How to Make Shoot Day a Success & Keep Clients Happy – Advice from Steve Giralt

How to Make Shoot Day a Success & Keep Clients Happy – Advice from Steve Giralt

This interview is just one of many from our free, downloadable Guide: Breaking Into Commercial Photography. For more tips, download your copy today, here.

Now based in New York City, Steve Giralt is a first-generation Cuban American photographer originally from Miami. He shoots for a variety of commercial and editorial clients including Starbucks, PepsiCo, GE, Smucker’s, Captain Morgan, Johnston and Murphy, and Victoria’s Secret. Here, he shares how he expanded his original focus as a travel photographer into a well-rounded client base, and other tips on making shoots go well and keeping clients happy.

Photo by Steve

Photo by Steve Giralt

How did you get started as a photographer?

I started out in photography working for my high school newspaper, then after graduation got a job at a high school portrait studio in Miami where I worked for four years. I eventually transferred to Rochester Institute of Technology. At RIT I explored many different genres of photography from fashion to still life, but my senior year I decided to try to pursue travel photography.

I moved to New York City in 2002 and started working as a photo assistant, digital tech and photo retoucher. A few months later I got my first shooting jobs for Saveur magazine and Budget Travel. In 2005, I was selected as one of PDN magazine’s 30 emerging photographers to watch. After three years working as an assistant, I transitioned into shooting full-time.

How did you leverage your travel photography to get commercial work?

Over the next few years I slowly moved away from travel photography and instead started breaking down the work into separate portfolios and showing my work in a different way. As a travel photographer I would photograph people, architecture, food, still life and landscape. I decided it would be better to market myself in these different genres individually instead of grouping them all under the label “travel photographer.” I had clients who would hire me to shoot food, some who would hire me to shoot portraits, some for still life, etc.

I now shoot for a mix of advertising, editorial, catalog and corporate clients in the genres of food, still life, portraits, motion and interiors. I really don’t have a niche, which is rare for a New York photographer, but if I had choose one, I’d say it’s always coming up with creative solutions to problems for my clients.

Photo by Steve Giralt

Photo by Steve Giralt

What are your tips for making shoot day a success? How do you solve problems or anticipate issues that may come up? 

It really depends on the shoot but in general, communication is key to make sure that the shoot day goes successfully. I find many photographers, especially young photographers, are scared to ask clients questions. It is important to think of every “what-if ” scenario before a shoot to make sure you know what you’ve agreed to. Most of the hard thinking and problem solving for a shoot is done before shoot day so that shoot day goes smoothly.

Putting together a great crew is also really important and making sure everyone on the team is aware of what they need to do. This is why we have conference calls and pre-pro books that lay out all the info for the shoot.

A pre-pro book is a document which, depending on the job, is either made by the producer on a job, the photographer himself, the photographer’s agent, or the producer at the agency. It contains all relevant information to the job that is going to be shot: the creative brief, call sheet, layouts and swipe related to the job, production schedule, and more depending on the job. On big jobs, a few days before the job, the client, agency, photographer, and stylist all get on a conference call to go through the pre-pro book and make sure everyone is on the same page as to what will be happening on shoot day.

On shoot day the job of the photographer is to make sure that the client is happy with the images made, and that they enjoy the experience of making those images as a team. For repeat business I find it is important that not only the images made were great, but the experience was great.

Photo by Steve Giralt

Photo by Steve Giralt

How do you manage working with stylists, make-up artists, producers, etc., and getting the best work possible from them? 

When one gets their start in photography, they usually begin as a one-man team. The longer I shoot, the more I have come to learn the importance of a great team. I’m constantly looking for new stylists to work with as every new project I take on has new needs. For example with food stylists, some may be great for food, but not great for beverages, or some may be great for editorial stories, but not great for advertising.

Knowing how to assemble a great team is vital to a photographer’s success in the world of commercial photography. I find getting the best work out of a stylist is usually a matter or hiring the right stylist for the right job. This is where having a good network of friends in the industry is great. I usually hire new stylists almost entirely based on referrals from people I know or from agents I know well and know the way I work. It’s hard to know how good a stylist may be from just looking at their portfolio, often times I’d rather meet them in person first before using them on a job.

What’s the secret to great customer service and keeping a new client coming back for more after a shoot?

Be grateful! Very, very grateful! I frequently send thank you notes to clients after shoots, even clients who I have worked with for a decade. Just because someone has hired you in the past doesn’t mean they will hire you again in the future. Treat every job as your first job with the same level of dedication and importance. Make sure you spend more time listening to your client than talking at them.

Also, I thank my clients twice a year for their generosity. Once a year I throw a big party and invite all my clients and people who have been good to me, and then at Christmas time I always send a gift to all the clients who hired me that calendar year. I try to get really creative with the gift I send to show I really care, and often there is a hand-made aspect to the gifts. One year I made cutting boards in my woodshop for each of them; another year I sent framed prints.

Photo by Steve Giralt

Photo by Steve Giralt

Do you have any shoot day dos or don’ts you can share?

The photographer must always be confident and in control of whatever is going on. The world often throws curve balls at you on a shoot, but a good photographer hits those curve balls out of the park every time. Plenty of unexpected things have happened to me on shoots, how I handled those things is why I get hired.

No matter what happens, as a commercial photographer you need to think fast and come up with solutions to difficult problems. Whether it means sending someone out to buy a new table-top oven when the oven in your studio stops working, or renting a car and driving when a flight gets cancelled (both of which have happened to me), the client expects you to do everything possible to make sure a shoot happens as planned. If you fail to do that, you may not get hired again.

What are some mistakes you’ve made in the past others could learn from?

Losing touch with old clients would have to be the worst of the mistakes I regret. The fact that someone took a chance to hire me, I shot the job they hired me to do, then I lost touch, is horrible. Existing and past clients are your very best source of work for the future, and not staying in touch means you don’t care about getting more work from them in the future.

Want more tips on how to start getting your dream commercial clients? Download the Guide today!

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