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The Right Way to Travel
August 20, 2008 - "Olympic Fuel" Tip #3
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Shelly Perry here.

I shoot a lot of portraits.  It works well for me because I like photographing people, and my people shots are usually good sellers for stock -- so sometimes I make twice the money.

Occasionally, a client will ask me for a CD of all the images I took of her -- good and bad.  And so my "Olympic Fuel" tip today is: Don't give it to her.

Some clients think they want a CD of every image you took of them.  But what they don't realize is that when you set up a portrait shoot, you'll easily take over 100 shots in hopes of getting 12-24 that are good enough to show them. 

If you were to show them an entire CD of 88 bad photos and 12 good ones, they'd subconsciously focus on the massive amount of bad photographs.  This isn't good for your reputation as a photographer -- or for your model's self-image.

You can always use lighting techniques, camera angles, colors, special poses, and other portrait-photographer tricks to bring out your model's best features.

However, there will inevitably be a few shots that don't come out well... where your model looks a little too heavy, too tired, her eyes are closed, or she's making a weird face.  Do yourself and your model a favor and get rid of those shots.  Don't ever give her the chance to think, "Boy, I'm just not very photogenic, am I?"  Give her only the best shots you took and you'll both be happier in the end.

[Ed. Note: You can increase the number of photos that make your client look good -- and in the end, sell more to both your client and stock -- by using the portrait-photographer tricks Shelly mentioned above.  She shared her most successful techniques with us in a new special report called: How to Look 10 Years Younger and 20 Pounds Lighter in Every Photo You Take.

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Or browse our entire catalog of discounted products on our special sale page: http://www.thephotographerslife.com/get_started .]

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