Opening a Photostudio?

Hi everyone i've been thinking for awhile now about having a go at opening up my own little photostudio but i've absolutely no clue where too get started, i have some poses and i'll have my photostudio back once i contact the person i bought it from... had some inventory problems the other night and lost it lol.

If anyone can offer any tips on advertising, land rental or shop rental. I'm not so fussed on pricing as i'm doing this for fun so it would be whatever you wanted too pay me for the photo's as long as it's over 10L i'm cool with that, i'd just like too cover upload costs.

Thanks in advance for this guys.

Shikia xx

Honestly - look around what other studios/photographers offer first. If you're not crushed by the amount of competition, the go on and look what they do/offer and what you as a customer like/dislike and probably could do better.

Hi Novis, i'll try that and have a look around see what others do. Thanks for the tip

Oh, and do put up some samples of your work at your place, so people can judge if your style fits them.

That said - good luck.

Thanks Novis, i'll do that once i have a shop

Hi and welcome to the isle of crushed dreams. LOL

Congratulations on your interest in SL Photography. As others have said, take a look around at other people's prices and work. See what you can do different or better. Get an idea of the going rates and charge similarly if your work is comparable.

Feel free to come see me in-world. I have a studio and gallery with some of my work on display. I will gladly share some of my experiences. Matter of fact, join my group and you're more than welcome to use my studio and charge your clients for the service. (my studio is set to group-use, so that's why you have to be a group member)

Honestly, you don't need a full studio-set for photography. All you need is a handfull of green or blue prims to help chroma-key in Photoshop when you add your new backgrounds and effects. The reason I have a full N30 studio? To impress the clients. LOL Seriously though, when I started, I had a simple green-screen set and people didn't take me seriously. I threw down L$3,000 for a 60-prim studio with a crapload of effects and things I never use ... and suddenly I was seen as a "professional." Did my quality of work change? Nope. But it changed the clients' first impressions.

Find your personal niche, come up with a style that sets you apart from the countless other in-world photographers, and best of luck to you. Over the past few years, I have seen more and more people start doing their own Photoshop and photography work rather than hiring in-world photographers.

Me? I mainly do profile pictures for people who are less than 3 months old, (no money in that really, I just do those for kicks and word-of-mouth advertising) or I'm doing full custom jobs like calendars, portfolios, books, and RL posters of their SL photos. (where I make more money). There's not much in-between. It's nickel and dime work, or good negotiated contract work.

Ahhhhhhhhhh photography...

I kinda stumbled into it. Originally i was a builder, built houses, sci-fi miniatures and flags. With more and more builders selling their houses for next to nothing and in some cases giving them away from free the house building market crumbled for me. Far too much over saturation.

The only part of the original business i have left is the flags and sci-fi donation boxes.

Photography was something i done in real life so i thought i'd give it a try in SL. It all depends on what road you want to go down. N30 is a good base studio to start off with but as one of the previous posters said youll need to know your chromokeying and adobe photoshops limitations. The first 10 days of me setting up my studio i layed down 10,000l on the basis of it. CWS Photography Studio, most of their add on equipment as well. I layed down another 5000l in the first 2 months just for advertising. You HAVE to advertise. There are so many other photographers out there, some good, some bad, some charging over the top rpices for photos that suck, some charging damn nice proces for (in my personal opinion) over photoshopped work) if you dont advertise you are dead.

The only 4 ad boards i have left running is in 3 PG rated friendly mid traffic (no bots) clubs and one in a well known SL Cruise ship, occaisionally i lay down 1500L for a weeks advertising at Sweethearts but if ya ask me the prices dilbert is asking for advertising when the place is a lag fest and half the advert textures dont load in time is far too much. The point is this though. You HAVE to advertise to your target demographic. It's all well and fine taking profile pics for 50 to 150l but the REAL cash is in event photography, weddings, rez day parties, the lucrative model agency deals...

In the first 2 months of my studio running i barely made enough to cover the rental for the 937 prim land (yeah i know, my studio is too dang big).

However just over the past month i have made just under 35,000l

I now have a full holodeck (horizons pro incase anyone is wondering) studio set up above the main studio where it rezzes full scenes which are perfect for couples shots and the video filming side of the studio is now bringing me in the bulk of the profits...but again...its ALL down to advertising.

You have GOT to lay down the ground work in advertising first, if ya dont advertise and rely solely on land parcel search you wont get very far.

Hi Lolita lol can't be that bad a broken dream

I've been around alot of places now looking at prices and there layouts and have gotten a few ideas.

Thanks for the kind offer Lolita hun, i'll definently drop by and see you and for the offer of the studio you are very kind but i'm actually having one built for me by a friend lol.

For my own style i was going too concentrate on profile, group and couple shots and maybe eventually do things like weddings and events. I don't think my skills are that great yet.

Hi Victor, to be compeltely honest i hate the N30 setup. The poses are just so generic. I have bought alot of my own poses really to use with the studio i'm having built. I'll look into advertising though too be honest i have no idea where i should advertise.

Well yeah i aint a fan of the N30 either, thats why i went for CWS, its not as expensive as photoLife and is a good inbetween solution.

As for advertising, it depends on where you want to target your business.

If its for straight profile shoots & weddings then you need to target the places where most partnerships start...in clubs. NOT adult clubs, PG rated clubs, ones with good traffic. Most of these clubs have some sort of intelliad system either inside or at the entrance to their establishment. Stick up an ad for a month with a notecard and a landmark and forget about it.

Put up 2 to 3 ads at 2 to 3 busy NON BOT clubs and see how it goes.

The 4th and 5th ad should be very targeted. The romantic ball rooms where couples aint partnered yet but nine times out of ten go there to "propose" places like Sweethearts and Franks Place.

Hi Victor, lol i'll maybe have too check out the CWS i've never actually heard of that one before.

I guess too start of with my business will be mainly single shots for profiles and a few group and couple shots though i'm still looking into poses for those. I'll maybe eventually go into wedding shots but right now i don't think my skills are upto par with outdoor and scene shots lol.

I'll try that idea with visiting clubs and i had a couple of ideas aswell that a friend gave me... hopefully these will help

I hear ya on the stock N30 poses. I tossed most of 'em and loaded up poses I bought elsewhere. For me, the N30 is simply for looks. I chroma anything I shoot in-studio, and anything I'm shooting on-location doesn't require a studio or set at all.

All the features of the N30 such as the built in props, effects, gadgets etc ... I never use them. It's all for show. It just makes the client feel more comfortable handing over a deposit to see a full setup and not just a green prim on the wall. LOL

Search the events listing .... find an event for a fashion show and go check it out. If it looks good, advertise there. That's just one of many possibilities you can find through the events listings.

I made do for all my fashion shots with a simple homemade 10x10 "L" backdrop, two homemade lights and a freebie multi-pose stand. The N30 is interface is brutal -- way too slow IMHO for doing production work. PhotoLife is really nice (and made by a friend of mine) but it is expensive.

Hi Lolita, i have bought a load of the Striking Poses Celebrity poses and a few from elsewhere i can't remember the name of the place of the top of my head. I'm actually having a photostudio being built by a very good friend, i met her after posting this question in Xstreet Forums and she's offered too build me one. I did have one with all the bells and whistles in my alt account (that has all my poses which are no trans grrrr) but i've yet too hear back from the guy i bought the Glam Studio V from, so she offered too build me one

mmmmmm never thought about trying Fashion Show's, thanks muchly i'll try that too

Hi Honey, i don't think i've used the Photolife studio before though i've heard the name, i know what you mean about expensive, i ended up paying 1000L for my photostudio that got lost and that was the cheapest and best i'd seen and played with yet lol.

Another quick question if thats ok

Poses and couple poses, upto now i've been buying from Striking Poses, can anyone suggest any other good stores too buy them. For Couple poses, do i need too just stick them on the floor or is there like a pose stand out there that i can use that's soley for couple poses?

Thanks again guys

You know, if you don't mind breaking that alt's photostudio, the alt could pull out all those animations, stuff them in an anim server (or even just an MLP box, or a danceball) owned by that alt, and they could augment whatever anims your main account owns.

Making all this seamless (well, almost seamless) would take a bit of scripting, so a single poseball could be served by multiple animation servers owned by different accounts, but it's not rocket science either. The "almost seamless" thing is because the different anim servers would each need to get and retain permissions to animate the seated avatar, so there'd be two of those blue "permission to animate you" dialogs instead of just one.

But if touching a different danceball would be acceptable, all you'd need is a kind of fake "poseball" with a sit target that just removes the default sit animation(s) without pushing anything in its place.

IM or PM me if you want to explore further. (This isn't a solicitation for business--I gave up custom scripting long ago. I just find this problem interesting.)

Hi Que, i actually have the poses aswell in my folder. Though i'm sorry i have absolutely no idea what your talking about with augmenting. I'm absolutely rubbish at scripting and building.. i hate both lol... so maybe not a good idea me doing that

Edited too add: Ok so i found a cool little set of poses for couple so now just some male poses... please please suggest some good places for good male poses. Thanks

Striking Poses ... I like their stuff. I like a lot of the celebrity style poses.

I also have a lot of poses from Reel Expressions