[00:00:00] Before we get started, I want to ask you, how did you stumble upon this podcast? Probably a tweet, a friendly recommendation, or maybe an Instagram story. This podcast relies solely on word of mouth. I don't rely on ads or sponsorships. I'm here to help people grow their creative businesses. I'd be forever grateful.
If you could share it with another creative person, you know, a review and Instagram or Twitter posts or a casual mention would go a long way. It could be a game changer for another entrepreneur. Thank you. This episode is going to be all about product photography, but the lessons here apply to all sorts of creative freelancers, whether you're a general photographer, a filmmaker, a videographer, or graphic designer, the principles I'm talking about today apply to all niches.
If you're a product photographer, this will be highly applicable to you. And if not, it'll still be very, very applicable. All right, let's get into it. So YouTube is filled with product photography tutorials that require expensive gear, multi light setups, and a lot of Photoshop. You don't need. Any of that.
In fact, [00:01:00] it'll hinder your progress when starting your business. The truth is your photos don't need to be the best. They just need to be good enough. Today, we're talking about why it's critical to keep it as simple as possible. When you're first starting out in your product photography business. This will help you gain those first early clients.
Let's get into it. Welcome to the creative biz launch podcast, where we talk about how to grow your creative business and scale it to six figures, whether you're a photographer, filmmaker, or designer, you'll find something of value here. Okay. This episode might get a bit heated here and I already can tell what responses I might get in my Instagram DMs here.
Telling me why I'm wrong, but this is what I believe. And it's what served me well over the past four years, when I was first starting my businesses, learning product photography and gaining my first clients. In a nutshell, you don't need to be that good at product photography to get clients. Let me make one thing clear here.
This episode is not me attacking people that are great photographers. Instead, this is what I'm going to get at. There are going to be clients with different types of budgets that [00:02:00] will work with different levels of photographers. Just like you can go get a 7 haircut or a 100 haircut. That 7 haircut isn't going to look great, but still going to be passable.
And that a hundred dollar haircut is going to be perfect. You can apply the same thing to your photography here. Your local coffee shop that's run by the sweet couple doesn't have thousands of dollars to spend on photography. They want good photos, but they don't care if you use this complex three light setup, all sorts of backdrops, all this random stuff.
They just want pretty good photos of their cappuccinos, their pastries, so they can put them on their Instagram page. Now, a brand like Red Bull, they have a lot of money to spend on these kinds of things.
And they're going to want the best of the best in terms of photography. They need these complex shoots, but the competition that that stage is really fierce, what we're going to do is list out product photographers from one star to five stars. All right. So your one star product photographer, they just discovered product photography.
They're learning the ropes and they see [00:03:00] mistakes in their own photos and people obviously see mistakes in their photos. They can take a picture of a can of cold brew, but the photo has ugly reflections in there, and there might be dirt or dents on the can. It's a photo of a product, but quite frankly, it's a bad photo.
These are the bottom 10%. The next step up here is the two star photographers. The two star photographer has been doing this for some time. They understand the basic lighting principles and know how to make products look good. They can match the background to the products and just have a simple one light setup.
These photos are good. These make up the next 20%. Next up, we have the three star photographer. The three star photographer has had six months to a year of experience under the belt doing private photography. They use one light plus reflectors and know exactly how to light products to look great. They know how to use some props and have a basic understanding of Photoshop to remove blemishes from cans.
These are great photos, and these are the next 30 percent of photographers here.
Next up, we have the four star photographer. They have one to three years of experience. They know how to use [00:04:00] multiple lights, but don't always do it unless they really need to. They're good at styling. They can take creative photos, lifestyle photos, action photos, all sorts of product shots. They're amazing.
This is the next 30 percent photographers. Now we have the five star photographers. These are the elites. They're an industry vet. Their shoots take a very, very long time and sometimes require multiple people. Their photos are incredible and perfect in every way. These are the top 1 percent photographers here.
If you're starting out and you're looking for clients as a product photographer, being in that five star range may actually hinder you. The clients that hire these photographers have huge budgets and their international brands that have already. Agencies that work under them. And those agencies have the best photographers in the world working for them.
If you're just starting out, there's very, very, very little chance that you'll compete here. You don't have a portfolio of case studies. These people are well connected and have no need for a random new photographer. Next up, we have the three to four star photographers. [00:05:00] The three and four star photographers have a huge advantage when starting out because they can target those smaller brands that don't necessarily need that big budget.
Project. They don't need the big studios, but they still need photos. There are so many small to medium sized businesses out there that are hungry for this kind of content. These businesses, quite frankly, can't afford those five star photographers and that's all right. So they go with the great photos from the three or four star photographer.
Those photographers are within their budget and they do incredible work for them. The photographers charge less, but the photo shoots don't take as long as that five star photographer would take. They're a lot less complex and most people don't see a real difference between the photos. The three and four star photographer can quickly set up their equipment, take some awesome photos, edit them and get them to the client.
They can work with smaller budgets and there's a lot more clients for them to target. Now, if you're a one star photographer, maybe some local coffee shops will hire you for very, very low rates, but honestly, you just need a practice to get to level two and then to level three. [00:06:00] If you're a level two photographer, you're definitely not good enough for those huge brands, but local businesses will be happy to work with you.
Small coffee shops with tight budgets, startups of one to four people, all these businesses still need photos. And if you're able to present them your package and charge maybe 10 to 50 bucks a photo, they'll be happy to pay you for the good work that you do. The truth is at the end of the day, everyone has to meet their budget.
You might take awesome photos and have really cool ideas for this coffee shop, but they just won't have the money to make it worth your time or honestly make their money go the longest way that can. This takes self awareness. Personally, I think most of my photos are in the three to four star range, and I've been able to work with 50 plus clients in under two years when I was really targeting these brands.
Now, these clients Aren't huge brands. They're small to medium sized businesses. They're smaller startup companies with smaller budgets, but I'm able to create awesome photos for them, usually with just a [00:07:00] simple one light setup. These take some time to create, but they aren't as intense as those five star photographers would do.
I don't use multiple lights in most of my shoots. I don't use a snoot or complex setups or merge a lot of layers in Photoshop. I keep things really simple, but the results are still amazing. In fact, I think I earn more per hour shooting than a five star photographer. Cause I'm able to work fast, charge a lot and a five star photographer, they take a long time to work, but they also charge a lot to make up for that.
But I'm way more efficient. So I can make more money than that five star photographer. Now, I know some of you guys are going to be saying, Chris, I want to be the best photographer I can be. That's a great thing to say, but no, when you should be putting in the extra effort for photo shoots, are you putting in the extra effort to grow your business or just because you want to create the best results out there?
Neither is right or wrong here.
The core of what I teach inside of Create Biz Launch is cold outreach. And I've reached out to a lot of brands via email and I often get the response, your stuff [00:08:00] looks really good. I'd love to talk, but I'm just afraid I can't afford your services. These brands are disqualifying themselves from working with me before they even hear my price, just because they've seen my stuff and they think it's too good for them.
In this situation, I've just disqualified myself from a lead because my stuff appears to be too good. If all your work is that of a five star photographer and you're reaching out to small brands, they might not be willing to talk to you just because they assume they can't afford you. The key here is to match your portfolio with the type of brands you're reaching out to.
Don't have five star photos when you're reaching out to local coffee shops. Have those three and four star photos there, right?
Match your services, your photography services, your stars to what the company stars would be. A two star company will hire a two star photographer. A four star company will hire a four star photographer. Starting low will be a good way to learn the business side of these things as well. If you're negotiating with a two star client, there's less money on the line and less pressure on you.
You'll get good [00:09:00] practice here. Then when your skill level goes up, you'll be that much more confident negotiating with that four star client. The whole point of this episode is to make it clear. You don't need to be that good to start getting clients. You can start getting clients today. You can get plenty of clients by just being pretty good at product photography, just like that crappy 7 haircut.
People will be willing to pay for your photography. If you're new.
During my product photography and business journey, I've thought a lot about the photographer I want to be. I'm sticking around that four star range because these are the clients that are best for me to take on. They're fun to work with. They don't micromanage and your photos really impact their brands.
They go a long way for your clients. I knew I wouldn't be able to compete with the Coca Cola photographers because I am not at that level and I don't have an agent. I represent myself. So I didn't even bother. I wanted to take that path. It would take me years and years of practice networking and experience.
And I want to do it the quicker way. If you also want to go the faster route, there's a free workshop in the [00:10:00] show notes that will teach you how to get your first five paying clients, how to price your work and how to scale your business, secure a spot in that today. My goal when I was starting my business was to get out of my nine to five as fast as possible.
And to do that, I targeted those three and four star brands. I just didn't have the time to wait. I was eager to start my. My photography business and quit my nine to five, I was impatient. And because of that, I figured I could just work with a smaller companies that don't require that top 1 percent of talent, right?
On YouTube, you'll find a lot of great product photography guides, but the problem with these guides is they're teaching five star photography and you don't need this, you'll learn the five star photography. You'll pitch yourself to a smaller client, and then you'll spend forever trying to create those five star photos for them.
And you'll spend so much time for so little money and your business will suffer for that. If you're trying to actually have a profitable business, you need to match your photography skillset to your client's budgets. It's my belief that the sweet spot here is in that three to four star range. [00:11:00] Now I'm talking about product photography.
All of this podcast, but this is equally applicable to whatever niche you're in. If you're a videographer, find whatever star range you're at, match it to those companies. If you're a graphic designer, whatever your freelance business is, make sure that you match up your skill level with the size of companies that you're reaching out to.
That's all I got today. Thank you so much for listening and I'll catch you in the next one.
