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As a photographer, how do you develop rapport with current and prospective clients?

(source)Most of the time, you don’t need to hit it off with your vendors. As long as they provide quality products on time, it’s enough. Photographers, though, are another story. Theirs is a personal service and you’ll be working intimately with the one you hire. So how their personality meshes with yours is an important factor when making your selection.

One of the best tools that a photographer has, when it comes to establishing a sense of rapport with prospective clients is to be able to show them some of their previous work. After all, what better way to show that you can capture a moment, a glance or tender feelings than to use a photo that you’ve taken in the past?

When you use professional photo books, you’ll find that you are able to tell a story with the work that you’ve done. Photo books will allow you to present the best of your work so that your prospects will be able to see that you really do “get it.”

If you’re a wedding photographer, for example, prospective clients will want to see that you’re able to catch the tenderness, the excitement and maybe even a but if the nervous energy that all couples seem to experience. If you’re a portrait artist, you’ll want to show that you’ve worked with clients with a wide variety of personalities and been able to capture them all.

Photo books let you accomplish all of that and more.

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When you’re looking for a photo book layouts that will make your work shine, you’ll find that there are two options. The first is to let a designer do the layout work. Still, if you want to have control over the process, you’ll want to consider the following three layout ideas that will help to make your images pop.

Consider a two page spread.

Great landscapes of a mountain range. Expansive fields of poppies or wildflowers. A happy couple standing on the beach soon after their wedding.

When dramatic moments need to be frozen in time and celebrated for what they are; when your images need to speak for themselves, give them the attention they deserve.

Try shifting the angle.

When you layout your photo book, think outside of what’s conventional. Shift the photos a bit; skew them on the page to see whether or not you’re able to create a more dramatic angle. You may choose to crop the photo to that angle before having it printed on the page, but sometimes a shift of the scene is enough to make you - and everyone who picks up your photo books - look at things differently.

Create a photo montage within your photo book.

Maybe you’ll use smaller versions of all of the included photos on the cover of your photo book; maybe you’ll use a montage at the beginning and end of the book. Maybe you’ll use three smaller images along with a larger photo on the page. Grouping related photos can be a way of unifying them; it can also be an effective way of adding more images to the layout.

Photo book layout is largely based on your preference, but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t a reason why an image comes before or after another. Be sure that you’re thinking of the story when you decide on a photo book layout.

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Photo book structure is as important to the success of your business as the quality of the photos you take.

Why is photo book structure so important?

1. The structure of your photo book shows the quality of the product itself: a photo book with a hard cover and library binding is going to be of a better quality than a softcover book with pages glued into the spine with low quality glues.
2. The design of your photo book is going to be impacted by the structure: when it’s possible to predict exactly how the book will be created, it’s easy to know how to work around the bleeds and margins of the page because they will be consistent every time.
3. Quality work should be presented in a quality way: you take your photography seriously, shouldn’t you present it as well.
4. When you’re presenting marketing materials to your clients, you need to be sure that they see the quality of your work; if the structure of you book is not sound, will you really be giving the impression that you want to give.
5. When you’re offering clients the option to receive a printed photo book rather than a traditional album, you’ll find that it’s a better option when you know that you can stand behind it.

A quality binding, acid free paper, high end printing: all of these contribute to photo book structure that you can count on.

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When it comes to the services that you offer with your photography, you’ll find that there are a number of options that are available to you. For example, you can focus on print marketing and getting the details out about your services. You can focus on going to middlemen - service negotiators who talk with the providers and the end clients. Or, you can use professional photo books to market your work directly to prospective clients.

professional photo books, you’ll be able to create a portfolio that stands out above those of your competitors who are still marketing their work in more traditional ways. If you’re a wedding photographer, rather than relying on wedding planners to get the word out about your services, show your photo books to prospective clients at wedding shows and bridal shows to let them see what you’re capable of doing.

The motivation behind this should be simple and clear: while it can be useful to have third parties talking with your prospects, you can market yourself more effectively if you focus on talking with those who are looking for the services that you buy.

Designing photo books allows you to do more than create a marketing item. Photographers who use professional photo books to market their work find that they show more than photos, they are able to tell a story - and that attracts more clients.

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What’s hot in photography? To some extent, as a photographer that’s up to you to decide. In artistic fields, even when those fields are related to your business, trends come and go, and a single spark can become so hot that it seems to catch the whole world on fire.

Photo books give you the opportunity to express yourself. Here are 5 hot ways to use them:

• Unique portfolios. A photo book can be a way of showcasing your best work - and making sure that your images and name stand out.
• Gifts for clients. If you take marketing shots, why not say thanks to you best clients with a photo book of the images that have helped to set them apart?
• Print options for clients. Wedding photographers can create a unique album for the couples they work with.
• To tell a story. Share your best work, include images, find the right words and combine them into something new.
• Donate to a cause. If there’s something that you believe in, a particular cause, look at it, work with them to capture the right images and use photo books to help gain publicity for that organization.

How will you use your photo books?

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Designers will give you one tip more than any other: choose your theme. This is a great design tip for those who are getting ready to design a printed photo book to showcase their work.

When you set out to design a photo book, you’ll want to think about what your theme is.

If you’re a wedding photographer who is using photo books as an option for your clients, the theme of your photo book is likely going to be based on the theme of the wedding: stylish and modern, classic, based on a movie theme or holiday. If you’re going to be using a photo book for marketing your work, you’ll want to look at what message you’re trying to send. If you’re collecting travel photos into a book, you’ll want to consider a theme based on the place - using colors that are related to the place - or the shots you’re using - if you’ve taken underwater photos during your travels, you’ll look towards a theme based on water or coral.

Once you have a theme for the book you are designing, you’ll find that it’s far easier to choose your shots and organize your work.

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As a photographer, you’re likely to find that regardless of your job - whether you shoot portraits, landscapes or stock - there’s that one thing underneath it all that moves you: why not create a printed photo book to document that passion?

Perhaps there is a cause that you believe in - helping the homeless, working at a soup kitchen, working with kids or the aging. The passion that you bring to your photographs provides you with an opportunity to show others why caring and contributing is so important.

When you publish those photographs along with written stories in a printed photo book, you’re able to share your commitment - and get others involved too.

You may find that though you know there is a market for your book it’s hard to pitch it to a publisher who can help you to distribute it even further; that’s okay - professional quality printed photo books make it easy to self-publish without having a book that looks self-published.

There’s nothing like a professional book to promote a cause. The stories that you tell and the stories that others share with you, photographs that show how easy it is to touch someone’s life: combining these into a printed photo book will help to share your passion and get others involved.

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As a photographer, you’re likely at some point to work with an assistant. As an artist, you’re likely to find that you have your own way of doing things. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t share your sense of how things done in an unconventional way: photo books are a great tool for providing hands on training.

Of course, the training provided by a photo book will be supplemental: you’ll still want to be hands on, at least initially. But your photo book can create guidelines and some tips for ongoing training.

Want your assistant to know exactly how you want the lights metered for a shoot? Take a photo of the meter reading the way that you want it to. Set up your light tent, take a photo and list the dimensions and the best locations for placing the bulbs.

Similarly, if you want to share what you know with your assistant - to take his or her training to the next level - you’ll be able to use a photo book with all of the specifics. Including photos, diagrams and even text-based instructions is simple.

When your assistant has a photo book, he or she will be able to spend more time helping you out, and you’ll be able to spend less time giving direction.

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What made you fall in love with working being the lens of the camera? Are you able to document your answer in a photo book or have you started losing your connection?

For some photographers, the answer is right there, always on the tip of the tongue: photography is like breathing and eating; without it they just wouldn’t be the same. For others, however, photography has become little more than a job: maybe they work in a portrait studio at the mall and feel unable to keep looking forward to the goals that they have for setting up an independent studio; maybe they’ve spent so much time using their sports photography skills to capture moments in a Little League game that they’ve set aside their goals of being on the sidelines for a major league game.

If you fall somewhere between the two groups or you can honestly look at your situation and see that you’re not where you want to be, creating printed photo books can help you to remember what got you started - and help you document the progress that you’re making towards achieving those goals.

Documenting your progress, capturing those shots that remind you of why you’re doing what you’re doing: printed photo books make this possible. Having that reminder helps you to move forward - setting new milestones and continuing along your path.

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When you take digital photographs, one of the goals that you’ll have is to take those photos to the next level. In a photo book, you’ll find that you are able to not just show off your photos, but also to show off your editing skills.

The isolations that you spend so much time on, the color adjustments, the combined elements and the art that you create from your photographs: all of these elements are things that can be shown in a finished photo book.

You may do your editing using open source programs like GIMP or you may invest in Apple’s Aperture or Photoshop. You may spend your time editing to enhance the photo by reducing noise or you may focus on creating something new altogether - using the photo simply as a starting point.

No matter how you edit your photos, no matter which processes you use, your editing skills are often as important as the work that you do behind the lens: why not take advantage of a photo book and show those skills off: after all, that’s sure to help you promote your work and advance your career.

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