Get Free Tips

Portrait Photography

Treat It Like a New Business: How to Add Boudoir Photography Without Killing Your Existing Brand
Video Tutorials

Treat It Like a New Business: How to Add Boudoir Photography Without Killing Your Existing Brand

I track everything in my studio. Inquiry sources, booking rates, average sales per session — if it’s a number, I have a spreadsheet for it. So when I started seriously considering adding boudoir to my portrait business a few years ago, I didn’t just dabble. I researched. And one of the most clarifying things I found was this CreativeLive tutorial on exactly how to bring boudoir into an existing photography business.

How to Price Your Photography Like You Actually Know What You're Doing
Video Tutorials

How to Price Your Photography Like You Actually Know What You're Doing

I grew up watching my parents undercharge for their photography work. They were talented, booked solid, and somehow still stressed about money every single month. The problem wasn’t their craft. It was that they never built a real pricing strategy. They just guessed, got burned, and guessed again. That pattern is more common in this industry than most photographers want to admit, and it is the first thing I try to fix when I work with photographers at my studio here in Miami.

Why Your Photography Pricing Is Keeping You Broke (And What to Fix First)
Business Strategy

Why Your Photography Pricing Is Keeping You Broke (And What to Fix First)

My mother cried at the kitchen table when I was twelve years old because a client had just canceled a $300 wedding deposit and they couldn’t cover the electric bill. My parents were gifted photographers. They were terrible at pricing. They charged what felt “fair,” adjusted quotes on the fly to avoid making people uncomfortable, and never once raised their rates in six years of business. By the time I was old enough to understand what was happening, they had already burned out and closed the studio.

What a Boudoir and Portrait Portfolio Review Taught Me About Editing My Own Work
Video Tutorials

What a Boudoir and Portrait Portfolio Review Taught Me About Editing My Own Work

Every photographer I know, myself included, has a blind spot when it comes to their own portfolio. We’re too close to the work. We remember the session, the client, the moment we nailed the light, and that memory sneaks into our judgment. A technically average image starts to look great because of what it means to us. That emotional attachment is exactly what costs us bookings. I’ve been running my portrait studio here in Miami for years, and I still do a full portfolio audit every quarter.

What 7 Portfolio Reviews Taught Me About the Mistakes Photographers Keep Making
Video Tutorials

What 7 Portfolio Reviews Taught Me About the Mistakes Photographers Keep Making

I review a lot of photographer websites. It’s basically a professional hazard at this point. I have a client experience checklist I’ve refined over years of running my portrait studio in Miami, and one of the first things on that list is: “Would a stranger trust this website enough to hand over a deposit?” You’d be surprised how many gorgeous portfolios fail that single test. Too much text. No clear contact path.

How to Price Your Photography Without Selling Yourself Short (Q&A Breakdown)
Video Tutorials

How to Price Your Photography Without Selling Yourself Short (Q&A Breakdown)

I watched my parents run their photography business for years on prices they set in 2003 and never touched. Loyal clients, beautiful work, empty savings account. That experience is burned into me, which is why I take pricing conversations seriously to the point of obsession. When I came across this Jessica Kobeissi tutorial on pricing Q&A, I kept pausing it to take notes because she was answering the exact questions I still get from photographers in my workshops.

5 Business Portrait Mistakes That Are Quietly Costing You Clients (And How to Fix Them)
Video Tutorials

5 Business Portrait Mistakes That Are Quietly Costing You Clients (And How to Fix Them)

Business portrait clients are not buying a photo. They are buying a version of themselves they can hand to the world with confidence. When I first started taking corporate headshot bookings in Miami, I thought technical competence was enough. Clean background, decent light, sharp focus. Done. What I didn’t realize was that I was making the same five mistakes over and over, and my repeat booking rate showed it. I came across this Watch the full tutorial on YouTube from Visual Education after a rough quarter where I was getting plenty of first-time headshot clients but almost no return business and no referrals.

The Client Lifetime Strategy That Changed How I Think About Every Booking
Video Tutorials

The Client Lifetime Strategy That Changed How I Think About Every Booking

I used to think about bookings in isolation. Someone needs a family session, they book, they pay, they leave. That was the whole transaction in my mind. It wasn’t until my accountant husband sat me down with a spreadsheet that I realized how wrong I was. He had tracked which clients had come back to our studio more than once, and the number was embarrassingly low. I was so focused on finding new clients that I had completely ignored the ones who already trusted me.

How to Price Your Photography the Right Way: A Step-by-Step Breakdown
Video Tutorials

How to Price Your Photography the Right Way: A Step-by-Step Breakdown

Pricing is the conversation most photographers avoid until it becomes a crisis. I know because I lived it. Watching my parents run their photography business on gut feeling and goodwill, never raising their rates, working themselves into the ground for margins that barely kept the lights on, taught me one thing early: creative talent alone does not build a sustainable business. Pricing strategy does. So when I came across this Jessica Kobeissi tutorial on pricing your photography, I immediately sent it to three photographers in my network.

How to Reopen Your Photography Business After a Shutdown (Without Underselling Yourself)
Video Tutorials

How to Reopen Your Photography Business After a Shutdown (Without Underselling Yourself)

When my studio went dark for weeks, the silence was loud. No bookings coming in, no shoots on the calendar, and a very patient but increasingly curious husband asking whether I had a plan. What I did have was time, and I used a chunk of it watching every piece of business education I could find. The tutorial that hit hardest was a live coaching session from Sue Bryce through The Portrait System, specifically built for photographers figuring out how to reopen and re-engage without blowing up everything they had built.

How to Stop Winging Your Photography Business (and Actually Build One in 2022)
Video Tutorials

How to Stop Winging Your Photography Business (and Actually Build One in 2022)

I lost a $5,000 client once because of a sloppy contract. No payment terms, no cancellation clause, nothing that would hold up if someone decided to walk. That experience cost me more than money. It cost me the confidence that I had any idea what I was doing on the business side. The photography was solid. The infrastructure around it was held together with good intentions and wishful thinking. That’s why when The Portrait System dropped their 2022 overview video, I watched it twice.

Two Lighting Setups That Will Elevate Your Business Portraits (And Win You Better Clients)
Video Tutorials

Two Lighting Setups That Will Elevate Your Business Portraits (And Win You Better Clients)

Business portrait clients are not the most forgiving. They show up with a specific idea of how they want to look, a tight schedule, and zero patience for you figuring things out on the fly. Early in my studio career, I was winging my lighting more than I’d like to admit. I had one setup I felt comfortable with, and I bent every client into it whether it suited them or not.