What does it take to make your client, whether it be an advertising client or a family client, happy?
With more and more photographers turning to Composite Photography to add something “different” to their repertoire of work, is it as simple as smashing a couple of photos together to make your clients happy?
Today, I’d like to share how 33 Composited photos made my client, the Childs family, very happy.
Standard Disclaimer: there’s nothing magical about using 33 photos that will make your client happier than using 100 photos or just one photo.
Ok, let’s dig into this, and let me show you what makes clients happy.
Family Portrait’s that are Different
Do you struggle with finding your unique style of photography? Something different that nobody else is doing and that separates you from all the other photographers in your area?
If so, then keep reading because I think I have a solution that will easily change that for you.
If you’ve followed my Creative Family Portraits for any time, then you’ll know that while they’re all very different, they all have a very congruent look and feel to them.
Of course, some of this can be as a consequence of my workflow, but the reason my family portraits resonate with so many of my clients is because…
Wait! I don’t want to get ahead of myself here.
Making Ugly, Pretty
When I decided to get back into photography 3 years ago I knew I had to think outside the box and do something “different”.
If you’re wondering why I place quotes around “different”, it’s because it’s the #1 reason my clients choose my portraits over my competition.
The problem was, I was stuck here in Dallas, TX, the capital of uninteresting and ugly landscapes, which makes it super hard to make an awesome looking scene.
As you can see, each photo isolated at best looks average and not very interesting.
To solve my ugly scene problem, I simply began stitching my individual images together to create one amazing scene photo.
Isn’t that WAAAAAAYYYYYYYY Better?
Breaking Down Childs Play
I know you’re anxious to hear my solution to finding your unique style of photography, which you can see at the end of this post, but let’s break down the Childs’ family portrait really quick first.
1. Mandy
2. Rich
3. Ella
4. Mack
5. Mack’s Leg
6. AJ
7. Keiser
8. Chloe
9. Mandy’s Flowers
10. Met’s Ball Cap
11. Baseball Glove
12. SMU Football
13. Flower Pot #1
14. Flower Pot #2
15. Falling Flowers
16. Broken Flower Pot
17. Flower Pot
18. Flower Pot
19. Butterfly
20. Squirrel
21. Sky
22. Sun Sky
23. Flying Birds
24. Flying Birds
25. House #1
26. House #2
27. House #3
28. House #4
29. Trees
30. Pool #1
31. Pool #2
32. Pool #3
33. Foreground Tree
Taking a Peek
One of the coolest parts of Composite Photography is seeing the transformation from before to what you’ve created after.
To give you a better idea of the work that goes into one of my typical Composites, here are some Before-and-Afters.
As you can see in the original image of the scene compared to the final family portrait, there’s large difference that required a lot of work.
My Style Secret
Admittedly, the style question is one of the hardest and most abstract questions to answer in a usable way.
How did you find your style? or How did you develop your style?
The unfortunate path most photographers take is to just copy a style they like.
Unfortunately, or I should say fortunately, this method rarely results in success and is most often abandoned quickly. I only recommend copying other photographers you admire to practice and better your skill set.
Now, how do you find your style?
I recommend taking a few minutes to think about your family, how they make you feel, how you’d like to remember them in 5, 10, or 15 years, and set out to create that image.
For me, I hated posed portraits and wanted to remember the real personalities of my boys, Luka and Niko.
So, I began to pay close attention to their behaviors and brainstorm ideas of how I could bring those behaviors to life in a portrait.
It was as simple as that.
