If you're new to professional photography, you may think it'll be a great way to make money year round and while it definitely CAN be profitable, it isn't as easy as you might hope. Photography is such a saturated industry, so you have to be able to set yourself apart in the field. One way we like to do that is by offering mini sessions. There are so many reasons to love them but here are our top three! 1. HIGHLY MARKETABLE Everyone loves a good theme! Mini sessions give people the chance to get specific photos that they might not have thought of booking a session for until you give them a reason! Mommy and me sessions will draw in moms who are usually the ones taking the pictures, Father’s day minis will get dad involved, etc. You can book sessions year round based off of the seasons, holidays, or other themes you might come up with. 2. AFFORDABLE FOR CLIENTS People might not want to pay $300 for updated photos year round but if you give them an opportunity to pay $20 to $150 for some cute, seasonal pictures? You’ll have too many clients to handle! Price competitively for your area and know your market and booking sessions will be easier than ever.
3. AFFORDABLE FOR YOU! One of our favorite things about mini sessions is the fact that the theme is super easy to buy accessories for on the cheap! Most of the time, you can find holiday themed props at the Dollar Tree, Walmart, or Amazon for a really great price. You can spend a weekend doing mini sessions and make as much as you did during holiday card time! The efficiency of mini sessions is super great and one of my favorite things about doing them. We were able to make our tinsel wintery background for around $25 and it probably could've been even cheaper. On top of that, we can now switch out the tinsel colors and get tinsel colors to match any theme! OUR BIGGEST TIP? Don't undersell yourself! We only offered $20 "Insta Sessions" one time because there was less work involved than other types of mini sessions. Our winter "Insta Session" was set up in front of a backdrop and was marketed as a fun, trendy way to get cute Instagram photos. Since we wouldn't be walking around or doing very many camera setting adjustments, we were able to price it low and offer 4 time slots per hour. In hindsight, we probably should've charged more but it was fun and yielded results regardless!
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Okay, so now that the holidays are over, client’s looking for family portraits are few and far between. This time of year is particularly slow- for everyone- but especially for photographers. Even when I worked at Disneyland as a photographer things were SLOW. I went from working eight days in a row over Christmas to working a measly four hours for an entire week. If you can't decide whether a mini session is right for you, check out our post Why We Love Mini Sessions and you'll see why we love them! That being said, if you’re the type of photographer that doesn’t want a slow season, a Valentine’s Day themed mini session might be just the right thing. (Keep reading for a free prop checklist!) HOW WE PREPPED 1. MODEL CALL Our first step was to look for models! We are active in local Facebook groups so when we need models, it's pretty easy to find them! All we do is make a post asking whoever is interested to drop a "❤️" in the comments and to include a picture of their family. We then privately message families who fit the look we're going for! You could always do a contest instead, but we prefer to have more control over the entire look, so we're pretty selective. Be sure to let them know if they'll receive pay, photos, etc. We usually offer 5 free final images from the session as an incentive. 2. CHOOSING PROPS Next, we check out the Dollar Tree, Target, and Amazon for any props we might want to use to get the theme of the session across. We try to choose items that can be held easily and without blocking faces or looking awkward. Here's your FREE printable Valentine's Day mini session prop checklist that you can bring with you when shopping! We especially liked using the lollipops and the wooden letters because they're super easy to hold and pose in a somewhat natural way. Plus, the suckers were a great way to bribe excited kiddos into listening to directions! 3. MOODBOARD + MODEL GUIDE If you're anything like us, you'll want as much control over the model sessions as possible. We know it's a little control freak-ish of us but when we know what we want, we like to get it done quickly and correctly... the first time. We put together a board on our Pinterest account specifically for this year's V-day minis so that we know exactly what we're looking for, then we start curating a model guide for our chosen family. It includes our clothing suggestions, example images, and other helpful tips to make sure everyone is on the same page before the session. 4. RSVP PAGE + PROMOTION We made an RSVP page for clients interested in booking a slot for the Valentine's minis and started pushing the session on our social medias and in local Facebook groups! This is really the last step in our prep stage because after you start booking sessions, you're golden! The final step is to crush those sessions and turn those clients into repeat- bookers. Hopefully you've found this helpful or interesting! If you're a photographer and planning Valentine's Minis, tag us in your Instagram photos! We'd love to see em- especially if you used our prop checklist! Don't forget to subscribe to our blog to make sure you don't miss any of our behind the scenes content! When planning a photo session, one of the most important factors is location. The location of your session controls the mood and it’s important to be mindful when choosing. Feel free to include these tips in your welcome packet and keep them in mind when clients ask "What's a good location?" Here are our best tips! Convenience vs. Aesthetic When researching locations for a photo session there are many things to consider. One of the most important things, especially for families, is convenience. Are they willing to drive a bit further for their desired look or would they prefer to stay local? You don’t have to sacrifice quality for convenience, but if your client wants a more urban look, it’s harder to achieve in the suburbs than if you were to travel to a bigger city. Interior Design Another helpful tip is to consider the style of a client's home. For example, if their home leans toward beachy decor, you may want to consider doing your session at the beach that way when their prints arrive they’ll automatically match their existing decor! A good way to make sure your images will look good in any home is by avoiding editing them to be too cool-toned or too warm-toned and by having a consistent style. When clients book you they'll already have an idea about how your style and their style will compliment each other! Choose a Meaningful Location Choosing a location that your client is comfortable in and visits often can be a great choice! Especially if it’s one they've made lots of good memories at. This can help them feel much more relaxed, happy, and lead to overall more natural looking photos! For family sessions, it’s a good idea to consider locations where the children will be comfortable and can have loads of fun! Be sure to mention this to your clients in their welcome packet or sometime before deciding on a location! Crowds Regardless of the location you choose, there are likely to be other people nearby. Choosing a location that is usually very crowded can be uncomfortable for you and your clients, and can make it difficult to get perfect snapshots with no one else in the background. If you do choose a busy location, it’s best to go earlier in the morning when it’s less crowded. Plus, lighting in the morning is very flattering! Staying local? STAND OUT! Our home base is Temecula, California which isn't a huge place! What we often notice from other photographers is that they choose easily recognizable locations like Old Town, Harveston Lake, or the infamous (among local photographers) Glen Arbor. There's absolutely nothing wrong with these locations- they're beautiful! But if you want to stand out, avoid crowds, and give your clients timeless images, it might be nice to switch it up and choose places that aren't as easy to decipher. All that being said, clients may want a variety of locations and that might include some where it's easy to tell their photos were taken close to home! It all depends on your clientele and what they're looking for. If you've been living somewhere for a good amount of time, you've probably found all the most popular photo spots and can instantly tell where a photo was taken and we like to stand out a bit more than the others by thinking outside the box, EVEN if we are at the famed, local picture spots. Ease of Access Some locations require special permits or fees in order to do a session there. This can take some time to obtain, so if there’s a special location you’d like to use, let your clients know that it could postpone their session and may cost extra. Also, keep in mind how “walkable” your location is. Is it easy to get to while wearing photo session attire? Will it be difficult to keep clothing free of mud or grass stains? Can everyone being photographed get to the location without any physical discomforts? We hope these tips will be helpful in deciding on your photo session location. Tag us on instagram @pixelchixpics and let us know which tips you used or liked best! 1. The Perfect Skin trick! Want to give your clients perfect (but realistic!) looking skin? Use the brush tool in Lightroom and set “texture” at around -50. Make sure everything else in the brush tool is set at 0, then “paint” the effect right over your client’s skin. We encourage you to tinker with the level to avoid that artificial Barbie-skin look! Remember, you want your clients to look like real, living people, not plastic versions of themselves! 2. Don’t use presets! While presets can be great in some cases, it’s important to have a style outside of that preset. Your “golden hour” preset isn’t going to make every photo look perfect or automatically fit in with the rest of your portfolio, so don’t rely on them exclusively. 3. Adjust specific colors to create a balanced photo. You may want to bump the saturation in certain photos to get a vibrant, lively look. Some colors are less appealing to the eye, or even distracting in some cases. Let’s say a member of a client’s family wore a bright teal shirt for the session and it’s totally throwing off the golden hour vibe. You can tone down that shirt by adjusting the cyan saturation in the “Color Mixer” tool. This works especially well on blue toned shadows on the skin, if you happen to capture some photos in cooler toned lighting. 4. Grainy photos? If you’ve come back from a photo session only to find that your ISO was too high, don’t fret. There are three tools in Lightroom that can save your photos! In the “Effects” tool, you can use the “Texture” and “Clarity” slider to reduce that grainy look. Just slide one to the left and you’ll notice that grain disappearing. You can use both, but I prefer to use one or the other (usually I choose “Texture”). You can also use the “Noise Reduction” slider under “Detail” to mend grainy photos. Exercise caution, as these tools can all lead to loss of detail or a fake, plasticky look! 5. Make your own preset for every session. Okay, I know I said not to use presets, but they can be great for individual sessions. This can be a fantastic way to learn the ropes of Lightroom AND find your brand’s style. To make a preset, import a sample image (preferably one with no edits) and start toying with the sliders. Once you have the look you want, go to the top of the column and click the … next to “Presets,” then select “Create Preset.” That’s all there is to it! Then you can apply the preset to the photos from the session to give it a cohesive look. If you come back from a session and notice that the reds are too saturated in nearly every photo, create a preset that caters to toning that down. You can then make individual adjustments as needed. I hope these tips are useful in your future photo editing process! If I knew all of these tips from the beginning, I would’ve saved a lot of time and produced way better photos for clients! Let me know which tips you plan to use going forward! |
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