Location Family Photography

Im new to the on-location scene, I'd like to do senior portraits, on location family and friend portraits, baseball games, whatever. I have a webpage, but that isnt advertising me well.

-- Put a sizeable ad in every phone directory in your region

-- Put a business card-sized ad in the local paper every week

-- Posters in all grocery stores, where allowed

-- Posters and business cards in photo and camera stores

-- Listing in all online business directories

-- Kijiji and Craigslist

-- Try a sign on your vehicle, but beware, it might encourage thieves

-- Talk, talk, talk and hand out business cards...word of mouth is your best source of business

V

2008-04-22 14:26:57 by catrinadphotography

As a professional photographer in san diego I will help you understand why family photographs and engagement photographs need a good location. You ...

On location meaning a beach opr park of choice, or even a mobile studio set up in there house. I do not actually have a studio office, but I do have a mobile studio with stands, lighting, a few props, an back drops. How should I find these customers who would like family portraits done at a place of there choice?

This is becoming the most common way to get your family portrait done now. It is def popular where I live. I see roadside sign ads and ads in small local magazines.

I have also seen photographers take their photos and make them into postcards with contact info and set them out at businesses. Use them as your business card so that people can see your work.

Also, word of mouth is the best way to get any business going!

Good luck!

2007-10-13 11:32:15 by Josh Y

Price: $39.95

Understanding the goals of good posting and the most common obstables to success.
Strategies for posing group portraits.
Styles of posing, from formal to casual. The critical differences between posing men and posing women.

We are a large family, 2 adults and 5 children, and we are taking family photos. We are planning to do take the photos outdoors at a park location. I want to find some creative ideas for taking standard family photos as well as photos for our Holiday Cards.

Where can I look for poses for taking family photos? I would also like to look at some other examples. Thanks!

Think about what describes your family, or your personalities. If you are an athletic family, maybe you want to add some soccer balls or basketballs. If you are a musical family, perhaps bringing some instruments into the photo would be fun? Hamming it up could be fun too, or picking a clothing theme. See if there are any other props you could use. Have fun!

2008-11-19 05:20:10 by MO

High quality RA4 prints. Printed on Kodak Endura and Edge papers
© Robert Harding 2008 - All Rights Reserved
This 10x8 Print features an image chosen by Robert Harding. Estimated image size 205x203mm.

So, this is my first 'legit' paying job as a photographer, and a family has asked me to do their family photos. Do any pros have any tips? A checklist? Certain poses? How much to charge? Most people in my area charge around 80$ for a half hour sitting, and a half hour at an outdoor location, so I should charge less, right? But how much less? How many pictures do I give them? Etc. I just want to be sure that I nail this on my first time.

find out if they expect a studio sitting or want location work. Then do your homework first and inspect the location site if that's what they want. Determine whether you will need to bring accessory lighting (i.e. strobes, umbrellas, bounce cards, etc.) and what time of day will be the best lighting. Will it be indoors, or outside? If it's indoors, you will get your best results if you have a large picture window as the light source, as long as you don't have direct sunlight coming through the window. As far as the number of prints go, I would show them several "proofs" which are sample images to choose from. Then, let them select the images they want, offer them prices on a variety of sizes and possibly some package deals to get them to purchase more images.

2008-09-11 16:04:22 by Amy

I've been portfolio building for a year and will be ready to start charging "for real" prices in another 6 months or so. When I do a shoot, it is on location and I spend 1-3 hrs with the family/child and do journalistic photography which captures the personalities of my subjects.
I am charging $50 for the session and then either ala' carte for print orders or $225 for the CD of the whole shoot (usually more than 100 shots).
A typical shoot will take me an average of 2 hrs shooting and 8-10 hrs editing and preparing the photos for gallery viewing. So for 10-12 hrs of work, I'm only making about $25 an hr if the client orders the photo CD. I hope to at least double that, but not overprice my market.
We are in Rhode Island, but will be moving to Everett, Washington in the 08. It is there that I will officially launch my photography business.
What is a fair sitting fee for time and talent of the photographer?
www.brenandcompany.smugmug.com

Do children get a discount?

The charge should reflect your time, overhead and additional costs of providing the proper "location" equipment (portable background stands, portable lighting, etc) and the cost of getting to the location. The subject is really not the issue when figuring our your fair price for your work.

Your work-flow seems to be a little intense.

I use an editing program (photo mechanic) to sort through the images and pick out the really outstanding, marketable images.

Then I go to Bridge and append all the copyright, client and my own business information using my premade XMP file. I can do a couple of hundred images in a few minutes.

The I make a CD with an attached Word file that explains exactly what rights they have to the images. If they are only using the images for reference to later purchase images from me, I only send them 600x400, 72 ppi images. Those I again batch process using Bridge

I hope this is of some help.

Be sure to print your copyright notice on the front of the CD, including the phrase, "All rights reserved"

2007-06-18 11:02:37 by studio31photo