6 Skills (Other than Photography)
EVERY PHOTOGRAPHER NEEDS TO KNOW

Something that many people don’t realize early on is that to be a good photographer, you need to be an expert in different facets of the whole production. Do you have to execute all these other tasks yourself? Not always. But knowing how to properly execute them will help you give your clients realistic expectations early on. And sometimes, they give you an edge over other photographers who only know how to show up and take photos.

1. Illustration + Sketching
This one may seem intimidating, and frankly, it is. You may not think of yourself as a good drawer, or maybe you feel like you’re wasting time sketching out ideas when you can just see them in your head. I’m here to say, it’s time to become a good drawer. Or at least get good with digital manipulation in Photoshop to mock up a scene. Every client is different, but the more commercial and high-budget it gets, the more the client wants to see exactly how the shots will look. You don’t have to be Michelangelo – a sketch on paper or a line doodle in Procreate may be sufficient. Anything that articulates spacing, composition, perspective, and color. Clients don’t expect you to be a perfect sketcher – they came to you for photography. But I can’t emphasize how incredibly helpful it is to be able to present your ideas to the client with visual aids. It improves communication and gives you a stronger argument for what you think will look best. Sketches can be your selling point! Maybe you’re among 3 photographers bidding on the same project, but you’re the only one who actually painted the picture, so to speak, for the client’s creative team. The more you can paint the picture for them, in whatever way possible, the more likely you are to get the job. I recently invested in an iPad Pro with a Pencil to be able to make these sketches in Procreate; before I was doing it in Photoshop with just my trackpad, and it worked but was not very efficient. YouTube tutorials are a lifesaver! Also Adobe Live.

One way to get around this if you really can’t make it work yourself is to hire a creative director for the project who has these skills. This applies to everything on this list, but there is not always budget to hire it out.

2. Creative Decks
A year or 2 back, I had never heard of making a deck to bid on a project. But now, I can’t imagine my life without creative decks!

A deck comes into the process at three different stages. Often it works like this:

1. Client approaches you about a project, provides their own creative deck with their initial thoughts/concepts

2. To bid on the job, you must provide your own deck that’s an interpretation of their vision, with your own unique twist and any genius ideas you have to express their concepts. Your chance to sell yourself!

3. Assuming you get the project, the master deck evolves from existing decks and is your go-to reference guide for all things creative. It should reflect team members, moodboards, concepts, shot list, sketches (see Skill #1), wardrobe, set design, props, colors, models, locations, and project timelines. It is a collaborative document between you, the client, and your team members.

Now, why is this a skill to know? Didn’t we all start making Powerpoints in 3rd grade? Well, it can’t just be any deck. It has to be beautiful, organized, and professional. Sloppy decks signal to your potential client that you are sloppy in some way - whether that’s your eye for detail, your workflow, or your finished product. Trust me, you don’t want to come off as scattered or sloppy!

Ideally, you have your own template that uses your signature branding, color palette, etc. Alternatively, you can mirror the client’s deck by using their brand colors, fonts, etc. When you’re bidding, you should be approaching everything with the client in mind. Consider including an intro slide that has a paragraph of why you’d love to work on this project (similar to a cover letter), and a “thank you” page at the end. Treat it like an interview! Be polite, be complimentary, be yourself.

Keep the slides consistent and well-formatted to avoid chaos and confusion. Canva has beautiful templates for presentations, and I’ll often make the background template there and upload the PNG to Google Slides so it’s more collaborative, and everyone can view & comment. But you can also just get away with doing it all on Google Slides (use shapes to spice up text boxes and accents).

3. Budgeting
When I say budgeting, I don’t mean go enroll in an accounting class or get an MBA. What I do mean is: know what it takes to get the job done. Relationships are especially important here. Who’s your go-to stylist? Your go-to prop maker? Set designer. Hair & makeup artist. Modeling agencies. Be able to fire off a text or an email to them and figure out their rates for the project. This also comes with experience, but you need to be able to know how much things will cost quickly. Time is of the essence when you’re bidding on a project, and you need to be able to quote these costs quickly and accurately.

I find that the most challenging aspect of this is often set design, if there’s a set involved. You should have a general idea of what a wall-and-floor set costs. Or how expensive a life-sized archway is. In the initial phase, the client understands that this is an estimate of costs, but you definitely don’t want to quote too low and have to go up later.

4. Production Logistics
Oh man, this is a skill I wish we didn’t have to know as photographers. Often to be a successful photographer, you also have to know how to be a producer. That basically means managing people, money, and time. (But if the budget allows, good producers make your life sooo much easier!) It involves finding all your team members, quoting the project, dealing with locations, making sure everything and everyone is on track and meeting deadlines. And at the shoot, being responsible for people’s comfort and logistics. Even the smaller things, like what will we eat? Is there a bathroom available on location? How will we move people between locations? Is there enough time to get all these shots in? How should we approach the shot order? And the newest lovely thing we have to think about: what precautions are we taking to ensure the safety of all involved against COVID-19?

Key things to keep in mind are:

1. Communication – clear, professional, timely, and organized communication with everyone involved is ESSENTIAL.

2. How will people be paid? Who needs an upfront deposit, and who will be paid upon completion of the project?

3. Where will this take place and how much time do we need in each location or for each shot?

4. Developing callsheets & schedules. But don’t try to keep yourself on schedule on the day of the shoot. An assistant for this purpose is always 100% worth it. You can’t focus on being creative and keeping everything running on time all by yourself.

5. What’s Plan B if XYZ happens?

5. Wardrobe Styling
Okay, of course you should hire a good wardrobe stylist for your projects. But I would argue that knowing how to be a good stylist yourself is also essential! You need to be able to visualize how the wardrobe will complement and enhance the rest of the project. Maybe it’s just the control freak in me, but I like to have a say in every aspect of the styling. The set, the props, the wardrobe, the hair & makeup. It all combines into your ultimate masterpiece! Not to mention, I sometimes work on low-budget projects as both photographer & stylist, though I keep telling myself I won’t do this again simply because the workload is huge. Point is, having the skill can come in handy and leave more of a signature stamp on your work.

6. Set Design
Again, ideal situation is hiring a set designer! But you need to at least know some things about it. You should know how wide of a wall you need to fit x number of people in front of it. You should know how high that wall needs to be to accommodate a wide, vertical composition - 8ft? 10ft? Or can you fill in the top edge in Photoshop? How tall does that table need to be to show off the wardrobe and seem realistic? What elements could you add to the set design to really make it pop? If color is important in your work, like it is in mine, choosing paint swatches yourself is vital. Having a relationship with fabricators, woodworkers, propmakers, etc. can be really helpful if you’re in a pinch, where you want to bring a cool set to life but don’t have the budget for a separate designer.

This ties into Skill #1, but you should also be able to sketch out your set. I use Procreate or Photoshop, but I’ve also heard great things about Google SketchUp, once you get past the learning curve.

TO SUM IT UP

In an ideal world with unlimited budgets and talented people who can read your mind, you could just be a photographer. But in reality, you need to be well-versed in all these areas in order to get jobs, create accurate estimates, and really own the creative direction of the shoot. There’s your glimpse into the frightening but delightful world of commercial photography!