How to Create a Professional- Looking Photoshoot on a Limited Budget

1. Introduction: how to create a collaborated cross promoting photo shoot on a limited budget. So I'm Micheli Black. I'm a photographer, a photo stylist, a writer and a mixed media artist, And I've created a class from an experience that I had where I gathered local businesses together. We all volunteered our talents and came up with an amazing photo shoot that got us into the pages of Mingled magazine. In this class, you will learn how to plan out, brainstorm together a sign, specific tasks, come up with the theme and fine tune your plan of action for a successful professional looking photo shoot for all of your advertising needs by example, I'll show you are wander lis Wedding photo shoot that we did that got us into the pages of Mingled magazine. This is the issue were published in I also wrote the article. What amazing photo shoot. It turned out to be What an honor to work with all of these talented people. It was so fun to see all of our hard work come out to such a huge success. Now again, you do not need a large budget to get a professional looking photo shoot when working with other businesses in combining your talents. And resource is you can get the same results with a little forethought and planning our whole photo shoot with all of us volunteering our services. So please join me in this class, and I will teach you exactly how we did what we did. And I look forward to working with you. So don't forget to follow me here on skill share. Just in case. Um, Well, because I have more classes to teach, so thank you. And I'll see you there. 2. Brainstorming: thank you so much for joining this class. Our first step is brainstorming. Now it's time to gather your group together. Who do you want to share your photo shoot with? What are some businesses you want a partner with? And then pick the businesses to approach and see if they want to do a photo shoot together to cut costs and our photo shoot? We agreed to donate our services in time collectively for the common goal. If you don't have a photographer like we did in our group, then perhaps you can divvy the costs up between you. Once you have your list of businesses or participants that want to do your photo shoot together, put together another list of possible photo shoot ideas. What is the common thread? What, when put together? Do the businesses all have in common? Yeah, perhaps it's simply planning ahead for the holiday season. Now here's a hint. Photo shoots for Christmas are often done at least 6 to 12 months in advance. Collectively, you can actually plan a fictitious will event to photograph now when thinking of your theme taken to consideration the time of year. So, for example, if this were a Christmas photo shoot. A field of wildflowers in the background would not be cohesive. Consider also to schedule your shoot during the slowest time of business, both season wise and day of the week. Once you've picked your event or theme, you can now start brainstorming the fine details on a piece of paper. Start sketching possible ideas for your shoot and share it here on our projects. I would love to see what you have in mind in the possible direction you want to go it. 3. Questions to Ask: Okay, So while brainstorming, there are some questions to consider, one of which is color. What color do you want to use? It could be an overall color that helps set the mood or tone of your shoot, or perhaps a color palette to pull from. For a more in depth look of color psychology and its role in advertising, the Blawg 99 designs has a compelling article on it. The link is provided in the projects, and resource is section of this class, so another great resource is Pinterest. You can have a private Pinterest board and upload some of your favorite color combinations , like the one here for our wander less wedding photo shoot. Michelle Rivard, the owner of not Too Shabby. She painted this color palette as shown here for each of us to be inspired by once you have your color selected. Now we can talk about location. Where do you want to have the photo shoot? Is it indoors? Is it outdoors? Is it in a garden for our location? We chose our local foothills under the canopy of California oak trees, Now taking photography into consideration. You also need to figure out what time of day would be the best time for your photo shoot. Now, don't forget that once you pick your ideal time for your photos to be taken and factor and how long you need to set up and have that be your starting time attached is a download of questions to help you finalize the direction you want to go in with your photo shoot. 4. Avetar Target Market Video: So one way to sell is you create an avatar or a fictional ideal customer to direct your marketing campaign towards. So when thinking of your avatar, you ask yourself some questions like, What did they like? What other favorite colors do they have Any hobbies? What is their favorite time of year or season? Questions like these can help create an imaginary profile directed towards your target market. So with the individual businesses in mind and the more accurate idea of who you are selling to you convey better set the stage and sell not just the products themselves, but create an inspiration that sells them for you. 5. Story Behind our Shoot: the story behind our wander lis wedding shoot. So here's a little bit behind the scenes as to how our photo shoot came about. Despite being a photographer myself, Wedding photography was not the genre I was interested in pursuing at the time I was collecting a bunch of salvage would and then transferring my photography, which was mostly lifestyle and travel photography, with some vintage images to the salvaged would that I had collected and those pieces the image transfers on salvaged wood. They were in local stores throughout Southern California. Not only was I selling my pieces, but I was also teaching workshops throughout Southern California and got published in several stamping to magazines like This one here, Somerset Studio. One of those stores is Michelle Robards. Not too shabby. She also joined our group and provided us with the painted furniture. It was also at not too shabby that I met Caitlyn Holland of killer cupcake photography, who became our photographer for this photo shoot. So I pulled together these local businesses and was the art director of sorts and also one of the stylist that provided some of the decorating and vintage in handmade items that went into our shoot. This is the suitcase that I transformed with the sentiment inspired by my own marriage. In our group, we had an amazing florist, Angela of Le Petite flu. For some of the personalized details we had Lisa for stamp out. She provided us with these cute, adorable tags and, um, napkin rings. So she was also an integral part of this shoot. Our stylist hair stylist was Lisa Crane from platform. And then we had surely, and nails do the nails of our model. Ali also worked closely with Lisa. It's stamp out for some of our design. Where and then Crystal was so helpful with set up. And also she was our talented makeup artists for our models. We even had these little pies donated from I like pie and Claremont, California. You just never know how generous people are going to be. So now that you've seen the story behind the photo shoot having now done it, our next lesson will be what I learned and my hints to pass on 6. Helpful Hints: Okay, so this is where I give you some helpful hints. We found that a staging area table and an easy up with chairs is essential because we're not all working at the same time, So it's nice to have a place to rest. If you're working outdoors, be prepared for unwanted visitors and wear proper attire. If you're outside, even though it's hot, put some shoes on, as you can see by our troll toes here. Also be sure to create an atmosphere where each person's input and creativity can be heard . Be sure to have all the parties involved know and agree to the usage requirements by the given photographer before the day of the shoot. The example Caitlin sent us is included in the downloads. This workshop. Lastly, be sure that the photographer has a checklist compiled of each of the business is required product photos that he or she needs to take. This will help you stay on task and inspire necessary even nets needed for the shoot. And don't forget to bring waters and snacks. What you think should only be a short time can sometimes take longer than expected. 7. Thank you: Thank you so much for taking this class. I look forward to seeing your projects from the beginning stages of brainstorming to the finished examples of your photo shoots. Thanks again. And be sure to follow me here on skill share so you can see any upcoming causes. Don't forget to upload your projects by