Unhappy models

This is my first posting, forgive me if I break rules or am redundant.

 

Is it possible to build a business photographing women? I am returning to the

industry after leaving my wedding studio 8 years ago. So much has changed, the

barriers to entry have dropped with the advent of digital, and the market is

cluttered with wedding photogs. Rather than get into a saturated market, I'd

like to do portraiture of women.

 

The only problem is: they don't like the way they look in photos... too many

wrinkles, bad hair, too fat/thin, too much of everything.

 

Does anyone have advice? I am so discouraged and wondering if this is a failing

business model.<div></div>

No! Get out NOW while you can!<G> I can't say for sure because that's not what I shoot, but I have to say that this is an absolutely lovely image and I'd love to see more. I love the tone and the way you've handled the depth of field. It has a modernized Edward Weston look to me. Great work. I think it's worth trying as a business model, but I'm not the type to put all my eggs in one basket.

Who was it (apart from The Kinks) who said "Give the people what they want"?

 

Whoever it was, it's true, and it your potential clients want, for example, so-called high key shots with flat lighting that owe far more to Photoshop than to lighting skills, then that's what you're going to have to do.

 

I think that could be a hard thing for a skilled photographer to do, but that's the reality.

 

My guess is that if there is any business there at all, it's for the older women who can afford to pay and who think they should; unfortunately there are a lot of 'photographers' who are happy to photograph young women for free

Flattering your subjects is "the job". You have to know how to make the too thin look wider, and the too wide look thinner etc.

 

 

Google Joe Zeltsman and Monte Zucker. Both have free portrait lessons online that will teach you all of the above. Both are idealists, and their work always glamorizes the un-glamorous.

With the attitude you are portraying, don't bother.

 

You're already thinking very negative from the beginning, before you've even ventured back into the business. Being you have photography experience and you are asking this, I'm shocked.

DON'T set out to give the client what they think they want. Build your business doing

the style of work that YOU love and find the clients who value it. You'll be much

happier.

 

Why try to do the same thing as all the other photographers in this field? Do your own

thing, build your own market, and you'll never be sorry.

 

- CJ

Most clients want photos with specific characteristics. Doing what you want works for a personal portfolio, if you want to build a business, the advice above is just plain wrong. Clients don't want to see your style, unless they're buying prints off a wall, they want things that make them look a specific way.

 

I have commercial portraits and I have personal portraits. I don't try to sell the personal portraits, they look the way I want them to, not the way the subjects want them to.

 

It's worth pointing out that Avedon did what the art directors wanted in his commercial work, like his Vogue shots, and what he wanted in his personal work, like the American West portraits. This is what enabled him to become a hugely successful portrait and fashion photographer. The reaction to the American West portraits was generally pretty negative at the time. If he had submitted shots like that to Vogue, well...

Jeff, "the above" is exactly how I built my business. Yes, it does work.

 

- CJ

I want to expand a bit on my brief answer(s) above. This is a subject I'm very

passionate about.

 

There are many ways to approach business, and specifically the building of one.

You can either follow the "give them what they want" approach, or you can follow the

"give them something new to want" approach. NEITHER IS WRONG. But they are

distinctly different.

 

I chose to follow the second approach, primarily because I could never be happy

doing work that looks like everyone else's and having my style dictated to me. It

would be incredibly limiting to me. The other reason I chose that route is because I

didn't want to be one of a mob of photographers all offering the same style and

products. My initial area of specialization was children's photography (still my bread

and butter) and the market was flooded with photographers all doing cute, fairly

traditional, mostly studio work. It didn't make sense to me to become one of the

herd because that's what parents thought they wanted.

 

My style is fairly dark in tone and often serious in mood, and I was told by many in

the industry when I started out that nobody would want my work because parents

want to see smiling, happy children. I was also told that I couldn't do exclusively

B&W because parents want to see color. In reality, parents simply hadn't seen my

style of work at that point, so they couldn't know to ask for it.

 

Once I got my work out there for people to see, it took off at an unbelievable rate

because I was literally the only one offering the kind of work I do. I was filling an

invisible void in the market. My clients continue to come to me because I've stayed

true to my style and methods, and because my work doesn't look like anyone else's.

 

I'm sure I could've built a business doing what everyone else was doing, but I

wouldn't enjoy it nearly so much, and I honestly don't think it would've taken off at

such a rapid rate. There is real value in doing what you love and building the

market.

 

Over the last few years, I've met many, many photographers who were burnt out and

didn't enjoy photography any more. The top complaint has been that they're doing

work that they don't enjoy because they're trying to be all things for all clients, and

they feel the art has gone missing from their work. Many of them have since made

the decision to go back to working true to their style and have found that their

businesses have grown in a much more satisfying direction.

 

Again, I'm not suggesting that the way I went about building my business was the

only viable way. Build whatever business you want however you want. There is not

"wrong" approach if it works for you. I just want to assert that you don't HAVE to

just "give your clients what they want."

 

- CJ

1) MOST clients do NOT know what they want....

 

2) If you work directly with clients who happen to be the ones you are taking the pictures of (as opposed to doing a shoot for a magazine in which case you'd be dealing with the art director, editor, etc...) you simply interpret what they *think* they want and proceed accordingly. Come to think of, you do that with A.D. most of the time anyways :)

 

3) It's part of the job to use YOUR vision to give the client what THEY like.

 

4) If you can create a market niche, whatever it may be, you'll do well.

 

5) Crowded markets are sometimes better because most of the 'crowd' is mediocre at best. If you have talent, CHARGE MORE than the 'crowd' and set yourself apart from them by producing unique images (within the confines of the 'jobs' requirement).

 

>>they don't like the way they look in photos...<<

 

I have never had that problem but, I can offer this: when you sit down with a client, make sure YOU understand what they THINK they are getting. It should be easy to tell within a few minutes of talking with them. If you perceive that they want a considerably 'altered' version of themselves you can either not take the gig or...create a niche for yourself doing exactly that type of photos! Get a great make-up artist, stylist, etc... and charge accordingly.

 

Good Luck!

Umhhhh...you could only take on good looking clients.

Thanks to all who shared their insights and advice.

 

Indeed, bringing fashion photography to the commercial portrait market should be left left in the hands of those dedicated artists. Fortunately, my portrait effort was limited to friends and family who sat for me as I learned how to use a digital camera. None were paying clients, but all helped my understand the challenges facing the professional portait photographer.

 

More than a decade ago, I built a sucessful wedding studio by introducing a "photojournalist's" eye to a market dominated by traditional (mostly male) photographers. Since then, more women and more documentary wedding photographers have entered the portrait market.

 

Back then, I was shooting medium format film, relying rarely, if at all, on retouching. Today, with image enhancement understood by and available to even the most novice photographer, expectations for a "perfect" portrait have exceeded my skill.

 

My camera work has always inclined towards the documentary rather than art making image. Since this post, I have given up trying to be another Monte Zucker. Instead, my practice is focused on photojournalism... my true love and hopefully my natural skill. Please check out my images, shot over three months. I look forward to the informed critque here at Photo.net. Tasha Gajewski