School photographers have a very particular customer base in comparison to other photographers. They need to simultaneously appeal to parents, schools, and even the kids themselves. This offers a huge range of potential creative ideas to employ to best engage with this diverse audience.
The key to success is to demonstrate why your school portraits are worth paying top dollar for. There are so many different means available to do so, and finding the ones that work for you is key to managing the marketing side of your business. Experimenting and being creative with your strategies is not only fun, but allows you to test out new and dynamic ideas on the fly.
Worry not though, because we have compiled nine tips that are sure to help make your photography business stand out, gaining you the recognition that every school photographer seeks.
1. Launch a Referral Program
Hopefully, your photos already have people talking about your business, but even then, it doesn’t hurt to have a little boost. That’s where initiating a referral program factors in. Incentivising customers to recommend friends and family to buy portraits from you is mutually beneficial. It earns you new business and allows customers to provide meaningful suggestions to people who will trust their opinion.
There are numerous ways that you can go about launching a referral program. For instance, a discount can be provided on a per-session or a per-print basis. Just be mindful to only give referral bonuses to customers who successfully gain you a new client. Put simply, do not provide any discounts until the referral books and pays for a product. Pricing can be complicated for school photographers, so make sure to do yourself justice.
2. Interact With Your Network
Working within such a community-based industry as school photography means that you will constantly be meeting like-minded people. Make the most of this. If you meet someone from a school you’re not working with, be sure to make a good impression.
With a finite pool to work from, ingratiating yourself with those around you is vital to helping your photography business grow. Schools also often prefer to work with photographers they know, so networking is the best way to get your foot in the door.
3. Give Thank You Cards or Small Gifts
Along the same lines as thanking your customers for referrals, it can also be beneficial to thank your customers for their business. Showing your appreciation can take many forms, such as providing “thank you” cards after each photo day. These can either be standard cards, or you can enclose a personalised, handwritten note for each school.
Depending on the size of the school, providing the kids with small gifts could also entice orders. This could be something as simple as a pocket-sized photo from your portfolio. It also gets your images and branding into the hands of the parents. Emailing low-resolution or watermarked versions of some of your favourite photos from a shoot could also prove effective.
Families will delight in receiving free downloads, and will likely share the photos along with your business’ name across Facebook and Instagram. This will provide an excellent boost for your brand and business.
4. Get Featured
An easy way to reach a new audience is through advertising to an already established one. Many online blogs, local publications, and social media pages feature photographers.This occurs mainly through interviews or recurrent series such as “photo of the week” posts. School and Preschool Photography is a great example of a dedicated community that can offer helpful advice or simply a space to get your name out.
Reach out to these content publishers and see if they have an interest in you or your photography business. Receiving promotion via these channels will not only legitimise your business to current customers, but it will also promote your work to potential clients.
Another worthwhile medium to solicit is your local newspaper, especially as schools are such community-orientated spaces. Reach out and see if they would be willing to feature you to highlight local businesses. If they have an opinion section, submit relevant articles on behalf of your brand. It’s all about targeting as many avenues as possible!
5. Give Back
Another easy way to generate conversation about you and your business is to consider taking some photos for free. Providing photography services to community organisations will give you a new means of contact with potential clients, in addition to gaining you some sweet karma for being charitable.
Even if you typically do not engage in event photography, covering an organisational event for free is a quick way to build relationships and spread your business’ name through word of mouth advertising (more on that later). Find a cause that might appeal to schools and families to further awareness of your brand in relevant circles.
If you aren’t looking to photograph events, perhaps there is an education or child-related non-profit organisation that needs new headshots. In either case, you can include your watermark on the images you take or ask for a shout-out on any web pages where the photos appear. Even if the people who you photograph never end up using your services, they may pass along your name to their contacts who are seeking a photographer.
To approach these opportunities and form meaningful partnerships, use the organisation’s publicly available contact information and present your pitch. State that you are a local photographer who wants to donate their time and services to a worthy cause. Emphasise how you identify with the work the organisation commits to, and how donating your photography efforts is your way of giving them a helping hand. They will more than likely welcome your skills! From there, decide upon the venue, show up, and start shooting!
6. Utilise Word of Mouth Advertising
Give people something to talk about, specifically, your photography. Word of mouth advertising is the crème de la crème of marketing techniques. Most people trust the opinions of their friends and family members more than any advertisement or promotional campaign that they see.
As such, you should focus on giving your clients a good reason to talk about your business with their peers. One way to do this is to launch a referral program. But, there are also additional methods to get your business’ name on everyone’s lips.
A classic approach is to under-promise and over-deliver with your service. For instance, tell clients that it will take a week to deliver their photos to them, and instead have their images ready within a couple of days. As we already mentioned, you can provide clients with gifts or thank you cards after the photo shoot, thereby enforcing the notion that you truly appreciate their business.
An easy way to make a long photo session more enjoyable for clients, especially kids, is to provide some snacks or refreshments throughout it. Making a pitcher of cucumber water or bringing out some fresh-cut fruit is a simple gesture that will make a great impression and get clients talking.
Using the method of under-promising and over-delivering, your customers will be more than happy to promote your business to their friends, without the need for you to prompt them. If you have a Facebook page, direct clients to it and prepare for them to leave rave reviews following the photo shoot.
7. Engage in Local Marketing
A frequent mistake from school photographers is relying strictly on online marketing to promote their business. The assumption that everyone looking for photography services will seek information online leads to potential customers, particularly old-fashioned ones, being neglected. This means missing out on sales from such clients, as well as any referrals or word-of-mouth advertising they might generate. You should therefore not dismiss local marketing as a valid form of generating business.
Marketing in your locale is a relatively cheap way to promote your business to clients who will most likely use it. Even the best school photographers find difficulty in attracting far-away schools. Thus, local marketing helps ensure that your clients are readily available to access your services. Some ways to gain exposure locally include advertising at popular events, such as community fairs or sport games for kids. Additionally, photographers have found success in joining photography associations or related clubs to promote their services.
A bolder approach involves handing out leaflets or business cards wherever possible (such as around a town hall or taking them directly to school offices). Additionally, many photographers seek to engage in cross-promotion with local businesses. This includes photographers putting up posters in popular cafés or hair salons, and in return advertising such partnerships on their website.
8. Use Your Time Wisely Throughout The Year
There is only a finite amount of opportunities to photograph clients throughout the year. For instance, if you’re working with a school, your photography business naturally aligns with the seasonality of the school year. This does not mean that your photography business needs to be a seasonal endeavour though. There are numerous opportunities for photographers to gain new business during the off-season, which will actually strengthen their regular photography sales.
Use off-season times of the year to work on your brand and business reach. For the tips we’ve mentioned above that require some time investment, be sure to make the most of the months with fewer shoots. You’ll thank yourself in the long run. Doing the legwork early will benefit you with more jobs later in the year when you’re in full photography mode.
9. Engage in Regular Self-Promotion
The key component to implementing any of the tips on this list is to simply take action and show commitment. Make promoting your business a habit and incorporate little pieces here and there at times that suit you. You can craft a to-do list for the week or month ahead, or simply improvise what you are going to do each day. The ball is in your court.
In any case, approach each week with the mentality that you will assist your business by doing just one thing. This can be as small as joining a Facebook group and promoting the services you offer or as radical as launching a referral program.
No matter the scale of your action, after a few weeks you should begin seeing the benefits of your work. Rest assured that once daily promotion becomes a habit, marketing your business will seem more like a routine than a chore.
To enhance the marketing of your school photography business, it is not essential to incorporate every suggestion on this list. At the end of the day, it’s your business and and strategy you implement should work for you. Take our ideas here as a springboard to breathe fresh life into how you communicate with your clients.
Regardless of the method you pursue, implementing even one new marketing tactic will position you and your business to get the recognition that you deserve. It is all about continuous improvement, and at GotPhoto, we engage in it every day.
What has proven successful for your school photography business? Share your own tips with us and our community in the comments on our related Facebook post.
Here at GotPhoto, we have the privilege of seeing inspiring work from our photographers, who live all over the world. Today, we would like to show you the work of three of these school photographers and let them tell you in their own words what makes their work so special.
United States: Erica Morrow, Slow Road Photo
I want all the focus to be on the kids- their sparkly eyes, their mischievous smiles and their sweet, chubby fingers. I love creating what feels like a fine art portrait, not a school photo.
These little ones grow up to be photographed more than any other generation of children, but we won’t have much proof of it because we rarely print the photos. School portraits are consistently one type of picture parents print. There’s no reason why they shouldn’t be as artistic and beautiful as the photos they would buy from a professional session with a photographer. I’m trying to create a similar experience in their school.
My secret? I keep it simple. I don’t like props or gimmicks, and my background and style are consistent from year to year to keep things classic. I just talk to the kids. I try to get them to speak honestly about their lives, whether it’s a favourite game or a new sibling. That authentic conversation and connection create authentic faces. I never ask a child to say cheese or force a smile. Real is always best, whether it’s a big toothy grin or a pensive face with eyes to the ground. It’s all beautiful as long as it’s real.
Check out Slow Road Photo for more inspiration.
United Kingdom: Steve Mussell, NiceSmile
We believe our photos are unique because we have evolved a number of techniques such as using a super small depth of field. We also have designated ‘entertainers’ to enable photos to be taken of children looking in various directions, and not just at the camera.
Creative posing also helps plus we have techniques that enable us to get difficult children to behave. However, if I were to tell you what these techniques are I would have to kill you – just kidding. We don’t use many props nowadays but maybe we should return to using them. We use a little bit of vignetting in order to add a certain ‘je ne sais quoi”.
On our ‘natural’ shoots we recreate daylight to avoid the inconsistency that comes with using real daylight. We use about four lights on high-speed sync to kill the ambient light and add some hair and background light.
Check out NiceSmile for more inspiration.
Germany: Janine Wienick, Kleine Pünktchen
The motto of my photoshoots is ‘be extraordinary and stylish.’ When photographing a school or nursery, I take my time to make sure that every element of the set is in harmony. For example, the outfits of the children have to fit with the scenery of the set. This means that my assistant dresses the children in clothes that I brought with me to the set. This takes a lot of time and is hard to explain to the schools and parents at first, but once they see the results, they get why I did it.
My concept doesn’t work for everyone. Some want a classic look and are more interested in classical portraits. Others are more excited about my style. To find out if the customer is interested in my style, I visit them prior to the shoot to introduce myself in person. By doing this, I avoid unhappy customers and the customer and we both know exactly what to expect from the photo day.
Check out more of Kleine Pünktchen’s work here.
Autumn portraits are an absolute must at this time of year. The season’s dazzling array of colours demands you get out there and take photos. However, sometimes inspiration can desert you as you look for that unique portrait shot. Here are some ideas to help you make the most of this wonderful time of year and snap some extraordinary images.
Location, Location, Location
Find a spot that screams autumn! If you live in an area with a plethora of deciduous trees, go for a drive and search for a beautiful spot – a location that shows off the beauty of autumn.
There are many autumn location ideas. An apple orchard is a wonderful location for autumn photos. You can take photos in a tree, under a tree, between the rows of trees, or even as you munch on blackberries. Farms are also a great place for autumn portraits. There, you’ll find plenty of hay bales, wagons – and maybe even an old truck.
Bear in mind that sometimes you have to pay for the use of a farm for professional photos. Most of the time, I’ve found you simply need to ask permission ahead of time.
If shooting outside is not an option – perhaps because of inclement weather or time constraints – head indoors. Many kids love to bake in the fall! Whether it’s apple pie or pumpkin pie you’re making, have everyone get in on the action. Dress up in aprons, cover the counter with bowls and ingredients, and get to work. If a little flour gets on your face, all the better! And when the pie is ready, enjoy a warm slice with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
Leaves For Days
Although it may seem too obvious, there are many ways to uniquely incorporate leaves into your autumn portraits.
One idea is to rake up a huge pile of leaves, and then ask the kids to jump in them. (Or if you have a little one, place them in the centre of the leaf pile.) Another idea is to tell the kids — and perhaps, the adults, too — to throw the leaves up in the air.
Another idea is to create a layer of leaves on the ground, and then ask the subject(s) to lie down on the leaves. Try to get up high above the subject and shoot down. (If you are vertically challenged like me, you may need to bring a stool or ladder.)
Or use a few piles of leaves to spell out the year (for a graduating senior) or a child’s age.
Pumpkins and Props
Pumpkins make great autumn props. Gather up a bunch of pumpkins and set them all around your subjects, or place them in a wheelbarrow around the kids. If you have a little one, consider cleaning out a pumpkin and placing your child inside it. It’s not only a unique idea but an adorable one, too.
There are so many other seasonal props that are often synonymous with autumn. Warm quilts, mugs filled with tea, hot cocoa or apple cider, bales of hay, Indian corn, gourds, stalks of wheat, red barns and even roaring campfires are all good places to start.
What you wear can also help your fall portraits stand out! Consider bundling up in a warm sweater, a pretty scarf, or a fun hat. If you live in a milder climate, don a floral crown with flowers and leaves found in the fall. In addition, riding boots and jeans almost always work well for autumn portraits.
School Is In Session
In autumn the kids return to school. If you missed the first-day-of-school shot, snap some beginning-of-the-year shots now. (No one will know!) Props such as an old desk, newly-sharpened pencils, lined paper, books, and an apple work well. If it’s possible, take photos of your subject(s) at their school in the late afternoon or early evening. (Check with the school for hours and availability.
Encourage Cuddling
While not everyone is into cuddling and may prefer their personal space, using the cooler temperatures as a way to encourage snuggling up can add increased feelings of happiness and warmth to your portrait photography. Even if people are just pretending to enjoy the snuggling, it has a pleasing effect on the pictures, and when the cuddling is genuine, it’s even better!
Get A Jump On Holiday Business
With big holidays just around the corner, autumn is the perfect time of year to offer a special or sale on portraits as people start thinking about the holiday cards they’ll be sending out. A great family portrait makes the perfect holiday card, and as long as you don’t overbook yourself, you can benefit on the eagerness of clients to get such a task done early.
In this month’s blog, Erica delves into understanding your clients and who are the key people to make an impression on at schools. She offers an array of useful tips on how you can create a wonderful school photography experience that will help your business to thrive.
As a high volume photographer, every job is an opportunity to serve on a multitude of levels. We are in the service industry after all, and I for one love hearing photography talked about like that. Even though we are creating art and capturing lovely moments, the core of what we do in our work is to serve. In school photography, serving with gusto can be the piece that sets us apart from our competitors and guarantees a spot at the table every photo season. Taking beautiful photos is critically important, but I would suggest that it is even secondary to providing a memorable and incredible experience for everyone involved in the process.
Impress The Gatekeeper
It may seem at first glance that we are in the schools to serve the families who send their students there. But truly the primary client I serve as a school photographer is an administrator. This is the person who is in charge of coordinating the students, putting together the schedule, and communicating details to the families. They are your best friend and ally at the school, and we must serve them full heartedly.
And remember the small things count even if it is just picking up their favourite coffee on the way or arriving at your meetings together early. I make it my number one goal in life to keep this person cheerful and upbeat about my presence there. They are the gatekeepers for all communication to families, so it’s vital that they are my advocate and friend from beginning to end. One way I love serving the administrators at my schools is to give them all kinds of material that make their life as easy as possible.
My website has an entire section dedicated to this. It has everything from checklists, flyers and guides they can share with parents. I try to anticipate everything a school might need and have it all ready to easily download. If you want to get those creative juices flowing for your own business, feel free to take a minute to browse the materials I have available for schools on my website at www.slowroadphoto.com/schools.
Keeping The Teachers Happy
The teachers at the school are my next most valued clients on photo day. On picture day, I come with a plan on how I intend to execute the schedule. However, when it comes to the shoot my number one job is to serve at the pleasure of the teachers. Their impression of my work is determined through my attitude and flexibility. I want to guarantee they spend the next week talking positively about their photo day to the parents so that everyone is eagerly awaiting the delivery of photos.
If they loved spending the day with me and they thought the process was smooth and easy then that will be the buzz that spreads around the school. When clients discuss having me back next year, I want the key piece of feedback from the teachers to be that I was a pleasant addition to their building and allowed their schedule and priorities to run smoothly.
Pleasing The Parents
After the administration and teachers are satisfied, my final (and oh so important) priority is to serve the parents at the school. Most of the time I will never have the opportunity to meet these individuals face-to-face. So, it is of the utmost importance that I communicate clearly, I am available to help with any part of the ordering process, and that I find ways to say YES as much as possible!
I send newsletters through GotPhoto to families at each school, thanking them for the honour of serving their students and letting them know when to expect their galleries. Once the galleries are set to selling in GotPhoto, I run a series of automated emails which allow me to time communications with families to keep them in the loop from start to finish. This way I can check in and see if they have questions, remind them to place orders, and constantly thank them for allowing me to serve them.
Marketing is crucial to the success of your business. Read up on these excellent tips.
Providing quality photos for families brings my heart so much joy! I love knowing that I’m creating heirlooms that families will treasure. But as a businesswoman, I know that my company will only grow when schools see my services as a value-added part of their year. I want them to think of Slow Road Photo at their school almost like a field trip – an enriching experience that gives them much more than they get. We are given such an amazing opportunity to serve within the walls of the schools we photograph, and may we treat each picture day as such!
Our generation grew up with sales offline and that included school photography. But, it is the 21st century after all and that means online sales are where every industry is at, even school photography. So, what are the key differences and why should you be selling school photos online? We sum up the differences and important points in this head-to-head analysis.
Ditch The Proof Cards
Mountains of paper are no fun for anybody and with moving online means you can cut out the need for paper proof cards. Parents can simply make their order online and not get frustrated with the complicated proof ordering process. Additionally, you don’t need to bother with the seemingly endless back-and-forth between lab, school and photographer.
Picture and Product Variety
Everyone can recall the quickfire ‘snap, click and onto the next child’ style of photographers in their school days, but things have changed now and online photo sales is a big reason why. Using an online shop means you can offer more choice and variety in the pictures and products you sell.
Parents can mix and match photos within packs and pick from any of the poses available instead of being limited as you are offline. This has another great knock-on effect: higher spending! More choice gives parents more reason to buy. Some photographers even change their pricing for online sales. For more information on how to sell photos, read this article about how best to price your photographs.
While in offline sales you automatically get printed pictures your options with online sales are endless. Whether you want the product to be printed on a cup, a pillow, canvas or classic on paper, each of these prints is possible with just one mouse click and doesn’t cost you any extra work, since the production will be done by the lab chosen by you.
Increasing Revenue
With online sales, it’s easier to increase your revenue. In the online shop, you can entice your customers to spend a little (or a lot!) extra. You can set up special offer discount coupons, tiered discounting, upselling (for prints or downloads) and easily set deadline dates to increase urgency and ensure a quick turnaround time.
Time-Management
As you might have realised already, probably the biggest difference between offline and online sales is the amount of time you spend on the post-production work. Using an online platform such as GotPhoto means you can partner with a lab and save yourself plenty of tedious admin work. Going online also helps the schools you serve to save time and makes life far easier for the parents buying your photos.
Marketing
Marketing your business is crucial to ensuring you succeed and it has been made incredibly easy using an online platform. Instead of manually trying to drive photo sales, you can use a system like GotPhoto which sends out automated reminds to potential customers that their photos are online and available.
GotPhoto’s automated marketing is proven to increase overall conversion and requires little to no input from you. Why not include some more information about other aspects of your photography business? This can help generate additional clients for family days and studio shoots.
Reselling
Christmas, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day – children’s photos make great gifts! Why not take advantage of this and run second promotions on shoots from earlier in the year? With online sales, the potential for reselling is much bigger. It takes a matter of minutes to set this up and notify your potential customers that you’re offering the chance to buy again.
Making Life Easier For Schools
School staff are busy people just like you. Labour intensive tasks are frustrating and can use up valuable time. However, with online sales, you can make life far easier for the schools and preschools you serve. No longer will school staff have to collect cash. You consolidate the whole process online and save the school staff the stress. From our experience, once the schools and/or nurseries have worked with online sales, they don’t want to go back to offline sales for school photography.
Sometimes, it’s the little things that count. If you find your portrait photography is getting stale, or just want to learn about some simple photography tricks to implement in your next photo shoot, look no further!
These seven photography tricks will add interest, and help elevate your photos among the portraits that other photographers are churning out. Best of all, you don’t need to break the bank while implementing these tips; all of these photography techniques require minimal, if any, additional equipment!
1. Incorporate Angles
Shoot high, shoot low! Depending on the tone you are trying to achieve, experiment with taking photos at angles which go beyond the style of typical, face-on portraits. For instance, shooting at a high angle emphasises a subject’s less overbearing and more vulnerable demeanour, ideal for school photographer. Conversely, shooting at a low angle evokes a sense of power and strength from the subject. It’s all about what you, as a photographer, are trying to convey with your photos. Want your photos to appear more candid? Then take some pictures of the children from behind or beside them. Play with angles to add variety and a layer of intrigue to your photos.
2. Get Close
Say more with your photos by showing less. To create more dynamic and interesting pictures, focus on a single body part of the child you are photographing. For instance, if you are photographing a child doing a hands-on activity, let your pictures tell a story by solely capturing the subject’s hands. Focusing on unique characteristics, such as one’s eyes or mouth, also leaves much to one’s own imagination and interpretation. By isolating certain features, you not only create more intriguing pictures, but you leave the interpretation of meaning up to the viewer. This technique can lead to clients becoming more involved and attached to their photos, thus easing the hassle of selling photos.
3. Push Comfort Zones
You want to make children feel comfortable in front of the camera. No doubt about it. That means not making them stare into the sun if you are taking photos outside, or not having them contort their neck in all manners so that you can achieve the “perfect pose.” However, you can push your subjects outside of their comfort zone by trying new photography techniques which they have never experienced during a photo shoot before. The goal is to capture pictures which go beyond the typical head and shoulder shots of a portrait shoot, giving clients a real “wow” factor. The question is, “what do these types of photos look like?” Allow us to provide a few examples:
- Jumping Shots
- Silly Face Shots
- Shots with Friends or Teachers
- Pondering Shots
By broadening the scope of picture styles you take, you not only give clients a more memorable photography experience, but you also provide further opportunities to sell more photos! Moving the kids outside of their comfort zone, when it comes to getting their photo taken, is an assured way of creating pictures which stand out from the rest. These pictures will have clients clamoring to purchase them, simply because of how unique they are compared to the typical school portraits they have had in the past.
We also highly recommend following these strategies in tandem with these excellent tips on how to capture a child’s genuine smile. Use them together and you can guarantee fantastic results.
4. Let Objects Get in the Way
Again, following the idea that sometimes showing less says more, obscuring your subject partially with objects is a great way to create intrigue and emphasize the setting of each picture. When you are conducting a photo shoot, briefly scour your setting for trees or doorways that you can use to your advantage, shooting through them as opposed to manoeuvring around them. Ensuring that the foreground is blurred, eclipsing part of the child can bring some interest – and potentially some colour – to even the blandest photo composition.
Stay business-savvy with this useful summary of the difference between online and offline sales.
5. Incorporate Reflections
What is more interesting than one subject? Two of course! The more the merrier, as they say. However, if you can’t manage to round up another subject, or you simply want to keep the focus on one individual, then there are alternatives available. Glass, mirrors, and prisms are all viable options to add interest to your photos.
Using a prism is the most versatile approach. Not only is it cheap and portable, but you can easily manipulate it and create a wide range of effects simply by adjusting the angle at which you hold the prism. It takes some trial and error, but is easily accomplished by bringing the prism up close to your camera lens and then rotating it until you achieve the desired effect. With a prism, you can go beyond reflections, adding flares and flashes of rainbow to photos to give them an extra “pop!”
If you’re shooting at a location with a wall of glass or some mirrors, these can also be a great way to incorporate reflections. The benefit to these, compared to using a prism, is that the subject is actually able to interact with them. Panes of glass and mirrors allow you to be more creative with how your subject will physically work with the medium. They can rest against it, gaze into their own reflection thoughtfully, or nonchalantly look away as if their reflection isn’t even there. Whatever stylistic choice you make, reflections give you a lot of flexibility to truly make your photos unique.
6. Add Some Mist (Or a Lot of It)
Get familiar with the unsuspectingly powerful tool that is… a spray bottle. Though a useful device for watering houseplants, a spray bottle is an easy way for a photographer to add drama to pictures. This technique works twofold, either water can be misted on the camera’s lens, or it can be sprayed around the subject being photographed. Spraying water on the lens will add a misty haze or twinkle to photos, contingent on the setting and amount of light available, applying a stylish atmosphere to otherwise ordinary portraits. Spraying water at, or around, the child can have a similarly impactful effect. Kids may appear to be caught in a storm of dazzling lights, or can be seen enjoying some summer fun, depending on where and when the pictures are taken. The only technical skill involved with this technique is adjusting the aperture to control the size and impact of the bokeh.
Perfect your craft by making sure you don’t make any of these common photography mistakes.
7. Shoot A Series
Get pictures out fast, and capture a story through your photos. By using the continuous shooting capabilities of your camera, you can take a series of pictures which present more range and tell a greater message than a single portrait shot could. This is especially true when photographing children, as it is easy to show a sequence of a smile cracking or a giggle erupting!
The entire point of photography is to capture a moment in time to preserve it for years to come, especially when it comes to school photography. Utilizing the seven, simple photography tricks we have presented today, you will be able to make your photos more impactful and interesting. Elevate your photos to not only rise above the competition, but to also enhance the meaning within each photo you take.
Whether you are new to school photography or have been shooting for years, our list of common portrait photography mistakes is certain to ensure your customers fall in love with their pictures.
1. Using the Wrong Lens
The first step to creating stunning portraits is to ensure that you are using the right equipment. Most important is the lens that you use. The use of wide-angle lenses in portrait photography is few and far between, as they distort the natural proportions of the human face by accentuating various features. The result can be a bulbous forehead or an enlarged nose.
Instead, take a few steps away from the child and utilise a telephoto lens. Such will keep the proportions of your subject’s face intact, while also giving you more variety to work with. Suggested focal lengths are 50mm for portraits where you want to capture more of the environment around the child, whereas 85mm is best used for head shots, such as for school IDs.
2. Stagnant Framing
Think outside of the box, literally. Though you can definitely achieve variety in your photos simply by adjusting the child’s pose, strive to make your photos even more interesting.
Taking full-body or waist-up portraits is the most common way of capturing your subject, yet there are ways to make your shots more dynamic. This means getting up-close and personal. Be bold and fill the frame with your subject’s face, or get creative and shoot using different angles.
Nevertheless, remember to be mindful about what is and isn’t in the frame. If you choose to keep the subject’s hand in, ensure you’re not cutting off any fingers. If you decide to do a close-up of the subject’s face, be conscious to keep their shoulders in frame to avoid them looking like a “floating head.”
3. Dull Eyes
In portrait photographs, the child’s eyes should be at the center of attention. The eyes should be sharp and attention should be drawn to them.
If you’re shooting in automatic, it’s time to step outside of your comfort zone and take control. As the camera will attempt to focus on what is closest to its lens, your subject’s nose will typically be crisp instead of their eyes. To correct this, opt for manual focus or adjust your camera’s autofocus point.
Shooting with manual focus is preferred if you are equipped with a tripod and your subject is fixed, whereas setting the autofocus point will give you the ability to move the focus directly on your subject’s eyes.
Keep your work on point with this useful advice on how to capture genuine kids portraits.
4. Not Compensating for Height
The height at which you shoot from depends on your subject. For photographing kids, shooting them at slightly above their eye-level is the ideal position. This will likely require you to get down on your knees, but the result also helps emphasise how small the child really is.
There is rarely an occasion where it is recommended that you photograph your subject from below, as this often leads to accentuated and unsightly features, such as flaring nostrils and large foreheads. It’s also even harder to get low enough to shoot a child from below!
5. Busy Background
To make the child stand out, you want to keep the background as neutral as possible. This is especially important for official school photographs. That means ensuring that there are few, if any, distractions that can direct your viewer’s eye away from the subject.
The first step is to make sure that the background is not sharp, but instead out of focus. This can be accomplished by using a shallow depth of field and a larger aperture. A blurred background with a crisp subject will make your client will stand out, even if there is a lot going on behind them.
Next, be aware that brightness and contrast are also factors for consideration. Placing a darkened subject against a bright background will cause attention to shift to that background! Likewise, avoid having a background that blends with the child’s clothing, as they will simply blend in.
6. Uninspiring Composition
There are a plethora of sources available with advice on what makes for “good composition.” Some portrait photographers will religiously follow this advice in an attempt to make their photos more interesting. For instance, it is suggested that one should never place their subject in the middle of a photograph, but instead opt for the rule of thirds approach. Much like any rule though, there are exceptions, and you should not limit your photography to fit within the constraints of established rules. Sometimes, centering your subject can actually make for a pleasing composition – it simply depends on the context!
Edward Weston puts it best by stating, “To consult the rules of composition before making a picture is a little like consulting the law of gravitation before going for a walk.”
Another issue portrait photographers face with composition is repeatedly using the same orientation. Typically, portrait photographers opt for a vertical orientation and get comfortable with this approach. Just as with framing your photos, you can elevate the composition by getting creative. Try to experiment using a horizontal orientation, as this will incorporate more of the background and setting into the photo.
7. Over-Editing
You’ve almost made it; you chose the right lens, considered the framing, took the child’s height into account, focused on the eyes, cleared the background, and established a beautiful composition. The shoot is done and now comes the daunting task of editing. This is where a great photo can become a mediocre one, and vice versa. To avoid over-editing, there are some guidelines to keep in mind.
Firstly, do not lose the integrity of the subject you’re photographing. That is to say, do not edit your photos to the point where the subject does not even look like themselves. Portrait photos should be a natural display of how the child actually looks, not the version of them that would appear on an advertisement. This means keeping the essence of a person intact while still improving the overall look of a photo. Fix a few blemishes here and there, play with the levels a bit, but do not adjust the picture to the point that it is not accurate depiction of the subject.
Moreover, be mindful with the use of filters. While filters can serve to evoke emotion (ie. black and white or sepia), some ruin an otherwise good photograph. Diffusion filters, which blur a photo to the point that it looks “dreamlike,” have no place in modern-day portrait photography.
The photographs you take should be strong enough to make an impact without the need for substantial editing and gimmicky effects. It is only through practice and experimentation that you will be able to further refine your portrait photography skills. As such, keep these common portrait photography mistakes in mind as you go forth and hone your skills.