Second Shooting
Follow Along for tips & tricks on how to be the best second shooter for your lead Photographer!
Make it stand out.
It all begins with one wedding.
Many Prospective photographers I meet want to know how to build their portfolio without a clientele. The answer is simple. You need to second shoot!
Luckily, in today’s society we have it easier than photographers 20 years ago. They would have to go door to door, use flyers and word of mouth In hopes to build their portfolio. Today there are various online platforms you can use to Guarantee a return in clientele. I will only be mentioning 1 software and 2 platforms as I believe they are the most efficient and effective.
The first… honeyBook. This software or CRM allows you to build contracts, brochures, Questionnaires and even invoices from plenty of templates to choose from. You can connect with local and out of state photographers, post and respond to second shooting opportunities, Collaborations, look for prospective Models and so much more! HoneyBook was a life saver for me. If you are trying to build fast and maintain your business, HoneyBook is the bees knees!
the second… Instagram. Yup. Instagram. this platform is good, if you know how to use it. As a professional wedding photographer 60% of my clients found me through instagram. Algorithms are the worst but if you can work them, the will be your best friend. since instagram is Consistently changing their algorithms it broadens the range of opportunity for both experienced and just starting out photographers. learn it, use it and watch your clientele grow. my only tip… make sure your feed is beautiful and not messy. you need an even flow. you can’t have bright and dark images all over the place. people are simple, they see clutter and mess they leave. keep to your color pallet. if you don’t know your color Pallet, don’t use instagram.
Which brings me to my third… facebook. facebook is great if you don’t have a good ebb and flow on your color pallet just yet. Look at it like this, instagram is your online portfolio and facebook is your news feed. you can post here, find various opportunities through photographer groups, modeling groups, use their marketing tools to expend your region of clientele and much more! facebook is great for growth but again you need to learn the algorithms.
second shooting is fun, but you need to make sure when you second shoot you have a good lead photographer. im just going to say it. photographers are GREEDY. when choosing to second shoot make sure you are choosing your lead photographer just as they are choosing you. you need to ask if you can use these images for your portfolio. this is extremely important. if you don’t ask, you can end up with nothing to add to your portfolio. many allow you to post and market after the album has been sent. many don’t let you follow their clients or hand out cards at the venue. I would never do this for a photographer who is looking to grow, but like i said… photographers are GREEDY. make sure you are shooting for the right one!
Below are just some of my shoots I captured while second shooting. LAEM- Lighting, angles, emotion and motion are what I keep in mind when capturing a shot. be sure when shooting you have your own Acronym in mind to Continuously capture your unique style.
