Professional photo shoots can be more complex than a customer might think. After several equipment cases have been brought into their office and many lights set up, a client will often remark, “Wow, all this just for one picture?!” or “I didn’t realize this would be like a Hollywood movie!”
Some photography can be done with minimal equipment in minimal space. But other assignments can require a fair amount of lighting which usually requires more space and more time.
When a client says, “It’s just a couple of pictures and it shouldn’t take more than a few minutes,” photographers always start to smile.
• I was recently asked to do a group picture of about 60 people during the morning coffee break at a Toronto conference. The customer said they would need me for only a few minutes.
I arrived at the convention centre two hours ahead of time to find a suitable location for the photography and to set up lights. The conference was running late so the coffee break was delayed 45 minutes. As soon as the meeting room doors opened, some people rushed to the washrooms, others made a beeline for the coffee and a few just wandered away. The event organizers spent 15 minutes trying to corral everyone toward the photo area.
The actual shutter button pushing lasted less than two minutes but the total photo shoot took 3-1/2 hours and that didn’t include the two hours for picture editing.
• Another customer asked for “a number” of pictures from an executive business meeting. I would be allowed two minutes at the start of the meeting to photograph 16 people: company chairman, the CEO, board members and a couple of visiting dignitaries.
The client was expecting individual pictures of everyone, some group shots and a few “action” pictures of people talking. All of this was to be shot in two minutes, in a dark room with no flash allowed and with everyone spread around a large boardroom table.
Customers must remember to budget an appropriate amount of time for photography. “Just a few pictures” can require hours of on-site preparation and actual shooting.
It’s impossible to do an hour of professional quality photography in mere minutes. For example, while it may be technically possible to do 20 business portraits in one minute, that’s not something you’d ever want to do. Although a Canadian medical software company recently asked me to do 35 business headshots in “just fifteen minutes of your time.” I turned them down.
Customers should also budget an appropriate amount of space for photography. A certain photo may require the photographer to be 5 feet, 10 feet, 20 feet, or more, away from the subject. A portrait session which needs a ten-foot-wide background requires, you guessed it, a space that’s more than ten feet wide.
While it’s possible to photograph almost anything in almost any time and space, the more (time and space) a company invests in professional corporate photography for its business marketing, the better the returns.
