In the first two parts of How to Hire a Commercial Photographer, we’ve discussed looking at previous work, pricing and licensing. In this post, we discuss the value of experience when it comes to complying with the needs of your brand’s image and the level of oversight your professional photographer will need.
Promoting your business isn’t your whole business, so the more time you spend on something that isn’t at the core of what your company does, effectively costs you money by taking you away from doing the job you do. With this in mind, it’s important to consider how much time you or your staff need to spend with the photographer on the day of the photoshoot.
How much oversight will your photographer need?
During a photoshoot, your photographer will be capturing imagery for your brand, so it’s important that as well as expertly capturing photographs which make the subjects look their best, that the photographer does so in line with your brand’s overarching image. Asking what the photographer needs from you when you’re considering engaging them, is a great way to find out how much involvement might be required should you choose them for your project and the way the question is answered might well be just as revealing as the answer itself.
When you’re discussing a prospective job with a photographer, be aware of how much attention is being paid to your outline of what your business does and the brand image it maintains, as well as what they say when you’re setting out your vision for what you’d like to achieve. An experienced photographer may well use their experience to suggest alternative ideas, but ultimately, you’re the client and it’s up to the photographer to be able to capture what you need in the way your brand image demands rather than to change the job according to how they want to go about doing it.
Experience plays a role in this as an experienced commercial photographer will have spent years working with brands and be familiar with how to conduct a photoshoot within the constraints of a business’s brand and tone of voice. If the photographer responds to your question about what they need by asking for detailed guidelines about your brand, important do’s and don’t and shows genuine interest in your brand and brand image, then that’s a good sign, but ignoring what you want and talking about their own vision might well be less positive.
Less experienced photographers may well require you or someone from your business to provide oversight and direction to make sure that the images captured don’t conflict with your brand image and other marketing materials. If an inexperienced photographer is left unsupervised, you may well end up with a collection of photographs which, no matter how good they might be, can’t be used because they conflict with your brand’s image.
Hire an experienced commercial photographer
In the first part of How to Hire a commercial Photographer, we mentioned that not all photographers are equal, we hope these posts have given you an insight into why this is the case and some of the questions you should consider when approaching prospective photographers for your next brand photoshoot or marketing campaign.
At Ikon, we’ve been in the business of commercial photography for a long time and as such have a wealth of experience working with all kinds of businesses and brands, experience which we’ve built up over decades. Contact us to discuss your needs and find out for yourself the difference Ikon Commercial Photography can make to your brand marketing campaigns.
