New York – When paying for a professional photo shoot, clientele want to make sure that the finished product meets or exceeds their expectations. However, what many often do not realize is that much depends upon the willingness of the client to act upon sound advice from, both the photographer, and his or her makeup professional. According to Ken Jones, of Ken Jones Photography – FultonStudio, this is often what makes or breaks a shoot, and the client’s satisfaction of the shots that result.
So every so often I will teach my interns and assistants how to properly retouch so they can help me with my studio workflow, Most people who are not familiar with retouching believe that we just push a button a TaDa! we get a retouched picture. But proper retouching does take time, effort and most importantly skill. When I give the lesson to one person I sit there and let them teach one of the other while I listen to see if they retained and of what I just told them, It helps them remember better as it will make them dig for the details that I used to forget myself. This time around I had one of my assistants
© ken jones photography
As a fashion and beauty photographer I frequently get people coming to me asking if they have the looks to model and truthfully almost everyone has the looks to be in the industry. The commercial modeling industry is constantly looking for different people to cast in all types of commercial roles and just so you know it is really the attitude and drive that will make one successful in this business.
It is not as easy as they make it all look in movies and on television, there is a lot of very hard work, competition and stress involved the real question maybe more like are you ready to be a model?
I get the calls all the time, a potential client will call me and ask if I take headshots for business or personal use. I reply “Yes, I do, what will you need them for?” They will then tell me that it’s for an magazine article, their corporate website, dating services, marketing materials and or any number of reasons a client will need a good portrait of themselves for.
I have to ask what the headshots are for because there are differences in the way I approach and shoot each client situation. For example someone coming to me for headshot for a dating website should be shot very naturally I feel these should not look like professionally taken pictures, don’t get me wrong, these pictures should be great looking but they should look like you are hanging out with your friend and that friend just happens to take great headshot pictures, these images should be taken in more of a location environment to add to the natural feel of the situation. Not in an obvious photo studio and in case your thinking “oh ken does not shoot this stuff” that’s not the case, I just want to take you outside and shoot something with a better environment than the studio offers.
