In this introduction to the brand-new coaching program for The Portrait System, Sue Bryce sets the stage for the transformational experience of building a business—whether you’re starting from scratch or are looking to make a breakthrough that takes you to new heights.

Through Sue’s teaching and the expert coaching of Cat Ford-Coates and Saray Taylor-Roman, the 12 Month Startup will help you find what lights you up and define what you want as a business owner and photographer. “Clarity is power!” Sue says. “When you have clarity and you’ve got that certainty and conviction, you really know what you want, you know who your client is, you know what you want to create—it’s easy to show up every…single…day.”

Get excited to set your intention for this year of coaching; to learn what lights you up; to confront fears and uncertainties and uncomfortable moments and turn them into the experiences that make you an incredible business owner.

Lessons:

Internationally acclaimed photography guru, John Greengo has teamed up with world-renowned portrait photographer, Sue Bryce to bring you the ultimate camera fundamentals course. Whether you just purchased your first camera or you’re looking to brush up on your technical skills, this comprehensive class will cover all your bases on your journey to create beautiful portraits.

John Greengo is especially known for his visual teaching style and incredible simplicity in explaining your camera’s complicated functions. Learn all about the different types of cameras, and how to find your correct settings when it comes to shutter speed, ISO, aperture, and more. Explore the different types of flash and lenses, master your focus, and learn how to set your camera’s functions to best serve you. Then watch as Sue demonstrates John’s teachings in action at the end of each lesson!

When you fully understand your camera and how to use it, your confidence behind the lens grows immensely and your work inevitably improves. Invest in your photography, master the fundamentals of your camera and watch your photography flourish.

Lessons:

Training Materials:

For so many creative small business owners, the journey to building a valuable brand and service starts inside you. In this talk, I unlock the secret fears we all feel, and I share the progression of my own personal path to value and getting paid doing what I love.

I AM SO EXCITED to share this with you!

Lessons:

Want to dive in deeper on this subject? Watch these related courses:

Set Your Intention

If you don’t address the problems you have that ultimately affect your ability to RECEIVE and MANAGE money, you just cannot run a successful business! Learn the eight styles of being blocked around building wealth, so you can apply the antidotes for healing those blocks and take steps toward manifesting a more enriched and enriching future.

Lessons:

Training Materials:

Manifestation… Manifest-ACTION!!

In this talk from The Portrait Masters Conference, Sue speaks from her heart about how to properly manifest success in your life, not just by willing it, but by acting on it!

Manifestation… Have you found yourself in a slump? Maybe feeling trapped or like you aren’t doing what you feel you were born to do — just stuck? You aren’t alone! So many others have felt this way, including Sue Bryce. In what could arguably be her most heartfelt video to date, Sue shares her incredible story of the highs and lows in her life. She talks about how she built a successful business but something was still missing. Sue took a leap of faith and failed miserably, hitting rock bottom, before picking herself back up to create another successful business, while also stepping out of her comfort zone to become the teacher/speaker we all know and love.

Watch as she shares the steps it took to to get her here. How she learned that manifestation was more than simply trusting what the universe and her gut were telling her—that is was also putting it into action so she could be ALL IN.

Sue Bryce LIVE Q&A

Then, tune in to the LIVE Q&A. Brush up your “3 areas that surround creating” — emotion, mindset, and action. Sue will give you some great advice with some very hard truths to help you break out of your slump, get out there, and become the best version of yourself, which will help you create the best business you can. Great business = Great return! Learn the importance of not just manifestation but also manifestACTION!

It’s easy to put your dreams out in the universe, or start a vision board, but until you take the steps to manifest those dreams, they will only remain dreams. Sue uses her past experiences to help teach you how to love yourself, accept yourself and accept what the universe wants to give you.

If you have been down on yourself because your business isn’t growing like you want it to, you’re unsatisfied in other aspects of your life and that impacts your business, or if you just need a little push into positivity, then you won’t want to skip this video. You will find yourself having “aha” moments, laughing, crying and then just all together getting amped up for this new year. Do yourself a favor and just push “Play!”

“The state in which you dwell is the state in which you are creating and manifesting from at full power.”

—Sue Bryce

Lessons:

Training Materials:

Don’t become one of the 50% of businesses that fail in their first year because they run out of money! When you understand the fundamentals of money and how to price your product and service at a level that matches your worth, you can be truly successful in your business.

In this first session of the brand new 12-Month Startup Coaching Program, Sue, Cat, and Saray will teach the financial fundamentals you need to master to run a profitable and successful business—money, value, and pricing. When you understand these fundamentals and tried-and-true methods for money success, you and your business can not just survive, but thrive! For those with existing portrait photography businesses, you’ll learn the three areas you can improve to make more money.

The 12-Month Startup Program is a step-by-step guide for achieving your goals. The program is led by world-renowned photographer and educator Sue Bryce and two of her protégés, your breakthrough coaches, Cat Ford-Coates and Saray Taylor-Roman. Sue, Cat, and Saray have all built six-figure businesses with The Portrait System business model. Even if you are starting with nothing, you can join now and learn everything you need to know to launch a sustainable, successful business.

Jump into the full course and all the month’s lessons here!

Lessons:

How much money do you want to earn this year?

Create a marketing plan and take action… so much easier said than done, right?

How do you project income and bookings?
How do create a schedule that supports future goals?
How do you create a Marketing Plan?

Join me for for this session as we make big goals, big dreams, real targets, and discuss how to go after them.

Lessons:

Training Materials:

Ask yourself, “What am I hearing from the people around me?” These people are telling us what we need to hear because they are reflecting what we are expressing to them. Their objections reveal where our perceived shortcomings are holding us back.

We need to confront these negative limiting beliefs so that we can overcome them, get past them, and re-write them. These old beliefs no longer serve us. It is time for us to acknowledge them and our path to growth so that we can get out of our own way and build successful businesses.

Lessons:

It is all about the law of action, not attraction. In this powerful video, Sue shows us how to change obvious desperation into empowering intention, how to look for people instead of money, and how to truly turn a dream into a reality. Sue shares how there is freedom in setting goals, how to turn our words into action items, and what we should prepare for after we decide to stop being idle and start being positively active in our business and our personal lives.

Key Points:

MAKE A GOAL AND THEN GO AFTER IT

The first thing Sue does when she wakes up in the morning is set her intention for her actions for the day.

That is ACTION. It’s not lying in bed hoping you are going to attract what you want, but going out and doing what you need to in order to acquire what you want.

YOUR ACTIONS WILL DETERMINE WHAT IS COMING TO YOU

One of the most important things about setting goals is to MAKE GOALS FOR WORK, NOT MONEY.

We energetically repel money when we don’t have a strong value system around money. We repel money when we have guilt around making it or about being wealthy.

“We need to make our goals around our work! When I started my business in 2003, I wrote that I wanted 10 photo shoots per week with an average sale of $1800. It took me 12 weeks to reach that goal. I went from being poor to having money, and I had a lot of lessons around managing time and money. I laugh now at 10 shoots per week — sounds absolutely crazy to me!”

You need to be really careful about turning your goals from WANTS to NEEDS.

When you focus on NEEDING money, your energy shifts. It shifts into an energy of desperation.

Instead, shift your focus to finding people to shoot.

FINDING PEOPLE IS WAY EASIER THAN FINDING MONEY

And once you find the people, you give them GREAT service and product and then they pay you really well.

When people desperately need to make a sale, they push it away because their energy is in a space of desperation and their NEED IS OVERRIDING THEIR SERVICE.

When you are in space of needing money, YOUR CLIENT FEELS IT. They feel that you are in an energy of taking, even if they don’t know what they are feeling. They do feel it!

This energy translates into every post you write and the way that you sell yourself!

Knowing your average sale is, of course, very important (have a look at the average sale video if you haven’t already). If you want to increase your average sale, you must set your intention every day.

For example, you want 3 shoots per week at a $1200 sales average. You aren’t looking for $3600 per week, you are looking for 3 PEOPLE per week who you can give incredible service to.

There is a HUGE difference between the success of the person who gets up in the morning with a bad attitude — looking at other people who are more successful, whining on Facebook, telling themselves they aren’t worth it — and someone who wakes up in the morning with an action plan and with a positive attitude full of love and joy for what you do!

When you are in a negative or resentful energy, YOU ARE IN THE OPPOSITE ENERGY OF MAKING SOMETHING HAPPEN WITH YOUR GOAL SETTING.

A DREAM IS JUST A DREAM UNTIL YOU WRITE IT DOWN AND MAKE IT A GOAL

Walk towards it every day!!! You must make a daily action.

Have the attitude that life isn’t happening TO you, it’s happening FOR you!!!

Take little baby steps but walk towards your goals!

“What we vividly imagine, most ardently desire, enthusiastically act upon, must inevitably come to pass” ~Collin P. Sisson

Sue shares her own personal goals in this video. Tell her what YOU want in convocation.

Lessons:

To go into business and earn money with your portraits, you must be clear on what you are selling, how you are pricing it, and what you are calling it so that your clients can understand it.

This month, you’ll learn about all the different types of portrait photography you can leverage to earn revenue and which products you feel most energized to offer. You’ll also learn how to create cohesion among your brands and products by connecting your images with simple descriptive search words that are easy for your clients to understand. For those ready to expand their business, we’ll go deeper into your messaging and marketing, working on clarity and how to show value and create desire.

The 12-Month Startup Program is a step-by-step guide for achieving your goals. The program is led by world-renowned photographer and educator Sue Bryce and two of her protégés, your breakthrough coaches, Cat Ford-Coates and Saray Taylor-Roman. Sue, Cat, and Saray have all built six-figure businesses with The Portrait System business model. Even if you are starting with nothing, you can join now and learn everything you need to know to launch a sustainable, successful business.

Jump into the full course and all the month’s lessons here! 

Lessons:

Want to dive in deeper on this subject? Watch these related courses:

Money & Pricing – Month 1 of the 12 Month Startup

In the Pricing and Product lessons, Sue teaches you how to create a pricing structure based on your value, your experience as a business owner, and your experience with being a paid photographer.

Knowing your worth is crucial in business, and these lessons focus on understanding your value. Topics include: identifying your blocks when it comes to your self-value, understanding your value as a creator, understanding the value of your time, and understanding the value of your craft. As well, we’ll look at how to get your pricing to industry standards and all the possibilities for pricing plans, packages, and more. The more you understand your value and demand your worth, the more you will see your business soar.

Once you’ve finished this week, we recommend visiting the Sales Intensive for further studies on this topic.

These lessons are part of the 90 Day Challenge, where Sue gives you all the tools you need to create a business and thrive. Whether you are a beginner, building your business from the ground up, or an experienced photographer, taking your business to the next level, this course will help your business grow!

Lessons:

Training Materials:

Continue Learning...

Pricing

Pricing to Sell

Your First Package Price

Selling Wall Portraits

Selling Framed Images

Selling Wall Portraits + Collections

You need to lock down your prices before you can really learn to sell because you can’t sell until you are sure of what your product is and how much you are selling it for.

Learning pricing is a challenge because there is no international standard for pricing portraits, and the pricing people use really runs the gamut. No one has set a standard, but Sue is going to tell you what she thinks the standard should be and why.

Additionally, in this lesson, you’re going to learn how professional photographers in The Portrait System community are pricing their products. You’ll also learn some basic sales psychology that will help you understand how you should set your prices and why.

You’ll get armed with the knowledge you need to create a base price list for your products and service. By the end, you’ll be ready to set prices for your sitting fee, three packages — low, middle, and high, and your a la carte items.

After you complete this lesson with its homework, you’ll be ready to head on over to the Sales Intensive next.

Lessons:

Training Materials:

For success in your business, your average sale should be the most important thing you not only focus on, but simply KNOW. In this lesson, Sue coaches on how problems in our business are never with our client or competition but with ourselves. You’ll learn the questions you should ask yourself each day, how to properly reflect back on each shoot to get more out of the next, and the importance of having a mentor. Finally, Sue shares the best business advice she has yet to give. Hint: it has to do with bums.

Key Points:

* You should always know what your average sale is. BE HONEST with yourself and include the no sales.

* Knowing your average sale helps you focus on how to lift your average INSTEAD of thinking about how to get more money.

* The more consistently you provide excellent service and product, the more people will talk about you, the more bums on seats you will get. Start doing this and you will make money!

* Once what you are doing starts feeling really good to you and you are at a value point that is very comfortable to you, you will start moving products and attracting people. When your energy is in alignment, you can’t help but do it!

* When you get a no sale, instead of complaining about it, ask yourself, WHAT DID I DO WRONG? It is not the economy or what the photographer down the street is doing.

* If your average sale isn’t where you want it to be, YOU are the reason it is going wrong, and Sue will bring it back to you every time.

* If your income isn’t where you want it to be, you need to minimize your costs. If it doesn’t make the ship go faster, don’t buy it!

* If you get a no sale, you either:

• Did not connect with your clients
• Did not educate your clients
• Did not give adequate service to your clients
• Did not follow through
• Did not produce the product that you promised

* You are your own boss and you need to ask yourself where you are falling down. If you need support, go get a mentor! If your partner isn’t supporting you around your business, stop talking to him about it! A mentor will tell you honestly what you are doing wrong and support you.

* People email Sue on a regular basis saying they want to quit when they get a no sale. If you want to quit every time you get a no sale, you are struggling with your own value. You perceive that the lack of value is coming from an outside source and it’s not!

* ANYTHING THAT BRINGS YOUR AVERAGE UP OR DOWN IS A LESSON. Have a look at your big sales and your low sales and think about what happened during those shoots. What was your energy level like? Did you connect? Your answers will be right there!

* SERVICE IS ABOUT GIVING. . . what you are GIVING to get paid. You must come to the shoot in a state of giving, not worrying about whether or not you are going to get paid.

Lessons:

What you show and what you love is what you sell.

This lesson will prepare you for the big-selling wall portraits class. It is all about getting clear on what you love most to take you to the next level of selling. Lock down the points in this lesson and then head over to Selling Wall Portraits & Collections next.

To see how Sue shows what she loves, view Sue Bryce’s Studio Tour.

Lessons:

I have been selling wall portraits for over 27 years. Learn the techniques that create a visual collection for your clients so they can see their own portraits covering the walls of their home. The gallery wall and the ancestors wall are big sellers. Most of your clients dream of creating something this beautiful for their homes with legacy images of the people they love. Plant the seed, show don’t tell, and let your clients decide by giving them gorgeous and enticing products to purchase.

Lessons:

This is our BIG sales class!

We did the prep work and in this class we are spending 3 hours on selling wall portraits, designer wall series, collections, packages, up selling with wall portraits, and closing sales.

Join us in this class as we dive deep into pricing, product, profit & cost of goods, sales cycle from consultation through the sales session, closing, service, handling objections, referrals, and a whole lot more.

Lessons:

Four years ago, I was approached by a huge international company to shoot a ‘real women’ series of shoots.

I had to determine a quote, submit a proposal, create a vision board, and fly to New York to pitch the board of directors and their advertising and PR people.

My quote was in the tens of thousands of dollars. They accepted my proposal, and I did the job. (There is a whole lot more to this story, but boy was I out of my comfort zone).

As a portrait photographer and educator, I am constantly asked to help people learn about commercial pitching, pricing, and licensing. So I’m bringing in commercial photographer and educator Rob Grimm.

Join us for this lesson and learn how to pitch and win commercial work. We will cover how to price your services and time correctly as well as the ins and outs of commercial licensing.

Lessons:

Boudoir that Empowers

For most of her career, glamour photographer Sue Bryce has been outspoken in her push back against the boudoir genre, which she feels can objectify women by focusing too much on their body parts and not enough on their souls and personalities. Then at the 2018 Portrait Masters Conference, Sue issued a challenge for anyone who was ready to step up and join her on stage as an educator. Boudoir photographer Kara Marie Trombetta answered the call, and Sue was blown away by the beauty, passion, and soul in Kara Marie’s boudoir photography, which is driven by her desire to empower her clients by helping them feel confident when they are at their most vulnerable.

Since then, Kara Marie has become a featured instructor for The Portrait System (formerly Sue Bryce Education), a featured speaker at The Portrait Masters Conference, and she has a Boudoir Series educational course in The Portrait Masters store.

Glamour vs Boudoir

In this conversation, Sue and Kara Marie discuss the portrait genres of Glamour and Boudoir, which both have undergone profound transformations in the last 30 years. Sue and Kara Marie talk about the history of each genre and discuss how they have changed. Both glamour and boudoir have their own stereotypes and stigmas associated with them, and Sue and Kara Marie talk about how developing their own styles depended on engaging those stereotypes and pushing through them. Furthermore, they share how they each used their genre’s stereotypes as springboards for their success.

Find Your Style

Sue and Kara Marie’s experiences of transforming their glamour and boudoir relate to every portrait photographer’s journey of developing their own style and career path. In this lesson, Sue offers valuable advice and key questions every photographer should ask themself as they engage in an exploration of genres while developing their unique style. This is key to building a successful business because no matter which genre you choose to focus on, your style will shine through it, and your passion for it will determine your longevity in the field.

You might also like:

• Black Lace
• White Sheet
• Vintage Pinup
• Vintage Lingerie
• Vintage French Top
• Self-Portraits by Teri Hofford
• Empower All Bodies with Sue and Teri Hofford 
• Get the Scoop on Kara Marie’s New Boudoir Course
• Boudoir and Its Boundless Potential with Kara Marie
• Boudoir Marketing with Sue, Jasmin Jade, and Kara Marie

Lessons:

What is it that makes clients come back again and again and refer friends and family to you? The answer is simple. It’s the quality of the service and experience you provide.

In this lesson, we’ll go through the eight touchpoints that create a step-by-step system, a momentum of service, from the first contact all the way through to after the shoot. You’ll learn how to make every point of contact with your clients positively memorable, helping them feel seen, heard, and taken care of. When they have this kind of service-oriented experience with you, they will want to come back for more and tell all their friends.

For those ready to elevate their business further, we’ll talk about how to optimize each of the eight client touchpoints, so you can build upon and improve the service you are already providing.

The 12-Month Startup Program is a step-by-step guide for achieving your goals. The program is led by world-renowned photographer and educator Sue Bryce and two of her protégés, your breakthrough coaches, Cat Ford-Coates and Saray Taylor-Roman. Sue, Cat, and Saray have all built six-figure businesses with The Portrait System business model. Even if you are starting with nothing, you can join now and learn everything you need to know to launch a sustainable, successful business.

Jump into the full course and all the month’s lessons here!  

Lessons:

Emily London Miller has created an extraordinary consultation system that is absolute gold! It has given her the highest average sale of the mentors. Listen as she explains the steps she takes with her clients to turn a potential client into a paying client.

Key Points:

List of steps in Emily’s consultation system:

1. Client is interested in more information, fills out form on website.
2. Automated email is sent to client with price list and behind-the-scenes video.
3. Emily calls client for phone-consultation, books their shoot, and collects sitting fee.
4. Consultation appointment 4 weeks from their shoot: design the mood of their shoot. Client receives style guide and timeline.
5. Try-on session. Emily helps client choose outfits, then takes their outfits to the studio three days before the shoot.
6. SHOOT!

Lessons:

When it comes to making great sales, the initial client consultation is the most important piece of the puzzle. In this lesson, you’ll learn how to use your initial client consultation to educate and set expectations for what’s to come. You’ll learn about all the different types of conversations you’ll have during the consultation, which is your time to get to know and connect with your clients, so they will trust you and want to buy from you.

When you can share, with excitement and enthusiasm, the client experience you provide, your products, and your pricing, you get your client excited to work with you, and you plant the seeds for how your clients want to see their images. You get to see what products they feel most drawn to, and you empower them to make the best decision for themselves when it comes time to go into the sales room.

This month, you’ll practice saying your prices out loud until it is effortless. For those of you ready for more, you’ll refresh and optimize your sales scripts and brush up on key selling points so you can better train your sales associates.

The 12-Month Startup Program is a step-by-step guide for achieving your goals. The program is led by world-renowned photographer and educator Sue Bryce and two of her protégés, your breakthrough coaches, Cat Ford-Coates and Saray Taylor-Roman. Sue, Cat, and Saray have all built six-figure businesses with The Portrait System business model. Even if you are starting with nothing, you can join now and learn everything you need to know to launch a sustainable, successful business.

Jump into the full course and all the month’s lessons here! 

Lessons:

Sales Contact #2: The Consultation. The consultation is probably the most important point of contact with your clients. If you find yourself running into challenges with your clients later on during the shoot or reveal, almost always the problem started in the consultation step.

So much of how we connect these days is by phone and email. We don’t always get to connect face to face. I believe whole heartedly that the consultation is the most important selling point where the best selling is done and the future connection is established. We educate and get excitement and commitment and establish stage one of relationship building and trust. This can happen over the phone or in person, but it is crucial to connect and educate your client in preparation for their shoot and future reveal.

There are five crucial points of contact with your clients that you need to master for selling portraits in your business:

#1 — Networking
#2 — The Consultation
#3 — Day of Shoot
#4 — The Reveal
#5 — Ask for Referral

In this special five-part series of Sue Bryce LIVE, it’s time to dig in and purposefully strengthen every point of contact we have with clients.

Lessons:

Training Materials:

Want to dive in deeper on this subject? Watch these related courses:

Sales Contact #1 — Networking

Sales Contact #3 — Day of Shoot

Sales Contact #4 — The Reveal

Sales Contact #5 — Ask for Referrals

Emily London Miller has created an extraordinary consultation system that is absolute gold! It has given her the highest average sale of the mentors. Listen as she explains the steps she takes with her clients to turn a potential client into a paying client.

Key Points:

List of steps in Emily’s consultation system:

1. Client is interested in more information, fills out form on website.
2. Automated email is sent to client with price list and behind-the-scenes video.
3. Emily calls client for phone-consultation, books their shoot, and collects sitting fee.
4. Consultation appointment 4 weeks from their shoot: design the mood of their shoot. Client receives style guide and timeline.
5. Try-on session. Emily helps client choose outfits, then takes their outfits to the studio three days before the shoot.
6. SHOOT!

Lessons:

The goal of marketing and networking is buns on seats! This month’s lessons address how filling seats comes from making connections.

Marketing and networking is a long game. It is crucial that you don’t approach people with dollar signs in your eyes, but rather that you focus on connecting with them on a deep level, making friends with them so that they will think of you when they, or someone they know, needs a photographer.

This month, you’ll learn how to network and market in a way that leads to exponential growth. Doing the legwork in the beginning creates a strong foundation, expanding your personal network, so that you don’t have to keep putting in the same level of work networking and marketing down the line.
For those ready to optimize their marketing and networking, we’ll take a close look at your social triangle–your online presence—making sure it is active, up to date, and congruent.

The 12-Month Startup Program  is a step-by-step guide for achieving your goals. The program is led by world-renowned photographer and educator Sue Bryce and two of her protégés, your breakthrough coaches, Cat Ford-Coates and Saray Taylor-Roman. Sue, Cat, and Saray have all built six-figure businesses with The Portrait System business model. Even if you are starting with nothing, you can join now and learn everything you need to know to launch a sustainable, successful business.

12 Month Startup – The Portrait System

Learn to thrive in your portrait photography business with The Portrait System’s 12 Month Startup online coaching program.

Lessons:

How much money do you want to earn this year?

Create a marketing plan and take action… so much easier said than done, right?

How do you project income and bookings?
How do create a schedule that supports future goals?
How do you create a Marketing Plan?

Join me for for this session as we make big goals, big dreams, real targets, and discuss how to go after them.

Lessons:

Training Materials:

People are selfish, it’s true. Consumers tend to have a bottom line of “what’s in this for me.” If you approach your marketing from this perspective, it will help your business grow.

Lessons:

Let’s talk about how to get over the fear of talking about your work and focus on giving and sharing the wealth of experience that you have.

Lessons:

Don’t let all those tasks in your workflow surprise you every time they come around. There is a better way!

It’s time to get into the details of your workflow from top to bottom—from the client journey to file management. When you understand your whole workflow, then you can begin to automate it to create a seamless experience. When your workflow runs smoothly, so does your business. It makes your client experience amazing and frees up your time so that you can get away from the computer and focus on the areas that make you money. Once it’s all set up and done, you can let it roll.

For established photographers, we’ll talk about how to make quarterly evaluations of your workflow to update your efficiency and efficacy as your business grows and changes.

The 12-Month Startup Program  is a step-by-step guide for achieving your goals. The program is led by world-renowned photographer and educator Sue Bryce and two of her protégés, your breakthrough coaches, Cat Ford-Coates and Saray Taylor-Roman. Sue, Cat, and Saray have all built six-figure businesses with The Portrait System business model. Even if you are starting with nothing, you can join now and learn everything you need to know to launch a sustainable, successful business.

Jump into the full course and all the month’s lessons here!

Lessons:

You don’t need a lot of lights to get started or even to have a highly successful career. You only need a natural light source or whatever light you already have.

In this lesson, you’ll learn how to master the light you love, one type of light source at a time. We’ll go over every kind of lighting so that whether you are indoors or outdoors, shooting with a window, constant light, or strobe, you’ll have the fundamentals to master the light you are currently using, and you’ll have the information you need to explore other types of lighting as well. You’ll also learn how to make DIY v-flats and reflectors and how to source premade ones. Above all, you’ll be learning how to find and create beautiful flat light, and you’ll get tips on experimenting with light, so you can learn how to see it and master it.

For those ready to elevate your work, you can consider purchasing additional lights, get experimental with the lights you already have, and go further toward truly mastering light.

The 12-Month Startup Program  is a step-by-step guide for achieving your goals. The program is led by world-renowned photographer and educator Sue Bryce and two of her protégés, your breakthrough coaches, Cat Ford-Coates and Saray Taylor-Roman. Sue, Cat, and Saray have all built six-figure businesses with The Portrait System business model. Even if you are starting with nothing, you can join now and learn everything you need to know to launch a sustainable, successful business.

Jump into the full course and all the month’s lessons here!

Lessons:

Join Sue today as we explore shooting on dark backgrounds and creating moody looks without harsh shadows. We’ll use tunnels, blocking, and reflection to bend natural light to create more depth and contrast in your images while maintaining a soft filtered light on your subject’s face. Think dark, gorgeous, moody almost old Hollywood style Film Noir, but just a little bit different.

Step into the studio as Sue shoots the gorgeous, Megan. She will go over the different lighting along with lighting hacks to get the perfect portrait. You will also get to see the different ways she poses Megan in order to get the right mood for the shot. She also walks you through how to create and mold the light.

At the end of the Bending Light course, you will be able to sit in on a Q&A session. This is the time where the viewers that were watching the Bending Light course LIVE were able to write in with questions they had. These Q&A sessions are great because they usually address the questions we have all had when it comes to bending light.

Want more lighting tips? Try our Strobe with V Flat course next!

Or

Follow Sue on Facebook

Lessons:

Sue shows how to create dark, sultry, low-light Film Noir images using natural light. These photos are all about capturing the dark, passive emotions. When you’re posing dark form, it’s no longer a normal portrait, it is going to be no eyes to the camera.  It’s really important to understand why you aren’t looking at the camera. You will want to tune into the retouching portion to see why.

Sue breaks this course down for you into 3 sections.

• The Low Light Shoot- where you will sit in on these shoots with Sue. You will be able to see the lighting she uses and her settings for her camera. She will also go over the poses that are most common with Film Noir shoots.
• Q&A- Sue answers the questions that the viewers that were watching LIVE had. This is great to watch because most of the time we all have the same questions so there is a great chance your questions will be answered as well.
• Retouching- In this segment, you will sit down with sue and watch as she retouches these images. She will go over some tips and tricks along with reasoning as to why you might have to edit images a little differently when you are shooting Film Noir.

After this course, you will feel inspired to explore the dark.

Our Vanity Fair Style course is up next!

Or

Follow Sue on Facebook

Lessons:

Join us for the Basic Strobe Setups course! Learn some basic and beautiful one and two light strobe setups. This course is broken up into 3 sections. In the introduction, Sue will give you a rundown on the different strobes. She will give you a few tips to help you find which one will work for your business.

In the second segment of the Basic Strobe Setups course, you will see the Elinchrom Video. In this video, you will sit in on a shoot with Sue where she shows you a comparison in the different lights and how to angle them to get different looks.

At the end of the course, Sue will show you four different modifiers.  She will show you where to put them, how to use them, and show you multiple lighting looks. Sue will then finish the photos in post-production for these amazing looks. If you are in the market for adding strobes to your studio, the Basic Strobe Setup course will be one you won’t want to miss!

“No one took longer than me to use strobes in my studio because I hated the “Strobe” look and then I met Felix Kunze and he taught me how to replicate MY light with strobes and now I am in love.“- Sue Bryce

Check out the Elinchrom Lighting Kits and accessories in The Portrait Masters Store.

Can’t get enough? Our Backlight Shoot and Retouch course is up next!

Or

Follow Sue On Facebook

Lessons:

Lessons:

Training Materials:

When it comes to posing and styling, it all comes down to personal choice. There is no right or wrong here. It’s all about learning your options and deciding what works best for you and your studio.

This month, you’ll learn all about hair, makeup, wardrobe (including DIY hacks), and how to make your clients look their best by directing their movements down to the fingertips. Everyone has their own philosophy around posing and styling, so it’s important to get to know what’s possible so that you can make choices that resonate with you and what you want to create.

For those ready to go further, learn how to use posing in your marketing, including sharing behind-the-scenes images of your clients’ posing experience and results.

The 12-Month Startup Program  is a step-by-step guide for achieving your goals. The program is led by world-renowned photographer and educator Sue Bryce and two of her protégés, your breakthrough coaches, Cat Ford-Coates and Saray Taylor-Roman. Sue, Cat, and Saray have all built six-figure businesses with The Portrait System business model. Even if you are starting with nothing, you can join now and learn everything you need to know to launch a sustainable, successful business.

Jump into the full course and all the month’s lessons here!

Lessons:

Sue gets down and dirty in this do-it-yourself tutorial. Watch time-lapse videos of the creations of two successfully painted backdrops made for under $100 and learn how to create your own fast, fun, and cheap DIY painted backdrop.

See how Sue creates an Oliphant style backdrop with 2 friends for $73 in under a half an hour!

Items Used:

• Painter’s Canvas Drop Cloth
• Paint Kit (tray, brush, & roller)
• Main Paint Color
• Other color tones to add-in
• Plastic Cover for the floor
• Sponges

Painting the final backdrop a simple grey color, Sue walks us through her thought process and actions in the creation of this DIY drop.

Shooting with your Painted Backdrops-
Description: Now that our backdrops are dry, it’s time to experiment in front of the camera. Watch how Sue manipulates natural light with v-flats to make the backdrops appear differently and create different moods in her images, and how she improvises when an experiment doesn’t necessarily turn out the way she had planned. Sue also discusses how you can turn light more directional or stronger to enhance vignettes with a Kino Flo, strobe, or natural light.

Items Used:

• V-flats

Lessons:

With just $15, you can create a brilliant, beautiful, and boundless black sash that adds dozens of styles of dresses to your wardrobe. In this course, you will learn how to wrap this simple sash into various ways that will look good on every client’s body. Tune in to see what styles look the best on each body type, and how to create couture looking gowns. The black sash is the perfect addition to your essentials so you’re prepared for anything while folio building. Sue shows you how to be empowered by creating something out of nothing. She also shares her story of how this black sash changed her studio forever.

Key Points:

• Back in Sue’s garage studio in New Zealand, one of her clients showed up for her shoot with nothing to wear. At that time, Sue had no studio wardrobe. What she did have was a black sash. She used the sash to create dresses for her client- as you see in this video.
• Make sure the fabric has a soft, satin feel to it.
• This fabric does not need to be expensive. What you see in this video was $4.99 per yard and she uses 3 yards.
• Sue bought an inexpensive sewing machine. Proof that you don’t need anything over the top!
• Sew this similarly to how you would a pillowcase (watch the first video for more details).
• One thing to have in your studio for the “black sash” outfit is a long black tube/pencil skirt in different sizes. You can buy them at cheap clothing stores in the mall or on Amazon for around $12.00. This creates the bottom part of the outfit.
• Drape and play with the fabric around your client depending on her body type.
• A thin piece of the fabric works great to taper in the waist almost as a belt.
• There are so many necklines you can do with this! Watch the video for multiple variations.

Items Used:

• Black Satin Fabric
• Black Tube Dress

Lessons:

Today we get to watch Sue during a Victorian Style shoot. Sue had an idea for a Victorian style shoot and she loved doing this shoot so much that she felt overwhelmed and nearly cried during it. She wanted to show you how you can get really creative with styling your client.

Sue used two different gorgeous dresses for two different looks from an incredible dress designer R-Mine Bespoke and she shot her on her gold Oliphant backdrop.

With a shoot like this, you want to feature the dress and hair and hairpiece, but don’t lose sight of making sure your client is still the focal point of the shoot.

Our Tulle Neck and Shoulders course is up next!

Lessons:

Today is all about being creative with tulle! Creating beautiful tulle dresses for your clients does not need to be difficult or expensive. Sue demonstrates how you can use tulle to simply and quickly create on-the-spot dresses for your models with very little material.

Working with Tulle:

Sue demonstrates multiple ways to drape tulle and create dresses with different necklines using a mannequin.

Items Used:

• References the black sash video
• Needle and thread
• Tulle (Sue uses 12 yards as an example)
• Miniature roses (available at Michael’s)

Key Things to Take Away:

• Tulle can be used to make beautiful dresses for your clients
• You can do multiple looks with tulle (ex: off the shoulder, strapless, halter)
• Try doing an internet search for different dress variations for ideas

Shoot with Tan Tulle:

Sue takes you through a photoshoot with a client using several yards of tan tulle. She shows you that it doesn’t take much to be creative with tulle.

Items Used:

• References the black sash video
• $2 necklace from a discount jewelry store (simple circular “ring” necklace in gold and silver to use for a halter neck)
• Tulle fabric (Sue uses 12 yards as an example)
• Nude slip and black slip (stretchy so that they fit more bodies)

Key Things to Take Away:

• Tulle has lots of great movement, which can look great in a shoot.
• If you don’t have a circular “ring” necklace, you can use a ribbon
• For dance style photos, wrapping the head/hair with a small piece of tulle adds to the ballet dancer look
• You can twist and pin a smaller piece of tulle to create arm, shoulder, or neckpieces
• Sue focuses on a feminine, beautiful style that is desired by her clients. She doesn’t focus on “hypersexual” shots when photographing the female form.
• As you pose your client, look for beautiful shapes. Continue to move them until you see the shape that looks beautiful. Rotate them and explore the movement to keep looking for beautiful poses.
• You can get the ballet dancer look with someone who isn’t a dancer by using tan or nude tulle and exploring movement with your client. Keep moving them around until you see the beautiful shot
• Letting your clients freestyle doesn’t usually work the way you want it to. Slow them down and control their movements

Shoot with Green Tulle:

Sue demonstrates a live photoshoot using tulle by wrapping her client to create a dress.

Items Used:

• Tulle fabric (Sue uses a bolt of tulle)
• Plastic clips to use while draping tulle

Key Things to Take Away:

• Tulle can be used to make beautiful dresses for your clients
• You can do multiple looks with tulle (ex: off the shoulder, strapless, halter)
• If a pose with the tulle doesn’t work, keep moving your client and moving the tulle to get the look that you want
• Using tulle to “cocoon” a maternity client can work really well

Learn all about Styling Hair next!

Lessons:

Draping and styling videos as well as a downloadable guide. 25 different ways to wrap dresses by the amazing Kenzie Olds and photographed by Gerson Lopes Tee modeled for it. When I created the black sash video, it came from a client coming to a shoot with no clothes. I had to improvise and I did and I made the sale. Increase your styling repertoire, weather you are styling a shoot or want to get multiple looks in one outfit, this is all about learning how create stunning looks for any client out of nothing but a strip of fabric.

Lessons:

Training Materials:

Making good money depends on a system of momentum that begins with how you value yourself and extends through how you relate to your service, products, and clients.

In this crucial month, you’ll learn how to get over money blocks that keep you from earning and keeping money. You’ll also learn how to create a successful sales system with a valuable product, desirable experience, and a professional price. Creating momentum in your sales system begins with an enticing marketing offers and continues through booking shoots with clients who make purchases that make them so happy they want to give you referrals.

When you value yourself, value your product, and create a sales environment based on the value your clients receive, your confidence grows, and you will make more money!

The 12-Month Startup Program  is a step-by-step guide for achieving your goals. The program is led by world-renowned photographer and educator Sue Bryce and two of her protégés, your breakthrough coaches, Cat Ford-Coates and Saray Taylor-Roman. Sue, Cat, and Saray have all built six-figure businesses with The Portrait System business model. Even if you are starting with nothing, you can join now and learn everything you need to know to launch a sustainable, successful business.

Jump into the full course and all the month’s lessons here!