Hi Luke & Ash! I'm new to mini's and have my first set of sessions scheduled for late Nov at a local tree farm. I'm eager to see your video on Christmas minis!! One question I have is about lighting - for outdoor Christmas minis, do you have any tips or tricks to ensure pleasing lighting? I want to try to incorporate twinkle lights or cafe lights, but not sure about electrical hookup availability. Thanks for the great video!
Hey! Great question. We will actually be going over that with our Christmas mini video. We just finished the up this past weekend. Depending on your light the more string lights you add the more tungsten light you will get on your subjects. If the lights are close to your subjects. It also depends on your set up.
Wait a minute. This video is way too professional and helpful to only have 250 likes!! Wtf?? I absolutely love this. Trying to start up a little something with my wife. Thank you for the video 👍
$100 for 30-50 pictures??? I understand that your goal is to get your email list built up...but its prices like these that cheapens the art of professional photography, not to mention the amount of money you are leaving on the table by having such a business model
@@lukeashleyphotography3275 ^^^ This didn't work for us. We found that the low paying customers and high paying customers are two different customers. It was very difficult to convert my low-paying people up to what we needed to make a living and keep our sanity. We were just so burnt out and had to change our business model by going hybrid IPS. During the slow times, we offer mini sessions and give past clients first pick of times. Our session fee and product packages are separate fees. Very low booking fee and then they can choose their digital package. We have 10-minute mini-sessions today. Only 2 clients booked, but that is ok b/c we are set to make $800. I would rather be able to spoil 2 clients than rush through 8. I normally don't comment, but you seem like a sweet couple.
Absolutely love this!! Can’t wait to see your Christmas Minis ♥️ Please do a behind the scenes and maybe with audio so we can hear how you interact / pose? And even graphics or how you marketed them on social media / emails!
Great question! No it’s full on 15min sessions back to back. We break for lunch for an hour and then go right back at it. It’s long days but the worth it.
Thank you both for this informative video. I never thought I would shoot mini sessions as I always thought the old 1 hour shoot was the way to go. Fast forward to last weekend when I shot my first mini session and found the shorter shoot time is better for families and kids and it's a buzz. Your video has filled in a lot of gaps and I will definitely implement your strategies for sure :)
How do you deliver your images to your clients ? Do you just give them a flash drive with 15 - 30 images , or do you have a website they can order prints and download your images?? thanks
Hello Teresa, We use a web client gallery called Cloudspot. They have been amazing and it includes an online store for your clients to buy their own prints and get them shipped straight to their home. It makes it really easy for you to shoot, edit and deliver. Here is their website. cloudspot.io/?affiliate=3fc9ed80-fbec-4785-8b3f-33ea63b489d3
I am going to start minis...very exciting & thrilled I ran across your video...THANK YOU for all the info. Question for you. What is your suggestion the method on getting the photos to clients? Thanks SO much!
How do you streamline the editing after? I have found I really am known for details and I do all this in Photoshop.. I know many use Lr and batch and so the editing doesn’t always look as cohesive without all the small touches of color balancing and paint in light or dark areas. So it tends to take a lot of hours per session. Do you have any tips on streamlining this to be able to do minis more effectively?
Hey! We joke all the time, every photographer has their own OCD when it comes to editing. If you feel you need to do all of the edits in photoshop great! We know our personal time is limited and have a similar system in LR, creating a clean edit, is what attracts clients to us. Fast turn around time is a huge win for anyone! Our way is just A way. Thanks for sharing!
Great question. If your late, then we will fit you in if there is an opportunity. Or you will get less time. We are in a unique spot with us both shooting. So we can split up. But not everyone is like us. Just be strict on your time a and if they come late and get 5 mins, hopefully next time they will come early. But if you planned to have 10 spots and only 8 filled just have them wait until an open spot. We have done that.
I schedule my mini sessions with 17hats built in online booking, it's so great to automate everything. Love doing 20 min mini sessions for my clients, but it can be challenging with the amount of editing afterwards
I am currently watching the 17hats university on the mini session and how to use their online scheduling. They walk you through step by set on workflows, email templates (that you can copy word-for-word), and their online scheduling! I am super excited about this automation process and doing seasonal minis as a part of my business!
Lots of great tips! I am curious though why you would offer cheap mini sessions during the busy season of autumn, where everyone is wanting family pictures...as they are a lot more work, and would take slots that could be used for full paying session clients...Would it not make more sense to offer them for quieter seasons? Christmas card photos make sense, or early spring...but fall? Exposure is great but I’d use it during the quiet seasons.
Great question! We focus mainly on weddings. Mini sessions are a way for us to connect to a different client or past couples looking to get family sessions. Or to earn some extra money for something we want. We would rather serve more people in a day or two, bust out the edits and be done. This creates a big burst of exposure, list building, and word of mouth to bring in higher paying families for sessions. We do not market ourselves normally as family photographers. So getting families to book us at $450 for 1-2 hours at times is hard. But when we have 20-30 people raving about us all at once on social, the social algorithms see that and it just opens up more leads for us. It’s weird but works.
Hey David, we are not honeybook users. We use 17hats. Assuming both honeybook and 17hats are similar, it just depends on what platform you want to use. Calendly is simple and fast and you have to pay for it. For the option to get paid. We use lead pages for our Instagram profile link and Calendly works natively with Leadpages. It provides a pop up Calendly and looks nice. Either way it’s worth a try to see if you like it.
@@lukeashleyphotography3275 awesome and the Ts and Cs include everything that you normally would have in your contract? And they pay via calendly or you send an invoice another way?
Hey Camila, thanks for the question. On a normal 1.5 hour session we deliver probably 175-250. maybe a little bit more. We stopped doing the "25 images for $100" because we overshoot, we wanted out clients to have a lot of great memories, so they can tell their friends and we get more bookings. Once you get your editing workflow down, you can fly pretty quickly with edits and delivery.
Great tips! Except the amount of images promised 😖 Thats a lot for a mini. And does make it incredibly difficult to charge more later. I will personally charge per image over a certain amount and make it affordable, so there’s still value there.
Thanks for sharing! Yes that makes sense as well! We are just doing a way with them Are looking more for exposure for future larger family sessions or weddings. Some families only want minis. We want more walking billboards talking about us than just a few.
Do you shoot mini sessions? If so tell us about some of your wins and struggles with shooting mini sessions.
I'll try to do it next month. Thanks so much for the tips and ideas!!!
Hi Luke & Ash! I'm new to mini's and have my first set of sessions scheduled for late Nov at a local tree farm. I'm eager to see your video on Christmas minis!! One question I have is about lighting - for outdoor Christmas minis, do you have any tips or tricks to ensure pleasing lighting? I want to try to incorporate twinkle lights or cafe lights, but not sure about electrical hookup availability. Thanks for the great video!
I haven’t but I want to in order to start my photography!
Hey! Great question. We will actually be going over that with our Christmas mini video. We just finished the up this past weekend. Depending on your light the more string lights you add the more tungsten light you will get on your subjects. If the lights are close to your subjects. It also depends on your set up.
Wait a minute. This video is way too professional and helpful to only have 250 likes!! Wtf?? I absolutely love this. Trying to start up a little something with my wife. Thank you for the video 👍
Thank you! More coming soon
Wow! Thank you, it was very interesting. Great video quality! 🙂
$100 for 30-50 pictures??? I understand that your goal is to get your email list built up...but its prices like these that cheapens the art of professional photography, not to mention the amount of money you are leaving on the table by having such a business model
Our goal is to build rave a repeat customers that lead us to higher paying customers. Charging hundreds more with IPS is a way. Thanks for the input!
@Dania Ahmad - Hey out of interest, how much do you charge for your mini sessions?
Half that in images given for a mini is plenty enough! :)
@@lukeashleyphotography3275 ^^^ This didn't work for us. We found that the low paying customers and high paying customers are two different customers. It was very difficult to convert my low-paying people up to what we needed to make a living and keep our sanity. We were just so burnt out and had to change our business model by going hybrid IPS. During the slow times, we offer mini sessions and give past clients first pick of times. Our session fee and product packages are separate fees. Very low booking fee and then they can choose their digital package. We have 10-minute mini-sessions today. Only 2 clients booked, but that is ok b/c we are set to make $800. I would rather be able to spoil 2 clients than rush through 8. I normally don't comment, but you seem like a sweet couple.
Yeah I give 5 photos for $100 mini sessions lol, 30 images is just a normal session!
Wow! This was so helpful guys!!! Also your lighting for this video is on point!!! Beautiful stuff you two.
Glad you liked it!!
nice!! very good tips, especially to folks like myself (new to photography) that want to start doing mini sessions .
Your welcome!!
You guys are so lucky to live in colonial Williamsburg! I stopped by this summer when we went to bush gardens.
Yes we love it here!
Thank you for the rainout tip
Any time!
I appreciate all of the insight. Thank you. Do you deliver only digital photos or do you offer the option to your clients for prints, albums, etc?
Absolutely love this!! Can’t wait to see your Christmas Minis ♥️ Please do a behind the scenes and maybe with audio so we can hear how you interact / pose? And even graphics or how you marketed them on social media / emails!
I second this request! I’d love to see behind the scenes, especially posing.
You got it!!!
Love this advice! Thank you for sharing! Definitely going to follow these tips when I do my first mini sessions in the spring!
Good luck!!
Great video, very informative and keep on coming with those videos
Thank you!! More are on the way!!
Do you have buffer time in between each session?
Great question! No it’s full on 15min sessions back to back. We break for lunch for an hour and then go right back at it. It’s long days but the worth it.
What happens when the rain date is rained out as well? What do you do for clients whose rain check needs a rain check?
Thank you both for this informative video. I never thought I would shoot mini sessions as I always thought the old 1 hour shoot was the way to go. Fast forward to last weekend when I shot my first mini session and found the shorter shoot time is better for families and kids and it's a buzz. Your video has filled in a lot of gaps and I will definitely implement your strategies for sure :)
Hey Jeremy! That’s awesome to hear!! Feel free to reach out for any questions!
Awesome content! Subscribed for sure, thank you, guys! Good call on the calendly!
Awesome! Thank you!
How do you deliver your images to your clients ? Do you just give them a flash drive with 15 - 30 images , or do you have a website they can order prints and download your images?? thanks
Hello Teresa, We use a web client gallery called Cloudspot. They have been amazing and it includes an online store for your clients to buy their own prints and get them shipped straight to their home. It makes it really easy for you to shoot, edit and deliver. Here is their website. cloudspot.io/?affiliate=3fc9ed80-fbec-4785-8b3f-33ea63b489d3
I am going to start minis...very exciting & thrilled I ran across your video...THANK YOU for all the info. Question for you. What is your suggestion the method on getting the photos to clients? Thanks SO much!
Hey Tami so glad we could help! Our method is electronic via an online gallery and deliver those to the clients. We use cloud spot
How do you streamline the editing after? I have found I really am known for details and I do all this in Photoshop.. I know many use Lr and batch and so the editing doesn’t always look as cohesive without all the small touches of color balancing and paint in light or dark areas. So it tends to take a lot of hours per session. Do you have any tips on streamlining this to be able to do minis more effectively?
Hey! We joke all the time, every photographer has their own OCD when it comes to editing. If you feel you need to do all of the edits in photoshop great! We know our personal time is limited and have a similar system in LR, creating a clean edit, is what attracts clients to us. Fast turn around time is a huge win for anyone! Our way is just A way. Thanks for sharing!
Great video thank you !! What is your policy for families that arrive late to the session?
Great question. If your late, then we will fit you in if there is an opportunity. Or you will get less time. We are in a unique spot with us both shooting. So we can split up. But not everyone is like us. Just be strict on your time a and if they come late and get 5 mins, hopefully next time they will come early. But if you planned to have 10 spots and only 8 filled just have them wait until an open spot. We have done that.
I schedule my mini sessions with 17hats built in online booking, it's so great to automate everything. Love doing 20 min mini sessions for my clients, but it can be challenging with the amount of editing afterwards
Awesome! Is there anything you will change for when you do mini s again next time?
I am currently watching the 17hats university on the mini session and how to use their online scheduling. They walk you through step by set on workflows, email templates (that you can copy word-for-word), and their online scheduling! I am super excited about this automation process and doing seasonal minis as a part of my business!
This was so helpful! Thank you!! :)
Glad it was helpful!
Thankyou
You’re welcome 😊
Lots of great tips! I am curious though why you would offer cheap mini sessions during the busy season of autumn, where everyone is wanting family pictures...as they are a lot more work, and would take slots that could be used for full paying session clients...Would it not make more sense to offer them for quieter seasons? Christmas card photos make sense, or early spring...but fall? Exposure is great but I’d use it during the quiet seasons.
Great question! We focus mainly on weddings. Mini sessions are a way for us to connect to a different client or past couples looking to get family sessions. Or to earn some extra money for something we want. We would rather serve more people in a day or two, bust out the edits and be done. This creates a big burst of exposure, list building, and word of mouth to bring in higher paying families for sessions.
We do not market ourselves normally as family photographers. So getting families to book us at $450 for 1-2 hours at times is hard. But when we have 20-30 people raving about us all at once on social, the social algorithms see that and it just opens up more leads for us. It’s weird but works.
Where is his cross body camera strap from?!
Holdfast camera straps
How does calandie compare to honeybook?
Hey David, we are not honeybook users. We use 17hats. Assuming both honeybook and 17hats are similar, it just depends on what platform you want to use. Calendly is simple and fast and you have to pay for it. For the option to get paid. We use lead pages for our Instagram profile link and Calendly works natively with Leadpages. It provides a pop up Calendly and looks nice.
Either way it’s worth a try to see if you like it.
Love it! How do you send the contract?
We don’t do a contract. We do a accept terms and conditions in Calendly so when they buy they have to agree to that.
@@lukeashleyphotography3275 awesome and the Ts and Cs include everything that you normally would have in your contract? And they pay via calendly or you send an invoice another way?
Correct they pay in calendy and there is no other contract.
Very helpful
Thanks!
If in a mini session you send 30-50 pics, how many pictures you delivery on a full session?! I love this idea bc I love to over delivery too lol
Hey Camila, thanks for the question. On a normal 1.5 hour session we deliver probably 175-250. maybe a little bit more. We stopped doing the "25 images for $100" because we overshoot, we wanted out clients to have a lot of great memories, so they can tell their friends and we get more bookings. Once you get your editing workflow down, you can fly pretty quickly with edits and delivery.
Do you charge the full $100 up front?
All payments are made at booking online and then we meet at the time allotted.
Great tips! Except the amount of images promised 😖 Thats a lot for a mini. And does make it incredibly difficult to charge more later. I will personally charge per image over a certain amount and make it affordable, so there’s still value there.
Thanks for sharing! Yes that makes sense as well! We are just doing a way with them Are looking more for exposure for future larger family sessions or weddings. Some families only want minis. We want more walking billboards talking about us than just a few.
Nice video Luke & Ashley! Where yall from?
Nm ... you both said Virginia hahaha
Lol yes Virginia.
nice video bro
Thanks for the visit
that's a lot of pictures for a little bit of money.... I think I will include 10-14 images in the package price then...... UPSALE MORE!
Hey Gage, Great idea!
why this annoying and distracting music in the background? it would be much better hearing only you