Photography · Case Study
We were in Austin for a creative industry conference when we met Lumière Studio's owner at a networking dinner. She mentioned offhand that her photos didn't reflect her studio at all. We had one morning free before flying home — so we offered to fix that.
Social CTR increase
Booked out after launch
Final edited images
Joskie Productions was in Austin attending the Creative Business Summit — a two-day conference bringing together photographers, brand designers, and studio owners from across the country. On the first evening, at a casual networking dinner after the keynotes, we ended up seated next to the owner of Lumière Studio, a boutique beauty and headshot studio based in South Austin.
We talked about the industry, about running a creative business, and somewhere between the appetizers and the main course she mentioned — almost as an aside — that she'd been struggling with her online presence. "My photos make the studio look like a generic spa," she said. "It's nothing like what we actually are."
We asked if she'd be open to us coming by the studio before we flew back to Portland. She said yes, not really expecting much to come of it. We cleared our Friday morning and showed up with gear.
"I honestly thought it was just going to be a quick thing — a favor from someone I'd just met. I had no idea what was about to walk through my door."
Lumière Studio was genuinely beautiful in person. Warm overhead lighting, carefully arranged product displays, a calm that you felt the moment you stepped inside. None of that was coming through in the existing photos — a mix of stock imagery and quick phone shots that had accumulated over two years of running the business alone.
Their Instagram click-through rate was sitting under 1%. Followers would find them, look at the feed, and leave without booking — not because the studio wasn't good enough, but because the photos weren't telling the truth about it.
We had two hours. We moved fast but deliberately — starting with the space itself, capturing the light and the atmosphere that made clients feel immediately at ease. Then we worked through service-in-action shots, product detail flatlays, and portraits of the owner and her team in the environment they'd built. No poses, no prompts beyond "do what you'd normally do." We were there to document what was already there, not construct something artificial.
By the time we packed up and headed to the airport, we had over 200 frames. We edited 55 final images on the flight home and delivered them before we landed.
She updated her website and Instagram the following Monday. By Wednesday, she texted us a screenshot — her booking link was getting more clicks than it ever had. Within two weeks, her Instagram click-through rate had increased 68%. By the end of the month, every slot on her calendar was filled six weeks out.
The studio hadn't changed. The services hadn't changed. The prices hadn't changed. The photos changed. And that was all it took for the people who'd been scrolling past to finally understand what they were looking at — and book.
"I met Joe at a dinner and thought we were just having a conversation. Then he showed up Friday morning with a whole setup and spent two hours making my studio look the way it actually feels. I've had clients tell me they booked specifically because of what they saw in the photos. That's never happened before."
We work on-location in Portland and travel for the right projects. If your photos aren't telling your real story — let's change that.
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