Why you should consider hiring a corporate photographer to benefit your marketing material.
Basic corporate photography is used by companies to show their offices and staff are a professional business.
A corporate website without any photography is not a good marketing plan as people tend to trust images and the old saying that photographs do not lie is still perceived as true.
Viewers will always look to photographs to confirm the text they have been reading so it is vital that businesses make the best use of corporate photography.
Creative corporate photography is now being used as a branding tool to allow companies to present a professional and individual profile to current and potential clients.
Understanding the potential benefits of using visually strong images to represent your business is a vital part of your companies marketing. For many years we have been approached by clients to capture images for their websites and so often photography is the last thing on their to do list. Companies will invest time and money with website designers and copyrighters ignoring the fact that the first thing clients see when visiting their site is the photography. We hear the same thing time and time again that they let an employee who has a good camera take the photos or the web designers said he would do the photos as part or the website design.
Let us look at the different areas a creative corporate photographer can benefit your business.
1. Corporate headshots.
If you are an individual or large corporate business making sure that everyone looks professional and approachable is vital. There are many different styles you can choose and the best suited to your company really depends on the business sector you operate in. Financial and legal sectors tend to prefer a more formal headshot whereas consulting businesses go for a more relaxed and informal style. Our one tip for any business getting ready to photograph their staff and directors is to use a decent long portrait lens to capture the headshots. A long lens will always make people look better and the second tip is to never take headshots with a phone as the phone camera lens is a slight wide angle and not good for portraits.
2. Corporate office photography.
Often overlooked as a potential marketing tool as the office is the hub of your business and contains all the elements that make you the company that you are. Take the thousands spent on interior design which is great when your clients come to meet you but this should be photographed and used to let potential clients see who you are. You do not have to make your website look like an office interior supplier but use elements from your working space to brand your website. Show your employees at work looking productive and busy. Get your corporate photographer to capture your people in meetings, communicating with clients, discussing work with co-workers and enjoying their employment at your company.
3. Corporate video.
Modern DSLRs have the function to capture short video clips. Take advantage of this by using the high quality photography lens and capture video around your offices. Video of staff and directors at work is a great way to show what you do and adding these to your company website is good marketing. We have shot employees talking to camera about their work and what they bring to their jobs.
4. Corporate event photography.
Alongside the traditional PR shots normally taken by your corporate photographer at your event think about how you can utilise this event to capture reportage shots of your staff and invited guests enjoying and participating. These are very good for advertising and attracting more businesses to your next event. Get a good record of your conference and promote your events with press releases images of the key speakers or VIPs who attended your event. Using a good reportage corporate photographers allows you to gain a natural and informal picture library of your event and you can draw on these images for all aspects of your annual marketing requirements.
5. Corporate group photography.
Great opportunity to get your team together and capture a strong image showing the size of your company and how you all work together. Do not skimp on this one as a poor photograph of a group of people is very easy to achieve if you to not spend time and hire a professional corporate photographer with experience in group photos. Choose a good location and recce it first to make sure you can fit all the people into it and that you the photographer has a decent view of group from an elevated position. These are some samples of past group photos that have worked very well and lots of planning went into these and it shows.
If you are considering commissioning a corporate photographer in London it helps to do your homework first. We love it when clients come to us and have an idea of what they want. They have decided on a style or format they want for their website and want us to implement it. Choose a photographer you like the look of their portfolio. Do not pick a wedding photographer and hope that they can approach corporate work the same way. Always choose your corporate photographer who has years of experience in shooting in London offices and who will know all the pitfalls to avoid and has techniques to accommodate the most camera shy employees. It is a good idea to find corporate website photography that you like and send the photographer links to images you prefer so the photographer has a visual idea of exactly what you want to achieve for your companies marketing.
Finally when you commission a corporate photographer make sure you ask them their opinion as to what will make the best photos. Do not impose your ideas on them as this will make the photographer have to move away from his natural style. At the end of the day you hired them because you like their portfolio so let them follow your shot list. Once you have the photographer on site ask them to capture anything they see as they go around your business as they will see potential in areas that you have not spotted as they have a trained eye for corporate work and this will give you extra material for your picture library.
Formal corporate headshots.
Informal corporate headshots.
Corporate office photography in London.
Corporate video production in London
If you have any questions regarding your corporate photography requirements please get in touch and we can arrange for a corporate photographer to pop in and discuss how we could help you.