Taking Photographs that sell Part 7

Part 7 on the business aspects of being a successful photographer by Ron Pybus MA ASWPP.

No matter how creative you are as a photographer, the main object is to sell images. To do this you need to take the images in the first place. Prior to digital, many photographers, faced with a sitting where the level of purchase was uncertain or it was part of a ‘free’ sitting, strictly limited the number of photographs they took. Their comments were: “I don’t want to waste too much film as they probably won’t buy”, not realising that, if you did not show people images, they would not buy them. Today the opposite can be true because digital images, with either projection viewing or miniprint proofs, cost little to produce and take. Photographers, who in the past shot only three or four of a baby sitting, will now often shoot 30-plus, and what is worse they display the whole set to the customer. Customers now often feel under great pressure and will often just purchase an odd print because one will stand out from the mass in front of them.

You need sufficient pictures to ensure the sitting is worthwhile, yet not too many to confuse the customer. For a basic sitting I have found that 10 images is a good compromise. Within that set of pictures there should be a range of images. If for example it is a family sitting, a couple of shots of the whole family, one with mum at the front (for her parents), one with dad at the front (for his parents), followed by the two children with mum, the two children with dad, the two children together, and one full-length and one head and shoulders of each individual child plus a third shot of the baby of the family. Ten totally different pictures.

It should not stop at that. With the two children together looking toward in their joint picture, the ones of the individual full-length children should be facing inward – one to the left, one to the right. When viewing, lay them out or project them as a trio and show them a triple frame. It’s amazing how many are purchased just because you have pointed out the possibility.

Customers always leave my studio with a detailed price list and an agreed time for returning to view the photographs. When they arrive to view, I always double check the name. Customers will sometimes arrive at a different time than planned and it is embarrassing to show them pictures of the wrong baby or wrong family. You, as the photographer, can also get confused because the female partner will have booked the sitting under her name and at the viewing the male partner will usually give his surname. When the confusion is sorted, the customers should be made welcome – we have toys for the little ones to play with – and then shown the pictures. I prefer to show actual prints, but, just as with screen projection, I put the pictures out one by one, giving them time to absorb each picture, before putting out the next. Only when they are all displayed do I remind them of the prices. There are pictures of all sizes on the wall in front of them with prices, just as a further reminder. There is also a price list displaying the prices for their particular package – so they are not confused with other 'offer' price lists and other services that are all listed in the main price list.

In laying out the photographs, I have pre-sorted them into groups that will sit together, as indicated above, regarding double and triple frames. At this stage I leave them to look at pictures and chat amongst themselves before they come to a decision. I object to being hovered over in shops and get so many comments about the hard sell when they last went to X or Y that I am happy that my images will sell themselves rather than my having to act as a doubleglazing salesman and refusing to let them go before they have spent several hundred pounds. I know that I will not get as much income per sitting as those who do the hard sell, but my whole business model is founded on repeat business and recommends that over a two-year period I will have made more than the hard sell merchant who only gets the family once and who often puts them off visiting any professional photographer for fear of the same treatment. I also do not have huge bills for advertising as most of my customers are either recommendations or repeat visits.

It will depend on your customers. If you have customers who rely on personal shoppers to help them, they will expect guidance and feel cheated if they are left to make up their own minds, but the majority of people do not fall into that category and hate being pressurised into spending more money than they had planned.

You still need to provide guidance but, for me, let them make the basic choice first and then when you go back you can indicate other combinations of prints that go together and outline other services you offer without them feeling threatened.

Years ago most people could imagine how things would look and people, for example, would buy houses and be able to see past the current owners' clutter. Now with the new profession of House Doctor and with TV programmes on house make-overs, sellers are almost forced to give their house a make-over before putting it on the market and, in general, most people cannot make the leap – so you have to show them. The same applies to photographs – you need to show frames, groupings and other services.

If you do not display double or triple frames and a variety of frame mouldings, people will not buy. The day I put my first canvas wrap in the studio I sold three, yet I had not had any enquiries until that day.

My studio walls and my viewing-room walls are full of different poses. I have mentioned in previous articles that I sit down and discuss exactly what people want, and then I shoot to meet those requirements. Especially with children involved, pictures do not always match original plans, but keep the pictures as natural as possible. One with a child climbing out of a plant pot can be more attractive and endearing than one with a child just standing in a pot.

If you get a couple of families together wanting a picture for the grandparents, shoot the whole family, plus each individual family, plus the grandchildren, plus individual children. You will soon sell at least one to each family of themselves, plus ones of their children, plus one of the whole enlarged family plus one just of the children, plus of course the group picture which they originally came to have taken for the grand-parents.

There’s more to it than taking photographs
Are you just starting out in business or thinking of
going into photography? Do you want to know more
before the next issue?
Ron Pybus runs two-, or three-day courses designed to meet your
specific needs. These are usually one-to-one or at most one-tofour.
They can cover all business aspects plus practical studio work,
lighting, etc and are held in his studio and training centre in the heart
of beautiful Wiltshire. Courses start at £150 for two days. For more
information contact Ron on 01225 774440 or email pybus@btinternet.
com or see the website www.pybusstudios.co.uk
Further details:
Ron Pybus, MA, ASWPP, AMPA, ARPS, DipPP, Cert.MPP
The Pybus Partnership
25 Bratton Road
West Ashton
Nr Trowbridge
Wiltshire
BA14 6AZ

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 penetrating statement, which can be described in a very simple term - selectivity. - Berenice Abbott American Photographer, 1898-1991