Why I no longer deliver “all the final photos” in my personal branding photography sessions

I used to be one of those photographers who delivered all the best photos from the session. A 1hr session, I took maybe 200-300 photos and I gave you what I thought to be the best 80 or so. But then I realized it wasn’t serving my clients the best possible way, nor leaving room for the high level value I wanted to provide to my clients.

Enter the high value photography experience…

Now I do curated sessions that are tailored to my clients with time to actually dive into your personal brand and then a photography session that isn’t constantly checking the clock. You have high touch support throughout the process and it’s better for you and me!

These are the benefits and reasons for making this change:

1. You have more time with me
   By focusing on a process that allows me to spend less time editing and more time with you, your images are incredibly intentional with strategy and purpose behind each one. It also frees up more flexible time for shooting as before if I shot longer, I had to edit longer. Now it’s all based on what you end up wanting!
   
   
2. We now cull together 
   (Or you select from an unedited/basic edit gallery first.)When photographers give all the final photos, they cull out all the ones they think are the best shots as you’ll never get ALL the images (you’d be overwhelmed and lots are just duplicates). While we have that eye, truth is we are likely to cull out something you might want! I now allow you to cull with me to ensure you get the images you absolutely love as you get to see everything, but you have me there to ensure we make great decisions for your marketing goals. I still do a quick weed out of the ones that really won’t make the cut – like when I accidentally take a photo of my feet.
   
   
3. I’m more invested in your edit. 
   Most photographers burn out from the EDITING process. Editing dozens or hundreds of photos gets tiring and it’s hard to stay focused on every single image. By having you narrow down the images first, I’m putting 110% into every single edited photo with more time on each. Ending with a more polished final product. Everything still looks like you as there’s not a lot of retouching but that distracting person in the background or zit you had that day will be masterfully edited away! I’m excited to edit your handful of curated images rather than trekking through too many, even though the time invested to edit is the same. 
   
   
4. People rarely use all the images
   When I was delivering 100+ images for a branding shoot, it was unlikely people would use all the images. Not for lack of a good image, but because multiple expressions were included and you’re bound to not like a few of the shots. Waste of time for both of us!
   
   
5. You’re more invested into every image. 
   By picking only your favourite images, you absolutely love them and are more emotionally and financially invested into each and every image. Which means you’ll put that energy into how you use them (and attract more positive energy and clients with it). 
   
   
6. It allows for a lower base price
   If the time invested for the entire shoot and a large gallery of images was properly accounted for, your shoot cost would be 10x more! Yes you can find cheaper photographers but for the time and talent now involved in my shoots, and all the extras you get, photography is vastly underpriced for a profitable business. And like you, everyone deserves to make a good living when they are doing high value work. Having a lower number of images included in your session fee allows you to invest in the shoot and then only purchase what you want.
   
   
7. It forces you to make choices
   You ask any successful business owner and they will agree that business owners need to be able to make effective decisions quickly and smartly. By choosing your images with intent you are training your brain to make decisions and stick with them with confidence. Creating an actionable mindset moving forward in your business.
   
   
8. Bonus: Because that’s how I wanted to run my business I make decisions in my business that are entirely mutually beneficial for my clients and myself. This is one of them. 😉  I wanted to elevate the experience and quality of my work so here we are!

Ready for your next personal branding photography shoot? Let’s chat.