become more familiar with the surroundings. The walls of the room are also covered in photographs in a range of styles and these are used to give them ideas and to show them enlargements and framing, so they serve a multitude of purposes.

Only when we have looked at a range of images do we discuss what they want and more importantly whom they are for. If they are for Gran, for example, close-ups of the children and slightly more formal poses tend to be the order of the day, whereas if they are for a young couple, they usually want more relaxed images. If they are for his parents, he needs to be at the front, or for her parents she needs to be at the front of any family group.

If young children are involved, they do, to some extent, control the results. Much depends on how co-operative they are, but the aim should be to record the child as naturally as possible, rather than forcing them into a few set poses. I recently had one couple who had been to another photographer previously and were somewhat horrified when the child was almost forced into holding its hands in a particular way, because the photographer claimed that this was the way that hands should be photographed. The child looked uncomfortable, miserable and tense, but the hands were perfect. They brought the picture along just to show what they did not want.

I don’t think I have ever done two sittings that look alike. I recently had twin sisters with their children who wanted a combined sitting; one wanted no props, the other wanted baskets, plant pots, toys, etc. The big trouble came when the no props child saw the other one with all the toys!

We try to keep as close to the customer's suggestions as possible, always allowing flexibility even within the agreed brief.

At the end of a sitting I always check that we have the sort of images that they want and the combinations of people that they want. It is no use them saying at the viewing stage that they would have liked one with 'x'. This needs to be checked at the time of the shoot. You do need to persuade them of the value of certain groupings, such as the value to the child of having a picture of his or her parents at the time that the child is still a baby.

For model shoots and for sets of photographs of teenagers I always insist on a pre-shoot meeting. We discuss the objective of the photographs and I lend them books of cuttings from magazines and suggest they bring their own magazines along to the shoot. The cuttings are taken from the magazines that they read, because these are the ones that influence their thinking. They can decide which poses they like and bring appropriate clothing. Poses are never copied, but always adapted to approximate the style or particular image that the person has selected. Lending them a cuttings book full of images means that they become even more excited as the actual day of the shoot draws near.

Next time – taking photographs that sell and the viewing process.

Photo Quote: Let us first say what photography is not. A photograph is not a painting, a poem, a symphony, a dance. It is not just a pretty picture, not an exercise in contortionist techniques and sheer print quality. It is or should be a significant document, a pene- trating statement, which can be described in a very simple term - selectivity. - Berenice Abbott