A few years ago I and a couple of other artists in the Los Angeles area were working on starting a Digital Artist's group. In the meetings we had we spoke often about sharing or keeping our "secrets". The consensus was that if we were just a collection of "secrets" we'd be out of a job pretty soon as sooner or later the "secrets" would leak out and others would know as much as we do. But if we were artists with talent AND knowledge we could share our "secrets" because we were confident in our ability to keep inventing, or learning new ones. In actuality we are hired for our talent more than just our knowledge of special tricks.
It's the same thing for photographers, isn't it? A photographer is hired for his vision, his ability to conceptualize. Any one can rent a camera and hire a good assistant, but talent can not be easily acquired.
The fact is this "possible future" client may never work out to be a "real paying" client. Many years as an independent artist have taught me to not buy into the "some day we'll work together" scenario. That said I also believe in nurturing relationships by sharing and connecting with as many people as I can.
What if you said you would be happy to show him some of the ways you do your "PhotoShop Magic" and quoted him an hourly rate? (I would also suggest you quote a minimum of 2-3 hours so you avoid blocking out valuable time for just one hour's consulting fee.) By attaching a consulting rate to your time you are reinforcing your value, yet also put yourself in a position to benefit from "sharing" your experience with him. Chances are too that you'll have the opportunity to show him why he needs to hire you to work on the real jobs. (Just think of the time he'd have to spend on each job and what that represents to him in terms of his other responsibilities - marketing etc.) Perhaps he'll learn your "tricks" and do it all himself, perhaps not. But chances are also good that consulting like this can expand your opportunities for business, if not with this client then with others as you'll be the "guru".
HTH
Dennis Dunbar APA Digital Dept. Chair
On Jun 2, 2004, at 5:53 PM, Bj�rn Holland wrote:
Hi!
Sorry... this is gonna be a loong posing - hope it reads well ;-)
I've been asked by a possible future client today, if I could "come over and show him" some Photoshop magic (beauty retouching)... Now I am not sure whether to keep certain things 'within the trade' or whether to pass them on to a possible client.
The client is a kind of "average portrait/wedding high-street photographer" in my city, who feels like he needs to improve his image-quality since he changed to shooting digital. He also gives some local weekend lighting-workshops to other photographers, and from what I know he'd like to implement digital imaging into his workshops. Most of what he knows on the digital side comes from the "Photoshop for Digital Photographers" book.
I have a kind of "solid real-world Photoshop-knowledge": stint as a retoucher/scanner-operator, several years of pre-press work-experience, Photography-degree. I basically grew up with Photoshop since 1996, and still learn and feed myself with new approaches to Photoshop & retouching every day. Also, I have just started to go self-employed within this trade.
So far, I have done a few assisting-jobs with the guy. And every now and then he needs some help on the software-side - for example, writing a Photoshop action which puts the word "Proof" across all his images,...
Now, the thing he'd like to know how to do in Photoshop is very much a high-end approach to 'digital makeup' or 'beauty retouching': Something I haven't found in any Photoshop-Books (so far)!!! Usually I don't mind sharing my knowledge - I often give free advice and tuition to artists and photography-enthusiast friends. But because of the very specialist nature of the client's question,I am not quite sure whether in this case, I should treat my knowledge as a 'trade secret' or not.... What is more: He doesn't want to have a full-on 7-days tuition from me - it feels more like "I didn't find this in any of the Photoshop-Books - can you teach me this beauty-retouching thing? After that, I won't need you any more..."
I offered to do this kind of work for him, but he wanted to know how to do it himself. I pretty much let him know that teaching him wouldn't necessarily be advantegous for my business - on the long run, I'd loose him as a customer. To which he replied that he could find out how to do it from someone else and that then, our relationship would end right here... He also tried to get me on his side by saying things like "I've never kept any secrets for myself on my lighting-workshops... People should help each other..." and so on...
Somehow, his words actually made me feel a bit bad and sorry and made me think that maybe I am being a bit too tight by not passing on this specialist knowledge - on the other hand: a car mechanic fixes your car - but he won't show you how to fix it yourself.
What would you do? Have you come across a situation like that? And, in case I decided to pass on such knowledge - how much should I charge (hourly rate?) ???
Hope this wasn't too much to read :-)
Kind regards Bjorn Holland
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