Corporate Photography
Corporate Event Photography
Business and Corporate photography article that covers subjects such as; What is Corporate Event photography.
Tips on the top 20 shot list ideas. How to plan a Corporate event from a photography perspective. A list of business event venues.
Also, more tips on what event Manager can add to the photographers brief. Why stock photos are bad for business, which we’re sure you know that already. Why you need a Corporate expert photographer.
If your running a business event, this article is for you.
Head-shots are often associated with the words ‘Corporate Photography’. We think head shots are better described as (business) portraits, rather than Corporate photography. We may cover that in the future. This page focuses on event photography for business. See this page for a detailed description of the main types of Corporate events. Event Photographers who photographs these types of events will need to have a substantial amount of experience.
How Big is the Corporate Events Sector
Using our local business sector as an example. Your city of may be of similar size and scale.
The City of Sydney is made of 33 suburbs. On average every day approximately 615 000 people visit the area.
Using the national average of travellers to Australia, 20% visitors attend business events such as meetings, training workshops, summits, seminars and expos. Source Deloitte ↗
The population growth in the City of Sydney over the last 10 years is 38.9%. Outer Sydney grew by just 18.6% in comparison.
How closely does this relate to Corporate events? Over the last 10 years, the number of hotel stays has increased by 1 million a year. In 2019 the Sydney City will have over 4.5 million hotel visitors. A proportion is just holiday travellers for sure, many combine business while here. Taking just one event venue as an example, The Sydney ICC, some trade show expos have over 10 000 people.
With 21,500 businesses in the Sydney City area and a large number of the top 500 companies in Australia are located just down the road. A proportion of the top 500 (41%) that are located in the State of NSW would hold events in Sydney CBD Area. Source City of Sydney ↗
With the vibrancy and diversity of the Corporate events market, it is vitally important to record your event.
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Corporate Event Doltone House Sydney NSW
Corporate Event Planning
For both event planners and photographers, what happens before the event is just as important as what happens during. Excellent preparation in the event planning stage of the process can make things run seamlessly on the day.
The photographer starts with getting to know the purpose of the business or corporate event. For example, some events are held just for the purposes of marketing and promotion, while others are conducted for team building and employee development. Many in Sydney’s CBD are to thank their Corporate clients with a Gala party and celebrate their success.
If you’re hiring a photographer, it will be advantageous if they know where you plan on using the photos from the event. This helps to guide her/him when choosing various types of shots. A professional Sydney photographer will know to shoot close for LinkedIn photos, for example, and compose wide for long narrow web banners.
An easy way for photographers to get an idea of what you expect is by asking for examples of photos you like or have used in the past. Same goes for discussions on budget. Open frank conversation about the photography rates will help both parties.
Photographers are incredibly visual, so images are a great way to get them to deliver what you’re asking for. Photos that illustrate the right focus, tone and/or subject matter. This could be done by simply making them aware of a previous event that you have posted on your website or created brochures and other marketing collateral.
With this overview of the event and your business the photographer can infuse their creative flair while at the same time get the shots you need.
Two way communication is key.
Business Events Need Great Attention to Detail
If this is your first major event, reference other websites and social media with similar events and see if any photos stand out to you. Your photographer also needs to know what will be happening when and where. As such, you can expect him/her to ask about the layout of the venue and key areas, a photography shot list, who the VIPs are, where they are sitting, sponsors tables, guest speakers and presenters.
Details regarding the key people at the event are very important. If you are working with an Event Planner or PR Company, they may create this for you. If not, just simply have a phone meeting with the photographer if there are specific people at the event who must be photographed. The same applies to other vendors if they are closely aligned with your brand.
Professional event photographers are used to and are normally happy to work with a shot list. If you haven’t developed one yet, established Corporate photography services providers would be happy to collaborate with you and/or your Event Planners and PR people.
The type of photos required will determine the type of gear the photographer may need to have with them at the event. They should carry a pretty comprehensive kit anyhow. If you and photographer exchange as much information as practical beforehand the greater the flow of the night for everyone.
After all Corporate events are meant to be about bringing a community together in a relaxing and fun way.
List of Corporate Event Venues in Sydney;
Shot List Ideas for Corporate Event Photography
20 Photography Shot List Ideas
- Getting ready photos
- Stage shots
- Photos of speakers presenting
- Pictures of staff working
- Photos of guests engaging and networking
- Artistic images of food and drinks
- Interior of the venue and branding
- Reportage style photos
- Staged portraits
- Photographs of the general location, i.e. Sydney Harbour
- Photos of the program, flyers or other collateral.
- Full room photos
- Images of the details and close-ups
- Candid shots of participants
- Exterior photos of the venue
- Images of staff networking
- Event signage
- People having fun
- Event guests at the Media wall
- Photos of other vendors and service providers
For those that haven’t come across this term before. The history of the word “Shot List” comes from film making. To go way back to the very early days it was the old film cameras that needed to be cranked by hand like an old machine gun and it fired ‘Shots’. Now it’s simply a list of cuts for film or frames for stills photography.
The Shot List helps both the Event Managers and their media and marketing teams deliver their post-event marketing strategies. It also helps the photographer to better understand what the client’s teams are looking for.
Having said that and having provided the shot list above. Rarely a single photographer will be able to capture everything on the list. Some of the reasons might be that various activities are happening at the same time located too far apart at the event. It could also be that the actual activity didn’t happen, making it impossible to capture. And that happens fairly often. There are some workarounds but not in every case.
Hopefully, this list gives you some inspiration to add to your Shot list or just simply leave it to a professional photographer as they would typically capture most of these moments at major events.
As you may have gathered, early preparation will help the photographer to consider these and other factors such as dress code, lighting (particularly if the event is held indoors or at night) and the intended final use of the photos.
Are Stock Photos Bad for Business?
This subject needs a mention. Don’t risk your business on the mistrust that stock images tend to always bring. Big, SME or any established business wouldn’t dream of doing such a thing.
If you’re a no-budget startup, use a phone to take a few shots and dare to be you, and be unique because you are. That is important.
Professional photos will help you get your message out much faster and your genuineness will be long remembered. Say no to stock photos.
Stock photos steal your brand’s voice. It undermines your brand’s authenticity.
More scary details at Entrepreneur.com Stock Might Be Killing Your Small Business Brand article ↗
14 Benefits of a Corporate Photographer?
- Capture the key moments
- Ensure the event is reported in its full visual glory
- Justify your spend in hiring them for the job
- Raise awareness of your company to a new audience
- Build relationships with new prospects
- Increase your network of contacts
- Showcase your new products and services to new markets
- Position yourself as an industry leader by presenting yourself as valuing your image
- Increase your visibility
- Enhanced brand awareness
- Be consistent with marketing campaigns
- Online exposure through all your media channels
- Expand your online/web presence to drive traffic to your website
- Maximise sales opportunities across all your sales funnels
These may appear basic but sometimes reminders about the basics are what’s required. Having concise lists to check and double check all points of opportunity for both photographers and clients is a great way to gain a greater understanding of the responsibilities of both parties and the expected deliverable.
From the client side, it may also help to maximise the full potential of the photos to your business. Both clients and photography services providers may also find these lists useful when drafting hiring contracts. There may be some cross over with this list and others on this page or on our other primary pages. Hopefully, this list is the one that strikes a cord and is useful to you.
Results of Booking a Specialist Corporate Photographer
- Increase your company/brand profile
- Increase sales turnover
- Launch new products
- Educate customers
- Support distribution channels
- Generate Leads
- Increase your customer database
- Gain more visibility
Professional Photography enables you/r client to be reassured they are associated with a vendor of choice.
