- Hey everybody, this is Roberto Blake of RobertoBlake.com
helping you create something awesome today.
So today, instead of talking about camera gear,
I'm actually gonna give you some advice if you happen to be
a freelance photographer.
Something you guys may not remember, depending on what
of my videos you've been watching over the years,
is that when I was working my way through college,
I was actually working as a freelance photographer,
I was actually a photography assistant for one of
my professors, and I did actually work at a portrait studio
at one point, so going way, way back, and also,
when I was like, a kid and I was 10 years old,
I was developing film in the dark room, and in college,
I was like, the last person to develop film
in the school's dark room, it was the last hurrah,
so to speak, for film, but I actually have some experience
with this, and you guys knows that I've been successful
at marketing creative services, helping designers,
artists, photographers and entrepreneurs, so I wanna
use that to give photographers some specific advice,
because I know with the changing landscape
and with smart phones and with everybody thinking
that they're a real photographer now, with how cheap
cameras are, that it's rough for you guys out there,
and for you gals out there, who are shooting video
and photography, and you're trying to make a buck,
you're trying to make a living at this, well, there are
a couple of things I can tell you that might help you out.
First of all, you have to get past the idea of selling art.
You're not selling art, you're selling the experience
and the results, and what I mean by that is, if you're doing
this in the business sector and you're shooting stuff
for real estate agents, you're shooting stuff
for small business owners, it's about not just getting them
a picture or something that looks gorgeous,
it's about getting them a picture that helps them build
trust and credibility and have great marketing assets,
it's about shooting photos in a way that's gonna be great
for the person that they hire as a designer
or a photo editor, that's gonna be able to make a print ad
out of that, or gonna be able to cut the background out
really easily in Photoshop to make
their social media graphics, so you need to be thinking
instead of worrying about, you don't like to crop,
you don't like to do this, you don't like to do that,
you really need to be thinking about, what about this photo,
especially if you're doing this commercially,
puts the client in the position to win and to get money
so that they can keep paying you, and that is what matters.
The other thing is, this goes back to a little bit
of harping on what I just said, but you have eliminate
your personal preferences, you really have to take
yourself out of the equation, and you have to think about
what is best for the client, what is gonna make the client
feel like they're having a great experience, what's gonna
make the client refer you to new customers, you know,
that thing that you're trying to do in a really saturated
market, make money, get business, get new contacts?
Well, word of mouth still matters, and getting referrals
from clients is a long way toward getting that recurring
business and making a living off of this, you don't get
recurring clients if you're more focused about you
than you're focused about delivering for them, and not just
delivering the photos and the result, but delivering
a quality experience, making them happy to work with you,
and not feeling like you're a pretentious artist.
So attitude and salespersonship has a lot to do with this.
It's something I actually have tell designers a lot,
so don't feel like I'm picking on you when I say this.
One of the other most important things I can say is
don't be afraid to charge what you're worth, you know what,
cameras and gear are expensive, charge appropriately for it,
especially if you're using higher end gear and you have
a body of work that is superior, don't be afraid to ask
for the money that you're worth, and be prepared to have
the conversation as to why, and don't make it, like I said,
about the art work and the quality, make it about how
you deliver for the client, how you go the extra mile,
what the process looks like, the tangible things that make
somebody say, I'm willing to pay more to be comfortable,
I'm willing to pay more to feel less anxiety.
That matters to the client, not the things that you think
matter to you, those don't usually matter to the client.
For them, it's about eliminating stress, anxiety, especially
if you're gonna justify cost, we pay for convenience.
We pay for convenience, actually, overwhelmingly more
than we pay for results, we pay for good experiences
a lot more than we pay for good results, it's true.
Have backup plans for everything, one of the things
I like to use in the field is the Western Digital
Wireless Passport, the reason I use this is cause you can
just slap an SD Card in here and you can go ahead
and clone it in the field, if for whatever reason
you're shooting on a camera that doesn't have
dual card slots, this is great for you so I would highly
recommend taking advantage of that, and this is gonna
take away some of your anxiety when you're shooting.
I know a lot of you focus on the idea of wanting
to get it right in the camera, but post-processing matters
and having a unique style, having your own visual style,
and developing a little bit of brand identity off of that,
goes a long way in your marketing, when you're posting
your photos on your website, Facebook, Instagram,
other social media, toward making you stand out in a place
that's really noisy, so don't be lazy about post-processing
and editing, leverage it as a selling point,
justifying your higher price, and also to stand out
in a really noisy place, stop worrying about
making it perfect in camera and being an artist
and romanticizing it, and think about it as a product
that you're packaging and that you're selling.
Also, as a business model, working with other photographers
and taking editing off their plate if that they are that
get it perfect in camera kind of person, and they can
let that go and they're willing to pay money to buy back
their time, it'd be great for you if you're really good
at photo editing, to use Lightroom or the old version
of Aperture which they retired, or whatever it is
you wanna use to go ahead and do the post-processing,
and then you can earn revenue off of that without even
having to be the shooter, so that's another business model
thing you can do and it'll help you make money,
because there are a lot of photographers that just
don't wanna learn the software or just don't wanna spend
the time doing it, and you could spend that time,
and you can make that money.
Typically, if you're shooting a big event, it's usually
worth it to pay a little bit of money out of pocket
to hire a second shooter, it gives you peace of mind,
you've got coverage, you can justify a higher price,
and then you don't have anxiety about how everything
turned out, because if you have a decent second shooter,
you'll be covered on everything, and that means you'll have
happy customers, and you'll have a lot of great shots.
Just make sure you're doing right by them, make sure
if they wanna use stuff in their portfolio, that they can,
just make sure you have everything clearly outlined
and that working with them, you have solid communication.
Well, that's it for some of my advice for freelance
photographers, I'll probably do more videos like this
in the future, if you enjoyed this or if you have questions,
let me know in the comments section and I'll try and respond
to that, and get you guys some more videos like this.
Like this video if you like it, don't forget to subscribe,
check out the other awesome content on the channel.
As always you guys, thanks so very much for watching,
and don't forget, create something awesome today.