Every photographer is different, so i thought I would go through what happens at a typical photoshoot.
At Leon Britton photography, we are lucky enough to have our own Liverpool studio to work from and most of the time our shoots take place at our studio.
After booking online, through the website you receive a series of emails outlining the address details of the studio, along with the time of their shoot. Sessions are normally allocated two hours, but this can be shorter depending on the type of photoshoot.
You also receive and email with links to our questions and answers page, offering advice on how to prepare for your shoot.
We will also ask that if you have any ideas or images in mind for your session, that you forward them across to us beforehand. It’s often difficult to understand what people are trying to convey they want from an image and it helps us if you can actually show us what you are looking to achieve, or follow the styling of.
On arrival at our studio we will spend the first part of the session understanding the purpose of the images, and getting you used to the studio environment.
Once ready, we then take a series of test shots to ensure there are no issues with adverse reactions to light and any potential skins issues highlighted by the strobe lighting.
The images are then bought up on a large monitor and together we discuss what we both feel works and doesn’t work about the test images. We discuss what you don’t like in the image and we then look to resolve those issues through corrective posing.
The most common things people don’t like about their images tend to include:
- nose
- chin
- eyes
- wrinkles
- hairs
- scars
- eyebrows
The list is non-exhaustive, but we try to ensure we address these as much as possible through posing and lighting techniques as much as possible.
As a team, together, we then take numerous images which we review together before you leave the studio. These are then uploaded to a secure online proofing gallery after some minor lighting corrections if necessary.
In the comfort of your own home, or a place of your choosing, you can then browse through the gallery and select the images you want to purchase. We do not pressure clients into buying images they don’t need, in quantities they can’t really afford. If asked, we will always give constructive feedback concerning choices and suggestions, especially when people are torn between several images.
I know that some photographers use a practice called in person selling, which involves a face to face meeting after the photoshoot to discuss your shoot and then guide you to making a purchase decision. Sometimes a photographer will use techniques such as deleting the unwanted images in front of their client or tearing up unselected proof prints. I think these “hard sell” techniques give some studios within the photographic industry a bad name, and draws a parallel to some of the sales methods employed within the used car industry. I don’t agree with that.
Once you have chosen the images, we then send an invoice across for the balance of the session fee and the images selected. Once payment has been cleared we then get to work on the images, and these are then send across digitally within a couple of days.
Images are usually sent in both colour and mono, in three different sizes. We do this as some of the image files are quite large and uploading them to platforms like Instagram or fakebook would mean the images being compressed during upload and sometimes this can make the images look very low resolution and grainy. We ask that should there be any issues or minor corrections that need addressing, that they be raised within seven days of receipt and we can then get to them asap.
Shortly after this we contact you inviting you to share your feedback on the experience with us as the studio.
To read more blog posts and updates from Leon Britton Photography, please visit the Blog Page