Top Qualities of a Good Event Photographer
What to Look For in a Photographer, Skills and Qualities
What top Qualities should you look for in a photographer? We answer these questions in this detailed article. And Find out What Questions to Ask.
This article is comprehensive and detailed but not exhaustive or absolute in the best traits for every photographer situation. So take your pick in your specific case. It highlights a long list of priorities in how photographers can deliver quality service.
Questions to Ask a Photographer
You can’t afford to treat photography as an afterthought?
We live in a digital age where photos make the first impression and visual content matters today more than ever before.
Whether you’re from a large corporate or an SME business, you can’t afford to treat photography services – in advertising, publications, websites and e-communications, as an afterthought. The most obvious way to get the most out of your digital image assets, re photographs, is to hire the right professional photographer.
Selecting a photographer is easier said than done. There are factors to bear in mind. You want to hire a professional who will be a good match with the brief of budget, timeframe, style, lighting conditions of the location and subject together with their skills to ensure a successful shoot.
A big part of the selection process involves knowing the key attributes of professional event and wedding photographers.
Below are 5 top questions and qualities to look for when hiring event photographers for your next occasion.
Are they Value for Money?
While there are plenty of amateur or beginner photographers out there. A seasoned professional can guarantee consistency and value for money. When you hire a professional event photographer, you aren’t just hiring someone with an expensive camera and equipment. You’re investing in an expert who understands their craft.
They have the skill to focus on the right details, put the subject at ease and create images that speak a thousand words. When it comes to photography, you get what you pay for, and hiring a professional will ensure you get custom crafted images that will represent your brand in the best light. For all the detail on photography rates in Sydney, read our pricing and rates guide.
Professional Photos Are Versatile Assets
The phrase (quality) “content is king” is synonymous with digital marketing. While this still holds true, it’s important to realise that photos are also content.
Digital assets are versatile and powerful content forms. On social media, quality photos can be used to build your brand. Use them online to make your website even more engaging.
You will also use them in print media, advertising, blog posts, and online articles. The possibilities are endless.
By investing in professional photography, you’re arming your business with the ammunition it needs to enhance its marketing efforts.
Do Your Customers Want to Know the Real You?
It’s easy to consider stock photos as an alternative when you feel a professional photographer may be out of reach. While stock photos may work, they are not actual photos of your business. This means stock photos are not the best way to showcase your business.
Do you Value a Unique Memorable Brand?
When you have a Corporate Event in Sydney for example, people want to see actual photos of the event.
They want to see who attended the event and what was its purpose.
Stock photos don’t help them do that and they could give people the wrong impression of your brand.
The best way for potential customers to know more about your business is by hiring a professional photographer to take actual photos of your business, employees and products.
High ROI on hiring
Regardless of the size of your business, you should invest in professional photographers within your budget and reap the benefits.
When you have unique photographs that are professionally taken, you won’t have to use the same stock photographs the other businesses use. Your investment keep on giving.
How does your Image Library Represents your Business?
The cost of professional photography often lures business owners into looking for cheaper alternatives or doing the photography themselves.
You may end up saving in the short term, but the long-term costs will be expensive. Moreover, your photos represent your business. Unprofessional, low-quality photos will communicate the same about your venture and the products and services you offer. Your visual content and website have a significant impact on customers’ first impressions. Please don’t skimp on them.
Hiring a professional photographer is a critical business decision and should be considered with deliberate thoughtfulness.
Hiring an amateur or using visual assets that are inconsistent with your brand and business goals can have far-reaching negative consequences.
Are you Visual Telling your Story?
One of the most crucial aspects of establishing a brand is to convey who and what your business is while offering clients something that they can immediately recognise as desirable.
Booking a professional photographer gives you the power to tell your story without saying a word.
Hassle Free
Maybe you have a hard time deciding what to convey through your corporate photography and how to achieve that may seem challenging.
Don’t sweat. Professional photographers are usually more than happy to work with you on the creative process. They are well versed in your industry and know what they need to do to address your wants and needs.
In addition to letting go of the logistics of the creative process, hiring a professional photographer means you’re also hiring their equipment, lighting, and skills.
It’s a hassle-free solution worth the time and cost.
Working as Partners – Top Quality
Will you be able to Work as Partners?
Seeing Photographers as partners and not just as a transaction is important to the outcome.
Photographers have a uniquely artistic way of looking at the world. Although they can spend countless hours with their cameras, they’re also likely to help you focus on elements of your brand you probably never thought considered.
A professional photographer’s perspective can make them one of the most interesting people to partner with.
Exceptional client service constitutes a core value of the professional photography business. Experts always aim to be a trusted partner of their clients, rather than just vendors.
A photographer worth their salt will differentiate themselves from the competition through strong relationships and a high-quality level of service delivery.
Here are a few attributes that outline what it takes for a photographer to transition from a mere vendor to a trusted partner.
Patience in Building New Relationships
Mutually beneficial relationships take time. Rather than rushing into doing business, a partner will take the time to know more about your business and share a bit about themselves. Most importantly, the photographer will remember that their work is a critical building block of relationships. There’s no amount of personal connection that can substitute for excellent work.
Getting to Know Your Industry and Company
Professionals thrive to keep up with clients’ companies as well as their industries. The idea is not to be an expert but to speak the same language as you, the client. You need someone who understands your strengths and weakness and knows what to do when and where.
Goes the Extra Mile
Experts will go the extra mile to offer customised solutions to your business’s unique opportunities and problems. You may be growing your business and have events in Sydney, for example. A professional will know when to adjust or expand their core offerings to cater to your needs.
Treats Every Client as The Most Important One
A happy client is more likely to make referrals. Every professional photographer knows this and will provide all clients with their best service, regardless of whether they are a small start-up or a Fortune 500 company. Your photographer wants to be the partner you can recommend to others.
Responds Promptly
A great partner fosters effective communication with their client. When you’re working on a photoshoot and email your photographer, you can expect them to acknowledge your email as quickly as possible, even if they don’t have the answer you may be looking for. A good partner gives you comfort by simply acknowledging the receipt of your request and by letting you know that they’re working on the case/issue.
Some professionals also use other channels other than email to shed light on an issue. Making a phone call can be a great way to build a better relationship and send good news about a shoot.
Provides A Summary
No matter how heated or calm a client meeting seems, a professional photographer will always recap with a summary of the next steps. Many novices will skip this, creating confusion and disagreements that may result from miscommunication. The photographer’s main idea is to recap on all the details and align on the same page to prevent confusion during the photo shoot.
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Collaborative-team work
The Collaborative Teamwork Quality
Collaborative – Teamwork
Collaboration is a multi-faceted aspect of professional photography. This quality involves everything from the collaboration between employees in a photography company to working closely with clients. Event photography, for example, often requires collaboration with other like-minded professionals, such as videographers to flower and cake designers, hair and makeup artists, musicians, event planners, and others in the events industry.
And it’s the ability to collaborate with other talented experts that continues to inspire and motivate professional photographers to do more for themselves and their clients. Moreover, collaboration leads to a more meaningful, richer brand experience.
In-House Collaboration
Many professional photographers already understand the value of collaborative web pages and documents for in-house collaboration between employees. They are great at powering collaborative brainstorming and keeping company resources organised. When you hire a professional, you can expect them to empower customers by creating a collaborative space for conversation.
Customers will know where to go when they need to delve deeper into the brand’s world. There will be a lot more excitement towards a successful photoshoot by fostering collaboration and allowing employees and customers to interact and shape a project’s trajectory.
Collaboration with Clients
A reputable photographer views themselves as a collaborative member of your team, no matter how brief the length of the project. They work in a collaborative capacity and see themselves as part of your marketing department. Essentially, your hired photographer is a translator – one responsible for understanding your company’s vision, mission, values, personality, goals and branding. They ensure this information is portrayed in your corporate photos.
Most accomplished photographers will have gained a wealth of experience with a broad range of clients in various industries and business sectors. As a result, they will have directed photo shoots in many different situations. This experience can come in handy when coming up with ideas and concepts for your corporate photography. So, get them involved early in the projects to help you highlight your value proposition.
Thanks to the internet and the ease of access to information, most professional photographers already realise that customer expectations are changing. This means your photographer expects more from you and will be ready to respond accordingly. While technology can transform customer data into predictive and personalised customer experiences, it boils down to human interaction. The photographer you hire who cares about human interaction to build collaborative relationships often stands out as the real winners.
Building Trust
Trust and empathy certainly go a long way toward building trust. This is an essential component of building lasting collaborative relationships. A collaborative photographer always remembers that it’s not only about them.
They will listen carefully and thoughtfully to provide a caring response that shows an understanding of the client’s position. Your photographer of choice should be able to put themselves in your shoes, with a simple yet clear comprehension of the type of service delivery you need as a client.
Ultimately, a successful photographer invests in more than good equipment and expertise. The company has to leverage its talent and time to the fullest. Nonetheless, artistic integrity won’t work by itself.
The photographer has to ensure all processes function smoothly pre-production, during production, and post-production. For everything to work out seamlessly, it takes time, organization, careful management and most importantly, collaborative effort. This is part of what you get when hiring a professional photographer.
Customer Focused
Customer focused photographers
Customer Focused
Being client-focused could be one of the most thrown around and overused phrases in sales. But what does it mean?
Client-focused photographers work on a business model and culture that supports a dedicated commitment to customer service. The basic premise is that a customer-focused culture must start on the inside, with the photographer’s employees. What happens on the inside is consequently felt on the outside by customers. A photographer focused on their client will have the following attributes.
A Defined Customer Vision
A client-focused photographer will put into words the kind of experience they want to deliver to clients. It is where it all begins. Every photographer or employee of the photography company knows, understands, and constantly reinforces this vision.
Focused on Client Experience
Rather than focus on the low bar of mere satisfaction, a client focused photographer will concentrate on your experience as a client. This involves providing a meaningful and valuable experience aimed at exceeding your expectations. The whole idea is to measure and map client experience accurately to ensure satisfaction with the end results.
Engaged in The Client Thought Process
Analytics alone won’t just cut it anymore. Client focused photographers need to actively engage with customers to ensure accurate knowledge of the company’s objectives. You want to work with a photographer who understands your desires and deeper needs. More often than not, an old-fashioned sit down will help to cultivate revealing dialogue that will drive results and influence brand loyalty.
Responsive in The Digital Age
Client focused professionals will respond to and address client needs in real time. They will adopt a flexible approach to dealing with customer concerns, adapting with shifting client needs and concerns. They know that providing prompt solutions and being responsive with detail is also as critical as taking the time to research and address sensitive matters.
Creativity
Client-focused photographers promote, fund, and nurture programs that cultivate creativity through brainstorming practices and the adoption of recent technologies. They also encourage dialogue with clients to increase co-creation and brand loyalty.
Innovation
Innovation arises out of co-creation with clients. A client-focused photographer will boost active innovation by blending a mix of the right technology, creative capital from the company’s talent, and direct penetration into client thought.
Individual Attention
Photographers must rethink what customer satisfaction and market orientation mean to them. In the digital age, photographers challenge themselves to be innovative, collaborative, and also supportive. Truly client focused professionals do this through engagement on deeper levels with their employees and their clients. The result is a world of positive growth, change, and experience for all.
The more your photographer knows about your business, the better they’ll be able to represent your brand through photos. Your photographer should be able to gather information and research each client thoroughly constantly.
When you meet, they should be ready to ask questions that deepen their understanding of your business. Such knowledge makes it easier to understand the purpose of the photo shoot and produces outstanding results.
Results Driven
Results and Goal Driven Processes
Results Driven Photographers
A results-driven photographer sees the light at the end of the tunnel. This means that they know what it takes to make a good photoshoot. They care about results and not just the activity.
The photographer has the skill and ability to create momentum based on the ultimate goal of getting their work done. The ingredients that make a results-driven photographer are basic but combine to make a highly productive and powerful force that can transform your business for the better.
Prioritisation of Tasks
Most activities have a priority based on cost, time constraints, and effort required for completion. Photography is no exception. A results-driven photographer can prioritise tasks and oversee the progress of several action items simultaneously without wasting time on tasks with low priorities.
A professional photographer won’t waste time fixing a broken camera during a shoot if they have a spare one that can do the same job. By prioritising tasks and planning ahead, results become a reality in real-time without a hassle or extra costs.
Great Decision Making
Results-driven photographers will calculate the options and go for the most productive and efficient routes. They are not perfect, nobody is, but they make quick yet thoughtful decisions backed with contingency and confirmation. Their experience gives them the rationale to explain why they pursue certain choices.
Contingency
When making plans, it always helps to have a backup strategy or several. Results-driven photographers understand that plans can quickly fail, hence having alternate methods to solve the same problem. A bulb may burn out during a shoot, or the primary camera may run out of space to store additional images. Having contingency means the photographer will deal with adversities and sometimes changing requirements without compromising your budget or requiring extra time.
Flexibility
Photography is dynamic, and technology keeps changing by the day. To prevent stagnation, the results-driven photographer will move beyond outdated modes of operating in the modern environment. Forward-thinking photographers are constantly adopting new technologies and finding ways to support talent and opportunity. Such flexibility aims to cut the red tape that can limit what they can do for you as a customer.
The new-age photographer is getting on the cloud and asking for input from all sources to generate result driven effort. Consequently, their staff and processes become more results-driven while building a strong and positive work culture focused on continued development.
Makes Things Happen
The results-driven photographer puts all their efforts into making things happen fast and within the agreed-upon time frame. They work by a set of defined goals and methods that set them aside from the crowd. By prioritising to save time and effort, being decisive, they will demonstrate what it’s like to get your photoshoot done on time and the final results delivered on schedule.
Have Fun When Choosing a Photographer
Our conclusion
Whether for your print materials, billboards, social media, or website, expert photography will make your business appear more professional. An entrepreneurial spirit goes hand in hand with the “do-it-yourself” mindset, but when it comes to photography, hiring an amateur or doing it yourself may not be the ideal option.
Having custom and professional photography presents you with the opportunity to stand out from the competition. Creative and clear photos demonstrate your company’s professional competence and credibility and will result in higher levels of brand loyalty.
In the long run, you are your brand. Having professional photos reflects the essence of your products and services. Research has established that better visual appeal results in higher conversion rates.
Professional imagery tells potential clients that you are dedicated to quality and operating with professional competence.
