Marketing images for Faith PR
A new starter, headshots and a little personal brand session
A couple of months ago I headed down to Faith PR in Brighouse, West Yorkshire to help out with some marketing images. Over the years I have done plenty of work with Faith so I know them pretty well.
New recruit
Faith PR have just recruited Matthew so my first trip was to capture a few pictures of Matthew as these would be sent out to various magazines for news stories. When I’m doing something like this, I want to make it easy as possible, get some great results and also pretty quick.
A couple of options
When I’m doing something like this, I like to be as prepared as possible. I arrive early, work out a couple of places to shoot the pictures (no matter what the weather) and then I’m ready to see the client. As usual I arrived and it was straight to my destination to grab the pics of Matthew that I needed. I also wanted to bring the managing director Stefanie along to help tell the story.
The sun was pretty harsh so my go to was to find a neutral background in the park, put them in the shade and use a bit of off camera flash to make my subjects pop, nothing fancy, just nice and easy.
Make it quick
When I’m hired to do this, I know that my clients want it quick so it’s important not to turn the whole thing into a work of art. A few quick snaps and done. I think the key to this is to ask questions and work out where the pictures are going and what they’re going to be used for.
Just when you think you’re done
You know when you think you’re done and then someone takes you by surprise? Well that’s what happened here. After I had photographed Matthew, Stefanie asked if she could have some new pictures. So, I had to flip from PR pictures straight to personal brand photographer (fortunately, it’s not a problem).
A quick personal brand shoot
So, from creating little dark, portraits I needed to switch into bright, happy photography mode. The sun was pretty harsh on this day so I knew that the best idea would be to use the sun as a backlight. Once I had got Stefanie to relax, it was all systems go. We created a few different looks in the park before heading back to the office.
Re-arrange the office
Everywhere I go I seem to end up rearranging offices. I want my pictures to be clean and clutter free. To create this I just move a lot of stuff about. I wanted to capture a few pictures of Stefanie at her desk with the Faith logo so in order to do that a little bit of de-cluttering had to take place. When I first started out on my journey as a photographer there is no way I would do that, but now I just take control and move whatever it takes.
Switch to headshot mode
Finally I then had to switch into headshot mode (yes, there is a difference between personal branding and headshots). All of Faith PR’s headshots have used a stone backdrop as a backdrop so I had to try to do a few shots to match what was there. It’s a really deceiving space as using natural light would be the obvious way to shoot this but it’s a little bit dark so I had to set up a bit of lighting.
Fortunately Matthew was an absolute professional and made my job really easy.
I love going into businesses and photographing a range of different styles, it keeps me on my toes. If you would like any business pictures then please just give me a shout john@johnsteelphotography.com
