What does looking good have to do with photography you might ask, and I would say everything. The way you present yourself every day in life is a direct reflection of who you really are. Don’t believe me? Show me ten random people off the street who don’t know that we are observing them for the purpose of trying to figure out their personality and I can usually get a good read on people just by how they are dressed. Keep in mind I don’t even want to speak to them at all, and let’s see how it would go.

We have all been to the store to buy something, and that something will usually have three levels of quality, selling price, and so on. We can safely assume that the lower-quality item along with the lower price is going to be of lesser overall value. I think we would all come to the same conclusion and again like the example above without looking at or testing out the item. We are only going to make an assumption based on price alone. Now we are going to flip that and look at the higher prices. Immediately you will make the same assumptions with the high-priced item but in the opposite direction. You would expect it to last longer and simply work better overall.

My first gripe would be how we dress or present ourselves before, during, and after a session with a client. People will always be looking at you the photographer during your session and there is no way around this fact. When you are out and about you are representing yourself as well as your business by the way you dress and carry yourself out in the field. If you arrive dressed like a vagrant, someone off the street, How do you think you are going to be perceived by your new client? A cheap or an expensive photographer. Perception is everything, even more so today than when I was a kid because it gets magnified by social media in a very strange way sometimes.

The solution is very simple to correct and alleviate, yet many will find themself simply being too lazy to do. They will sit and think to themself, why is it no one is calling me for services? Why don’t I ever get returning clients, why doesn’t anyone ever refer me to their friends and co-workers? All this can come from simply not dressing the part, don’t think it’s just you because I see this all the time in the field. When they look at me and then look at their photographer they immediately know and understand why I charge a little more and it shows simply by the way I dress and present myself out there. I am not better than them by any stretch of the imagination, I simply give the impression that I am without even speaking to them. Are you starting to get the idea here? We speak often time without ever saying a word to people and you must understand this simple concept.

Canon 5D Mark II with battery grip. It is cheaper than Rebel T8i and comes with lots of instant credibility.

Now let’s talk gear, cameras specifically. If you are using a Canon Rebel series DSLR or mirrorless then you have a great camera that will do an amazing job. So why do I bring this up, well it’s simple if you show up to do a session for a new client and they have the same camera as you do, they will make an assumption that they could have done the job themself. Chances are they will never call you back after said session on a simple assumption. Does it sound familiar again? This is why I always ask photographers just starting out to decide right away if they intend to just do it for fun or just as a hobby. If they are trying to do it for profit, I would never recommend a small Rebel or similar camera even if it is going to be their first camera. I would recommend something like a Canon 5D DSLR because even if they don’t quite got photography down they will look like they do with such a BIG and very recognized camera. The point is simply to look the part and people will take you and your photography more seriously.

Looking good is important in photography

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