Hiring an event photographer might seem straightforward—just show up, blend in, and start snapping photos. But in reality, event photography is a significant responsibility. Whether you're planning a corporate gala, an awards ceremony, or a fundraising event, you need a professional who can do more than just take pictures—you need someone who can tell the story of the night.

Large events require a substantial investment, so it’s crucial to ensure that the photography is just as high-quality as the occasion itself. Here’s why great event photography matters:

Preserving the Experience – A fantastic night deserves to be remembered. Professional photography keeps those memories alive, capturing special and candid moments that guests can cherish.

Boosting PR & Marketing – High-quality images can be used to highlight the event’s success, promote future gatherings, and enhance branding efforts.

Encouraging Engagement & Motivation – Photos from corporate and awards events can be featured in internal communications, social media, and websites to celebrate achievements and inspire teams.

Honouring Guests’ Efforts – When attendees dress to impress, it’s only fair that their effort is captured beautifully through well-composed and professionally edited images.

Maximizing Fundraising – At charity events, offering professional photos for sale can generate additional donations, even after the event ends.

With these benefits in mind, choosing the right photographer is crucial. A true professional does much more than just take pictures—they prepare, engage, and deliver exceptional results before, during, and after the event.

Before the Event: Preparation is Key

1. Venue Research – A skilled photographer visits the venue beforehand to assess lighting, angles, and the best locations for group shots.


2. Understanding the Brief – They’ll consult with organizers to understand key moments, VIPs, and any special requests.


3. Knowing the Schedule – A great photographer is familiar with the event timeline, ensuring they capture important moments like speeches, awards, and performances.


4. Understanding the Audience – Different events require different photography styles. Whether it’s a corporate function, a creative industry event, or a school fundraiser, the photographer adapts accordingly.

On the Night: Capturing the Atmosphere

1. Putting Guests at Ease – A good photographer knows how to make people feel comfortable, ensuring relaxed and natural shots.


2. Blending In – The best photographers are unobtrusive, capturing candid moments without making guests feel self-conscious.


3. Mastering Lighting & Composition – Whether it’s a dimly lit ballroom or a brightly lit stage, a professional photographer adjusts to ensure high-quality images.


4. Perfect Timing – Capturing the right moment makes all the difference. A skilled photographer balances speed with patience to get the perfect shot without disrupting the event.

After the Event: Delivering Stunning Results

1. Quick Turnaround – Guests will want to relive the experience as soon as possible, so the photographer should deliver high-quality images promptly.


2. Professional Editing – Photography doesn’t end when the event does. Editing ensures that every image looks its best, with refined lighting, composition, and final touches.



Conclusion

Planning an event requires dedication, and the same effort should go into capturing it. Choosing an experienced, professional photographer ensures that your event is remembered through beautifully composed, expertly edited images.

For exceptional event photography, contact Amanda at 07767 776839 or email [email protected].



 

Five ways to make a portrait anything but standard

What do you think of when you think of a professional portrait?

Probably this.

White background. Head and shoulders. Slightly turned towards camera. Suited and booted. Corporate looking. Like it belongs on a gallery of executives in a Boardroom.

For some professionals, this might be perfect. Exactly what is needed given the purpose of the photograph (for clear identification); for consistency (if part of a firm-wide project); for brand (if corporate, formal is the appropriate image).

But a professional profile image does not have to be this style. Indeed, for many professionals this approach could be all wrong. As a commercial photographer, here’s just some of the many reasons why a more creative, individualized, interesting portrait may be required;

The subject is not relaxed or comfortable being photographed. In this situation, a ‘standard’ posed shot may simply not work. If you’re not comfortable (despite the best efforts of your photographer to put you at ease), your photograph could look strained, unnatural and uncomfortable.

The subject has a particular feature they are self-conscious about. Very few of us are wildly confident about our looks. But perhaps there’s a specific issue that you can’t get past, and you need a photographer to be flexible and creative to get around it.

You have a big personality and you need your portrait to reflect and capture this. If you’re known for being creative, quirky, funny or any other personal attribute, people may not relate to the posed corporate style image. This is especially the case if your business proposition centres around your personality and personal attributes. You need existing and potential clients and customers to recognise, connect and engage with the real you.

Your job or business is far from a formal corporate based one. Perhaps you’re a pest controller. A public speaking expert. A hairdresser in a creative, contemporary salon. Working in the arts. Your professional image needs to capture your industry, profession and business brand, all in one shot.

You want to stand out. You don’t want to look the same as everyone else, because, well, you’re not. Perhaps you’re an entrepreneur. Maybe you’re starting a new business or growing your existing one and you want people to know you’re going places. A new, interesting portrait could attract attention and engagement from other professionals and prospects for all the right reasons.

The question is how can this be achieved? How can one professional portrait to be used on a personal or company website, LinkedIn and other networking platforms, really encapsulate personality, business brand and desired professional image.

Well here’s how it can be done.

Background. This does not have to be white. It can be dark. It can be a colour. It can have a relevant object or scenery behind. Or course, to work with these non-standard backgrounds will take some skill and expertise with lighting, staging and post-production, but it can result in a truly stunning, stand out and unusual image.

Environment. Very often a studio is best – enabling tight control and management of the background. But it could be that based on your profession or personality, a working site based image is more appropriate. It could also make you more comfortable. Or it could be based somewhere else relevant and appealing that adds a touch of creativity to your brand.

Pose and expression. You do not have to be perched on a stool, slightly angled, for a head and shoulders shot. You could be looking face on to the camera. You could be gesticulating in a way that is recognizable to you. You could be standing, looking relaxed and happy. You could release the inner actor in you (if there is one) and use some expression or action shot – so long as your face is still clear. This is your opportunity to get across your personality and a good photographer will be able to work with you to bring out your best features.

Clothing. Don’t feel that you have to wear a suit, or any kind of formal attire. That’s not to say look scruffy and unkempt. Of course, you need to look smart and professional, whatever your business. But if customers and clients are most likely to see you in branded uniform with your company logo, this might be the right look. If you generally sport a more casual but stylish and distinctive look, stick with this as it’s how you’ll be most identifiable and comfortable. The key to this is to be smart and be yourself.

Props. There may be occasions when a relevant prop may add an interesting, useful, amusing or creative dimension to your portrait. It may help to convey what you do. It may add humour and help raise curiosity and interest. It’s another aspect of photography though which needs careful planning, thought and management. Don’t risk looking silly, cheesy or odd. Let a professional artistic photographer get the look right.

So for all these reasons, a standard portrait need not be standard. A professional profile shot can be both professional and personal.

A professional photographer, particularly one with artistic and creative talents, will get to know your personality, objectives and preferences. And then, a suite of photographs can be created that reflect the real you, add value to your business and make you proud.

If you’d like to find out more about portrait/profile shot photography, please call me for a no obligation chat on 07767 776839.

When you need to capture emotion, only bespoke stock photography will do.

When it comes to wedding or special occasion photography; there’s no question in anyone’s minds that the role of the photographer is to capture emotion, beauty and love.

But when it comes to marketing and advertising; the benefits of powerfully conveyed and captured emotion are equally huge, if not essential, to success.

Using emotive photography works because it has impact through evoking feelings.

Emotive imagery in advertising is nothing new. Using advertising to make us feel scared, happy, hopeful, inspired is an effective tactic. But if it’s not done well it can backfire badly. It can look cheap or cheesy. It can bear no resemblance to your organisational value or brand. It can be misinterpreted if you’re not very careful.

Of course, you can search image libraries for ‘happy’, ‘sad’, ‘scared’, ‘excited’ – pretty much any emotion that you can think of. But you’ll generally find this results in overacted, almost caricatured, in-your-face portrayals of the emotion which may not be quite right for your campaign.

These ‘searchable’ emotions are simple, basic concepts. But you may need to get across something much more complex and subtle. For example, your campaign may need to indicate bravery. Or happiness in the face of adversity. Put forward a gritty, serious perspective. Or even more challenging; where the business is very much focused on one person, convey their personality.

The only way to achieve all this is through a skilled commercial photographer; who can create, plan, direct, shoot and edit a suite of photographs to a specific and unique result.

But what is it that a talented commercial photographer can bring to the process that is so important?

In these images, I went to great lengths to observe and familiarise myself with the work, personality and drive of these individuals. In the case of a specialist chef; conveying a bubbly personality with a passion for spice; portrayal of movement and focus on the hands as the trademark of a keynote speaker; and a stunning and contemporary pose that gets across the individuality of this florist.

Symbolism, interpretation and subtlety

A good commercial photographer does not just take a brief and interpret it literally. They will explore themes and symbols, crafting a creative concept that gets across the message in an engaging, thought provoking, effective and visually appealing way.

Want to get across business growth? How many adverts have you seen containing brash images of pound signs. It’s hard to be subtle and classy with that kind of look.

But consider this photograph. From this one picture, you can interpret so much. New beginnings, responsibility and growth are just some of the notions that come to mind. All presented beautifully in a contemporary style with colours saturated to draw focus to the green seedling.

Multiple chances to capture that look

Sometimes you know the look you need but it won’t come easily. And it may take time, effort, repositioning, retaking many times over. This is particularly the case when working with lay people i.e. not professional models.

In this beautiful, natural family shot for a cancer charity, the joyous, hopeful and positive nature of this family just had to shine through. There’s no short cuts. Just the time and patience to make people comfortable and keep going until that magic shot is captured.

Photography can convey emotion, tell a story, capture a moment and position a brand.

But make sure it’s the right emotion. Your story. Your moment. And your brand.

To have a no obligation chat about commercial photography, contact [email protected]