We all know that one of a photographers best marketing tool is word of mouth. When a client talks about us, price is always part of the discussion. If you keep giving different prices to different clients because of discounts, it will be embarassing if not insulting to your higher priced clients when they hear about this. Having a fixed price means never having to deal with this problem. If a client is insisting for a discount, the best is to give them freebies rather than a price reduction, in most cases those freebies will easily be forgotten, but not your price. How will they forget how much they wrote on the check

When building a portfolio, try to arrange it so that you start with one of favourite work and likewise end with another favourite work. In fact you should have a 3rd favourite and put it in the center. This will make sure the viewer (perspective client) will not put down your portfolio when they reach the mid-point.

If possible, create a seperate portfolio per type of shooting you do. Ex. Fashion, Products, Events and etc. and only show a specific portfolio based on the requirement. A fashion client can easily get bored looking at still life photos.

A portfolio is created to showcase one’s work, so it is important that your photo is unique to you. Try not including photos that other photographers similarly have, which is usually the case when one joins an open photo shoot. Imagine the confusion of the client if they keep seeing similar work (same model, same look and same lighting), but by different photographers. Another problem with using photos from an open photo shoot, is majority of the time the lights are being set-up by the organizer, and the photographer pretty much just set the camera based on what the orginer advices. This means, even though you were the one who pressed the shutter and own the photograph, the creative decision has been made by someone else, which in my opinion can’t be, as a whole, considered as one’s work. Though there is still some worth in joining such open photoshoot, like tips from either the organizer or fellow photographer, experience, networking and etc.

I highly suggest to organize your own portfolio shoot, there is probably as many if not more, starting out models and make-up artist who is willing to do a collaboration (x-deal) for everyones benefit.

In this day and age of google, everyone is a search away. Do not expect potential clients to not know how to use google, which means pretty much everything you post online can be traced back to you. When I mean everything, this includes all the good shots that you have made and also the bad ones. You must control yourself to uploading every photo that you shoot. Set a standard for yourself, and if the photo doesn’t meet your standards, do not upload it. Even professionals like me are not perfect, we are also as capable of creating bad shots, but I make sure no one will see it except me. If you already have those so called bad shots online, start weeding out your gallery and only leave those that meet your standard. People tend to have a better memory on the bad ones they see over the good ones.

To the models and make-up artist out there, this tip also holds true. Though a bit more difficult to control, since it will be the photographer who usually uploads it to their own respective gallery and tagging your names on it. The best way to control it is prevention. Do not keep accepting x-deal photoshoots, specially if there is no clear concept. Do a little research on your chosen photographer if they are indeed capable of implementing the so called concepts. When I have shoot, and will be working with models and make-up artist I have not worked with before, I also use google, to familiarize my self with them, and I have had the occasion of seeing bad photos, and since my work will be judged based on my subject, I have to relay my concerns to the clients.