photos for your business: how to prepare well for a photo session?
What is the meaning of photos in marketing?
It is not a new statement that we live in picture culture. Although man has been passing information through images from the earliest times, nowadays the image has become a communication center. Both static, such as a photo and a moving image – in the form of a film. Billions of photos posted on social networks, a comparatively large number of short and long films circulating on the web – these are probably the best examples of contemporary image cult.
You may come across a statement that one image expresses more than 1000 words. It is difficult to deny the veracity of this wording.
HIGHLY PROFESSIONAL BRAND DEVELOPMENT AND MOVIE CREATOR. VERY STRATEGIC AND ENGAGED. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND CLOU MEDIA.
An example of a movie that we made for hair salon.
Vertical format used for Instastory.
how to prepare well for a photo session Munich
What photos catch our attention?
According to scientists, our brain processes visual information of 60,000 times faster than textual information. In addition, visual content accounts for as much as 90% of all information that the human brain receives. It is therefore not easy to create such visual information that will remain in the recipient’s memory for longer. Generally speaking, it must be expressive – both due to the use of colors and the theme. The image appearing in the text is intended to break its monotony.
One of the advertising classics, John Caples, has attempted to compile what images are extremely effective in attracting our attention. Caples took into account only photographs – in his opinion, they are much more readable than other types of graphics and more easily affect the imagination of the recipients. On the 10-position list of images that particularly attract attention, we will find images of: the bride, children, animals, famous people, people in an unusual disguise, people in unusual situations, disasters, romantic pictures, occasional pictures and narrative pictures, i.e. those that they are telling a story.
The fact that these particular images attract our attention does not yet clearly affect the importance of photos in marketing. Advertising usability of given photos is also important.
Determining the purpose of the photo session
At the beginning, the absolutely basic thing, i.e. determining why the photo session is carried out at all. Is your goal to take photographs for a website or advertising material? For CV? To portfolio? Or maybe you want to take photos of your products for the needs of the online store or social media? A good photographer will certainly ask you before you start working together. What’s more, the more precisely you define the purpose of the session, the easier it will be later for you to prepare further.
The right choice of photographer
At this stage, we move to the selection of the photographer who will implement the photo session. In my opinion, it is important to choose a person whom we are convinced that everything will go as expected. I mean trust, experience and good contact with a specific person selected for cooperation during the session.
Many photographers specialize in specific types of photos, e.g. wedding, business, packshot, product, interior, for the fashion, children, tourist or hotel industries. Animals are photographed differently than landscapes. Depending on your needs, choose a person who has experience in the implementation of photography you care about.
If you are going to work with someone for the first time, I suggest that you meet earlier, meet and discuss the assumptions of the session. “Chemistry” is also very important whether I understand the photographer, whether my assumptions and the company’s mission are understandable to the photographer.
It is important how the arrangements go before it comes to cooperation, because it shows at the beginning how the cooperation will go on later.
Budget for the photo session
Depending on how many photos you need and what style you want them to be, specify the budget for the entire project. In addition to the photographer’s salary, usually the cost of renting space, the salary of models and people, the make-up artist and hair stylist should be taken into account, sometimes the cost of renting props.
As you can see, the cost of making a photo session can consist of a lot of elements. When signing the contract with the photographer and models, it is also worth specifying the fields of exploitation of the photos and the transfer of copyright.
In the case of large commercial projects, the fields of exploitation are determined in great detail and are often determined in time (e.g. month of using photos for the needs of advertisements in the German press). Make sure that all items are included in your budget and that you have valued everything.
The company is the people who create it
It is worth realizing that the company is people who build it from scratch. Regardless of whether we decide on individual photographs of individual board members or high-level managers, or whether we also have pictures of regular employees at various levels of career, it is always worth bearing in mind that the effect of a business photo session should be photographs that satisfy everyone from the members of the company collective.
Also regular employees must be able to interfere in creating their image and – in cooperation with a stylist, make-up artist and hairdresser – to create a vision of themselves that best suits their own needs and the needs of the company.
Perfectly made business photos can significantly increase self-esteem and contribute to increasing work efficiency: if until now it seemed to us that we are a meaningless cog in the machine, looking at ourselves through the eyes of a professional photographer can knock us out of the routine of such thinking.