Apr 4, 2022
Bill Gardner
On January 10, 2022, we explored the first 4 huge mistakes that some people make when choosing a photographer to create their family portraits. As we saw, if you make those mistakes, you may possibly suffer great disappointment and heartbreak.
In this blog, we look at the remaining 3 mistakes and how you can avoid making them.
Mistake #5: Many folks hire a photographer who isn’t a “people person” and continuously tries to get their clients to smile by saying “say cheese.”
We’ve all seen photographs where the subjects looked stiff and posed, and those photographs never look very good. Why have a family photograph created if your family doesn’t look natural? There are several ways to ensure that each member of your family look their best in the finished photographs…and it should never involve having any of your family members “say cheese.”
Your photographer should get to know your family so that he or she is very capable of portraying everyone as truly themselves. The personality of every member of your family should be captured for all to see. Looking “stiff” or “posed” is far from looking natural. Your entire goal in having a family portrait taken by a professional photographer is to capture a priceless family memory, one in which each member of the family is captured as themselves.
When all is said and done, the most important thing in your family portrait is precisely your family…their relationships -- their expressions -- their personalities. You should not accept anything less.
Mistake #6: Many folks don’t find out why a particular photographer became a photographer in the first place.
Some photographers practice their craft for the sole reason of making a living. To them, photography is just “a business” and their client is nothing more than the means of making money. Does your potential photographer accept your request for an appointment to make a family portrait only to schedule you to come into the studio to have the pictures taken without any sort of extensive pre-consultation? Such a photographer clearly does not know the people (the family) that he or she is photographing. Under such conditions, the “portraits” will likely be overly posed, static, and rather bland…far from displaying the family dynamics, relationship, and love for one another.
The photographer that you select should have chosen to become a photographer because he or she loves the process. Such a photographer will exhibit a love of family, and a love for helping families capture precious memories, relationships, and personalities. When you have a portrait taken, you are freezing a moment in time. You should ensure that the person who you hire to capture that moment is the best candidate to capture it properly.
Mistake #7: Many folks hire a photographer who schedules many sessions into a single day.
While it may be a good sign that a photographer is busy with many clients and sessions, scheduling too many into a single day could be a recipe for disaster. Scheduling more than two or three full portrait sessions in a single day could very well be a sign that each session will be rushed, and the photographer will not be able to devote the time and care needed to do it right. The simple reason why the session might be rushed is that the photographer is consumed by the fact that he or she has another session scheduled right after your session and needs to finish up your session by a specific time to be readily available for the next client. It’s not unusual for a photographer to cram 5 to 10 portrait sessions into one day. Under such time constraints, consider what the session could be like for your family. The photographer would have barely enough time to set up a couple of lights, provide quick instructions for a static pose, and snap several images so you’d have some possible choices. Or he or she might suggest several poses (and therefore more choices for you) by using one preset lighting configuration that is used for every single client that walks in the door. And the poses, no doubt, are the very same poses that are used for every client. Nothing is custom designed for each family.
The photographer that you select should provide his or her undivided attention during your session. They should not be concentrating on when they need to cut the time of your session so that they can rush off for the next session. You do not want less-than-perfect portraits. Just like pretty much anything else in life, anything worth doing is worth doing right. Doing one or two truly great photo sessions a day is worth so much more than cranking out 10 average sessions. It boils down to being a matter of pride, drive, and an honest desire to create images that will bring tears of joy to your eyes when you view them. You are ultimately trusting your photographer with your family’s memories. Choose a photographer who takes that responsibility very seriously.
CLICK OUR LOGO AT THE TOP OF THIS BLOG TO GO TO OUR WEBSITE HOMEPAGE