people experience a great deal of frustration about their personal appear-
ance—and we are inthe appearance business.Yield More Marketable Images.
When people feel there is no hope that they can look good in a portrait, they
will quit having their portraits taken. That is bad news for portrait photog-
raphers—and it underscores the fact that we must devote ourselves to mak-
ing all of our clients look great if we hope to sustain our businesses in the long
term.
Of course, making this our objective isn’tjustabout the long term: it’s
about profiting enough from every session that we can pay the mortgage,
keep the electric on, and feed our family. (And that’s at the very least; hope-
fully you will set your financial goals much higher!)
To make money, you must sell the work you create. That may seem obvi-
ous, but I believe there are lots of photographers who can take beautiful pic-
tures of beautiful people, yet very few who can make the average client look
beautiful enough to make a good living in this profession. If you want to be
an art photographer and do only what looks good toyou, you have two
choices: become a photography instructor or make photography your hobby
rather than your profession. If you want to make your living as a professionalTHE GOALS OF POSING 11Want to maximize the sales from each ses-
sion? It’s simple: make sure your subject
looks great at each session.