How much should I “sell” my Clients?

February 16th, 2010

Cape Cod Beach and Family Portraits

Let’s talk business. Selling Portraits

Don’t you just hate that word “selling”. No one wants to be “sold” anything.

When we go to our local stores they have products…”available for us to purchase”. Of course they create beautiful advertising materials that are supposed to lure us into their stores. When we get inside, if it is a food retailer they hope the ambience and aromas will entice us to make a purchase.

Sometimes we may be walking in a commercial area where  a staff member may be standing outside the restaurant asking everyone who passes if they would like to stop and try their…..

So, we have to “sell” also, unless we are just hobbyists. We have to make a living. People know about food, furniture, computers, video games, etc. They don’t really know about displaying a wall portrait. The first thing you hear when you attend the average workshop conducted by a nationally recognized speaker in our industry is “I will show you how to sell your clients thousands of dollars in pictures”.

Wow, doesn’t that sound great!!! Or does it. How would you feel if every time you entered a store to make a purchase the clerk tried to sell you the biggest, most expensive item in the store. Don’t you prefer it when the clerk asks “How may I help you today”.

Selling is the concept of providing a customer with a product or service they need. Don’t confuse the idea that we would love to have everyone purchase a 30×40 Canvas Wall Portrait for $3500. Some clients might want just that. They have a place in their home for it. They know it is a once in a lifetime type portrait of their family, or young child, and more importantly, they can afford it.

But, can all of your clients afford that item. Probably not. So, might it be a better idea to match the client with what they really need, and can afford. Might it be a better idea to create different “products” that might be more appealing to your clients than simply trying to sell them the biggest most expensive picture you can produce.

I have been in this business for over 30 years. I never tried to oversell my clients. I look at my clients as a permanent free advertising program. My clients purchase what they need, want, and can afford. I give them and “overstuffed” sandwich”. I always include something extra in their order. I consider it an advertising cost.

There is also the other side of the story. Clients think a “big” picture is 11×14. It might be perfect for them if they are hanging it in a hallway or small room, but when they see that image projected as an 11×14 versus a 20×24, they might realize they really do need a larger image for that space over their fireplace.

Here is an example of my “sales technique”.

I recently moved my business to Cape Cod in Massachusetts. Beach Portraits are very popular here. The standard finished product/concept here is the largest picture size the photographers can sell the clients. There is no question the large wall portrait of a Cape Cod Beach Portrait is popular. People want one for their walls.

But, many people have small children. Small children grow up. People don’t always want to buy the super expensive large wall portrait when they have 3-7 year olds. I introduced my 20×24 Beach Portrait Composites last year and they were a huge hit. Guess what. They cost me the same as the individual large wall portrait. I don’t charge any extra for the additional images in the picture.

Please don’t fall for the hype generated by the main stream “speakers” in our industry who tell you that you have some incredible skill, and you have to charge an arm and 2 legs for your work. Yes we do have some skill, but I think when a client is spending $300-$600 for a picture we created in 1-2 hours…we can add a few additional images to the package and be happy. Remember-”Overstuffed sandwich”. You will have a very happy client, they will tell their friends, and they will come back year after year. And…one day when those youngsters are grown, that client will order the 30×40 Canvas Wall Portrait.

Don’t “sell”…create unique products that your clients will want to purchase, and you will never have to sell them.

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To Photoshop or Not to Photoshop, that is the question.

February 11th, 2010
bob kahn window light portrait

Simply Beautiful

Before Photoshop, most of us had our picture retouched to remove blemishes in portraits, and a few exit signs in our wedding images.

Back in the 50’s and 60’s many photographers actually did their own retouching and print enhancements. Since that was a skill I was not good at, I guess I decided it was a better plan for me to “get the image in the camera”.

When I needed a negative retouched, I sent it to an experienced retoucher and let them do it. Same with enhancements on the prints.

When Photoshop first came on the scene I really didn’t see things much differently. Even Photoshop takes some dexterous skills I am just not good at. I also began to see a trend emerge. I began to see Photographers entering our profession thinking they didn’t need to know much about how to use their cameras or think they needed to learn any of the craft. This is a craft.

Time is an interesting thing. If someone told me, “Wait 10 years”, they will see Photoshop does not make good images”, I would have said they were crazy. Well, about 10 years ago I dropped out of the actual shooting scene and kind of went sideways into the software side of the digital wave. I developed software for labs and photographers to use to send orders to their labs, post images to the web for viewing and sales, and also to design albums. (www.previewgallery.com/pro)

That business is doing fine and over the past few years I simply got bored with it. I missed taking pictures. I missed creating my beautiful portraits and being told how happy my clients were with my compositions.

Along the way, I began to hear “grumbling” about how clients/brides were tired of looking at thousands of images of flowers, table settings, kids, feet, and just about everything else that could be photographed nicely on their weddings…except THEM.

Last year I attended a few PPA meetings at the local level in a few different states. I saw a theme developing. I saw images in Print Compotitions that were NOT photojournalistic. I saw images that were NOT all “Photoshop Effects”. What I saw were photographers actually trying to create good old fashioned, nice pictures in the cameras.

Problem was, they did not have the skills. Over the past 10 years the Photojournalists, since they were the majority, persuaded the world that they had the better mousetrap. Since it didn’t really take a lot of skill to take 2000 images and sort them down to a few hundred good one’s new photographers flocked to their “side”.

One single man, maybe two men, are more responsible than anyone for the demise of our craft. No names need to be metioned, we all know who they are.

It may have actually taken 10 years, but the truth is coming out. Photogs are finally realizing, and I will quote and established, experienced portrait photographer, Chris Booth, from Beltrami Studios in Vermont “ you can’t fix a bad picture with Photoshop”.

Photoshop was designed for the commercial graphics industry. They have many wonderful tools in there for working on the enhancement of color, density, contrast, burning, dodging, text, compositing pages, etc. What it can’t do is help you fix a poorly posed portrait of your clients. It can’t fix incorrect lighting.  The latest fad is HDR. It will pass soon. It had it’s 2 year lifespan. It’s a great effect for art, but for portraits and weddings, it is just a gimmick. It does not make a poorly composed picture look better.

This is a funny thing. You could probably “paint” in a correct lighting pattern on a poorly lit image, but you would first have to know how to light it correctly to know how to paint it in, and if you know how it should look to fix it in Photoshop, you might as well have taken the image correctly in the first place.

So, here is my story. I compose every image correctly in my camera. I pose and light my subjects correctly in my camera. I used to soften and vignette them in the camera but the digital media does not react well to objects (filters) placed in front of the lens. This year I will be experimenting with softening filters and a bellows with vignetters this year.

So, if I can create perfect images in my camera, what is left to do in Photoshop. Retouch blemishes. Remove exit signs.

I know this kind of bursts your bubbles about where the actual skill is. Through my software business I get to speak to all kinds of photographers, new and old, skilled and…oh well.

I used to try and offer advice to some of these people. I remember trying to explain some of this to one of the photogs and her response was “excuse me, but I have a degree in fine art from XYZ college and I am a certified Photoshop whatever”. Recently i met a woman in a social environment who said “I must not be much of a photographer since I didn’t really know Photoshop very well”.

I am not bragging, but I think if you visit my website, you might see I “ain’t bad” at what I do.

I will leave you with this thought. Stop buying all the books and magazines that teach you Photoshop. Stop attending endless Photoshop workshops. Spend more time learning how to create in your camera, not in your computer. Adobe won’t be hurt by my comments. We all need Photoshop in the digital world. We own it, we pay for it, but some us us don’t think of it as the tool we need to create great images.

I am adding a lot of posts right now to get some interest started. Fell free to comment. If you want to criticize mine or anyone else’s images when they are posted here, you must include your versions of the concept, or a link to your website so we can see what you do. It is only fair.

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Did you use a Reflector or a Strobe in this picture?

February 11th, 2010
window light portrait by bob kahn

Classic Elegance

This is one of the most commonly asked questions I receive when people look at my window light images. the answer: NO.

I don’t need any additional lights or reflectors because I pose and light my subjects “correctly”. I know many of you are the new generation, digital photogs. You have been totally mislead into believing you”have a good eye”, and because you take great pictures of scenery, your friends kids, or you captured some photojournalistic images at a wedding…you are now qualified to be a Professional Photographer”.

Oh well…you are not.

You have been lead to believe you simply aim and shoot, and then fix it all in Photoshop.

Oh well…you don’t.

I don’t need any additional light modifiers in my window light images because I learned the craft. This is a craft, not an art. I learned how to pose and light my subjects correctly.

Let me describe my window light pose to you. Look at any window light image of an individual woman.

Description: Feminine 2/3rds View of the face, Eyes back to the camera. Modified Loop lighting pattern, Short Light direction.

I learned how to do this pose and light it correctly by learning the craft of “Posing and Lighting”. It is a skill I learned, now I teach it.

So, while you might think I don’t want to tell you how I created that, and many other of my images, the truth is I just told you. The problem is, you just don’t understand the “Language”.

Unlike most other blogs and forums on the web, mine is “in your face”. I am not looking to win a popularity contest, I am not going to try and sell you any stupid light modifiers that really don’t work, but I know you don’t know enough to know that, and when you figure it out, I will already have made my money fooling you.

I don’t try and sell you my 99 Photoshop Effects that I created to compensate for my own lack of skill and figure you might use them to compensate for your own lack of skill.

Visit my website, look at all of my images. About 3 of them have a simple grain/texture on them. I use a $49 program called Professor Franklins Effects. None of the window light images have any additional fill lights or reflectors. The outdoor portraits have a flash fill only if the subjects are looking directly into the camera. ONE window light image has a burned it vignette that I did in Photoshop.

None of the images have been burned or dodged to improve the subjects faces. A few of the studio images have a bit of Photoshop burning on the edges.

Point is…I create in the camera, not in the computer. I get my images, posed, lit, composed, cropped…all in the camera. I send my images out to www.retouchup.comfor any retouching. They charge $2.50 per image, not head. They do a remarkable job. My time is more valuable behind the camers than in front of a computer.

This is a website/blog that will constantly remind you that this is a craft. I learned it over many years of satudy and practice, and review of my images by my teachers.

I will be glad to help you become a good, even great, skilled photographer, but you have to decide if you want to learn the craft. There are no shortcuts. You decide to learn, and I will direct you through your journey. I can teach you the skills you need to create any images you see on my website. You can study hard and learn it in 6 months, or take your time and learn in a year.

But I can make this statement. It is highly unlikely you will ever learn it on your own. My images, along with many other Master Photographer’s images are all over the web. If you could learn by looking at them, you would be there already.

My website address is www.bobkahn.com

Visit look, ask questions. I can answer some technical questions quickly and easily, but the Posing and Lighting requires some schooling.

Am I trying to sell you anything. Not really. This industry has been very good to me. I work now for the fun of it. And I am willing to share my knowledge for a very small fee. I learned over the years, people don’t take the information seriously when it is free.

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Can I have my room lights on when doing portraits in my Studio?

February 10th, 2010

I am beginning to hear questions that I haven’t heard in many years. It seems that our new generation of photographers have not had the opportunity to learn the basics we “older” photographers had to learn.

So, let’s talk about the basics. Fstops, ISO (ASA), light, and a few others details.

The question is actually, “is the image I am creating going to be effected by the room lights if I leave them on”. The answer should be “No”. I say “should be”, because we need to know a few things before we can answer that question correctly.

Let us assume you are setting your camera at F8-16. You are using an ISO of 200. Your shutter speed is above 60th of a second. If your settings correspond to my suggestions, your room lights should effect your images.

So…WHY???  or Why not???

An average room is lit with a 100 watt light bulb, or equivalent fluorescent lights. They may a bit brighter, but probably not more than 150 watts. More than 150 would be too bright for average room light.

You will do an experiment.

Set your ISO to 800, FStop to your widest opening. Shutter speed to 30th of a second. These setting would allow you to create natural light images in any room with a 100 watt light bulb.

Take a few pictures, no flash. Natural light only. Go…take some pictures….

Ok. you got images, right…..

Now…let’s learn about “light”.

We talk about light values in FStops. We might say, “our film/camera has a range of 4 Sstops”. That means if we are creating an image with an FStop of F5.6, and that is the correct exposure value for that image, if we close our lens 5 FStops…to…F32….what would happen? We would have an underexposed, probably black image.

Now, let’s translate that to our room light. F2-3.5. ISO 200, 30th of Sec Shutter Speed.

Your Studio Strobes: F11.

Do you know how to do the calculations?

From F3.5 to F11 is is 3 stops.

ISO 200 to 800 is 2 additional stops.

Normally, these setting alone should do the trick, but now raise your shutter speed to 125. That adds 2 more stops.

So, most digital cameras have about a 5 stop range. If you add up the difference between the natural light (room light) settings, and the Studio Strobe settings, you are 7 stops away.

Test: take a picture without the Studio Strobes on, using only the room lights, but use the Studio Strobe settings…you should have a black image.

NOW….I will assume if you didn’t know all about this, you probably don’t know why we turn off the room lights. I will also assume you don’t know much about posing and lighting either. This is not an insult, just an observation.

If you understood that you need to pose your subjects correctly, before you can light them, you will also understand that you cannot see the correct lighting pattern on your subjects face if the room lights are left on!!!

If you want to learn more about Posing and Lighting, you can purchase my DVD on the subject. www.bobkahnworkshops.com. Only $49.

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Hello world!

January 19th, 2010
studio portrait by bob kahn
Classic Studio Portrait

Welcome to my new blog. Visit often, ask questions. Nothing is off limits. Send me your images and I will be happy to give you my guidence.

A brief description of the image above.
Studio Portrait
Novatron 220 WS power pack (cheapest lights you can buy)
1 $15 Silver Umbrella to light their faces
1 Background light
1 “kicker” light
Pose: 2/3rds view, Eyes back to the Camera
Short Lighting Direction
Modified Loop Lighting Pattern
Retouched blemishes on womans face. $2.50, done by www.retouchup.com
No other work done on this image. No Photoshop Effects, filters, gimmicks.

This is a simple portrait I take with my “skill”. You can learn how to do it if you decide to.

All sound like a foriegn language to you, right? Well, if you don’t actually know anything about Portrait Posing and Lighting, it is.

This is a “craft”. I have a skill that allows me to take this, and any other images I want to create, in minutes. I set my subjects in exactly the position I know will create a beautiful, creative, “Flattering” portrtait of them. I fire 4-5 frames to avoid blinks and change expressions. I don’t ask then to move into 20 different poses and “finally”, get this image.

It’s a craft…you decide if you would like to learn how to do it.

This is not a “Photoshop” forum. I send my images out for retouching, and I don’t really know much about all the tools in Photoshop. As they say, I know enough to be dangerous.

Our industry has been hammered by “Photojournalism”, Photoshop Effects”, gimmicky “Light Modifiers”, and endless other things that have taken us away for what we really need to know to make flattering images for our clients.

This is a place to learn about Classic Portrait Posing and Lighting.

If you are tired of taking 1000 images in the hopes you “got a few good ones”. If you are tired of going on a portrait shoot and feeling “out of control”. If you think you just fix your lighting problems in Photoshop. (because you can’t)

Then this is the place to be.

Our industry is experiencing an incredible transition. For over 15 years the “Photojournalisitc” concept of relying strictly on taking endless candid images, and hoping for a few good ones…has finally run out of steam. People can be fooled for just so long. It actually took longer than I predicted years ago, but the time has come.

People want to look good in their photographs. Plain and simple. They don’t care if you own a MAC, they don’t care if you have 500 Photoshop effects you purchased, they don’t care about all the “hype” you try and seel them about you ability to “capture their natural essence”…..it is all poppy cock!!!

People just want to look good!!!!

So, it is your choice to make. If you are successful with your style, if you don’t spend any money on advertising, if you are a wedding photographer and you book every wedding by referral, and of course, your clients are happy with how they look in the images you create for them, then you might not need me.

But, if you don’t get a referral from every wedding. If your clients say “the pictures are nice, it must be me, I just don’t take a good picture”. Then…you need me.

Let’s face it. We are the only industry, product, or service that has people enter the profession because they simply decided to become a professional photographer, then they try and figure out how to actually take good pictures.

Instead of spending your money on Photoshop effects, silly light modifeirs for your on camera flash, and who knows how many other gimmicks are being thrown at you…why not STOP, take a deep breath and actually decide to learn the craft.

Yes, it is a craft. It is not “Johny has a good eye for photogrpahy”….and you decide to ruin more people’s pictures and weddings.

I guess you realize by now, I am not trying to sell you any gimmicks or hype. I am hitting you right between the eyes. You have to face reality.

I am trying to find a few select people who finally realize their current way of doing business is not working. I am trying to find a few people who really want to become skilled portraitists.

No matter what the Photojournalists tell you, they are all trying to create some concept of a portrait on every session and wedding. They huff and they puff and in the end…they still fail at it.

The very next time you have an opportunity to purchase another Photoshop effect, or another DVD about lighting, or “flow posing”, or attend another workshop where the instructor is showing you awkward, “lewd” poses of wedidng couples…take your $100 and buy my posing and lighting DVD’s. I gaurantee you will see a 500% improvement in your work or I will gladly refund your money.

Oh yes, “Lighting”. Every speaker, lecturer, workshop giver, book in Barnes and Noble will try and “sell”  you on the idea that it is the “Light”.  The glorious light. Sorry…it is actually the “Posing” that matters. Light just compliments good posing. If you can’t pose your subjects correctly, you can’t light them. It does not matter if you learn to “see the light”. If your subjects heads are turned in the wrong direction and the light is not positioned correctly, you just get harsh shadows, fat looking faces, and very unflattering images for your clients.

It’s the POSING!!!!

Thank you for visiting.

Bob

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