Studio Market

Because I am working in the studio now I have also started to look into places that I can find models and who I should be advertising myself towards.

I know that my main audience in the studio would be parents and brides because this is the majority of the customers that the studio gets. I do not know how to specifically market myself towards them.

I know that the studio is affiliated with Tees Valley Wedding Services and that we would be advertising ourselves through the wedding fairs and events that this organization hosts. I have been to a wedding fair on works experience for a day and these get many potential brides in and are very beneficial to small companies and studio photographers because brides come with the intentions of finding us, which makes the marketing easier.

There are also many forums online and joining and participating on these would also be useful as this creates a more personal feeling between the client and studio, this will mean they are more likely to come to us because they feel a sense of connection.  The forums are aimed at new and expecting parents as well as brides so this is a good way to advertise ourselves. Another factor is that brides and parent will talk and share the images on social media sites and the forums; this can generate both positive and negative feedback depending on the experience that the client has.

I have looked at other studios offering the same services in the area and one in particular caught my eye because the quality of the photographs did not seem worth the price that people were being charged. Our studio is aiming to provide a fairer and more affordable studio experience rather than overcharging to make it appear more high quality. 

Retouching Market

There are lots of studio spaces who are looking for photographers or assistants who have knowledge and experience working on Photoshop, Lightroom and Capture One; these three seem to be the three most favoured software’s that are asked about.

I have looked on the standard job websites for Retouching work but nothing seems to be specifically mentioned, so instead I have searched for creative industry job websites and looked directly through different companies.

My lecturer has shown us links to two different opportunities one is a job website for the creative industry only; Hiive covers everything from photography, painting and writing.

Currently they have no jobs listed under retouching but they do have some photography jobs that are available

New Look:

This is a social media manager job; I would have to create social content to engage with people so content such as Photography, Competitions, and creative statuses. I would help promote the campaigns and work with the branding team to ensure this was done.

Framestore:

This is a job looking to hire another member of the team, they would work with 2D and 3D software’s and I would be working with the production team and higher members of the compositing team to help produce works.

Market Research

Who is my market?
What am I selling?
What do they expect to see?
These are all questions I need to keep in mind when I am working as if I do not have an idea of who to aim towards my photography will not be seen by the right people and I may represent myself wrong.
I have done some research on marketing and I found an article that told me I should build a client profile:
What do I want to be working on?
For what purpose?
I need to be able to answer these questions in depth before I can start to market myself appropriately.

Who is my market?

I think that I have two different markets one for retouching and one for working in the studio although they overlap together. My main retouching market is advertising brands and product companies, but I can also work in studios doing touch ups and using my skills as a digital technician. Working in studios would hopefully give me opportunities to continue my creative retouching style and expand my skills. If I aimed myself at a studio this would also be part of my target audience for being a photographer. Marketing myself as a photographer means I would be focussing my attention to family photographs and event photography, I would be aiming myself more towards parents and making sure that I fulfilled their needs and expectations. In my experience it is mostly mothers and female members of the family who request family photographs, I have not been asked by one male member for any photographs, it was also the bride who asked about the wedding and the woman who wanted to book me for the 50th Celebration. This is going to have a significant impact on how I market myself and how I choose to represent myself. This is going to refer back to the research I did when I looked at branding myself and looking at colours that both genders prefer, as I will be aiming myself towards women but not excluding men.



What am I selling?

I have also sat down to think about this and what it means to me; I am marketing myself with two separate yet overlapping skills; I am going to be marketing myself as a Retoucher and a Studio Photographer. My skills and services as a Retoucher will also be useful and transferrable to working in a studio. My retouching services include

- Touch ups (or ‘airbrushing’)
- Clipping path
- Background clean up
- Colour editing
- Compositing
- Printer


All of these are useful in the studio. As a studio photographer I am going to be marketing myself as

- Family photographer
- Event photographer
- Wedding photographer
- Pet photographer
- Printer
- Coordinator
- Organiser
- Creative Consultant

I am selling all of these services and skills when I am marketing myself but clients only see the final images, they only understand that they are paying for the final prints and do not understand I am going to be charging them for behind the scenes costs as well as their prints.



What do they expect to see?

People come to photography with certain preconceptions and sometimes misconceptions about what happens and what to expect. As a studio photographer people expect the camera to ‘look’ a certain way; they expect to see the big black DSLR’s, I can understand preconceptions as if I had hired a studio photographer I would not understand if they turned up expecting to shoot with an Iphone. Often studios also have more equipment than they need to have equipment surrounding the shoot and make the studio look and feel like a studio, and they set up lights on stands when there are other options because people like to feel they are receiving the ‘studio experience’ they want to feel like what they have paid for is worth it and if they enjoy the experience of having their photographs taken they will be happier with the prints and be more likely to recommend the studio to other people.
I know of two studio spaces that use this technique, and even if the extra equipment is never used or touched it builds up the atmosphere and the clients prefer this.

GC Photo-Grafics

Over the Easter term break in university I started looking for jobs and work experience that could help me for later on after leaving university, studios and established photographers are more willing to have students come in for experience days than just other photographers.

One studio in Stockton I was going to message about getting some work experience over the summer put out an application looking for photographers to hire as they are moving studio spaces and were looking to expand their team of photographers, so I emailed in my application with my skills CV, and I received an email asking if I would be open to an interview and to bring a small portfolio along with me. So I took along some of the photographs of the wedding and the family photographs that I have done and we discussed my experience and what kind of photography I would be willing to do in the studio. He then talked about moving studio spaces and what that means for the company and upcoming bookings that they have planned.

I have been asked to help set up the studio over the summer and if I have any ideas about backgrounds or props then my input is more than welcome, I have started researching online for props and different background ideas as right now they only have plain white and black backgrounds but is in contact with set designers and background makers.

Business Card Delivery

This is my delivery of business cards and A5 flyers. I think they appear as a high quality and I am impressed with them. I am happy with the design and the final outcome.

Twenty Twenty

Recently in university we had a portfolio review by Frede Spencer, the creative director at TwentyTwenty the photography agency. This agency hires photographers to work for them then helps them gain the jobs that fit within their style by showcasing their portfolio and experience to potential employers in portfolio reviews and meetings.

I think that joining a photo agency is a good way to get noticed and started in the industry but I do not think that I will follow this route; this route seems to be aimed towards documentary and editorial photographers, which is not my style.

After hearing Frede Spencer talk and explain about the agency, the option for a portfolio review was given to the final year students and I took this opportunity. At first I was not going too because I was so nervous and worried about the images in my portfolio; the lecturers had not seen them all but some of them that had been seen had been criticized and I did not want to show work I had been told was not good enough.  However Frede Spencer disagreed with their opinions and it made me realise that the lecturers opinion is not the only opinion and just because I do not shoot to the same style that the lecturers have it does not mean I will not be successful in the industry.

He was also impressed that I was the only person in the room who knew straight away that while I was studying photography that did not mean that to make it in the industry I had to be taking photographs; he asked each student what their plan was and if they wanted to be a photographer, I was the only student asked who said that I would not be taking photographs and that I would only be working on images I had been sent to retouch.

I also realised I needed to find a way to build up my confidence or to find a way to able to fake confidence because afterwards when I was thinking over what had happened I realised that I over explained every picture because I felt like it was not good enough and being judged negatively.  It also made me extremely nervous to be showing my work to so many people at once and having to stand in front of them and talk was not something I thought I could do.

Overall I am glad for this experience and I am grateful for the time and opinions that Frede Spencer gave to me, this is what built up my confidence enough to start applying for jobs and showing my work to other people. 

Portfolio

For one of my modules in University it is stated in the outcomes that I should create a portfolio, either digital or physical. I have contemplating this for a while and I have decided that I will be creating a digital portfolio only for my retouching skills as this way I can use the power of the screen to show movement and before and afters easier, it also means that I can show speed videos of my workflow and my Photoshop process.

I then looked into creating a portfolio for interviews and because I knew I needed a portfolio for my job interview with GC Photo-Grafics I looked into getting some professional prints done with different companies and how I would create this.

Portfolios are essentially a creative CV and as such potential clients and employers are judging the presentation of this not just the quality of the work being shown. I know from experience that prints which do not fit in a box properly can give a very unprofessional look and people can turn you away because they would not want to hire somebody who can not print or work to specific standards that they have.

Creating a portfolio is a costly investment, portfolios require

Portfolio Boxes 12*16	£49.90
Portfolio Books A3 Leather	£217.72
Sleeves 12*16 (10pkts)	£16.14
Prints	£11 (average per print)
Mount board A4	£7.80
Portfolio Satchel A3	£34.50

The above prices taken from Process Supplies website, except the printing costs which was gathered from printing companies such as Printspace, Digital Lab and Colour Box. I own a black 12*16 print box from Process Supplies and I also own a multitude of their print sleeves. I keep all of my current portfolio prints in this box with any prints that have not been selected stored in their sleeves in a professional archive box. I also have printed sticker labels on the reverse of these prints, as this looks professional and can help with returning my prints of they are ever misplaced when people are looking at them during portfolio reviews or job interviews.

There are other types of boxes and even carry cases, which can then be used and delivered by bike courier if I decide to mail out my portfolio (such as the portfolio satchel). I think these are a good idea however I would prefer to be delivering my portfolio in person so I can see peoples reactions and then talk and explain my work, this would personally be a better option for me as a retoucher then I can explain my Photoshop process and skills that I have used in creating my portfolio work.

My lecturer showed us his portfolio and he has his name and branding embossed into his portfolios briefcase, this is a good idea and I think this looks very professional. Unfortunately I do not think I will be able to afford this option currently so I am going to keep using my portfolio box that I own. 

I can create my digital portfolio very easy, with many professional options being available through software such as Word and PowerPoint, although these are simple options I can then save them as a PDF and embed this into my website or send it over email very easily.  I have created a digital portfolio and sent this to the manager of GC Photo-Grafics when he asked for a sample of work that I had done. He was impressed with my level of professionalism and although I did not have many photographs he liked that I had just sent the best of them rather than trying to fill it up a little with the lesser photographs. He understood that I had not had much previous experience but is willing to take me on train me up, he says that with the clients permission I am then able to use the images I take in the studio in my portfolio.

Within my portfolio as a studio photographer I included the Wedding photography, some event photographs, all of my family photographs and I also chose to include some of the Crafts by Claire photographs in and my works in progress of the studio work I am currently doing, I also included two photographs from the previous module in university as I wanted to show I had technical experience with Photoshop and editing as I am hoping to be able to create Photoshop fantasy backgrounds for the children’s photo-shoots so that we can give the parents some non typical creative portraits that will stand out from what is typically seen in studio portrait sessions.