hey guys welcome back to our styled shoot 101 series! last week we talked all about
what a styled shoot is what a style shoot it's not, why you want to do one
what the benefits are, and the first steps in planning it. so assembling your
team, choosing the scale, making sure you have contracts and all that good stuff.... so
if you missed that video - go back and watch video one and then come join me
here!! this week we are talking about selecting a theme selecting your colors
the best way to do that how you can pick your vendors and contact them. and then a
few tips for the actual day of the styled shoot. so every time I approach a
styled shoot I have a vision in my mind as to exactly what I'm looking for in
terms of the elements of the shoot and what I'm looking for is the photographer
so pictures that I really really want to get and I find that the best way to
share this with vendors when I'm contacting people and wanting them to be
a part of my team is through a Pinterest board so the first thing I do is I
create a vision board on Pinterest and name it something very inspirational not
generic about what I'm trying to embody in the shoot what kind of colors they
can expect and I really try to make sure it's very unique once you have an
inspiration board that really embodies what you and potentially the planner if
you're working with a planner have in mind for the shoot you can begin to
gather your team the first thing that you'll probably want to secure is the
venue because that's going to determine your date your time the availability how
many people can park in all of that your venue is your first task if you have a
home with a backyard or something really low-key
that's something I've done in the past to just skip the whole venue step
altogether but if you're hoping for something a little more grand scale and
you want to include a venue as a part of your networking and just make it a
bigger shoot altogether these are the first people you'll be contacting so I
would do some research find some images online and go ahead and send emails and
follow up with a phone call for everybody that you contact in terms of
venue go ahead and let them know your theme
show them the Pinterest board give them a few possible dates and tell them who
you are and what your work is like you want to make sure that these emails are
personalized you can batch your emails so have a little bit of a template
involved for contacting all of your vendors but they should of course begin
with their real first name and reference something in the first few
lines as to the fact that you were on their website or you were on their
social media or you truly follow them and you know what they're about because
that will make your email to them stand out in your request for them to join the
styled shoot be sure to tell them what's in it for them tell them where you plan
on having the shoot published or if you have it or if you're going to have it
published at all and that they'll get photos are they going to be
high-resolution are they going to have watermarks I encourage you to tell them
you will be receiving high-resolution images and that they will not be water
marked because venues do not want to be limited in the use of the images once
you have your venue you basically have a big chunk of your planning done because
you have your date your theme your location now you have to find all little
pieces and fit them together so just like we talked about with the venue
you're going to start to contact vendors in each category that you need filled so
if you need models or a dress or any of those types of things reach out to those
people in the same way that you did for your venue make sure that the emails are
personalized explain what the shoot is about where you'd like to be published
why you think they would be a great fit for the shoot so this is going to take
time it cannot just be a copy-paste situation because your stuff is going to
get just lost and noise in their inbox they're not going to address it you
might not even get a response but if you take the time to really say hey I saw
your bouquets on green wedding shoes and I can't get over the succulents and this
just really embodies what we want in this shoot that email is gonna stand out
they're gonna say you know what I do you know what I'm about you've seen my work
you're specifically referencing things that have to do with me you're not just
saying hey I love your flowers like it needs to be specific otherwise they have
no way of knowing how many people you sent that email to so make sure that you
treat those vendors that you would really like to collaborate with like
gold remember that the whole point of a stolid shoot is to get some amazing work
but get that work for everyone all these vendors want amazing pictures other
vendors besides photographers are always wanting more pictures of their work so
it's really not a big request to ask someone to contribute something if
they're going to get amazing photography out of it so you want to make sure that
you explain what they're going to get out of it and
treat them well because this is networking this is relationships these
can ultimately lead to paying gigs thousands of dollars in income so you
really want to never underestimate how important these relationships are that
you're building during the style shoot so you've assembled your team you've
contacted and reached out to people in a genuine and authentic way let's say
you're done you've planned it we're coming up on the day a couple of tips
for the actual day are to create a timeline of events just so that you know
what's happening when and that you can focus on those portraits if there are
people involved in the shoot during golden hour or during the best light so
I like to start with the details if there are details like stationary rings
a cake anything like that that I'm shooting inanimate objects I just start
with that because it's easier for me to control the light on those details if
you'd like to see another tutorial some more tips and tricks for shooting
details I will link that video here and in the description another tip that I
have for you for the actual day of shooting is to make a list of the
vendors that are involved and specific shots you'd like to get for each vendor
because you don't want to leave that shoot thinking oh my goodness I didn't
get you know vertical and horizontal of every you know rented piece or the cake
I just got one faraway shot or one with the bride and groom behind it you want
to make sure that you have a variety of shots of each individual contributed
item with and without you know your models with and without flowers or with
and without details all sorts of options so that everybody who contributed has a
lot that they can Instagram or Facebook or blog about and they just feel like
they got a lot out of the shoot because you have to remember in florists and
bakeries and all these places they're really contributing monetary value to
this shoot so you have to deliver really really valuable photos in order to make
it worthwhile I recommend that if you have stationery going on in the shoot
that you go ahead and style practice styling that at home before the actual
shoot so that you have a vision in your mind you've played around with it you
know you're gonna be shooting either vertically horizontally
you know how exactly you're going to style it because there's not a lot of
time even during a style of shoot sometimes to get really good images if
you'd like some tips for lay flats and styling stationery I will
link that video here and link it down below once you've gotten all of the
photos that you know you need to get for all the vendors who's made sure that
you've gotten a great variety of everything you can go ahead and really
just play around with your posing with your lighting this is a time that you
don't have the ping client you've taken care of those vendors and it's time for
you to just be creative and maybe you're gonna experiment with off-camera flash
maybe you are playing with different reflectors either physical reflectors or
natural reflectors out in nature this is just a fantastic time as a photographer
to really explore using different lenses shooting in manual maybe free lensing a
little bit so just look up some new tricks or approaches to photography that
you've never tried before that you probably would never want to do on
someone's paid wedding day and then play around because that's one of the
beauties of a styled shoot you just you don't have a paying client so as long as
you've made all those vendors happy and you've followed through on that contract
you're totally fine to just play and experiment and really make yourself
happy as a photographer I have even more tips for you guys on how exactly to get
published blog these images get the most out of the relationship so that you can
maximize the impact of the marketing that a styled shoot can have on your
business but that's gonna be in next week's video so be sure that you don't
miss out subscribe below hit the little bell icon and you will be notified when
video number 3 comes out I'm super excited to share it with you and I hope
that you guys are too feel free to ask me any questions about style shoots in
the comments below and I will see you guys next week bye guys