Intro: [00:00:00] Hello and welcome to the Posers podcast, the place where we skip the fluff. Say the quiet parts out loud and dig into what really matters. This is where photography, psychology, and business collide. I'm Jody, your host, and I'm bringing you my raw takes, hard wins, and a whole lot of unfiltered honesty about what it takes to build a photography business that actually connects and makes money.
So ladies, grab your headphones and get your tits up and your ears open because we are going to build something really incredible together.
Episode Intro: Hello, hello, hello and welcome back to the Posers Podcast, my beautiful posers. I have with me today the Queen of Queens herself, the one and only Darcy, Ben and Cosa. If you've been anywhere near the photography education world in the last, I don't know, decade, uh, you. Already know her name. Darcy is one of the [00:01:00] most sought after voices in our industry.
She is known for her impeccable eye, her mastery of composition and editing, and her coveted courses that have shaped thousands of photographers careers. But for me. This isn't just another guest. This woman actually helped change my life. I sat in her living room as a brand new single mom trying to figure out how to build a business that could support my family, and it was right there in her living room with Darcy that the posing method was actually born.
I have taken her mastermind. I've been on her podcast four times, and I can say with. Full confidence that her ability to cut straight to the heart of your business and unlock your artistry is not only unrivaled, but it is unmatched. So today we are talking business. We are talking artistry, branding, editing, a little bit of psychology, [00:02:00] and, uh, the real work that it takes to create a business that lasts.
And I can promise you that this episode is going to be just as iconic as Darcy is herself.
Jodi: hello, hello, hello. And welcome back to the Posers podcast. I have with me today, the Queen of all Queens. I feel like even to give like an introduction to Darcy, I've gotta like how many years ago? I've gotta go back like seven years because it took me even once I was like in your ecosystem and I was like, oh my God, who is this Darcy girl?
Like the minute that I got introduced to you online, you were saying things years and years and years ago that still have stuck in my head so hard and I felt like my attraction to you and your content was like absolutely immediate. But it took me probably like two years or so of just following [00:03:00] you and consuming what you were saying, listening to your podcast and doing all those things to actually reach out.
And I think I reached out. do like one-on-one coaching with you first, and then you launched your mastermind, and I jumped right into that. But I literally remember being like little bitty Jodi, like sitting at my dining room table doing my, I had just gotten a divorce and I was having this one-on-one call with you.
Oh, because I had bought I had bought the marketing map also. Literally like you were part of my divorce plan. Like coming out of that, I sat at my dining room table, I bought the marketing map, and I was like, I have got to build this business to so that it actually like feeds my children, right? And so I remember getting on this one-on-one call with you and feeling like you literally ripped my world open in the way that I was thinking about my business, the way I wanted to market my business, the things I wanted to build in my [00:04:00] business. And then I got into your mastermind in 2021 and you ripped it open even wider. So I just wanna say very quickly the imposter syndrome that I am feeling to have you on my podcast now, and for me to be interviewing you, my imposter syndrome is skyrocketing, like through the roof. So welcome to the posters podcast, Darcy Benin Cosa.
D'Arcy Benincosa: Oh my goodness. It is a delight to be here. I have to say one thing about you is when you came into my world, I was feeling the same. I'm like, who is this whirlwind passionate? And you're like, so we were gonna do a one-to-one and we got it with the Mastermind. And I said, okay, when do you wanna schedule it?
And you're like, well, let me look at my schedule because I'm flying up there and I'm doing it in person with you.
Jodi: Oh yeah.
D'Arcy Benincosa: Because most people just zoom and you flew up. We planned a time. You're one of the only people I let into my home. And we brainstormed and we laid [00:05:00] everything out. And like you're driving your passion and where you were at life.
And I think where we are in life sometimes is such a catalyst for creating a whole, a whole new world to quote Aladdin and Jasmine. And you just have. The trajectory of who you are, what you've done. You're a woman after my own heart. Because your work ethic, your talent, your skill, your intelligence, to understand a lot about what it takes to scale and grow a business.
Any business, but especially a photography business, is just a match. So when I heard you were doing a podcast and then you told me the name, I'm like, ah, that's such a good name. It's such a good brand. I'm like this woman, she just know whatever you put your mind to, you just do it. So I am really honored to be here, so thank you for having me on.
Jodi: I love that. Thank you. We should both start our mornings by talking to each other on a podcast. It's that way we can just like [00:06:00] literally start off our day so uplifted and happy because that just, I don't know, that makes me feel like, holy crap. It's like, it's like your, your, your mother is coming down to kiss you on the forehead.
That is what that compliment feels like to me. So thank you for that. Also, I liked what you just said there. Whenever you're like, not only to build a business, but to build a photography business, because I think that that's like one thing that kind of gets overlooked in our world a lot is like educators are up here educating and photographers are over here photographing and we're all doing the thing. But I think that there's something that like. Nobody really talks about a lot is that it's one thing to start a business. It is quite another thing to start a creative business. And I remember having this argument with my ex-husband before because he would say things that kind of like that toxic bro energy of [00:07:00] just like, oh, you just gotta like do this.
You just gotta muscle it. You just gotta, you know, all this sort of, he's an entrepreneur too, so he had his own business. I was always listening to what he had to say in that regard. I would always say back to him, obviously this is back whenever we were still married, but I would always say back, I'm like, it's different.
Like this is a creative business. It's so. Much harder to put art out into the world and to get somebody to pay you for that art. So much harder than like, I would imagine, like he's a, he's a tech, he's a CPA, right? So like to get somebody to do your taxes, it's like, yeah, sure, I'll hire you. Just get that out of there.
Just, just do it. Right? So, I don't know, I just, I think that there's some power there where you say like, not only building a business, but building a creative business. 'cause that's freaking hard.
D'Arcy Benincosa: Well, it really is. And the hardest thing about photographers is one, they're really hard on themselves and they're so connected to what they're selling, that they take it very personally. And so their emotions get really [00:08:00] involved. And as a business coach, I have to kind of help them step out and look at it from a business standpoint, which is hard for somebody really emotional to do, but the emotion and how much you care is the lifeblood of the business too.
So you don't wanna get rid of it. You just have to know how to turn off and look the other way. The other thing is photography is a little harder to niche down. You know, I, uh, coach a lot of different businesses, not just photographers, and are, when I niche down with them, it's. Easier niching with photographer.
'cause it's like, well, I do families or newborns or weddings or branding. You know, it's not, it's harder to niche. And I'll never forget, I was thinking about this when I was first starting and I went to this big photography conference and they had this photographer who was really getting big at the time.
I'm like, he must be doing something really niche. Like, he must be doing something that's bringing a lot of attention. And he, he, I'll never forget, they're like, and he photographs people naked. I'm like, [00:09:00] oh, like they're naked. They're like, no, he's naked. He is naked. So that he could be really vol. I'm like, that sounds illegal and awful.
And that. I can't imagine like, so he is naked. I, I'm like, only a man would think of this as a business model and make it successful. Just kidding. A woman could too. But I just was dying laughing. 'cause I, I just knew it was kind of a one trick marketing pony. But I'll never forget that, where it was like, oh, he photographs people naked.
I'm like, yeah, I get that. That's a niche. No, he's, he's naked. I'm like, is that what it's come to, to get your, to get your name out there?
Jodi: In order to be successful as creative entrepreneurs, everybody, you've
D'Arcy Benincosa: You must,
Jodi: on the Posers podcast, you have to be naked
D'Arcy Benincosa: you have to bear all
Jodi: Oh my God. I,
D'Arcy Benincosa: the audacity.
Jodi: I, I, you know what? I love it. That is sticky content right there. He will get remembered, won't [00:10:00] he?
D'Arcy Benincosa: Oh yeah.
Jodi: I, I just remember too, and whenever I remember being in your mastermind and literally just like, my brain just felt as though it was like cracking open. Like you just have this way of like teaching things and thinking about things and the way that you have for one.
If you guys don't know this, I like that I'm talking about you in third person while you're literally right here on the call with me, but. has this way that if you sit down in a room with her, she will take whatever you are thinking for your business. And like you could have been a copywriter, you could have been a marketer, you could have been all of these other things in your world because you have a way of taking something in and just simply like digesting it and spitting it back out in the most beautiful like, and powerful and impactful way with your words.
It's seriously incredible. I remember whenever I came up to Salt Lake, this has [00:11:00] nothing to do with what we were supposed to be talking about today.
D'Arcy Benincosa: Perfect.
Jodi: But whenever I came up to Salt Lake and I sat in your living room, we were, we were formulating the posing method. And I remember telling you, I was like, Darcy, like I just know, like it's hard for me to put this into words, but I just know that I do this differently than other photographers.
And we sat there and we like dove into it and broke apart like piece by piece. And you were asking me these questions and like, well, why do you do it this way? Well, what happened in this part? And what happened in that part? And I was like, well, it's because I know this about psychology and it's because I know this about psychology.
And you were like so what do you mean, you know this about? And I was like, oh, I have two master's degrees in psychology. And you were like, good to know. that's probably like such a huge piece of this. So literally the posing method was formulated in your living
D'Arcy Benincosa: Mm-hmm.
Jodi: which
D'Arcy Benincosa: It was, and it is crazy, but not really because you were already so primed. And I'll go back to the naked guy because his [00:12:00] thing was being naked. Yours is being a psychologist, and this is the thing, photography brands can find that unique diff differentiator. They just often don't know it because it's already so much of who they are that they don't think about how to turn it into quote unquote, their secret sauce, right?
And so I am a marketer and I am a copywriter. Some of my big brands, I write all their copy because I know what makes a good story. And that's where photographers really, they do know what makes a good story. Oftentimes they don't know what makes a good story about them, but you already knew that you just needed help organizing it.
You know, it's really helpful to see, and plus it's helpful to have somebody who's made a lot of money selling courses kind of let you know this is how you should map it out. This is what people will hear. This is what you don't need to include. Like there's so many things people include in a course that.
Should not be there because their own, like, it's like including sentimental images in your gallery, but they're not good images. I have had to, I have done a million [00:13:00] portfolio reviews and I'm like, this is, why is this image in? Well, I really loved the moment where it was shot and it meant a lot to me.
Yeah. But it's not a great image for strangers who aren't gonna know, you know, the background of why this image is important to you. It's in, in writing. They say it's kill your darlings. Like a lot of times you have to get rid of some of your favorite things to create a cohesive brand that will appeal to other people and kind of get your own view out of the way.
So I do think it's really helpful when anybody's creating a course or creating a new brand. My best friend and I, Chelsea, we have, she's a Brander two and we brand a lot of clients together. And we just say, don't brand alone. You can't do it yourself. Like I'm rebranding for the first time in, I think seven years.
And Chelsea's rebranding me because even me, even Darcy can't really, like, I have a hard time pulling out what's really special about me because I'm living it day to day and I don't see it. And so Chelsea sees it and she can [00:14:00] go through and be like, okay, this is what we're, this is your secret sauce. This is your unique proposition, positioning message.
So really branding with somebody else. Is is just so good, especially somebody who's done what you've done. And I just wanna give you a shout out because you were my best student. You got an A plus because I remember I had a retreat in March and you were writing content for the course, and you, you were just like, sorry, I don't even know if I can be here.
And every time that you're like, I'm here, I'm staying here. I'm gonna be at this table, but I'm writing my content, I'm writing my email funnel, I'm doing this, and you got it done. And you were the first to launch in the whole mastermind. You were the first to make back your money from investing in the mastermind.
You know, you really. Put it out there. You got it out there and then you've refined it since, but it's like birthing a baby a little bit because you, this is from somebody who's never birthed a baby. But just have to say that. But it's, it really takes, like, you have the gestational time, you know, where [00:15:00] you're coming up with all the ideas and the baby's growing, and then you literally have to go through the birth, which is actually creating it, which is where most people stop.
They don't actually do the work to create the thing. And you did. So shout out to you. 'cause I just, you just have an insane work ethic and I love it.
Jodi: Thank you. Thank you. That actually, that means so much. 'cause I remember going into the Mastermind and the reason why I was like, first to launch wasn't so much like, oh my God, I have to have this like crazy work ethic. I have to do this thing. The reason why is 'cause I felt like I was entering into a room.
We had like 12 or 13 people in that mastermind I felt like I was entering into a room where I was already behind. I was like, oh my God, all these women are so great. All these women already have these other things going on. I, I was more thinking like, I've gotta keep up. I've gotta like make sure I'm towing the line for myself.
And so I remember launching, I remember I launched it, mastermind costs $20,000. I'm not sure if you want that out on a podcast right now, but [00:16:00] your your mastermind. Yeah. You are expensive and worth every penny. Your mastermind costs $20,000. And I launched the course that March. We started in January.
I launched it. Oh no, I think I launched it in May, but I launched it in May and I made $25,000 on like the first day of the launch and I was just like, oh my God. It worked. Like, if anything, just that accountability factor of walking into a room where you felt like you had to step up to the plate in order to like be part of the room.
That's the thing that like lit the fire under my ass. But Darcy, yourself have launched how many courses, how much like you have your portfolio course, which is major. You have, you had your marketing map, you had your ninjas Mastermind for a little while. I'm not sure if you still have that, but your newest baby is your editing course right?
D'Arcy Benincosa: Mm-hmm. Yeah, it's like my editing suite. It's a preset that I developed [00:17:00] with my editor who is a genius and has edited over, gosh, 3000 weddings over. 16 years. Like it's, it's insane. And so she came up with all the shortcuts and I came up with the vision and the look, you know, and then together we created it.
And it's been amazing because it was the first, it's now not, and I knew I wouldn't be able to say it for with AI capabilities, with the retouching, which is really, really nice because in one click you can smooth skin, darken eyebrows, bring texture back to the hair, increase lip color. Very subtly, very subtly.
This is not like overdo, it filters on Instagram or anything. And it's, there's a slider so you can have it be arranged, but it has saved me. So it just saves you so much time. You just pop it in, put the click on it. Retouches everybody very, very softly and everybody looks really amazing and glowy.
Jodi: But also [00:18:00] the fact that they, like the people who are jumping into this course could jump in and have your editing, is I, that's the key selling point. It's not so much for me, at least. If I was jumping into your editing, I wouldn't be like, oh my God, yay, I have the ai. Or Oh my God, yay. This is like a time saver for me, whatever.
It's like, no, I get to have a touch of Darcy on this photo because your editing is immaculate and it always has been like you have refined it over years and years and years, I'm assuming, because it is literal perfection what you do to people's skin.
D'Arcy Benincosa: I, I, I'll say the thing that is most important to me is making sure every. Body, like every skin tone looks their best. And so the presets really focus on every skin tone, meaning we have. I have a specific formula I do for black skin tones so that they don't look too orange or too ashy for Asian skin [00:19:00] tones, so they don't look too yellow.
Like every, you have to talk to each person, but most people have a way that they want to look. And if you're, I'm gonna just say if you're. A white editor who doesn't really understand skin tones and doesn't really understand why. You know, I, my, you don't understand why like a black person wouldn't want ashy skin or an Asian skin tone, wouldn't wanna look yellow.
Like there are really important things that you need to know. And the biggest mistake I see, especially with these latest presets trends where everybody's a little orange, is it really can kind of look okay on white people. I still don't think it does that much on white skin tones, but on other kinds of skin tones.
It, it's such a disservice and it really doesn't look. Good or doing too much contrast. So for me, these presets, we did three different skin tone variations and like I'll just say I have a editing video on my site where you can go through and see how I edit lots of different skin tones [00:20:00] to give just the richness to it.
Just the pop for black skin tones, I always add a little red highlight that just warms up so there's no gray or ashy skin tones. And it's just really powerful to be able to do that. So that's the thing I'm most proud of is really refining so that because I shoot all over the world, I've shot and.
Over 50 countries and many different people from, you know, Africa to Thailand, to Singapore, to Paris. And it's really important to make sure everybody just feels and looks their best without looking really plasticy or fake. Which is also a trend I'm seeing a lot is that people are going too plastic. And that also I think is a problem I.
Jodi: No, I, I agree. I think that what you're touching on too, ties straight into the idea, and I wanna hear your thoughts about this is like when, if we were [00:21:00] talking, I mean, we are talking to a big group of photographers, but like, whenever they're doing their editing and they're paying attention to these kind of like, don't know, smaller details that you're talking about in regards to skin tones, in regards to contrast, in regards to, you know, shadows and highlights and things like that. Like, you think that the way you edit actually portrays authority for your brand? Actually portrays trust actually portrays like that when somebody comes upon your work they're willing to pay you more money if you have really good editing skills, like tell me where you land on all of that.
D'Arcy Benincosa: Well, it just makes sense you if you, you can become a basic editor or you can become a master editor, and if you're a master editor, it's like they almost don't know that it's been. Edited, right? Like they're not thinking about it. But if you're a basic editor, it's, it's like, I'll give you an example. I do, I review a lot of homepages and the [00:22:00] biggest mistake I see is people will put like 17 different lighting situations on their homepage.
They've edited them all in a different way. So I scroll down and I see a really neon, neon greens are such a big tale that you don't know how to edit. I'm just gonna be really real. So I'll see like a big, you know, golf course. Picture with all this neon green grass or I'll see a really golden hour is a, an art.
And if you just think a big old blob of yellow that kind of looks muddied is pretty and that's how you do golden hour, you're wrong. Sorry, maybe you're not wrong, but you're wrong for the highend market because
Jodi: You can be
D'Arcy Benincosa: I just be you guys. I'm really straightforward, but if you get a review from me, I'm, I say it nicer, but so I'll go down and, and then there's like, it was a cold day, so then the skin tones look blue 'cause you didn't know how to actually warm them up 'cause you got, you photographed in the snow and then there's a really hot day and everybody looks red.
So. It. [00:23:00] It doesn't build trust because I look at that page and I don't know what I will get. I don't know which version of how you've edited I'm going to get when I book you. Whereas if you can have a homepage and it's in the winter and it's at golden hour and it's this, and they all look aligned and they all look really like.
It is an art. It is an art to take a really cold person and make them look warm at the natural color. Or take somebody, like, for example, we created in the preset a red skin fix because I'm really red, I get really hot and red, and it's hard when I get photographed. If I get hot at all, my skin goes red.
And so I have a red skin fix just for me because I, and you click the little button and it takes the red down just a hair. So I look like a normal color. Or we have like a bad spray tan fix because there's nothing worse than showing up at a wedding and the bride got a spray tan. This doesn't happen with my [00:24:00] clients, they.
No, not to do this, but they get a spray tan like two days before, and then it's kind of orange and then the whole, the whole gallery. You've got one orange person and everybody else kind of cool. It's like, what do you do with that? So you, you can apply like an orange skim fix, like there's so much you can do now that makes it easier.
But that consistency, that, that place from basic editing into luxury editing is a skill and it is very noticeable even if people can't name it. Not like a lot of people aren't gonna be able to name it when they're booking you, but they can feel it and they can see it and they just get a sense, this is a professional, this is an amateur.
Jodi: Yeah, especially in the luxury market because whenever you're in that market, they pay attention to art. They pay attention to shadows and contrast. They pay attention to photographs, they study it, they live it. It's inside of their branding world like so. I just think that it's [00:25:00] so crazy important to make sure that you're able to really have like these high level editing skills if you're wanting to go and scale your business into a luxury space. But also your presets actually sound so fantastic because you wanna know how many times I have clients come in and they're coming in for a boudoir session and every single time they, like my clients think, oh, I have to have a spray tan 'cause I'm gonna be naked. Right? And every single time I'm like, if you spray tan yourself, I will slice you, like get out of my studio.
Like, absolutely not. But obviously like they come in, they have the spray tan that I told them not to get. And of course I'm very nice about it. I'm like, no, no, no, don't worry about it. It's no big deal. But now I'm just gonna think every time that I'm sending these off to my editor, I'm gonna be like maybe you need to check into Darcy. Presets 'cause she's got a little fix for you for that. Really quickly, 'cause we talked about this recently [00:26:00] on the podcast I, I went on like a soapbox sort of rant because if there was one editing trend that I want to see die, a slow, hard, painful death, it would be that I feel like the light, bright and airy thing has gone so far, too far. And that there is this like idea that like, even if a, even if a day is overcast or even if the day is moody in some kind of way, or even if the, if the photo doesn't call for it, it's just like, oh, just crank the exposure. Just blow the highlights. Just make it light, bright and airy. And then it's considered to be. Pretty right, and I went on this like soapbox a few episodes ago, so I'm sure everybody knows that I'm about to ask you this. What is the one trend that you would like to see in editing? What is [00:27:00] the one trend that you would like to see? Have a slow, painful, torturous death and to never be seen in our industry ever again.
D'Arcy Benincosa: Oh my gosh, there's so many. I will say about the overexposing, the airy I have, I have reviewed portfolios where the people look like ghosts. Like there's zero contrast. They've put everything down and everybody's just like, this way, fish pale, blue, ghost. And I just think that they don't even look human.
I have a hard time when people just don't look human. So when they're, you know, I know the trend for a long time. Is that really yellow? Look, I know people love it and I know a lot of famous photographers do it. I just, I don't, I think in 10 or 15 years it is just not, people are gonna be like, oh, what did I actually look like?
I'm just a fan. Of having people look like what they actually look like. So if they're too blown out or they're too, I see a lot of people who do too much [00:28:00] contrast, so it's just really like heavy, like when the photo feels really heavy, like I've contrasted it 'cause they want it to be punchy or when they.
Bump up the saturation. I've, I've had some photographers do this as well, and so everything's really saturated. So the greens are really, really green and the reds are really, really red, but it's unnatural. So I just don't like things that look unnatural. I think I'm more of a really organic. I was looking back at work, I did and I shoot film still.
So maybe this is why I've just always kind of stayed true to the film. Look, and that is my ideal. And we all have preferences. We all have preferences. I think that if you are just trying to classify yourself though as light and airy or dark and moody, that that's a really old argument. And we shouldn't be classifying ourselves in that.
We should really, that's just putting us into a box that doesn't actually help us refine what we really want things to look like. And so I think when we know what we're drawn to, how we like it, [00:29:00] what we, or, you know, that's the biggest thing. So for me, I, I respect what people do, but I personally like it when people look like real people.
So I.
Jodi: Call, call me crazy, but I like whenever I photograph humans, I like for them to look like humans.
D'Arcy Benincosa: I just love that I can look back at my work from 10 years ago and I just, I shot, one of my first shoots ever was at this Scottish castle in, no, this Irish castle, and that was back in 2012. And they just reached out and asked if I had the images again. And I thought, oh gosh, do I even want them to use the images from 2012?
But I went back and looked at it and our bride was beautiful and they weren't like the most artistic, but they weren't bad. I'm like, oh yeah. I mean, I shot it all in Fuji Film and I sent it to 'em. I'm like, I still feel okay about work from 2012, which I think is a testament that I didn't ever really follow the trends in that, in that way of, of the [00:30:00] colors, because people are following a lot of trends and Okay, I know the one that I really don't like when they backlight.
Okay.
Jodi: Yes. The tea. The
D'Arcy Benincosa: Okay here, it's,
Jodi: it.
D'Arcy Benincosa: it's when they're outside and everything's really dark, and then they put all this flash behind 'em. So all the raindrops are litten up with flash and it's really saturated and contrasty, and it's just like a profile. Do you get, do you know what I'm talking about, those images that are like back flashed?
I don't like back flash. I don't like them backlit in a field at midnight.
Jodi: why is that photographer always a man?
D'Arcy Benincosa: I know. It's such a, it's such, I've never seen a woman do this. You're so right. Like it's such a male thing. I don't get it. I don't get it.
Jodi: Yeah.
D'Arcy Benincosa: do not find it pretty.
Jodi: like it, it's always a man. And granted, men know that they don't have a space on this podcast. We don't talk to men. This is a, this is a woman's space for sure. But in that same [00:31:00] regard, like when we talk about business side of things too. obviously me and you have our preferences and I'm kind of going off on a little tangent here 'cause this isn't what we were supposed to like talk about either.
But everybody ha like we have our personal preference and I feel like everybody who's listening to our podcasts also have generally the same preferences in regards to editing. Whether they can execute it to the point that they wanna be executing or not is the question. But with that being said, like I'm in some big Facebook groups where there are other photographers putting up things that are so far, it's everything that you're saying like that you would like to see die a painful death.
And the one thing that I wanna say is like at the same time that we're saying like, oh, we want it to look this way, we want it to look that way. There's also a market for everyone. So like those
D'Arcy Benincosa: gonna say that too.
Jodi: those guys who want to do that backlit rain shot or that backlit snow shot or. The super [00:32:00] contrast, the super saturated, like I literally, I'm in a Facebook group where there's a person who takes these super saturated photos of pets, and that person
D'Arcy Benincosa: Oh yeah. People love those. Mm-hmm.
Jodi: of dollars a year because they've niched down so much.
And because their editing style is so unique and so true to them that that is what they're known for. So as much as me and Darcy are gonna sit here and say like, oh yeah, we want softness, we want pretty, we wanna make sure skin tones are smooth and that they are accurate to what that person looks like in real life and things like that. Just also know that. That's just because we love really pretty things, and that if you are running a business too, that has this sort of like definitive style to it, we're not saying like, oh, you can't have a successful business that way. We're just kind of talking a little bit more about like what our preferences are because there are people out there making hundreds of thousands of dollars on that work and there's, there's a market for [00:33:00] everybody.
D'Arcy Benincosa: It's so true. And I'm so glad you said that because that, that's why it's hard for me. 'cause I know people who make millions and they do the yellow skin tone. Like it really comes down to our signature style. And that's the important part. If all of us were photographing the same, it would just be even worse.
Right? So let people be saturated, let them do this. It's not my preference and I. My clients don't want that, but their clients do, and so I don't wanna make anybody wrong. I mean, I think most, I do think, though, this is what I will say, I do think there's really lazy editing out there, and if you just slap a preset on and you don't, I.
Actually develop your style, meaning you can slap a i I and I can tell the difference. I can tell when a photographer, like, you're the person who's doing the pets. I, I know exactly what you're talking about. I've seen those pet photos I get, they're very sharp and I don't like my work to be very sharp and I see it and I'm like, I can really appreciate this because there's a lot of skill here [00:34:00] and there's a lot of editing and there's a lot of refinement and they are in a very specific niche.
But I also can tell when a photographer's one or two years out the gate, they're just slapping a preset on, they don't really understand skin tones. They don't understand what their look is. You have to understand, I call it your signature style. What is your style and are, or are you just. Slapping on a preset and calling it good without really going through the refinement.
And I think having, walking an artist through their style and their voice, it's just, it's an important process to go through. And you'll make mistakes and you'll try different things out. And, you know, you'll, you might get bored with one thing and try something else. And that's all good in terms of experimentation.
But if you're really bad at editing, you know it, you know, if you're not good, you know, if you're like, I don't even know how to shoot this in camera to get, kind of, make sure that the lighting is right and oh my gosh, I did blow out, like blowing out a wedding dress highlights. I'm sorry. That [00:35:00] is a non-negotiable.
The dress needs to look, the dress needs to look like the dress, like it needs to have its folds, it needs to be, how it should like, it can't be blown out. That's bad photography. So yes, we can all have different editing styles and everybody has their own preference, but there are certain things that as a photographer who's charging money, you do really need to know.
Jodi: Yeah. 'cause I think the difference is, is that cohesive factor that we're talking about. So like you're gonna go onto that pet photographer's Instagram or website or whatever, and you're gonna see the same editing style, the same kind of like cohesion
D'Arcy Benincosa: Hmm.
Jodi: the whole entire body of work. And you know exactly who that photographer is. And I think that that's the piece that no matter what your editing style is, whether it matches up with mine and yours or not, your body of work still has to have that cohesion. whenever I say cohesion, like I don't necessarily mean like everything has to be blown out. Everything has to be [00:36:00] moody, everything.
Ha. Like I have work that some of my clients, their skin tones look better, a little bit brighter. They have just more of like a luminance to them. If I go a little bit brighter and then I'll have a darker moodier day here in the studio where things are just shadowy and they have a different look to them. But it's my job as the representative of my brand because my brand speaks outside of myself. My brand is not me. My brand is not Jody Hendricks. My brand is JM Photography, right? So like whenever I sit down to proof, the edits that come from my editor, I'm looking at it as. Is this cohesive with my brand no matter what the lighting situation I had that day?
'cause I'm an all natural light photographer. Whether it was a bright day, whether it was a moody day, I still have to find the, the voice of Jann photography to make sure that that's cohesive throughout the entire body of my work. And I think that that's the piece that people [00:37:00] might be missing whenever they're putting together their portfolio or whether it's on their website or whether it's on their Instagram, that really shows, Hey, look, I have my brand, my brand awareness, my, the look of my brand.
I have that on lock. And I really do think that you cannot move into the luxury market until you have that on lock.
D'Arcy Benincosa: Yep. Way to go summarize a, a pause. It's so, it's so true.
Episode Outro: Okay. That is where we are going to have to pause for today. I know, I know, I know, I know. It is just getting juicy. But trust me, you're gonna wanna be back here next week. 'cause part two with me and Darcy, we're gonna get a little bit personal about finding your style and creating work that stands at the test of time.
And also some of those identity shifts that come whenever you decide to build the business that you really actually love and want. Plus. In next week's episode, there's going to be a little surprise at the end [00:38:00] of the episode that I don't even think that Darcy and I knew was going to happen, so you are not going to want to miss that.
Outro: Okay, so that is a wrap on this episode of the Posers Podcast. If you loved it, please subscribe, rate, and review because honestly, algorithms are needier than all of our ex-boyfriends combined. And ladies, I need all the help I can get. If you've got thoughts, questions, love letters, even hate mail, please send them my way.
I actually read every single one of them. So until next time, stapled, stay messy and don't let the bullshit win. Tits up. Ears open and go build something. Incredible. Bye for now, friends.
