The ten most important qualities to look for in your events photographer

It may seem obvious. It may seem easy.

Turn up. Blend in. Start clicking.

If only. Events photography is a huge responsibility, both on behalf of the photographer and of the event organisers themselves. So if you’re booking a photographer for a special event, or you’re responsible for engaging a commercial photographer for a corporate event, awards night or fundraising do; don’t fall into the trap of thinking just anyone can do it.

The cost of putting on a large and fantastic occasion to be enjoyed by large numbers of quests will likely be substantial. So you’ll want to ensure the photography of your special event is also top notch.

There are significant benefits of investing in great quality event photography, and here’s just some of them;

• Great photography is the perfect way to ensure an amazing night lives on. If your guests have had a fabulous time, they’ll not want to forget it all the next day. Being able to access stunning photos of the evening will keep the event alive in their minds; capturing special or amusing moments.
• If it’s a corporate or fundraising event, the photography can play a key role in PR. Not just highlighting the success of the evening in the immediate aftermath, but through promoting future events by clearly demonstrating what a wonderful time was had by all.
• For awards evenings, whether industry awards or internal staff awards, your photography will contribute to not only external PR but also internal engagement and workplace relations. Featuring award winning individuals and teams, dressed up and proud, in communications materials and on websites is a fantastic way to improve staff engagement and motivation.
• You’ll do your guests justice! With men making a rare smart, even black tie clad appearance, and ladies spending a month’s salary on a dress, hair do and accessories, it’s only right to capture their fine attire with beautifully shot photography and the production and editing that will do them proud.
• Further fundraising; for charity balls, selling photographs of the evening at a prearranged discount can be a further way to raise money, even after the event.

With all this in mind, picking the right photographer is key. We do indeed need to turn up, blend in and start clicking. But a professional, experienced event photographer will do so much more.

Before the event

1. A good photographer will do their research. They will check out the venue before the event. Checking on the room, the angles, the lighting, any extra areas to take guests for individual/group shots are all essential to using the right equipment and shooting from the right place on the day.
2. Then they will take a brief from the organiser. This is crucially important to understand the purpose, key timings, prominent guests and special requirements of the evening. Imagine getting your shots the next day to find a VIP completely missing!
3. The photographer will need to be fully aware of the timings of the event. Knowing how many photos are needed as awards are collected; what time any major activities are happening such as the arrival of special guests, speeches, awards, entertainment.
4. A good photographer will always research the company. Straight laced and very corporate? Funky, creative advertising awards night? Fundraising school ball counting teachers and governors among the guests? The nature of the organisation and its guests will often dictate the style, nature and finish of the photography.

On the night

5. Your photographer will need to put people at ease; so that they come across as relaxed and natural – particularly if part of the photography brief is group shots or arrival photos before that first glass of fizz. The organisers will want guests to be pleased with their photographs after the event so feeling comfortable enough to be photographed will be crucial.
6. The photographer will need to blend in. No one’s going to relax fully with a photographer zooming into your face when you’re trying to have an in-depth conversation with a colleague, or get down on the dance floor. Less is more; your photographer must be able to move around the room with ease and capture the atmosphere and as many of the guests as possible, not just the show offs. They must also be experienced and comfortable with the etiquette of dealing with VIPs, celebrities, senior level executives and even Royal Family; through dressing and acting appropriately in order to reflect and respect the formality of the occasion.
7. Your photographer will need to be highly technically proficient to create beautiful quality shots in an inside environment, particularly one which may be dimly light or result later on in the evening in a darker dance floor. Being able to work with different lighting will be key to the quality of the images. They must also be able to ensure the correct exposure, resulting in crisp, well-lit images and minimising backgrounds of people walking or dancing past.
8. A great photographer must balance working quickly, so as not to prevent people from getting on with their evening, with capturing the subject at their very best. That moment of holding before pressing the shutter could make all the difference to how photogenic the person appears. It’s a real photographer’s skill, holding your nerve to only click when the moment is perfect.

After the event

9. You’re going to want to know that your events photographer will work quickly after the event to provide you with your suite of photos. If there’s a huge delay between the event and the photos being available; people will be back to the daily grind and the feeling of exhilaration from an amazing event could be lost.
10. Finally, quality photography is as much about the shooting at the event, as it is about the editing and production afterwards. Painstakingly going through all the photos to ensure that everyone looks their best and backgrounds are tidied up and any other adjustments are made, is essential to the final magnificent suite of photographs you should expect.

A lot of effort goes into an event. So you must ensure as much effort goes into making the event live on, through well-planned, well-executed and beautifully edited events photography.

For more details for event photography please contact Amanda on 07767 776839 or email [email protected]

Five top ways to improve your company image

Image, brand, perception, reputation; these elements are all tied up together. Of course, nothing is more important than what you actually do and deliver every day. But conveying what you do powerfully and positively is what will drive interest from potential customers.

Now as a commercial photographer, when I think ‘image’ I think picture. Not just picture - style, brand, artistic interpretation, position and subject. And it just so happens that the quality of the images you use for your business can impact directly on your overall business image. Therefore it also affects appeal, engagement and ultimately sales.

So when I refer to company images, what do I mean? You may believe that they aren’t relevant for your type of company. But actually, it’s hard to think these days of any business where the images you use aren’t important. Do you have a website? Do you do advertising? Do you have a LinkedIn profile? Do you hold company events? Do you do PR and social media? If the answer to any of these questions is yes, then images are indeed important.

1. LinkedIn profiles

If you’re a company director or owner, the chances are you have a Linkedin profile, and this will be important to your professional image and networking opportunities. The days of amateurish shots taken on a phone being acceptable are gone; if you want to be perceived as a successful professional, your profile picture needs to look the business. Potential colleagues, recruits, suppliers and customers all need to be able to see a personable, comfortable, approachable professional with whom they would be happy to work.

1. Website images

When potential customers or clients look at your website, it may be the first impression they have of your business. That homepage, or landing page, needs to hook them in within seconds. With people scanning websites and content at great speed on their tablets and phones, an attention grabbing image; something that reflects the right creative feel and brand of your company can say volumes within the precious few seconds you have to engage people. Poor quality images or overused, dated, cheesy stockshots could easily put people off. But interesting, relevant, bespoke well thought out and on-brand photography is likely to inspire a potential customer to find out more.

1. Product photography

It is quite amazing how many websites carry poor quality images of their products. It simply makes no commercial sense not to invest in good photography when an image and basic description is all a customer has to go on for their decision to buy or not to buy. Poorly lit backgrounds, shadows, lack of detail on the image is just a recipe for disaster and likely to result in high levels of returns, or even worse, complaints. Great quality product photography will literally show off your products in the best possible light. Enabling the textures and details to come through and setting products off in an appealing way, is the online equivalent of beautifully presented products in a high end store.

1. Brand and audience engagement

Who is your audience? Under 18s? Over 60s? High end affluent shopper? Busy mums? Corporate professionals?

Different audiences will be attracted to different creative styles and looks. Through investing in bespoke commercial photography you can pinpoint your audience and target them effectively, as the production and editing part of the process has unlimited scope for delivering the right look and feel for your business. You may want to bring out certain colours, focus on a certain style of photography e.g. retro, or quirky, or abstract, or traditional and subtle differences in how the images are edited can deliver this perfectly.

1. Event photography

If you’re investing in a night to remember for staff and clients, you’ll want it to be remembered forever. Don’t waste this valuable PR opportunity by hoping an internal staff member with their phone will remember to snap away as the event goes on. A professional photographer will ensure a fantastic suite of photographs can be used for PR purposes well after the event. The editing and production will ensure staff, clients, and company directors are looking their best, positioned properly with the right lighting and setting. If it’s an awards do, there’s a real opportunity to boost your organisation’s internal brand and image among your staff. So it’s even more important to make sure the atmosphere is captured, and the recipients of the awards have some photographs of which they can be proud.

So if you’re looking to improve your company image, don’t underestimate the role of the photographic image. It can make every difference to the effectiveness of your internal and external marketing and communications.

If you would like to find out more about commercial photography services, please contact me for a no obligation chat on 07767 776839.

As a commercial photographer, an increasing amount of my work is taking shots for professionals to use on LinkedIn, company websites and other professional media channels.

But why, you may ask, when I have a perfectly good camera on my phone and just need to identify myself online, should invest in a photographer to do this for me?

Well before I get on to the reasons why your professional image is so important, I’ll share with you my top six sins.

1. The overly casual. A photograph that has been cropped from a night out on the town or on a holiday, wearing casual clothing that doesn’t reflect your professional appearance. Bearing in mind this may be the first image a potential employer, client or colleague has of you; do you want them to think you wear suntops or Hawaiian shirts on the average working day?
2. The overly cool. I once saw a LinkedIn profile shot of a man standing on the front of a yacht, shades on, hair swept back, blue skies, not a care in the world and with an air of arrogance. Other people aim to look quirky and cool by having a tiny bit of their face in the corner, or an image of a random object or scene. This approach is a risk. How will it help potential clients engage with you professionally?
3. The family shot. Family is for Facebook. Pictured with the girlfriend or cute toddler is really not the way to go for an appropriate image if you want to be taken seriously.
4. The poorly cropped. Someone’s dismembered arm draped over your shoulder? Palm tree above your head? ‘and chips’ from a partial menu sign behind you? Come on, some professionalism please! No amount of cropping can replace professional post-production techniques and editing.
5. The poorly lit. Too dark making you hard to identify. Over exposed giving you a ghost like quality. Red eyes. It’s not a good look.
6. It doesn’t look like you. Believe me, this is a classic. Professional people and networkers meeting for the first time will often rely on the photo they have seen by way of identification. It can be very misleading if you’re now bald, but your photograph was taken ten years ago when you had a full head of hair. Or maybe you’ve changed your hair colour, or the photograph just didn’t really do you justice. Either way, looking like you in your photo is pretty important.

But shouldn’t professional networking be about my personality not looks? About experience not aesthetics? About credibility not image?

Like it or loathe it, your professional image is important. And here’s why.

Networking

If you’re an entrepreneur, sole trader or business owner, professional networking is likely to be an absolutely vital part of your business. You know the mantra, people do business with people. It’s not about people liking what you look like, it’s about them knowing and connecting with what you look like. It will help them identify you at a networking event. Position you with credibility as someone who has invested time and effort into their professional image. It can increase the sense of engagement, before you’ve even met.

Branding

Your professional photograph can reinforce or even help to build your organisational brand. It’s not essential that you have a corporate style standard head and shoulders shot. Of course, depending on your business, this may well be the right approach. But professional photographs can also be fun, artistic and creative. The choice of backdrop, clothing, styling and editing can impact on the perception of the business’s brand. A talented commercial photographer will use their creative skill, interpretation and production techniques to understand and convey the brand through your LinkedIn photograph.

Image

Believe or not, your photograph really can impact on perceptions of your personality. A good commercial photographer would always take a full brief before starting the shoot. How do you want to come across -  as a senior leader, or an approachable advisor or creative mastermind? Who are your customers? What’s your business brand and proposition? What if any concerns do you have about your appearance that you may wish to address? Clever use of elements like backdrop, lighting styling and editing will ensure that the ‘you’ you want to portray is delivered in a perfect shot.

So don’t be misunderstood, misrepresented or guilty of one of the six photographic sins.

A small amount of investment in a great photograph can have big benefits; to your business, your brand and your personal image.

Some examples for you on how varied and different your image can look

For more details contact Amanda by email on [email protected]