Succeed in Your Planning by Planning to Succeed

There are so many things to remember as a photographer that sometimes the simplest planning and organizational factors slip by our minds. Here’s one thing you may not have thought about, the preparation for a photo shoot is more important than the shoot itself.

There are a few reasons why this is true, but no matter what, planning, organizing and preparing for each photo shoot should be much higher on the list of things that concern you.

Along with realizing that the preparation is equally important, if not more important, also opens up for ideas on better ways to prepare for our shoots. Here are just a few.

Research your models.

Now, it’s not always models, but your clients of all shapes and sizes. Take time to learn about them before the shoot so you can find ways to connect to them. It’s so easy to Google someone, find them on social media, and find out about their interests. This is huge because it shows that you care and will immediately take some of the tension out of them when they arrive and start talking about their favorite topics.

Plus, capturing natural emotions is huge right now and one of the best ways to do that is to actually elicit raw emotions and topics they enjoy can do that.

Planning and documenting

First and foremost, get yourself organized. What kind of shoot do they want? How long will they be here? What is the theme or message you want to create here?

Getting yourself organized is going to allow everything to go smoother. And this lesson doesn’t only go for the photo shoot. Organize all parts of your business and find ways to make things run smoother.

Don’t go into a shoot thinking that the client will help you find direction, take matters into your own hands and let them add in if they would like. If neither of you goes in with a plan the whole thing will be a disaster.

Keep track of things that worked and things that didn’t. Find ways to make each shoot run more smoothly than the one before it. Write down your process of how to set up and tear down your lights and equipment and have things done early for the next shoot.

Physically writing down, or typing, your process of how you prepare for each shoot is so crucial. You may find better ways to plan and organize or you may find some things that you’d like to do but might need help for. Photographers get so bogged down and never analyze their processes and that alone causes them to be more bogged down in a vicious cycle.

Failing to plan is planning to fail and being a photographer, you cannot afford to fail. Each client has to have the best experience you can possible offer because they are soon going to be a representation of your business. They will talk about you, share your name with others, and hopefully keep coming back so never underestimate the power of planning and preparation