In-person sales: the complete guide to selling more photos

Photographers have never been so interested in in-person sales. For a long time it was the preserve of a minority, and it is now coming back strongly, partly because the rise of AI and image theft in online galleries are pushing more and more photographers to take back control of how their work is presented and sold.

But behind a slightly technical label sits a conviction shared by everyone who practises it: an IPS session is not just a sales technique, it is the moment a photographer's job comes full circle. To get into the practical detail, we brought together three experts who live and breathe the subject.

1. What is an in-person sales session?

An IPS session is the appointment where the photographer shows the images to the client and guides them through choosing the photos and the products, instead of handing over an online gallery and leaving them to work it out alone.

For many photographers, the trigger is financial first. Sophie Gaudin switched to in-person sales less than six months after she started out: "I worked out mathematically that selling digital files would never let me make a living." From that realisation, she rebuilt her whole client experience around the viewing session.

But the stakes go beyond revenue. Bernard Audry, who spent half his career in the film era, describes himself as "a product activist". For him, a photographer's role is not to photograph people but to leave them something that lasts: "Our goal is to make sure that in twenty, thirty or forty years, they come across these images and feel happy."

Meghann Stanley adds an important nuance: in-person selling does not necessarily mean selling paper. Some photographers reach very high average orders selling digital files only, because the perceived value is focused on the client and what they get out of it, not just on the product. What everyone has in common is that they never leave the client alone in front of a gallery.

2. The real shift: stop seeing yourself as a salesperson

When photographers hesitate to get started, it is almost never about technique. It is about mindset. "The viewing session is seen as something grubby, because it is selling. For a lot of photographers, selling is grubby," Sophie sums up.

That is exactly the view that has to change. Sophie describes herself as a "creator of family heritage": "Stop seeing yourselves as salespeople. See yourselves as guides, as advisers. Everything else follows."

Bernard puts the same idea another way, and it may be the single most important line of the whole conversation:

And the fear of hearing "no"? Bernard defuses it bluntly: "If you never get told no in a sale, you have not proposed enough." Being turned down is part of the job. It is not a failure, it is the sign that you advised your client all the way.

3. Emotion, the engine of the reveal

Almost every photographer who runs IPS sessions starts the same way: a slideshow set to music. The aim is to wake up the senses and create a deep emotional response at the moment the images are revealed.

Sophie describes it as her favourite moment, even more than the shoot itself: "Clients discover their photos and they say, 'Wow, how did you do that?' Because in their heads they were tired, not at their best, not comfortable. And right there, we are genuinely creating a memory that will last for decades."

Bernard is careful not to be naive about what is going on: emotion is also a deliberate lever. "The projection session has to be staged, exactly like your shoot." You use emotion to create the desire to buy, without ever forgetting that the goal is still to sell more and to sell better.

4. An IPS session has to be prepared

This is the most common beginner mistake: thinking it is enough to load your photos, open some software and start the presentation. In reality, preparation takes almost as long as the appointment itself.

Bernard is firm: without preparation, "you end up haggling like a market trader over something you never anticipated". The whole client journey has to be thought through in advance: the way you shoot, the products you show, what you say. A client who does not want to buy will not buy, so the work starts long before the projection.

Sophie agrees and walks through her own preparation: the image selection has to match what you are offering for sale. "If your images are not aligned with your offer, of course it gets stuck." Then come building the slideshow and thinking through the wall previews, which is time you should not skip.

Sharing prices in advance: a necessity (and a legal duty)

On one point the three experts are unanimous: the client has to know the prices before the session. Sophie makes hers downloadable from the moment of booking, to avoid any frustration and any "market stall haggling".

5. How to run the session: two methods that work

On the exact running order our experts do not fully agree, and that is a good thing, because it shows there is no single right way to do it.

Method 1: start from the favourites (Meghann Stanley)

Rather than asking the client to pick "X photos" from the outset, Meghann recommends starting from emotion: "We begin with: which ones do you love? And which ones are maybes?" You then narrow things down like a funnel, using package tiers (10, 20, 30 photos, for example). The client positions themselves naturally, and many of them, unable to cut any further, move up to the bigger package on their own.

Key point: never cap the selection at the start ("your package includes 10 photos, choose them"), because you quickly paint yourself into a corner. Always leave a way out while keeping your direction.

Method 2: sell in modules (Bernard Audry)

Bernard prefers a highly structured method where the "like it / do not like it" choice only comes at the end, so the emotion is not broken. His sequence: musical projection, then a second pass to listen to the reactions, then the photographer's proposals, module by module.

• First an image collection or one large enlargement for the main room
• Then an enlargement for another room, then for the children's bedroom
• Only then the albums and books
• Then the photo boxes
• Finally, the photos for the grandparents

Both approaches share one principle: it is the photographer's job to propose, based on what they know about the client, rather than expecting the client to guess what they want from a product that does not exist yet.

6. Do not forget the add-on sale

The sale does not stop at the base package. Meghann highlights the power of open questions: instead of "Would you like a large wall piece?" (possible answer: no), go with "What do you think about turning this into a large wall piece?", which opens up the conversation.

Bernard takes the reasoning further: a sale is never completely over. When the photos are delivered a few weeks later, the viewing module comes back into play: time has passed, a new budget is available, and you can bring clients back, and even the grandparents, who will order in turn.

7. Answering the most common fears and objections

"My client lives too far away, they will not come back"

Should you then hold the viewing right after the shoot? Against expectations, none of the experts is flatly against it. The answer mostly depends on your positioning.

Criterion	Viewing right after the shoot	Viewing later (days or weeks after)
Suited positioning	Entry and mid range, high volume	High end, large average orders
Image preparation	⚠ Limited	✓ Pre-edited images possible
Tiredness (client and photographer)	✗ Real at the end of a shoot	✓ Everyone is fresh
Available budget	Whatever they have that day	✓ Often another payday in between

As Bernard puts it: "I cannot say I am for or against. You have to adapt it to your market and your target." What matters is making a consistent choice, not following an absolute rule.

"I do not have a studio"

For Bernard that is not an obstacle, quite the opposite: "If you make the effort to go to people's homes to photograph them, go to their homes to sell." You then have every wall right in front of you, so you can propose the right enlargements. Meghann adds a caveat: opening a studio does not magically create sales. You need a real client acquisition strategy first, otherwise you end up with overheads and no clients.

"My clients live in small flats"

Bernard's answer is hard to argue with: "You all sleep in a bed, you all have a sofa. So you all have walls." Above the bed, above the sofa, there is always room. Most of the time these objections are just excuses we give ourselves for not getting started.

"I am afraid of how the client will react"

This is probably the deepest fear: witnessing a negative emotion. Meghann turns it around with a striking personal story. After a photo shoot, she received an online gallery with no guidance at all: "I realised how much weight I had put on, it was a shock. I could not bear to look at the gallery." Left on her own, she ended up experiencing the whole thing negatively.

8. Digital or prints? The real debate

Bernard takes a firm position on vocabulary: "We do not sell digital files." A file costs nothing to produce, so the client assumes it is worth nothing. What you sell are reproduction rights, a notion that puts value back on what the artist does.

Meghann does not contradict him, but widens the frame: the value is not in the product, it is in what the client gets out of it. Some photographers sell 1,000 or 2,000 euros of digital files because the perceived benefit is real. And she points to an angle that is often forgotten: B2B, where the viewing session is used to guide the client towards the images that will actually serve their communication.

Whichever camp you are in, everyone agrees on one thing: whether you sell prints or digital files, presenting and guiding in person will always be more effective than sending a gallery.

9. Beyond the sale: a powerful marketing tool

This is the most unexpected angle of the conversation. The viewing session is also a rare chance to collect proof for your marketing, as Meghann points out.

Filming the reactions, the emotions, the small hands of a child picking a photo of their mum, the spontaneous testimonial of a moved client: that is unusually powerful material. "Photographers' marketing makes a lot of promises and shows far too little proof. And promises slide right off people as long as there is no proof."

With everyone's consent, those moments become authentic content for your social media, far more convincing than a long text about the value of your work.

Conclusion: just get started

If one message comes out of this conversation, it is that the obstacle is almost never technical. It is fear, and the way we look at our own profession.

An IPS session is not one more constraint. It is how you take your job as a photographer all the way: creating emotion, helping your clients make the right choices, and giving your images the place they deserve, on a wall, in an album, in a life.