today we're talking about style shoots and how they can help you as a
photographer even if you're not a beginner. So what is a style shoot
really? It's a shoot that has some kind of style to it ...right? A style shoot is
essentially a staged event that is done for a specific purpose ...there's a goal!
So it's not an actual gig ...it's not an actual paying job ...if
that's a problem for you, can probably like ...pay yourself ...especially if you're please with
the images and you received them on time by ...yourself! The pro here is that you're
the client so you should know what the client really wants! So styled suits
are awesome especially if you're just starting out and you don't really have
much of a portfolio to show for which ever the type of work that you're trying to
get or even if you're already a professional photographer and you've
done a bunch of different types of shoots how I see style shoots is really
to build your portfolio with what it needs with what you're trying to do now
with photography... the idea here is so that a potential client can see what you
have to offer what would help them make a decision if you're suitable for what
it is that they want to hire you for for example say you wanted to get into
family portraits, but you didn't really have much families
in your portfolio style. A styled shoot example here would be to arrange with a family
or maybe some people that looks like a family you choose an appropriate
location and the most suitable wardrobe for the family and you make sure and get
a variety of images ...you choose the best ones and then you place that wherever
your portfolio lies whether it be social media or your website. So now when a
family member or a parent needs a photo shoot and they come across your
portfolio, know they can see that you have done families before and they can
see what you could possibly do for them does it really matter if you appear to
do that shoot or not? no! they want to see what you could do for them. let's say
you're a food photographer or a restaurant photographer and you want to approach
this restaurant that's known for their cakes, but you don't really have any
great cake shots maybe you can just buy some cakes from there and stage some
awesome cake shoots! make sure and retouch them really well ...now that you have those
photos you can then approach that potential client and show them the level
of quality that you have too often this is what you can do for them on a regular
basis maybe they need content for social media but they might not have taken you
as serious if you didn't have a suitable portfolio to show for it. Now your style
shoot can be a simple small project with just you or it can be a large
complex project with multiple vendors. let's look at an example of a staged
wedding fake wedding you know with fake people
well not fake people real people! now this can be as simple as possible with
really involving you as the photographer and a friend who's dressed
as a bride or it can be a large complex project that involves multiple vendors
which include you as a photographer a hairstylist makeup artist an owner of a
wedding venue a wedding planner and this can be a lot to manage but there's a lot
of benefits to doing something like that especially from getting potential
clients from those vendors but if you've never done a style shoot before I would
recommend to start small and work your way up based on what it is that you're
missing in your portfolio. So what does this style should benefit, really? well
you of course ...if you are beginner and you had nothing really to show before
well now you do. Hopefully, you would have taken your time and chosen the best
images to recreate. I talk about that in this video right here ...and it would
have been hugely beneficial to all of the other vendors that would have been
part of this style shoot for pretty much the same purpose for why you did it ...to
fill that gap in your portfolio and attract potential clients and it
actually benefits your potential clients who are looking for you to do that type
of photography for them you might have been a good fit for them but they most
likely would have not even reached out because they didn't see what you had to
offer ...so do you see the importance of the style shoot here? I'll tell you how I
use style shoots I wanted to showcase the type of work
that I wanted to be hired for that's what I did when I was trying to get into
food and restaurant photography. I did several styled shoots with food at home
and at restaurants until I was comfortable enough with the
images that I had in my portfolio now that I can now approach a potential
restaurant client ...somebody that I wanted to work with
and that helped me well in building my case to close my first restaurant
photography client it's what I did for family shoots as well I had a friend
from work volunteer to bring a husband and her son
they got all dressed and we went to a park and we got some great pictures
and they got the pictures so they got some free family photos I now had
some good images to use for promotion which I did use I did a lot of family
shoots following that but the one that I'm most proud of is a styled shoot
that I did for wedding photography where I used my wife as the model which I talk
about in this video here we did that style Bridal shoot which really
kick-started my wedding photography business so to reiterate the benefits,
one is that it really helps you to build your photography portfolio especially if
you're just starting off and if you're already a professional photographer it
helps you fill the gaps in your portfolio to attract the type of work
that you want to get hired for the second thing that it is that it helps
you build your network ...really if you work with other vendors in those style
shoots they can recommend you you can recommend them you all can work together
a huge benefit is that it doesn't pay you a cent...
yet it opens the door for a lot of potential paid opportunities in the
future. So to wrap up, style shoots can be quite beneficial regardless of the level
that you're at you can probably have the best shots but if the people that need
to see it, can't see it ...then what's the point?
so think about it! What kind of work do you want to get hired for? Go out there and create
those opportunities because they really don't come knocking on your door ...so let
me know in the comments down below about your styled shoot project that you're
gonna get started on and I'll see you in the next video!