In my career, I have had clients who drove a Mercedes and lived
in huge homes spend $80 on portraits, complain about how much
the order was, and then write a check that bounced to pay for it. At
the same time, I have had people pull up in a car that looked as
though the tires were going to fall off, spend $1500 on their order,
thank me for the beautiful job I did, and then pay the total in cash.
You never know, so you do your best with every client, no matter
what your preconceived opinions are.
This is a hard lesson to teach your staff as well. They tend to put
more effort into the sessions of affluent people than they do people
from a lower economic level. Employees also tend to respond better
to people who are from a similar economic level as the one they were
raised in. Thus, if an employee comes from a poor upbringing, they
tend to respond better to clients in that same economic class. If they
had a privileged upbringing, they tend to respond better to people
who are more affluent. The basic rule for you and your staff should
be to treat each client with the respect and enthusiasm that you
would expect to have from a professional service provider.
Posing a subject properly requires a knowledge about how to
flatter the human form, an understanding of the elements of style
and composition, and caring enough to give each of your clients
what they want. While you can learn posing, style, and composition,
it’s much harder for some photographers to learn to really care
about their clients—but if you don’t learn how, don’t worry, your
clients will find a photographer who has!Treat each client with the respect and enthusi-
asm that you would expect to have from a
professional service provider.
Do your best with every client,no matter what yourpreconceived opinions are.