Professional photographers all know how to take photographs, some are better at composition, lighting, post-processing or posing, but in general, to be a professional and get paid you have to be a pretty darned good photographer. So if every other professional photographer in your area is fairly great at taking a photograph, how do you set yourself apart from everyone else and create imagery that will get attention?
Offering an unbelievable experience to your customers is one way, but you aren't the only one who will be doing this. Delivering exceptional photographs and related products at a reasonable price isn't going to have folks banging down your door either. So, now you are sitting there trying to figure out how your photography business is different than the photographers down the street. Once you come up with some ideas, think about how you will execute on them. Chances are, in order to really and truly set yourself apart, you are going to have to invest a chunk of your hard-earned cash.
Several years ago we attended Imaging USA, which is the annual convention of the Professional Photographers of America, in Tampa, FL and we saw something that we were sure would set us apart from all the other photographers in Knoxville. What did we see? The Scene Machine from
Virtual Backgrounds! We happened upon the Virtual Background booth and had a wonderful conversation with Shirley Robinson, a photographer from Colorado who was working the booth. She had been using the Scene Machine for her boudoir photography business for many years and provided us with a lot of great information. This conversation led to lots of conversations between Allan and I and ultimately we decided to purchase a Scene Machine and 10' X 10' background.
We decided to set ourselves apart from all the other photographers in the Knoxville area by providing our client's with a virtually limitless collection of backgrounds. Not only can we photograph client's anywhere they choose outdoors, we also have hundreds of choices of backgrounds, featuring both indoor and outdoor scenes, for them to choose. How many different backgrounds can you incorporate into an hour session? Four or five? Maybe six. How many do you think our clients can have? The answer: A lot!
Right about now, you are probably curious how the Virtual Background System works and although we like to tell people it's magic, you can follow this
link for a complete explanation. Images in this post are from yesterday's session and feature the use of a colored gel with the Virtual Background System. These images also feature Photoshop actions and effects available from
design house. We'll be sharing more images shot incorporating the Virtual Background System on our
Facebook page over the next few weeks.
Enjoy!
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