We believe your photographer should help you pick your professional photos. Why? You deserve guidance every step of the way.
At most photography studios, the client’s headshot experience ends when the final photo is taken.
Then, after a brief production period, they receive a link to an online gallery that contains all their images.
From there, the client scrolls through image after image, trying to select the best one to meet their goals.
The problem is … selecting the right marketing images often requires as much professional guidance as shooting them.
That’s why, for all of our marketing photography sessions, we sit down with you at the end of the photo shoot to review your images together.
Immediately following your shoot, we’ll pull up all the images we just took. Then we play a quick, easy game to help you whittle them down to the very best ones.
If you’ve ever been to the eye doctor, then you’re familiar with the process where you compare different lenses and decide which is better, until you’ve found the perfect one. Well, that’s very much like our process of photo selection because it helps you find the very best one – without the stress and guessing games of a gallery.
Why? We believe professional guidance is key during every step of the photography process, including the part where you pick your final photos. Here’s why:
Why Your Photographer Should Guide You Through Picking Professional Photos
1. The Big Picture
Typically, when people come to us for professional portraits, they have a specific use in mind for their final images. They have a new job and need a headshot for the website. They want to make their social media look more professional, so they need something fresh to post. They’re being recognized or honored, and they need a headshot for the program.
While that’s an important place to start, that’s not the overall purpose of your images. That’s why we ask the right questions to help you see the bigger (marketing) picture for your shoot. What are your marketing strategies (i.e. social media, blog, emails), and how will you use your images in those strategies? What does your brand look/feel like, and which images complement that brand? What’s your brand messaging, and what do you want your images to say? Are you easily approachable, a great listener, a fierce advocate, a concerned expert?
Ultimately each image, expression and pose communicates something different. We help you think about your marketing big picture – then figure out how to pick the images that work for your specific goals. Plus we make it so fun and easy, you won’t even notice we’re guiding you through the process!
2. The Technical Eye
With the big picture figured out, next we move on to the details. As we review your images, we will look with a technical eye while you look with an emotional eye, and together, we arrive at the final choice.
As photographers, we’ll eliminate any images that don’t have crystal-clear focus or perfect lighting. We’ll keep an eye out for body language that doesn’t look natural or comfortable. And we’ll let you know when we see an image that has that special something – an effortless connection with the camera lens.
As the person being photographed, you’ll look for your personal preferences. After all, you are the one who needs to love looking at your images, or else you probably won’t ever use them. So you’ll notice the truly natural expressions … and the ones that seem more stiff or nervous. You’ll pick the ones that make you feel good about yourself, the ones that really look like you.
With two different but equally important perspectives, you’ll end up with a set of images that look fantastic and feel even better. They’ll meet your goals while adding to your sense of confidence. Most importantly, they’ll be images that you’ll actually use, over and over again.
3. The Right Focus
When you are reviewing each image, it’s important to know what you’re actually looking for. Naturally, when we look at photos of ourselves, we tend to focus on our insecurities. Maybe you’re particularly sensitive about a part of your body. Maybe you’ve gained a little weight since your last photo shoot. Then there are skin flaws or signs of aging. The bottom line is: There are tons of reasons why we feel insecure about the way we look – but some of them can be addressed with Photoshop.
When we sit down to review your photos, our photographers explain what they can address and what they can’t. Expressions, for example, shouldn’t be messed with. You don’t want to start changing with your features or you won’t look like you. Body shape and size, along with skin imperfections, can be artfully and discreetly edited for a final image that looks like you … just on your very best day.
With those guidelines in mind, we can help you look for the right things in each image, and we can help you look past the fixable things. We help you choose your images for the right reasons, so you absolutely love the final results.
4. The Long Game
Once you have your final images picked out, our guidance doesn’t end there – because your marketing doesn’t stop there. In fact, selecting your new professional photos is really just the beginning. Next you need to figure out how to use them in your marketing. You need a plan for how you’ll get the most out of your images in the long run.
Keeping in mind that you may want to spread out your images for maximum impact, you’ll want to post them strategically over time. In fact, your plan can even be as simple as posting one new image a month or quarter. For example, if you bought 12 images, then you can plan to post one new image each month.
Regardless of how detailed you get with your plan, we simply suggest that you have one in mind. After all, you invested your time and resources into these images so they could support your marketing goals. We help you consider how you want to do that.
5. The Immediate Gratification
Finally, the beauty of having a photographer guide you through the selection process is … we’re right there to answer any and all of your questions on the spot. We can act as a sounding board for your thought process. We can encourage you when you’re unsure, or we can give you an alternate perspective when you’re being too hard on yourself.
After all, this is what we do every day. We’re professionally educated and trained to understand the technical aspects, the marketing process, and the emotional impact of looking at yourself on camera. We know what it’s like to sit in your chair, and we genuinely care about making this an enjoyable experience, as well as creating a final product that’s both confidence-boosting and revenue-boosting.
We believe a professional photo shoot should be as fun as it is productive, and that’s what we want to prove to you during each step of the process – especially the final and most important one.
Marketing Photography in Santa Clarita
When it comes to marketing photography, our goal is simple: We want you to walk away feeling like you have the best headshots in Santa Clarita. That’s why we’ve designed a line of Marketing Photography Sessions that are custom-made to make you happy. How do we do that? Simple. We pay attention to you, your needs and your business. We take the time to create a photography experience – we don’t just point, shoot and send you on your way. We bring our visual marketing background to every session, to help you make smart choices in wardrobe, appearance, posing and expression.
Visual Marketing In Santa Clarita
At SchlickArt, we offer more than photography and video services to the Santa Clarita area and beyond. We do our best to provide our clients with marketing expertise and direction every chance we get. We know you need your images and video to help grow your business — that’s why you invest in them, and that’s why we do, too. Please take a minute to search through our blogs to find the visual marketing information that will help your business, or give us a call. We’re happy to help!
About SchlickArt Photography and Video
SchlickArt, a boutique photo and video studio in Santa Clarita, started in March 2012 with the simple idea that empowerment creates a kind of beauty and authenticity that shines through every camera lens. Built on a philosophy — rather than a product, service or person — SchlickArt has rapidly evolved, meeting professional portraiture, business photo and business video needs as diverse as the community we capture. It’s the desire to take care of you, the client, that drives us at SchlickArt.