Photographers Need Great People Skills

Photographers Need Great People Skills, Too!
By: Adrian Adams

Being a photographer is about more than just being able to push the shutter down. A photographer has to be able to make his clients feel comfortable while still doing his job. People skills are important and they need to be appropriate with the situation of the shoot.

Being a photographer requires the skill and talent to take beautiful, exciting, attention grabbing pictures. It is an art and a business all in one. However, if your people skills are lacking, so will your business. If you do not know how to make your clients feel comfortable and relaxed with you your photography business will not succeed. You need those people skills to make sure your clients are relaxed and comfortable. If they feel this way taking pictures with you, they will come back and possibly become long-term return clients. If they feel uncomfortable in any way, you could lose their business for life.

4 Steps to Great People Skills for Photographers:

1. Maintain Eye Contact: When you are using a tripod to take someone's picture line up the shot, and then step away from your camera to make eye contact with your client. You can then keep your eye contact by instructing them on their position, mood and angle. This will help make your client feel more comfortable than if you were to talk to them while looking through your camera. This can make them feel alone and uncomfortable. By making eye contact, speaking in a relaxed and conversational tone you can make your client feel more comfortable. If your client has to talk to a camera for the entire session, they may not feel very comfortable or much like returning to your place of business.

2. Don't Let it Run Dry: Keep the interaction going with your client throughout the entire session. Make conversation, give them compliments, instruct them in their position, and just make them feel like they are talking to their best friend that they have known for a long time. You must earn their trust through conversation, body language, and your tone of voice, your words, and your gestures. This can prove to be difficult if you are a really shy person. However, you can learn how to be a more open person with your clients. You can practice with family and friends, or even just alone with a camera timer taking your own pictures. Imagine yourself as the client, and imagine how they would feel.

3. Let Them Be: This goes especially if you are taking pictures of children. It can be difficult to take a picture of a fidgety or playful child. Let them feel more comfortable during the shoot by just letting them be themselves. You can capture some wonderful and beautiful pictures of a child dancing, playing with a stuffed animal, dressing up in play clothes, and more. Having these props available will make your little clients feel more comfortable and want to come back to take more pictures. Do the same with your adult clients as well. Adults are more used to getting into a particular position and being still for their pictures, but you can remind them that they do not have to do that, especially if you sense that a client is a little fidgety. It can make them feel a lot more comfortable by allowing them to just be. Ask them what their favorite hobbies are. If they love to write, let them write or draw on a pad of paper. You could catch some beautiful expressions this way and possibly win a client for life.

4. Keep it Honest: Your client might want a picture of himself or herself with a smile, but they might look more natural with a frown. Keeping your pictures and clients honest will result in some great pictures. When someone has to force a smile, or position himself or herself in an uncomfortable way it will show through in the picture. Keeping it honest and natural will result in better pictures for you and your client.

So, remember that having good people skills as a photographer can really make a difference in your photography business. Keep good eye contact, keep a good conversation going, allow your clients to be themselves, and keep it honest and natural.

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