Professional Photo Books: Keeping Your Clients Involved in the Process
There are many photographers who, when you get right down to it, don’t want to have their clients overly involved in the process. Few of us want to have parents playing a major role in choosing the right pose for their child’s portrait because often it means that we need to rearrange the light, change angles and - unfortunately - create some conflict along the way.
However, when it comes to designing professional photo books for your clients, the story changes some. When you’re creating a professional photo book that will contain the best photos from a shoot, when you’re telling story about their lives, having them involved can help you to know that your clients will be getting what they are looking for.
What does getting and keeping your clients involved in the process of designing professional photo books mean?
- It means narrowing down the options for included photos, but letting the clients have a say in which shots you use
- It means taking the time to ask them about any text that they would like to have included
- It means understanding that the more involved that your clients are in the process of creating the photo book with you, the more they are going to treasure the finished product
In other words, keeping your clients involved in the process of designing professional photo books creates an opportunity for you to do more to ensure their satisfaction - and that keeps them coming back for more.
I regularly consult with my clients about which pictures and text they want in their books. It gives them a feeling of being part of the project and makes them more apt to tell others about my business. However, it can also be a fine line to walk. Some clients have a lot of their own ideas and will try to take over the entire creative process if you don’t know how to finesse them into compromising. The trick is to include some of their ideas while keeping the majority of the book your own design. I find that these types of clients will often come back to one or two ideas again and again (for different pages or layouts) and that is the tip off that they really want a certain idea incorporated into the book. I listen and watch for repetition and that’s how I know which ideas the client feels very strongly about and those are the ideas I focus on. Usually, if you add in the ideas they want the most, they don’t mind letting you do the rest.