Marketing photograph – 5 tips for better pics

Our Top 5 Tips for better marketing photography

Your website is often the first impression that your potential clients will be exposed to when searching the internet for your service. To make sure that you stand out from the crowd as a professional, we have put together a photographers guide with our top tips for better photography for your marketing. This will also encourage your clients to engage with you online. The secret is all in the photography!

While hiring a professional is always the preferred method, sometimes a start-up business just can’t afford one. You don’t necessarily need to be a wizard at photography or even break the bank by hiring a professional. Follow these simple guidelines and you’ll have an extensive collection of beautiful images when you next update your website!

1. LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION. When you are planning a shoot, always take into account your surroundings. Does your location suit your brand? Does it represent the message you are trying to achieve? If you are shooting outdoors, have you taken weather into account? If you are shooting indoors, is there enough natural light? Once you have decided on a location, check your surroundings when you have set up the shot. Make sure there are no distracting objects in the background.

2. LIGHTING is one of your most effective ways of making your images look fantastic… or flat! Shooting in harsh midday sun can overexpose your photographs and shooting with very little light will leave you with a very bland image. If you are using natural light, the best time of day to shoot would be just before the sun goes down (this is also known as the “Golden Hour”). Have your model pose with their back to the sun light and then use a reflector to bounce light onto your subject from the front. Reflectors are a great way to manipulate light! If you don’t have a reflector, then have your subject face the light to avoid dark shadows.

3. COMPOSITION. Have you ever looked at a photograph and for some unknown reason, it just appeals to you? This has everything to do with the composition! Great composition can be the simple difference between a photo that is “WOW” or “Meh”. An easy cheat sheet is Rule of Thirds. By following the Rule of Thirds you will achieve a more focused image that will naturally draw your eye to the main subject and tricks your brain into thinking that the image you are looking at is appealing! Imagine your camera screen is divided by two lines across and two lines down, now place your subject along one of those lines and BOOM! There it is!

Extra Tip: Avoid taking photos from a distance. Get in close and personal with your subject while also being aware of not cropping off the top of their head!

4. VARIETY. Now that you are starting to build a library to choose from, make sure you have options! Shoot a variety of the same shot both in portrait, landscape, slightly zoomed out, now zoomed in, from above and from a different angle. This will allow you the opportunity to slot in the most appropriate photos when you build your website.

5. EDITING your photos will add that final finish. If you have access to Adobe Lightroom or Photoshop, it is best to make sure you shoot in RAW. This gives you a little extra room to play in post-production by manipulating your images. If not, there are a few fantastic free apps for editing (Pixlr.com, iPiccy, PicMonkey). The main points to focus on when editing would be your colour or tone, softening or sharpening your images, cropping and straightening.

So there you have it! Our top tips – 5 easy steps to taking better photos! Now that you have great pics, contact Halo Media about designing your website !