Taking the first steps to digital photography business

Digital photography can be a fantastic way to run a photography studio Digital cameras can be purchased for as little as $500 used on ebay.com, or you can go with the top-of-the-line pay upwards of over $20,000. Anyway you look at it, the digital revolution is here and has totally changed the way studios run today. Photographing your business or your images on Digital is just the first part of actually producing an image.

Workflow is one of the most important pieces to ensure that you have all the pieces to have. Once the images are taken from the camera. You need to download them to your computer or some other storage media. If your images need to be modified, manipulated or adjusted for color, exposure and sharpness or minor corrections, a good software programs such as Adobe Photoshop is essential. My recommendation is that you always work off of a copy of your original file and never the original. If you make a mistake, the original file is still intact, and much easier to go back to.

Many photographers, just download the specifically images to a computer or media source without backing up their original files. This can be a costly mistake if your media fails. My suggestion is to always back up a copy, whether it’s on a media such as a CD-ROM, DVD or to other storage device. Ensure that if your hard drive or storage media happens to fail do you still have a copy to go back to will give you extra insurance. Label and organize your DVD or storage backups for easy reference. The next step is storage of images on the web for your clients to view. Many labs have a variety of storage devices that will automatically categorize your images and allow your clients to purchase them directly from the website. Create an easy and convenient way for your client to see the images, as well as purchase the images will help your photography workflow. It also allows your lab, a way to print the images from the client’s orders, which is a great trade for the studio and a lab. Other sources would be that you supply your own web hosting, take orders and relay that information over to someone who can print your images for your clients, whether it’s a professional lab, a local photo shop or even places like a Costco. Many of these locations have the ability to upload the images directly to the Web and select to pick up the images directly at their location or have them shipped to your address to be an easy. There are many choices for you to run your studio efficiently using digital photography. But the most important thing to think about is your workflow. Make it easy for you and simple for your client, and everyone will be happy.

Helping your photography business, how to start a digital wedding photography business and wedding photography business visit virtualphotographystudio.com and keep up-to-date with all of the photography happenings via our free newsletter.

Marketing Your Photography Business On The Internet

Who would have ever imagined a couple of years ago that a new wave of marketing was emerging on the professional photographer. When we were first introduced to the Internet, a world of possibilities opened up to us. The Internet has so much to offer for such a small price. We jumped on for the ride of our lives!

To begin creating your own home page, you must first choose your domain name. Domain names are your address – this will be how your clients find you. Your domain name should be short and concise and relate specifically to you and your business, such as http://www.xyzstudio.com/. Because a domain name is your address, you should use it like your address and post it everywhere: brochures, business cards, letters, advertisements. Don’t hide your Web address within the text of your letters or brochures. Post it as a stand alone similar to your phone number. Also, remember to give your Web address out to telephone inquiries. You give out your studio’s address and directions on how to find you. Why not tell them how to find you on the Web!

As you build your Web site, remember people use the Internet to research anything and everything, at a time that is convenient for them. Therefore, the most useful thing you can give them is information. Imagine your Web site from your clients perspective – what would you look for? Because photography is visual, your Web site can be a wonderful tool to show them what you do best – photograph. Prospective clients can view your portfolio at their leisure, and can contact you through e-mail when they are interested in talking with you more. You can also use your Web site for your current clients by putting together small portfolios from each wedding. This will allow your clients to view their photographs in a matter of days, and will build their excitement for when they come in to make their final selections. It will also build excitement with friends and family who may not have otherwise viewed your photography.

Once you begin marketing your Web address, you must be willing to maintain your Web site on a continual basis. People often browse Web sites over and over again if they know you change your site often. Change entices them to visit on a regular basis, and may help them to make the decision to contact you for more information. One important feature that you should build into your Web site is a link to ask for more information, either through your e-mail or a fill-in-the-blank form. This will allow potential clients to quickly ask for more information when they are interested in your services. Then check regularly to see if you have messages. The Internet provides information quickly. The quicker you respond to any inquiries, the more impressed your clients will be.

Finally, have fun with your Web site. If it’s fun to design, it will be fun to view. People enjoy being entertained as they gain the knowledge they are looking for. Imagine how easy your initial consultation will be if they are excited about you and your photographs before they have even met with you!

Helping your photography business, how to start a digital wedding photography business and wedding photography business visit virtualphotographystudio.com and keep up-to-date with all of the photography happenings via our free newsletter.

Growing Your Photography Business

What is the easiest way to increase your sales/profits? Increasing your business boils down to three fundamentals.

Most traditional photography studios have known for years that there are three essential ways of growing your business:

1. Create fresh ways of bringing new clients into your business.

2. Increase the average dollar amount each customer spends.

3. Increase the frequency with which you do business with each customer.

If you are building a strong photography business, this translates into:

1. Create new marketing techniques to bring in more people for photography sessions.

2. Increase the amount of product your client is purchasing from you at each photo session. This may include packaging products together to create larger sales.

3. Increase the number of times each of your customers have a portrait session. Creativity is king here. You must focus on creating sessions that your clients want to be included.

Serving small niche markets is easier to grow your business. Create seasonal photo sessions that are limited items. Go beyond the traditional Santa Clause and Easter bunny scenes. Instead think of things that are unique and individual to you and your business. Offer quality products and services that people can’t find anywhere else, and they will create a bond that will last throughout the years.

For more information on how to grow a photography business or how to start a photography business, please visit our indepth website.

3 Things Needed For Photography Business Success

As with any new business venture, it takes more than desire to start a business. Here are three traits I’ve found among successful business owners.

1. Mentorship. A successful businessperson never goes it alone. She realizes the key to success is to join others that have achieved success, and follow in their footsteps. When trying to create a successful business, reinventing the wheel takes way too long. And with so many people out in the business world willing to share how they got where they are today, why reinvent the wheel!

How do you find a mentor? Look for industry leaders that have made it to the top of your chosen path. Want to photograph weddings? Who do you admire? Love commercial work? Find the best, and follow their patterns. Also find successful business people that can make the most of your time. Find marketing consultants, lawyers, accountants and business coaches that can cut your learning curve and the time you spend on menial tasks down to nothing.

2. Education. A successful businessperson always looks for educational opportunities. Have you ever heard the phrase:

When you’re green, you’re growing. When you’re ripe you rot.

This phrase speaks to all entrepreneurs very seriously. Over 60,000 books are published every year. Millions of articles are written every year in the thousands of magazines, newspapers and publications published. Information is constantly being updated, changed and reported. Hundreds of training classes are going on all around you every week. There is always an opportunity to take what you know today, and expand on it to create a stronger understanding for tomorrow.

3. Time. There is no such thing as an overnight success. Your road to becoming an overnight success may take you a year. Or three. Or ten. No matter how fast it comes, it comes when you are ready for it. You learn as things happen, and grow by taking action. Every day is a new opportunity.

7 Items Every Photographer’s Website Should Have

7 Items Every Photographer’s Website Should Have

A Gallery of Images
People visit a photographer’s website to see images. Don’t disappoint. Your gallery should show more than a dozen images. Let them spend hours on your site! At our high point, we had over 20,000 images online. And many people would spend hours going through every single one of them.

Contact Information
I spend a lot of time on other peoples sites. And I find a lot of business owners are so worried about spam, they leave off contact information in their fears. Guess what? People can’t contact you if they don’t know how. Fill out forms are great, and are the first step for contact. Give a phone number – some people prefer to call. Give an address – your prospects would love to know what city your in, and where your studio is. Give an email – you can make it a non-clickable graphic.

Content
A portfolio isn’t enough. It’s nice looking at a dozen images, but who are you? What’s your style? How did you decide to become a photographer? What’s the story behind your business? In person, you build a relationship with your prospect. The same thing has to occur online. Content is what sells your business.

Sales Techniques
Your website is more than a portfolio; it’s a sales tool. Think of how you sell in person, and use those same features online. Your website should be growing and changing all the time.

Proper Navigation
If you’ve ever been “stuck” in a website, you know navigation is so important. If you move to a page, it better be easy to move around and back out. Think like your customer. If that’s hard to do, bring a customer in and ask them what they think.

Ordering System
Professional labs and other online services have made it very easy to sell your images online. Connect to one of these services, and use this as an option for your clients. If you’re worried about upfront sales, use it as a bonus after the initial sale is complete.

Marketing
Your website is more than a portfolio; it’s a marketing tool. With over 6 billion web pages online, how will yours compete with the others? It takes marketing. Just like you wouldn’t sit at home without doing any marketing waiting for the phone to ring, you can’t sit at home without marketing your website waiting for the contacts. You have to use online marketing techniques to get noticed.

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Increase Photography Workflow In Your Studio

Adobe resently updated the newest product addition to their lineup called Lightroom. 

Lightroom enables professional photographers to import, manage and present large volumes of digital photographs helping them spend more time behind the lens and less time at the computer. Improvements in Lightroom 1.1 include a new image management system that allows flexible multi-computer workflows. A catalog-based system means photographers now can move images and information quickly between their computers. Lightroom 1.1 further streamlines the digital photography workflow with the addition of a convenient way to synchronize folders in the program with new or changed photos. Other changes include improved noise reduction and sharpening functionality, utilizing customer feedback and technology from industry-standard Photoshop.

If you would like additional information, here is a link for Abobe Lightroom.

Helping your photography business, how to start a digital wedding photography business and wedding photography business visit virtualphotographystudio.com and keep up-to-date with all of the photography happenings via our free newsletter.

How linked is your photography studio’s website?

Having a well designed website is important to attract potential clients but is it well linked? Links into your site are vital to ensure that search engines like google, yahoo and msn display your site under search criteria. By increasing quality link to a photography website, your ranks will increase and the site will list higher and higher in the results. Why is this important? Well, think about it in very simple terms. If your site is popular (many quality link pointed into your site) then search engines look at the website as a valid informational portal and present within the results. If you photography website has little to no linkage, search engines see no reason to display it.

Quality links are from reliable sources of similar content. If you are selling wedding photography then you would want links from other studios, wedding reception sites, wedding coordinators and wedding services.

VirtualPhotographyStudio.com allows studios to add their photography businesses to a directory of other studios. This in turn will add another quality link into your site.

The goal is to have your site show more when potential clients access searches. By working with a strategy that will enhance linkage of your studio’s site on a daily, weekly or monthly basis, you will start to see increase in how your photography website displays in the search engine results.

Photographers see a busy day

What an incredible past week this nation and world has seen! For the United States, the celebration of our independence on July 4th and Earth Day on 07/07/07.

We were out of the country during the July 4th celebration but still enjoyed it. This holiday is one of my favorite holidays.

On July 7, 07, many photographers were crazy busy photographing what was one of the most popular days for weddings. I don’t think that there were many photographers out of work on this special day.

Another item that was celebrated around the world was live earth day. Artists spanned the globe hosting concerts in a 24 hour marathon event that has never been seen. For more information on live earth and what you can do to help protect our environment, we have included a link – Live Earth

 I hope everyone had a wonderful celebration on safe holiday.

Perfect Aim: Hit The Photography Business Bull’s-eye!

How often have you worked throughout the week, worked hard at everything you’ve done, and yet you still feel as if you haven’t accomplished anything within your photography business? It’s not that your unproductive, it’s a simple case of not having set the right priorities. Priorities determine what will bring success into your life, and what will keep you where you are today. In order to move in a new direction, you have to set the right priorities.

Success in your photography studio is achieved by having focus and concentration. You must have your target clearly in place. You must concentrate on aiming straight for the middle, have the proper follow through, and hit the target directly in the center. The ability to set clear priorities is what will help you achieve that photography business bull’s-eye time and time again. Anything else will just be wasted effort.

So as we move throughout our day, we often set priorities that might not be truly necessary for us to achieve success. We often prioritize by the way we feel, or what we’re comfortable with. Prioritizing based on achieving success is much more different than prioritizing based on comfort zones. When you begin setting up what it takes to achieve a goal, certain priorities will become apparent for a successful outcome. Your job is to learn to weed through your priorities, and only perform those tasks that will truly move you into a new direction. You need to learn to set your comfort levels aside, and perform the tasks that will move you towards your goal. Goals cannot be reached if you don’t take the action necessary to achieve them. And as you begin delving into new areas, your comfort levels will expand, and you will be willing to take on new responsibilities. You will begin setting priorities that do make a difference!
Helping your photography business, how to start a digital wedding photography business and wedding photography business visit virtualphotographystudio.com and keep up-to-date with all of the photography happenings via our free newsletter.